this week has been, on the whole, rather uneventful but certainly not boring. on wednesday after my lessons, nelli and i went to the police station to turn in all of my documents so that i could get a long term visa. amassing all of these documents was a chore. before leaving, i had to have a physical to prove i was healthy. i was tested for hepatitis, aids and syphilis. the fulbright commission sent letters confirming that i was here, in fact, to teach. they also had to send official stamps (which were quite expensive). the embassy had to write a letter. the school i work at had to write a letter. my landlords had to write a letter. i had to fill out a four page application. the slovak government did a background check on me. and, worst of all, i had to have an FBI background check. this took AGES to receive... and was completely anti-climatic when it finally arrived. it was a simple sheet of paper which said "no criminal arrest record." the least they could have done was find some dirt in my past... once we had all of these documents, there was one last thing we needed: photos of me. both nelli and i forgot about it, but nelli had a brilliant idea to go to the mall's photo booth to take photos of myself. so we went to the mall and i awkwardly sat in a photo booth to get the photos... but at last we had everything. so we walked to the police, waited, and when we finally came in nelli began to explain that we had all of the documents, etc. etc. the policeman looked over them and then got to the FBI report. he started talking to nelli and nelli looked exasperated. when he was finally done talking, nelli explained to me that the FBI background check wasn't "official" enough. i had NO idea what she meant. i don't know how such a document could be more "official." it was mailed from the FBI, of course it is official... right? wrong. they need a stamp called an "apostil" on it. i still don't really understand what this is. nonetheless, we left the police unsuccessful. we have to mail the FBI report to the fulbright commission and they will take care of it (thank god!). i've had so many head aches with this one report! hopefully the process will go quickly, because if i don't have it in 60 days i will be seeing you back in the states.
wednesday evening, after the chaos of the afternoon, was really enjoyable. it was one of my friend's, vesna's, friend's namesday. namesday is sort of like a birthday... before the revolution, there was a register of names that parents could choose from. each name was associated with a day, so everyone born has a day associated with their name. does that make sense? we don't really have anything like it. anyway, vesna and i went over to her friend's flat to celebrate. there were five of us girls there, and it was so much fun. all of the girls are studying english in some variation, so they spoke english (very well) for me. it was so much fun to have a "girls night." the girls were all really nice, really fun and intelligent. we had pizza, wine and (of course) chocolate.
thursday was a horribly busy day for me. i came home, graded some papers, and went straight to bed. on friday i had a much easier day. two of my lessons with 5FB (the oldest class in the french-bilingual section) were cancelled because they were inviting teachers to their graduation. this sounds average, but trust me... it's not! first of all, they have their graduation party in november, months before they complete school. teachers who teach their lessons are invited, as well as the headmistress, deputies, etc. everyone told me "5FB will be inviting you on friday" and i had absolutely no idea what they meant. when it was time for me to go up to the lesson, i was met by two students from the class who were dressed very well. they were carrying champagne glasses and when we arrived to the room, there was a man video-taping everything and the whole class was singing, playing guitars, blowing kazoos... it was so much fun!! they gave me a very nice invitation, interviewed me on camera... i was completely overwhelmed.
saturday i went over to my colleague's flat for food, cake and coffee. i walked there with another teacher from my school, and it was such a nice afternoon. the food she'd prepared was absolutely delicious, and i got to meet her son, jakub. he was adorable. i was so sad, though, that i couldn't really communicate with him. but i suppose silly faces and tickling are universal :) generally it was just a nice afternoon, and i was so happy to be invited over.
today is the day of the Kosice Peace Marathon. http://www.kosicemarathon.com/en/index.php. i woke up this morning to catch the start of the race. it was a beautiful morning and i loved the energy of the crowd. i must admit, however, that it made me sorely miss having friends and family near. i felt so lonely because i had no one to share the experience with. plus, i wanted to sit at a cafe and watch the runners go by throughout the course of the marathon... but i had no one to sit with so i simply walked back to my flat. i just feel a bit sad that there are some things that i'd really like to enjoy, but can't enjoy alone. c'est la vie, it's just another part of this experience.
so i think that about covers the extent of my life up until today :) i hope you are all well. miss you, and love you.
anna
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