hello,
well not alot has been happening here, summer has hit and we are constantly getting 0ver 30 degree days, it is good, im liking the heat it reminds me of home which is nice, even though it can be quite hot in our little place..
HAHAHA just had some kids not want to ask me about what sport we wil be playing this afternoon as they are scared of me...
anyway moving on, i have had tonsilitis for the last week, which was no fun what so ever, i have never felt such pain in my throat, or not been able to eat so little, it was very annoying, and the tablets i had to take were HUGE, bigger than the hole i had left in my throat to swallow thru.... but i am ok now, the doctor has basically cleared me and given me some smaller antibiotics to take just to clear up the last parts of the infection... but before this i had a blood test and a mouth swab, then when i went back to the doctor the lady said that with the blood test she was checking for a lot of things, including leukemia, because she said that swelling in the tonsils is sometimes the first sign of leukemia,, that i must say worried me a little bit.. but i am all good now..
I have only gone into the city once in the last three weeks, this is due to a combination of being sick and a sheer couldnt be bothered to travel in there, but then the boredom of staying at home is so annoying, and i just cant take it anymore... going to see the new harry potter movie on friday hopefully, which should be good, just to get out of the house....
well summer school has just moved into the computer room and it is quite noisey in here now, cant think about what i was going to write about,, so i shall go
will write more information as it comes to hand,,,
keep cool
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
World Events
Hello everyone out there,,
well what can i say? another month has passed, taking me to over six months being in slovakia, and my hasnt the time passed quickly, a few major incidents along the way, such as chopping my finger, havent held me back,,, overall the time here has passed alright and i am having quite a good time day by day..
School holidays started here on monday, so it has meant that the last couple of days have been quite quiet..
On thursday the 21st and friday the 22nd of June the students performed there play Romeo and Juliet, a lot of effort was put into this by both the students and the teachers of them, (including me),.. we often were at school till around 7pm getting things ready for the kids in the week leading up to the performance.. The thursday performance was exceptionally good, while on friday a few mistakes marred the night, making it not as good as friday night,, although for students who english is not their first language, to perform a 30 minute show, in front of a full house both nights is quite a good acheivement, considering that many of them struggle when it comes to using english properly in class, they have all done very well...
Also on friday the 22nd of june, i ran cycling and photography workshops, due to the high number of students enrolled to do my workshops i had to seperate the workshops into two, so i managed to get a couple of teachers help me, once i had told them what to do and what needed to be done in each workshop i was able to run two workshops and in the third drift between the two and make sure that both teachers where doing the right thing and also for me to give help as it was needed......
In other major news i have got a haircut, lol, and my what a slovak / european one it is too,, the lady left me with basically no hair!! i asked for a trim to the top and to shorten the sides, WELL didnt i get that, and a bit more, it is now very short on the top back and sides, apparently i look a bit like a marine,, lol,, ahh well at least with my hair i know that it will grow back pretty quickly so even if i decide it doesnt look good i can still be getting a new haircut in a months time or less...
That is all from the world of daniel...
take care
well what can i say? another month has passed, taking me to over six months being in slovakia, and my hasnt the time passed quickly, a few major incidents along the way, such as chopping my finger, havent held me back,,, overall the time here has passed alright and i am having quite a good time day by day..
School holidays started here on monday, so it has meant that the last couple of days have been quite quiet..
On thursday the 21st and friday the 22nd of June the students performed there play Romeo and Juliet, a lot of effort was put into this by both the students and the teachers of them, (including me),.. we often were at school till around 7pm getting things ready for the kids in the week leading up to the performance.. The thursday performance was exceptionally good, while on friday a few mistakes marred the night, making it not as good as friday night,, although for students who english is not their first language, to perform a 30 minute show, in front of a full house both nights is quite a good acheivement, considering that many of them struggle when it comes to using english properly in class, they have all done very well...
Also on friday the 22nd of june, i ran cycling and photography workshops, due to the high number of students enrolled to do my workshops i had to seperate the workshops into two, so i managed to get a couple of teachers help me, once i had told them what to do and what needed to be done in each workshop i was able to run two workshops and in the third drift between the two and make sure that both teachers where doing the right thing and also for me to give help as it was needed......
In other major news i have got a haircut, lol, and my what a slovak / european one it is too,, the lady left me with basically no hair!! i asked for a trim to the top and to shorten the sides, WELL didnt i get that, and a bit more, it is now very short on the top back and sides, apparently i look a bit like a marine,, lol,, ahh well at least with my hair i know that it will grow back pretty quickly so even if i decide it doesnt look good i can still be getting a new haircut in a months time or less...
That is all from the world of daniel...
take care
Sunday, June 10, 2007
A weekend in prague
REASON FOR GOING TO CZECH REPUBLIC: Drop Sara off at prague for her week of work...
WHAT A HARD JOB IT WAS..
Friday afternoon after a long tiring day at school we head of to the train station here in bratislava, Both of us had a lot of things to do for the school to do with cambridge marking and it was a real rush to get out of the school on time, we both ran late and so had to run out of the school and to the bus stop outside, arriving with only seconds to spare before the bus came.. with a heavy bag on a hot 33 degree day in slovakia i can assure you this wasnt fun... a bus change, half hour in a traffic jam and a bit of rain later we arrived at the train station 30 minutes before our trains scheduled departure.. Sara hadnt got herself any czech crowns earlier in the week so we went to the exchange office inside the train station to get her some, all they had on premises though was 1000 crowns, not even to make it worthwhile changing money.. so we decided to go wait for the train..
Our train was full, it seemed like everyone wanted to go the prague or the czech republic,, luckily we had reserved seats on the train and after about 20 minutes of working our way up the carrige past people standing in the aisle or putting their bags up before they sat down, we kicked people out of our seats and sat down.. it still was extremly hot and our train did not have and air con,, all we had was a small window above us about 5X60 cm wide that would only tilt open, and ours was locked shut,, so for 4 hours we were stuck in a mildly hot carraige (luckily there was a breeze coming from other windows on the train). Finally we were able to get of the train in prague, unfortanetly our train terminated on the other side of prague from the spot where the lady who we bought our ticket from, and our ticket said the train would stop..
We decided that the best way to get to our accomodation from a place we didnt know was to take the taxi,, walking through the dodgeyiest train station i have ever been in,, sex shops with internet cafe's, dodgey women standing round, a casino area inside the main train station with heaps of smoke, the place was dirty and smelt funny.. we navigated our way through this and got to the area where we could reserve our seats for the trip back, doing this we booked a train for 3:30pm on sunday afternoon that would be leaving from the train station we were meant to have arrived at.. making our way out onto the street we found a few taxi's waiting for gullable people like us who didnt know a good price for a taxi,, as i turned out we got hosed, the guy charged us 800 czech crowns ($44.50 australian) for a trip that was around 5 minutes long,, the guy told us it took a while to get there and that it was cheaper than him putting the gauge on.. so either he has one quick adding gauge or he lied to us.. i think the second option is more correct...
anyway we made it to our accomodation at around 9:30pm,, which was located in the dodgey end of town,, think kings cross, but more sex shops and thousands more strange people wondering around, and you kinda have this place, it was just weird and felt horrible to be in,.. after cheking in we were so hungry that we decided to go and have a look at the kebab shop around the corner that the man who checked us into the hostel said was a good place for a nice kebab. it was nice but i must say it doesnt come anywhere near a kebab i had in Isreal back in 2005... walking back to our hostel via the 24 potraviny, (shop) we collected some small supplies and went to sleep with the worst pillow i have ever put my head onto,, this thing was about 2 cm thick and felt like i was just hitting a slightly set block of concrete.. still not hard but not at its mushy stage either,, it was horrible and i didnt sleep that well.. the hostel was great it was just the pillow that was the problem...
waking early the next morning we went for a stroll around the area just to see some of the sights,, the city looked much nicer in the daylight and we felt much more comfortable being in it.. not realising that we hadnt been charged for a key deposit we sat for half an hour outside the front door to the hostel and waited for the man to come and open so we could get our deposit back.. needless to say he was surprised to find us sitting on his front doorstep and thought something was wrong..
After we cleared this up we went on our way to our next nights accomodation which was behind the castle,, we decided that it wasnt far across the river to get to the place so we decided that we would walk.. as we didnt know what tram to catch anyway,, and as we were walking we would be able to buy sara a phone card so that she would be able to contact people while she was in the Czech republic, and since she would probably be back at the end of the year it was a pretty good idea to buy her one.. turning away from the waterfront we headed into the shopping district and found a T-Mobile store, from which sara bought herself a phone card, and got some credit... as we walked back through the city we saw a KFC and since we hadnt had KFC in such a long time ( as there are none in slovakia) we decided we should have that for lunch.. What a bad idea, it was the worst fast food meal i have ever had in my life, the chiken tasted like it had been heated a few times in the microwave and the c hips were small with the taste of rubber, it just wasnt nice, combine this with the ice cream being yellow, (scarey enough for starters) and the fact that it didnt melt at all after 20 minutes sitting in the cone, and we bagan to get suspicious, at this stage we were still waiting for half our meals so we decided to go and ask for our money for those bits back and to leave...
So we continued on our jouney to our accomodation, coming towards charles bridge we found a museum that sounded interesting and we decided to have a look into it just for the sake of it really,., it was called the museum of medievil tourture.. inside where three levels of exhibitions consisting of horrible ways that were used to torture people in the czech republic and surrounding conturies.. all of the methods were too horrible and brutal to write about here...
walking down the road we found charles bridge, the supposedly famous (even though i had never heard of it before) city landmark that stands over the Vltara river, linking the old city and the new city together, construction began on the bridge in 1357 and finished sometime in the 15th century, it used to be the only link in prague between the two sides of the river... most of the statues along the side of the bridge have been replaced by replicas, but for a bridge that old it is still in remarkably good condition i think... cobbled all the way across it is a great experience to walk across it, even though the midday crowd, with all the tourist groups can make things a bit tight...
on the other side of charles bridge the land kicks up into a hill that the castle and cathedral are situated on top of.. hiking up here in the midday 35 degree heat with full bags was not the funnest thing in the world, with no breeze to cool you down the going got very tough very quikly, after an hour or so we finally made it to the top of the hill and took a rest, we didnt have far to go to our accomodation and the rest of the trip was completed in 5 minutes.. Arriving at our accomodation we had to wait outside in the little cobblestoned laneway as the lady had gone out for a while.. it was alright though as we were able to rest a little in the cool air of the lane.. Our accomodation was brilliant and at only 1800 crowns ($100 australian) for the night it was very reasonabley priced as well, with four beds in the little house type place and a private bathroom it was very nice...
Finding out her phone was out of credit sara got very angry.. trying to point out to her that she rang matt off it straight away and then recieved a call from him for a long time that probably cost her money didnt work and so we had to go back into the town to get her a card in order for her to be able to ring the lady she was staying with to get directions for getting her to where she would be staying (this place turned out to be a city called Plzen over an hour away).. we caught the number 22 tram back down to the city and got back to the phone store in just over 15 minutes, only to find it closed... so we decided to go to the O2 store across the road where sara and i both bought ourselves phone cards. this way we would be able to keep in contact with each other while i was in the czech republic,...
Phoning the lady sara would be staying with, we got vague instructions on where we had to go and realised that this was one trip we would most likely have to figure out how to do on our own, so we travelled up to the accomodation, got sara's bags and took her back down to the metro station, where we managed to read the incomprehensable signs (After about 10 minutes of struggling) and figure out which direction we needed to go... getting to the stop which was supposed to have a bus station we got off the train and went outside the station,, the bus station was meant to be directly outside so we walked around for about 15minuts looking for it, through some clever detective work we managed to trace back to the station by following the route of coaches we saw go past us,, it turned out the bus station was located behind a huge builidng on the block behind where you came out of the station,, after a while we managed to get sara a ticket and after an hours wait and a mcdonalds meal, she was on her way.....
WHAT A HARD JOB IT WAS..
Friday afternoon after a long tiring day at school we head of to the train station here in bratislava, Both of us had a lot of things to do for the school to do with cambridge marking and it was a real rush to get out of the school on time, we both ran late and so had to run out of the school and to the bus stop outside, arriving with only seconds to spare before the bus came.. with a heavy bag on a hot 33 degree day in slovakia i can assure you this wasnt fun... a bus change, half hour in a traffic jam and a bit of rain later we arrived at the train station 30 minutes before our trains scheduled departure.. Sara hadnt got herself any czech crowns earlier in the week so we went to the exchange office inside the train station to get her some, all they had on premises though was 1000 crowns, not even to make it worthwhile changing money.. so we decided to go wait for the train..
Our train was full, it seemed like everyone wanted to go the prague or the czech republic,, luckily we had reserved seats on the train and after about 20 minutes of working our way up the carrige past people standing in the aisle or putting their bags up before they sat down, we kicked people out of our seats and sat down.. it still was extremly hot and our train did not have and air con,, all we had was a small window above us about 5X60 cm wide that would only tilt open, and ours was locked shut,, so for 4 hours we were stuck in a mildly hot carraige (luckily there was a breeze coming from other windows on the train). Finally we were able to get of the train in prague, unfortanetly our train terminated on the other side of prague from the spot where the lady who we bought our ticket from, and our ticket said the train would stop..
We decided that the best way to get to our accomodation from a place we didnt know was to take the taxi,, walking through the dodgeyiest train station i have ever been in,, sex shops with internet cafe's, dodgey women standing round, a casino area inside the main train station with heaps of smoke, the place was dirty and smelt funny.. we navigated our way through this and got to the area where we could reserve our seats for the trip back, doing this we booked a train for 3:30pm on sunday afternoon that would be leaving from the train station we were meant to have arrived at.. making our way out onto the street we found a few taxi's waiting for gullable people like us who didnt know a good price for a taxi,, as i turned out we got hosed, the guy charged us 800 czech crowns ($44.50 australian) for a trip that was around 5 minutes long,, the guy told us it took a while to get there and that it was cheaper than him putting the gauge on.. so either he has one quick adding gauge or he lied to us.. i think the second option is more correct...
anyway we made it to our accomodation at around 9:30pm,, which was located in the dodgey end of town,, think kings cross, but more sex shops and thousands more strange people wondering around, and you kinda have this place, it was just weird and felt horrible to be in,.. after cheking in we were so hungry that we decided to go and have a look at the kebab shop around the corner that the man who checked us into the hostel said was a good place for a nice kebab. it was nice but i must say it doesnt come anywhere near a kebab i had in Isreal back in 2005... walking back to our hostel via the 24 potraviny, (shop) we collected some small supplies and went to sleep with the worst pillow i have ever put my head onto,, this thing was about 2 cm thick and felt like i was just hitting a slightly set block of concrete.. still not hard but not at its mushy stage either,, it was horrible and i didnt sleep that well.. the hostel was great it was just the pillow that was the problem...
waking early the next morning we went for a stroll around the area just to see some of the sights,, the city looked much nicer in the daylight and we felt much more comfortable being in it.. not realising that we hadnt been charged for a key deposit we sat for half an hour outside the front door to the hostel and waited for the man to come and open so we could get our deposit back.. needless to say he was surprised to find us sitting on his front doorstep and thought something was wrong..
After we cleared this up we went on our way to our next nights accomodation which was behind the castle,, we decided that it wasnt far across the river to get to the place so we decided that we would walk.. as we didnt know what tram to catch anyway,, and as we were walking we would be able to buy sara a phone card so that she would be able to contact people while she was in the Czech republic, and since she would probably be back at the end of the year it was a pretty good idea to buy her one.. turning away from the waterfront we headed into the shopping district and found a T-Mobile store, from which sara bought herself a phone card, and got some credit... as we walked back through the city we saw a KFC and since we hadnt had KFC in such a long time ( as there are none in slovakia) we decided we should have that for lunch.. What a bad idea, it was the worst fast food meal i have ever had in my life, the chiken tasted like it had been heated a few times in the microwave and the c hips were small with the taste of rubber, it just wasnt nice, combine this with the ice cream being yellow, (scarey enough for starters) and the fact that it didnt melt at all after 20 minutes sitting in the cone, and we bagan to get suspicious, at this stage we were still waiting for half our meals so we decided to go and ask for our money for those bits back and to leave...
So we continued on our jouney to our accomodation, coming towards charles bridge we found a museum that sounded interesting and we decided to have a look into it just for the sake of it really,., it was called the museum of medievil tourture.. inside where three levels of exhibitions consisting of horrible ways that were used to torture people in the czech republic and surrounding conturies.. all of the methods were too horrible and brutal to write about here...
walking down the road we found charles bridge, the supposedly famous (even though i had never heard of it before) city landmark that stands over the Vltara river, linking the old city and the new city together, construction began on the bridge in 1357 and finished sometime in the 15th century, it used to be the only link in prague between the two sides of the river... most of the statues along the side of the bridge have been replaced by replicas, but for a bridge that old it is still in remarkably good condition i think... cobbled all the way across it is a great experience to walk across it, even though the midday crowd, with all the tourist groups can make things a bit tight...
on the other side of charles bridge the land kicks up into a hill that the castle and cathedral are situated on top of.. hiking up here in the midday 35 degree heat with full bags was not the funnest thing in the world, with no breeze to cool you down the going got very tough very quikly, after an hour or so we finally made it to the top of the hill and took a rest, we didnt have far to go to our accomodation and the rest of the trip was completed in 5 minutes.. Arriving at our accomodation we had to wait outside in the little cobblestoned laneway as the lady had gone out for a while.. it was alright though as we were able to rest a little in the cool air of the lane.. Our accomodation was brilliant and at only 1800 crowns ($100 australian) for the night it was very reasonabley priced as well, with four beds in the little house type place and a private bathroom it was very nice...
Finding out her phone was out of credit sara got very angry.. trying to point out to her that she rang matt off it straight away and then recieved a call from him for a long time that probably cost her money didnt work and so we had to go back into the town to get her a card in order for her to be able to ring the lady she was staying with to get directions for getting her to where she would be staying (this place turned out to be a city called Plzen over an hour away).. we caught the number 22 tram back down to the city and got back to the phone store in just over 15 minutes, only to find it closed... so we decided to go to the O2 store across the road where sara and i both bought ourselves phone cards. this way we would be able to keep in contact with each other while i was in the czech republic,...
Phoning the lady sara would be staying with, we got vague instructions on where we had to go and realised that this was one trip we would most likely have to figure out how to do on our own, so we travelled up to the accomodation, got sara's bags and took her back down to the metro station, where we managed to read the incomprehensable signs (After about 10 minutes of struggling) and figure out which direction we needed to go... getting to the stop which was supposed to have a bus station we got off the train and went outside the station,, the bus station was meant to be directly outside so we walked around for about 15minuts looking for it, through some clever detective work we managed to trace back to the station by following the route of coaches we saw go past us,, it turned out the bus station was located behind a huge builidng on the block behind where you came out of the station,, after a while we managed to get sara a ticket and after an hours wait and a mcdonalds meal, she was on her way.....
An hour later i found myself back in the accomodation and feel quite happily to sleep on a nice soft mattress with a nice soft pillow...
the next morning was up at 10am and out ready to make the trip back to the train station which would be where the train for the return journey would be arriving,,, walking back down past the castle we had a look at the cathedral and then continued on our way down the hill,.,, when we arrived back at charles bridge and decided we would like to get some lunch,, so we went down a street and happened to eat at the first resturant opened after the velvet revolution in 1991.. owned by a icelander who is the icelandic ambassador for the czech republic... there we had an extremely good meal and left quite happy.. wondering around the town for an hour longer we decided it was time to get a cab back to the train station as the train was in just over two hours and we didnt know how far it was to the train station.,.. getting a cab for 600 crowns ( we thought this was a good deal, it turns out we still got hosed, as a cab from near our accomodation should only cost 200) we arrived at the station an hour and a half early to find it running 20 minutes late..
waiting in a horribly hot station for an hour and a half wasnt good at all, especially when we all found ourselves feeling ill with funny stomachs,,, finally at around 3;50 our train arrived and departed,,
all was going well for the first half hour, then suddenly our air con went off, this was not good on a hot day, especially when the carraige is full of people and the window do not open,... after two hours of swealtering heat, the air con finally got fixed and we were all able to cool down again.. then a half hour after this when we were nearing Brno the trained stopped, and an announcement came over the intercom in czech that made passangers groan, we knew this could not be good, and when the message came over the loudspeakers in english we found ourselves correct... the train would be stopped for at least the next hour at the small little country station we were at due to congestion up ahead,.. what it really turned out to be was we were stuck for three hours due to the train before us pulling the overhead wires down on our line, meaning we couldnt go any further... so at around 10pm we finally got moving again, 2 and a half hours after we were meant to arrive in Bratislava,,
the rest of the trip was spent feeling sick and reading TIME magazine,,, finally arriving back into Bratislava station at around 11:30pm and getting home to the unit after 12pm...
So that was my trip to Prague,, it is a beautiful place in the old city, and overall i enjoyed my time, if i had more days and less rush it would have been better...
Ahh the joys of travel and europe...
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Over Zealous Neighbours
Ahh Comrade, come over here! ,, i am sure this is what my neighbour was trying to say to me yesterday in my garden as he waved his arm and then uttered somthing in slovak that i had no hope of ever understanding.. being the great guy i am i sent my sister over to see what the old man next door wanted and stayed in the comfortable surrounds of my own house.. thirty seconds later however my sister reappeared with a shocked look on her face telling me that we both had to go over there as he had cooked us some food.. so back we went through the fence to meet our slovak comrade, he had cooked for us a hearty meal of 8 sausages, bread and mustard sauce.. now the sausages tasted good, and the mustard was a bit strong but his intentions were good and he was smiling and happy which was also good.. he introduced himself through gestures and insisted upon us eating a second piece of sausage and bread, accepting his kind offer of a slice of bread from a loaf he had just unwrapped in front of us i instantly regretted my decision, as looking down the bread was in fact very mouldy. Now i was stuck in a tight spot, this old man was being so nice and hospitable, yet i couldnt eat this piece of bread as i knew i would get sick, and i couldnt tell him about it as i didnt want to be rude, nor do i think i would have been able to communicate the fact to him anyway.... Luckily an opportunity arouse where he deccided to show us his strawberry patch, so i was able to hastily put the piece of bread into my pocket... down at the strawberry patch we were able to pick some strawberries, he has thousands of them and they taste rather nice too,, sara was tricked with some fake plastic strawberries that he had put into the patch for a joke.. after picking a lot of strawberries it was finally time to say goodbye and go back through the fence to our house.. but it was a good adventure all the same...
in other news there is alot happening in my life at the moment but not alot to talk about,, it is just work at the school, i have a lot to do but i think i am keeping on top of it all,, just... not long now till i am finished here, i only have one and a bit months, then i am in england for a month then i have 4 months or somthing and i am finished,, so i will be seeing all you aussies again soon i think...
keep safe
Dont eat any mouldy bread!!
my mouldy piece of bread,, hehehe
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Children's day
well another month has now passed, brining my tally of months in slovakia to 5. setting out now on the 6th month is a less scarey prospect now that i have the knowledge and skills of 5 others behind me, it also makes me realise that it isnt long until i leave this place, and my my i think the last few months are going to pass very quickly...
in the past couple of weeks alot has happened, we have had the townsend youth stay at our house, which was good leading to many good times, they were a great bunch of people who i would like to see again before i leave here, in just a few days i felt very close to them all and quite happy to just hang out with them alot... Also we have had the school sports day, and fun day, which both went down fairly well, the kids all seemed to have a good time and all participated well... this last week and next will be filled with the cambridge progression tests for the grades 3, 4, H1, H2, H3... so far maths and science exams have been done.. these exams lead to a fairly hectic time at the school as you have teachers running everywhere getting to exams and giving them to the kids, then having to remember where they are meant to be teaching next as the the timetable has been changed..
on another tangent my sister leaves for the czech republic on sunday, she will be there helping at a school for the next three weeks, it will be rather lonely at home now without her, as in the last month i have grown quite used to having her there and it is good to have somone to talk to at home, or somone to just be with, its really good... but she will be back,, then we have the summer school here at forel, this runs until june 27th and we will be teaching the kids extra to bring them up to speed on their english,, then sometime after the 27th of june i am going to england.. WOOO HOOO!!!... hopefully will be there from around 28th june till about 24th august, which will be great, i am really looking foward to going back to england again and seeing all the family back there....
Today is childrens day, so we are giving the kids a special lunch and then showing them a movie in the afternoon, hopefully they will have a good day as i think since exams have been on not many of the teachers will have much to teach the kids at this stage when they are halfway through their exams... so there really is not much point....
Saw the new pirates of the carribian movie earlier this week, it was really good, and i would have to urge everyone to go see it, it was a really good movie and i quite enjoyed watching it.... the storyline is quite good and it ties everything together well, it also leaves a few loose ends so they could make a number 4,,, but i would really doubt it, what the ending really does is create.... well... you'll seee......
Anyway time for school,,,
happy slovak childrens day
keep safe.
in the past couple of weeks alot has happened, we have had the townsend youth stay at our house, which was good leading to many good times, they were a great bunch of people who i would like to see again before i leave here, in just a few days i felt very close to them all and quite happy to just hang out with them alot... Also we have had the school sports day, and fun day, which both went down fairly well, the kids all seemed to have a good time and all participated well... this last week and next will be filled with the cambridge progression tests for the grades 3, 4, H1, H2, H3... so far maths and science exams have been done.. these exams lead to a fairly hectic time at the school as you have teachers running everywhere getting to exams and giving them to the kids, then having to remember where they are meant to be teaching next as the the timetable has been changed..
on another tangent my sister leaves for the czech republic on sunday, she will be there helping at a school for the next three weeks, it will be rather lonely at home now without her, as in the last month i have grown quite used to having her there and it is good to have somone to talk to at home, or somone to just be with, its really good... but she will be back,, then we have the summer school here at forel, this runs until june 27th and we will be teaching the kids extra to bring them up to speed on their english,, then sometime after the 27th of june i am going to england.. WOOO HOOO!!!... hopefully will be there from around 28th june till about 24th august, which will be great, i am really looking foward to going back to england again and seeing all the family back there....
Today is childrens day, so we are giving the kids a special lunch and then showing them a movie in the afternoon, hopefully they will have a good day as i think since exams have been on not many of the teachers will have much to teach the kids at this stage when they are halfway through their exams... so there really is not much point....
Saw the new pirates of the carribian movie earlier this week, it was really good, and i would have to urge everyone to go see it, it was a really good movie and i quite enjoyed watching it.... the storyline is quite good and it ties everything together well, it also leaves a few loose ends so they could make a number 4,,, but i would really doubt it, what the ending really does is create.... well... you'll seee......
Anyway time for school,,,
happy slovak childrens day
keep safe.
Friday, May 18, 2007
The Joys of Life
The cycle of life continues, the days come and go, the events contained in them eventually pass into a blur of memories, some memories fade, others have such a profound impact on us, or so many people are told about what happened that the memory of the event stays with us for a long time....... a very long time......
One such incident is the now fabled, toilet incident. This weekend a dance group from the Townsend international school has come to Bratislava to perform, two of the boys are staying at my house. Unfortanetly one of the boys went to the toilet last night, and needless to say the toilet did not flush properly, it would appear that it is blocked. rather well... So today when the dancegroup visited the school all the students had a merry old time having the story of Mr. Daniel's toilet... needless to say i dont think i will have heard the end of this story for a long time, i am sure the children here will keep brining it up.. Oh the woes of having a toilet that does not work.
School has been quite busy this week, we have had many teachers off on an excursion, or sick,, so i have taken a few classes on my own, including one maths class with the high schoolers, this was a lot of fun and i actually enjoyed teaching the children maths, that my friends is very weird.. But mostly this week i have been putting books onto the school library system, cataloging books.. this has been alright, and so far i have done around 5 or 6 hundred books, i am not exactly sure, but i have broken the back of the work so to speak and am on the home stretch now, it will be good when it is all done as the books will be numbered so that makes it much easier for the borrowing of the books for children, you just need to write a number into the computer.... boy dont i feel like the little librarian.. hehehe.........
One such incident is the now fabled, toilet incident. This weekend a dance group from the Townsend international school has come to Bratislava to perform, two of the boys are staying at my house. Unfortanetly one of the boys went to the toilet last night, and needless to say the toilet did not flush properly, it would appear that it is blocked. rather well... So today when the dancegroup visited the school all the students had a merry old time having the story of Mr. Daniel's toilet... needless to say i dont think i will have heard the end of this story for a long time, i am sure the children here will keep brining it up.. Oh the woes of having a toilet that does not work.
School has been quite busy this week, we have had many teachers off on an excursion, or sick,, so i have taken a few classes on my own, including one maths class with the high schoolers, this was a lot of fun and i actually enjoyed teaching the children maths, that my friends is very weird.. But mostly this week i have been putting books onto the school library system, cataloging books.. this has been alright, and so far i have done around 5 or 6 hundred books, i am not exactly sure, but i have broken the back of the work so to speak and am on the home stretch now, it will be good when it is all done as the books will be numbered so that makes it much easier for the borrowing of the books for children, you just need to write a number into the computer.... boy dont i feel like the little librarian.. hehehe.........
In other news i have been back on my bike properly of late, training seriously again, its great, i feel much better and a happier person because of it, sure i feel a bit tired in the legs alot of the time but hey, that is what comes with training isnt it?,,, i havent really been out on the road for a proper ride yet, but that is something i have planned for this weekend, i really want to get out onto the road again, and i think now i am finally fit enough and ready enough for it to happen... so this weekend look out slovak roads,, there is an Aussie on the loose.....
Why is this country so cold? it is a question i have been asking myself a lot lately, everyone here is happy that we are coming into summer soon, its spring now and so the hotter weather is on its way, WRONG,, it is still freezing cold here for me, i dont get it, i think here has a different type of heat, and they get cool breezes, this is the problem, i am used to heat, and hot winds, here you never actually feel what the real temperature is as there is always a nice cooling breeze... i am also thinking i bet it would be my luck that i am here for the hottest winter for 1000 years (this was still much to cold for me thankyou very much) but i will be here for the coldest winter for 1000 years,, if it snows, i will not be a very happy Australian, no i will be a cold, blue Aussie.....
From my time here i have noticed a few things, i find the most interesting thing to note is how english speakers adapt how they speak when they are overseas. we do three things to try and make whoever we are talking to understand us these are; 1) speak very slowly and clearly, with actions. like we are talking to a small child, like they need the actions..... 2) no matter where we are in the world if we put on a very bad french accent,, spending most of our time saying excusie,, excusie... 3) if the actions and the french doesnt work we just get frustrated and scream at the other person, like this will help them to understand..... what it must be like to be one of these people who doesnt speak english we shall never know, but i know what it feels like, i have been here and had to ask people things... sometimes you will ask somone somthing, and without actions or the help of bad french accent i might add... and the person will just say somthing to you and the people they are with all burst into fits of laugher,,, this seems a bit weird to me, i mean isnt an insult only funny if you say it to a person and they can understand you,, its like tying somones hands behind their back and then having a fist fight with them, it isnt somthing you can brag about how good you where is it?
Anyway it is time for this rant to end, my coffee is cold, Why does coffee never stay warm for the duration of you drinking, i think we need to invent a cup with a warmer in the bottom or never go cold water,, now that would be good, then we could all have warm/hot coffee all the time,,, hmmm,,, i think there is a market there.....
well off to get more coffee then lunch
Keep safe,
Drink good coffee
Spend time with friends
Laugh Alot
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Aussie Tales
True story ................................
One boy was reading his book in library about crocodiles, when questioned by the teacher he said that crocodiles were from Australia.. The teacher then said jokingly "Australia is at the bottom on the earth, do you know how they stay on the earth as they are upside down?" to which the boy replied, "they have tails".. The teacher puzzled says, "But Mr Daniel is from Australia, does he have a tail?" TO which the boy replies seriously "Yes, He hides it in his pants"..........
SO there you go people, apparently Australians have tails like crocodiles, and while we are in europe we hide our tails so no one can see them.... interesting..............
One boy was reading his book in library about crocodiles, when questioned by the teacher he said that crocodiles were from Australia.. The teacher then said jokingly "Australia is at the bottom on the earth, do you know how they stay on the earth as they are upside down?" to which the boy replied, "they have tails".. The teacher puzzled says, "But Mr Daniel is from Australia, does he have a tail?" TO which the boy replies seriously "Yes, He hides it in his pants"..........
SO there you go people, apparently Australians have tails like crocodiles, and while we are in europe we hide our tails so no one can see them.... interesting..............
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Staff Room Events
Ahh life is grand, I have decked out my staffroom with Australian Merchandise, A flag over the window, a beachball, koala with a flag and a tube of vegemite.. This makes me feel very patriotic and has stirred up the english teachers, they now are planning to put their own flags on the wall of the staff room... this will be good, very multicutural.....
In other news i would just like to pass comment on the V8 championship so far, Holden have been absolutely dominent, thanks to the combined efforts of HRT and Toll HSV,, I am slightly dissapointed in Tasman motorsport and Greg murphy this year, but it is understandable that murph is struggling early in the year as he has just changed teams and is with a new crew.. But i have faith that he will get up later in the year. hopefully in time for Bathurst, the only real important event for the year. I can see another repeat of holdens 2002 performance of gaining positions 1 to 5 in the race.
Anyway back to the staff room, everyone is calm again now after a little heated arguement over what 'got peoples goat' or scared people... they day is getting old and coffee is running short, starting to wear off.. everyone is hitting the low at the end of the day... so i raise my glass ,,, well mug,,, to coffee the magic drink that helps us get through the day.. we can survive the children with coffee... ahhh the caffine,, the only way to combat the childrens weirdness and bouncyness.
anyway off to shop with Sara,
my sister wants to buy food,
and re arrange my house..
ahh well
time to go
Keep safe
In other news i would just like to pass comment on the V8 championship so far, Holden have been absolutely dominent, thanks to the combined efforts of HRT and Toll HSV,, I am slightly dissapointed in Tasman motorsport and Greg murphy this year, but it is understandable that murph is struggling early in the year as he has just changed teams and is with a new crew.. But i have faith that he will get up later in the year. hopefully in time for Bathurst, the only real important event for the year. I can see another repeat of holdens 2002 performance of gaining positions 1 to 5 in the race.
Anyway back to the staff room, everyone is calm again now after a little heated arguement over what 'got peoples goat' or scared people... they day is getting old and coffee is running short, starting to wear off.. everyone is hitting the low at the end of the day... so i raise my glass ,,, well mug,,, to coffee the magic drink that helps us get through the day.. we can survive the children with coffee... ahhh the caffine,, the only way to combat the childrens weirdness and bouncyness.
anyway off to shop with Sara,
my sister wants to buy food,
and re arrange my house..
ahh well
time to go
Keep safe
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
May the Fourth be with you
May the fourth be with you,, happy birthday to me , happy birthday to me.
Well hello again everyone.
What can i say? the weekend has been great. Friday was my birthday and i had a really good day, went out for dinner in the evening and had a merry old time. thankyou kaylene, loui, loui, cameron and claudia for the great australia presents, Nan for the really amusing card, Sara and Matt for the other very funny card, Nanna Beck and Stephen for the great card and much needed undies and jumper, and mum and dad for the card and sending all that stuff for me... On saturday i had a few friends around for dinner and movie at the flat, it was a good night and almost a second birthday for me which was great. we sat and watched a few movies and all was good.
then sunday came around, a great day i left home just after 7am to get into town to be able to buy my ticket and be ready to catch the bus for 9:45 am to vienna... got on the bus without hassle and got to vienna airport at around 10:50am.. Unfortanetly Sara's plane got in at 1:15pm,, so i had to endure just over two ours in vienna airport, and at 5 euro's for a coke, which is the equillivent of around $8 australian.. lol, i had to limit my drinking.
Finally 1:15 rolled around and i picked a jet lagged, yet hyper active sister up from the gates. it was so great to see a family member after such a long time. after picking her up we went and had lunch in the airport at the resturant they had there, it cost around 18 euros for each meal so it was quite expensive, but otherwise we wouldnt have eaten until around 4 or 5 pm, so since we had to wait for the bus anyway we decided we may as well eat.
I must say the trip back from vienna to home with sara had a lot less problems and stress than my inital trip to devin. this was probably because i knew what had to be done and am used to the city and the trip so i was easily able to make my way home this time, which was really good, i was able to get sara home before the jet lag really set in and she was able to relax and sleep in comfortable surroundings.
the only downside to the whole journey was that we stopped at tesco to by sara a quilt and a pillow. somehow we managed to buy her a normal size pillow which was good, (Slovak pillows are huge) but the downside was that we bought her two pillows, we thought that in the packet it was a quilt, but no it was two huge pillows, so for the last two nights i have given my quilt to my sister as she needs it more than me, i dont feel the cold as much now, and i have slept under sheets. today we plan to go and buy some things which will make living slightly easier...
Her first plan of action yesterday morning was to re arrange the layout of my flat, the bugger had been here less than 24 hours and already she was changing things, now we have a layout of three chairs in the corner looking at a coffee table and the cupboard that the laptop sits on to watch programs and dvds on. And the beds are in the oppostie corners of the rooms with a desk and cupboards near them... i must admit though, it does look alright.
Yesterday we had sports day at school, it was an alright day but very strange, it wasnt an athletics carnival but just a day when kids got to play there crazy dodgeball game, skip, climb and run a relay, very strange combination of sports, but hey it was alright.. except i had to refferree their strange dodgeball game, which is really hard to understand, there are so many rules that it is hard to keep up and understand the game,,, really really weird, so strange that i cannot even begin to comprehend trying to explain to you the complexity of the game on a mere medium such as this, the explination requires gestures and facial expressions which i cannot convey here. will tell about it when i get back..
anyway thats my rant for the moment,, about to go shopping with my sister (this should be fun!) anyway i am off, cya all later,
play hard,
but try and keep safe
dont use slovak hospitals
THIS IS MY HOUSE,, I AM UNDER THAT TOP BALCONY YOU CAN SEE, THE BBQ IS ON THE GARAGE.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Slovakia general news
Hello Everyone,
just thought i would get off my lazy bum and write a blog so that those of you who ( ME AT TOP OF MOUNTAIN BEHIND HOUSE) are not inclined to email me can still hear from me and also see what i am up to as i will post some pictures up here..
well what can i say, i survived the Slovak winter, (lucky it was the warmest one in 1000 years) and am now heading into the summer, so far i have taken cold showers by accident, been hit in both ears with snowballs which has made one have an earache for a while, been attacked by
just thought i would get off my lazy bum and write a blog so that those of you who ( ME AT TOP OF MOUNTAIN BEHIND HOUSE) are not inclined to email me can still hear from me and also see what i am up to as i will post some pictures up here..
well what can i say, i survived the Slovak winter, (lucky it was the warmest one in 1000 years) and am now heading into the summer, so far i have taken cold showers by accident, been hit in both ears with snowballs which has made one have an earache for a while, been attacked by
angry young slovaks and sustain
ed two punches to the head, sliced my finger open with a knife and needed a couple of stitches,, lol, my my my it has been an eventful time. Luckily the school is (AUSSIE BUILT BBQ!!!!!! WOO!!)
ed two punches to the head, sliced my finger open with a knife and needed a couple of stitches,, lol, my my my it has been an eventful time. Luckily the school is (AUSSIE BUILT BBQ!!!!!! WOO!!)keeping me busy and time is seeming to fly past.
I now know my way easily around most of Bratislava and if you want to go to a cafe, tea shop or Resturant here i could easily take you to one depending on what you want to be the major factor of your meal; taste, price, atmosphere.. all of these things i have come to know in my time here and can easily find a great place for you...
everything in this country is interesting to say the least, the coins go from half a crown, or 0.50 helliers, to 1,2,5,10 crown coins, then you get
I now know my way easily around most of Bratislava and if you want to go to a cafe, tea shop or Resturant here i could easily take you to one depending on what you want to be the major factor of your meal; taste, price, atmosphere.. all of these things i have come to know in my time here and can easily find a great place for you...
everything in this country is interesting to say the least, the coins go from half a crown, or 0.50 helliers, to 1,2,5,10 crown coins, then you get
the 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 5000 crown notes.. lol,, it all makes paying for anything very interesting, and the notes over 500 crowns can be very hard to fit into ones wallet. ( i shall post some pictures up of the money soonish)
my house is very nice, although it does get a bit cold at times, i think this is more to do with the slovak weather than enything else though, and me being the cold blooded australian that i am i am just praying for summer and some heat so that i can finally feel comfortable and able to walk around in a t-shirt and shorts.
I have some great friends here from all around the world, mainly though it is germans, Aussies and Poms that i am with when i go out, usually Aussies and Poms more than anything, it makes the nights interesting as we will disagree with some things, (pronunciation of words, and general slang) but if somone attacks us on somthing we are united on (what side of the road to drive on) then you had better look out for we will unite and attack,, lol, unity in divesity..
anywho i better be off
work to do here at school
i shall put some more pictures up as they come to hand
lots of love
Danny
my house is very nice, although it does get a bit cold at times, i think this is more to do with the slovak weather than enything else though, and me being the cold blooded australian that i am i am just praying for summer and some heat so that i can finally feel comfortable and able to walk around in a t-shirt and shorts.
I have some great friends here from all around the world, mainly though it is germans, Aussies and Poms that i am with when i go out, usually Aussies and Poms more than anything, it makes the nights interesting as we will disagree with some things, (pronunciation of words, and general slang) but if somone attacks us on somthing we are united on (what side of the road to drive on) then you had better look out for we will unite and attack,, lol, unity in divesity..
anywho i better be off
work to do here at school
i shall put some more pictures up as they come to hand
lots of love
Danny
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