Next Apache Second-hand bookshop: Jewel in the town

One of most vibrant cafe/bookstores in Bratislava is the Next Apache bookstore on Panenska Street. It was set up by a Canadian in 2004 who came here and fell in love with the city. Located in a 400 year-old building, the bookstore is a haven for foreigners and locals alike who want to chill out in nice surroundings.
One can sit here for hours, play chess, read English books and magazines and drink real tea on the cafe's comfy sofas. Alongside old Stephen King paperbacks, there are many old books of Bratislava's glory days before capitalism reshaped the city with graffiti and billboards with women wearing next to nothing to advertise perfume. What's more, Next Apache has live music and exhibitions at weekends.
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Next Apache Bookstore

Intensive travel Courses

The next three weeks are going to be hectic as I have some intensive travel courses to teach. A group of seven students from all over Slovakia have signed up to come all the way from Eastern Slovakia for me to throw roleplays and give them some voabulary about hotels and travelling.
The first half of my lesson was fine. Just loads of comparing expensive hotels and some vocabulary on facilities in hotels. The aim of the second half of my first lesson was about complain and how to deal with complaints in hotels. I decided to entertain them with a bit of Fawlty Towers where Basil has to deal with hotel inspectors. Although they found it funny, I think it would've been more beneficial to leave this one out as it wasted a good 5 minutes of precious time.

The students as usual are fit and friendly. There is only one guy on the course, which is nice. However, these students seem more interested in finding out about me rather than knowing about posh hotel facilities and how to order rail tickets in England. As I tried to teach about different types of holidays, the students asked questions about me and my personal life. One girl called Beata indirectly asked me personal questions about my age, love life, my drinking habits and so on. I don't mind as long as they're also prepared to tell me about their's.

Disturbing Reports on Stags....Again!!!

Bratislava was livelier than usual last Friday as it was the opening night of the Christmas maket in the old town. The market was heaving with locals and tourists drinking hot wine, eating traditional Slovakian food and browsing the craft stalls. On the whole, the atmosphere was happy, relaxed and family-like.
However, away from the market there were the usual English stag-weekenders from the home counties who had come for the cheap booze, fags and women. According to a report in the Slovak Spectator, British stagdoers at the weekend are responisible for 20 per cent of all crime in the city at the weekends. While I have personally managed to avoid the lager swilling pigs, I have heard stories from Slovaks and expats alike about their boisterous behaviour. According to the Slovak Spectator, expats got so hammered they damaged a sculpture in town. This appraently cost the Slovak taxpayer 100,000sk (about 20,000GBP). Disgrace!!! Understandably, many expats try very hard to distance themselves from such pigs by avoiding places such as The Irish Bar and the Senate Sports Bar.

Revolution Rock

Tomorrow is Velvet Revolution day, the 17th anniversary of the collapse of commyunism. It is also yet another excuse for a bank holiday. Aparently, Slovakia has 12 bank holidays - two of which are independence days
I make my way to an amazing club in Bratislava called Sub Club, a subterranean club full of long tunnels and pissed up slovaks.
Velvet Revolution day is relatively quiet with little to report about.

Bratislava's Nightlife: Where to go and what to avoid

Like most major cities, there are plenty of pubs, clubs, go-go bars, whorehouses and restaurants to choose from. Some are reasonably priced, while others are incredibly expensive. Some have no atmosphere whatsoever and some bars even have staff who occasionally raise a smile!!
The main street for nightlife is Obchodna street, just 5 minutes walk away from the old town square. Obchodna street has lots of good cafes and bars to choose from that won't break the bank.
For a good chill out , check out Radost on Obchodna Steet. A cellar bar with DJs every night.
AVOID Slovak Pub further up the road. It is big and has no atmosphere.
The vegetarian restaurant (Cajovna) is a Krishna place that will serve you soft poppadums and a mixture of curry and lentils. No alcohol, but all you can eat for 115 sk. (About 2.30
GBP). Plus free water with lemon.
The KGB cellar bar (pictured above) on Ochodna street has a nice nostalgic feel with pictures of Stalin and a great rock jukebox. However, seats are often reserved (although no one is sitting there), so arrive early.

Charlie Nightclub on Spitalska Street is another one to avoid. It costs 50 sk to get in plus 100sk for beer. It's OK if you are here on the piss of a weekend, but not OK if you are living here. The music is also very cheesy.
Sub Club is a pretty amazing subterranean club and often has live music and well-known djs.

Bar 39 by the university is a bit of a student dive, but is a good place to meet young, hammered foreign students.
The Irish Bar is definitely a place to avoid as it is overpriced and has no atmosphere. Like many 'Irish Bars', it is entitled to call itself by this name because it sells Guinness. That's about it though. It's also a good place to see English stagdoers make fools of themselves.

Verbal Reasoning

I had to go into an important governmental building to to teach how to do the verbal reasoning exam to 15 Slovaks connected to the European Union. This test is cruel, nasty and doesn't really test one's knowledge of English. This test is enough to catch out some of the smartest people out. I had to go through a Powerpoint presentation and show students how they can fail this horrid test that most Slovaks seem to fail. I tried to do some of this test myself, and found myself losing concentration very quickly.
So then, why should someone like me show them how to do it? Marta, my lovely colleague insisted that I would be good for the job as I am a native speaker and an English teacher. Although I am sure others could do it better, it makes a break from the bog standard English teaching I usually do.

Here is one of the questions

FIRST, READ THE TEXT AND DEDUCE THE ANSWER THAT FITS BEST WITH THE TEXT

120 million people worldwide suffer from depression. A European Union-funhded research project was carried out recently to uncover the genetic factors linked to depression. with a view to developing new drug treatmen, named, NEWMOOD, has received several million euro in funding and aims to identify genes triggering depression. This will help researchers to develop new drugs over the next five years to treat and improve understanding of its causes. The drugs are set to revolutionise antidepressant drugs, which haven't changed much oer 30 years. Researchers will develop a microchip carrying 800 genes to ones are active in healthy and depressed animals and humans

Q: Which of the following suggestions about current anti depressants is correct?
a: for 30 years they have been acting on the symptoms of depression and not tackling its causes
b: they still fail to take specific account of the genes responisible for causing depression
c: they have evolved considerably since tresearch started, specifically over the past 30 years.
d: they act on genetically induced depression and not on other types of depression

send your answers in the comments part

A change in the weather

Summer in Bratislava finally finished last Friday when gale-force winds and heavy rain battered most of Bratislava. Overnight, the temperatures dropped and slushy rain and snow fell in Bratislava. As the temperature drops, people's stern faces drop even more as the old town's wonderful pub patios are packed away. The week before, people were still eating ice cream and dressed in nothing but t-shirts on the streets. However, last week, I had four layers of clothes on and was still cold.

The Expat Community

Bratislava has a small number of expats from Britain, America and Canada. However, I haven't met many of them. Yet I do know a small handful of those who are here for different reasons. Not everyone here is teaching English for a Slovak 'living wage'.
Gary, a scouser is here living with his Slovak girlfriend working for a computer company. He says he hates the place and cannot wait to get out.
Rory is a 22 year-old American from New Mexico teaching English on a freelance basis. His ambition is to make it as a professional footballer in Slovakia. There is also Bode, 40, who has been living here for 1 year and was sent out by his company to sort out some of Slovakia's problems.
With exception to the British Council Cafe and a second-hand bookshop cafe bookshop on Panenska street, there is no particular expat hangout. They are scattered all over the place. There is the overpriced 'Irish Pub' which attracts business people in the daytime and English muppets from Dagenham in the evenings and weekends.

Advanced Coursebooks

My advanced students use a quicky book called Clockwise. This coursebook consists of lots of listenings that are supposed to have natural English. More than anything else, they are confusing for the students and myself. After playing back a listening three times, students still don't seem to understand it. One listening was on crime and punishment. This particular listening consisted of five different young offenders speaking piss-poor English about the crimes they have committed and what they are going to do when they get out of jail. I had to reassure my students that most English people will not know what the hell they are on about.
Today, I got rid of the book and downloaded an exercise from the useful onestopenglish.com. I think they learnt more English than they did with 12 lessons of this Clockwise.

Wait for the blackout

The office in Svaty Jur is out of bounds today as there is no electricity whatsoever in Svaty Jur. I have asked why, but the only answer I got was that they were doing some essential work.

All Saintzzzzz Day

Today is November 1st, an important day in the Catholic's diary. Today is the day where Catholics all over the world remember the dead by placing loads of candles and flowers on their graves. For me, it means a day off from teaching and a day killing time in the shopping mall's extensive bookshop cafe.
More later