Instead of Prague, American ended up in central Slovakia. He has no regrets

In his debut book, ‘Moon over Sasova’, Christopher Shaffer writes about his teaching stint in Banská Bystrica in the first months of independent Slovakia.

Teenagers skateboard in Sásová, Banská Bystrica, on June 7, 2021. (Source: TASR)

Christopher Shaffer’s adventure in a newly formed Slovakia began with a painful, early 1970s Fiat Uno car ride to Banská Bystrica, a major city in central Slovakia where he would end up teaching English for half a year.

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The owner of the flat that Shaffer would stay at during his stint, and share with Merrill, a fellow American from Colorado, picked him up at a hotel in Stupava, a town near Bratislava where a group of new English teachers took part in a weekend of orientation, and took him and Merrill to the city.

It was a cold January day.

“The car broke down every 30 kilometres and we would always push it to the side,” the native of Alabama recalled in a video interview with The Slovak Spectator.

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