It was supposed to be sweltering hot today, so I packed a lunch and headed to one of the lakes in the city. (Yep, there are lakes IN the city!) The lake is a good place for a foreigner to go to get some culture shock... lots of topless women of all shapes and sizes; naked children (over the age of 5); old, sun-ripened men in tiny bathing suits (some of them daring to change in or out of their little suits right there in the grass by the water); and teenagers drinking from tall beer cans in broad daylight. I've been to the lake before, so I knew what to expect and didn't bother counting all the things that were unusual to me. I focused on making my facial expressions and thoughts match the surroundings: This is normal, I'm not shocked or embarrassed.
I did something new for me too... I fully immersed myself in lake water, and I liked it! And some of my piddling around could've even been considered "swimming," I think! (Are you proud of me, Mom?) It wasn't so easy though... first I walked in up to my ankles, stood for 2 minutes, then went back to the grass. (I'm scared of water, by the way.) Then after about an hour of debating with myself on dry land, I courageously wadded in up to my waist. As I stood there talking to myself about what to do next and the possible ramifications of each option, I noticed little fish surrounding me! Bleh, I shooed them away just as I had been doing to any loose duck feathers that drifted near me. Aannndd the not so exciting climax and resolution to this little story is that I eventually went all the way into the water, swam around a bit, and then got out to dry.
The real reason that I'm writing all this is to build up to this story:
The sky broke with rain this afternoon as I was traveling home. It started out as a sprinkle, but just as I was waiting for the light to cross the main street to get from the bus stop to my house, it started really pouring. Not really a problem for me since I was in my damp bathing suit anyway... but after I was across the street I heard someone speaking Slovak that sounded like it was directed to me. I replied with my favorite phrase, "Prepáčte, nehovorím po Slovenský." (Sorry, I don't speak Slovak.) It was a middle aged man hurrying after me to hold his umbrella over my head. He said a lot of things, and used some gestures that made me think that he wanted to hold his umbrella over my head until it was time for him to leave me to run to another nearby bus stop. This provided me more opportunities to use some of my growing vocabulary, "Nerozumiem." (I don't understand.) "D'akujem." (Thank you.) and "Ciao, ciao" (I don't know if that's Slovak, but I hear it used a lot here). Anyway, it was dear of him-I love it when people are nice to strangers. :)
:) Ah, culture. Your story made me smile. We saw some of the men in skimpy bathing-wear at Zion this weekend, too. But it was mostly my children who were naked. In fact, my neighbor just came over this afternoon and informed me that the girls- girls, mind you- were in the backyard with their pants down trying to pee on the trees. And how nice of the umbrella man! :)
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