30 September 2011

I had a primitive WC experience on Wednesday. Keep reading if you care to know about it :)

I was at a local elementary school where I teach a few lessons during the week. Between my two lessons, I have a 20 minute break, so ample time to use the toilet. I was going to take the first stall because I read somewhere that the first one is usually less-used, and therefore the cleanest, but this one wasn't even up to my standard. I'm not super picky, I just don't like to encounter pee on the seat, if I can avoid it. So I checked out the second, third, and fourth stalls, but they were all gross with dirty seats and none of them were flushed. So I choose the the second farthest one (or the 3rd farthest, because the very farthest was storing a ladder) and resolved to just buck up and wipe the seat. But I got in and closed the door (realizing then that there was no lock- just a piece of black plastic to turn, but it didn't do anything...or I didn't know how to work it) and noticed there was no toilet paper! Not even a place to set the toilet paper if there was any! So I checked the other stalls and finally the paper towel dispenser... no. paper products. anywhere. What could I do? I had to pee and the kids would be getting to the classroom soon. The thought crossed my mind to pull a few leaves off a plant on the windowsill, but the plant was in view of the open restroom door so any kid walking through the hall could see me exploiting that "resource." (I had a feeling my Wild West survival instincts would be frowned on here in this metropolis.) The plant's leaves didn't look very absorbent anyway...  So finally, I did what seemed to be my only option: I went back to that cleanest stall, set myself up on a squatting position so that I was hovering over the pot, and did what was necessary. (It was a good day to wear a skirt.) Then I "shook off" as best as I could... This adventure finally ended at the sink as I tried to repair any "discomfort" my calves might've experienced during the shake-off part, but without paper towels. I don't know how effective that was, but as I was making my best effort I looked up and saw some of my students watching and waving at me from the hallway. The perfect way to quickly get my mind off that hopeless hygiene situation. :)


Immigration update:
I went to the foreign police this morning. When I was there 2 weeks ago they said we could call in 2-3 weeks to see if my permits are ready. Hela, who's in charge of the HR stuff at the school (another of my many advocates here), called this week but it's no surprise that they never answer the phone over there. I can't get paid or get any of my benefits until I have that, and I can't wait forever, so I went this morning to see if they had it ready for me. I was up at 04:45, on the bus before 05:30, and finally in line just before 06:00- one of the first 10 people there! (Miška would be proud!) Well, despite my place in line and having a pretty low number (#23), I still wasn't called to see an officer until about 09:00. And what did they say to me?? (Oh, I brought a script of how to ask if my permits are ready- but there was another client in the same office who was able to translate for me when the information got more complicated. God is so good to me that there have always been people around to help so that I've never been in a completely impossible situation because of not knowing the language yet!) Anyway, What did they say?? The officer found my file and told me that they still need my criminal background check, but I told her I turned it in and she looked again and found it. (That's the document that I went twice in one day to give to them because they wanted the copy that was attached to the translation to be notarized.) So she put everything back in the file and said they would call me when it's ready. After making sure they have Hela's number, I tried to ask why they said it would be ready in 2-3 weeks if they were just going to let it sit as though it's incomplete for 2/3 of that time...Well, that's what I was wondering anyway (but maybe I actually was using harsher language in my mind). Actually, what I asked was something like, "Two weeks ago they said it would be done in done in 2-3 weeks, so why hasn't any progress been made?" I don't know how that question was translated, but I don't think they understood because they just kept saying that they'll call when it's done. Well, in hindsight it's probably best if that didn't translate right because asking pushy questions doesn't usually win favor with the lady who can choose to forget to send my documents on to the next step in the process. <exasperated sigh> What's that verse I memorized as a kid... Don't be anxious for anything, but in everything, through thanksgiving and prayer, let your requests be made known to God...

 One more thing! The quote of the week, after telling someone where I'm from he asked, "Arizona? Isn't it dangerous to live there?"

Thankful List: September 2011

• This toffee wholenut Milka bar
• Work starting this month
• Banana bread
• All my papers finally in to the foreign police
• Time to run in the mornings
• Sudoku puzzles
• Public Slovak courses (for free!)
• Tjamme's visit to City Light
• Sterile milk
• I don't feel lonely
• No business classes on my work schedule
• American music playing in the stores
• Having some direction about which church to attend
• Bathroom sink is unclogged
• The trip to the zoo with Zuzka (and seeing the rhinosaurus)
• Zumba class
• Making friends despite language barriers
• Being under the impression that instant coffee tastes good
• Sunday evening's with tea, cake, and good friends
• The time at the foreign police to talk to Miška and learn more about Slovakia
• I like Bratislava
• I'm not a smoker
• No prescription necessary for a tube of Hydrocortison Léčiva
• All the jars of sauce and bread topping made from the garden produce
• Burčiak
• My jacket
• The excitement of cold, dark weather
• I've been in Europe for 3 months and I'm allowed to stay still longer
• Knowing this Slovak phrase: "Prosím si..."
• All my nice, helpful, patient coworkers
• Having work keys and a code for the printer
• The broken Bankomat that I gave my pin number to didn't do anything to my account
• Finished 2 lesson plans on Saturday
• Delicious yogurt products
• A complete first week of work
• Making more connections around the city
• Renewed my bus pass with little trouble
• The conviction to buy a bus ticket, even if I don't think they'll check,
• Jozef's baptism
• The new plant from Zuzka
• Finished all of Monday's planning before the Monday of my second week
• Instant decaf coffee in the school kitchen
• Miška giving me some nice organizing/teaching supplies that I thought I had to buy for myself
• The laminator
• Inexpensive bread
• The neighbor's motion-sensor light
• Some evergreen trees in our neighborhood
• Finished TWO lesson plans for next week on the Thursday before
• A low number at the foreign police 
• The kind lady who could translate for me at the foreign police
• A Friday Slovak lesson with Simona
• A useful and interesting meeting at work
• The leaves are changing

25-26 September 2011

I've had two amusing little encounters in the last 2 days, and (lucky for you) I'm in the mood to write :)

But before I tell you about those, I want to note that I've also been noticing something peculiar around the city; that is, the spots of dried vomit on the sidewalks, and especially at bus stops. I noticed three spills on Saturday, one on Sunday, and another two today. It's gross, but also really fascinating because I never noticed them before, and I'm wondering if this is a new trend in the health of the city or if people have been vomiting on the sidewalks since before I arrived. I'm guessing the people who produce these messes are likely drunk- actually I'm hoping they are because otherwise there are lots more sick people spreading their germs all over the buses than I thought. And it's also good for drunk people to throw up because it means their bodies are rejecting the poison they've been feeding themselves! (Gosh, I'm such an optimist! Who knew?)

Ok, so these funny stories...
I was walking home from the bus stop early Sunday afternoon and crossing through a parking lot as part of my usual route. I noticed a car in front of me stop and go into reverse suddenly, which struck me as a bit odd because there was plenty of room to turn the car around without reversing. Before I knew it, the car was next to me and the driver was saying, in English, "Hey, are you going home? Let me give you a ride!" My eyes must've jumped out of my head! The man looked sort of familiar, but in a Slovak-guy sort of way, and I've met so many people in so many different circles these last two months, I had no idea who he was! Obviously startled, I asked, "Do I know you?!" He said something like, "I don't know, but I'm your neighbor, I've seen you..." I was only half listening to him though because the other half of my mind was trying to figure out the answer to my question for myself. Anyway, he knew to speak English to me and the pieces were starting to come together, so I got in the car and let him drive me home. Now I remember better- he does work for Zuzka's family and I remember he was in the garage when I was trying to use miming, broken Slovak, and made-up German to ask if Tetra packs go in the recycle bin with the papers or plastics (it's plastics, by the way). A-ha! Anyway, that was one interesting encounter...

The second (and briefly because I want to go to sleep now): I was standing at the bus stop at about 8 o'clock this evening, debating if I wasn't being lazy for taking the bus two stops down to the Lidl instead of walking there... Suddenly, a man approached me to ask something, in Slovak. I gave my usual phrase, "Nehovorim po Slovensky," to which he asked, in broken English, where I'm from. I told him I'm from the US, and then he wanted to know if I'm here on holiday so I told him I work here as an English teacher. He asked something about the duration of my stay, but that's always a tricky question because "How long you stay in Slovakia?" could mean "How long have you been here?" or "How long are you going to be here?" I just came from an English lesson, so I was ripe for miming some past and future stuff to communicate that I've been here 2 months and I'll stay...two years? Maybe more? Maybe less? I don't know if he understood, but he introduced himself and asked,
         "You go for coffee with me?"
         "No, no, I can't. I'm going to the store, then I'm going home, I told him.
         "Next week, here, we go for coffee?" he asked.
         "Ehhhhhh....I don't think so..." was all I managed to get out. The problem is, I always want to give an excuse, but his English was so awful, I'm sure I couldn't explain any of the million reasons why I shouldn't go to coffee with him. Then we got on the same crowded bus and stood next to each other in somewhat awkward silence (but not too awkward for me because I was convinced that we had both maxed out the phrases we know in the other's language). Luckily, he got off at the stop before mine so I didn't have to wonder for long if he would follow me in to the store! Whew!

19-24 September 2011: First week of classes

I must've sat down to update the blog at least three times this week, but each time I was distracted by my mountain of emails to reply to. So how many emails did I send this week? Not many. It was a week of going to bed wondering, "How did it get so late and what have I been doing the last few hours?!"

So finally now I'm writing....
Classes began on Monday, but my first and only class that day wasn't until 18:45, so I went to the school in the late morning hoping to plan Monday AND Tuesday's lessons. That was my hope and expectation. What really happened? I spent the whole time planning just my Monday lesson. Hours and hours of planning for just 60 minutes. <sigh> And I walked away from the lesson wishing I had planned still more! So you can see that I'm properly motivated to become more efficient at planning, and already I feel like I'm making progress towards that end: Today I went into work for a few hours and was able to knock out 2 lessons plans and get a start on a third!

Anyway, I don't want to sound negative (because I really do have a good feeling about starting this career) but all week I keep imagining myself standing in a pool that's filled to just the right level where I can stand on my tippy-toes and turn my face directly up and have just my lips and nose barely out of the water so I can keep breathing. Well, that's how everyone's first week of their first year of teaching is, right? (And surely some people even have worse first weeks!) As challenging as it is, I have the feeling I'm experiencing these challenges under the best possible circumstances because the school has a lot of resources, and all the other teachers are so helpful and patient with all my questions. :)

Other news... It's getting a bit nippy here: In the low 20s (Celsius- I'm forcing myself to learn the new temperature system by not converting it all the time, but rather just putting in my head what the new degrees feel like) and sometimes down to the upper teens. And I noticed today that the sun was going down around 7pm. <sigh> I don't mind cold, wind, and rain, but I'm really dreading the darkness of this coming winter. I'm always thinking about how I can gear up for it and push through the season without becoming depressed, but already I've been having bad dreams about it. Feel free to pass on suggestions and encouraging words :)

My bus pass expired yesterday so I had to get it renewed today. There's only one public transport office in the city that's open on Saturdays, and it's at the train station, so that's where I went this morning. I asked the lady behind the counter, "Hovoríte po anglicky?" (Do you speak English?) Her reply, "Ehhh, Malý, a little...Hovoriš Slovenski!" (A little... you speak Slovak!) She was smiling though, so that made all the difference in giving me the courage to proceed. I pulled out my old bus pass and said, "Prosím sí nový autobusiva...uhhhh..." (Broken, awful Slovak, but my attempt to say, "Can I please have a new bus....") She understood and took the pass, and then I passed her a piece of paper that said "60 dení" because I wanted a 60 day pass and I thought I had formed the correct plural form of "day."  Turns out they have a 30 day pass, a 90 day pass, and a 365 day pass, and the word for days (according to google translate) is dní, so I was just wrong all around. But no matter, the language gap was overcome again!  After that errand, I walked from the station to the Tesco because I wanted to find walnuts to put in some banana bread that I'm going to make...but alas, there were no walnuts at Tesco. Instead I bought a huge Milka bar that's filled with plain yogurt and crispy corn flakes. A good combination with the sweet, smooth milk chocolate :)  Once home again, my sweet housemates filled me with stuffed peppers, meatballs, and mashed potatoes. Mmmmm :D

A few old pictures

 I took a picture last night at the wine festival, but just now I realized that I didn't have my SD card in the camera. Hate it when that happens... So I pulled it up from the camera's memory, and found a few other interesting pictures also saved on the camera's memory...

Graffiti in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It says: No Nazism, No Communism, Only SLO patriotism. Kind of ironic that Slovenian patriotism allows defacing Slovene property with the English language, but I think it's nice of them to share their thoughts us.

Hot air balloons in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Seen from the window of my flat in July 2011.

A whole pig on a spindle! (is that the right word?) I was way impressed!

The wine festival was pretty interesting. A good time for me to listen to a lot of Slovak! Listening and trying to pick up what people are saying in a totally new language where you only know numbers 1-19, a few cognates, and a few verbs is challenging, but a lot is communicated non-verbally, through facial expressions, gestures, reactions, and tone of voice, so there is hope for picking up some things. It's good for my language development though, to just listen and get used to the sound of it and kinda watch how people are forming the sounds in their mouths. It's also a good time to practice looking like you're listening when your mind is somewhere else (ok, not always a good skill). And a good practice in patience. And a good motivator to really learn the language.  We ate lots of street food, and drank some Burčiak, which is a "young wine" that's produced in some 5 hour window of time on a specific day in the wine-making process. If I understood correctly, after the grapes are smashed (still done with feet, by the way) the juice goes into a barrel to ferment for about a week, then if you want to produce Burčiak you have to know when it's going to be just the right time (and they do know because their families have been making this for years and years) and you stay with your barrel and taste it every hour until you recognize that it's Burčiak. Then you have 5 hours to pour it into bottles (the bottles used, by the way, are washed out 1.5L plastic bottles that you can buy bottled water in; sometimes they don't even bother to peel the old label off). The Burčiak has less alcohol than wine, but it's much sweeter too, and it has yeast that settles at the bottom of the bottle.
The street food was mostly potato-based items... fried potato and garlic patties, potato pancakes rolled with meat or Nutella, and potatoes cut into a spiral and fried on a stick; and other fried meats and sandwiches and candies.

15 September 2011

After staring at all the emails I need to reply to, doing two Sudoku puzzles, eating dinner, and looking again at the emails, I decided it would be best to just write in my blog instead.

I had such a lovely day yesterday... It was a national holiday to honor the patron saint of Slovakia, but that didn't really affect my day.
First, I ran a whole 5 kilometers in less than 40 minutes. The last kilometer was a killer, and I was getting bored, so I just kept speeding up the treadmill until it looked like I could finish the 5 k in less than 40 min, so I pushed really hard for that goal (*note that I don't set goals until I see that I'm about to reach them*) and met it with a time of 39:52. Felt so good!
Then, I ate some muesli and hung out with Katka on the back porch...
then I took a shower...
then I did some vacuuming and emptied some rubbish bins...
then I went with Zuzka to take Hajdy to the vet for another operation. This problem with her eye is not so simple to solve. This was her second operation, and she still needs eye drops every few hours. :(  The operation was going to take about two and a half hours, so Zuzka and I went to the zoo to pass the time. I thought I was pretty neutral about zoos, but actually, I LOVED it! I wish I had brought my camera so I could share the experience with you all. Well, compared to some zoos (like the Wild Animal park in San Diego), the areas for the animals to live in at the Bratislava zoo were quite small, but I'm not so sensitive about how people treat animals, so it didn't bother me. We saw baby cougars, and a lion couple taking a nap in the sun, and huge pieces of raw meat in the tiger cage. They had all sorts of different monkeys that would reach their long arms out of the cage to grab the grass and popcorn outside. I thought my favorite was the zebras, but then we saw a rhinosauras and I was smitten! I just love its leathery, gray skin, and the way it pushes its big lips around on the dirt when it's eating. Later we saw a black pygmy hippo, and some baby goats practicing ramming their heads together, and some hyenas, and lemurs, and a type of deer with the tiniest feet I've ever seen!  And we sat and enjoyed the weather for awhile, and drank some Kofola (a special Slovak soft drink) and ate some ice cream. It was perfect :)
When we were home just in time for me to quickly change my clothes and run off to do Zumba with Katka. It wasn't a problem that the instructions were all in Slovak; I was only as bad at it as usual. It was loads of fun, but the music (mostly Latin dance songs in Spanish- the same songs they use in Zumba classes at the Y in Flagstaff) made me a little bit homesick for the Southwest. I never thought I would experience a wave of homesickness for the Southwest without a craving for Mexican food!
Finally, after getting home again and eating dinner, I got to talk on Skype with a friend in Flagstaff for 2 hours (a much needed catch-up time)! A perfect finish to a lovely day :)


 Today I went to some meetings at work and enjoyed seeing the different personalities of my new coworkers. In some ways their sense of humor is so much like my ol' Domers, except these people mostly have accents from around the UK, which almost makes all their jokes funnier.


Tonight I'm going to sample some sips of wine at the famous wine festival in Pežinok with Katka and some other Slovak girls!

14 September 2011: Visit to the Foreign Police again...and again...

Miška and I went back to the foreign police today to finally turn in the last set of documents for my work and residence permits.  We caught the 06:40 bus, with hopes of being some of the first in line, but alas, when the numbers were given, we got 62.  Well, when I think back on it, it wasn't such an unpleasant wait.  Miška told me all about the process of making wine, which her family does, and she's going to take pictures when she goes home this weekend so that I can post them here for all of you to see :D And we had time to take a stroll to the nearest grocery store, where Miška showed me how to recognize nasty carcinogens on the packaged product ingredient list. 


Once our number was finally called, we went to the window with the least friendly/sociable officer in the whole office (probably).  She didn't greet us, but to her credit, she did accept a majority of my documents.  The one thing she had a problem with was my FBI background check. We had it translated into Slovak, but the translation was attached to a photocopy of the original document, and she needed some proof (ie notarization) that the copy was a true reproduction of the original. We let her look at the original to see for herself that it was legitimate, but that wasn't good enough; she sent us off to the notár and said we didn't have to take a number if we brought it back today.  A little bit frustrating, but I guess we should be glad that we were allowed to cut the line.

So we went to the notár and paid only 1.60eur for her to look at it closely, ask Miška a few questions about it, and put the right stamps in the right places.  Unfortunately, Miška wasn't able to go with me back to the foreign police, so I had an extra little adventure going without her.  Actually, I wasn't too worried; it was Miška who was scared for me to face the officer alone and with so little language skill. ;)  But, like the good guide that she is, she wrote out some useful phrases for me to use and we came up with a game plan in case I had any trouble.  The plan was, I would say something like,  "Ja si bola, nepotrebujem čislo...doložiť iba prosím." (Eng: I was here, I don't need a number... add it please.)  And once she takes it, I was supposed to ask, "Kedy možem prísť vyzdvíhnúť? Napísať, prosím." (Eng: When can I come pick it up? Write it down, please.)  If there were problems, I was supposed to call Miška immediately. 

Ok, I got it!  I felt ready for the adventure! I got on the bus and diligently practiced the most difficult word (vyzdvíhnúť <--- notice that there are only 3 vowels) and tried to recall any other important Slovak words I've picked up since being here.  I got off at the right bus stop and tried hard to remember the way we took to get to the office (kind of a diagonal path, cutting across parking lots and some little areas of grass and trees). I got a little bit lost and walked past the building, but now I'm glad that I did, because on my way to get back on the right path, I encountered a middle-aged gentleman who asked me, in Slovak, about where the Albert grocery store is. I only recognized one word, "Albert," but how many things could he logically be asking me about the Albert there on the sidewalk? A ton of different words from different languages came to my mind as I thought of how to tell him that the Albert was "just over there," but it actually just came out as, "Uuuhhh, nehovorím po slovenski, maar, uhhh..." and pointing towards the Albert that could just barely be seen in the distance through some buildings. That actually got the point across! As much as I LOVE language, sometimes the lack of it brings me the same fuzzy feeling.
Once in the foreign police, I had no trouble going to the unfriendly officer's desk and giving her my notarized paper,  all the while stumbling over my script. The more friendly officer next to her had a free moment and was able to answer all my questions in  English. Whew! I need [to have a Slovak speaker] call in 2-3 weeks to check on the status of my permits before I make another trip back to pick them up. 


In other news... I've been going to the public Slovak course and learning a lot! The teacher only speaks Slovak, so it's really a stretch to understand him sometimes; but I would teach English to a class of multilingual beginners in the same way, so that makes the frustration more bearable.  I attended the class last night, and he had me read aloud. My very first time reading aloud in Slovak and I didn't even know what he was asking me to do at first. I felt like I was in high school again; feeling worried about if I was saying anything right and what the other students would think about my accent.  It was sickening, but almost refreshing in a way (what? I guess I'm rarely nervous anymore..), and a good reminder before beginning my first week of teaching on this coming Monday.   We also learned all the present simple verb conjugations (there are different ones depending on the last vowel in the infinitive, kinda like how there are -ir, -er, and -ar verbs in Spanish). Actually, I don't think the verbs are going to be so difficult. I think, so far, the most difficult part is that the words don't have Germanic or Latin roots, and therefore no connection to my understanding of the meaning of each word.
 

Sunday 4- Thursday 8 September 2011

It's probably a good sign when you've been in a place a little over a month and you find that you're too busy to write in your blog; especially if you're busy doing things that don't have to do with going to an embassy or an immigration office. Here's the run-down of what I've been up to:

Sunday: I went back to the Word of Life church (the charismatic one), and this time Heather came with me. I wanted her to come so I could get a second opinion about the church, and she wanted to go so that she could listen in Slovak (she's trying to spend 30 hours/week working on her Slovak language development). Funny thing though: she liked it because she's from a more charismatic background, but I actually started to feel like it's not the church for me. It's not the charismatic-craziness that bothered me this time; I was more bothered because the sermon was taken from a big chunk of Romans 11, but I felt like it was used as a "springboard" and not actually picked through to reveal the meaning. The sermon was encouraging and all and I don't think he said anything wrong, but I'm not really comfortable with the fact that the sermon was so far removed from the original passage. Hmmmm, so I don't know what I'm going to do about that....

After that church service, I met up with a few friends from the student house in Groningen: Lucka, from Slovakia, and her boyfriend, Marcin, from Poland. It was nice to see some familiar faces and hear some stories about their recent trip to Korea.

After spending some time with them, I ran off to City Light church. It's the first church I checked out here in Bratislava, and this was only my second time going, but so far I think it's the church where I feel most at home. I mean that, but I also have a small confession to make: I was so tired and hungry by 16:00 on Sunday, I really wanted to ditch it. The reason I still went was because I invited a Dutchman, who I met in Ljubljana, who was visiting Bratislava for a conference, to join me for the service. (Meeting people and then later reconnecting with them..it always fascinates me.)Well, I'm glad I went after all because it was so nice to catch up with some old friends (by "old" I mean the friends I met at the beginning of August), and I feel like I left with a better idea of what the church is about and where they want to go (I found it interesting..like something I want to be a part of), and I met more people, and my Dutch friend brought me stroopwafels... I wish I could put the feeling that I had as I left the service into clear concise words so that you could read it and know exactly what I experienced and how it affected me. If I say, "I felt encouraged," that's inching closer to the meaning, but I think it was more like "acupuncture encouragement" because it was so pinpointed at exactly what I needed that day.

Monday: I mostly just dawdled all day. Sometime in the morning, I went into work to withdraw my desire to interview for a spot on a team that teaches business English at some big company. It seemed like a good opportunity when I first heard about it, but as I considered it more I realized that I'm not really into the idea of having that much business English on my schedule during my first year. I put a lot of thought into it over the weekend, but I wasn't sure if I would be frowned on for dropping out of the interview process for this team. I was so relieved when my boss agreed that he didn't think it would be a good fit for me!
Most of Monday afternoon I used my native speaker abilities to analyze some computer generated questions for a genius friend who's working to get his PhD in something with artificial intelligence.

Tuesday: I hung out with Heather. We went to the grocery store, then to her house to do some baking, eating, youtube watching, Slovak vocabulary drilling, and chatting. Between the Oreos (brought special from the USA- they don't have them here), the banana bread, licking the brownie batter bowl, sampling something like cream cheese, and testing the finished brownies, I feel like I must've gained at least a kilo. So worth it? Maybe not...  Anyway, it was a good time, and then in the evening we went with her neighbor to a free public Slovak course. I'm planning to pursue private Slovak lessons, but before I can arrange that it was nice to finally go to something so I can start building a base. We focused on the verb "to be"- using it for basic introductions. I like that the group is multilingual and the teacher only speaks Slovak to us; however I don't like it when I can't see the white board. The teacher was always lingering in front of the board and in my way and I was getting pretty frustrated, but I didn't want to ask him to move because the only way I could think to say it in Slovak was kind of rude ("Von, prosím" --> "Go out, please" --> that's what we say to our dog), and I didn't want to ruin his Slovak-only atmosphere by asking in English, so I kept standing up or trying to look around him, etc. until he got the hint. So he asked me something...something like "Can you see?" but the word for see is close to the word for know so when I was trying to negate and conjugate the verb he was using so I could say, "I can't see," I kept accidentally saying, "I don't know." Heather told me later that we actually had a very confusing, but intelligible conversation that was something like this:
Teacher: "Can you see?"
Leah: "I don't know"
T: "You don't know?"
L: "No, I don't know"
T: "I can't see"
L: "Yeah, I know."
I heard the phrase "I don't know" once in a film a few weeks ago, but I did not mean to produce it again- I thought I was just repeating the teacher (and hoping he would move out of the way)!
I spent the night at Heather's place on Tuesday because very early the next morning...

Wednesday: We took a trip to the village of Pezinok to help out at a homeless shelter. I really had no expectations for that trip, which was good because I may have been disappointed if I had been counting on making a difference in anyone's life or doing anything really useful that morning.  I don't completely understand how this worked out, but I guess there was some event for homeless people going on somewhere else in the city, and it was our job to hang out at the shelter in case anyone showed up there? (That's probably totally wrong... I just have no idea...) Anyway, it was kinda cool. For me, everything is just new and interesting, so I go into everything without knowing what to expect and I'm always surprised and never disappointed. It's great to be foreign! I got to listen to a lot of Slovak, and I watched somebody make goulash, and I listened to more Slovak...pretty authentic Slovak experience. I tried to memorize what was going into the goulash so I can someday make it myself; I was watching so closely, I was sure I could do it. But then, this lady came in, pulled something mysterious from the cabinet- I have no idea what it was because it was wrapped in a napkin with rubber bands around it. She kept it hidden in her palm until she came to the goulash pot, then she let it slip out of the napkin and into the pot, and I have no idea what it was. I was aghast, actually, my jaw must've dropped. I couldn't believe that she slipped into the kitchen and added something so mysterious and I'll never ever know what it was! Remarkable.
Anyway, when 11:30 rolled around, Heather and I, together with Marek (a Slovak guy who's pretty much in charge of the shelter), took the bus back to Bratislava to have lunch at the home of a Slovak couple who does stuff with the orphanage here in the city. They were darling, just like you would expect from people who work with an orphanage and invite strange foreigners into their home for lunch.
Wednesday evening I went to a Bible study at the home of Viera and Hannes (the couple from the Word of Life church). They've just returned home from Uganda this week, so Viera told us all about their trip and the things they saw and experienced. I was exhausted from my day, and especially from trying to take in all the new language, so I feel like I listened in kind of a comatose state..not evaluating anything, just listening. Actually, it's 01:30 here, so I kind of feel the same way right now... too tired to tell you about someone else's trip to Africa...

Thursday: Ran, ate, showered... it was kinda drizzly, but I felt a serious need to go visit Slavin, a big war memorial/cemetery here in the city. It's located on a huge hill that's a killer to climb up, but provides good exercise and a great view. Here are the pictures:

View from the hill where the memorial is

On the way back to the bus stop..notice the really old house on the left

I wanted to capture how steep the hill was that I had to climb to get to the memorial, but this really doesn't do it justice. You have to come experience the steepness for yourself.

August 2011 Thankful List

I've been trying to keep a running list of all the things I'm thankful for lately. (I took the idea from Julie McD.)
I hope that the practice of looking for things to be thankful for, and having a written record of these things will help me in the cold, dark, winter months when it's easy to become discouraged.  I'm posting it here as a recap of the month, and to encourage you too :)

• Bratislava feels like home,
• Housemates are nice and friendly,
• Possibilities for giving private English lessons,
• Passed the CELTA course,
• Found a cute duvet cover at IKEA for really cheap,
• Hajdy is a nice dog,
• Met nice people at City Light,
• Nice emails from home,
• Skyping with family at a regular time,
• Met some of the other teachers at Class,
• Miška guiding me through the permit application process,
• No line or issues during that one errand to get a stamp,
• I know I'm supposed to be here,
• Some sunny days,
• Some rainy days,
• Running shoes and the ability to run,
• The mobile phone from Zuzka,
• Vierka and Hannes going to Uganda,
• No apostile necessary on the FBI report (and Larry, for telling me that),
• Lidl,
• New friends (and old friends) in Bratislava,
• Dajo, Antonia, and Arielle's visit,
• Dajo, Antonia, and Arielle made it home safely to Gro,
• Josh is definitely coming for a visit,
• Laundry soap that works REALLY well (Ariel),
• Drying clothes on a rack IS possible,
• Rental agreement and other important papers,
• Our vegetable garden,
• Jeans for 13 Euro,
• Oxford bookstore with books in English for less than 3 Euro,
• My bus pass,
• Running shoes on sale and for the bit of English that the shop assistant knew,
• Notary on rental agreement with no trouble,
• Fresh vegetables all the time,
• Meeting more new friends,
• Stanka's testimony,
• Ilga getting me peanut butter,
• The dog I met on my run was nice,
• Our treadmill,
• End of summer clearance sales,
• English/Slovak lessons with Soňa,
• English/Slovak dictionary for 3 Euro,
• I didn't drown in the lake,
• 99 cent double chocolate ice cream bars,
• I don't need to worry about anything...,
• Popcorn from Heather,
• Grooveshark,
• Zuzka and Mirko coming home soon,
• Staying in touch with Danielle,
• My passport and debit card weren't stolen,
• Being able to communicate to get a new bus pass from the lady who didn't speak English,
• No problems at the foreign police,
• Finished the medical exam and didn't have to take all my clothes off,
• Miška helping me through the medical exam,
• All the nice Roma people I met this weekend,
• The socialist food-discount coupons that I'm looking forward to getting,
• Getting to practice a bit of Slovak this weekend and being in a language-rich environment,
• Getting to hang out with Heather this weekend,
• The chocolate bar from the Slovak guy on the train,
• I'm not trying to learn Hungarian,
• The Dutch language,
• The medical exam cost less than I expected,
• 29 cent ice cream bars at Lidl,
• Really inexpensive fancy cheese,
• The bread vendor next to work,
• Slovak television,
• Subtitles

 There seems to be some repetition in the list.. those must be the things I'm REALLY thankful for!

29 August - 2 September 2011

Between job training and some social events, I haven't had much time for writing this week, so here's a quick synopsis of what I've been up to:

Monday: This was a Slovak national holiday commemorating the Slovenské národné povstanie (Slovak nation uprising) against the Nazis in 1944, and also my first day of job training. I think it's not very interesting for me to detail what we did each day in the training- not interesting for you to read or for me to write about- so I'll just summarize here:  We learned all about the school's method of teaching, and then we practiced and received feedback. It was probably the most practical training I've ever been through, and very helpful for knowing what is expected in my lessons. It was led by the owner/director of the school, and I went through it with only one other colleague, so it was a great environment to ask any necessary questions and know that I was getting the correct answers.

Tuesday: Nothing so interesting... except, I was approached by an elderly woman speaking only Slovak (and some German?) on my way home. She stopped me on the sidewalk and seemed to be motioning at my clothes as she spoke. I interrupted as soon as possible to tell her, "Prepáčte, nehovorim po Slovenský," (Sorry, I don't speak Slovak) but she just kept talking. I tried again with "Nerozumiem" (I don't understand), but she kept going, so I started to listen closely to get the general idea of what she could be talking about. She kept waving her hand at my jeans, and fluffing the skirt of the dress she was wearing, and sometimes moving her hands in that sweeping motion that people sometimes do when they're fed up; plus I heard some words that might've had the "ne-" prefix, making them negative, I think. And she even grabbed my front pocket and shook it! So I asked her, in Spanish, but using some Dutch words too, "Oh, do you think women should only wear skirts and dresses?" (She wasn't going to understand my question anyway, so why not try out some of my foreign language skills, huh?) Then she said something else, and I thought I heard the word "kinderen" (Dutch and probably German for "children"), which at the moment seemed to shed some light on the conversation, but now that I think about it, I can't figure out how that could've helped me understand anything. So finally I asked, in English, "So, you think these jeans don't look good on me?" To that, I think she said, "Nerozumiem" and then patted my arm and walked away. Overall, I'd say it was definitely a positive experience! 


Wednesday: More training during the day, and then a birthday party for Katka and Miško in a nearby village. (Katka is my housemate's sister, also our neighbor, and Miško is her boyfriend.) It was a nice party and lots of fun, complete with everything you would expect: eating, drinking, dancing, talking, and meeting new people!

Thursday: The last day of training, and another Slovak holiday, this time commemorating the fall of Communism. I came home in the afternoon to find Zuzka and Mirko (my housemates) up to their eyeballs in fresh vegetables from our garden! It was a wonder to my Arizona eyes, so of course I took pictures... 

Tomatoes! But these aren't even all of them- some had already been chopped!

Paprika!

More tomatoes..

On our back porch. Do I look like a vegetable vendor?

I joined Zuzka outside with a cutting board, while Mirko worked on pureeing and such in the kitchen. He made tomato sauce for pasta, some tomato spread for bread, and another Slovak thing that has chunks of paprika and is good as a sauce on eggs and sausage. Now our kitchen and basement are full of glass jars with sauce! I can't wait to try some :)
As we slaved away over the veggies, dear Hajdy (their dog, pronounced "Heidi") sat inside with a cone around her head. She had some sort of gross thing growing on her eye, so after a series of shots and eyedrops, she finally had an operation on Thursday. It was so sad to see her shaking and her eye dripping some brown-red fluid. :(

I "learned" a few new words yesterday, but the only one I retained was ucholok (I'm not sure about the spelling). It means earwig... and when I used it later yesterday evening with some other Slovak friends, they told me it also means "perv"..so be careful if you try using that one ;)

Friday: This morning I went with Miška to pick up the results from my medical exam a week ago. It's basically a paper with a paragraph in Slovak and some important stamps. The only thing I understand besides my name at the top is the bit where it says: "HIV: negat." (HIV free- woohoo!) The important thing is that I'm another little step closer to finishing the immigration process.

In the afternoon I went with a friend to a huge lake in Senec (a nearby town). We sunbathed and ate amazing pancakes that I would've taken a picture of, if I had brought my camera. I'll describe it instead... It was one huge, flat pancake (picture something like a crepe or a Dutch pancake- not the American kind), folded into a square with chocolate, bananas, and strawberry inside, and drizzled with caramel and chocolate, with whipped cream on top. I could've shed a tear for how delicious it was!

Tonight I'm going to watch some traditional Slovak dancing in the city center...should be interesting...


If you're wondering about my trip last weekend to the camp for Roma people... I'll write about that sometime soon :)