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 :)