20-27 October 2011

It seems I've written fewer blog updates this month than I did last month. I think that's a sign that my life here is becoming less novel to me. I'm just here... working, making friends, trying to find the best deals at the grocery store and the most efficient ways to cross town. Likely nothing too different from your lives. The language learning is still in progress. I was able to "decode" a word recently by hearing and reading it so often that I could figure out the meaning. I don't want to brag, but I think it's a good accomplishment because you have to understand some of the surrounding words to figure out the missing word. I like learning words that way because I think they stay in my mind longer :)

I've had a few interesting encounters in the last few weeks, both with people and objects... I'll number them to switch up the paragraphing format:

1) As I was stepping out of the bus today, the door closed and hit me. I almost lost my balance and it nearly knocked my glasses off! No harm done though, just a little embarrassing! In my shock, I exclaimed, loudly,  "Whoa! That was weird!" so if anyone was doubting that an American was just hit by a door, they could know right away that was what just happened!

2) I walked into a different door earlier this week. It was Tuesday and I really needed to buy groceries, so I went to the big TESCO in my neighborhood (that I just heard about recently). It was my first time in there, so as I came into the entry way I wondered if I needed to go up the moving walkways that I was looking at on my right, or if I was supposed to keep walking forward like I was doing. Then BAM! I walked right into the glass door! The woman next to me looked so shocked; it was great! (PS- I went shopping on an empty stomach, bought way more than was on my list + some toiletries, and still spent less than 21 euro!)

3) Two weekends ago I met a nice pair in the city center. I had just sat down to wait for some friends, when I was approached by a young man and an older-looking woman. They greeted me in English and introduced themselves as Petr and Maria, then we had a usual introductory conversation. They guessed I was from Russia or Austria, and I was kind of flattered by that. After we talked for maybe two minutes (and Petr shook my hand throughout the entire conversation) they said goodbye and walked away. It was nothing but pleasant :)

4) On a less pleasant note, I was waiting on a bench outside the train station on Saturday morning. A clean, well dressed older man (his hair was all white) came and sat next to me and started talking. I told him I'm learning Slovak but I don't understand him, and he asked if I speak German and I said I don't, only English and a little Dutch. He kept talking in who knows what language, and I kept listening and telling him I didn't understand what he's saying. Then he used some words I know: Hotel. Slaapen (or whatever's German for "sleeping" that's probably similar to the Dutch). I said, "Oh! yeah, that's right! A hotel is for sleeping!" I thought he might just need some help with his English, so I was in teacher-mode for a second. Then he said, "Crown Plaza hotel." I said, "Oooooh, yeah, that's just down the road..." and gave him all the directions for how to get there as demonstratively as possible. Then, I don't know what words he used, but I got the idea that he wanted me to show him how to get there. Of course I said no though because I was waiting for a friend so we could go on a trip. Then the man said, "Sex." I gasped, "I'm not a prostitute!" "Prostitute?" he grumbled, and got up and walked away. I hoped I hadn't been too presumptuous in thinking that he was actually trying to proposition me, but I didn't mind that he had left. Well, he actually came back two more times to try to get me to walk to a hotel with him, and by the third time I actually started to feel scared and irritated, and I even practically shouted at him in the best Slovak sentence I could construct, "Niiiiiieeeeee, počkám pre moj príatel!!!" ("Nooooooo, I'm waiting for my friend!") and walked away.

5) Also while I was waiting at the station on Saturday morning, when the dirty old man wasn't talking to me, I was approached by two others. The first was a man who was clearly begging. I tried to deflect by claiming that I didn't understand, but who doesn't understand and hand reaching out and the word "money"? He was being so sweet anyway, trying to talk to me in a bit of every language he knows, but still I prefer not to give money because it could go for drugs (probably most people have that conviction I think...). I didn't have any better excuse than, "I don't want to give you money." He took that so well though! He smiled, stroked my face, and walked away.   A few minutes after he left, a man with a duffel bag sat down near me and struck up a conversation. We had the typical introduction conversation using all the Slovak phrases I know best. Then, I'm not really sure, but I think he offered me his half finished cup of coffee.


All those stories are really just a little rabbit trail from the other things that I planned to write about, so I hope you're not exhausted from reading too much! :)
These last two weeks have been really packed, actually... I feel like it was the first time since being here that I've been truly "busy."  I had forgotten that I like that feeling, and especially the feeling of relaxing in between the moments of busy-ness.

This weekend I took a long moment to relax. I had a friend from Groningen, Joshua, visiting the city this Friday though Sunday, so I didn't bother going into work even for an hour over Saturday and Sunday. It was a super weekend! We had some traditional Slovak food on Friday evening, then walked around the city center for a long, long time until we were ready to give up looking for the jazz cafe. Saturday we took a trip to štúrovo, in the south of Slovakia. We drank some coffee there before crossing  the Dunaj to get to Hungary. That was my first time in Hungary, and my first time walking across a country border (especially without my passport). After a hunt for a restaurant with good prices (that would also accept the Euro), we finally found a place that was completely empty except for the two women working there. They didn't speak English or German, so as a last resort I had to use my Slovak. (One of the two women there spoke Slovak.) Whew- I was sweating! I think she was trying to sell us a salad and the most expensive entree on the menu, but I'm not totally sure. It's amazing we got our food, actually, because I can't recall a single thing she said that I understood! After lunch we walked up to the huge cathedral that was build in 997AD! See the pictures...

Standing in Hungary, looking at Slovakia, thinking, "Whoa! I live there!"

The Slovak Republic beyond the Dunaj

The cathedral from 997AD in Esztergom, Hungary

Then we walked back to Slovakia and to the train station to get our train. A day full of walking! Back in Bratislava, we had dinner and later met some of my work mates for drinks before calling it a night. Sunday was rainy, so we spent our time leisurely drinking coffee, reading, and talking in a café until it was time to go to church. Such a lovely way to spend a Sunday :)

This week at work went by rather quickly, and even ended well with a successful lesson (that I thought was going to be very difficult) about subjects and objects in a sentence. ("Who loves Mary?" "Who does Mary love?" It's complicated...) Now I'm very ready to plan some lessons lessons for next week and enjoy a four-day weekend :)

Immigration Update

I should be going to bed right now, buuuuuutt, I know if I don't write at least a little something I'm going to soon slip out of the habit of updating this.

So the news is that I have my residence permit now! (Maybe my work permit too? They only gave me one card...) I thought it wasn't going to be hard to go to the foreign police for the last time to pick the card up, but it was actually probably my most difficult trip there so far.

What happened?
Well, I went really early (arrived before 06:00) but I was maybe the 15th person in line, and it was really cold outside. They don't open the doors till 07:30, so I was prepared with tights, jeans, socks, boots, an undershirt, a long sleeve shirt, a wool sweater, a scarf, and my heaviest jacket, but it was still cold and uncomfortable. And looking at the time and realizing I would be standing in the cold for an hour and a half only made it more cold. Cold. Cold. Cold.  Finally, we got inside and I push a button on the number dispenser according to my particular situation so they would know which office to call me to, but I pushed the wrong button (and got number 24) and didn't realize until everyone behind me in line had taken their numbers! So I went back to take the right number and I got 132. I wasn't sure if it would be wise for me to wait until they called that number because I would have to wait until late in the morning, but I still needed to go into school to do some planning before my lessons would start. I was frustrated with myself :(  So, when they called my first number, I went in to see the officer, who spoke a tiny bit of English. I was grateful for that tiny bit she spoke because I had forgotten my notes about how to ask for the card. She took my passport to another office (while I stood praying that she would come back with my card) and came back and told me to go out and wait by another door with my piece of paper that said 24. So I did as she told me to, but as I stood and watched them call the client numbers above that office door, they went from 20, to 21, to 22, 23, and then to 25, 26, 27... They skipped my number, so I started to wonder if I would have to wait until that office had served all their possible clients, or if I needed to go into the office and demand their attention. My officer from earlier that day had been passing in and out of the hall where I was waiting, so finally I stopped her and asked, "Will they put my number on the sign, or should I go inside and wait?" She told me to wait, then she went in the office again, talked to the other officer, then came out and gave me very quick directions in Slovak. Before I could say, "Nerozumiem" she had disappeared again. I wanted to cry. I asked some people standing nearby if they understood, but they just gave me blank stares. So I stood there praying, and trying to determine how long I would wait before either going into the office or going home and waiting until Wednesday. After maybe 5 minutes, a little Asian man (yes! another immigrant!) poked his head out of the office and said, "dvadsat`štyri?" (Twenty four?) Brilliant! So I went into the office, but the officer behind the counter didn't speak a word of English. I gave her my passport, she did stuff on her computer, then she fished out two cards with my face on them from a box on her colleague's desk, then her and her colleague fussed over the cards and some other papers for a few minutes. Then she had me sign some things. And then she kept telling me something in Slovak over and over very slowly, but all I could understand was, well, nothing. And actually, none of the words were even familiar enough that I could get an idea to start guessing what she was saying to me. Then she started pointing and that helped immensely! She pointed to a date on the paper I had signed and said, slowly, while showing me on her fingers, "jeden, dva, tri!" (One, two, three) Ahhhhh, finally I started to get an idea! Then she started pointing in the direction of offices one, two, and three! Ahhh, so I need to return to office 1, 2, or 3 on that date! (I think that's what she meant anyway!) Think about this next time you're helping someone foreign: Pointing helps a lot!!
Finally, she asked me if I have 4.50 euro in stamps, which I completely understood (even though she didn't even look at me when she asked for it) and gave to her. She stuck those on something and stamped them and messed around with some more papers, and then she gave me my sweet card!

1-9 October 2011

I'm feeling swamped with the amount of writing I need to do lately. But not the kind of swamped that makes me want to get going on it; the kind of swamped that makes me want to sit and talk to myself about what I SHOULD be writing, but without putting anything down in written words.
So sorry Mom, and sorry to anyone who I owe an email too!
Here's a recap of any highlights I can recall from the last 9 days or so (including the days of the week in Slovak for your reading pleasure!)

Sobota 1/10/11: I worked really hard planning lessons almost all day and managed to complete half the plans for the week! I took one break to shop for undershirts (I realized the long sleeved shirts I bought last month are too low). I made the poor choice to go to Eurovea- probably the biggest shopping mall in the city. I don't know the exact size..maybe 3 or 4 times the size of the Flagstaff Mall...too big for me anyway. I spent hours looking at all my options, and getting distracted and forgetting what I had come to find. And I also forked out 16 euro for a bottle of saline solution. (I thought 10 euro in Ljubljana was expensive!) I think I'll try to buy it online next time.

Nedel'a 2/10/11: Took the day to relax, walk around the city, and take some pictures before church in the afternoon. I had an interesting conversation a homeless man. His English was about as good as my Slovak, so we communicated though bits of both languages and some broken/invented German, and lots of gestures. I'm not sure what we talked about- I think he told me a few of the places where he sleeps and tried to explain that rent is really expensive here. And I think he tried to warn me about the mafia. Whenever I tried to contribute anything to the conversation he would cringe and say, "Oooh, English! Noo! No English!! Ahh!" That made for a rather one-sided conversation and he eventually got bored and left me.
Later, after church, I went with Heather, Erik, and Marek to a little restaurant for dinner. We talked about how Americans use (or don't use) a knife and fork; a great conversation to have with another American as you're both eating and trying your best to use the utensils the right way while being scrutinized by a couple European guys. I laughed so hard I was almost crying!

Pondelok 3/10/11 Teaching...
utorok 4/10/11 teaching...
streda 5/10/11 teaching...
štvrtok 6/10/11 teaching...
It's not that teaching doesn't have it's "highlights," it's just that I don't remember any of them... Actually, I remember one thing. I gave the students in one of my adult classes a feedback form to tell me what they found interesting and useful in the lesson, but since their English isn't so advanced I told them they could fill it out in Slovak and I would have someone translate it for me. One of my students asked if I know Slovak and I told her, "Nehovorim po Slovensky... I say that quite often!" Every one of the students burst into laughter and I really don't know why! Some people say my pronunciation is quite good, but now I'm not really sure!

Piatok 7/10/11: I went to a useful meeting in the morning to get some help on ideas of what to teach to my adult classes in the coming weeks. Then in the afternoon I went with my boss and one other teacher to pick up some kids and record an audio file for an Slovak/English/German book for children. Quite an experience! I thought it was going to be easy, but actually I had to read a lot (very slowly) and it was much more difficult than you would expect! First I read some things for some sort of listening exam... then there was a series of narrations for the book that they were going to let the other teacher read, but they decided his male voice isn't psychologically good for children, so I read that too. Actually, when I first looked at the script, I saw one word that I knew I wouldn't be able to read without a problem, but I had no choice because I was the only female native speaker in the studio. The troublesome word was at the end of a sentence listing the animals that someone's grandparents have at their house, "...a cat, a dog, a cow, a few hens, and one cock." (Who even uses that word for an animal anymore?) I know it was immature of me to start laughing and I tried everything I could to be serious and hold myself together, but all the pressure I was putting on myself to NOT laugh only made it more unbearable, and finally my voice started cracking and I had to stop reading for a bit. On top of that, my voice was being projected into the room where the editor, my boss, colleague, about 5 Slovak children were waiting. I'm very glad the editor agreed that we could change the word to rooster instead! After that, the children recorded their dialogues with their cute little accents; their pronunciation was perfect, by the way- or SUPER as they kept saying :)   Finally, the other teacher and I recorded our pieces of the dialog and then our work was done!
One other bit of exciting news: Hela heard from the foreign police- they have my work and residence permits ready! I'm going to go pick them up early tomorrow morning!

Sobota 8/10/11: I taught my first private English lesson in the morning! It's a one-on-one conversation class, so I just talk, listen, explain things when necessary, teach some vocabulary, and get paid for it. An easy way to make a supplementary income :)
I had planned to go into work immediately after my lesson, but then I remembered that I needed to buy some stamps before I go to the foreign police, but I had forgotten my notes about how to ask for stamps, so I had to go into a bookstore and slyly use a dictionary to learn a few key words. After getting my stamps, I stepped out of the post office, into the drizzly weather, and felt an OVERWHELMING desire to read a book in a café. It was just that sort of Saturday. So I went to the Oxford bookstore to quickly pick out a new book, but that actually took over half an hour, I'm sure, because there was a British family in the shop and my mind couldn't help tuning into their conversations. I had forgotten how wonderful it is that I'm usually not distracted by the irrelevant information I overhear on the streets and in the stores! Finally, I selected Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey because it was less than 3 euro and I know I'll love anything by her. And I bought Sophie's Choice by William Styron because I've heard several allusions to it over the past few years and I haven't understood a single one of them! It's a thick book, which I tend to avoid, but already I've read the (very long) first chapter and now I'm definitely hooked. I spent 3 euro on a sandwich and hot chocolate and read my book while it rained outside. A perfect way to spend some time!
Finally, I made it into work and got quite a bit of planning done, although not as much as I wanted. In the evening, I went to a birthday party for some Slovak friends who I met in Groningen. There were over a dozen people at the party, and almost all of them had studied in Groningen at different times over the past few years, so it was like a big reunion! Great! I stayed out much later than I had intended to, and eventually had to take the night bus home: an experience I knew I would have one day or another, and I'm pleased to say I passed through it unscathed. Lucka and Marcin kindly checked the bus times for me before I left the pub and I realized I had less than 30 minutes to make it to the bus stop or else I would have to wait another hour before the next one would come. I REALLY did not want to sit at the bus stop at night for an hour, so I ran the entire way and made it in 11 minutes! I have no idea what the distance was exactly, but I think that was a good time considering I was wearing boots with a bit of a high heal! I arrived about 18 minutes too early and had to wait outside as the wind started to cool my sweat from the run...but all in all, it was a fine experience and not at all scary or dangerous (as far as I knew) :)

You can see the rest of the photos from my walk last week at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150393489800991.400622.705455990&l=721afc4a37&type=1