Hello again!

So I tried to put up pictures of the Slovensky Bethlehem, but it keeps giving me an error message so you will just have to wait. I will try and put them up when I get back home again. Because I'm off to Raca, a neighboring ski town, to celebrate New Years Eve or Sylvester! I'm going with Mariely and her family and I think it's going to be a blast! By what I've been told, it's going to be outside (which is okay because its 4 degrees here) and we will be staying in a cabin tonight. There is a dinner and party and disco and fireworks and walking in the wilderness....so all in all sounds like a good time to me!

So that's where I'm headed. Be back sometime tomorrow to tell you how it went :)

Stastne Novy Rok!! Happy New year!

HALUSKY

So I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda glad Christmas is over. It's a big relief to be getting back to normal routine (I never realized just how much I thrive on structure until I came to Slovakia). Don't get me wrong, I loved having the opportunity to celebrate it in another country and learn a different way of life so closely-but it was rough.

I've had a wonderful past couple of days though as I've been working hard to keep myself busy. Yesterday I woke up with the house to myself (which is always lovely and quiet and peaceful) and I made myself toast (which is a special treat when you live in Slovakia). Later on I went out with friends, and we had plans to go to a Mexican Restaurant for Mariely, but it turned out to be closed so we just went to a pub. It was nice night out with friends. Today was even better! I went to my favorite little coffee shop in the morning and ordered a delicious caramel latte and sat and read my book (I got from the library) in the back corner. It was so relaxing and made me so happy. Then I went to the English school for a couple of hours to plan out my lessons for next weeks story hours. And the best part came next. I went with my councilor to a place called Slovakia Bethlehem. It is this giant (10 m by 4m) wooden carving which is stunningly beautiful! You can't even imagine the detail that it has. And what was really neat about it was that each section represented a different part of Slovakia. I could have stood in front of it for hours and still not seen it all. There were little black smiths, women sewing, castles accurate right down to the windows, animals, and a nativity scene right in the middle. And get this--they all moved! I don't even understand how one man could finish such a master piece all on his own. It really was spectacular. I will put up a photo of it but it definitely doesn't do it justice!
So after the Bethlehem scene I stayed at my councilor's home for a couple of hours and worked in the kitchen with her. She showed me how to make delicious vegetable soup and Halusky! You have no idea how proud I am! SO when I get back I promise you all I will make some Halusky just for you so you can have a taste of slovakia! I have come to really love my councilor and her husband and they seem to have adopted me as their daughter so it's really nice. They are such kind people and I feel very loved by them, and I've only known them for four months. But that's kind of how it is with exchange. You get to be able to call almost any place home and you get really close to people in a very short time, partly because you are forced to if you want to survive, and partly because people are so kind and warm and welcoming to you. It's a very neat experience I don't think you can get any other way.

Since I have been on holidays, and will continue to be for the next two weeks, I have had a fair amount of time on my hands (okay thats a lie, I have had a LOT of time on my hands) and so I have been playing with my camera. I have taken several pictures in around my host home and Zilina. I've created an online album and so I will share the link here. So if you are interested, I invite you to take a look. I think they are really representative of just how beautiful this little country is and they give you an idea of how the city really feels. So Enjoy!

http://cid-61a3334c3c7815a5.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Slovakia%20in%20December?authkey=e6fsuZVZttM%24

This is a picture I took on Christmas Day. No Snow!! It was really warm this year. +7!


These are the gifts I got from baby Jesus!


This is a picture of Knedla (what they call dumplings) and the tortillas we ate with goose. They love to drown them in oil and eat them with cabbage.


This one of the trays full of homemade goodness that my mom made.

Vianoce! (vee-an-o-ts-eh)

Christmas Christmas Christmas in Slovakia! Okay there's a lot to write down here so you can't say I didn't warn you! Here we go!

December 24th
The majority of the celebrations occur on this day. And I would say the Slovaks know how to celebrate! I woke up to my grandma in the kitchen cooking soup which was such a nice surprise. My parents were both at work still and my brother sleeping so I had a nice little chit chat with her (in slovak of course) and it was really nice. She gave me tiny glass of borovicka, a special Slovak alcohol made from pine, because as she put it 'its a special day'. My parents came home from work and running last minute errands at about 12 and we sat down for lunch. It was special mushroom soup they only eat on christmas eve. Once the soup was done, much to my surprise no more food came out. Apparently it's tradition to fast on Christmas Eve from noon lunch until you eat the big dinner around 5 or 6. I thought it was funny though because they all said, you can't eat anything, but you can drink. And drink they did. But I'll get to that later. But man oh man was it a good thing I fasted! I really don't think I could have fit all that food into my stomach any other way. I mean wow! There were several courses to this meal and each one was fantastic!
Course one: capustnica. Soup with sauerkraut, sausage, mushrooms, and a whole bunch of other stuff I'm not sure I really want to identify. It was good but definitely not my favorite thing in the world. I'm not a fan of the sour cabbage which is rather unfortunate because the Slovaks can't seem to get enough of it.
Course two:Carp and potatoe salad. This was delicious! Now my family doesn't follow the whole tradition with the carp (thank goodness!) because it entails buying a live carp at the supermarket (you should see the giant tubs they have of them on pretty much every street corner) and keeping it in your BATHTUB until Christmas when you kill and eat it. Just as glad I didn't have to experience that Slovak ritual firsthand. And I just have to mention the potatoe salad here is to die for. It has boiled egg and cheese and potatoes of course and all kinds of veggies and garlic and mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Course 3:Rice cakes with honey and garlic. Yup you heard right! It was one of the strangest combinations I think I've come by yet but it was delicious! You take these paper thin rice wafers (I don't even think we have them in Canada) and smother them in honey and then toss in some raw crushed garlic and bon apetit! They say it's for good health in the new coming year because all the Slovaks seem to be convinced things like garlic and tea can ward all kinds of disease. And I dunno, could be true, you never know!
Course 4: Oh yes there's more. Fruit. Placed in front of me was this giant bowl heaping with every kind of fruit imaginable. Wonderful it was!
Course 5: Okay and this is the last one I promise. Sweets. All kinds of homemade goodness! Chocolate and caramel and cookies and nuts and anything else you can imagine. But by the time you got to this course I must say I was rather full. I dare say they do it in this order on purpose. It was probably for the best. And it's not like I haven't eaten my fair share of sugar over the past few days. What with being surrounded by platters full of sweets, it's kind of hard to avoid.

Once the eating had ceased. Thank goodness, because I thought I might explode,the present opening commenced. Now in Slovakia, Santa Clause doesn't exist (there is st Mikulas who came on Dec 6th if you remember) and instead they say the baby Jesus brings the gifts himself. The whole story is much more vague than the Santa Clause one. There is no mention of how Jesus makes it to all the houses, there's no magic sleigh with flying reindeer, and the presents just seem to appear under the tree sometime in the evening. Much less convincing if I do say so myself. So we exchanged gifts, jesisko (little Jesus) brought some for everyone. I got a Slovak cook book in English which I'm really excited about. Now I can cook up some Slovak cuisine for you when I return home! And a shirt that has a slovak man on it eating Halusky. I gave my host parents a card with an attempt at a kind message in slovak in it, an ornament I bought while in Vienna, and a picture of us together which I had framed. Writing in the card turned out to be a whole lot harder than I thought. I know quite a few words in Slovak now but they are all very direct and to the point so it's kind of hard to write a nice mushy message. What I came up with in the end was something along the lines of Thank-you Thank-you Thank-you! You are fantastic people! But they got the point and they really seemed to like it.

Then the rest of the family came over and the celebrations really began. And this is where the alcohol comes in. The Slovaks really know how to drink! Now I mentioned before I had a shot of borovicka in the morning with breakfast, well that wasn't the last. I had one at both lunch and dinner and then there was more than one glass of wine. And I was trying not to drink! You see it's like this; as an adult (or youth for that matter) in the Slovak community it is essentially your responsibility to have a glass in your vicinity at all times. And, as I quickly figured out, when that glass is empty that means you want more, not that you are finished. So the key is to keep one sip in the bottom of your glass so it looks like you're still drinking it. This way you can avoid countless refills and questions as to why you're not celebrating. So that was the beginning of the evening. Later on, say 9 or so, everyone picks up and relocates outside. Yes outside! We stood around in the middle of the street visiting and drinking with the neighbors for the remainder of the evening. I ended up leaving early as I went with my host grandma to church. This was the highlight of my evening. It was so nice to walk (we could walk because it was 7 degrees that day)to the church hand in hand with her and hear the christmas carols. I loved it, it was almost magical!

Some other little things that I noticed that were interesting was in the morning our neighbor brought over a plate full of goodies for us to enjoy! I thought that was a nice treat! As well the door bell was ringing a lot more than usual that morning and everytime it did my host bro would run and look out the window to see who it was before he answered it and he often didn't answer all together. I didn't understand why until he explained that the gypsies often go door to door around christmas looking for money I think. And that brings the 24th to a close.

December 25th: Vianoce D'en: Christmas Day
Christmas day is a whole lot more relaxed here and it consists of more eating and drinking. Everyone crawled out of bed by 1 to get ready for the big dinner at 2. All the family came over again and we shared a meal of goose, tortillas, knedla (what everyone calls dumplings, but they really aren't dumplings), and purple stewed cabbage. This is most definitely my favorite Slovak meal. I love the purple cabbage, actually on second thought I love it all! I would dare to say I like goose more than turkey in fact. Oh and funny story. Much to my horror I had the honor, as a guest and young person, to eat the liver (yes the liver!) of the turkey. And after they phrase it like that and my host dad tells me very emphatically how he loves the liver and its the best part, I couldn't exactly turn it down. So I ate it. It really wasn't that bad actually, kind of good in fact. My host mom fried it up, drowned it in grease (like all Slovak cuisine) and then folded it in a tortilla. It was much better than the school cafeterias version that's for sure!
And then all was finished. The family went home by 5 and we just sat on the couch in front of the tv and digested. What we watched on the tv however, I found to be quite entertaining. They were a series of old Slovak and Czech Fairytales. All of which included old hags, peasants rebelling, witches, and dragons. I didn't really understand any of it but just watching the acting was entertaining. It is also tradition to play the Slovak version of Cinderella here on Christmas too.

December 26
Nothing. A very uneventful day in Slovakia. In fact, almost all of the shops are closed. So definitely not any Boxing day blowout sales going on.

And there you have it; Christmas Slovak style! I'm really grateful I had the opportunity to partake in all of their celebrations. It was a really cool experience and I'm sure there's only more to come in the next year!

A view of Bratislava, Slovakia's capital


These are some of the other exchange students in Slovakia. We are really close friends now!


A plate of Halusky. The Slovak food which always talk about. Its made from poatoes but tastes like pasta and it has goat cheese on it.


Proof of how alcohol is everywhere here. This is at the train station. You can buy a bottle of vodka or borovicka for 2 euros just at the local concession.


A picture of the super old stretchers they use at the hospital. They really do use them! We saw one with a patient on it! This was just in the hallway of the hospital.

So there are some random pics just to fill you in!

Hey I'm back again 12 hours later! SO last night I went to a Christmas dinner with the staff of the English School I've been volunteering at. The school itself is really small. There are two centers: one here in zilina and one in prievidza which is 40 km outside of Zilina. Each school has two teachers and then there is Katka who owns it all. So there's really not that many people but all of them or young women (most between 23 and 27 but one of them just turned 19!). So we all met at the school and then headed out to a restaurant in the center and I had a FABULOUS TIME! And boy oh boy did I need it! It really helped pick me right up again and it was really reassuring. Because they are all teachers their english is fantastic, which meant that I could converse in full sentences using big words at normal speed for the first time in months and you have no idea how wonderful this was!!! Extra-ordinarily wonderful! It was also really nice because it reminded me that I do actually have social skills, the ability to converse with people, and the ability to make friends when I'm in my element and that makes me feel a whole lot better about my whole friend situation. Not only do I have to speak in a foreign language (which I am far from mastering) but most of the kids at school are significantly younger than me and enjoy talking about things I just don't find funny so i would say I'm little out of my element when it comes to socializing at school. But that said I have been given the opportunity to really throw myself into the english school if I want. Katka has offered me a position as storyteller twice a week if I so desire (and I think I do) plus I'm welcome any other time I have freetime or feel like coming in. So I forsee a really good friendship forming between myself and the 19 yr old teacher Sonia. Not only is she my age, but she went on exchange to America last year so she really gets what I'm going through. I really had a lot of fun with her last night and so hopefully we will be able to see more of eachother outside of work.

Now, I have to point out that it made me laugh when I went back and reread my last paragraph. It sounds like I have to strategically plan how I'm going to go about making friendships but the sad thing is you kind of have to as an exchange student. I was talking about this with all the other exchage students when we were in Bratislava and they all said the same thing. It's like when you see someone with the potential to really be your friend you have to go about pursuing that opportunity otherwise it will just pass you by. Because for the most part all the people you want to make friends with already have a lot of friends and aren't really looking to make many more so they just won't put the effort in. So that means you have to work double time. It really reminds me of the movie 'I love you man' that I saw a while back where the groom has no man friends so he has to go about making some. And it's hilarious because they say planning a get together with a new friend is like planning a 'man date'. That's totally what I feel like sometimes you have no idea. Like yesterday, I knew if I ever wanted to go out with Sonia again I had to ask for her number and facebook and things but whenever I exchange contact details with someone (and give them my beautiful rotary business card) I feel strangely like I'm asking them out on a date or something. And then I just giggle to myself and think ohhh the situations I have been in while on exchange--the list is endless!

And twelve hours later my emotions aren't running quite as high (I told you!! :P). At the moment I'm getting excited for tonight and tomorrow. Two Christmas dinners with lots of family and friends! As well I'm going to a movie this afternoon with Mariely and a friend so that should be nice as well.

talk to you later! Merry Christmas! Vesele Vianoce!

p

Christmas is fast approaching. In fact it kind of crept on me! It's strange being in another country for such a special holiday. I can feel that it's Christmas and I can see all the excitement in the people around me and the holiday cheer but it just isn't the same. I don't have that unmistakable 'christmas feeling' I always get when I'm at home and so I could hardly believe that it was the 22 today when I looked at my calendar! It's almost like you have to work to get yourself excited for the holidays here because you don't have all those normal things that que you off. Like the pulling out of the christmas decorations or the craziness of school leading up to the holidays, or the madness of getting all of your shopping done. Here school is never crazy for me (its quite the opposite in fact), the decorations are out but they don't have any deeper meaning to me, and I had to buy some presents and things but I have so much time on my hands that I was finished my shopping way back in November.
As fast as Christmas crept up on me, so did the holiday blues. It was crazy, they just hit me like a wall one day. I was so happy for the longest time and things were going really well. It didn't feel like anything could bring me down but down I have come. I have been ridiculously homesick the past few days. It is a different kind of homesick this time though. I just genuinely miss my family and friends and everyone really. I wish I could teleport myself home for a day or two and then come right back to Slovakia. Actually that's a lie, at the moment Im not even sure I want to come back to Slovakia, but I'm sure those feelings will pass. I mean you could ask me in a couple of hours and I'm sure my answer would be totally different.I think most of the difficulties come from everyone being so busy with the holidays coming so as the exchange student I've kind of been neglected the past couple of weeks by my friends and family and then on top of that all my activities ended so I have absolutely nothing to do except sit at home and mope. And let me tell you that is NOT what you should do when you are homesick! I've been working really hard at digging myself out of this rut though and it's working I think. On sunday I baked a gazillion cookies and wrapped them up in little packages to give out to my friends. It was super nice and it got me in the christmas spirit. I had so much time I even hand made little tags to put on all of them. Sad I know. haha but I loved it.
Today I went to the tea room with my friends from school (it was the last day today!!) and that was fantastic! It was super super super nice!
I've been having some difficulty with friends here. I really don't understand the Slovak people sometimes. There'll be one time when we all go out and I really feel like they are my friends and I have a really good time and then the next day it will be like we are back to square one again. They don't really talk to me and it's like we never went out. I don't get it. For one they aren't very good at showing emotions period. I realized this the other day within my host family. My host parents were talking to their daughter who is on exchange to Brasil via skype and you should have seen the looks on their faces! They were so happy! And then it hit me. I've never seen them like that. They just go about their day to day duties and work and work and work. There is very little expression and they rarely offer up anything of themselves. So that makes it rather difficult to get into their circle of trust. At this point I'm past the shy stage thank goodness! People actually talk to me now and express some interest in what I do, so all I can do is hope that they will come around eventually. I'm sure they will.
Okay and one random story for you before I head out to a christmas party with the english school. I got up the nerve to go into one of the gazillion cheap china shops here and man was it crazy. When i say a gazillion I really mean a gazillion. They are on every corner and everyone seems to shop there. I still can't bring myself to do it. They are basically these giant warehouses full of rip offs and cheasy everything. But boy oh boy is it cheap! You can buy a pair of fake leather boots for 15 euoros ($20) and clothing for 5 or 10 euros a piece. But it was really funny because having never entered one before I was expecting the shop to be this tiny little thing because that's what it looks like from the outside. BUT once you are inside you see it's enormous and contains piles and piles of crap. You can pretty much buy anything under the sun there, really! Now I understand why lots of people have to shop there though. It's really quite sad because all the clothing and everything seems to be the same price as in Canada for the most part but the wages the slovaks earn is so much smaller! So for them what I think is a decent price, is really expensive for them. I'm sure it has something to do with the switching of economic structures as well as the change from the slovak crowns to the Euro this past January. I ask and the answer always gets really complicated really fast so I think Ill have to do some reading on it before I can begin to understand it all.

Okay so I gotta run! I think it should be a nice evening! and tomorrow I have a christmas dinner with the fam so that will be nice too!

So a week removed (not for any good reason, other than pure laziness) I'm here to tell you about my wonderful adventures in Vienna and Bratislava. Fantastic! (imagine that word being shouted in a sing songy way and you get the effect I'm going for).

So as I had mentioned in my previous posts (on more than one occasion I believe) I had the opportunity to go to Vienna and Bratislava last weekend with Rotary. It was one of our bi-monthly exchange student gatherings. Now, these get togethers (which include all the rotary exchange students in Slovakia) are always fantastic in themselves but this one was particularly amazing. So let's just get to the point. I LOVE VIENNA! That is all there is to it. I have been there before, with my family and I liked it then but I must admit I didn't really appreciate it's greatness until the second time through. It really is a magnificent city. I love the feeling of it, how it looks and the masses of people--it was simply magestic! It was super cool because we got to go there during christmas time too so it was extra beautiful, all decked out with lights and trees and music. W-O-W. I really don't know what else to say. It was a once and a lifetime oppportunity (because come on when else am I going to get to experience the christmas markets in Europe!)and I sooooooooooooooo wish you all could have been there to see it with me. I didn't take too many pictures because I just found myself getting frustrated. The greatness of the scene just can't be captured on my simple little digital camera, but the pics I did take I will share of course!
Okay so I think you get that Vienna was fantastic and perhaps you're wondering what we did while we were there? Uh huh good question. We shopped! What else? I was in heaven. I can't believe it but Rotary just let 35 exchange students loose in a foreign city for five hours to do what we like (within the law and the four D's of course). Myself being with three other girls who are strangely similar to me and paul hit up the shops. We did some looking around downtown and then continued on to the markets. Oh my! There were sooooo many people (really you have no idea!). You had to pretty much wiggle worm your way through the crowds to see the booths but it was worth it. There were so many beautiful crafts to be oggled at and I bought so many cute little things. I got some sweet hand made ornaments and beaUtiful scarf, an Austrian waffle (mouth watering goodness!) and a practical but lovely hand bag. All in all a more than successful trip.
Yes, the shopping was wonderful but what was even better was the atmosphere. I felt like I was living in a fairytale, dancing up and down the streets with carols in the background the sky lit by lights. It was also kind of a surreal experience being put out into the real world again after having been surrounded by everything Slovak for three and a half months. It was surprisingly hard to go back to being just english. I kept speaking my terrible broken Slovak to people and they just looked at me like I was a major freak. What on earth is this girl doing trying to speak to me in a language only 0.2% of the world understands when it's obvious she knows english. I'm sure it's what they were thinking. I could see it in the way they shook their heads and rolled their eyes at me. And then there were the crowds. There were hoards of people EVERYWHERE. Our tour guide said that more than a thousand tour buses would enter Vienna that day alone! Dealing with that many people would be fine but it causes certain complications, like say when you really have to pee. I mean in Europe to start with public bathrooms are hard to come by (at least ones you're willing to set foot in) and then when there are that many people, well let's just say the line goes from here to timbucktwo. BUT I had to pee THAT bad, so we waited. and waited. and waited. And when we finally got in we had to pay 1 euro, which is ridiculously expensive when you think about it. I mean those people are going to be rolling in the dough by the end of the day. The upside of paying to pee though, is you get toilet paper (which really is a rare comidity over here) AND the lady wiped the toilet seat after every person so you didn't have to deal with all the pee on the seat (which is also a big problem. I guess girls don't like their butts to touch the seat but come on! Work on your aim a little!). So sadly we spent an hour out of our five precious hours in vienna peeing and eating, but I mean what are ya going to do? Needs are needs and they have to be met wherever you are.

So that was Vienna. Now I want to share with you some random little tidbits of info I've picked up about socialism while I've been here. It really is an interesting topic to bring up with people and I love to hear their stories. I talked for an hour yesterday with my councillor's husband about it and learned a lot! It's really eye opening having the opportunity to hear about it from someone with firsthand experience. By the sounds of it, communist times really were like how our high school text book described them. People had everything they needed. They had no problem buying bread and potatoes and milk and eggs--the necessities. What was difficult to come by was the things that Slovakia had to import. He said it was his job in the family to stand in line everyday after work for hours just so he could bring home a pineapple or a bunch of bananas or some mandarins. And then he explained that he was fortunate in that he had a high paying job at the time (he made $300 us dollars a month) but when it came to what they could own it made no difference. Even though he had the money to get better things for his family, he couldn't because they just weren't available. Everyone had the same things. And he said this changed the way people interacted. He thinks the slovak people were more open and friendly in these times because there was no competition, people could care less about stuff. As well they had a lot of time on their hands. Everyone worked but no one worked hard because there was no incentive to. And when they weren't working they didn't have much to do. People weren't working to achieve something greater because they didn't know what else was out there. They didn't hear about the west or how other people were living and the west didnt hear about them. So when the walls finally fell, and the truth was revealed, everyone was really surprised at what they saw. The west couldn't believe the socialist countries actually had everything they needed (they were under the impression that times were terribly difficult, people were starving and dying under the commmunist regime) and the Socialist countries were astounded at the progress made by the west.
I also learned that when the turn over from communism to capitalism began you could buy one of the flats for $1600. Imagine! An apartment for so little! And another major problem a lot of people came across was the education. Many people in my parents generation were in the middle of completing their degree in uni when the regime crumbled, so then they were faced with a choice. The entire world was suddenly available to them, they could study whatever they wanted. All the people who worked could start again too. Many people had the chance to change professions completely and move way up the totem pole.
There are definitely remnants of communism everywhere. Two things I've noticed at school and in the community are cheating and a lack of line ups. At school EVERYONE cheats and it's pretty much socially acceptable. The punishments are school are virtually non existent and it just seems to be part of the culture. All the other exchange students have said they've noticed the same thing too so it's not just my school. And the lines, well there is just no concept of them. You can start one and people just but in all over the place. And if you are bigger than the person in front of you then you are entitled skip ahead of them. I see at school everyday in the concession and cafeteria lines and then the other day at the post office. It drives me nuts! But I'm starting to get the hang of it, you just have to be assertive and butt too and then it's all good.

So so so. Life is pretty good. I can feel the christmas blues beginning to settle in but I like to think that it will never get as bad as it was in the beginning. And soon enough christmas will be here and then January 10th i switch families (scary but exciting!) and then the end of Jan I will have made it half way! I can hardly believe it!

P

ps. I really am becoming european. Between showering at night, eating a giant meal in the middle of the day, going out every friday, and now, now I'm wearing panty hose under my pants. What is the world coming to!

Well I'm back from the doctor's and I'm still in one piece! I still can't believe the hospitals here. It really is like a snapshot from a movie made in the fifties or something. In order to enter the hospital grounds you have to go through these huge (scary) iron gates and then once you're in there it's like it's own functioning community. Paul called it the 'Health Fortress' which seemed strangely accurate. There are different buildings devoted to different services and all of them are equally terrifying. There are rows of the big communist flats and in the middle is a road for the ambulance and a series of courtyards which they've tried to spruce up with dead trees and empty flower boxes. And that's just the outside. You go in through the rickety door and all you see everywhere is drywal exposed, dirt in the corners, tiles pulled up on the floors, not nice. All the staff have wear white from head to toe too! I wouldn't be surprised if the nurses still have to wear the traditional dress and hat. And I took a picture of one of the trolley beds they use here! It was just sitting in the hallway and we were looking at it like 'is that an antique or do they actually still use it?' when a patient came rolling by on one. I'll put it up for you to see.
How they operate all together is just different. First we had to get our blood taken in one room (at least the nurse was really good at it. One poke and voila two viles just like that) then we had to go outside to another building to get our xrays done. Which was just a fun expereince. not. We had to go into this little room and strip from the waist up and then stand in front of this freezing cold metal contraption while it moved us sideways abruptly. Then once that was finished we waited in the hallway while they developed the proofs. They just left the door open so we could see everything they were doing. Including other patients xrays of various parts of the body. And then we had to go back to the other building to give the xrays to the lady and then we had to go to the front to pay and then baack to her to give her the reciept and then we were done. It really is an inefficient system but hey! it's done and I'm all clear so hopefully I can finally get my visa!!!! And I hope I won't have to make any more trips to the hospital so I can avoid all that sketchiness all together.

okay now I've gotta run! I'm off to VIENNA!! Have I mentioned how excited I am yet???

bye!

P

I'm up nice and early this morning (530 am) to go to the doctors and you can just imagine how pleased I am. I have to go to another city because there are Rotary connections there and get all cleared before I can actually finally get my visa. I guess the Slovak people think I could have contracted TB in the three months I've been here so off I go.... I think it involves being pushed up against a old metal table with no shirt on for an xray and the drawing of some blood. Oh lovely. Plus it doesn't help that the Slovak hospitals look REALLY sketchy, but then again maybe I'll be going to a private clinic and those are quite nice, tucked away in an apartment usually. We shall see.

So I have to go but just thought I'd fill you in on the matter..........

p

MIKULAS!!!

MIKULAS!!!!! (pronounced Meekooolash) was soooo wonderfully fantastic this weekend. I am incredibly tired, having gotten to bed around 4 on both fri and sat night, but it was well worth it!
Okay so a bit of information to fill you in before I dive head first into my description of the weekend. In Slovakia they celebrate christmas twice in a sense. They have mikulas day, where st nicholas comes and brings sweets to everyone who leaves their shoes on the window sill, and then they have christmas on the 24th when Jesus comes down to earth to visit. St. Mikulas is historically a man who was known for his kindness. I had the story translated to me but I'm still a little fuzzy on the details. There was something about him saving three young women from having to live on the streets, even though he had nothing. Regardless, he is now known as a saint in all of Slovakia.

So back to the story, after the fantastic stuzkova which i gushed about in my last post, I slept pretty all day saturday. When I finally managed to roll out of bed for lunch around 2 pm, I had to scramble to get ready for my next adventure--Mikulas!
My family and I (plus Mariely) piled into the car and headed out to a cabin. It was this super cute little place in a mountain village. We met up with my aunt and uncle and their two kids (jakub and Boba who've mentioned in previous posts) and two other families who are university friends of my parents. I was sooo excited to get there and see the cabin. It was the cutest thing ever! When I looked around I couldn't help but think we looked like something out of a christmas catalogue, we all had to wear red shirts (family tradition) and most of us had santa hats. So sat was a pretty fantastic day. Here's how it went down:

First we ate. The couple who own the cabin rent it out to people and they do all the cooking! So we had delicious chicken (and rice of course) plus yummy traditional slovak polievka (soup).
Then we played tons of foosball and table tennis.
Then there was more eating. So many delicious snacks EVERYWHERE! I swear I could have gained 20 pounds just that day, but what's christmas for right? But there was every kind of cheese you could imagine and pretzels and sausage and chocolate galor!
Then santa and the devil came to visit. Yes the devil comes on christmas in Slovakia! The dads got all dressed up in masks and brought down a big bag of sweets for everyone. We sang (and I learned) a traditional slovak christmas carol. They say in slovakia that the good children get sweets and the bad ones sticks and coal. And they made us sing or dance or recite a poem if we wanted to get our treats so I belted out rudolph the red nosed reindeer for all to hear.
Then there was more eating. I mean how could you resist you were just handed a bag full of yummy treats.
Then the rest of the evening was filled with music, sad attempts to ballroom dance, talking, laughing, and more ping pong (they really do love it here).

All in all it was a wonderful day, not just because it was loads of fun but because I really felt like I fit in. I felt like I was part of the family and my Slovak was good enough to communicate to people! I've really come to love my host family, especially my host dad. It was a fantastic time.

On a different note, I had Rotary this monday, and I went as usual but this time it was particularly entertaining. It was one of the Rotarians 60th b day so there was a big celebration going on. So big I might add that the exchange students (the other inbounds and next years outbounds from slovakia) had to be shipped off to another room. Apparently the no alcohol rule means we can't even witness the consumption of alcohol. So all the Rotarians thought we were safely tucked away in the back room, but little did they know we could hear them loud and clear. They were all singing folk songs in their deep manly voices at the top of their lungs, and it was too funny. We also had this special cabbage soup for the occasion and let's just say it wasn't my favorite. It didn't seem like much of a delicacy to me, filled with cabbage, mushrooms, pork, and god only knows what else. I nibbled away at my little bowl while Paul packed away four helpings. At least someone liked it!

AND on the topic of Rotary I am super psyched for this weekend. I leave on Thurs for four days in Bratislava and Vienna! Christmas shopping at the traditional markets!!! I can't wait. I get to take the train there and all the other exchange students will be on the same train so it's going to be an absolute blast! I just have to make it through tomorrow. One more long day at school then the sweet taste of the weekend! woot woot. And another thing to look forward to (aside from christmas and all that jazz) I am switching host families in under a month. My next family will be Mariely's and I've met them and spent a lot of time with them already so I know it will be a smooth transition. Its kind of a bitter sweet feeling though, because I feel like I've just finally settled in and now I have to be uprooted again but I think it will be good. And this time the change will be no where near as traumatizing as the beginning was so I should be good. :)

love as always!

p
ps. I genuinely can't believe I've been here three months, however slow it went in the beginning, the time is flying by now. Each day I am amazed by something new, it truly is a surreal experience!

Stuzkova!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOO it was Stuzkova last night. The closest thing we have to this celebration is Graduation but let me tell, our graduation ceremony is sad and pitiful compared this!

I'm still not entirely sure why they hold there graduation in December but they do. The graduating class from the school i'm attending is about 50 people (two classes). So Mariely and I got all dressed up. Mariely is like a little diva and she loves glitter (I'm not so keen on the whole sparkle thing...) so it was hilarious watching her get ready. Sparkling lip gloss, nailpolish, hairspray, eyeliner....and anything else you could think of. You could see her in the dark! Then when we were finally ready (I say finally because it took us three hours to get ready. Most of this was dedicated to trying to figure out how to curl her hair with a straightening iron. We ended up looking it up on Youtube! So now I know....).

When we arrived at the hall I was surprised by how beautiful it was. There were floor to ceiling deep red velvet curtains, sweeet little table settings, and a giant dance floor cleared. The parents of the graduates sat on one side of the room and the grads on the other side. We (as the exchange students) got to sit with grads which was nice. We came in greeted all our friends and gushed about their beautiful dresses and suits and then took a seat in the hall, not knowing what to expect. I then proceeded to be swept off my feet at how beautiful the whole thing was. They still have a lot of tradition tied into their graduation and it genuinely felt like a celebration of what they have accomplished. They took the time to thank their parents and teachers for their support over the years.

All the grads walked in, in pairs an did this walk about so everyone could see them all dressed up. Ruffles and pink are definitely in over here! There were alot of them to be seen! Then they did the ribbon pinning ceremony. each grad was called forward and had a green ribbon pinned to them (kind of like we have our square hats in America) and the students tied a green sash around each of their teachers that read THANK YOU. Then it was the first dance. All the daughters went and got their dads and the boys their moms and they all two stepped to a traditional sloval folk song. This was super cute but the whole thing made me feel really home sick to be honest. I wasn't expecting it too because I was so excited for it but it definitely did. I think it was because you can see all your friends are sooo happy and they have their really close friends and family all around them. And there was me, I had no one (except Mariely). So that was the hard part, trying to shake off the aching I felt inside , but I did eventually.

After the dance there was some eating and then all the grads got together again and put on the performances they have been working on for the past few weeks. They were hilarious little skits and dance routines! I didn't understand mcuh of it but it was still more than enough just getting to watch thme. They had make shift costumes on but you could see their done up faces and hair peaking through. The one class did a dance to the MJ song Thriller and the other a musical kind of performance. There were videos they made posted on a screen, and the teahcers did a tribute to them as well. Then of course there was more dancing. At one point the students all took a teacher and danced with them.

At midnight all the grads gathered again in a circle, one for each class. They opened a bottle of champagne and poured it into a GIANT wine glass and each of them took a sip as it was passed around the circle. Then when all of it was gone, they threw the glass in the middle and smashed it on the floor! All of them rushed in to pick up a shard of glass to keep as a reminder of the night and they joined hands and danced to a song about stuzkova that is played at every stuzkova in Slovakia. It was really funny but really nice to see.

So all in all, I would say slovak grad beats out canadian grad any day. It was amazing to watch and so cool to be a part of it all. I will put some pictures up later when I get a chance.

Now I am off to a cabin with my family and Mariely to celebrate Mikulas! (St nicholas day). On Monday is the real day but everyone celebrates it on the weekend. I have no idea what we will do but i've been instructed to wear a red shirt and bring extra clothes because we will be staying there overnight. I'm super excited because I know it will be a good time. I will tell you all about it when I get home on Sunday~!!!

Love!

P

Yet another new experience to add to my long list.... yesterday, while at school (during break thank goodness) my cell phone starts ringing. This is weird in the first place because nobody usually calls me let alone in the middle of the day, but i answered it anyways...and guess who it was??? The Canadian Embassy!! Hahha. It was so funny to hear "hello is this miss reeves? This is the Embassy calling...". So apparently they are still having problems with my silly visa. But I'm not totally sure to be honest because nobody really seems to tell me anything which is just a wonderful feeling. I guess the document which I went and got from the embassy wasn't good enough for the foreign police either so it has to get sent back to Bratislava to be superlegalised. Oh goody. They aren't threatening to send me home anymore though and they've made it pretty clear that the rest is out of my hands and that i just need to let them take care of things so here's hoping it gets figured out before I have to come home in July!

Oh and funny story. I was sleeping at Mariely's house the other day and I fell asleep before her (I always do. I have this knack for being able to sleep anywhere at anytime, and here Im always tired so I'm even better at it). So she was watching tv on the laptop while I was snoring on the floor next to her and all was well. But she informed me in the morning that I was sleep talking, and all i kept saying over and over again was 'anglictina! anglictina!' which means English! English! in Slovak. So I guess I'm beginning to dream in broken english, bad accents, and simple slovak. That should make for some interesting dreams!

Today at school it wasn't quite as boring as usual. In the morning we had to arrive to the city centre instead of school to see some sort of presentation but nobody knew what it was. After seeing it though I have a feeling the school did that on purpose though so kids were less likely to skip. It was quite strange all of it. We sat in this rather large theatre and all the lights went out and there was fog on the stage and loud music and disco lights. I had NO idea what to expect and then all of a sudden people started to dance. Then out of no where there was this loud crashing sound and BAM! a video started on the background screens. But it wasn't the kind of video I was expecting, it showed images of major collisions and it was a whole lot more graphic than anything you would be shown in a Canadian school. I mean there were blood and guts and real people flying through the air. Quite disturbing to be honest. And that's how the presentation proceeded for the next hour or two. It was strange strange mix of dance, music, video, and presenters all in an effort to deter bad driving and the use of alcohol and drugs while driving. In retrospect, I'm not even totally sure that's what it was about as I wasn't able to understand any of what the people were saying but I could infer what they were getting at by the traumatizing images flashing all about.

THEN after that interesting experience we walked in a giant clump (all 100 students) back to the school which took us about twenty minutes. As soon as i returned to the school I was off to help out with the english competition being held this week. They had asked me if I would be willing to read different articles and stories out loud to the students for the oral examination part and so I said sure. I think they were really appreciative to have a native speaker there to do it. It was really funny becuase I had to sit at the front of the room and read aloud two different articles two time each to 20 plus students in the room (many of which were my classmates). They then had 15 minutes to answer questions on what i had read aloud. It was neat to be involved and I am doing it again tomorrow.

And random story number four, I have to do a project in German on my family. I'm supposed to create a poster with pictures and words of all of my siblings and parents. Then I have to say each of my siblings names and how old they are out loud to the class. This would be just fine if I didn't have EIGHT younger siblings. Like geeez Mariely only has two sisters so her job is easy and there I'm going to be; 'this is Isaac and this is Jane................................................and FINALLY this is Naomi!". But I'm excited for it and it should be fun. Plus I like German because I actually get to Participate.

Okay well now I am off to my english storytelling hour and then I'm going to finish some more scholarship applications.... But I'm getting really excited for the stuskova (prom)!!! It's in two days!!!! Yay!

p

A weeks worth of stuff....

AHHH its been long time since I've posted (a whole entire week and a half to be exact!). I've been keeping really busy these past couple of weeks which has been nice. Everyone seems to be gearing up for christmas around here. The decorations have come out and the town square looks soooooo beautiful! There are lights and sparking things everywhere! I love it! and everyone assures me it will look even more beautiful once it snows here. Yeah! It hasn't snowed here yet! I cant believe it. Everyone kept telling me ohh you have to be ready, Slovak winters are cold..... but I'm still waiting for the cold to get here. I mean it was 11 degrees the other day!

Now for THANKS GIVING! Oh my goodness it was so much fun! So Mariely and Paul and I all woke up early and headed on over to my councilor's house (its walking distance from my current host home)for the day of cooking. Boy oh boy was it a lot of work! I have a new appreciation for you dad. Cooking a turkey, making gravy, potatoes, and stuffing isnt exactly easy. In fact I'm rather impressed all the food turned out as good as it did. I mean it could have gone really bad, three teenagers in the kitchen all day long. So Paul cooked the turkey and potatoes (with my councilors guidance of course) and Mariely and I worked on the pumpkin pie. Okay now this was hilarious. We were gathering all the ingredients for the pie when Natasa pulls out 'the pupkin'. I took one look at it and said, ummmmm sorry to break it to you Natasa but thats not a pumpkin!. It was a squash of some kind. And at first I thought it was a spaghetti squash, which would have meant we were in big trouble but it turned out to be some sweet squash so it worked just fine. Mariely and I then slaved away for the next two hours, preparing the pumpkin batter and pie crust from SCRATCH! (as a side not, it is quite difficult to bake here. For instance they don't use baking soda and chocolate chips don't exist. Also you can't buy a pie crust anywhere because it also doesn't exist.) Now I would find making a pie from scratch difficult in itself but you have to remember we are in Slovakia so that brings it to a whole new level of difficulty. Translating all the ingredients into Slovak, converting everything from cups into mLs, and trying to illustrate what "mash" or "mix" or "cut in" is in slovak is no easy task. BUT we managed to make it through and much to my surprise a beautiful (and delicious!) pumpkin pie was born. Once everything was finsished we set the table with ribbons and fancy cutlery and candles... the whole shibang, and voila! American Thanksgiving in Slovakia!
It really did make me so happy and it was really cool being able to share some of Canada with the Slovaks. They LOVED the pie because it was unlike anything they have here and my councilor's already asked me to make it again for her. I forsee a lot of baking in my future.

So Thanksgiving was on thurs last week and then on Saturday I got to go to the mountains with my host fam!! It was fantastical! It was about a 3 hour drive to the High Tatras (across the entire country!) where we stopped and did some hiking. It was funny because at the beginning of the trail it really isn't beautiful at all. All you can see for miles are whats left of trees. It was just stump after stump after stump in what looked like a deserted wasteland. So to be honest I wasn't very impressed. But then my host dad kindly explained to me that five years ago there was a huge wind storm and it snapped all the trees and left the entire area devastated. Once we made it to the base of the mountain though it was truly stunningly beautiful. We hiked for prob 2 hours into the forest, up the mountain, stopping at two pubs along the way. Yes there are even pubs in the middle of the forest in Slovakia! So we would stop have a rest and get a drink. I had some mountain alcohol as my host dad called it. It was called Borovicka and its made from Pine trees (fun fact #103: Slovaks can make alcohol out of anything. Plums, peaches, pine, spruce, pears... you name it and they have an alcohol of it). It was disgustingly strong.....definitely not my favorite thing in the world. I also had some mountain tea which was yummy! Along the trail we say beautiful waterfalls and were surrounded by huge towering coniferous trees. The smell was wonderful and the sights amazing.
After the mountains we all piled back in the car and headed for Strbske pleso. An absolutely stunning lake. And when I say stunning I mean stunning! I've never seen anything so breath takingly beautiful in my life. I have pictures which don't do it justice but Ill put them up for you to see for yourself. Here we walked aroudn the lake a little bit and stopped for supper at a cute little cabin restaurant serving traditional slovak cuisine. It was delicious! I had a plate full of, you guessed it, potatoes and cheese! It was halusky with cabusta. Yum Yum Yum!

Now I'll fast forward to this weekend.Nothing eventful happened this week. I attended Rotary, had two story hours at the english school, played futbal,and went to school. SO onto the good stuff. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZooooooooooooooooooooomMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
This Friday I went to Mariely's house to sleep over becuase my parents went to Bratislava for something. (im not entirely why because they dont tell me all that much...prob because I dont understand all that much. I'm just getting used to being uninformed). So Friday I went out with some girls from school. No dancing this time but it was still fun. And saturday, oh saturday I went shopping with Mariely. She needed a dress for Stuskova (which is their version of graduation here). Stuskova is next weekend (they celebrate it in Dec for some reason) so we really had to find one this weekend. Now I have to explain the situation because there was slight panic that we wouldn't find one as we were confined to Zilina shopping centers. There are two malls but they are about the size of sherwood park mall. So when it comes to shopping they are good but sometimes you just want to go to west ed for shopping. SO I spent ALLL day sat watching mariely try on virtually every dress in Zilina..........and we did find one eventually. Thank goodness! It was loads of fun though (I know you males reading this prob won't understand in the slightest what I'm talking about but the ladies will). I found my dress in H&M while I was in Bratislava visiting the Canadian Embassy. It was funny because I had under an hour in the shopping center but I knew I needed a dress and Bratislava has fantastic shopping, so I managed to find one. Now thats skill! So needless to say I'm super excited about stuskova. I have a super cute dress, and a beautiful wrap and hand bag which I'm borrowing from my host mom. So I'm all set.

Okay and last item on the agenda. I had a lovely day today with all my host family. We went out for lunch to a restaurant, which is not very common here, with my cousins and aunt and uncle and grandma and it was very nice. I ate tons of food!!! Probably five pieces of this delicious cake my grandma makes that has cream cheese and chocolate in it and homemade cheese cake and chicken smothered in cheese and rice and fries and OH MY GOD I AM SO FULL! After the restaurant we came back to my family's house to sit and watch tv and talk (and the adults drank of course) and I had a good time with both of my cousins. I love them! Barbora (they call her bobka for short) is ten and Jakub (or kubo) is 15. I go to school with jakub so we know eachother really well now and we have a good time together.

So that is all. phew!

p


ps. IVE BEEN HERE THREE MONTHS!!!!!

THANKS GIVINGNESS

The final table setting!

Our pie!!!! Can't believe it actually worked!

Our Slovak pumpkin!

Mariely and I slaving away. We're trying to figure out if the dough looks like it was supposed to.... I had never made pie before, let alone a pie crust so I didn't know what to expect.

The girls in the kitchen. In the middle is Natasa my councilor who is the one who kindly gave her kitchen to us.


ps. I'm off to the mountains today to do some hiking with the fam so I'll be back to tell you more about it and the pics!

p

Mariely and I sleeping at school....


Me with friends

A pretty pic of Zilina

Aqua park fun

More friends

Happy Day!

So as per my facebook status; I am happy. Why you may ask? Well let me tell you!

1. I got my haircut today. Hurray! I needed it cut for the past month or so but wasn't quite sure how to go about doing it. But my councillor made me an appointment last weeka and away I went. I was more than a little bit nervous though, I must admit. I mean how would you feel heading out to the hairdresser's in a foreign country with minimal language skills. I wasn't sure where I was going, how much it would cost, or who would be doing the actual cutting, but I came equipped with a picture and very telling facial expressions just in case. EEgads it could have turned out really bad. But I assure it didn't. I look as beautiful as ever. As for the cost, it is ridiculously cheap to get your hair cut here. I got it washed, cut, and styled for only 13 euros (about 20 dollars). And Paul, the other inbound, went to the barber down the street and got his cut for 2 euros! You just can't beat that price.

2. MY CRIMINAL RECORD CHECK IS IN THE MAIL!!!!! and it should be here tomorrow. So for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, let me catch you up to speed. I ran into problems when I visited the foreign police on Friday. UGHGHGH. They rejected my criminal record check for two reasons. One the date on it was expired (It was ten whole days over three months. Cause you know, I could've committed a terrible crime in Slovakia in those ten days) and number two; it only cleared me provincially (except that it was issued by the RCMP! but anyways...). So this made my life terribly difficult. I was in need of a new document, and I needed it in less than a week. SO I had to make a spur of the moment trip down to Bratislava to the Canadian Embassy (who are now my heroes)to get a new one. Thank goodness they could help me. And so now here I am, impatiently awaiting the arrival of my precious ticket to remain in Slovakia legally.
So to say the least, I've been slightly preoccupied for the past couple of days straightening all this mess out. But I've done it, thanks to the help of my family and all the many mighty rotarians out there. Once again HURRAY!

3. I had my first story hour today and it went wonderfully. So in case I haven't told you exactly what I am doing with this english school (which is entirely possible) I will tell you now. I have been volunteering twice a week at the Helen Doron English School for Children in my city. THis is an internationally recognized program that teaches young kids english. After a couple of weeks with them, helping them make props for their classes and things, they asked if I would be willing to prepare a one hour lesson, using stories, to teach the kids. Of course I said yes; so for the past few weeks I've been busy preparing all kinds of props and crafts, as well as practicing my theatre skills. And today was my showcase. It was so much fun! I tell three simple stories each lesson and then get down on the floor with the kids and act it out. Today I had seven kids come ranging in age from 3 to 7 and tomorrow I have nine! So until christmas I will be telling stories to these two groups of kids each week! I'm super psyched if you can't already tell..... :)

4. And the fourth and final reason I'm happy today? I get to miss school tomorrow to eat turkey! Double HURRAY! I love my councilor. She promised us (us being all the inbounds in Zilina) that we could get together and have a thanksgiving day. All of us were busy for Canadian thanksgiving so we agreed to celebrate it on the American holiday. And since she is leaving for Cuba or something this weekend she said we should have it during the week; which means I get to miss school! SO I'm missing all eight hours of school tomorrow to sit at home and eat turkey and attempt to make pumpkin pie. I am unbelievably excited to have a taste of home. You have no idea..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Okay so maybe that gives you a little bit of an idea.

Lots of love like always!

p

food food and more food Some school and more food

Well the food here never ceases to amaze me. I just finished eating this delicious dip stuff with bread. It was cheese and mayo and raw garlic. It was soooooo garlicky but soooooo dang good! I'm sure you can smell me from a mile away now but it's all good because I'm just heading to bed anyways. Also food related, I am getting dreadfully sick of potatoes (zemiaky). I eat them everyday often times twice a day. And on top of that when there aren't just plain potatoes they are always cooked into the meal somehow! They are everywhere!

And I'm turning into a true European... I've started taking showers at night. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd start doing that. But it really is quite nice. You shower at night just before bed then sleep in really late in the morning, roll out of bed, throw on yesterday's outfit, grab an apple or two for breakfast and you're good to go in 20 minutes. It's beautiful! Nobody really cares what your hair looks like here. Most people have long hair and they either put it in a ponytail or just let it be. They all seem to be fans of the 'o naturelle' look which is all good with me- I mean the less effort I have to put in the better. AND it's totally acceptable to wear the same outfit three days in a row here, in fact it's encouraged, so you conserve laundry. I must say I still like to shower everyday, even though most people here shower every second or third day. I prefer not to smell like a barn.

As for school it's the same old same old pretty much. Boring as ever. I had a biology test today and I'm pretty sure I failed it. You see it's difficult as it is to learn everything in Slovak, then on top of that you have to deal with the fact that the teacher doesn't even speak a word of English so I have no idea what she expects of me. At least this time I knew what the test was on. I had three worksheets to study from; one was the digestive system, one the circulatory system, and the final one the respiratory system. Fun stuff, learning those giant words in another language. Ha so I did my best to learn them in three days, and I didn't think I was doing half bad, that is until I saw the test today. It was not what I thought it would be. Instead of having to label the diagrams (which I assumed would be my task, seeing as my worksheets were diagrams of the systems and thats it) I had to write all the parts of the respiratory system down in slovak from scratch, name the components of the blood, and list what parts of the heart carry oxygenated and de oxygenated blood. Oh boy. Not good. Oh well. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that it doesn't matter if I fail or even if I get zero though. It's really quite refreshing after having almost killed myself for two years in IB.

This brings me to the ancient teaching styles here in Slovakia. For one they still use chalkboards. And how the teacher's teach is by giving notes orally (no pictures, nothing on the board, and most definitely no power points). So as if it isn't hard enough trying to follow written notes in a foreign language, I have to try and listen and interpret what I hear onto a piece of paper. Yeah it's virtually impossible for me to do. So that makes, my learning anything virtually impossible, which then in turn isolates me from everyone else. So I prefer to keep my nose in a book or something so my day isn't quite so dreadfully loooooooooong. I have anywhere from four to eight 45 minute lessons in a day with ten minute breaks between each lesson. Breaks are wonderful, I get to eat and visit with friends. We don't get to take lunch until after the sixth lesson which is at about 130 so I'm always STARVING by the time lunch rolls around. This is probably a god sent because the food isn't particularly appetizing most days. MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm cafeteria food.

Well seeing as I'm back on the topic of food and I started on the topic of food that's probably a good place to leave it for now.


Lots of love to everyone! I miss you all!

P

woot!

Okay so it's official. I'm back to my happy go lucky self. HOORAY! It only took me two months to get there-but hey I made it! And I guess you can't really blame me. I mean adjusting to a new culture,family,language,food,school, and friends and well lets just put it simply: A whole new way of life; isn't easy. It's not easy but it's an adventure.

This week was pretty mellow. But ya gotta have a mellow week every now and then. It was nice. I went out Friday night to a tea room, pub, and then the disco which, as always, was awesome. The tea room was hilarious. I wasn't really sure what to expect to be honest because all my friends just kept telling me 'oh it will be so nice! They have every kind of tea you can imagine and it's so cozy and wonderful!' Let me paint the picture for you though. It's in a typical run down sketchy looking Slovak building. You walk in and have to go up these narrow set of stairs which turn sharply around a corner. You are then met abruptly with a door which you swing open only to be hit by a wall of hot, 'incense' smelling air. I look around and I have to stop myself from giggling. There are tables set really low to the ground and mattresses laid out everywhere. You have to walk through strings of beads to get into the room and at the front there are rows upon rows of clear glass jars filled with god only knows what. It was hippie central. You pulled up a mattress, got comfy and sifted through the menu which contained hundreds of different types of teas. You could have ordered any tea under the sun, I swear! There were fruit teas, black ones, green, yellow, ones with caramel, some with milk, some with coffee, some with herbs, some hot, and some cold, but you get the picture. It really was lovely once I got over the fact that I was lying on a mattress on the floor ordering tea. I ordered Jablko strudla (apple strudel) and it was absolutely delicious! It was soemthing like apple cider but so much better! mmmmmmmmmmmm.
So that was the tea room. The pub was typical, sit, socialize, drink Kofola (Slovak coca cola which is 100 times better than ours), stare off into space because I have no idea what anyone is saying anymore. Good times. As for the disco it was crazy as usual. LOUD music, TONS of people, smoke everywhere, blinding lights. Also a good time--I have no idea why, but it is.

So I found out a very interesting piece of information the other day and I still can't quite believe it. I was talking to one of my school friends who has a part time job and I asked him how much his wage was. I could hardly believe his answer. He gets 2 euros an hour which is the equivalent of $3.20 canadian. Wow. And he said that's a reasonable wage for a student working part time. SO now I understand why people are more stingy about there money here. They have to be, or if they don't now they most certainly had to be in the past. The thing is although food and the necessities are significantly cheaper here, products like clothing and electronics are the same as in Canada if not more. I found the same Mp3 I bought in Canada for $40 here and it was going for 66 euros ($80 can). So money is definitely valued more here by the people, especially the older generations, who have lived through communism. My counsellor (who is probably 50 or so) was telling me how during communist times (which lasted all the way until 1989)she was forced to sew all of her families clothing. She wasn't a seamstress or anything but she had to out of necessity. She said there was absolutely nothing in the shops. Just imagine, living through such a change. In only 50 years this country has faced immense change. From foreign invasions, to communism, to becoming it's own nation-a heck of a lot has changed. And all the people living here have not only witnessed but expereinced that change and I think you can see it their faces, in their actions, and in their choices. I guess it made me realize why there are holes in all the sidewalks and the buildings are old and sketchy. There's a good reason, the country just hasn't been around that long. You can see it everywhere. They are trying desperately to make it look more pleasing to the eye. All of the communist flats which were originally a dirty white or grey are now being painted bright summery colors, and they are constantly fixing the roads and sidwalks, repaving streets. I dont know though, part of me likes the big square builidngs everywhere. I think they give the country character and act as a reminder of exactly what this country has made it through.

So I'm back, I'm ready to roll, and take on another week. What in store this week? I'm volunteering at the english school, playing some futbal, going to a rotary hosted concert, prob some disco time, and who knows what else. :)

p

AHHHHHH! I just had a FULL conversation with my mom! (those are screams of delight not fear....). I'm so proud! It lasted for longer than five seconds! More like ten minutes to be exact! We talked about school and friends and her daughter and the weather and the library. So there's proof that my slovak is coming along slowly but surely. (She only knows about 20 words in english)

The second reason I am in a particularly good mood: I finally found my way to the library (kniznica). It's actually fairly substantail in size and has an entire room dedicated to english books and magazines!!!! Oh you have no idea how happy that made me! I really like the library as it is, and now I really appreciate it's glory, as I've been deprived of english for two months. My counsellor helped me get a library card so I can officially take out books and just go and sit and be. It's going to be wonderful!

I tried yet another new food today. It was deep fried and full of cheese. surprise surprise. But it was really good. Langosh it was called. Pretty much deep fried dough with cheese and sourcream in it. yummy yummy yummy!

And keeping with the happy note, I'VE BEEN HERE TWO MONTHS! Wow. One fifth of my exchange is complete. crazy. When I look back at the past two months I can't believe how much I packed into them. I've expereinced, FELT, and done soooooooo sooooooo much! It's ridiculous (that one was for you megan!). I'm definately ready to take on the next eight months. Bring it on :)

Things are getting better. I actually look forward to school now, as boring as it is, because there are people there I love to be around. I'm working on getting closer to my host parents as I can actually communicate somewhat to them now. I'm loving volunteering at the english school and my story hour starts in two weeks! Futbal is buckets of fun. I'm going to start playing bridge (yes! you heard right-bridge. It's actually very popular with the younger generation here....) with a school club starting next week. And I love love love my exchangee counterparts; Mariely and Paul. We have so much fun together and have gotten really close. Mariely and I spend practically everyday together. I can only imagine what it'll be like after ten months. It's going to be so sad to leave but hey its an excuse to go to Mexico!

Well on my list of things to do tonight: blog. check. Hem my pants, by hand unfortunately because I can't find a sewing machine. Watch Bones. Read my book (the Alchemist). SLEEEEEP!

I think all of that's doable. Especially the last one. I'm really working hard at taking care of myself(and you know it's so hard going to bed early). It's been very trying this week being sick and all. Everyone, I mean everyone, is concerned for my well being. Now this is nice but after a couple of days you kind of get tired of everyone touching your face and feeling your head and telling you you don't look well. I never know what to say to that; "Oh you look terrible today". I mean what am I supposed to say? "Why thank you! That's just what I wanted to know. A confirmation that I look how I'm feeling--like crap." The medicinal treatment here is different than what I'm used to. I usually tough it out but they definately don't do that here. They all genuinely believe that you can catch cold by being in the cold, that organges and tea or the magical cure for anything, and that if you are feverish (even slightly) you should not eat anything cold. So when I went out, which they didn't even want me to do, I couldn't have ice cream like Mariely and Paul. *tear* and I had to wear like a bazillion layers of clothing. Needless to say, it's annoying from time to time but I've just learned to surrender and embrace it. It's hard for me, but I just let them take care of me. I am however, happy to report that hundreds of litres of tea and a gazillion oranges later I'm feeling better. Thank goodness!

p

Hey and have a request for you guys, faithful blog readers. I would really love it if some (or all) of you guys sent me your addresses either by email, on facebook, or as a comment to this blogpost. That would be grand if you could do this for me! And you never know you just might get a special something in the mail..... :)

Halloweensky

Halloweensky being the word they use for Halloween, which, they don't really celebrate here. It was strange on the 31st you couldn't have even guessed it was Halloween. There were no crazy costumes, decorations, or pumpkins anywhere. What they do celebrate however is something that translates roughly as 'all souls day'. It's a day where the whole family gets together to go out and visit the graves of all of your lost loved ones. I went with my family on Saturday to my hostdad's side and then on Sunday to my hostmom's side. We gathered at my grandma's (babka's) house and met all the other family (my cousins and aunts' and uncles), ate a fantastic meal of soup, ham and potatoe salad, and then proceeded to the cemetery. The cemeteries are so beautiful at this time of year, with the all the leaves changing colors, and everyone bringing candles and flowers to lay at the head stones. It was a really cool experience. I helped as we decorated the grave of several people, laying flower arrangements and lighting lanterns. When we were done it looked lovely and on the way home, in the dark, you could see all the candles glowing in the distance. I must admit I like this tradition much better than the 'americanized' halloween. It's much warmer and heartfelt and EVERYONE participates. As we were driving from my city (Zilina) to Solcany where my babka lives, there was so much traffic. In Slovakia you can tell what city the car is from by the license plate so it was fun watching to see where all the people were from-and they were from all over the place! In some areas on the road they had police patrolling because of the high traffic volumes. As my dad told me with a smile on his face, "all of Slovakia is on the move".

Before we headed home on Sunday we stopped for a short visit with a cousin of my mom. Now they live in this little tiny village about 30 min from the nearest city. It was really interesting getting to see into the lives of the village people. As I had suspected, their way of life is much different than the people who live in the cities. First of all they live on this little, narrow dirt road, as does everyone in the village. I don't think there was a paved road in the vicinity. Most of the houses had a large garden, taking up the majority of their land, and the houses were all so tiny and quaint. When you walked into their house you realized it only had three rooms; the kitchen/living room, bedroom, and bathroom. When you walked into the kitchen you were greeted with blast of warm air as that is where the wood stove was and it was being used to heat the house that day. As I looked around at the kitchen I wished I could have taken some pictures for you to see. It was like it was taken right out of I don't know when but sometime a long time ago. Maybe the 70's? All the appliances were super tiny. There were hand crafted carpets on the floor, embroidered tapestries on the walls, and brown tiles half way up the walls. Even the way they were dressed fit perfect. He was wearing a (probably home made) knit vest over a turtle neck, and she an oversized sweatshirt with leggings. So the country, village life in Slovakia is much different than the life in the city.

The lanscape is absolutely stunning here right now. The mountains are covered in this beautiful sea of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens and in the morning you can see the mist lifting from the night. The ground is scattered with all the colorful leaves and with every step you here the unmistakeable 'crunch!'-fall is definately here and I love it! I step out onto the balcony off of my room each morning, take a deep breath of fresh air and just gaze at the beautiful sight to be seen. Between the rolling hills, neat little recutangular back yards, and well kept fields, it's all very pretty. Or in slovak one could say: 'To je vel'mi pekne! Vela krasny farby!' 'it is very pretty! Lots of beautfiul colors!'

Anyways, it's Sunday (nedel'a) today so a new week is about to begin. What this week holds I'm not too sure, but I'm happy to be going back to school again after being home every day last week but one.

Maple Cookies

Baking

oh yeah and I forgot to mention in my last post.... I got to bake maple cookies for the Rotary club last week. It was super fun! and they loved them! They don't really have cookies here so it was really funny seeing all their reactions when they ate them!

Rotary Weekend-Banska Bystrica

Ahoj Ahoj Ahoj!

This past week has been pretty fantastic, aside from my being sick and all, but other than that it's been a blast. Let me share...

So as I said before I had a rotary weekend. It was our second weekend so far (we have one every two months or so) and it was fabulous! It's so much fun with the other exchange students. All the Slovakian indbounds were there so there was something like 40 of us in all. It was hosted in Banska Bystrica a city of 80 000 so it is considered to be a major centre in Slovakia. It was a beautiful city with lots of architecture and history.

We were staying in dormitories so that was an adventure in itself. There were two to four people in a room and up to 8 people sharing a bathroom and shower. And I've officially learned my lesson. I never bring a towel to events like this because in the back of my head I always assume we will be staying in hotels like in canada, but boy am I always wrong. Since it was a dorm we slept on tiny little beds and there were no complimentary items to 'enrich' your stay. SO I had no towel (luckily I brought shampoo and things this time) and I was going to be staying there for three days....my choices? Well I didn't really have all that many. There happened to be some little tea towel like things they left each of us for who knows what but it served the purpose, I got dry eventually.

The itinerary for the weekend was pretty packed like it always is. We got there fri and had a few hours just to mingle and get to know everyone a little bit more. There are two other Canadians, both guys. One is from Kelowna, and the other is from Dawson Creek. They seem like decent guys and we bonded as we had the obvious in common-- we're from the same place. So Fri we stayed up nice and late and were then ridiculously tired on sat but it was still a good time. We got to go on a tour of the city by foot (in the rain sadly) and then we went to see some monuments like the leaning tower, and a church, and then SHOPPING! Yay! I love to shop and it was so nice to get to go with friends again! and friends who speak english no less! It was fantastic. I've made pretty good friends with a group of girls, two are from the US and one is from Japan and the other from Thailand. So we had a blast scavenging the mall for four hours. Sat evening was the ping pong tourney. It was a ridiculous amount of fun. I had my doubts. I mean you're hitting this little ball back and forth, how much of a work can that be? Well I admit it, I was wrong, because it was a really good work out and surprisingly intense. I came in dead last but that was all good. I thought I put up a good fight for it being my first time and all.
Then came the disco which was in this pub in the basement of the dorms. You gotta love Slovakia, there are pubs everywhere! It looked a little sketchy to start with, witht the dim lights, grungy ceiling, and lack of flooring, but once you started dancing that really didn't matter all that much.
So then Sun came around. We went to the national uprising museum which I found to be quite interesting but I had trouble focussing as I'd only gotten four hours of sleep the night before. It did make me realize just how much this little country has been through though. It really is amazing. It's seen a lot of hard times in a very small amount of time. Then it was home time. I think we were all ready to go home. We had had a lot of fun but we were all so exhausted.....

Random but ..... THERE ARE MAPLE LEAVES EVERYWHERE HERE! And I think it's kind of really funny because they are Canada's national symbol and there are hardly any in alberta. But that aside it makes for a really beautiful autumn season. I'm liking the weather here a lot. The autumn season is nice because it's actually wet. It's rained pretty much everyday for the past couple of weeks, but I don't mind it at all, in fact I love waking up to the soft pitter patter of rain on my roof. And up until just the other day I was assuming the weather would be the same as in Canada because everyone kept telling me about cold slovakian winters but then somebody informed me that the coldest it usually gets is minus 14. HA! I said, that's not that cold at all! So needless to say this winter is going to be nice.

And I am sick at the moment....blahhhhhhhh! We only had three days of school this week and I've been home for two of them. It's nice to be able to just stay home without feeling like I have to be somewhere, because I dont do much at school. And I don't think I've ever slept so much in my life! Yesterday I woke up at 8 went back to bed at 9 unitl 1 then was up for two hours and went back to sleep until 6. It was a beautiful day! I guess my body needed the break! It's also funny experiencing how people on the other side of the world treat sickness. At first my cold just started out with a nasty cough so my parents solution? they are gave me a cup of hot water with a shot of brandy in it. Admittedly it did help, but I just thought it was really funny. They also seem to go for a lot of the herbal stuff here. I've been instructed to drink loads and loads of tea, and I have to eat like a bazillion oranges and apples and banananas for the vitamins. They have been taking very good care of me though, I feel bad because I know they are extra worried because I am the exchange student. And it's also difficult to explain to them that I feel like crap but that I know it's just a head cold and that I'll be okay. It's an adventure that's for sure.

So this weekend is a super long weekend. We have no school thurs and fri (but my parents had to work thurs). I think it's fall break. So tom I'm super excited because I will be going to an aquapark. I've been willing my body to get better all day so I can go. I think I've convinced my parents I'm healthy enough to go, so fingers crossed. I really do feel a lot better but my cough is still here and it's really not that convincing. I kind of sound like a dying goose or something. Mariely and Paul and my cousin Jakub are coming too. Im really excited to go. It should be a really good time. Other than that I'm not too sure what else is in store for the weekend. I shall find out soon enough though.

lots of love

p