Thursday, October 29, 2009
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!
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
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
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Okay so just wanted to say hi quickly before I head out for the weekend. I'm going to Banska Bystrica for a Rotary event and I'm super excited!
Things have been very good here this week! I'm beginning to feel significantly less homesick and am starting to get back to my busy normal self. Hip hip hooray!!!
I've been busy trying to complete some enormous scholarship applications this week so that was wonderful. Not. Argghhhhhh sometimes I love computers and sometimes I don't. I had to do one application in a program that wouldn't let me save the data unless I owned the commercial version of it. And if you think about this that would be totally okay if you were living in Canada. Simply fill out the form and print. But I'm way over here in Slovakia and so I had to fill out the form print and re scan it to an email so that I could get it to my parents who then mailed it out. Fun fun fun. The printing was the first struggle. My dad was away on a business trip (with his computer) so I had to use my computer. This meant I had to install his printer onto my computer, which should be simple enough. NOT. The printer installation software was in English thank god but for some reason some of the windows would come up in Slovak. and then to make things more complicated the settings section down loaded in portugeuse or spanish or something! So to make a long story short I sat there for hours trying to get the silly printer to cooperate with me with google translator open all the way. Eventually it did work but not the way it was supposed to. I had to print two pages at a time and then turn off the printer and turn it back on again then print the next two pages. Why? I have no idea. But it had something to do with the regular paper size being two inches longer than the regular paper size in Canada. And since the settings section was in portugeuse and no one here knows a single word of that language and google translator can only be so much help, I just gave in and did it the way the printer wanted. Slowly but surely (two pages at a time) I got the dange application finished! pheewwwwww! Just one more to go. But at least this time I know what I'm in for.
As for stuff that actually has to do with slovakia, not much has happened this week. It's really turned into just everyday life, which is kind of nice to be honest. But I will tell you how the weekend was. My family and I went to stay in a weekend house (like a little cottage. Everyone here has one.) near Bratislava. It was so nice!!! We arrived after a 2.5 hour drive (mind you we went across a quarter of the country) to the home and the owners of the home (our family friends) greeted us in the driveway. But they didn't just greet us, they handed us shots of alcohol! I was surprised but I've learned to just go with it, so there we were saying nazdravieh (cheers) in the street, it was hilarious. So we then proceeded inside where it smelled delicious and I was overwhelmed by lots of people. All the youngens were swiftly sat at the table and given full plates of food. (no we weren't asked what we wanted or how much we were just given). It was so yummy!!! We had duck (cooked like a turkey) and purple cabbage and thin crepe like things covered in oil and salt. mmmmmmmmmm. It's one slovak meal I can get used to. And apparently it's duck season right now so Ill be seeing more of it.
After the good food it was just time for visiting and chit chatting. This is always a little difficult for me because once I'm introduced and say where I'm from everyone goes back to their typical slovak conversations which I have a lot of trouble participating in (go figure!). Later on in the evening, all the men went outside in the freezing cold to have a fire, smoke cigars, and drink. Very typical activities for the men here I must say. Meanwhile the ladies were left inside to clean up the mess left by mostly the men, and to chit chat quietly over tea and magazines. It was nice I enjoyed it.
In the category of more food, I got to try a roasted chestnut and it was very different than I expected. They are like gushy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I'm not sure if I like them or not but it was cool to get to have one, a rael one picked of the tree and roasted in an open fire.
Well thats it for now. On tuesday I'll let you know how the weekend went. There is supposed to be a table tennis tournament so we;ll see how that turns out. Never played it in my life so should be interesting!
love
p
Things have been very good here this week! I'm beginning to feel significantly less homesick and am starting to get back to my busy normal self. Hip hip hooray!!!
I've been busy trying to complete some enormous scholarship applications this week so that was wonderful. Not. Argghhhhhh sometimes I love computers and sometimes I don't. I had to do one application in a program that wouldn't let me save the data unless I owned the commercial version of it. And if you think about this that would be totally okay if you were living in Canada. Simply fill out the form and print. But I'm way over here in Slovakia and so I had to fill out the form print and re scan it to an email so that I could get it to my parents who then mailed it out. Fun fun fun. The printing was the first struggle. My dad was away on a business trip (with his computer) so I had to use my computer. This meant I had to install his printer onto my computer, which should be simple enough. NOT. The printer installation software was in English thank god but for some reason some of the windows would come up in Slovak. and then to make things more complicated the settings section down loaded in portugeuse or spanish or something! So to make a long story short I sat there for hours trying to get the silly printer to cooperate with me with google translator open all the way. Eventually it did work but not the way it was supposed to. I had to print two pages at a time and then turn off the printer and turn it back on again then print the next two pages. Why? I have no idea. But it had something to do with the regular paper size being two inches longer than the regular paper size in Canada. And since the settings section was in portugeuse and no one here knows a single word of that language and google translator can only be so much help, I just gave in and did it the way the printer wanted. Slowly but surely (two pages at a time) I got the dange application finished! pheewwwwww! Just one more to go. But at least this time I know what I'm in for.
As for stuff that actually has to do with slovakia, not much has happened this week. It's really turned into just everyday life, which is kind of nice to be honest. But I will tell you how the weekend was. My family and I went to stay in a weekend house (like a little cottage. Everyone here has one.) near Bratislava. It was so nice!!! We arrived after a 2.5 hour drive (mind you we went across a quarter of the country) to the home and the owners of the home (our family friends) greeted us in the driveway. But they didn't just greet us, they handed us shots of alcohol! I was surprised but I've learned to just go with it, so there we were saying nazdravieh (cheers) in the street, it was hilarious. So we then proceeded inside where it smelled delicious and I was overwhelmed by lots of people. All the youngens were swiftly sat at the table and given full plates of food. (no we weren't asked what we wanted or how much we were just given). It was so yummy!!! We had duck (cooked like a turkey) and purple cabbage and thin crepe like things covered in oil and salt. mmmmmmmmmm. It's one slovak meal I can get used to. And apparently it's duck season right now so Ill be seeing more of it.
After the good food it was just time for visiting and chit chatting. This is always a little difficult for me because once I'm introduced and say where I'm from everyone goes back to their typical slovak conversations which I have a lot of trouble participating in (go figure!). Later on in the evening, all the men went outside in the freezing cold to have a fire, smoke cigars, and drink. Very typical activities for the men here I must say. Meanwhile the ladies were left inside to clean up the mess left by mostly the men, and to chit chat quietly over tea and magazines. It was nice I enjoyed it.
In the category of more food, I got to try a roasted chestnut and it was very different than I expected. They are like gushy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I'm not sure if I like them or not but it was cool to get to have one, a rael one picked of the tree and roasted in an open fire.
Well thats it for now. On tuesday I'll let you know how the weekend went. There is supposed to be a table tennis tournament so we;ll see how that turns out. Never played it in my life so should be interesting!
love
p
Friday, October 16, 2009
Zima futbal!
So not much has happened since my last, probably because it was only 20 hours ago that I wrote something but I just felt the need to inform you that I'm freezing cold! I just got back from playing futbal in the freezing cold. Admittedly it was fun because the snow and rain made it all muddy and slippery, but very very cold! who ha! As the slovaks would say.
AND I now have plans for the weekend. It always seems to happen like that. Come Thursday I have nothing on the agenda and then Friday afternoon rolls around and I end up having to choose what I want to do. So Tommorrow morning I'm going shopping with my school mates for warmer waterproof shoes (because it never stops raining here) and mitts and a hat. I gotta prepare for winter! Then tommorow afternoon I leave for a cottage near Bratislava. My family and I will be staying there with our family friends for one night. I'm excited! It should be fun! But I'll keep you updated as always.
love paige
AND I now have plans for the weekend. It always seems to happen like that. Come Thursday I have nothing on the agenda and then Friday afternoon rolls around and I end up having to choose what I want to do. So Tommorrow morning I'm going shopping with my school mates for warmer waterproof shoes (because it never stops raining here) and mitts and a hat. I gotta prepare for winter! Then tommorow afternoon I leave for a cottage near Bratislava. My family and I will be staying there with our family friends for one night. I'm excited! It should be fun! But I'll keep you updated as always.
love paige
Thursday, October 15, 2009
So I hear some of you were concerned for my well being because of my last post. For that I apologize. I don't mean to worry any of you, it's just that I like to share my feelings. For those of you who know me well, you know I can't keep anything in and that I tend to be full of emotion (even when I'm home in canada living my typical life). So NO WORRIES. I'm not about to jump off a cliff and I'm not wallowing in the depths of despair. I just spoke the truth because I don't want everyone to be thinking exchange is a walk in the park. I want to express both sides of the story, because I think they are equally important and both deserved to be recognized.
I've been here eight weeks now and I feel as though I'm one step closer to being settled in (if there is such a thing...). My metality has changed yet again. I'm still sad from time to time; missing my family and friends, but it's not quite as intense as it once was. This is a nice relief! But it's not to say those intense feelings won't return. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to them so we'll just have to see.
I can't quite seem to decide whether the 8 weeks have been long or short. It's by far the longest I've ever been away from home and so I'm proud that I've made it this far, but then I remember I'm going to be here 8 and a half more months! This is when it seems like such a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. And then the tables turn again and I think holy smokes! I'm almost two tenths done what I've started! It's a nice feeling. A feeling of accomplishment.
This past weekend I had a good time. I went to Bratislava to see the zoo which was fun but not as good as it could have been as it was raining. I loved seeing all the animals though. They have a lot there! I saw a bear, rhino, hippo, giraffe, monkey, and then all the other typical zoo animals you can think of. There was also this Dinopark which was these giant plastic models of Dinosaurs set up in a forested area. You got to walk through and look at them and they had sound effects all set up so it was actually kind of convincing. I felt like I was in the dino ages for a split second. I got lots of fun pics though so I'll put them up on facebook for all to see.
My Sunday was fantastic! I got out of bed at a decent time (in the moring instead of the afternoon like I usually do on a sunday) and went to church. It was really nice because I was feeling a little sad about missing Thanksgiving and all. The church service was really interesting. It was quite different than the services I'm used to back home. A lot more ritualistic. The church itself was beautiful but packed to the rafters with people! I ended up having to stand at the back but I enjoyed myself all the same. I couldn't understand really anything that was said but the music really moved me. Anyone can feel the power of music, especially when everyone is singing together. And there were a couple of songs I knew because they are the same in all languages like Hallelujah (sorry for the spelling!). It felt really good to go and I really felt as though I was a part of something bigger which was nice. I think I will go back. Maybe not every Sunday but every so often.
Sunday afternoon I had no plans so I decided to bake something. Now for those of you who don't know, I'm not really a baker. I once put two cups of salt in a pound cake and fed it to my parents. It's not one of my talents. But I was in the thanks-giving spirit and my host family had been asking me if I could bake a 'canadian' something for them so I did. I made Apple Crisp. I was going to make apple pie but I figured I best start out with something simple. Baking was much more of an adventure than I thought it would be. First I had to translate all the ingredients I would need, to show my parents so I could find out if we had them in the house or if I needed to go and buy them. This was hilarious. I needed rolled oats, which of course isn't in the slovak english dictionary so I had to look up oats. Apparently they don't cook with oats very often because I got a very funny look from my parents and my dad said "that's going to be a problem. You do know oats are for cattle right?" After I was finished laughing I attempted to explain the difference but it failed miserably. My host dad ended up calling a friend who speaks very good english and I told them what I needed and they translated it for me.
The next issue I encountered was the measuring system. Everything here is metric so they use mL instead of cups. I was asking my parents for measuring cups and my mom just kept giving me a normal cup. Eventually I figured out that they only use mL and then I went to my trusty friend mr Google for some answers. SO I finally got the crisp prepared and it was all ready to go in the oven but for fear of breaking something I figured it was best to ask how to use it first. Also because their oven only has two large buttons on it and I had no idea how to use it. Logically I went to my dad first because he speaks much more english than my mom. I pointed to the oven and asked in slovak if he could help. Then, get this, he just stared at me blankly and shook his head. He said "no no no, not me only Dusana". He doesn' t even know how to work his own oven! Well there's a perfect example of the gender difference here. Let me tell you, my future husband, whoever he may be, will know how to use the oven whether he wants to or not.
Finally (several hours later) my apple crisp was finished and turned out to be absolutely delicious! What a nice treat! I think I'm going to make Sundays my baking days.
I'm absolutely loving having the time to do things I never could have done in Canada (baking being one of them). I mean I have time to read too! I hadn't picked up a book (other than the mandatory reading for english class) since the tenth grade. I never used to read, mostly because I felt like it was a giant waste of time and I couldn't stop thinking of all the better things I could be doing with my time, but now I have nothing better to do! It's wonderful! I've read three 600 page novels already, which is quite a feat for me.
This week was rather uneventful which was kind of nice. You need a slow week every once and a while. Nothing exciting happened excpet that it's been snowing for the past three days! Apparently this kind of weather is quite rare here. My teacher said she's never seen snow in October in the 18 years she's lived in slovakia. Of course, the snow has to come early the year I'm here. yuck! Mariely was beside herself the first day though. She's seen snow before but only on top of moutnains. She's never experienced it falling all around her and she thought it was quite magical. That is until she realized it doesn't stop falling and how darn cold it has to be for the snow to stick around. Now she goes around looking like a marshmallow in all her layers. I feel for the poor girl! It's only minus two! Just wait until it dips to minus 15 (which I might add is wonderful weather for me, apparently this is as cold as it gets here). She's really cute. She asked me today when I think the sun will come out again, and I said (and I wasn't lying) "oh probably not until March or so...". They really do have a rainy season here. It hasn't stopped raining or slushing for that matter for the past two weeks I would say. The slovaks say this is typical autumn weather. I don't mind it, but it doesn't make waiting for the bus all that pleasant.
Now it's Thursday and I'm looking forward to the weekend. I have no plans but that's really alright with me. I'll find something to do I'm sure.
But I'll shut up now because my blog post is looking more like a novel. Enjoy!
luv p
I've been here eight weeks now and I feel as though I'm one step closer to being settled in (if there is such a thing...). My metality has changed yet again. I'm still sad from time to time; missing my family and friends, but it's not quite as intense as it once was. This is a nice relief! But it's not to say those intense feelings won't return. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to them so we'll just have to see.
I can't quite seem to decide whether the 8 weeks have been long or short. It's by far the longest I've ever been away from home and so I'm proud that I've made it this far, but then I remember I'm going to be here 8 and a half more months! This is when it seems like such a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. And then the tables turn again and I think holy smokes! I'm almost two tenths done what I've started! It's a nice feeling. A feeling of accomplishment.
This past weekend I had a good time. I went to Bratislava to see the zoo which was fun but not as good as it could have been as it was raining. I loved seeing all the animals though. They have a lot there! I saw a bear, rhino, hippo, giraffe, monkey, and then all the other typical zoo animals you can think of. There was also this Dinopark which was these giant plastic models of Dinosaurs set up in a forested area. You got to walk through and look at them and they had sound effects all set up so it was actually kind of convincing. I felt like I was in the dino ages for a split second. I got lots of fun pics though so I'll put them up on facebook for all to see.
My Sunday was fantastic! I got out of bed at a decent time (in the moring instead of the afternoon like I usually do on a sunday) and went to church. It was really nice because I was feeling a little sad about missing Thanksgiving and all. The church service was really interesting. It was quite different than the services I'm used to back home. A lot more ritualistic. The church itself was beautiful but packed to the rafters with people! I ended up having to stand at the back but I enjoyed myself all the same. I couldn't understand really anything that was said but the music really moved me. Anyone can feel the power of music, especially when everyone is singing together. And there were a couple of songs I knew because they are the same in all languages like Hallelujah (sorry for the spelling!). It felt really good to go and I really felt as though I was a part of something bigger which was nice. I think I will go back. Maybe not every Sunday but every so often.
Sunday afternoon I had no plans so I decided to bake something. Now for those of you who don't know, I'm not really a baker. I once put two cups of salt in a pound cake and fed it to my parents. It's not one of my talents. But I was in the thanks-giving spirit and my host family had been asking me if I could bake a 'canadian' something for them so I did. I made Apple Crisp. I was going to make apple pie but I figured I best start out with something simple. Baking was much more of an adventure than I thought it would be. First I had to translate all the ingredients I would need, to show my parents so I could find out if we had them in the house or if I needed to go and buy them. This was hilarious. I needed rolled oats, which of course isn't in the slovak english dictionary so I had to look up oats. Apparently they don't cook with oats very often because I got a very funny look from my parents and my dad said "that's going to be a problem. You do know oats are for cattle right?" After I was finished laughing I attempted to explain the difference but it failed miserably. My host dad ended up calling a friend who speaks very good english and I told them what I needed and they translated it for me.
The next issue I encountered was the measuring system. Everything here is metric so they use mL instead of cups. I was asking my parents for measuring cups and my mom just kept giving me a normal cup. Eventually I figured out that they only use mL and then I went to my trusty friend mr Google for some answers. SO I finally got the crisp prepared and it was all ready to go in the oven but for fear of breaking something I figured it was best to ask how to use it first. Also because their oven only has two large buttons on it and I had no idea how to use it. Logically I went to my dad first because he speaks much more english than my mom. I pointed to the oven and asked in slovak if he could help. Then, get this, he just stared at me blankly and shook his head. He said "no no no, not me only Dusana". He doesn' t even know how to work his own oven! Well there's a perfect example of the gender difference here. Let me tell you, my future husband, whoever he may be, will know how to use the oven whether he wants to or not.
Finally (several hours later) my apple crisp was finished and turned out to be absolutely delicious! What a nice treat! I think I'm going to make Sundays my baking days.
I'm absolutely loving having the time to do things I never could have done in Canada (baking being one of them). I mean I have time to read too! I hadn't picked up a book (other than the mandatory reading for english class) since the tenth grade. I never used to read, mostly because I felt like it was a giant waste of time and I couldn't stop thinking of all the better things I could be doing with my time, but now I have nothing better to do! It's wonderful! I've read three 600 page novels already, which is quite a feat for me.
This week was rather uneventful which was kind of nice. You need a slow week every once and a while. Nothing exciting happened excpet that it's been snowing for the past three days! Apparently this kind of weather is quite rare here. My teacher said she's never seen snow in October in the 18 years she's lived in slovakia. Of course, the snow has to come early the year I'm here. yuck! Mariely was beside herself the first day though. She's seen snow before but only on top of moutnains. She's never experienced it falling all around her and she thought it was quite magical. That is until she realized it doesn't stop falling and how darn cold it has to be for the snow to stick around. Now she goes around looking like a marshmallow in all her layers. I feel for the poor girl! It's only minus two! Just wait until it dips to minus 15 (which I might add is wonderful weather for me, apparently this is as cold as it gets here). She's really cute. She asked me today when I think the sun will come out again, and I said (and I wasn't lying) "oh probably not until March or so...". They really do have a rainy season here. It hasn't stopped raining or slushing for that matter for the past two weeks I would say. The slovaks say this is typical autumn weather. I don't mind it, but it doesn't make waiting for the bus all that pleasant.
Now it's Thursday and I'm looking forward to the weekend. I have no plans but that's really alright with me. I'll find something to do I'm sure.
But I'll shut up now because my blog post is looking more like a novel. Enjoy!
luv p
Thursday, October 8, 2009
I think its time for an emotional check-in. My emotions have been running a little high lately. I feel like I'm a cup filled to the brim just waiting to spill over, all I need is a little bump and woosh! out spill my guts! Oh the wonders of exchange!
Really though they are powerful feelings, it gets kind of intense. At times I feel like I'm consumed by feelings of loneliness, fear, and confusion. Sometimes all at once. It's enough to make a person want to run and hide under the covers, but alas I can't do that. So instead of being swallowed up by my feelings, I crawl out of bed each morning, take a deep breath, shed some tears, and embark on my daily journey. Just let me say each day is different. Each day brings different battles, different adventures, different stories.
So I was thinking today (somtimes it seems like I never stop thinking...) just how amazing the human mind is. We really can adapt to almost anything. I went for a walk along the same path I walked along when I first got here and was amazed at all the things I just glazed over. I remember when I first got here everything seemed so new and different and exciting. I noticed every little detail, every crack in the sidewalk, every hole in the ditch. Now I've stopped noticing those little things. It's funny. It's all starting to feel a little more like home. I made a collage of all the pictures I brought the other day and it makes me smile everytime I see it. It really helped make my room feel like mine, not some stranger's.
Also while I was on my walk (I know who knew a walk could be so insightful!), I made my way through one of the maze of flats surrounding my house. It was really neat to get right to the heart of that neighborhood (its called Solinky). I realized that each little section is like it's own little community. There was a playground, a couple little shops, and a church all in the giant enclosed courtyard. There were so many people out and about walking around. People of all ages, grandparents, children, teenagers, mothers and babies. It was really cool. You felt really safe and secure and as though you belonged to something. Suddenly the giant looming stone towers didn't seem so cold and distant.And this made me think about Slovak people. Often times they seem harsh or cold, but once you get to know them they are really genuine, kind, and friendly. I think it most likely has to do with all that they've been through. the older generations have seen immense amounts of change in their lifetimes and I think you can often see it in their faces. Now that's something you don't get in Canada.
You know what else you don't get in Canada? Their terrible table manners....at least that is according to Canadian standards. I've adjusted to it now but I remember when I first arrived how appauled I was with their eating habits. For one they never put their knife down throughout the entire meal. They don't use napkins (they look at me really funny when I use mine) and they don't talk while they eat. Mealtime is business time. We sit down, we eat, and we're done. That's it. No socializing at the table, no catching up on the days activities, just forkful after forkful. They are speed eaters. (Matthew, my friend, I'm sorry to say but you just wouldn't be able to keep up here! :P).
So its kind of an abrupt ending but thats all i've got for today. Talk to you soon!
p
Really though they are powerful feelings, it gets kind of intense. At times I feel like I'm consumed by feelings of loneliness, fear, and confusion. Sometimes all at once. It's enough to make a person want to run and hide under the covers, but alas I can't do that. So instead of being swallowed up by my feelings, I crawl out of bed each morning, take a deep breath, shed some tears, and embark on my daily journey. Just let me say each day is different. Each day brings different battles, different adventures, different stories.
So I was thinking today (somtimes it seems like I never stop thinking...) just how amazing the human mind is. We really can adapt to almost anything. I went for a walk along the same path I walked along when I first got here and was amazed at all the things I just glazed over. I remember when I first got here everything seemed so new and different and exciting. I noticed every little detail, every crack in the sidewalk, every hole in the ditch. Now I've stopped noticing those little things. It's funny. It's all starting to feel a little more like home. I made a collage of all the pictures I brought the other day and it makes me smile everytime I see it. It really helped make my room feel like mine, not some stranger's.
Also while I was on my walk (I know who knew a walk could be so insightful!), I made my way through one of the maze of flats surrounding my house. It was really neat to get right to the heart of that neighborhood (its called Solinky). I realized that each little section is like it's own little community. There was a playground, a couple little shops, and a church all in the giant enclosed courtyard. There were so many people out and about walking around. People of all ages, grandparents, children, teenagers, mothers and babies. It was really cool. You felt really safe and secure and as though you belonged to something. Suddenly the giant looming stone towers didn't seem so cold and distant.And this made me think about Slovak people. Often times they seem harsh or cold, but once you get to know them they are really genuine, kind, and friendly. I think it most likely has to do with all that they've been through. the older generations have seen immense amounts of change in their lifetimes and I think you can often see it in their faces. Now that's something you don't get in Canada.
You know what else you don't get in Canada? Their terrible table manners....at least that is according to Canadian standards. I've adjusted to it now but I remember when I first arrived how appauled I was with their eating habits. For one they never put their knife down throughout the entire meal. They don't use napkins (they look at me really funny when I use mine) and they don't talk while they eat. Mealtime is business time. We sit down, we eat, and we're done. That's it. No socializing at the table, no catching up on the days activities, just forkful after forkful. They are speed eaters. (Matthew, my friend, I'm sorry to say but you just wouldn't be able to keep up here! :P).
So its kind of an abrupt ending but thats all i've got for today. Talk to you soon!
p
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
It's been a while since I've updated you all so buckle down and get ready for a long one....Here goes!
Soccer or Futbal? Whatever you want to call it, I'm playing it! I found a girls futbal team here (through my many wondrous Rotary connections) and have had two practices to date. I LOVE it! The whole attitude towards sports and girls playing sports and futbal in general is very different here. For one there's only three teams in the entire city of 90 000 people; one for the beginners (youngsters who've never played before), one for girls up to age sixteen (this is where I'm playing even though I'm 18), and one women's team (but they are really really good and competitive hence the reason I'm playing for the U16 team). All the girls are really thankful to have a team and a coach and therefore they actually participate at practice. They also are really very bitter about the resources they have. They think their field is terrible and their equipment is even worse, when in reality it's quite comparable to what we have in Canada. Admittedly it's not superb or anything but it works. They have been asking me all about what it's like to play in Canada and what our fields, and leagues, and teams are like. It's really cute.
So since there is only one team in each city, and Slovakia is so small, they all play eachother. This means alot of their games are far away. Yesterday for instance they had to drive 5 hours by bus to get to their game. I don't get to play in any of their league games because I don't have a license to play but I get to practice with them, play at their friendly matches and go to their games if I want. I'm looking forward to it all! I think it will be really good as I get to do 5 hours plus, physical activity a week, meet a whole new group of people, and see random parts of Slovakia. It shall be good!
Now I'll get to the weekend. It was fantastic as usual! Friday night I went to the disco with some schoolmates and it was surprisingly fun. I have no idea why it's fun because when you think about it, it's far from desirable conditions, but all the same I enjoyed it. Really though, you're smashed into this tiny space with a whole bunch of sweaty people you've never met before, it's dark, there are strobe lights everywhere making your head spin, there's a lovely combination of cigarette smoke and fog, and the music is playing incredibly loud. Oh the things we do to oursleves, seriously. As it turns out though it's a good activity to do in a foreign country when you barely speak the lanuage because 1. everyone can dance when the dance floor is crowded 2. dancing is like a universal language and 3.it's much to loud to talk so the whole language thing doesn't even matter.
Once the disco adventure came to a close I headed home with Mariely (who slept over). We then proceeded to fall flat on our faces out of fatigue. A few short hours later we were rudely awakened by my alarm and were swept off on our next adventure: Harmaneckej Jaskyne or 'some really beautiful slovak caves'. They really were beautiful, however my muscles didn't think the hour long hike up the mountain to get to them was so wonderful. I was kind of dying on the inside from soccer practice the day before (you know considering I haven't done any strenuous activity for more than 6 months) and the narrow, steeply inclined, switchback path was no help. I did make it to the top in the end and it was worth all the effort because the caves were unlike anything I've ever seen before. And I'm really sorry because I didn't get any pictures of the inside because you had to pay 7 euros to have photo priveleges and I didn't think I'd want to take pictures that bad, that was until I saw inside, then I was kicking myself.
Following the caves we went to a tradtional Slovak market called Jarmok. This was really cool too. I've been to quite a few of these already but this one was much bigger than the others. I bought some cute little hand crafted earrings and we ate lots and lots of food! It was soooooo delicious! We had uhorka (pickles and my favorite slovak word), sausage, potatoe cakes, kofola, cabbage (hardly ever a meal goes by without cabbage and potatoes), and chicken/bacon/onion skewers. YUM! grease, grease, and more grease!
Sunday was probably my favorite day of all. I got to be super lazy in the morning, sleeping,and watching house, and good stuff like that. Once I finally rolled out of bed, my host mom had prepared a delicious pasta salad for lunch and then I was off to Stranik (the giant hill) to fly kites. Apparently it wasn't a translation problem at all, we really did fly kites on a mini mountain! It was ridiculously fun and really nice to just be able to go out some friends and hang out. There was also cake and hot chocolate involved so all in all it was a delightful afternoon! :)
Then of course on Monday it was back to school. fun fun fun. I continue to be bored out of my mind except in english class. I am learning lots of slovak words though. I have a good system going. At the beginning of the week I make a little stack of slovak/english flashcards and throughout the week I learn them little by little. Then before I know it I've learned a whole bunch of new words! One thing on Monday that made school slightly more interesting was we had an Irish man come in and speak in our english convo class. He was a really neat older fellow and he made me want to travel to Ireland one day. It sounds really beautiful, and I love their accent!
Well that's all that's worth talking about (and probably a little more). It didn't turn out to be too long.
love
p
Soccer or Futbal? Whatever you want to call it, I'm playing it! I found a girls futbal team here (through my many wondrous Rotary connections) and have had two practices to date. I LOVE it! The whole attitude towards sports and girls playing sports and futbal in general is very different here. For one there's only three teams in the entire city of 90 000 people; one for the beginners (youngsters who've never played before), one for girls up to age sixteen (this is where I'm playing even though I'm 18), and one women's team (but they are really really good and competitive hence the reason I'm playing for the U16 team). All the girls are really thankful to have a team and a coach and therefore they actually participate at practice. They also are really very bitter about the resources they have. They think their field is terrible and their equipment is even worse, when in reality it's quite comparable to what we have in Canada. Admittedly it's not superb or anything but it works. They have been asking me all about what it's like to play in Canada and what our fields, and leagues, and teams are like. It's really cute.
So since there is only one team in each city, and Slovakia is so small, they all play eachother. This means alot of their games are far away. Yesterday for instance they had to drive 5 hours by bus to get to their game. I don't get to play in any of their league games because I don't have a license to play but I get to practice with them, play at their friendly matches and go to their games if I want. I'm looking forward to it all! I think it will be really good as I get to do 5 hours plus, physical activity a week, meet a whole new group of people, and see random parts of Slovakia. It shall be good!
Now I'll get to the weekend. It was fantastic as usual! Friday night I went to the disco with some schoolmates and it was surprisingly fun. I have no idea why it's fun because when you think about it, it's far from desirable conditions, but all the same I enjoyed it. Really though, you're smashed into this tiny space with a whole bunch of sweaty people you've never met before, it's dark, there are strobe lights everywhere making your head spin, there's a lovely combination of cigarette smoke and fog, and the music is playing incredibly loud. Oh the things we do to oursleves, seriously. As it turns out though it's a good activity to do in a foreign country when you barely speak the lanuage because 1. everyone can dance when the dance floor is crowded 2. dancing is like a universal language and 3.it's much to loud to talk so the whole language thing doesn't even matter.
Once the disco adventure came to a close I headed home with Mariely (who slept over). We then proceeded to fall flat on our faces out of fatigue. A few short hours later we were rudely awakened by my alarm and were swept off on our next adventure: Harmaneckej Jaskyne or 'some really beautiful slovak caves'. They really were beautiful, however my muscles didn't think the hour long hike up the mountain to get to them was so wonderful. I was kind of dying on the inside from soccer practice the day before (you know considering I haven't done any strenuous activity for more than 6 months) and the narrow, steeply inclined, switchback path was no help. I did make it to the top in the end and it was worth all the effort because the caves were unlike anything I've ever seen before. And I'm really sorry because I didn't get any pictures of the inside because you had to pay 7 euros to have photo priveleges and I didn't think I'd want to take pictures that bad, that was until I saw inside, then I was kicking myself.
Following the caves we went to a tradtional Slovak market called Jarmok. This was really cool too. I've been to quite a few of these already but this one was much bigger than the others. I bought some cute little hand crafted earrings and we ate lots and lots of food! It was soooooo delicious! We had uhorka (pickles and my favorite slovak word), sausage, potatoe cakes, kofola, cabbage (hardly ever a meal goes by without cabbage and potatoes), and chicken/bacon/onion skewers. YUM! grease, grease, and more grease!
Sunday was probably my favorite day of all. I got to be super lazy in the morning, sleeping,and watching house, and good stuff like that. Once I finally rolled out of bed, my host mom had prepared a delicious pasta salad for lunch and then I was off to Stranik (the giant hill) to fly kites. Apparently it wasn't a translation problem at all, we really did fly kites on a mini mountain! It was ridiculously fun and really nice to just be able to go out some friends and hang out. There was also cake and hot chocolate involved so all in all it was a delightful afternoon! :)
Then of course on Monday it was back to school. fun fun fun. I continue to be bored out of my mind except in english class. I am learning lots of slovak words though. I have a good system going. At the beginning of the week I make a little stack of slovak/english flashcards and throughout the week I learn them little by little. Then before I know it I've learned a whole bunch of new words! One thing on Monday that made school slightly more interesting was we had an Irish man come in and speak in our english convo class. He was a really neat older fellow and he made me want to travel to Ireland one day. It sounds really beautiful, and I love their accent!
Well that's all that's worth talking about (and probably a little more). It didn't turn out to be too long.
love
p
Friday, October 2, 2009
And the adventure continues.... Today in class the boys, being BOYS, were trying to light their aerosol deoderant on fire. That was entertaining. They saw a wasp and instead of simply ushering it out the window like any normal person some genious had this brilliant idea to take a lighter to their Axe deodorant. And much to his surprise it actually lit. Huh things with the flammable symbol on them really to start on fire, would you look at that! They then proceeded to spray shapes on their desks, light them, and watch them burn. It was really funny to watch as the innocent bystander, but no so funny to be suffocating in the overwhelming stench of Axe that filled the room for the next two hours despite the windows being open. I mean that stuff smells good but NOT that good.
And then there's gym. At least for this class the girls and boys are seperated. This makes it a little more bearable but it's still seems as though they're using curriculum from the 60's. The fitness tests continue. Today we had to see how far we could throw these grenade shaped balls. I don't know where they came from, they must be really old though because they still say made in czechoslovakia on them. It was the strangest thing. We all lined up and hucked them as far as we could, the teacher measured how far they went, and we were awarded a mark accordingly. Some of the wonderful life skills I've gained so far in slovakian gym class would include; grenade throwing, jumping, running non stop for 12 minutes, sprinting 100m, and doing as many crunches as possible in 1 min even if it means sacrificing the form of the sit-up (most girls were just moving their chin rapidly up and down). That said, it is a class I can understand AND participate in, a rarity at the moment. I do often times find myself looking forward to it and I know I need the exercise. I found a scale and I've gained 5kg in the 6 weeks I've been here. If I keep that pace up I'll be three times the person I was before I left hahaha. But it's starting to slow down already so hopefully I'll just be as big as one and half me's. I'm starting to figure out what food I like and don't like and everyone has stopped feeding so much, THANK GOD!
I've been to the english school one time since I last wrote and it was fantastic! I think I'm really going to love helping them out. We had a chance to talk and sort out exactly what I will be doing. So this is the plan: they are going to offer a free story hour once a week and I get to lead it! Each month I will find four stories I want to read to the kids, prepare props for them, and read them to them. I'm really excited about this because 1) it ties in with what I want to do 'when I grow up' 2)I get to see a whole bunch of really cute kids! and 3) it gives me something to do! (Other than go out with friends. You know one can only go to pubs and drink Kofola so often. When you get up to 6 times a week you know it's too much.)
My counselor has also been in touch with a friend of hers who runs a foster home. And they have asked me if I would be willing (and wanting) to come do a presentation to the kids and spend some time with them every once and while. Of course I said sure. So you can expect to here more about this in the coming weeks. I'm really not too sure how the fostercare system works here. By the sounds of it the kids all stay together in a group home like setting but I guess I will find out soon enough!
Now I am gearing up for my once again super busy weekend. I have soccer today from 3:30 to 6pm (please keep me in your prayers! I have no idea what I've gotten myself into but 2 and half hours of practice! ahhhhhh thats a lot of running!.) Then I come home, shower, change into god only knows what, so I can go to the disco with my friends. Yes, you read right, Paige is going to the DISCO. Once again I have no idea what its gonna be like and truthfully I'm terrified but it'll be an adventure I'm sure. After that Mariely is staying over and the three Zilina exchangers are going to Jarmok (another traditonal festival ish thing) and visiting some caves. On Sunday I've been told we are going kite flying in the mountains but I'm thinking maybe the language barrier skewed that message a little bit so we will have to see. I've become very trusting of everyone because the majority of the time I have absoluely no idea what I am doing, who I am with, or where I am going. As an exchange student you become an excellent adapter.
ahoj! (they say the same thing for hello and goodbye which still acts as a source of confusion for me :))
p
And then there's gym. At least for this class the girls and boys are seperated. This makes it a little more bearable but it's still seems as though they're using curriculum from the 60's. The fitness tests continue. Today we had to see how far we could throw these grenade shaped balls. I don't know where they came from, they must be really old though because they still say made in czechoslovakia on them. It was the strangest thing. We all lined up and hucked them as far as we could, the teacher measured how far they went, and we were awarded a mark accordingly. Some of the wonderful life skills I've gained so far in slovakian gym class would include; grenade throwing, jumping, running non stop for 12 minutes, sprinting 100m, and doing as many crunches as possible in 1 min even if it means sacrificing the form of the sit-up (most girls were just moving their chin rapidly up and down). That said, it is a class I can understand AND participate in, a rarity at the moment. I do often times find myself looking forward to it and I know I need the exercise. I found a scale and I've gained 5kg in the 6 weeks I've been here. If I keep that pace up I'll be three times the person I was before I left hahaha. But it's starting to slow down already so hopefully I'll just be as big as one and half me's. I'm starting to figure out what food I like and don't like and everyone has stopped feeding so much, THANK GOD!
I've been to the english school one time since I last wrote and it was fantastic! I think I'm really going to love helping them out. We had a chance to talk and sort out exactly what I will be doing. So this is the plan: they are going to offer a free story hour once a week and I get to lead it! Each month I will find four stories I want to read to the kids, prepare props for them, and read them to them. I'm really excited about this because 1) it ties in with what I want to do 'when I grow up' 2)I get to see a whole bunch of really cute kids! and 3) it gives me something to do! (Other than go out with friends. You know one can only go to pubs and drink Kofola so often. When you get up to 6 times a week you know it's too much.)
My counselor has also been in touch with a friend of hers who runs a foster home. And they have asked me if I would be willing (and wanting) to come do a presentation to the kids and spend some time with them every once and while. Of course I said sure. So you can expect to here more about this in the coming weeks. I'm really not too sure how the fostercare system works here. By the sounds of it the kids all stay together in a group home like setting but I guess I will find out soon enough!
Now I am gearing up for my once again super busy weekend. I have soccer today from 3:30 to 6pm (please keep me in your prayers! I have no idea what I've gotten myself into but 2 and half hours of practice! ahhhhhh thats a lot of running!.) Then I come home, shower, change into god only knows what, so I can go to the disco with my friends. Yes, you read right, Paige is going to the DISCO. Once again I have no idea what its gonna be like and truthfully I'm terrified but it'll be an adventure I'm sure. After that Mariely is staying over and the three Zilina exchangers are going to Jarmok (another traditonal festival ish thing) and visiting some caves. On Sunday I've been told we are going kite flying in the mountains but I'm thinking maybe the language barrier skewed that message a little bit so we will have to see. I've become very trusting of everyone because the majority of the time I have absoluely no idea what I am doing, who I am with, or where I am going. As an exchange student you become an excellent adapter.
ahoj! (they say the same thing for hello and goodbye which still acts as a source of confusion for me :))
p
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