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.