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!