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
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
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
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
Sunday, November 29, 2009
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!!!!!
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!!!!!
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