Snow, Rain, Sleet, Wind and a Dance

Well, finally a day off from the constant reading and analyzing that is required for my classes. . .

So last Friaday we, the Americans were invited to a ball that was to be held here at the faculty (it is the word they use for a learning facility). We were told that the dress code was nice, but not as extreme as prom. . . so we thought "okay. . .a nice but not formal dress. . .like homecoming" Ooohhh nooo. .. when the evening finally came we, dressed in our finest, were verily underdressed. Imagine wearing a homecoming dress to prom. . . . yep. . . that bad. However, the Slovak students welcomed us merrily and the evening commenced. It was an amazing evening. We were provided with a dinner, entertainment in the form of a skit (which one of the students traslated for us) and music for dancing.

Dancing. Yeesh. The one thing that I wasn't looking forward to was the part of the ball that I enjoyed the most. Slovak dancing is still quite different from contemporary American dancing. In the begining the band played some traditoinal Slovak songs and I was asked to dance. The gentleman (no, I don't know his name or have any photos of him. According to a girl in my group, he was actually an American teaching English at a neighboring faculty, but I'm not for sure) who asked me and I danced a swing/polka.

After this the band began playing a playlist of American oldies (it is the music played on most of the radios here. . . my type of music) such as The Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", "I'm Walking on Sunshine", and "It's My Party". . . . they also played some Slovak and Czech Rock but, of course, I couldn't understand it but it had a good beat and was fun to dance to. . .

On the note of dancing, like I said earlier, they don't dance the same. . . It was like watching a combination of 60s and 70s dance move. . No lie. . they weren't goofing off, they were doing the twist and the like. . . Lucky for me, I knew how to do the "gorrilla" and "swimming" dance moves.

All in all it was a great dance and we all had fun albeit it was awkard at first, especially because we were so underdressed. The night ended on a happy note as the senior in our group, Christy, won the title Ball Queen which was nice because it was also her birthday.

Pictures:

Melina (sister of Christy's Slovak friend that came to visit) and me.

The group of us in our corner watching the dancing. . .

The Weekly Review

Where to begin. . . .hmmm. . . how about a very quick analysis of the past few days.

Thursday, Feb. 12: I had double classes. From 9-12 I had my critical writing class with Dr. Hinlicky then from 2-5 I had Church and Civil Society with Dr. Filo. That night I stayed in my room and read.

Friday, Feb. 13: Friday was spent taking a tour of the old city of Bratislava. We toured different buildings and were told about their past significance and their present uses. We had lunch in a restaurant that used to be an old wine cellar then continued our tour. The weather that day was relentlessly cold, windy, and had flurries so we headed back to the seminary around 3pm. That evening we went as a group to see a Slovak Philharmonic Concert, which a segment is showed in the video. The first half of the performance was generic style classical music and the second half was traditional Slovak music. After the performance, we ate tacos (of all things) then took the bus back to the bus stop closest to the seminary and stopped at a pub for a few hours (I stayed to make sure one of my friends got back okay).

Saturday, Feb. 14: The very popular Valentine's Day is just as popular here in Slovakia as it is at home. We spent the late morning and early afternoon at the mall for some grocery and shoe shopping and hat shopping. That evening, we went out to eat with Dr. Hinlicky as a "welcome to Slovakia" dinner. However there was a glitch in the plans and even though the food was amazingly good. . it costs us each (there are 10 of us) 51 euros! After this let down at the end of dinner we went back to our dorms and chilled the rest of the evening.

Sunday, Feb. 15: The whole day was spent studying and in retrospective, I studied the wrong things. Anyway, that evening we were supposed to go to a jazz club but some of us decided against it 1) because we were studying and 2) we had no money to spare after the restaurant episode the night before.

Today, Monday, Feb. 16: I had class and a test today. . then a wonderful lunch of pork, veggies, and noodles. And now reading for tomorrow's class and possibly reading for a few others.

On a side note: Our door to our balcony is still not in working order. The door knob refuses to turn so, currently, our suitcases are piled against the door to keep the wind out and they don't always succeed, but it works most of the time. However, this problem will be solved within a matter of days as soon as it can be arranged, the local repairman will come and fix our door!!

I got to go but more later gator :)

A Show of Devotion

I know I haven't been on for a while but I have been super busy with classes and exploring more of Bratislava. For the last few days our group, or at least a part of it, go out and shop or go out to dinner. Each time we have gone out since the first few days has been without a Slovak student or adult. Fortunately, each excursion has been very successful.

A quick side not about the food here: It is Amazing!!! For breakfast we either have cold cuts or cheese and bread, lunch is the biggest meal here so we have a bowl of soup, meat and rice or potatoes (if there are not potatoes on the plate they are in the soup), and dinner is on us so it is usually a sandwich or bread and cheese. The various meals we have had for lunch, and dinner when it was being provided, have been as follows: pork and potatoes with bean soup, chicken and potatoes with sour potato soup, spaghetti with ketchup and cheese, pork with mushroom sauce potatoes and sour mushroom soup, steamed dough with plum jam filling and coco powder on top, and spicy chicken and pork with veggies and rice and garlic soup.

On Sunday, we went to an International Lutheran Church and listened to the service and were greeted by fellow Americans and others who speak English and are living in the area. The Church where the service was being held was beautiful and the service was very pleasant. However, it felt like it was lacking something in the way the congregation echoed the priest. I asked Richard, one of the Slovak students who went with us if this service was like the one we would be attending on Wednesday at the seminary (theology school). He replied that this service was nice but it was different. When I asked how he said I would see on Wednesday.

I now understand what he meant by the services being different. Today at the Lutheran service in the seminary, I was totally amazed and left breathless at the beauty of the service. The area it is held in is very modernized and is like a very small auditorium (150 seats approx.) and at first I wasn't as impressed as I had been at the international church mostly due to the arcitechture. However, once the service began and the congregation began to sing back to the novice pastor, who was, surprisingly yet not, Richard. (Richard is one of the students who welcomed us the second night we were here) I was held in awe of the obvious devotion of the congregation. The whole service was in Slovak but that didn't matter, the feelings that poured out of the people and the presiding priest were enough to be moved. I have never felt a unity as strong as strong as the unity of that congregation. I am at a lost of words and expressions to describe the service. In summary, it felt whole, right, and true.

I wonder if I will ever experience something as beautiful as that outside of Slovakia.

When European Buildings Attack!!!!!

So today has been a very eventful day, however, I need to describe more in detail yesterday's events since I failed to do so in my last post:

We arrived at Vienna, Austria around 8:30 in the morning and drove for an hour to Bratislava. We had an hour to get things situated in our rooms then we had lunch. After that it was run! run! run! to get all of our practical needs around for transportation and what not. We also got a quick tour of the older part of Bratislava. When we got back we ate a very good dinner of fried cheese with sauce (it was ridiculously delicious!) and potatoes (we have a form of potatoes with every meal. . . hopefully it won't get old). Afterwards we all went to bed early because we were exhausted. . . . and now. . . back to the present. . . .

Today was quite a day. this morning I woke up late, plugged my straightener into a converter and the straightener got fried. . . literally. . . the plastic around the ceramic tiles began to melt and smoke. . . I had to run it out onto the balcony and leave it there all day to cool down. Then after breakfast we were taking a tour of the classrooms and the area surrounding the building. While we were walking up a set of stairs, they became more narrow because a building jutted out, I was looking down, heard my name called, looked up and smacked my head into the wall. . it was quite a "me" moment.
The rest of the day wasn't quite treacherous. We spent the majority of the time at a super mall so we could open accounts with a local bank to cut living costs here. While we were there we did some minor grocery shopping then we came back for a supper of spaghetti noodles with ketchup and cheese. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad but definitely not one of my favorites.
Afterwards we met with some Slovak students who also speak English. We had traditional "tea" together as a meet and greet. As part of the tradition, there was some wine in the tea. . . I only had a few sips because the wine made the tea taste funky and I didn't want to upset my stomach. The students were very welcoming and we all got along great. We then left and went to a local bar with the students. I only had coke but I tired one of my friend's drinks, it was a type of liquor and it tasted pretty good, like vanilla eggnog. The bar was small and we stayed until 10 then we returned, played some cards and now I am here writing about it all. . .

These blogs will probably not be as frequent from here on out because I will be beginning classes and that means homework and class time. So that's that.

And Here We Are. . . . Now What???

Well, I am now , after a 9 hour plane ride and a quick drive through Austria, in the lovely Bratislava, Slovakia. It was definately worth the wait. The capital of Slovakia is very eclectic. The city fades gracefully from the old city in the middle of Bratislava to the newer apartments and skyscrapers.
Today has been a whirl wind of attempting to unpack, getting items that are necessary for our survival here (cable cars/bus passes), exchanging money, and brief walking tours of the historical part of Bratislava.

So. . . . now that we are pretty well oriented with the city. . . .what do we do??

After giving it some serious thought, the answer was SLEEP!!! We all need to begin to mentally and physically prepare ourselves for the intense semester that lies ahead.
I would write more but my brain is shot from lack of sleep, drinking coffee for the first time, and overwhelmed by this city. I will write more about the city in detail after I get some sleep and get some pictures so I can more acurately describe these wonderous sites.

P.S. . . . . I am within walking distance of a castle. . .how cool is that!! Promise it will be longer and better next time.

~Talisha