November 2011

I was half-tempted to call this post “Random Things” or something to that effect (confession: the working title of posts like this one is usually “funny things that Slovaks do”). Sometimes these are my favorite posts, but other times they end up feeling kind of listy. I’ll tell you at the end which category this one falls into.

First up, in our living arrangements, there is another married couple with an average age equaling ours, but the biggest difference is that they are Czech and have a baby.  Also, they love board games.  One day Burke and a few others including this Czech daddy played the most massive board game known to man (it took them 10 hours to play it!) and once when I walked in I found the circumstances hilarious.

Nobody puts baby in the corner... except this baby.

They said she was sleeping, but she definitely was not sleeping laying there in the corner facing the wall.  I hung out with Baby Eliška for a while but peaced out when she got a little fussy.

Hey look, flowers!

Certainly you remember my hospital confessional series, specifically this one about what they were feeding me, but I thought you might like to be reminded!

In some cases it’s particularly obvious that the cooks in the kitchen are scrambling to put something, anything at all, on a plate.  Last week we were at a conference held in a rather large hotel, and we were told that both lunch and dinner would be provided; as usual I inquired further and asked if that meant for me too and I was told yes.  I suppose “meal” is a relative term.

My dinner: white rice, soggy french fries and tartar sauce.

Here’s something fun! Burke and I took this medium-longish bike ride in the spring and we did it again last weekend. I’ve been dealing with some hip pain when I run long or hilly distances lately so I gave in on Burke’s bike ride request in an effort to get a long workout in on the weekend.  It was fun to compare the different views of the Slovak countryside in fall and spring.  Below, you can view the different views of me in the fall and spring.

40 mi bike ride from BB to Zvolen- the scenic route

These last few little anecdotes I have for you have no accompanying photo, but I thought they were so funny!  Therefore, I am going to use bullet points to visually attract those readers who just skim through our posts.  If you are reading this text in full, it’ll be our little secret:)

• Over the weekend, I convinced a couple of the guys to do a workout video with me and the Slovak who was doing it with us, saw jumping jacks and said he’d always seen them in American movies, but no Slovak he knew had ever actually done one.
• Similarly, I was talking about last Christmas to that same Slovak friend and told him how I loved singing Christmas carols after dinner together as a group.  He said he thought that was normal… in the movies, all the families get together around the piano and sing christmas songs.  So, tell me, is that normal in your family?
• Sunday was “Slovak Thanksgiving.”  I asked one Slovak girl if she usually does anything for Slovak Thanksgiving and she said, “Oh there are a lot of feasts in the church, I don’t really know which ones are which.”  I thought it was pretty funny, but then when we went to church, the pastor started speaking about Thanksgiving and its origins.  Guess what story he told.  Ours!  He started talking about American thanksgiving and our traditions and the pilgrims and indians, the whole shebang.  No wonder Slovaks don’t know the story or celebrate.  It’s ours.
• I loved this following conversation:
  Janko: (cutting something) Don’t we have any better sneezers?
  Burke: Sneezers!? What?
  Me: No, you mean scissors, Janko.
  Janko: Jaaaaj (Yaiy= common Slovak expression meaning something like a cross       between Oh and Oops)
  Katka: Sneeze is like the alarm.
  Me: Hahahaha no that’s snooze.

Lastly, if you want to know why I have this photo of this cute little kid (and see more photos of his friends), you should go to the other section of our website (leave a comment if you need the password)!