Christmas Time is Here

This year I have two Christmas songs to share. First off, some of my second-year students love to sing, so I asked them to sing some Christmas songs to make a video greeting for one of their former teachers. They sang "Jingle Bells" in English and then in Czech; here's the latter, since I'm assuming that most of you know how it sounds in the former. And they're all staring off in one direction because they're reading the words from the chalkboard.

Then a few weeks ago we sang songs at Bible study, and the kids then taught us "Silent Night" in Slovak. We only got one verse, but it's more than I knew before.

Tichá noc, sväta noc,
Všetko spí, všetko sní,
Sám len svätý bdie dôverný Pán,
Stráži dietátko nebeský dar
Sladký Ježiško spí, sní
Nebesky tíško spí, sní

I must also add that like all of my students love any iteration of "Last Christmas." Any class I played that for started singing.

Sometime quite soon I will be heading off for my Christmas adventure of epic proportions. I'm not entirely prepared right this second, but I am quite excited. Of course you should all be looking forward to the next update, which will appear here early in 2010. From all of us in Tisovec, veselé vianoce a šťastný novy rok!

Stužková Professional Stylie

I know I complained about the omnipresent and annoying photographers at stužková, but they did have good cameras and they did get some good pictures of us and the kids. One of the girls (whom I don't even teach--you rock, Katka D!) provided me with some of those pictures; and while it might violate some copyright laws and will probably cause an international incident*, here are two photographs showing the američany and some of our students in their regional dress. I include the last one because of its sheer cuteness.


*Dear boss...
Whenever one of us does something even remotely ill-advised, we often pretend we're writing to our program supervisor informing him of what's happened. (This itself is a holdover from university, when we used to pretend our actions would make it into the campus police blotter.) The imaginary e-mails usually begin "Dear boss, we regret to inform you..." although one of my favorites was "Dear boss, the bail is two thousand euros."

You Know You Live in a Small Town When...

Yesterday I went into my usual potraviny,* which is a block north of my building. I gathered my groceries, stood in line, and had my things rung up. 99% of the time I use cash and foodstamps at the store, but yesterday I didn't have enough of either, so I planned to use my (Slovak) debit card. But when I tried to hand it to the cashier, she said, "Nefunguje"--the card reader wasn't working. Just now, as I'm writing this, I realized that my first stroke of luck was that I actually understood what the problem was to begin with. As usual, I couldn't quite find the words to express what I wanted to say, which was something along the lines of, "Well, I haven't got enough money to pay for it without the card, so I guess you'd better put it all back." Instead I stood there, gaping a bit helplessly, as I tried to think in English and Slovak at the same time. After a minute, the woman simply said, "Zajtra" (tomorrow), and wrote down my name and how much I owed. I thanked her sincerely and left with my purchases. This afternoon I have to go by and pay the €7.91 that I owe.

So you know you live in a small town when 1. you're able to buy something on credit, which I thought went out with the 20th century, and 2. you realize that number 1 is possible because you know it would be really easy to track you down if you didn't pay up. Even so, it's nice to live in a world where people will trust you, even if only for a little while. "I'll pay you tomorrow" just wouldn't fly at Albertson's.

*A small grocery store. Bigger than a New York bodega, but smaller than an IGA or Kroger.

Stužková

Last year around this time I posted a video and said that I’d talk about stužková in the near future. It wasn’t near, but the future is now.

Stužková is a ceremony that has no parallel in American culture. It’s held for and by the fifth year students late in the fall. It’s not a graduation ceremony, although it’s similar in some ways, and it’s not a prom, though dancing is a big part of stužková. On our school calendars,stužková is translated as a “ribbon ceremony,” and the word for ribbon is stuha. One major part of stužková is the giving of green ribbons to all of the students. The ribbons symbolize their hopes for the future (including that they will pass all of their exams), and the students wear their ribbons until the end of the year. Anywhere you go in Slovakia you’ll now see kids with green ribbons on their jackets and bags, so you know they’re in their final year of high school. The ceremony is also a coming-of-age type ritual; they’re now adults. (Remember, fifth years are superseniors, and students start “high school” when they’re anywhere from 14 to 16; so some of my oldest students are already 19 and 20 years old.) Stužková requires several costume changes, but the students begin in formal dress, and the majority of the guests, especially parents, also dress formally.

Our stužkovás* start at 6 p.m. When guests arrive, they’re escorted to their seats at long tables. The headmistress and her husband, and the class teacher and her husband are usually at a head table. When everyone is seated, the students process in, and bow or curtsey to the headmistress and their class teacher. Then the students acting as emcees welcome everyone to the stužková. One of the students gives an address, then the headmistress does the same. The students are introduced and their class teacher pins on their ribbons. The school chaplain prays, and a parent makes a short speech and proposes a toast. The students sing “Gaudeamus Igitur.” Then there is a receiving line where all of the teachers shake their students’ hands and offer them some kind of bon mot. Mostly I just told them congratulations, and commented if they looked especially nice.

After the welcomes and speeches and formal toasts and appetizers, the dancing starts. Students first dance with a member of their family, most often their mother or father. Unlike at home, dancing is something that everyone learns here, so it’s incredible to see goofy kids dancing really well. After the family dance, there is the teacher-student dance. This is the subject of speculation among the teachers during the days leading up to stužková. Sometimes students will let slip which teachers they’re dancing with, but usually they don’t tell, so I always wonder who I’ll dance with. So far I’ve been fortunate to dance with really pleasant young men, who have excused my complete inability to dance. Once those dances have been completed, there is open dancing. The kids may dance with their parents again, or with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or a sibling, or a favorite teacher. Parents and teachers also dance.

Dinner is served next. At three of the four stužkovás I’ve attended, it’s been chicken cordon bleu, rice, fries, corn, and cabbage; at the other it was chicken topped with ham, a half a Georgia state fruit,^† and cheese, then rice, fries, and some fruit. The tables also have rolls, cakes, and a selection of beverages, including wine, water, Kofola, orange juice, and fruit brandy, on them. It is acceptable for parents to BYOB.

More dancing after dinner. At this point the DJ usually throws on some waltzes, tangos, and Slovak folk music. Around 9:30ish (I never wear a watch nor have my phone at stužková) the students’ program will start. The program usually includes singing, dancing, and skits. At 5A’s stužková, one of the students did a brilliant impression of the Slovak philosophy teacher, which included calling Francis Bacon “Slaninou,” which is bacon in Slovak. Both stužkovás last year included a skit about the Slovak folk hero Jánošík.

When the program is over, there is…more dancing! Many of us use this opportunity to go outside and cool off, because it gets quite warm in the room, and to talk to former students who have come back to see their friends. This goes on until midnight. At midnight the students light candles, read short poems about each other, and get a special piece of cake. Then they often play the stužková song^‡ and the kids jump around and dance to that.

This year, the 5Bs had a really cool extra part after the midnight program. They all got dressed in the folk costume from their home region and came out and danced and sang. They also had a folk band come in and play so that they could dance all the better. In the video, not only can you see the ridiculously omnipresent photographers, but hopefully you can tell that everyone around us was singing along to the song. That kind of thing always makes me want to be able to sing along, too.

After the midnight program they bring out more snacks (the infamous meat plate, potato and/or pasta salad, more rolls) and coffee. There’s more dancing, and the headmistress usually leaves around 1 a.m. The other teachers must stay until she leaves, so once she’s gone home, we’re free to either head out or get crazy on the dance floor. The DJ starts to play dance music, and the kids disco it up until morning. The latest I’ve stayed was until around 3:15 this past week, but some teachers literally stay all night. Nine hours was enough for me.

If you’re lucky, you get to sleep in the morning after stužková; but if you’re up and around, you’ll see kids heading home from the party, or getting on buses. And hopefully by Monday morning everyone is recovered enough to be back at school and functioning normally.

Stužková is one of those things that's so important that people can't explain why it's important. It just is. I hope I've been able to describe it well enough to show some of that. Despite whether or not I return to teach here next year, this won't be my last stužková; I'm already making plans to come back in 2012 for the current 2B's stužková.

*Improper Slovak alert. It’s fun putting the English plural ending on Slovak words, though, and easier than memorizing the Slovak plural endings.
^†“Peach” sounds like a very vulgar word in Slovak, so we try not to go around saying it a lot.
^‡I hope it gets stuck in your head as much as it's stuck in mine right now. Also, that video is quite amusing.

How to Press Cabbage

Ingredients:
-30 kilos of shredded cabbage
-about 8 small to medium onions, sliced
-a hefty chunk of fresh horseradish, cut into 1” chunks
-a bowl of salt
-a bunch of bay leaves
-whole black peppercorns
-caraway seed
-dill
-the heel of a loaf of brown bread
-a medium (about two and a half feet tall) ceramic jar with a hole big enough for your arm
-two or three pieces of oak wood, soaked in dill water
-a rock big enough to fit in the mouth of the jar

1. Put the piece of bread and the dill in the bottom of the jar, for fermentation.
2. Start layering the ingredients, beginning with about four big handfuls of cabbage, spreading it in an even layer around the bottom of the jar.
3. Add the spices: a big handful of salt, a handful of caraway, four or five crushed bay leaves, a handful of pepper, and some onions and horseradish. Sprinkle them evenly on top of the cabbage.
4. Put more cabbage on top.
5. Begin to press the cabbage. Use your fist and press down evenly on the surface area. Make sure to press the cabbage on the sides as well.
6. When the cabbage starts to get juicy, repeat. Add more cabbage, onions, horseradish, and spices.
7. About halfway through, taste some of the juice. Adjust the amount of spices accordingly.
8. Press until your arms fall off, and until all the ingredients have been used, following the previous directions.
9. Place whole cabbage leaves on top of the pressed cabbage. Top those with the pieces of wood, and put the rock on top of the wood.10. Leave the cabbage in the kitchen or another warm place for a week, then get a strong Slovak man to move it to a cooler place. Leave it there for another two or three weeks.
11. When it’s ready, make kapustnica (winter cabbage soup)* and cabbage salad!

If you can’t get a big cabbage-pressing jar and 30 kilos of cabbage, it’s possible to scale it down. Helena suggested using a five-gallon glass jar. It all depends on how many people are in your family and how much you like sour cabbage. You will need more cabbage than you think; remember, you’re squishing it, so it will compress.

*This is the next recipe I need to get.

Thanksgiving

This year, I am thankful for

my family;
getting to see my friends this summer, and having friends where years and miles apart make no difference, because the more things change, the more they stay the same;
the internet;
"Brownie," my Tisovec dog;
my new bathroom, even without its door;
my kids, who, against all reason, can make me smile just by saying hello in the halls;
my Slovak colleagues;
Kofola, forever and always;
learning new things, like about Britain after the Middle Ages;
having a(n American) football and getting kids to play with us;
the opportunities to travel and see and do new things;
our plans for Christmas (wait for it...it's gonna be legendary);

ruská zmrzlina;

health and safety;
this amazing, strange, beautiful country that I get to live in and love and be "from";
los otros gringos aquí, whom I adore;
knowing that no matter how long and hard the road, no matter how fun the trip, at the end of it I will walk down the middle of the street surrounded by my hills and, even if I can't see them, my sheep and my stars, and sleep well in my own bed at night.

And now I am proud to present the new T-town song. The students had a coffeehouse last night and we were asked to present something, so we created and sang this song, to the tune of "Part of Your World" from Disney's "The Little Mermaid." "Ako sa povie?" means "How do you say?" in Slovak. The more I watch the video, the more I seem to be just shouting rather than singing, but it was the most fun.

Look at this place, isn't it neat?
I get around on just my two feet!
Wouldn't you think it's the town,
The town that has everything?
Look at this view, treasures untold
How many wonders can one valley hold?
Lookin' around you'd think sure, it's got everything.
We've got Kofola and gul aplenty
We've got bryndza and haluky galore
Want potraviny? We've got twenty!
Yeah T-town! But that's not all...it's got more.

You can be where the ovce are
You can see, you can see 'em grazing
Strolling around on those--ako sa povie?--hills
Taking the bus you don't go too fast
But there's no rush and no reason to leave
Strolling along down those--ako sa povie?--streets
Down where they bike, down where they hike,
Down where they play all day on the courts
Not getting tan
But glad that I am
Part of this world

What did I give to be able to live next to this potok?
What did I pay to spend my days looking at rocks?
People might say let's get away, let's head to Praha for the weekend
See new face, go new places, ready to leave

But we want to be where the two street are
In our small town where we can't get lost
When does a town become--ako sa povie?--home
I'm here to stay, laugh, learn and play
And give my heart to friends in this place
At EGT
Glad I can be
Part of this world

Happy Thanksgiving!

Practicalities Issue 2: Nemocnica

Because I just took my second trip there in 10 days, today's "Practicalities" is about going to the hospital. Please don't fret; I'm fine, though stupid and clumsy, and I will certainly live through this particular injury.

For that story, let's journey back in time to the Sunday before last. A group of us went to the salaš at Zbojská on Sunday afternoon, and, due to events conspiring against us, had to walk back to Tisovec. It was light when we started, and we were expecting about a 45-minute walk. About two and a half hours later I stumbled into a ditch in the dark and turned my left ankle rather badly. (I could feel it start swelling right away. By the time we got home it was huge. I'd include a picture, but my feet looked pretty manky.) Luckily, I was with a wilderness guide, an Eagle Scout, someone with athletic training instruction, and a kid who dresses really well,* so they got me home in once piece and wrapped my ankle up.

On Monday morning it was less swollen, but it hurt pretty badly; and while we knew it wasn't broken, I still felt it best to see a doctor. The school called the hospital, arranged the car, and rounded up a student to translate for me. We only went to the small hospital in Hnúšťa, so the drive wasn't long. I'd like to note that when I describe the hospital and my experiences there, I'm not trying to be condescending and all "This would never happen in the U.S." I'm just telling you what happened.

The horror-movie-waiting-to-happen theme from our long walk in the dark continued at the hospital. At best, the outside of the hospital looks uninviting and in need of work; at worst, it looks like there are homicidal maniacs lurking inside. There are uneven steps leading up to the front door, and the overall architecture is Communist-Gothic. Inside, there are yet more steps. Once you've made it into the hospital, there is a sign directing you where to go: radiology, the emergency surgery, and some other places that I can't remember. The emergency surgery is, you guessed it, up a short flight of stairs. There is an elevator inside the building, but I don't know how much it's for patients and how much it's just for moving things. The interior is decorated in classic green and white.

We went to radiology first to x-ray my ankle. Natália, my translator, gave someone there my insurance card (yes, I have Slovak insurance, so I didn't have to pay to visit the hospital) and some other information, and then we waited. After maybe seven minutes they called me in. I hesitate to estimate as to the x-ray machine's age, but it wasn't new. Once the x-rays were taken, we went upstairs to wait outside the emergency surgery. This is what you do: You go up to the door and knock, and then you wait. Then the radiology tech will come up and hand you your x-ray, and you'll peer at it and determine that all of the bones in your foot are indeed sound and unbroken, in your expert medical opinion. Some people will go in and out of the door without asking you what you need or if you've been helped. More people will show up and sit on the benches in the hall, some of them definitely looking worse off than you. After some period of time someone will open the door and take whatever information you have for them, and then go back in. And then you wait some more, and finally they call you in.

We probably waited twenty minutes or half an hour before they called me (and I was the first one). I went into the examining room, which was part examining room and part office. A doctor, two nurses, and an orderly were in there. I sat on the table and took off my shoe and sock and the wrapping, and displayed my swollen, discolored foot to the room. They looked at my foot for about two seconds before proclaiming that I had torn a ligament, and promptly got me a brace out of a cabinet. They told me to elevate it, rest, wear the brace, use some topical analgesic cream, and come back in 10 days. I for one doubt that I actually tore the ligament, just for the record.

When I went back this afternoon we only waited outside the closed door for about five minutes before the nurses came back from lunch and checked me out. Again, once I was actually inside it was a very short visit. The nurse asked me a few questions, looked at my foot (which is more or less back to the proper colors now), and told me to keep elevating it and wearing the brace. I'm supposed to go back again in two weeks, but we'll see if that's necessary.

Perhaps part of this is the fact that I don't understand the language, but I found it very odd going to the hospital. It seems to be almost deliberately obtuse, like they don't really want you to find out where you should go and who can help you. Even Natália said today that she wouldn't want to have to go to the hospital in a real emergency, and that "even if you were dying, they would make you wait." Of course, not all hospitals in Slovakia can be like this. And I have no real reason to complain, since, as I said earlier, I wasn't paying for any of it, and my complaint was nothing life-threatening. But I also feel that I don't really want to risk having a big-time medical problem while I'm here. In that way it's just like rush hour in the Bronx.

*It should go without saying that I have absolutely no skills that would help in this kind of situation, except for my long hours getting iced and taped and whatnot in the training room.

Hallowe'en

As you may recall from last year, on October 31st Slovaks celebrate All Hallow's Eve by going to the cemetery and decorating their families' graves. Although I don't have any kin here in Tisovec, there is at least one family with my last name; so last night, when we trudged up to the cemetery to see the lights, I took a small candle and some matches and added another light. The experience only increased my desire to go to my great-grandfather's village and look for my own dead.

Fall Break

I am now convinced that the best thing to do for a birthday party is go out to a cabin in the woods, make gulaš, and watch your friends sing along to '90s pop songs that they otherwise would not admit to knowing all of the words to. And when you wake up in the morning, this is what the world will look like:And you will think that it is good to exist. Happy birthday, B.

Zbojská 2: With a Vengeance

On Sunday we learned that a trip that takes about 15 minutes on a bus will take over two and a half hours on foot. Luckily, we got some darn good food in us before that.

And for a webcomic on the theme of the Old Country, click here.

Ideme do Afriky!

In case you haven't been paying attention to the world sports scene (I normally wouldn't be, either; it's football season, after all, so what else do you need?), qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are going on. The week before last, Slovakia and Poland played. Now, the competition between Slovakia and Poland is not nearly what it is between Slovakia and Hungary, but you still always want to beat your neighbor. Slovakia won the match 1-0, and that one goal was scored by...a Polish player. That's right, Poland had an own-goal in about the third minute, and it was the only goal scored the whole game. Because of that one goal, Slovakia will go to the World Cup. Needless to say, people here are pretty excited about it. The slogan that came out pretty quickly thereafter is "Ideme do Afriky!"--We're going to Africa! Only 229 days to go...

Walkies

(I must admit that I edited some of these pictures prior to posting them. The problem with trying to take photographs in the afternoon on an overcast day is that they often look washed out, so I increased the saturation and the contrast on the first, third, and last photos to make the details more visible. I feel it would be misrepresenting if I didn't tell you that I'd edited them.)

How idyllic does my life look? A lot, let's be honest:

Here is my favorite thing from my walk yesterday. For a while I couldn't see the sheep, but I heard an uproar of bells. You have to turn your speakers up a bit to hear it, but this is a small taste of what it was like. They are voracious, these sheep.

Wish List Update

Here are changes to my wish list since the original was posted on October 20, 2007. (Well done being over two years old, blog.)

Once again, * mark UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and # will mark new places.

Alaska
aurora borealis
Australia
Badlands National Park South Dakota
Bardejov* Slovakia#
Bayeux Tapestry Bayeux, France
bears
Bethany Beach Delaware
Boston
British Library London
Brittany France
Budapest* Hungary#
Canterbury* England
Carcassonne* France
Denali National Park Alaska
Dordogne River Valley (Périgord) France
Dry Tortugas National Park Florida
Edinburgh*
Everglades National Park*
Florida Keys
fjords
Giza*
glaciers
Greece
Hawaii
Iceland
Iona Scotland
Ireland
Jamaica
Jerusalem*
Kenya
Krak des Chevaliers* Syria
Krakow Poland#
L'Anse aux Meadows* Newfoundland, Canada
Levoča* Slovakia#
Lindisfarne Scotland
Louisiana
Madrid
midnight sun
Minnesota
Montréal
Mont Saint Michel* France
Mount Rushmore South Dakota
the Netherlands
New Zealand
Niagara Falls New York/Canada
Normandy France
Nova Scotia Canada
polar bears
Prague Czech Republic#
Prince Edward Island Canada
Queen Charlotte Islands British Columbia, Canada
redwoods
Rocky Mountains (American, Canadian, or both)
Rome*
Santa Fe New Mexico
Santiago de Compostela* Spain
Scotland
Sečovce Slovakia#
Shimla* India#
Siberia
Sitka Alaska
Slovakia I WIN AT LIFE.
Slovenský raj ("Slovak Paradise") Slovakia#
Spišský hrad* (Spiš Castle) Slovakia#
St. Augustine Florida
Strasbourg France#
stave churches Scandinavia and central Europe
Stonehenge*
Texas
Trenčin Slovakia#
Valparaíso Chile
Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
Vatican City*
Vermont
Victoria Falls* Zambia/Zimbabwe
Wales
Wittenberg in 2017#
Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park* Wyoming
York England
Yosemite National Park* California
zebras

Wednesday Afternoon

Just a guy walking his goat in the rain. They turned right when I turned left, so I don't know where they were headed, but I wish I did.

Budapest

or, I Gotta Feeling That Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night

From Tisovec to Budapest is less than 200 kilometers as the crow flies. In one's own car, Via Michelin believes that it would take less than three and a half hours to travel that distance. On two buses and two trains, it took close to seven hours to get there on Friday afternoon, and three trains, one bus, and about nine hours to get back on Sunday. This is the reason why I had not yet been to Budapest. It is also the reason why I might not go back.

On Friday night, on a train drawing ever closer to the city, I realized that I had no idea what I was getting into. Yes, I knew where Budapest is, and I had some vague idea about the kinds of things that we might see, but not much. I'd barely glanced at a guidebook, hadn't really looked at any websites, and knew zero words of Hungarian. By the time we got to Nyugati station, I was very nervous. I'd never before been to a country where I had no idea how to say at least "please" or "thank you," which is the absolute minimum that you should know when traveling abroad. (Despite the geographical closeness, there is a huge difference between the Slovak and Hungarian languages.) This is not a situation I want to repeat, either. It was my own fault for not investigating these things beforehand. But in the words of one of the other teachers, "Well, now we know."

All seven of us from Tisovec were traveling together, and meeting two other teachers in Budapest. This was a much larger group of people than I'm used to traveling with, and the numbers presented some challenges. Although it took what seemed like about three hours on Friday night to find one of our people and the hostel, we got there eventually. The trip was not without "speed bumps," some of which could have been avoided. Was it still worthwhile, and fairly fun? Yes and yes. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being "I never want to leave" and 1 being "I must leave this place immediately," I rated the trip a 6.

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. It was only in 1873 that Buda and Pest were joined into one city. The two halves are separated by the Danube, and therefore there are several major bridges. The most photographed is the Chain Bridge. During World War II, all of the city's bridges were destroyed. Although Budapest is the capital today (the Parliament building is pictured above), during the Austro-Hungarian empire it was not necessarily a very important city. The relationship between Slovaks and Hungarians has not been smooth, either. Before we left school, one of the Slovak teachers half- (or three-quarters-) jokingly told us to enjoy the country that had oppressed the Slovaks for centuries.

Hungary is part of the EU, but does not use the euro. The currency is the forint, abbreviated ft. or huf. The exchange rate is something like 267 ft. to one euro. I took 10,000 ft. out of the ATM when we arrived on Friday night. Some of us developed a quick--some might even say immediate--dislike for the forint, mostly because to buy tram tickets you had to have coins no larger than 100 ft., and try to get that from breaking a 10,000 ft. bill.

On Saturday morning, after grabbing some breakfast at a store, we headed to Castle Hill in Buda. None of the buildings there are terribly old (read: medieval), but there are still some cool things. We did a "Tour de Doors," because there were some really, really sweet doors there. My other favorite things were the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church. Fisherman's Bastion is this huge turreted terrace-like area that looks out over the river and has good views of Parliament and the Chain Bridge. The Bastion is made of white stone and it's pretty cool. There's a big statue, presumably a fountain, of Matthias Corvinus there. Don't worry if you've never heard of him; I only know a little about him from the history maturita last year. He was a king of Hungary during the 15th century, and apparently a pretty good one. One of the symbols of Hungary that appears on a forint coin and on Matthias Church is the raven. My theory, which I feel is fairly strong, is that the raven is a symbol of Corvinus because its genus is Corvus. There's at least one raven statue perched on a spire of the church.

We walked around the outside of the church, which is surrounded by scaffolding and a bit obscured from view, so for a while I wasn't sure if it was actually open. Tickets weren't too expensive, but I still took a moment to ponder whether or not I should go in. Eventually I decided to go on in, and one of the other girls came with me. It was obviously the right decision; it is obviously always the right decision, and I don't know why I even had to think about it. I walked into the church and was so delighted that tears came to my eyes. (This is not an uncommon reaction for me upon walking into a cathedral.) Matthias Church is decorated in a style different than what I'm used to seeing in most cathedrals. Unlike the traditional European cathedral with the occasional fresco on mostly bare stone walls, the walls of Matthias Church are covered in painted designs. It was not what I expected, which is part of what was cool. I walked out vowing to never again doubt that I should go in any church.After the morning on Castle Hill, we reconvened in Pest outside St. Stephen's Basilica. St. Stephen's is quite the opposite of Matthias Church. It's much newer, much more Baroque, and the inside has lots of gilt and marble. It was pretty, but I prefered Matthias. We tried to make it to the big central market, but it closed a few minutes after we arrived, so we didn't really have time to see much. It would have been nice to look around in. The first floor seemed to be mainly the fresh food stalls, and the upper floor had some restaurants and craft stalls. Since we didn't get to do any browsing there, we went out again and wandered up and down the street in front of the market.

That afternoon most of us headed to the Terror House, while some of us went shopping in other places. I didn't know what the Terror House really was; it sounded like it was going to be a museum of torture, and though I've been to those before, I hadn't seen one in a while, so I decided to go. It turned out to be something much more somber, because the Terror House explains the situation in Hungary during World War II and the Communist period. Long story short: it sucked. That was not at all a good time to live anywhere in central Europe. The museum had good exhibits and extensive handouts in English to explain everything.

We ate dinner at a café with outdoor seating, which was quite comfortable. The new thing that we've noticed for these places is to have the outdoor heaters, but also fleece blankets with the chairs. That way you can be all cozy while you dine. Because we were in Hungary, I felt it necessary to have lamb goulash, which was good, but not as good as some of the homemade gulaš I've had here. And because someone had mentioned it earlier, and I'd been limping around Budapest all day, I felt it necessary to have Jack Daniels and Coke. I do not regret it.

Once dinner was finished we headed over to take pictures of the Chain Bridge lit up at night. As we were finishing our photography it began to rain, and our shoes were fairly soaked by the time we reached the hostel again. They were mostly dry by the next morning, though.

On Sunday morning we again split up. My group went first to see Heroes Square, which, as the name suggests, is a square with a big monument to Hungarian heroes throughout history. Since none of us are well-versed in Hungarian history, much of the cultural significance of the monument was lost on us. So after a few moments there, we went to check out an interesting-looking building that turned out to be the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture. Then we headed back toward the river to get some coffee before church. I inadvertently got a drink with actual coffee in it, which led to me being really nervous later in the day instead of just somewhat nervous. It was good coffee, though.

In Buda there is a small Catholic church in a cave. We made it to Mass there at 11 o'clock. I've been to a few Catholic masses before, and this one was not much different, because at all of them, everyone knows what's going on without having to consult their hymnal. We, on the other hand, were trying to figure out a different service in a different language. It took me at least halfway through the liturgy to find where to follow along. We were impressed with the priest, who gave his sermon without having to refer to his notes very much at all. The cave was also surprisingly warm. I must admit that reading and listening to the Hungarian language in the service made me think of Tolkien's invented languages from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It turns out that Hungarian is in the same linguistic family as Finnish, which Tolkien apparently really loved; so that makes sense. In the picture below, the entrance to the church is behind the gate on the left.Once church was done we had to book it to the train station. For a moment it seemed like we would have to leave some of our number behind; and even though they'd be able to get a later train that went to Košice, I didn't like the idea. But we all found each other and bought our tickets, despite the ridiculous ticket windows. (There was a sign that said "Take a number" with no number-dispensing apparatus in sight. The two ticket windows had no customers at them, so we walked up, only to be told that we needed numbers. It took us a minute to find the machine that printed the numbers so that we could go buy our tickets.) We got on our train, and then we got to Slovakia and took two more trains and then a bus before we got to Tisovec. One of the girls this year often uses superlatives; a class is "THE CRAZIEST!" or cake has "THE MOST POPPYSEED!", and I love it. When we disembarked in Tisovec, we looked at each other and started declaring that we were, indeed, THE HAPPIEST to be back home, with our hills and our sheep.

On that first bus from Tisovec to Nitra, we heard the Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling." As this post's subtitle says, the burden of the song is, "I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night." The song was stuck in my head in fits and starts over the weekend, which might sound unbearable. But even when things were most stressful, I still knew that everything would be okay. I have no desire to relive this past weekend, but at the same time, I'm glad I went.

Autumn Has Arrived

In the trees, at least; the weather was cool for a few days, but the temperature has climbed back up again. If you know me, you know that I love fall. I think this comes of having lived in a Mediterranean climate for so long. Palm trees don't change, ya know. So one of the highlights of my year is when the weather gets cooler and the leaves start to turn. They're not amazing here yet, but still pretty nice. Observe:

Cows & tractor! (This should probably be the name of a band.)

The above was taken from my kitchen, while the following three were taken hanging out of windows at school today.

And for a poem apropos to the subject, I give you "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

Košice

Astute readers may remember that me y la familia went to Košice back in December. Even though I'd been there, I wanted to go back, sometime when it was not so frigid and more things were actually open. So yesterday a few of the teachers from Tisovec and two American teachers in Poland met in Košice with one the teachers there and a very helpful Slovak friend.

The first place we went was the zoo. It's up in the hills outside of Košice, in a nice location with good views. We didn't see all of the animals, but the ones we did see we saw very close. The last zoo I went to before this was the San Diego Wild Animal Park, where the animals get to wander around big enclosures, which is obviously nice for them, but which makes it a bit difficult to see them from a distance. At the Košice Zoo I figure we were about ten feet away from a pair of lions, who were fortunately very laid-back. When I actually thought about how close we were, and how little was between them and me, I was slightly terrified. We also saw a little goat escaped from its corral, and lots of bears. People were throwing food into the bears' pit, and at least one of the bears has learned to wait patiently for such tidbits.Near the zoo there's a bobsled ride, which several members of our party enjoyed several times. Then we had a picnic before we headed back down the hill to the old town. Since it was Saturday, and the weather is still nice, we saw a lot of freshly-married couples having their pictures taken. We also saw several wedding parties going into and out of St. Elizabeth's. We ducked into the cathedral for a few minutes during one of the weddings, and our questions were how long each wedding is allotted, and how much must it cost to get married there. Not long and a lot are probably the respective answers there.
This time, the underground "museum" was open. On one end of the main square in Old Town there's an area where you can walk through some of the early fortifications of the city and its walls. There are also decorated bits of old buildings and a few former gargoyles. It is unspectacular, but not in a bad way. Below is a gargoyle in situ on Jacob's Palace.






After our subterranean exploration, some of us sat and watched the fountain between the State Theater and the cathedral, and some went looking for souvenirs. Then we went to a chocolate shop/café for a quick snack. The menu claimed to have milkshakes, and that is what I ordered, knowing that "milkshake" could mean almost anything. It turned out to be really, really good chocolate milk. Shortly thereafter we had dinner together at an Italian restaurant. After that it was time for the Tisovec kids to go to the bus station to catch our ride back home.

Sometimes you have those days where you end up thinking, "Well, that was unexpected." This was one of those days. The lesson is that good company can make all the difference in the world.

Zbojská

This past week we had some short-term volunteers here helping out with some major cleaning and a bit of construction around the gym. On Friday afternoon the headmistress arranged for them to go a few minutes north of here to an area called Zbojská. At Zbojská there is a chata (a cottage or cabin), a restaurant, and two little shops on a hillside. Guests can explore the hills, look at sheep, watch cheese being made (although the whole process takes two days), eat food prepared with really fresh ingredients, buy cheese and crafts, and/or stay overnight. We were there for a few hours, checking out the cheese-making process, eating, and then relaxing on the grounds. I had a huge plate of bryndzové halušky and had no need for dinner later on. It was a really pleasant afternoon. Cheese draining on the left, and strings of cheese to be cut or tied into knots