It's Snowing in BA

Today we had our first snow of the season. It snowed for a few hours, then the snow turned into rain.

I have been told that it didn't snow much last year in Bratislava, and some have suggested that the snow has to make up this year for last year.

Well, that's all.

My Long Lost Love

So, before Fall Break, I went with two students to a guitar shop. I had been aching for a guitar for a while and decided that it would be a good idea to buy one, so I did.

The two students took me to two guitar shops and I tried different guitars out. One store had a really good deal for a guitar that I liked, and the other store had a guitar that I really liked, but it didn't have the deal. So my student got the salesperson to lower the price and to throw a few accessories in with it. It took a while, but I ended up getting a pretty good deal on a cool guitar.

My student said that because the salesperson had been so helpful that I should say something cool to him in English like, "Hey, thanks dude. That was awesome." I laughed, and then I did. The salesperson was very happy to hear me say that. There was a big smile on his face. Then when we walked outside, I said to my student, "You know I'd never say that to someone in America."

That's all.

English Problems

I find it necessary to share a few pictures and thoughts that I forgot to share in my Prague blog. While on the train, I kept hearing the automated message about to where the train was going when passangers boarded. After saying something in Slovak, it always said in English, "This train terminated in Prague." I remarked to my Slovak friends that it sounds like the train is going to blow up when we get there.

In Prague, I took a few pictures worth sharing. I don't remember where I took the first one, but you can probably see the spelling problem yourself.

The second one is my favorite. My Slovak friends wanted to have fast food for lunch. So where did they go? KFC. That's right, Kentucky Fried Chicken. They asked why I didn't want to have Kentucky Fried Chicken, and I told them that I hadn't had KFC in probably 6 years and could probably wait another year to have KFC. Anyway, this is a picture above the trash can in KFC. As I was about to take the picture, an employee was about to take out the trash and he saw me with my camera pointing it at the trash. I have to wonder what he must have thought. Did he understand why I found the sign funny? Anyway, he backed off and then I put my camera down and waited for him to take out the trash. Oh, the dangers of translations. They meant to say, "Don't Put Trays in the Trash," but, by saying, "Don't Put Trays," one must wonder where not to put trays and what to do with the trays if one isn't supposed to put them anywhere.

That is all.

Trechin

Tuesday of Fall Break, I traveled with two of my friends and colleagues Virgenia and Sonja to Trechin. Trechin is two hours east of Bratislava by train. In Trechin, we met a Slovak named Igor whom Sonja knew. Together we made out way to the Trechin Castle, the third largest castle in Slovakia. The second is the Bratislava Castle, which I have been to, and the first is Spesh, which I have not been to.

The today was cold and rainy and made the castle look extra gloomy. To get into the castle, we had to have a tour. The tour was nothing special. The tour guide spoke Slovak, as expected. Igor translated for us, however. There were five of us on the tour: three Americans, a Slovak, and an Austrialian. The best part of the tour was climbing to the top of the tower to see the city from above.

After visiting the castle, we wandered around the city entering various shops. It was quite fun. We returned to Bratislava that evening.

Prague

So I understand that I have neglected to keep up with my blogging, so I will be posting over the next few days of a recap of the last few weeks going backwards. So we will start in Prague.

Last week we had Fall Break and I speak two days in Prague with some Slovaks. It was quite an interesting trips. I went with this guy Ondrej who works at the school and his friend Matej. We met a few Slovaks there and they were nice, but they spent Slovak a lot, so it was pretty hard understanding them.

Prague is a very pretty city and a pretty busy city. My favorite part of the city was probably Charles Street Bridge. The fascinating thing about the bridge was the statues. Every five yards on either side was a different statue of a famous Christian. I had a hard time telling who any of the statues were, but I know the one in the picture on the right was Jesus. It took me a while to figure that one out.

Another fun part of the city was the church on the hill by the castle. I could have spent hours in this church walking around, looking at different paintings and statues. Here was my favorite one.

Another cool site in Prague is the ancient clock on one of the churches. At the beginning of each hour, these small doors open up and these little statues of saints rotate. This draws a crowd of probably a few hundred. The first time we tried to see it, we were too late. The second time, we couldn't see the statues. The third time was a success though. Here is a picture of the clock.

Czech food is delicious. I had the national meal for lunch one day. I had had it before, but this time it was particularly good. The meal is some kind of meat, some interesting sauce, and dumplings that look like pieces of bread. Delicious.

Prague is a four hour train ride from Bratislava. I left at 5:30 a.m. Thursday and returned 10:30 p.m. Friday. Next, I will write of my trip to Trechin.