Time is fleeting and meanwhile I managed to make some pals and and get into a regular running 🏃‍♂️ routine, which was in recent weeks overtaken by my fledgling social life. Basically it all started with Zuska’s birthday on April 20th. Todd’s birthday phone call started out that morning (same day with the time zone difference). The weather also changed at that point, and thus all combined factors elevated my mood. The trees 🌳 are thick lush green, birds sing so loudly that I am awoken every a.m. früh about 4:22 to hear them outside my ninth floor window.

As a consequence of the livelier social life I am leading, my time spent on writing ✍️ has decreased. It has likewise become increasingly harder to get onto a computer and spend time hacking away on MS Word.

My Writing Career

My writing career is still in the making. I started on and sent two meager inquiries, still have two or three in progress, and am a bit in a Catch-22 on the process. I will however plow ahead. It’s just that they take six weeks to reply and by that then I am gone from Slovakia 🇸🇰 so I can only write on experiences I’ve made and info I already have/know. Oh well. It will work out.

Time is Fleeting

I am gaining lots of experience, from locals and talking “beer talk” with people. Plus all the gossip at school (Berlitz). Wow. Staff and teachers in a small town at a small upper class school. Endless. We had another meeting with Peter who said he should have our money (for April) by Friday. (He does.)

The meeting was about how nobody in Slovakia has money and it’s going even worse. The unemployment will soon hit 25-30 % and the exchange rate is now 42-1. It’s very fast currency devaluation and inflation. The rate was 37-1 when I came three months ago. So also some landlords want the foreigners to pay 💰 in dollars now since the crown isn’t worth shit as Jae put it. He was really hounding on Peter in the meeting.

Pay Cuts

Everyone will take a 2,000 (SK) pay cut (10%) as of May 1 to help keep the school (Berlitz) afloat. The next step could be bankruptcy. He (Peter) is also hiring new teachers at 15,000 SK. Go figure. He also said the government contract in Bratislava is going to go to a British company to keep the funds in the EU, a procedure called “turning”.

He further explained that many customers aren’t even paying. One of them I taught right after the meeting and her husband was supposed to have some contacts for Peter. But needless to say they didn’t go through. Another local company was to send 60 students to start this week- now they sent the list of students and it was only 20 students (in groups of ten) plus they wanted to Xerox the book. How cheap can you get!

So meanwhile it was also Chris’s bday and I was invited to Chris, Damon, and Bibiana’s for dinner one Saturday night. There was polka music 🎼 playing at a hall across the way.

 

Friday 7 May, 1999