Time is fleeting and meanwhile I managed to make some pals and and get into a regular running šāāļø routine, which was in recent weeks overtaken by my fledgling social life. Basically it all started with Zuskaās birthday on April 20th. Toddās 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 š³ are thick lush green, birds sing so loudly that I am awoken every a.m. frĆ¼h 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 āļø 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. Itās just that they take six weeks to reply and by that then I am gone from Slovakia šøš° so I can only write on experiences Iāve 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 ābeer talkā 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 SlovakiaĀ has money and itās 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 š° in dollars now since the crown isnāt 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 āturningā.
He further explained that many customers arenāt 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 didnāt 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 Chrisās bday and I was invited to Chris, Damon, and Bibianaās for dinner one Saturday night. There was polka music š¼ playing at a hall across the way.
Friday 7 May, 1999
