Today turned out to be a very good day! It began grey, with grey skies, and rainy. I was a bit down and didn’t feel like going to teach my two units for the day.

After my lessons, about 12:30, the teachers were all sitting around the teacher’s room. We were discussing languages; the difference between Czech and Slovak; and how “rainy days and Mondays always get us down.”

Women’s Day in Slovakia

Just as I was leaving school, one of the teachers, Joe was bringing flowers 💐 for all of the women at school (Berlitz).

It was Women’s Day in Slovakia. Maybe to prepare for the Easter bashings and lack of chocolate they’ll be getting, I thought. The flowers were so nice—orange fuzz-ball puffs, a white callia lily, ferns, and three red zinnias. All ties with a pretty orange 🍊 ribbon. (A sign of things to come.) It really brightened up my day and my apartment!

The other thing that brightened my mood was a fax I got at school (Berlitz) -and didn’t read until I got home, from the parental units. In my last email I had mentioned them coming to visit. Well, dad was already checking flights, free tickets and dates!

I semi-planned the dates they suggested, and called them collect. It was 6:30 am there. We agreed to check on a few things and talk again mañana (tomorrow). It was great talking to them. I talked to mom longer – as dad had to go to ride his bike to work on a beautiful San Diego day!

After we spoke, I went to aerobics class. It was pretty hard core muzika (music) the first 1/2 hour I didn’t catch on so quickly, as the instructor speeded up a bit. She was shouting “YEE-UH!” like Angela and I do when we go out dancing, and snapping her fingers in the air.

I walked home, had pasta and went to sleep. It was a surprisingly nice Women’s Day in Slovakia.

 

This is an excerpt from my Kosice Journal, documenting my exodus from a (relatively happy) bustling life in beautiful San Diego, to (voluntarily) take a post teaching English in the newly independent eastern capital of Slovakia during a very cold winter 1999.