busy. tired.

Friends, family, fans...

I am feeling sorry that it has been awhile since my last blog post.

Fortunately, it’s because I’ve been so busy! So last time I wrote, I had just returned from the High Tatras with my friends Thomas and Patrick. The week after was relatively uneventful. However, on Friday night I went to Kasarne Kulturpark to see a band from Switzerland. Kasarne is an old military building which is now being used to host cultural events, mostly in preparation for 2013, when Kosice will be the Cultural Capital of Europe for the year. The performace we saw was called Compagnie Drift-Black Peter, and they were so, so interesting. Rather than attempting (and likely failing) to describe them, here is a youtube video of their performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KM7okqErt8

Then on Saturday, I went to Liptovsky Mikulas to meet my dear Fulbright friends, Katrina and Stephanie. Katrina lives in LM, so we saw her flat and a small portion of her life there. It was a good night, but I was so tired from the night before that I had to go home early. On Sunday, Katrina’s boyfriend, Palko, drove the three of us to Krakow, Poland for a ETA Teacher Training conference for Fulbright. The drive was absolutely beautiful. We drove through mountains, small villages… it was gorgeous. And fortunately, Palko was able to drive us. Otherwise, it would have been a nearly 11 hour journey because the train system to Krakow is so complicated.

The conference in Poland was OK. We met other ETA’s from Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. It was great to meet some new people, and we had a lot of fun together. The actual conference was only mediocre, so on Tuesday I skipped the sessions and went to Auschwitz. No one else wanted to come with me, so I went on my own. I was a bit nervous to go… whenever I think of the horrible, evil things that happened at these concentration camps, I almost feel sick that humans could behave in such a way to fellow humans. The whole trip there (about 1.5 hours), I was emotionally preparing myself for what I might see. However, when I got there, I was surprised how much of a “tourist attraction” it seemed to be. There were people getting their photos taken in front of the crematorium, groups of students making jokes… it seemed odd. However, when I found myself in a room alone, I started feeling really anxious. Also, there were some rooms where large groups of people were locked for weeks, left to starve to death. Those rooms, even with people around, were too difficult to really look at. There is something about seeing the physical reality of a place that is simply too overwhelming.

On Wednesday afternoon, as we were waiting for our driver, Palko, Katrina and I decided to get a piercing. We found a place, and they told us that their piercer would be there in ten minutes. So we waited, and suddenly a man came into the room… he was dressed in a black triangular skirt, a black button-up shirt, and big black shoes. His face was pierced everywhere. His eyebrows were shaved and femininely re-drawn. His ears had gauges that were likely 2 inches in diameter. His hair was bleach-blond and slicked pack. He had small, horn-ish implants in his forehead. And most scary of all, he was wearing contacts that made his whole eyes black, except for the irises, which were silver. He was as pale as a ghost, and his fingers were long and skinny… and his nails were also overgrown. I was scared. However, as soon as he started talking, I realized that he was incredibly nice, warm and friendly. Certainly, he was one of the strangest-looking people I’ve ever seen, but his charming personality somehow made his look seem normal… or at least appropriate. So, we trusted him and 30 minutes later, Katrina and I had new piercings. We stayed around and chatted for a little while, and they (his friends at the parlor), told us that he is a really famous piercer, and that we should feel lucky we had our piercings done by him. No big deal :-)

I returned to Kosice on Wednesday evening absolutely EXHAUSTED. I drug my body to school, and a few teachers even told me “you look so tired!” Always a nice thing to hear. But, I made it through the day, and through the week for that matter. Friday evening, I returned to Kasarne with some friends and we saw some Slovak bands perform, Plastic Swans and Swan Bride. They were interesting, at least. And certainly not horrible.

Saturday I met one of my students for a lesson, and then in the evening I met my dear friend Vesna. I am so happy to have met her. Spending time with her is so comfortable and natural that whenever I’m with her I almost feel like I’m home.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and stay warm back in MN!

Love from SR,

anna