Post 400 From Bratislava*

I am taking a break from hanging out with High Schoolers to post the 400th blog from Galileo School in Bratislava. Our experience here has been interesting. We have been working with our friend Doug Harts** class of gynasium students. We have had two very successful days. However, I am enjoying a much needed break because as it turns out high schoolers in Slovakia are not much different than high schoolers in the US. And today they are more concerned about being cool than working, which can be exhausting. So I have put Doug and Bruce on the task. Overall this experience have been great and despite my slight frustration, I am having a blast.

Slovakia is a very interesting country. First, it turns out that I Slovakian is very much like the Czech language, which means I understand nothing. We have learned to say please - proism which sounds like pro-see-um. And then there is thank you, which I dont know how to spell correctly however I can show you how to pronounce it dock-kew-em. I learned yesterday from the students that Apache means -if you like. Other than that I might as well be a mute.

The architecture of the city is a very interesting mix. You still see major reminants of communism, with massive buildings made from cement. But there is still a very quaint Old Town - with shopping and historic building. Right now there is push to renovate the communist gray buildings, what they are doing is basically putting insulation and stucco on the outside and painting them bright colors.

Yesterday we ventured to Old Town with Doug and his family - Carolyn, Justin and Anja. We drank Schokolade - which is basically the richest hot chocolate you have ever tasted. It is delicious. I also bought my traditional keepsake from any country - a pin for the very extensive pin collection. Then we went out for Chinese food. Yes Chinese, we have been eating a lot of traditional food, which is basically plates of meat. It is good, but Chinese was a nice break.

Tomorrow we are heading to Vienna, though my German is poor at best, I look forward to being around a familar language. One that I can recognize and muddle my way through. Well I am declaring my break over, I should go out and work with the kids again. However, I am sitting next to three kids who are really enjoying the editing and it is very refreshing. So to say the least I am re-energized.

*Pictures to come, hopefully our hotel will have internet access in Vienna. Our hotel here is well I will save that for another post.

**Proper punctuation is very difficult on a Slovakian keyboard. They have extra letters that accompany the keys with apostrophes and I cant figure out how to make them work. So for now I will just stick with poor punctation.