Updating the Travel Map

So I figured it would be a good idea to update the travel map. I first saw this on Griner's blog, but tonight I was inspired as I was trolling myspace and ran across an old friend from high school, well we go back farther than that, my first memory of him is from the second grade when he asked me to be his Valentine and made me a shirt that professed his love. Isn't second grade grand - well anyways back to the travel map. It appears that I am still below 10% - despite all of my recent travels. Karyn mentioned it when we were in Europe over spring break, "did you know we will be in Europe three times in one year?" The answer, ummm no I hadn't really thought of it like that. Too bad I won't be able to sustain this much longer, especially after grad school is over and I really have no reason to go back. So I will be working on finding a reason to go back. Or maybe I will make that Bruce's job - Bruce get on that!

So I am looking back and it appears that I haven't really dove head first in exploring more of our travels to Bratislava. We went there to help a school. The school generously paid for our hotel and meals while we were there. However, the hotel wasn't quite what any of us where expecting. It was off in this neighborhood where NO ONE spoke English, which made it difficult because we didn't speak any Slovakian. The hotel was called: Hotel Rapid, and it was really just a dormitory for soccer camp. Outside our windows were soccer fields and the halls at night where filled with drunken soccer players. I would say the accommodations were minimalist. But we had fun regardless and I am still thankful that they picked up the tab because it really saved us some money.

The kids we worked with are very nice. I still get emails from some of the girls. They seem to be more excited about filming now than when we were there. Yes it turns out that students in Bratislava are much like students in St. Clair county, they have to be excited about the project for you to feel like it isn't work. What do I mean? Well it turns out that the owners of the school were very excited about the project and their sons (who are in the gymnasium class) were very excited but the rest of the very small class, well they were not as excited. At one point, I pulled a typical "Mrs. Angry Holladay" move that ended up with me walking away and the students feeling guilty and getting back to work. I don't know what it is and I cannot teach others how to do it, but when I figure it out I will be able to make millions.

The best part of Bratislava (in my opinion) was hanging out with our friend Doug and his family. They are such great people and I had a lot of fun with them. They took us downtown, we hung out in their apartment, we went out to dinner with their kids. It was a grand time. Another fun part is that fact that Doug will be joining us in Switzerland this summer. So we will have a chance to reminisce about Spring Breatk 2008.