My Name Day

Party at Terka's!!!

Adam, Miska, and I eating bryndzove halusky!

Adam and I making Halusky!!!

My next major Slovak cultural experience was my very first name day. Alzbeta has a name day on November 19th. Back in September we celebrated Miska's name day, where a bunch of us teachers went out for a cup of coffee and a glass of wine after school. Miska got some flowers and some other things, and it was pretty cool. Ok, so American's reading this are probably thinking, "What the heck is a name day?" Everyday in the calendar year has a name associated with it, and it used to be a law that you could only choose your child's name from this list. I don't know too much more about it, except that Slovaks bring sweets to school, and their friends take them out for a drink and buy them a little gift of some sort.

Well, for my name day, my friend Terka invited us over to her apartment and she taught us how to make my favorite Slovak dish, bryndzove halusky! It also doubled as a Slovak lesson too, where we learned the words for flour and boil etc. The picture of just Adam is him grating a potato to make part of the halusky dough. The picture of the two of us is us putting the dough into boiling water to make the Halusky. Once those are done cooking, you mix it with bryndza, sheep cheese, and put bacon on top. I would say that this dish is the Slovak version of Mac and Cheese, only it's way better!!! Anyways, so the party was Terka, Adam, Miska and me. It was so much fun! We sat around the table and chatted, and they also got me those cool sunglasses you see in the pictures.

The next day I brought cookies and brownies to school for all of the teachers. The cookies were a big hit, but unfortunately I can't give anyone the recipe because they don't have granulated brown sugar over here. Later during the day, my teacher friends came in and told me how wonderful it was to have me here etc, and then they gave me a scarf. I about cried, and I was so happy that I gave each one of them a hug! It probably shocked some of them because Slovaks aren't used to the "big American embrace". It was so great because it was the first time in a long time that I've actually felt accepted and a part of something so great!

The Rest of the Hiking Club Trips

Group shot in Ziarska Dolina, Eating sausages after an exhausting morning and Terka climbing the chimney!

Me on the rock

To finish up my entry on our school’s hiking club trips, the day we hiked Baranec, we spent the night at Ziarska Chata. We played twister and another really fun game where we had to talk with a match stick in our mouth. Some of us were more successful than others, but it was still a good time! The picture above is of Ala, Domenika, Adam and me playing twister.

The next trip we went on was rock climbing, which was cold, challenging, and so fun! We took a bus to Demanovska Dolina early on a Sunday morning, and yes, I didn't go to church that day. I also learned from this experience that hiking boots are not the best shoes to use to be climbing a rock face because it makes foot placement that much more difficult! Out of the three teachers that went (minus Nadja), Terka was the most successful. Poor Adam only made two attempts, and didn’t make it to the top of one of the “runs”. Several students went on this trip, and some who didn't go on the earlier hiking trip went to this time. Nadja also brought her daughter, Terezka, who was a little trooper. Everything was supervised by one of Nadja's friends who is a climbing expert. He provided all of the equipment, set up the courses, and was monitoring in case anything should happen. It was a great time!