Happy New Year! Hope all of your resolutions are either going terrifically or have already come to a quick conclusion so that you can continue living happily—as you probably were before.
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Lisa and I were scheduled to travel to northeastern Slovakia after our week teaching in Tábor. Since we had revisited Bratislava the weekend before, we decided that we should see Prague one more time before heading home for the holidays.
After successfully leaving Hliník nad Hronom through the help of my new Slovakian friends, I took a couple trains to a town in central Slovakia called Ružomberok (pronounced: Roo-zhom-bare-oak.) After being apart for a couple weeks, Lisa and I reunited there for a relaxing weekend. It is a pretty good sized town and has all sorts of options for accommodation; people often stay there when skiing in the low section of the Tatras mountain chain. Since it was off-season, though, we were able to find a very nice penzion that only charged about 8 Euros per night.
Prior to going there, some people told me that the whole town smells funny due to a nearby paper factory. I didn’t smell anything, though. Who knows.
After our trip to Ukraine, it was time to hit the schools again. I guess that is why I’m here. Honestly, the week off was nice, but when you’re in these minor towns time starts to drag a little bit without something to do. Bank accounts start to drag, too. More so because of the latter reason, I was definitely ready to get back in the classroom.
This past week was the first time that Lisa and I were split up. She hung around Košice and did some private lessons and lesson planning while I went to Jaromer, Czech Republic (pronounced: Yar-oh-mee-esh) with our new comrade, Kevin. He’s an Irish guy who also works for our company. His new obsession is the song “Gangnam Style”—I haven’t been home so I’m not sure if this is a European thing or a worldwide phenomenon. If it isn’t yet, it will be soon. Show your friends the music video now so that they will think you’re ahead of the musical loop when it gets popular. It’s probably already famous, though. I know how Yanks love their Korean pop…
A WAYFARER'S MURMURINGS 