Pink Toilet Paper?

Funny thing about Europe: pink colored toilet paper.

I find myself at a dull point in work. My boss is gone on a business lunch and some other errands, so I am left to my own devices, with no actual work to do because I am supercharged and finish things ridiculously quickly.

My productivity was at a high level yesterday. I proofread the latest issue and wrote an article for the quarterly newsletter, Bridges (can be found at http://www.britcham.sk/), wrote thank you letters to the speakers and sponsors of Monday's business breakfast, wrote a cover email for an invitation to a seminar sponsored by Ernst & Young, created an excel sheet to keep track of people who register for that seminar, bought a phone card, bought a travel pass (so I don't have to buy the stupid bus tickets anymore), went grocery shopping, and cleaned/organized my room a little bit. I felt good after that.

Another thing about Bratislava: the music, even when it is in English, is rather comical. There is a song that is all instrumental, but has some spoken phrases that proceed like this: "I've seen you around"...."I find you attractive"...."Will you go to bed with me?". Talk about forward. The melody is catchy though. I've also found that "Top Hits" radio stations play the same list of songs every 2 hours...problematic for people like me who work 8 hour days.

I've also been trying to study up on some Slovak before I have to go to lessons. I am at a severe disadvantage when learning because all of my language experience is based in the Romance category. My Lithuanian roommates however, were able to pick up easily on the proninciation of words because some of them are similar. For example. "C" is not pronounced with the usual "kuh" sound. Oh no. That would be too straightforward. It has two pronunciations: "tsz" and "chu", so think tsetse fly and chocolate. All in all, the language has 46 letters. It has our 26, plus letters with accents and other ridiculous additions to them. The letter "Dd" has 4 different representations alone. WHAT?!?!?

Regardless, I am determined to at least learn a little. I said "Dobrý deň" (Good day) to my boss today when I walked into the office, and she loved it. "Ah! Slovak today!" she said. Thus, I need to try harder. I've written down a couple of things that I can study for tonight after dinner (the girls want to take me to an authentic Slovak restaurant...I am SO excited. Their food stapes are potatoes and cheese. What's not to love???)

Some examples of things I am learning:

Dobrý deň (Good day/Good morning)

Jedno pivo, prosím (I would like a beer please)

Kde je WC? (Where is the washroom?)

Hovorim len trošku po slovensky (I lonly know a little bit of Slovak)

Nerozumiem veľmi dobre po slovensky (I don't understand Slovak very well)

Ľúbim ťa! (I love you!)

I know what you're thinking. "Jesus that is a LOT of consonants"! You would be right. I'm working on it. Sort of like where I live, Vlcie hrdlo...took me a while to figure that one out.

I'll upload pictures of ME and where I've been wandering when I get back to the dorm. PROMISE.