Clever like a radio.

Wow, it's been a while. Sorry about that. I guess I'll pick up from last weekend-the Rotary Bratislava trip. A very bare-bones summary would be that all of the events were pretty pathetic and poorly organized, but we exchange students had a fantastic time anyway just being together and speaking lots and lots of English. To make a short story long, the whole thing started when Jan (host dad) drove Haley and I to Bratislava, where we stopped at Ikea to get some Swedish Meatballs for lunch. We ran through Ikea real quick like, stopping to get my secret santa gift, which I, in typical me fashion, had completely spaced about until that morning. One awesome stuffed rat later, we were back in the car headed for the bus station, where we met up with everyone else and left for the hotel. We went up to our assigned rooms, crammed into itty-bitty elevators, and dumped our stuff on the beds before putting on our silly rotary blazers and going to some bank place, which apparantly is one of the tallest buildings in the whole, entire country, which would have been a more impressive boast if they hadn't been simultaneously boasting that, on a clear day, you could see two other countries from the top. Before they let us head up to the top, though, they had us sit and listen to some bank guy talking about the euro in slovakia- or at least that's what we think he was talking about. I felt sort of bad for wasting his time. Anyway, we went up and took pictures, then went back down again. We then loaded back on the bus and went to the old city, which was all decked out for christmas. Chelsea and I made it our aim to get lost early enough that we had enough time to find our way back. We succeeded, then hung out at this bar place which was gorgeously decorated with glowy colorful lighted walls and giant black and white pictures of beautiful people on the remaining walls. I could be confusing this with another day, but I think we then went to this pub place which we totally took over to give our secret santa presents and play pool, at which I lost magnificently, which is how I do everything. It was Whitney's birthday, too, so we had cake and sang "happy birthday," first in English, then Slovak, then the Mexicans sang in Spanish, and the Brazilians sang in Portugese. It took a while. Anyway, afterward, we went back to the hotel and hung out. I taught a roomful of exchange students how to play Ruckus in Slovak, since View is Thai and doesn't really speak much English. So that was sweet. It should also be noted that every three rooms shared a bathroom and toilet, and that my roommates and I were unyieldingly sarcastic to one another, making up for nearly four months of a) being polite and b) speaking Slovak. It was awesome. The next morning, we all got up and breakfasted on tea, rolls and hot dogs, which is, unfortunately, pretty typical Slovak breakfast fare, then set off on a whirlwind sightseeing adventure. The bus dropped us at Bratislava castle, where we were left to wander around and take pictures of ourselves for maybe three hours, before the bus failed to make its rendezvous, so we walked around by some church for about another hour waiting for the bus to come. When it finally did, it took us to the tv broadcasting tower for another view of the city and adjacent countries and lunch in the fancy restaurant at the top. Afterward, another bus ride brought us to a little red tourist train. Those of us lucky enough to sit in the back car with no adult supervision had a grand old time not seeing the sights of Bratislava. We eventually started randomly waving at strangers and pretending to take their picture and generally pretending to be stupid tourists. How fitting, then, when our little red tourist train was ambushed by a crowd of randomly waving and picture taking Japanese tourists. The little red tourist train drove all through the old city, ("hey, we were lost here!" said Chelsea) and took us- why not?- back to Bratislava Castle. The intercom voice lady then pointed out several bridges over the Danube, mentioning that the smallest one was damaged by Americans in the second world war. We all looked at our shoes. I muttered, "sorry". When we loaded back on the little red tourist train, we in the back car were joined, surprisingly, by some random Irish tourists. "We haven't paid- we're just hopping a ride," they said as the train pulled away, "Where are we going?". When we explained that we were with an organization and had no idea where they'd take us next, they jumped. Off the little red tourist train. Yeah, it was nuts. Anyway, we then walked across the bridge to the biggest mall in Slovakia, for what it's worth. I bought a pair of skinny black pants, then spent the rest of the night in a state of nervous breakdown over them. Never did I think I would own a pair of skinny black pants. Anyway, after a mere three hours shopping, we all gathered and went back to the hotel, where we got ready for the club that night. I spend most of the getting ready time wandering around, panicked, in my new skinny black pants trying to borrow a shirt that would make me feel less like I was wearing tight black pants. The disco itself, despite being "the biggest club in Slovakia" was sort of a letdown. Basically just a smoke-filled room full of people who thought they were cooler than they probably were. There were two slutty dancers (and I use the term "dancer" loosely) on the stage, even. Eventually, the girl who was kicked off of Slovak Superstar the previous week came out on the stage and sang, and that was kind of it. We went back to the hotel around midnight. The next morning was the dreaded test, which I still maintain was poorly designed. I don't really want to talk about it, then after breakfast, we went home. Jan came and picked us up, and I slept most of the way back to Banska Bystrica. And that's about all.