Thanksgiving on a Friday

I'll start with a funny story. Two Americans walk into Tesco to buy a turkey for Thanksgiving. Since it will be just the two of them and a friend they are looking for a smaller turkey. Going through the isles they see a bin full of frozen birds. Looks like a turkey without much doubt, so they buy it and take it home. Excited for their first Thanksgiving in Slovakia they show their family the 'bird' they bought. Only to find out it clearly states in German on the packaging that it is a duck. Too late to defrost another bird, they give the duck away and bought two chickens.

Thats how our holiday season began, with a duck. We thought about cooking it but Yemi was not going for it this year. All was not lost, however, our Thanksgiving dinner turned out great in the end. We had the other American from the team over and I made 2 chickens, stuffing, broccoli casserole, mac n cheese, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Not too bad for being an expat I would say. It was a challenge because you cannot buy anything pre-made in these stores, so EVERYTHING had to be from scratch so I had to really up my cooking game.

I got a lot of questions from people at work and other acquaintances about Thanksgiving. Where does it come from, why do we celebrate? It's funny because I did not really have all the answers. I never thought of putting into words what Thanksgiving means to Americans. I basically boiled it down to it's time to come together with family and friends for an extended weekend and reflect and give thanks for all that you have in your life. They definitely did not understand some of the food combination I tried to explain to them. Dishes like sweet potatoe casserole with marshmallows on top or pumpkin pie sounded a little to strange to them. One of the assistants, Silvia, gave me a special candle set for the table with our big dinner. She is so nice. We meet on Thursday mornings at the office early around 7:00 and I give her a english lesson and she helps me with my Slovak. It's a great trade-off, just a little early. I joked with the office that I may be the only American dentist to ever work on Thanksgiving! We all know dentists don't work holidays, or wednesdays for that matter!

Now our debate is whether or not to invest in a little holiday cheer and buy a tree and some decorations for christmas. It would definitely help put us in the holiday spirit but it's hard to justify the expense when we'll just toss it after this season. The troubles of transient life. One season here another season there, learning a lot but makes me look forward to setting up some roots someday.

Junior Rail Pass Plus

Last week I got my Junior Rail Pass, they cut you deal if your under 26 so I barely squeezed by. It gives discount on train fairs and since I take the train to work it's a great deal. Plus it gives discount at local book stores and other shops. Taking the train out here is a challenge at the best. The Slovakian train system is not what you think it would be if you are used to the Belgium and German train systems. The first couple times I took it I was totally lost. The trains are circa 1935, seriously this is where trains go to die. There is no electronic features on the train, meaning no displays of the next stop or final destination. There is no PA system, meaning there is no announcement of the next stop/station. You have to manually open the doors on all trains they don't just open at each stop, you have to crank the lever and wind them open. Also most stations do not have signs posted, so if you don't recognize the stop then you don't know what it is, not very foreigner friendly. I am used to them now, but at first it was stressful to say the least. The Iron Curtain on public transportation hasn't quite been lifted yet....

Tonight I am going with Yemi to Modra, a smaller town about 5 miles away. Another dentist in the office is playing with his band in a restaurant/wine cellar recently opened by a friend. We're excited because the place looks really cool from the website. Check is out with this link.

Yemi's Number One Fan

I am watching Yemi's game vs Handlova from home right now on Slovak TV channel 3. The game is away and I worked too late to make it on time. It's the first game I missed! I am having withdrawls, I need my twice weekly dose of basketball, no only kidding but I do wish I could be in the stands.

Yemi is playing so well here and he has excitement for the game again. Watching him play now reminds me of watching him at DU. Pezinok has a strong team with a good coach and it is a professional franchise. I am so proud of him and all the hard work he puts into the practices and games.

This is a good panoramic of the gym he plays at. There are a lot more pictures and information on this site and more stats and news for the whole league on this site.


DU's own Mitch Hyder did a great interview with Yemi over the summer. You can get to it on youtube with this link.

Politicking and the Velvet Revolution

Here we are twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, living in Slovakia a country very much known as a Soviet satellite communist country prior to the Velvet Revolution. In November 1989 the Velvet Revolution began and since 1993 when Czechoslovakia separated, Slovakia has been at the heart of it all. When the Berlin Wall fell I was too young to appreciate the significance of such an event let a lone see any relevance it may have in my life. The road for Slovakia has been rough. I see it everyday I spend here, this is not a rich country and they are painfully aware of that fact. However, people here are optimistic. Everyone, even people my age say things are getting better and have improved significantly in the last few years. So far 3 presidents have been elected in their democracy each serving 5 years.

Ten years ago the United States and EU made a public statement regarding their growing concern over the Slovak democracy, but these faded as Slovakia continued to inch closer to government stability with each election. However, I found articles as recent as last year slamming Slovakian democracy due to their questionably strong ties with the Catholic church. Slovakia has many provisions in their government for church, but in particular the Catholic church. Apparently Slovakia uses tax dollars to fund the building of catholic churches and private schools. They allow any health professional to deny services based on their catholic ideals such as dispensing contraception. This is a bigger deal than many in the states might believe because the medical system here is public meaning they have 'universal health care' and essentially all hospitals are run on the same system. Religion is mandatory in all Slovak schools from 6-18 years of age. The EU has publicly come out against it's newer member state regarding these issues. Essentially it all seems to boil down to complete integration of church and state.

When reflecting on this information I believe there are many possible explanations. This society is still reeling from the former communist regime where religion was all but forbidden. Deprivation of anything becomes a craving of something. After years without being able to comfortably practice religion Slovakians were overly accepting of the catholic churches initiatives while forming the foundations of their democracy.

In another train of thought, not all that communism left behind in this country is bad. There is a strong system of higher education provided free to all Slovak nationals. The dentists I work with here have no student debt, I cannot fathom how liberating it would be to graduate dental school with no debt. They have universal public health care which has been transformed to a more socialist mandatory health insurance system and the level of access here is greater than the states.

I was speaking politics with a doctor I work with and was really intrigued by his political sentiments. This is of course as alway is only opinion, but he said that generally they trust more wealthy politicians than those coming from poor or mediocre financial situations. Initially this shocked me because growing up in America I believe the opposite. When a very rich politician campaigns back home the opposition attacks and labels them as out of touch or inevitably corrupt. I am sure we all saw the smear ads about McCain regarding his 7 houses worth over 14 million while the rest of country suffered in the recession. He explained to me that here they believe a poorer politician will use his first years in office trying only to acquire wealth for himself and in contrast a richer politician already has all that he needs and can focus more on the issues and tasks at hand. An interesting perspective that made me think in some ways the attitude in Slovakia is more free market democracy than at home where distrust of the high upper class, especially during hard times, is the more common frame of reference.

I also stumbled across a Health Care in Transitions report from the EU while doing some research. It's long and a little over detailed but it has some great information so if your curious or want more information you can check it out.

Halloween vs All Saints' Day

On November 1st every year Slovakia celebrates All Saints' Day. Traditionally a catholic holy day, Slovakia celebrates by visiting the cemeteries and graves of family members and loved ones the night before. They pray and remember and light candles which burn until the morning of the first day in November. It is a big deal here, schools were closed on Friday in remembrance of this day.

Slovakia celebrates Halloween mainly in the capital. Many pubs and bars, the irish pub in particular, host special events like costume contests and special drinks with spooky themes. There is no trick or treating with kids dressed up.

On Saturday I was with Yemi and the team driving back from his game in Svit, a town about four hours northeast. We drove past 3 or 4 cemeteries and they were all glowing from candle light. It was a very cool but kind of eerie image. About two weeks ago the grocery store had a whole isle dedicated to these candles in a red glass. People were buying tons of them and I was totally baffled. It all makes sense now after seeing those cemeteries. People were stocking up on the special candles that are used at the graves.