My Slovak Christmas! (part 2)

One of my favorite Christmas experiences was spending time at the Christmas Market, both in the capital city of Bratislava, and in Vienna (we made a day trip during our Thanksgiving retreat). They had many hot baked snacks and desserts, and they always serve both red and white hot wine. I enjoyed Christmas shopping there because of the variety of stands! Many shops had crafty Christmas ornaments or stockings, some had handmade jewelry, hats, or bags. There were shops with music, shops with candles, shops with ceramic and glass decorations and knick knacks, puppets, almost anything you could think of. There were big beautiful trees lit up at both markets, and the Vienna market was especially beautiful because it was in front of a cathedral and had thousands of lights. I'm happy that I got to visit both of these markets with my fellow volunteers, and glad that they were in November. It really helped get me into the holiday spirit early on!

The high school I help teach at had a Christmas/end of the semester party. I went to the event not really knowing what to expect and found out that their "party" was sort of like a talent competition. Each class group had a chance to prepare some kind of skit, lip sync song & dance, or musical number. They competed against each other (all of the teachers were the judges) for the prize of one free day off from school! Not a bad prize :-) There was an interesting variety of things, everything from singing traditional Slovak Christmas carols, to playing scenes from the "Sister Act" movies, to imitating the Spice Girls and characters from Baywatch. I'm not really sure if Baywatch or the Spice Girls are very "Christmasy," but it was entertaining anyway. I got to put in a vote for the winner, and they made me and Mirke go up onto the stage and announce the winner! I think the students liked me more after I told them that they could have a free day off from school! Through the school I was also invited to the staff banquet. It turned out to be quite nice, and at a fancier restaurant, and the food was fantastic! I really enjoyed working with the teachers from Obchodna Akademia, even though I couldn't speak to most of them. I was taking Slovak language lessons from one of the lower-level English teachers, and she was enthusiastic about baking me Slovak Christmas cookies. She gave me a LARGE bag full.

I also spent some time before Christmas with my friend Beata (the other English teacher I work with) and her family. Beata enjoys Christmas, but doesn't really care about decorating...SO I volunteered to decorate her Christmas tree for her and she agreed! I spent the evening decorating their tree with her older son Stanko (age 7), and we also decorated his little tree in the boys' room. Her younger son Marek (age 3) came back the next morning and we had tea and chocolate cakes together. I also spent time at Beata's sister's house. Edita and her family have also been really sweet and welcoming, so I was happy to celebrate with them too. I got in a little food preparation for their Christmas dinner, and of course we had a few glasses of plum brandy (Slivovica, traditional Slovak drink). We also watched "Home Alone" dubbed in Slovak, and I helped her two younger kids give the family dog a bath. Not the first thing I imaginaed myself doing in Slovakia on Christmas, but it turned out to be pretty fun!

I spent Christmas Eve at the center with the residents and nurses. We had a special Christmas Eve service in the center before dinner. The chapel room was decorated with a big tree, loaded with gold tinsel. There was also a big nativity scene at the front, along with lit wooden window hangings in each window. Very pretty, and we sang "Silent Night" in Slovak! I sang part in English for tradition's sake, and attempted the rest in Slovak. After church we had a big dinner together. Almost all of the residents came down to the dining room to be together, even the ones who usually choose to stay in their rooms for meals. It is Slovak tradition to have fish for their Christmas meal, because they aren't supposed to eat meat at all on Christmas day. We also had special waffles with honey(not like ours, but crispy, thin and stiff with cream in the middle. We had warm grape juice and there were baskets of fruit everywhere! Potato salad (pretty similar to ours) is also a traditional Christmas food here. After dinner I said goodnight to the residents and went to visit a few of my favorites and spend some time with them. I visited the room of two sisters, Emilia and Judita, and they offered me many treats and cakes as I tried to have another Slovak conversation with them. These two are amazing, and I enjoyed spending time with them and hearing about their family. They asked if I liked the Christmas service earlier that night and I told them I did. Then Judita just randomly started singing "Silent Night" in Slovak, and Emilia joined in. It was really amazing, and I eventually joined in and sang in English with them. I think this was my favorite thing I did this Christmas!

I eventually hung out with Zuza at the end of the night. We exchanged gifts we watched fairy tales (one similar to Cinderella that's really famous in Slovakia). Watching Christmas movies (either American or Czech usually), Slovak or Czech fairytales, and other random movies (Finding Nemo is popular for Christmas time) is a big Christmas tradition here.

I didn't even realize how many different ways I celebrated Christmas this year until I started writing these blogs...all in all it was a pretty wonderful and unique holiday season!!