Within 2 hours of arriving (I think I flew into Vienna), I was told that I'd be teaching at the Vysoka Skola Ekonomicka (University of Economics) and living in their international dormitory in Petrzalka (accents are missing from the words). Petrzalka was a concrete jungle - literally. Mile after mile of identical poured concrete apartment buildings with the occasional shop buried in the ground floor. Very few trees, very depressing. The dorm was a new building adjacent to the construction site of what was to be the new campus for the school. The school's facilities were the only distinctive buildings in the area, but only because they were not identical to the rest (lest you think that "distinctive" = attractive).

I was assigned an apartment with two other Americans, Mike Seewald and another guy. For some reason, the other guy did not last very long. That was fine since he was pretty wierd. Mike was a good guy. He spoke some Slovak, thanks to his family heritage, and he was pretty easygoing with a good sense of humor. He'd been in town for a week or two so knew a bit more about how to get around. Since I had come over through Students for Czechoslovakia, a volunteer teaching organization founded by Georgetown students after a visit to the campus in early 1990 by Vaclav Havel, I had a "home base" of sorts in the organization's tiny office in a square within the old city of Bratislava. I think the square was "Vaclavske Namiesti" - Wenceslas Square, but I may be confusing it with the one in Prague. I was able to introduce Michael to a lot of other Americans and he played the role of country expert/guide and of course, drinking buddy.

Mike graduated in 1990 as well from Skidmore College. He worked at some restaurant he swore was very nice and very popular called "Hattie's Chicken Shack" (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=hattie%27s+chicken+shack). I also remember that he owned some shares of Oracle which, like my own shares of Syntellect, were in the toilet. We debated dumping our stock but both held - I wish I'd talked him into a swap!

Michael had family living in a small village in the Tatra mountains. Actually, he seemed to have relatives everywhere and on many weekends would take off for a couple of days to return with various kinds of sausage and other foods which he would generously share with me and our other roommates (things had progressed at this point). One day, he announced that we would be going to a wedding in his family's home village. Not only was I invited, but nearly the entire Students for Czechoslovakia gang could come along as well.

It was an amazing time - we were there for 3 days crammed into this ancient but very cozy farmhouse, and we drank more than any of us could have imagined. Amazingly enough, there were plenty of times where we were easily the most sober attendees. I may blog about the wedding in more detail later.

Why am I writing this and pointing to Prof. Brent's page? Justin joined me in Bratislava about 4 months after I arrived. Oh, man, what a time.

Perhaps more later...