Dancing time away in Bratislava

I've reached the end of day 4 in Bratislava and I must say that I'm slowing begining to love this country and the people The people in the research group have been excellent hosts. Last night, they took me to a local restaurant in the city where i got a full meal (drinks, salad, and one large dish of food) for only $4.25! No joke. My entire meal was under $5, and I couldn't even finish it. It was crazy. Every day at 3pm we all take off for a coffee break in the academy cafeteria where coffee and a desert cost only 75 cents! Its great. Anyways.....enough about the cheap food.

Today I started working on my actual research. Its been over two weeks since I last performed calculations so I was a little rusty to say the least. It took me over an hour to set up a calculation that ussually only take 5 minutes. But at least, I started the calculation in time. I even had time to make some pretty pictures today. See the picture on the right.



I took off early this afternoon (just like every one else) so I could do some grocery shopping at Tesco. Tesco is like a Walmart. In fact, they sell the same clothes Walmart does. (Cherokee anyone?).

So Tesco is this really big store about three blocks away. Its so big, it even has its own bus stop, and McDonalds. (I must add a quick note about McDonalds, slovak's don't eat there because the food is too expensive. I have to agree, the average McDonald's meal costs $5, which is much more expensive than my large healthy meal in the city.) Tesco is pretty big, even for someone accustomed to Super Walmart. Tesco sells furniture ($300 for a couch isn't bad), clothes, electronics, movies, gas, and finally food. The quality of food isn't great but the selection is pretty decent. But I still haven't been able to find hummus. (My slovak hosts had never heard of hummus so they couldn't help).

Anyways, another highlight of my day was waiting for me at home. I walked into my apartment building to really loud dance music. My first thought was...oh no, one of my neighbors is having a party tonight. Well, I was somewhat correct. My apartment overlooks a small school for developmentally impaired children. I often wake up to them playing on the playground (I live on the 7th floor so its not too loud). Today was "Celebrate the Child" day so the school brought in inflatable games, motorcycles, and a dj for the kids. Earlier today they sold handicrafts that the children made. When I came home around 7pm, a bunch of kids were dancing on the pavillion and getting rides on motorcycles. If you look past the trees, you can see kids waiting in line to get on the motorcycles. The dj was stationed under the gazebo. A bunch of kids just stood around a danced. One kid who couldn't walk was pushed around in a wheelchair while the rest of the kids danced around him. With nothing better to do, I just pulled a chair to my balcony and watched them all dance for a while. Just watching the kids brought a huge smile to my face. My only hope is that they stop dancing before 11pm so I can go to sleep. I'm sure they will. Anyways, I'm need to get back to work. I miss you all very much and I hope to post more pictures soon.