04 September 2008

Some things about Slovakia I may never get used to

a list I may keep adding to
  1. The near-ubiquitous use of nylons amongst women of all ages. I mean, I didn't wear nylons to the three proms I went to! Perhaps my aversion to nylons is truly post-feminist American female; remember these girls?
  2. The near-ubiquitous use of nylons amongst women of all ages with the addition of wearing sandals. I try so hard to be so euro, but socks + sandals is something I just can't do.
  3. Units of measurement, specifically with regard to weight. This was a problem for me in Italy, too. Here you use deka (deca?), which I don't even know is for grams or kilo grams. All I know is that 15 deca is .15 of a kilogram, and 1 kilogram is 2.2 pounds. My conversion widget tells me this is about 1/3 of a pound, but I don't have my laptop with me at the salami counter, obviously.
  4. The Speakers. This is like a Socialist-era hangover, and it really makes me feel kind of funny. Maybe looking further back, it's the electrical age-equivalent of a town crier. But seriously, I can't get used to it. In Petra's village, they play a different song depending on the reason for the announcement, which usually is about the week's soccer match -- so there's a special soccer song. Yesterday afternoon in Ružomberok, there was a nice jazzy song playing all of a sudden, which sounded like a really loud car radio. Then The Voice came on. It's really very strange. Then they play out The Voice with the song again. Evidently there are a lot of jokes about this speaker system -- maybe along the lines of "Dear Fellow Community Members, today nothing happened."

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