What has been foretold has come to pass.....

Well. We have two days to recount. On Sunday, I did not go to church (we're still working on that one. Miša is determined to find a church that has English services, or as she puts it "mass". I think I'm going to be Catholic for a year....) At any rate, I did, however, spend most of the day with Petra. First, we went to the Danubiana art gallery. It's an art museum, with a sculpture garden right on the Danube, near the Hungarian border. The views are spectacular. You could just see the amazing, positively ruined castle of the nearby village (the last Slovakian village before you get to Hungary) in the distance. So cool. Anyway, the sculptures were very modern art-esque, a style of which I was never really fond. Inside the gallery, there was an exhibition of an artist of whom I'm again, not dreadfully fond. Neither was Petra, for that matter. We both eagerly await the arrival of the next exhibition, because, unfavoring of the artwork though I was, I did love the gallery itself, and the sculpture garden. At any rate, Petra and I got coffee at the little gallery coffee shop before we left. Petra got a latte of some variety, I got what is known as a Vienedská, a coffee with a lot of whipped cream, and a lot of sugar. After eating about half the whipped cream, mixing the rest into my coffee, and then mixing in copious amounts of sugar from the table, I was actually rather fond of it. See my high tolerence of the extremely bitter drink. Maybe I should stick to mochas....
After that, Petra and I went to Aupark, one of the three malls that I know of in Bratislava. We went to a bookstore, and I, tired of running through books at an incredibly fast pace, went for a book I knew would take me forever and a day: a copy of the complete Lord of the Rings novels. You know, one of those ridiculously huge things that has all three books? I think it was a wise decision, personally. In addition, I got a few articles of clothing, and did a bit of a look around in two popular, and slightly less expensive clothing stores. They're definitely cheaper than France, I must say!
After that, we went home. Fairly simple, no?

Today, however, was a bit different. Today, you see, was my first Rotary meeting. Such fun. Miša had deemed that, having gone with her to the bus stop twice before, I clearly did not need her to go with me to see me onto the bus. I said that I thought I remembered the way, hoping that she would see that "thought" meant "about 90% sure, maybe actually 85% would be a better number, that I remembered the way". I decided to leave at about 5:30, which would give me about 10 minutes to get slightly lost. Besides, I had a cell phone, I could call Petra if I needed help.
Well, some of you who know me have anticipated the punchline: I FINALLY find the bus stop at around 8:14, a minute after the 8:13 bus left, and seven minutes before the next bus. Petra had not answered her phone (I later found out that she had been roller blading, and hadn't had her phone with her) when I called frantically, and Miša's English did not work out very well over the phone. So, irritated, and knowing that I'm going to be SO late to my first Rotary meeting, I settle down to wait for the bus. Fortunately, it arrived a bit early, so I got to Crowne Plaza, where the meeting was held, a bit faster.
I was about 25 minutes late, and showed up in the middle of business. Brilliant. Five minutes later, Petra called me, and I answered very, very quietly. Apparently, Miša had called her in a total panic, because, while I had spoken to her while I was on the bus to the meeting, she was still horrified that I was lost in the city. Basically, Petra called, made sure I was there, and told me to call her after the meeting, and she would give me a ride home. I accepted gratefully. I saw no need to get lost. Again. I felt significantly better when someone else's phone went off during the meeting, and when another Rotarian showed up even later than I did.
Still, I accepted the carbonated water (I hate the taste of carbonated water) I had been given with dinner as a pennance for my sin of showing up late, and neglecting to turn off my phone.
I got to meet my counselor at the meeting. He's very nice, and I look forward to getting to know him. I also met the other two exchange students, Beth, who's from upstate New York, and Carlos, who's from Mexico. I didn't get to talk to Beth very much; her ride was already at the hotel, and she was leaving pretty quickly, but Carlos and I talked for quite a while outside the hotel, waiting for our rides. I am pleased to report that yes, there were other people who came in not knowing the required 300 word vocabulary. If Carlos and I fail, we will fail together! This makes me happy. We spent most of the ten minutes or so until Petra got there swapping stories of how our first week had gone, comiserating on the having little or no knowledge of Slovak level. I think he and I are going to get along just fine.
That's about it. Petra and I drove home, explained to Miša that I was really, really horrible about directions, and figured out where I'd messed up (turns out, there's a set of stairs that has a street crossing through the middle of it. I only took the first half of the steps. Of course! So simple! So... typical of me.) Then Petra went home, and we watched tv in Slovak, while I read some Lord of the Rings. I did try to pay attention at times, I really did, but when you don't understand anything, you tend to give up fast. I did learn that an actor in a popular show called... Penliek, I think, but don't hold me to that spelling, was a classmate of their younger daughter, Paula, who's currently on her exchange in Mexico.

And that's all there is. There isn't anymore.