Let's Recap, and a bit of a Rant

It occurs to me that today, I have been in Slovakia for exactly four weeks. This span of time is usually considered a month, although the calendar says that the one month aniversary of my first full day in Slovakia will take place on Friday. So, in honor of this occaision, let us have a recap:

Bratislava is radically different than Southwest Missouri. It gets cold enough to need a sweatshirt in late August, has REAL public transportation, has upteen kabillion parks and cemeteries that are almost exactly like parks. Jana Krishna is the most popular singer, Orange, T-Mobile, and O2 are the only cell phone service providers, and flat is not existent. The tv shows are all in Slovak or Czech, with the exception of CNN and BBC, and English is not spoken outside the classroom. School does not run from the same time to the same time everyday, and there is no set lunch period.
Bratislava is the same as Southwest Missouri. Friends like to get together and talk. Students get bored in class, and don't always pay attention. Everyone has a cell phone. Making friends with kids who have been together for four years is tricky. Sitting on your own at lunch for the first time since you had Solitary Lunch in fifth grade is God awful. Making friends feels amazing. Twilight (Or I guess I should say Súmrak) is popular.
All in all: Bratislava is very different, and very similar at the same time. It's a weird experience, but I'm slowly getting myself accustomed to its quirks.
Some changes to expect when I come home: A knowledge of how to use public transportation, and sadly for Mom and Dad, a fondness for texting. It's much cheaper for Beth and I to text each other on our phones when we need to ask each other something, or just want to talk than it is to actually call, and since we're the ones forking over the euro.....

On another note, I have my first škúsa tomorrow. It's in French. I just spent half the night studying the Slovak infinitives of a bunch of verbs I already know in English. It made my head hurt. A lot. It was miserable! At least I already know all the conjugations....

I also have to get some more waterproof tennis shoes. Apparently, it gets wet quite frequently in Bratislava. Warning the parents, when you get a fairly large charge on the credit card, it's because cheap tennis shoes can't be found here in Bratislava. It's kind of annoying, even though I'm sure Mary Catherine would tell me that they're not that expensive. At least I wanted some different tennis shoes for gym class....

And for those of you waiting impatiently for email: I'm sorry. Gmail has decided to be highly annoying and not allow rich text editor (whatever that is) to load, meaning I'm not allowed to write you until it cooperates! When it does, I'll let you know. I might switch to another server if this continues. If that happens, again, I'll let you know.

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