Brett and Sylvia

After traveling to Ludwigsburg to visit some of our friends, Sylvia and I drove back toward the Czech Republic to stay with some of my relatives. On our drive back, we were finally able to stop at one of the places in Germany I have always wanted to see, Berchtesgaden with its Obersalzburg retreat area that is the location of the Kehlsteinhaus more commonly known by Americans as Hitler's "Eagles Nest." Obersalzburg is located high up in the Bavarian Alps very near the Austrian border. We actually had to cross the Austrian border for about 5km. Since Austria requires a special permit to drive on its main highways, the Austrian police were scamming unwitting Germans in this short 5km area and checking for these permits and handing out fines! Luckily, Sylvia and I had purchased on ... read more

In March, Sylvia and I took the opportunity to visit one of my friends and former grad school classmates, Kelly, during his diplomatic assignment at the American Embassy in Moscow. We nearly gave up on trying to obtain visas, but after three truly unpleasant encounters with the Russian embassy in Bratislava (including paying double for expedited visas), we finally were set for our trip. We flew from Kosice through Prague to Moscow and Kelly met us at the airport. We travelled to their house which is inside the American, British, and Canadian housing compound in Moscow and really a nice place. We were a bit worried about this trip because of the recent metro bombings in Moscow, but decided to travel anyway. The bombings occurred two weeks before our trip on the day we got our ... read more

I apologize for not writing this blog entry several months ago, but we just received our wedding pictures a few days ago. Sylvia and I came to Slovakia this year knowing that we would get married here on the 2nd of January, 2010. For this reason, we had already started making plans in the United States and once we arrived in June, Sylvia got to work putting the plans into action. We first had to navigate a maze of legal paperwork. We had to establish my residency in Slovakia to make my situation legal, and then obtain certified copies of my necessary documents from the United States. Can I just say that I am tired of European police? Second, we had to satisfy the Catholic Church with documents so that we could get married in the ... read more

I recently made a trip to visit a second school for Roma in the region around Roznava. A few kilometers outside of town is the village of Brzotin, which has a population of a few hundred and a large percentage of Roma (gypsies). I struggle with the use of these kinds of terms (gypsies versus Roma, etc) because they all carry various political meanings. I have found that in academics, one must be rather careful with the use of such terms since they can be considered inappropriate or offensive in certain contexts. So with this said, I will continue with the term "gypsy" because of its familiarity, although "Roma" is perhaps a more precise word. My Slovak language teacher taught Slovak and Russian at the school in Brzotin many years ago before it was designated as ... read more

All Saints Day in Slovakia, as well as many other Slavic countries, is a highly celebrated holy day. Throughout the entire weekend, Slovak families travel across the country to visit cemeteries where their deceased family members are located. Cemeteries overflow with flowers and thousands and thousands of candles are lit and placed on the graves. Families take time to meet together and take care of their family members' gravesites. Because some families must travel to multiple cemeteries across large areas of Slovakia, this begins taking place on Friday and doesn't end until late Sunday night, when the actual observance of All Saints takes place. Virtually all Slovaks travel to their local cemetery late on Sunday night to pay respects and light candles. Additionally, war memorials that commemorate the World Wars are highly decorated. Although the practice ... read more