Tags
aborad, bar, beer, birds, Budapest, Case Western Reserve University, CDs, Europe, family, geneology, goodbyes, hockey, Hungary, ice hockey, ice skating, India, lake, mail, marina, park, pizza, post, post office, purple martins, research, restaurant, roller skating, rollerblading, saris, shipping, Slovakia, solo, student, study aborad, tickets, train, travel, Zilina
Today was an easy day. Juraj worked from home and I busied myself with train tickets and travel arrangements. He played videos from when he was in America ten years ago. That was the last time I saw him. He played a video of the first hockey scrimmage I ever played. It was with him, my brother, and several kids from town. I at least knew how to iceskate from figure skating, but it was still very hilarious. My brother played in goal because he was too good to skate with us. Juraj also showed me videos of home and commented on the CDs my mom plays to attract Purple Martins and I told him she had been trying for four years and, fourteen years later, there still were no birds. She ironically texted me an hour or two later to inform me that she now has a Purple Martin family.
In the afternoon, we took my Indian saris and several gifts and books that I no longer need to the post office. We shipped the box of things home and sent a stack of post cards I had as well. We stopped for a quick beer where he and friends often drink. When I got back, I did some laundry and then Juraj tried to fix my skates so we could go skating around the marina later.
Patrik, Juraj, and I skated for a good time around the marina. It was both of their first times. I was using wheels that do not properly fit my skates and so I lost three of them while skating. I ended up taking two out, rearranging the rest, and skating on six instead of eight. Skating a particular way, I could keep them from falling out again. Patrik did great until we came to a downhill point and he fell several times. Juraj was fine, although he complained it is much different than ice hockey and ice skating. We then went for pizza and beer before coming home.
Now we are out drinking our Skalica wine and čaj, sitting by a fire, and eating snacks. With all of the geneology research I do to trace my routes to other places, I find it interesting that several people tonight wanted me to show them how to trace their family on the internet to where they ended up in Europe. Rather than asking Where I am from, it is asking Where did my cousins go.
I still have to pack but I am so tired… I leave for Budapest in the morning. I am very sad to be saying goodbye. It was a long decade the last time and I don´t like leaving, imaging another long decade ahead…
