After teaching my Charles University class Monday, I headed to the airport, on the metro, for a week in Slovakia. Public transportation here is like water and electricity, universally available and financially accessible. It is one of the factors that make Prague so appealing. I could have called a taxi, but it would not have meant more convenience or more speed, just more cost. The building where I teach is closer to the metro than my office at UF is to the O’Dome faculty parking area. I have a monthly pass, which makes it feel like the ride to the airport is free. The monthly passes are cheaper than my parking at UF. I don’t have a big suitcase to lug on public transportation, in no small part because I don’t have a lot of stuff with me, and also because people here don’t seem to bring a lot of stuff when they travel.
I brought my rolling backpack, which in Gainesville I use to haul books and papers back and forth between home and my office. I carried a week’s clothes in it. In my regular backpack I carried my computer and the numerous chargers for all the electronics that I need to manage my existence…phone, camera, batteries, PDA, computer. Fifteen minutes later, at the end of the metro line, I transferred to the bus for the 20 minute ride the rest of the way to the airport. Most people seem to use this system and the result is that only tourists and folks with heavy suitcases use taxis.
It was about an hour and a half flight on Czech Airlines to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Czech Airlines still serves dinner, even on short flights, so I had a small sandwich and coffee along the way. When we landed and were taxing very fast to the terminal, I saw in the grass next to the runway a huge rabbit. It seemed to be about the size of a cocker spaniel and was running really fast. Thank goodness we didn’t hit him! Now I understand why the Easter Bunny legend arose linked to these jack rabbits. They are big enough to carry a basket of candy…well, sort of.
The Bratislava airport is lively with discount carriers. RyanAir, EasyJet, and SkyEurope fly here with ticket prices as low as $58 round trip from major European cities. It makes Bratislava’s airport a happening place! This morning when I came for my return flight I could barely squeeze in the door there were so many folks checking in at the discounters’ counters.
My trip here resulted from a contact I made at my Fulbright orientation conference in beautiful, snowy Velke Bilovice in February. The cultural attaché from the US Embassy in Slovakia was there and we talked a lot about nonprofits and fund raising. Following up on those conversations, she invited me to come to Slovakia and her colleague, Ivona, arranged a fantastic set of lectures and meetings for me this week. Monday night I stayed in a fancy hotel in Bratislava’s city center. A castle stood on the hill just above the end of the pedestrian-only downtown where my hotel was located. I wondered briefly around the pedestrian area, seeing the US, Japanese, Canadian, and Greek Embassies, the national theater and national symphony halls, and lots of ice cream shops and bars. Lovely evening, lovely city.
Ivona and I left at 7:00 Tuesday morning with the Embassy driver, Petr, (your tax dollars at work, thank you very much) for the three hour ride through rolling hills to Banská Bystrica, a large city in the center of the country.
In Banská Bystrica, I lectured on fund raising and public relations to about 40 freshmen in a Finance and Investments class in the Ekonomická Fakulta at the University Mateja Bela. Mike, the Fulbrighter friend who teaches chemistry there this year and came with his wife Susan to visit me a few weeks ago, came to my lecture.
After the lecture, Mike had to teach and Ivona and I grabbed a quick lunch before we went to the Pedagogic Fakulta for my afternoon lecture in the department of social work. I had an interpreter there. About 40 students came; it was standing room only. What a surprise! Maybe the teacher bribed them :)
The interpreter seemed to take it on herself to explain what I meant, not just what I said. I was determined to be amused instead of annoyed, but I kept wondering what those students were being told I said about public relations. Afterwards, I asked Ivona and was comforted that, only occasionally, was the interpreter’s speech significantly different from my presentation. Mostly she just used more words than needed to covey the meaning, which made it harder to avoid boring the class. I was glad I had build in mini-cases to give them a chance to interact. It worked pretty well, although the normal hesitancy of students to speak up in a situation where they may not have the "right" answer is naturally aggravated by having to speak through an interpreter. Those who responded mostly spoke English and answered me directly, first in English and then in Slovakian. I felt quite "global."
Four women from local nonprofits came to the presentation. After it, we sat in the professor's office and chatted in English about fund raising in Banská Bystrica. They have pretty good support from a couple of companies, but feel they are in competition for giving dollars with the whole world, not just local firms because the companies are multi-national. That was an interesting new perspective for me. The companies are still seeking publicity benefits, rather than relationship-building benefits and they don’t see a reason to give to the firms near their facilities.
In the evening, Ivona, Petr, Mike and Susan, another Fulbrighter Michael and his friend Sara and I had dinner in a traditional Slovakian restaurant. We had traditional Slovakian food, which, in addition to beer, included dumplings stuffed with fried Slovakian cheese and covered in cream sauce (from which they must remove the cholesterol because clearly people do live to be older than 25). The dessert was crepe-like pancakes filled with whipped cream and peaches.
It was a warm, starry evening at an outdoor table in the middle of a beautiful city's pedestrian-only area with interesting people and good conversation about our experiences, what we have learned about the cultures, customs, and histories of our respective foreign-to-us environments...not to mention having a chance to compare the American and Central European higher education systems. I keep having these is-this-really-happening-to-me moments!
Mike and Susan walked me back through a park to my renovated, communist-era hotel. My room was on the 13th floor. It overlooked the Memorial to the Slovakian Uprising. In 1945 the Slovakian people fought a courageous battle against the Nazis and held them off for long time until overwhelming force ended the battle in favor of the Nazis. For this the Slovakians were rewarded at the end of the war with 40 years of communist domination. They built an impressive memorial.
Tuesday morning we drove three hours farther east to Kosice. We took the scenic mountain roads which made me glad I am not especially prone to becoming car sick. The hills were covered with forsythia, which is called Golden Rain in Slovakian. The fruit trees, both wild and domestic, are also in full bloom. White multiflora rose bushes were abundant. Some other, even whiter, bramble bush splashed down hillsides. Breathtaking.
In the villages, most houses have fully cultivated yards instead of grass. Many people were grooming their plots and planting seeds as we passed through the villages. Several yards had vineyards and there were large vineyards on the mountain sides. Wood is the traditional material for building the houses because it is abundant in the forests of the mountains. But concrete houses are the most abundant.
I saw a lot of logging and many mining operations. They mine cement and aluminium. There were several strip mines. Ivona said they are going to start mining gold. I saw a number of wood processing plants. Many towns had large factories that were only partly in operation. Apparently Slovakians tend to live their whole lives in the towns where they are born. That makes it very difficult if a mine or factory closes because it is culturally unthinkable to move elsewhere and leave your parents and the cemetery where your ancestors are buried. On the outskirts of Kosice there is a huge US Steel plant. Ads for steel and signs of the importance of the plant to the city were abundant, including a US Steel Arena.
In Kosice, I taught at the Technical University. The lecture was arranged by the InfoUSA officer. He was super, and I saw him again at a Fulbright-Embassy Reception in Bratislava for student advisors. The class was another large group of undergraduates studying management. It again was their introduction to public relations and fund raising. They were really interested and quite willing to engage in give and take in my mini-cases. But their professor got anxious if they did not give instantaneous responses and then would answer for them. That was a bit amusing.
I loved talking to the professor afterwards. We compared systems, problems, and what we like about teaching. I learned that they are not required to have a PhD to start. They work on 5-year contracts. Getting the PhD is your requirement in the first contract. Then the publication requirements begin in the second 5-year contract. As you work your way along and get your promotions by meeting the contract requirements, the requirements increase. She is a senior reader and at her level she is required to average four peer-reviewed publications a year! They must have more journals that we do. That would not be possible for us. They thought it was odd that our system puts so much pressure on the newest faculty.
They also are required, by the new Bologna Treaty among the EU nations, to have a three-year professional-focus baccalaureate that requires every student to write, and the university to publish for them, a thesis. How could you advise all those students on thesis problems?
In the afternoon, Joseph had invited the local nonprofit leaders to come to the InfoUSA office for a fund raising discussion. About 25 people came. Even with interpreting needed, it was a lively and fun discussion. I loved it.
Our hotel there was a B&B with live music at dinner and free internet connections…all for about $75.
The drive back to Bratislava took about seven hours. It was beautiful all the way. We stopped for lunch at a typical Slovakian restaurant in a national park. This time my dumplings were stuffed with smoked mystery meats and served on a bed of sauerkraut. My Dad would be proud of me for liking it. I ordered the sheep’s milk that traditionally goes with the meal, but I only drank a few tastes. Diet Coke was better, even if not traditional.
In Bratislava, I was interviewed by the editor of a magazine for the National Museum, which actually is many museums including most of the castles. (They are everywhere.) She wanted to talk about how having to begin revenue enhancing activities lowers the traditional quality of the museums by making them more entertainment than education. It was a challenging discussion. I tend to think that such activities bring in people who might never have come for the education. The new activities give the museums a chance to listen to a new group of potential users and decide if they want to, and can, provide the types of educational experiences those folks want. I think it was a good interview, but of course since the article will be in Slovakian, I won’t know what she says I said.
The Fulbright-Embassy Reception was in the evening. The director of the Czech Republic Fulbright office had come to Slovakia for it, as well as some of the people I’d met in Banská Bystrica and Kosice, and one man I’d met at the Berlin conference. I met Lora at the Embassy and we went together. Getting into the Embassy is not easy. But I did get in and went to Lora’s office for a while to chat until it was time to go to the reception.
Yesterday I spent doing some sightseeing in Bratislava. It started to rain late Thursday and continued Friday, making it not the best day for strolling, but I did some anyway when the rain slowed to a drizzle. The Danube runs right through the city and it does not need more rain. No flooding threatens in the city, but the river was full to the banks.
In the airport this morning I met three men from Poland and got talking about languages. They can speak Polish in Bratislava and be understood by Slovakian speakers and vice versa. But that is not true for them in the Czech Republic. They met Slovakians who speak English, Russian, German, and Hungarian, and understand Polish. Hungarian is apparently akin to Finnish. I wonder what the historical reason is for that.
It is nice to be back in Prague. I feel the end of my time here approaching now and I want to use every minute of these last few weeks. I will be sad to leave. I’ll post pictures, a few at a time, during the week.
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