(Original notes of Nat)
People in Slovakia
So, because of my initial encounters with those Slovak people on the bus, I thought that the general public of Slovakia seemed shy or standoffish, and that English wouldn´t be a means of communication in this day and age in Slovakia. I lived in Canada and now I live in Australia. People in these places aren´t as shy as the Slovak, as far as I know. Many of them are so casual. They don´t care who might speak English. They just come and talk to you. I´m from Japan and I look Japanese, but I was seen as a local on many occasions in these places. They asked me directions, local bus schedules, and so on when I myself wanted to ask and when other people who look more like the locals were in the scene.
I don´t know, maybe it was due to little direct exposure to the world far away from Slovak people. This is what I thought then. Like many Japanese people, the less exposed to the world outside of theirs, the less they know what to do with people from other parts of the world. I didn´t know how much exposed the Slovaks were to the rest of the world outside Europe. But I´d learn that my initial thought wasn´t entirely true later on.
Because my mind was sane again after arriving at Bardejov and meeting her, when I was on streets alone in Bardejov, I saw people´s faces as they passed by me. It looked like they couldn´t believe what they were seeing. They were like, "Am I seeing an Asian man? I mean, in Bardejov? This cannot be happening, can it?" They literally gazed at me. It wasn´t a look. They might have been thinking, "What the hell is he doing in Slovakia, not to mention in Berdejov." They were probably like those people on the bus thinking like, "What in god´s name is he going to go to Bardejov for? We want to know ourselves what´s so interesting in Bardejov that this guy is going for because I don´t recall anything like that!"
Well, as much as I´d like to communicate with local people, I enjoy these experiences. I like to put myself in circumstances where locals couldn´t believe what they see when they see me, and I like to observe people. I was a psyc major at college. I´ve been to many countries and some remote areas but never been in a situation where people gazed at me like people in Bardejov and other places in Slovakia such as Nalepkovo, Spišská Nová Ves, Smižany, Kežmarok, Kremnica, and even in the suburb of Prešov and Bratislava. I like to observe people. Particularly, kids are fun to watch because they´re pure and they keep looking at whatever and whoever they might find out of ordinary. A couple of kids at a supermarket in Bratislava were looking at me and smiling at me as if they were watching some novelties. And they kept looking at me till they couldn´t see me.
Now, that is my impression of the general public in Slovakia. I came to know some people more closely than these passersby. And these people are the ones who helped me form a different impression of some people in Slovakia.
Before I came to Slovakia, I´d only known one (special) person in Slovakia. That´s her. During my trip with her, I met about 40 people. I haven´t been able to memorize most of their names, of course. These encounters were the most important events while I was in Slovakia (and Prague) except spending my one on one time with her, of course.
What the heck kind of travelers to Slovakia would expect to meet 40 people for only three weeks? They weren´t just passersby like I said. Those were all her families, relatives, friends and friends´ friends. I wasn´t sure if I should have even been with her when she was with some of them, but she was so open and had no problem letting me be there with her. So I felt privileged, and included or part of them on every occasion. I couldn´t unfortunately communicate with some of them but every occasion meant something to me.
Now, what comes to my mind about these people I met or people in Slovakia in general for that matter is that they drink. No, by that I don´t mean coffee, tea or Kofola, on which she made me hooked by the time I left Slovakia, by the way. It´s like one can´t talk about Slovakia without talking about drinking beer. They drink beer no matter where they are, what time of the day it is, or on what occasion it was. Maybe they would even create an excuse or a reason to drink only if there were none. Well, that´s impossible from what I know. Everything and anything is a reason for them to drink. The ultimate got to be those Slovak name days. What with those? With those, every single day is some occasion. Every single day is someone´s special day; your family´s, your friend´s, your friend´s friend´s, your co-worker´s, your friend´s co-worker´s, your co-worker´s friend´s, your neighbor´s, your friend´s neighbor´s, your neighbor´s neighbor´s and on and on and on. You wouldn´t run out of excuses.
One of the first guys I met told me an important fact about Slovak people. Itfs about what they do. They drink, complain and sleep. It seems like you could use another word for the last one, though. Anyway, life revolves with these three things in Slovakia. Well, you cannot go five seconds without spotting someone drinking in Slovakia. Even if you donft drink, youfre with someone who drinks or whofs already been drinking. They complain about politics (lack of governmental supports for national and local growths in many areas), social issues (gypsies), and personal things and so on. And they sleep. You got to sleep after you drink and complain. They drink and complain till they fall asleep, if not till they pass out.
Maybe this is how one Slovak day would go to me.
In the morning, they wake up and complain about why they have to wake up. And they keep complaining about things around them as they work till lunch time. That´s when they might go for a glass or two.
In the afternoon, with the help of that glass or two, they start to complain more and probably they get more work done that way.
And when they finish work, thatfs when the true hidden face of the Slovak life surfaces. They can drink and complain at the same time! ´Till they pass out!
Some people literally drink ´till they pass out. I saw a couple of those people first hand. I saw a guy sleeping right behind the main entrance door of my hotel in Bardejov with his semi-digested food all over himself. And another guy was lying against a church early in the morning. Maybe he was too late for help but too early for confession.
Well, maybe it´s not all like them but it doesn´t sound too far from it, either, according to how I interpreted the fact.
There was one occasion which I thought was intended by these guys and which made me start to wonder about some Slovak plot. We were going to go to the salt mine museum in Prešov. One guy was late for whatever reason it was. We waited and waited. And we decided to go to a pub across the street. Maybe there was no point for us to wait under the strong sun light. I agreed on that. But you know what they did? Yes, they ordered beer! How convenient for them! And right on, this guy being late! Later, I started to wonder if he was late on purpose, or if it was part of Slovak tradition when people meet and whey they are late. Like "if you´re late, be very late. Give us some time to get some beer, at least, while we´re waiting for you, damn it! It´d also give us stuff to complain about!"
This is the kind of thing which only someone of non-Slovak culture would find out, isn´t it? If youfre deeply in it, or if it´s running in your blood, or if you´re programmed like this, you wouldn´t discover these matters. And just so you know, it wasn´t the only time when I had to wait for someone in Slovakia. Not that I had problems waiting, though.
Maybe, when the Slovaks have time to kill, they´d say, "Let´s go have a drink" when we´d say, "Let´s go have a cup of tea or coffee" or "Let´s go find somewhere to sit." And when they have something to complain about, they´d say, "Let´s go have a drink" when we´d say, "Let´s talk about it" or "Let´s go somewhere we can talk." And when someone tells them to go to bed, they´d say, "Have we drunken yet?" or "Have we drunken and complained yet?" when we´d say, "Good night" or "See you tomorrow morning."
Many of the people I met in person are... how should I put it... freaks. I mean it in a good way, if there is any. They like Japan, which is where I was born and raised, and the Japanese culture such as tradition, manga and animation, games, music, sub-cultures and so on. I wonder how many Japanese know that so many people in that small big country which is far in central Europe and is hardly recognized by them are crazy about our country. I only met 10-15 of these people but I´m sure that it´s just a tip of iceberg. The crazy thing was that they know more about what they are interested in than I do or the general public in Japan might do and more than I could have ever imagined. This is how my thought was wrong about some Slovak people. Some people are in touch with the world outside of theirs and knowledgeable.
Well, it wasn´t so long before I realized that I was one of the freaks, too! She made me realize so...
Žiadne komentáre:
Zverejnenie komentára