cozy kozy
10 January, 2006. 8:15 pm. Trnava, Slovakia.
I learned a new Slovak word last week: Kozy. Now, before you go running to your dictionaries, and then close down your web-browsers in disgust, let me tell my story. Last week, being the first week back to school after the Christmas holiday, I was naturally asking my students to speak about Christmas, what they did on the holiday, what they recieved, etc, etc. These students are generally not shy--some students wasted no time in telling me about ALL of their gifts (including at least one "push-up bra"!), so when one girl mentioned she recieved the sweater she was wearing, I said "Oh, how nice. It looks very cozy." Well, the class (remember: mostly female) erupted into uncontrollable laughter. Clearly "cozy" also had a meaning in Slovak. So, after some persuasion (and lots of giggling), one brave girl said "kozy in Slovak means....." and then she pointed to her chest (more uncontrollable laughing). So, completely innocently I had struck upon a less-than-polite way of referring to breasts. As at least one person has pointed out, they will never forget the meaning of "cozy" and I will certainly never forget "kozy".....
What else is new? This past weekend was a long weekend in Slovakia. Friday was a holiday to celebrate "Three Kings Day," the day when the three wisemen are believed to have visited Jesus and offered him gifts. Slovakia is a Catholic country. Sometime in the future I'll tell you a little bit about the Americans I've met here. Despite the fact that Trnava has more churches than I've ever seen in one town, there are some southern American evangelical missionaries here.... They are nice people, but I've yet to fully comprehend what they're doing here!
I am told that my Temporary Residence Permit is now available at the Office of the Foreign Police in Trnava. I just have to find a time that I can go there with a Slovak translator to pick it up! After all the mess earlier with the Canadian Language School, this was the last piece of legal information I needed. Now I know for certain that the CLS was merely trying to intimidate me with their threatening emails that claimed I was "illegal" and in danger of being arrested if I did not pay them money. Speaking of CLS, they threatened me again in an email last week--again explicitly stating that if I did not pay them 6,000 Sk that they would "hand my file over to the State Police." Well, I never signed a contract with them, and for a mere 6,000 Sk the police will probably just send them away. Clearly their business is in trouble if they believe they can intimidate me in this way. But I won't breath completely easy until I have my Temporary Residence Permit in hand....
Within a week I hope to have my ballot in-hand to vote in the Canadian Federal Election. Let me go on record saying this: if Stephen Harper ever becomes our Prime Minister, I will have some serious problems with the idea of returning to Canada!! Think lesser of two evils Canada!!! PLEASE!
I learned a new Slovak word last week: Kozy. Now, before you go running to your dictionaries, and then close down your web-browsers in disgust, let me tell my story. Last week, being the first week back to school after the Christmas holiday, I was naturally asking my students to speak about Christmas, what they did on the holiday, what they recieved, etc, etc. These students are generally not shy--some students wasted no time in telling me about ALL of their gifts (including at least one "push-up bra"!), so when one girl mentioned she recieved the sweater she was wearing, I said "Oh, how nice. It looks very cozy." Well, the class (remember: mostly female) erupted into uncontrollable laughter. Clearly "cozy" also had a meaning in Slovak. So, after some persuasion (and lots of giggling), one brave girl said "kozy in Slovak means....." and then she pointed to her chest (more uncontrollable laughing). So, completely innocently I had struck upon a less-than-polite way of referring to breasts. As at least one person has pointed out, they will never forget the meaning of "cozy" and I will certainly never forget "kozy".....
What else is new? This past weekend was a long weekend in Slovakia. Friday was a holiday to celebrate "Three Kings Day," the day when the three wisemen are believed to have visited Jesus and offered him gifts. Slovakia is a Catholic country. Sometime in the future I'll tell you a little bit about the Americans I've met here. Despite the fact that Trnava has more churches than I've ever seen in one town, there are some southern American evangelical missionaries here.... They are nice people, but I've yet to fully comprehend what they're doing here!
I am told that my Temporary Residence Permit is now available at the Office of the Foreign Police in Trnava. I just have to find a time that I can go there with a Slovak translator to pick it up! After all the mess earlier with the Canadian Language School, this was the last piece of legal information I needed. Now I know for certain that the CLS was merely trying to intimidate me with their threatening emails that claimed I was "illegal" and in danger of being arrested if I did not pay them money. Speaking of CLS, they threatened me again in an email last week--again explicitly stating that if I did not pay them 6,000 Sk that they would "hand my file over to the State Police." Well, I never signed a contract with them, and for a mere 6,000 Sk the police will probably just send them away. Clearly their business is in trouble if they believe they can intimidate me in this way. But I won't breath completely easy until I have my Temporary Residence Permit in hand....
Within a week I hope to have my ballot in-hand to vote in the Canadian Federal Election. Let me go on record saying this: if Stephen Harper ever becomes our Prime Minister, I will have some serious problems with the idea of returning to Canada!! Think lesser of two evils Canada!!! PLEASE!
posted by BFRE at 8:12 p.m.
2 Comments:
I love this post - language can be so much fun, and I'm sure I won't forget that word either!
As for voting, what riding do you vote in since you don't live in any right now? I've always wondered about that.
As for the lesser of two evils, well, I don't know which you think is lesser (I suspect, but I don't know) but I have heard Conservatives are winning the polls. Of course, I also heard a Pankiw ad (he's running in North Battleford) that says he has 43% of the support there according to "polls" and remembered he does his own polls (presumably the 10 people he knows in the riding). That really puts the whole polling thing into perspective, I guess!
I just hope it's another minority government. Or at least not a Conservative majority. Of course, no party ever follows through on its platform so maybe it wouldn't really matter if anyone gets a majority ... hmm ... Green Party, here I come! ;)
I hate to break it to you Brendan, but it looks like Harper has a pretty good chance of being PM. They are saying now that the question is whether or not it will be a majority gov't. The monkeys Martin has put in charge of running his campaign are killing any chance the liberals had. I'm an undecided vote right now. Maybe i'll vote for the marijuana party. Atleast i could get stoned enough to not care about my country running into the toilet.
A minority might be the only saving grace. If Martin or Harper can't lead their parties to a majority, I imagine they'll be replaced. Hopefully there is a leader in either party's ranks that is atleast mildly inspiring.
Hope things continue to go well for you over there.
Do you get much information about the election over there??
Take care
Keith
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