Oh Shit, I'm Here - Letters From Slovakia

At the time of my writing this, I am suspended over the Atlantic Ocean in a giant metal tube with flaps on the sides of it. That’s pretty neat. Technology is pretty neat. If I was a monkey, I would be terrified. Imagine living your whole life chillaxing in the trees with your sole thought being “heehoo banana” only to be put in a giant metal tube and launched thousands of feet into the air. Should I be more terrified than I am? Anyway, by the time I have finished writing this and have this particular piece uploaded, I will be safely on the ground, because there is no internet in the heavens for poor boys like me.

The most remarkable thing about this flight is that, for the first time in several years, I got a damn window seat! The flight isn’t crowded at all, and the guy who was supposed to share the aisle with me got his own aisle right in front of me. Sure, there was a screaming baby in the aisle directly next to mine, but some bad has got to come with a whole lot of good. The airplane in-flight meal was kind of bland, too, I guess, and they didn’t let me wear a cloth mask, so I had to buy a paper one last-minute that chafed my nose. But why am I complaining? I’m in Slovakia, y’all! Land of the… Slovaks, I guess? I really don’t know what this place is known for. But now the title isn’t a lie!

My boss picked me up from the airport in Vienna, and we drove past the city of Trenčín on the way to Zlaté Moravce. I told him my great-grandfather was from there: Gaspar Machara, Slovak immigrant to the United States. He proceeded to inform me the correct pronunciation of my great-grandfather’s family name, which had been anglicized over many years of being American. “It’s a very Austro-Hungarian name,” said my boss. “Your great-grandfather was likely a man who was well-off. Which I guess explains how he could get to the United States.” There’s a lot more to this narrative that I don’t know. More investigation will be required. Perhaps an excursion is in the cards.

Ultimately, though, I feel the same way that I usually feel whenever I travel to a new place. I’m in a kind of limbo right now. While I love the scenery of Europe driving through it, I can’t help but feel like more of an observer than a traveler right now, and that’s always the case. The way that the world looks is slightly different from what I’m used to, with street signs in Slovak rather than English and more windmills churning in the distance, but ultimately the state of matter and the human condition is more or less the same. I don’t think I’ll feel like I’m doing anything meaningful until I actually begin the work I came here to do, whether that’s teaching English (which, yay, I start doing on Monday) or the intensive writing and reading that I’ve not been able to do because I’m so jetlagged.

I’m excited, though. My fellow teacher seems like a pleasant person. The area seems affordable, and once I get a new SIM Card for my phone, I’ll be able to explore without fear of getting hopelessly lost. Until then, I’ll be in my room, binge-watching Malcolm in the Middle and writing from time to time. It’s less risky that way. And, yes, I am planning big things for future installments to this great saga. They’ll just come after I learn how to pronounce my ancestors’ names correctly.