United Nations of Fun

In the interest of full disclosure, everything I write about generally happened about a month ago. For instance, the party I had at my apartment, the topic of this entry, happened sometime in early October. For all you know, I could be married to a goat right now.

So, at the school we have a bunch of different language departments, including French, German, English and Spanish. One night I thought it would be fun to invite some of the (English speaking) lecturers over to my place for a typical American "party".

The first people in attendance were the French lecturer Virginie, the German lecturer Christine, and Petra the Slovak girl who teaches Spanish, shown below from left to right:



Hot on their heels was Juraj, my friend from the American Studies department, and Mario, the Spanish teacher from Madrid.



Last but not least was Mishka from Moscow, who took some excellent pictures of the get-together, which for some reason I am unable to post:



I didn't know what people wanted to eat or drink, so I bought an assortment of "hard beverages" and some cheese and crackers:







I soon learned, however, that the customs for drinking are much different here than they are in the U.S. For instance, the men brought their own drink, plum brandy, which is called Slivovica. Slivovica and juniper brandy, Borovička, are extremely popular here, and are often homemade. Some of the better homemade versions supposedly are close to 180 proof. Here's some info on these drinks.

I also learned that men are generally not supposed to drink wine, but that didn't stop the Spanish guy. It was a real evening of discovery, where we appreciated the differences between our cultures, and enjoyed some cheap French cheese.

I'm thinking of having some locals over on Wednesday for a Thanksgiving dinner thingy, but I'm an awful cook. Also, I don't know where I can get any turkey, much less a tofurkey or a turduken. Any suggestions for easy T-day recipes would be greatly appreciated, and remember, if it's not authentic, no one here will know.