The Christmas season is in full swing here in East Slovakia. We are lucky to have escaped the carnage of the "War on Christmas" being waged in the U.S., due to the fact that everyone here is affiliated with a Christmas loving religion. There is one very nice synagogue in Prešov, but it is only used as a museum of Slovak Jewry. If you don't know why it's tough to find a nice Hanukah display around these parts, you probably shouldn't have slept through so many history classes in high school.
The city has been decorated with tons of lights, and it's really nice at night. Here's some pics:
During December Slovakia has many Christmas markets, which are opened up in the town squares:
At the markets you can buy crafts for the kids, and many traditional homemade foods. There are also stands which sell hot wine, so people hang around chatting and enjoying themselves:
At school, we had the department Christmas party, which was fun. My boss Dr. Hrehovcik (with the glasses)(pronounced "ray-how-chik") gave a nice toast, and then we all enjoyed wine and snacks in the library:
One of the professors, Margarita, made these excellent pastries. I don't know what was in them, but they were the bomb.
The major difference between the Slovak and the U.S. Christmas is that Santa Claus doesn't bring the presents. Jesus does. I was a little confused, because I figured Jesus would have better things to do than give kids BB guns on his birthday, but that's the way it works here. Santa actually has a separate holiday on December 6th, St. Nicholas day, when kids put boots outside the house at night, which are filled with candy by Santa in the morning.
One commenter asked for a picture of my shower, so here it is as a Christmas present:
The bars above the tub aren't removable, and are about five inches too low, so whenever I take a shower I get a sore neck. Great water pressure, though.
I hope you all get what you want for the holidays. This is the only thing on my wish list:
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
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