iohelix

here are some random videos of Skye. they’re not terribly exciting, just Skye being Skye and all her cute self.

Skye showing off her teeth and her new squishy face

more after the jump  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been almost six weeks since we arrived in Bratislava. Now that we’ve had a chance to settle into our routine and figured out how to get around a bit, the entire maelstrom of getting over here doesn’t seem so dramatic anymore.

I leave the flat around 7–7:30 to go to work. The most stark difference to my daily life back in SLC is, of all things, not having a car and using the public transportation over here. I really can’t complain too much about it; buses and trolley’s and the like run frequent enough that the most I spend waiting is about 15 minutes. Everything is a short bus ride away. However, between walking to the bus stops and waiting for the buses and riding the bus, makes outings with a stroller 3 times as long and difficult as they would be with a car. The only difference I can tell about public transit can also be said about the Slovak people in general: the people are aggressive and there is no such thing as courtesy on the bus.   Read the rest of this entry »

I miss the pounding, pulsing rhythms that you can’t ignore. The drums that move your body without any effort on your part, and when you do put some effort into it, it moves you that much more and in ways that you never imagined. I miss the feeling you get as the sounds that no earthly instrument can make, the sounds that echo around the room and come back with friends to enter your brain, cause your body to melt from within. I miss the driving bass lines that have no business being in your chest, but are there nonetheless, moving your feet whether you want them to or not. And then, just when it’s getting really good… it all stops, if only for a moment, and the whole room feels it, and waits in anticipation for the release which always comes and brings all of it back and then some.

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Here is some terrible hand held footage at the Devin castle ruins. I took a few video’s that day and this was actually one of the better ones!  I suck.  :)

Just saying Ahoj (Hello).

Aaaand a Skye vid.

so we went to devín castle the other day. our first trip outside of our little bubble here in Slovakia.  it was the strangest thing to actually see things that you only really read about or see on discovery channel.  to say this castle was old is an understatement.  the things that I’ve seen in salt lake that are old are like mid-1800s at the oldest?…  this was orders of magnitude older than that.  it was so old…  (insert yo mama joke here)

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I just have to comment on the banking system here in Bratislava.  

We had to open an account with a local bank here, that bank would be Tatra  Banka. It is a fairly large national bank and they have branches located here the way they have StarBucks in Seattle, they are EVERYWHERE!

First, it took us 3 hours to open an account, yes 3!  To say that this bank takes security seriously is a gross understatement. I signed my signature two different ways and they actually noticed and almost didn’t approve a transfer of funds to my landlord.

Next, we opened our account in branch A, located pretty far from home. So we had them send the credit card to another location, B, closer to home. When I was told to go to branch B to pick up the card, I went to branch C, because I didn’t realize that there were 3 (3!), branches within blocks of one another. So I went to branch C, was told to go to branch B, but saw branch D first, was then told to go to branch B. Didn’t see the door to branch B since it was hidden (I swear it was like a secret passageway, no sign or anything) and went back to D. I saw that D was closed. Went to branch E the next day with the landlord, but they said my signature card wasn’t on file yet so I still couldn’t move funds. The next day, landlord and I went back to branch D (since I thought this was where to go), but then realized it wasn’t a branch but just some office of the bank. Went back to branch B, my landlord found the secret door, but we went upstairs to floor 1 (since ground floor is 0), and then rang some random, unmarked doorbell to where the personal banker was that had my credit card. We were now in Hogwarts. Who knew!?

So this banker gives me my credit card. I need this card to use internet banking. Mind you, you can’t just log in to use their internet banking, you have to actually apply, with a separate application, to use their internet banking feature. This new card I am given is the first step in accessing my Tatra Banka account. First, I log on using a 7-digit user name and then enter a 16-alphanumeric code for my password. Then I insert the new credit card into this little calculator thingy they gave me when I opened the account. This piece of hardware and credit card give a new code that you then have to enter. Only I couldn’t get this far because I keep getting an error on the calculator thingy. But I still have about 5 other passwords and PINS and authentication codes to enter before I can actually get to my account online.

Are you people serious?!