It was a normal Monday evening and I had finished working at 18.00 (that's 6.00 p.m. for you Americans reading). I had been feeling ill, tired, that general sense of woe that accompanies the fall to winter switchover and in a haze I stepped onto an uncroweded stretch bus headed for Braňo's work. At that point I made a wise decision to, despite my fatigue, stand in the middle of the stretch bus -- that place of accordian-like movement that for some strange reason usually brings me joy, like I am standing on the moving floor in a funhouse.
I gave a precursory glance around around the bus, surveying the tired evening faces of Monday evening travel and began to observe an odd threesome. The loud one caught my attention immediately, due to the fact that he was waving a beer can in the air and speaking rather loudly to a young, clean-cut, student-looking woman. His cohort was also contributing some noise. They were harassing the young lady.
My first thought was simply "assholes". My second was that I was glad it wasn't me sitting there. My third was something like, I'll jump in and help her if they become aggressive. My last was that I was perplexed. Why didn't she move? Why didn't she say anything in return, something like "fuck off"? (Pardon my language here kids. No more, I promise.)
But, after further observation, it seemed that there was something to these guys. Something more than just ignorance, something below the surface... Maybe I am projecting in hindsight, for when the beer holding bigger of the two hooligans got off the bus, he raised his hand in a sieg heil way. Scary.
The girl got off the bus and I descended at the same time as the second skin head skum. Feeling like it was a good idea to keep low and obscure I hunched my shoulders, put my head down and began my 15 minute walk to Braňo's work. Alert, but eyes downcast, I didn't realize it at first when a man began talking to me in Slovak.
Encounter number two began with an energetic, smallish, crazy man, about my age telling me, "Vizeraš strašne unavena slečna. To je kapitolizmus, viete. Je kapitolizmus, čo zabi nás, čo robi vás unavena" (You look very tired, young lady. That's capitalism, you know. It's capitalism that kills us, that makes us tired...) I gave him very little encouragement. Avoiding eye-contact while he went on a rant that I vaguely understood through a veil of my capitalistic fatigue. He mentioned how much better it would be if Stalin were here today.
I imagine what he would have said if I had mentioned, "Som živnostnička-podnikatelka, aj som Američanka" (I'm a sole trader-business owner, also I'm American). I'm sure he would have gone absolutely bonkers. A dangerous representative from the other side, from the home of capitalist scum. Indeed, I took some silent joy in the fact that he didn't know he was speaking to an American and a business person at that. (The word "Podnik" itself during communism was considered "dirty", "corrupt".)
So, that's my story for the moment. I've been writing a lot more as the result of being offered a position as columnist for a national English newspaper, The Slovak Spectator. We shall see if anything becomes of it. If something is published, I will let you all know.
Cheers and goodwill to those strangers who make our days interesting.
I gave a precursory glance around around the bus, surveying the tired evening faces of Monday evening travel and began to observe an odd threesome. The loud one caught my attention immediately, due to the fact that he was waving a beer can in the air and speaking rather loudly to a young, clean-cut, student-looking woman. His cohort was also contributing some noise. They were harassing the young lady.
My first thought was simply "assholes". My second was that I was glad it wasn't me sitting there. My third was something like, I'll jump in and help her if they become aggressive. My last was that I was perplexed. Why didn't she move? Why didn't she say anything in return, something like "fuck off"? (Pardon my language here kids. No more, I promise.)
But, after further observation, it seemed that there was something to these guys. Something more than just ignorance, something below the surface... Maybe I am projecting in hindsight, for when the beer holding bigger of the two hooligans got off the bus, he raised his hand in a sieg heil way. Scary.
The girl got off the bus and I descended at the same time as the second skin head skum. Feeling like it was a good idea to keep low and obscure I hunched my shoulders, put my head down and began my 15 minute walk to Braňo's work. Alert, but eyes downcast, I didn't realize it at first when a man began talking to me in Slovak.
Encounter number two began with an energetic, smallish, crazy man, about my age telling me, "Vizeraš strašne unavena slečna. To je kapitolizmus, viete. Je kapitolizmus, čo zabi nás, čo robi vás unavena" (You look very tired, young lady. That's capitalism, you know. It's capitalism that kills us, that makes us tired...) I gave him very little encouragement. Avoiding eye-contact while he went on a rant that I vaguely understood through a veil of my capitalistic fatigue. He mentioned how much better it would be if Stalin were here today.
I imagine what he would have said if I had mentioned, "Som živnostnička-podnikatelka, aj som Američanka" (I'm a sole trader-business owner, also I'm American). I'm sure he would have gone absolutely bonkers. A dangerous representative from the other side, from the home of capitalist scum. Indeed, I took some silent joy in the fact that he didn't know he was speaking to an American and a business person at that. (The word "Podnik" itself during communism was considered "dirty", "corrupt".)
So, that's my story for the moment. I've been writing a lot more as the result of being offered a position as columnist for a national English newspaper, The Slovak Spectator. We shall see if anything becomes of it. If something is published, I will let you all know.
Cheers and goodwill to those strangers who make our days interesting.
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