Learning the Language

Many of you are aware that I have been attempting to learn some Slovak. I recently victimized a poor little 8 year old girl one day at a family party because she understood me when her Slovak grandmother did not! I took complete advantage of her, presenting her with many Slovak words and phrases while she looked at me with fear in her eyes. She acted as though she was under the inquisition since I continued to harass her when she obviously understood what I was saying. I was just very excited that someone actually understood me!

This young girl takes Slovak dance instruction from a recent immigrant, so she has learned some of the language as well as dancing. Not to worry, though, because I'm sticking just to the language. No dancing for me. Plus, I can pretty much guarantee that Marty wouldn't be able to catch on to any Slovak dance moves which was obvious at his botched attempt to polka at Jim and Heather's wedding despite our spending about 4 hours practicing just 2 nights before. Perhaps it was the excitement of the day that caused his feet to do their own thing, who knows? But I certainly don't plan on making any dance moves when I'm in Slovakia. I may do some gallivanting, but I'm steering clear of dancing.

Which brings me back to the subject at hand. In my recent studies, I was confused by the word, fl'asa, which my Slovak program uses in two different contexts. Fl'asa vody - Glass of water. Fl'asa piva - Glass of beer. Fl'asa vina - Bottle of wine. I questioned why the same word would change and not be consistently the same. Given two out of three, I would have presumed that fl'asa meant glass.

Wrong! Apparently pohar is glass and Fl'asa is bottle, which really could get me into some trouble since we all know my alcohol limit is slightly less than one glass. And, with me ordering Marty a bottle of beer (which I understand is pretty large) and me a bottle of wine....let's just say that things could get a little crazy. And, if there was polka music playing, then who knows where that would lead ?

So, at this point, I can't help but wonder if there are other important words that I have learned incorrectly.

Perhaps I should just stick to voda and forget the vino!

Getting a handle on things

Ok, so I think that I'm pretty much up to speed regarding how this blog works, although I still don't know the difference between a member and a follower.

If you decide to sign in as a guest, then your reading privileges will expire in two weeks and chances are that I won't think to re-invite you, so if you want to follow the trip, you'll have to set up an account.

We leave on the Feast of the Ascension, and while we expect to "ascend" through the sky towards the heavens, we are hoping to actually land in Europe for our trip.

Here's hoping that Eyjafjallajokull's big sister, Katla, decides to refrain from sibling rivalry this time around, or we might just think we've headed the wrong direction!

I'll keep you posted on the itinerary as the days get closer.

Failing Blogging 101?

I consider myself to be fairly computer literate, so I have to wonder why I am having difficulty understanding the working mechanism behind this blog? Anyone know of any "Blogging for dummies" sites to get me up to speed?
So far I have six "readers".
One of these six is a "member".
Of the five others, two are "followers". Now, what the heck does that mean? Does that mean that these two people have subscribed to RSS feeds? One follower has a face (thanks Rebecca, you look great!) The other does not, but he's related to me so I know what he looks like anyway.

So, what's the difference between a follower and a member? And, where does that leave the other three?
So, if you haven't subscribed to the RSS feed, how do you know I've posted a blog entry? (I suppose I'll know the answer to this one by the lack of responses, right?)
I decided to eliminate the word verification for posting comments, because if I am controlling who can actually see this blog, I shouldn't have to worry about any spam posts, right?
Is there someway for me to link this blog to my google homepage?
As far as getting those ducks in a row.....right now I feel like they are whirling in a vortex!

Getting my ducks in a row

Over the weekend, my younger brother was wondering if I was going to be posting updates of my future trip to Europe with Marty. I gave some serious thought to the best way to achieve that and I thought that I'd give "blogging" a try. Viewing will be by invitation only since I was concerned that my blog name might attract some wierdos.

Since blogging in itself is a new adventure for me, I will be posting prior to our leaving, to get acquainted with the process.
Hope to see lots of you along for the fun.