Wednesday, December 17, 2003

My birthday, Xmas parties and a Girl called Jana

Ahoj (Slovak for Hello)

It's been a while since I have last written to you all. Then again not much has happened to add to my travel adventures. I've been pretty much stuck working for the Kingswood partnership doing some school administration analysis’s (boring!!), developing concepts like system wide flash interfaces with WebObjects java backend, setting up and running online education test pilot groups in 5 schools simultaneously…

I'm also learning to speak Spanish from my mate/landlord John, in return helping him with online marking for GSCE's. So I’ve been pretty busy during the cold cold winter I am now experiencing while many of you
back in Oz are probably sizzling by now! Soy froido y eres caliente?

I recently have just turned 24 on December 1st. Tengo vientequatro anos. It is the first time I have had a birthday away from family and friends so it was quite daunting. However I received lots of happy birthdays from
people at work and home so it turned out ok after all. Jez (one of my managers at work) bought me a huge cardboard box full of different English foods, from Wagon Wheels to Tea Cakes, from Beef Broth to Different Beers. What a nice chap!

I also received a copy of Lonely Planet Guide to Eastern Europe from John which was nice of him because he knew I wanted to visit more of Eastern Europe than west as originally planned. I want to see Czech Rep, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Moscow/St Petersburg, Turkey, Romania etc because of all the beautiful cities, buildings and spectacular views/scenery, from forests to lakes to mountains...

Went to the BBC Xmas party, unfortunately didn't meet anyone really famous. But I did meet a girl called Jana at the party, Jana is Slovakian, she's my age, extremely beautiful with long dark red hair (dyed), caramel eyes, very nice and fun to be with. She speaks very good English too even though she's in the middle of learning it. And she only lives 5 minutes away!

But before you get too excited, we're not officially together. Neither of us want any attachments at the moment holding us back from the things we want to do. Which I guess is silly since we both like each other a lot and all. Oh well...it’s a matter of if the head or heart rules the body I guess. In any case it’s still good to have a friend like her to keep me from going insanely bored in a town where everyone is very old or very young and the only thing you can do at night is go to pubs which I’m getting tired of doing. I've plans to meet her back at her hometown in Slovakia in August after I leave here in March.

I'm seriously considering extending my trip overseas, there is so much I want to do and so little time and money to do so. At the same time I miss all of you friends and family back at home, and I miss Melbourne. I watched
a program on TV the other day and they were talking about Melbourne and I felt so homesick. There is no place like home! It occurred to me that Melbourne is very much like a European city. It reminds me a lot like Vienna. And it makes me appreciate its plethora of multicultural blend of restaurants, gardens, cafe culture and nightlife I never really got to enjoy thoroughly. Hope you're all making the most of it back at home.

Pa! (bye in Slovak)

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