Checking the Cell Phone Towers

Besides doing research and teaching at the technical university, my boss also does some summer work checking the structural stability and condition of cell phone towers all over Eastern and Central Slovakia. The cell phone companies (Orange, T-mobile, and O2) pay the university to have my boss and his boss drive to the steel truss towers, take pictures of them, climb them, and check the instruments and stability of the structure. They are paid a flat rate for each tower that they check. The government requires that the towers be checked once every year or every other year depending on the size, height, and age. Only people who are certified can climb up the towers because it requires that you wear the correct harnesses and equipement.

I was allowed to come with my boss and his boss last Wednesday to the towers. My boss´s boss drove us to all of the towers. The dirt roads up the mountains near the towers were often too steep, rocky, or covered in foliage so we usually had a bit of a hike to get to the bases. We hiked in the woods, where there was hardly trails at all and surely I would never have found the towers, and in open fields where we could see for miles. Once at the towers I stayed on the ground taking pictures while they climbed to the top.

For lunch we stopped at a really nice lodge restaurant. I ordered a traditional Slovak meal: a dish like gnocci with cheese sauce, a large sausage, and Kofola (drink similar to Coke but only produced and sold in Slovakia)

The final tower was on a hill in a small town not far from Košice. A co-worker of my boss lives right next to this tower so he invited us to relax on his back patio and have a huge bowl of ice cream! It was delicious! It had watermelon on the bottom, nuts, big scopes of ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate bits on top. (It made me think of a Bonnie bowl :)

My weekend in Krakow

This weekend some of the IAESTE trainees in Košice and I traveled to Krakow, Poland for the IAESTE Central European Meeting (ICEM). We all had a great weekend!

On Thursday night we took a night train that left one hour late at 12:04am. While we waited for the train Danielle, who is from Canada, and I taught the group a card game, P´s and A´s. Fortunately the train wasn´t that crowded so we were able to spread out in a few compartments to get a little more space to sleep during the night. The only problem was that the conductors kept coming in to ask for our tickets and passports. Magda, my room mate from Poland, thought it was wierd that they were asking for our passports because you aren´t supposed to need them when going between EU countries.

We arrived in Krakow at about 6 in the morning and there were a couple of IAESTE Krakow members waiting to take us to the dorms. They helped us find ATMs and Exchange offices to get some Polish Zloty and then bought us transporation tickets so that we could take the tram to our dorm. We checked in at the dorm and received a lanyard name tag, a t-shirt, and tourist information about Krakow. I was in a room with Dubravka, who is from Bosnia Herzegovina, and Maria, who is the daughter of Martin´s boss and who was just joining our group for this trip. In the room next to ours was Martin, who is from Austria, and Stephen, who is from the U.S. These two rooms shared a bathroom with two other rooms. In one of them was Danielle and Maria, who is from Spain. In the other there were three guys who were IAESTE trainees from another city.

At about 11am the whole IAESTE group, which was about 100 people, left on two coach buses for Auschwitz. We had a guided tour of Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkinau which lasted all afternoon. We also saw a video about the camps. I was surprised at how much of the camps were still intact and not destroyed. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the buildings of all of the glasses, hair, shoes, luggage, etc. but I did take a few outside.

We got back to the city about 6pm, took showers and headed out for the evening in the Krakow city center. Magda took us to a very inexpensive restaurant where we had traditional Polish food. I had breaked pork chop with potatoes and cabbage. Magda also took us to a very nice pub and then for a tour around the old city showing us scuptures, churches, and the castle. Everything was lit up beautifully!

On Saturday we were given sandwiches and tea for breakfast at a small cantine. They also gave us a bag lunch to bring with which included another sandwich, a pastry, candy bar, and water. The whole group left for the Salt Mine at about 11am on a couple of rented city busses. We had a about a 2 hour tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine that was very interesting and beautiful. It was very nice to be out of the heat and in the cool of the cave for a few hours. In the caves there were many carved statues, chapels, huge caverns, and even small lakes!To get down in the cave we took 54 flights of stairs and to get out a 3 level elevator.

After the cave we returned to the dorm area and were given a hot lunch in another cantine at about 4pm. We had some free time to hang out in the dorms before getting ready for the evening mascarade party. The theme for the party was movie stars but not many people dressed up. The party was a lot of fun and they had more food! We were given tickets for sausage, kabobs, and a beer.

On Sunday we had the same thing for breakfast and lunch as on Saturday. The group left at about 11am to go to the Wavel Castle. They had a group ticket for us to take the tram there. It had been raining and cold that morning and it was still raining when we got to the castle so we had to wait about half an hour before our tour. I walked around the courtyard and took pictures of the beautiful flowers and went in the music and gift shops. The tour was mostly inside the castle and of the weaponry and state rooms so we didn´t have to worry about the rain much.

After the castle tour we waited around a bit until it was time for the boat cruise on the river. It started raining again as we were starting the cruise so it wasn´t as nice as it could have been but we were able to take some pictures of bridges, buildings, and the castle. The boat cruise was the last thing on the IAESTE schedule so the various groups went their own ways. We walked in to town to take some pictures of the sites that Magda had shown us on Friday night. We went into a couple of beautifully painted churches and did a little shopping in the tourist market in the center building in the main square. I bought a mug that says Krakow. We had dinner at the same place as the first night and then went back to the dorms to pack and check out.

Magda helped us find the train station where we would catch our train home. This was a different station from the one that we had come in on. It was located inside a large shopping center. I don´t think that I would ever have found it without her. Our train left about 10:45pm. This train was more full than the one going to Krakow and so sleeping in the compartments was not as comfortable. We arrived back in Košice at about 5am.

Back from Krakow, Poland

I arrived back in Košice this morning at 5am and am exhausted. This weekend I was in Krakow, Poland for the IAESTE Central European Meeting. It was a great weekend filled with extreme hot and cold, history, art, fun, and very little sleep. Hopefully I will have more time tomorrow to describe it in detail.

My Birthday

My Birthday was on Tuesday and everyone here made it a wonderful day. I went in to work early so that I had some time on the computer to check email and such. About 11:45 my boss came in and told me that he had an interesting new job for me. He took me down the hall to another room. When I went in I was surprised with a birthday party complete with a cake with lighted candles in the shape of 24. They all sang Happy Birthday and I blew out the candles. I was given flowers and a cute stuffed Slovak cartoon character. We had really good fruit tea with the cake. After the party we went to lunch. At about 2:30pm we left the University for another surprise destination. They werent quite sure how to get there. We took a bus but it ended up being the wrong one so we had about a 5km walk in the woods which was actually really nice. At the end of it was a High Ropes Course! We had some Kofola, Slovak drink like Coke, and then went on the ropes course. It was a ton of fun! It took longer than they thought it would and I was already late for dinner that was planned by everyone at IAESTE. We walked all of the way back into town which took about an hour and a half. Vladomir came and met me when we got into town. He took me to a really nice traditional Slovak restaurant where everyone was waiting. I had a traditional Slovak dish for dinner and then a big chocolate cake with more candles! They also gave me a birthday present of a t-shirt with many of the towns of Slovakia on it and they paid for my dinner. I didnt pay for anything all day!

Photos

Here sre some photos of the birthday cake that I made for my birthday, my room in the dorm, and of my office at work.

This weekend is IAESTE Krakow weekend!

This weekend we are all going to Krakow, Poland! I am so excited! Magda, my room mate,
is from Krakow and she is going to show us all around. It is an IAESTE event weekend so
there will be IAESTE trainees coming from all over Europe and there will be events
planned the whole weekend. We are leaving late on Thursday night, taking
the train, and should be arriving there early in the morning. On Friday we
will be visiting Auschwitz! On Saturday there will be more site seeing and
a mascarade party in the evening. On Sunday we will be visiting a castle. We will be
taking another night train on Sunday night and arriving back in Kosice early on
Monday morning. The trip is ending up to be a bit more expensive than what I expected
but I think it will definitely be worth it. I dont plan on going on any more of
these big trips while I am here so I think that one is ok.

A little about work

I am also doing a little bit of work. Right now most of the University is
on summer holiday so I think that the work that the job description said
isnt available because the lab is closed. They have been asking me what I
would like to do here. Of course I wasnt prepared for this so I didnt know
what to say. They suggested learning some computer programs and of course I
am interested in that. I have been working on learning Microstation and
ANSYS. Microstation is somewhat like AutoCAD but all of the tools seem to
be different. ANSYS is an analysis program that my boss and co-workers use
for modeling steel structures, doing nonlinear analysis, and dynamic
analysis. I think I will be doing some analysis of a joint in a truss
system that my boss was working on before the summer holidays.