Optional educational trips are available for an additional fee. Music, spectator and participant sports, hobbies, and weekend getaways. YFU prepares young people for their responsibilities and opportunities in a changing, interdependent world. AOL Users , More Information Culture Folk music has played an important role in the Czech and Slovak cultures. During Hungarian rule, folk songs helped to preserve the Slovak language.
Folk traditions are still a part of village life.
The villagers sing songs of love, lament, anticipation, and celebration. Czech writers, poets, and playwrights are also held in high esteem, among them Milos Forman, Franz Kafka, Vaclav Havel, and Milan Kundera. The two republics are bordered by Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine with the Carpathian mountains ranging over the northern part of the Slovak Republic. In both Republics expect mild summers alternating with cold, snowy winters. History, Government, and Economy Slavic tribes settled in the area now occupied by the Czech and Slovak Republics during the sixth century.