Week 25 - Feburary 4th - We got up normal time on Monday and went straight to the airport to fly home. The flight was beautiful and we flew over the city of Frankfurt. About halfway through I decided to eat the Mexican flavored salad a bought to eat on the plane, and as soon as I started putting on the dressing, the plane shook from turbulence, and the bright orange dressing flew all over my pants! Hahaha! I laughed so hard at my bad luck. We drove from Vienna to Bratislava where we met up with Valeria who was there to get her visa to go to Ukraine the next month with us. My host family brought us the the very tiny Ukrainian embassy where we waited a long time and paid 60euros to get the visa. We still had enough time in Bratislava to meet up with some more exchange students in Bratislava and go to a cafe for a little while and hang out together. Before night time, we went back to Trenčín, unpacked all our stuff and went to sleep for school the next morning! The next few days nothing important happened, but it was quite warm during the days, finally!! On Thursday, I left school early since we didn't have classes the last period and went home inviting Pablo and Valeria. We made Yerba Mate (Argentinian tea) and spent the time together until me an Valeria had to go our dance class again haha... On Friday after school I went with one of her classmates to her private English lessons (I had been much earlier in the year) but went again to talk and catch up! I ended up staying there and discussing my exchange, Rotary, and many other things for hours! Afterwards, I left her house and walked all the way to the train station to pick up Joaquin who was coming to visit Trencin before our ski week. That night, we went bowling with my host brother, then me and Joaquin went to the castle wall at night to see beautiful Trencin. The next morning, we woke up early and went to Billa to buy food ingredients for our Rotary International food party! Me, Pablo and Valeria would all be cooking food from our countries and also giving a presentation about our countries. Joaquin came specifically this weekend to help Valeria cook empanadas. Even though I'm American, I rarely had true American food back home, and didn't know what to make, so I decided to just buy chicken and bbq sauce, and I made a marinated bbq chicken (it was much more improv than it sounds.) Two other Americans (Grace, from my Slovak class, and her friend) came to help a little, and made the box of brownie mix that I bought. When the chicken finally finished cooking, a Rotarian took it out of the oven and it was like bubbling in this brown liquid, and honestly looked pretty gross, and I didn't know what to do. The Rotarian asked me if that was what it was supposed to look like, and I responded by saying, "I dont know, I've never made it before" hahah. I also made 3 boxes of EasyMac Mac n Cheese, just cause I had extra. Joaquin and Valeria made the empanadas and fried them Pablo just brought Brazilian Mate (tea). We all had such a fun time cooking, listening to music and enjoying the time with the Rotarians in our club. We all were so hungry, and wow, my chicken was actually really delicious. I was so surprised and proud of myself haha! The empanadas were so good too! I've missed them so much. Our presentations also went very well and it was a great time! Afterwards, me and Joaquin came home to spend sometime with my host mom and her best friend, and then went out to get Asian food for dinner. Sunday morning, me and Joaquin packed our big luggage and skis and got on a train for Poprad for our Rotary ski week! We arrived in Poprad with extra time to spare so we got kebab and sat at the mall for a while. More and more exchange students came and we all walked back to the train station together to get our bus for the weekend. It was so full of hugs and being happy, as many of us (Czech vs. Slovak) kids hadn't seen each other since the first orientation meeting in September. We all got on two buses and drove to a ski resort to get rentals for the majority of the kids who hadn't brought their own skis. When we got back that night, we got room assignments and went down for dinner. In my room was just me and Joaquin which was great cause he's my best friend. That night we played a country scavenger hunt and spent time together. I wore my Colombian soccer jersey and so did all the Colombian kids, so we took a big Colombian photo together! It truly was great to be with all the exchange students again. Week 26 - February 10th - Monday morning we all got on busses and drove to Bachledka, the ski slope where we'd ski for the day. We were all split into groups by our ability, and I got put into the advanced group with Joaquin and more Americans and Canadians. Sadly, most of my Latino friends were in lower groups as they've never skied before. We all got personalized blue jerseys with our names on it. The first two days we skied in our groups getting used to the mountain. There were 5 trails total, and each lasted no more than 5 minutes, but were still fun. The first day, the snow was mostly ice, and my skis were a little big and it absolutely killed my legs for the rest of the week. There were also so many people there that by the end of the day, the snow was extremely choppy and icy. My advanced group and the other advanced group all decided to go down one of the hills for a last time, with me in the lead. I'm not sure what happened but I fell about halfway through from hitting a bump in the ice. Joaquin stopped right behind me so he wouldn't fall, and within that exact minute, about 10 other Rotary people fell all in the exact same part of the hill, it was so funny! The second day, the weather was terrible, and there weren't really any people, it was snowing too, so definitely the best day for skiing. We did the black diamond for the first time, and it was a really fun run. I forgot to mention before that all the group levels (novice, beginning and advanced) had different lunch times. So always at 14:00, my group would meet at the bottom to get lunch in the restaurant. The food was always pretty food there to be honest! After skiing everyday, we went back to the hotel to have free-time together and dinner. The latinos usual had dance parties and the Americans mostly played cards and games. I slept most of the time haha. On Wednesday we skied in the morning, and left earlier to go back to the apartment and get changed to go to Aquacity Poprad! (a small water park in the nearby city.) We first went to a local Lidl, (food store) and everyone was so confused why there were 90 foreigners in a tiny food shop in a random town in Eastern Slovakia. Anyways, at the water park they had 2 water slides and a bunch of thermal hot water pools. We all went from pool to pool and had such a great time. Thursday was skiing as usual, but it was sunny and FULL of people. Almost everyone there was Polish hahah. I overheard quiet a few of them trying to cut us in the lines, not realizing that I spoke any Polish. I called a few of them out, or even better, said some things to my friends in Polish, exposing that I understood haha. Right before lunch, my group went down the super fast straight slope that has a "t bar" lift at the bottom which apparently is very hard for snowboarders. The instructor asked me if I can bring my friend Haley up to the top with me as I was on ski's and could stabilize her snowboard (she has unsuccessfully tried 8 times to get to the top). I went up with her, and within 20 sends, the bar stops, and we started rolling back and there was no way to stay up straight. The line at the bottom ws so full and I realized we weren't gonna be successful another time. I decided we were gonna walk all the way up with our skiis and snowboard. When I fell, my thumb got smashed under the ski and was bleeding for a while, making things worse. It took us a little less than an hour to get to the top and we were EXHAUSTED. The Rotarians felt so bad for us and were waiting in the restaurant with food and water already. Anyways, after we went skiing, we had free-time and then a snowman building competition hahah. Every single group except 2 were extremely inappropriate, but it was still so much fun, and even funnier to see the Rotarian reactions. Or snowman was a transgender prostitute hahah. Sadly we didn't win! Skiing the last day was quiet sad! We didn't want to week to end and were surprised about how it could've went by so fast. A bunch of people (mostly snowboarders) sat out from being so tired and hurt by the week ahah. Once again on Friday, we had some free-time, dinner and then a goodbye dance party. Truthfully though, I was too exhausted to dance for more than half an hour, so I went back to my room to sleep. Saturday morning was so sad! We all said our goodbyes, then took a bus back to the train station. On my train were all the exchangers going to Eastern Slovakia, and also the ones going to Prague. 3 hours later and Valeria and I had reached Trenčín. We stepped off the train and were absolutely struggling to carry our huge suitcases and skis. We were gonna walk to my house by rolling everything there, but as soon as we got to the station, two young American boys wearing suits came to us and asked if we needed help. I immediately recognized them as the Mormon missionaries in my city. They were very nice people and helped us carry our stuff to the house. Afterwards they asked if they could come in, then gave us an hour long lesson of the history of Mormonism. It was really hard to pay attention when all I could think about was sleeping anyways. On Sunday, I went with my host Family to Zilina where they were picking costumes for our Rotary costume party the following week. While they shopped, I met up with 3 other exchange students in the city. We all got kebab and walked around while talking about how depressed we were that ski week was over. And it really is true. It was a big realization of how fast time is going, and that's so scary! After Zilina, my host mom brought me and my brother to Trencianska Teplice to a sauna and hot water pool. They had 5 different saunas, all with different temperature, it was quite nice! A great way to relax after ski week, and great way to end the week! Week 27 - February 18th - To be honest, this was one of the calmest weeks I've had in a long time! I didn't do much any day. Tuesday I went to Laugaricio (shopping mall) with Valeria and Pablo. Afterwards we bought ice cream in the center, then to Pablos Rotary Club. They were really nice and happy to have us. Wednesday Pablo and Valeria came to my house, we had more Mate (Argentinian tea) and hung out before getting kebab and then going to the Rotary meeting. On Thursday I got kebab, went to the Trencin Castle, and then, in the afternoon, I went back to the train station with another exchanger to meet with my host mom and take a train to Bratislava for the year anniversary protest of the murder of Jan Kuciak. I think I wrote about this before, but Jan was an investigative journalist in Slovakia that was murdered (alongside his wife) by the mafia, that have some connections to the government, and a lot of other forms of corruptions. Slovaks refer to this event as "Slovak 9/11" as it shook the whole country and caused them to protest and fight against corruption in the government. On my train, I sat right behind the parents of Jan who were going to the protest to talk. The protest lasted a few hours and around 18,000 people attended. There were also many farmers from Eastern Slovakia who rode on their tractors all the way to Bratislava to protest. I was so proud of Slovakia for the unity against corruption and wish for a better government! Slovensko, si silne a statočny! The protest featured many different speakers who all have connection to Slovakia and some corruption that happens here. At the very end a man sang the national anthem and it was so beautiful! On the way home I bought Kebab at Hlavna Stanica (Bratislava main station) where they have the best kebab in all of Slovakia. On Friday I went out with my former classmates to a cafe for a while, it was fun! At night, I went with my host family to another city called Nove Mesto Nad Vahom for a "Modern-Moravian Folklore" performance (Moravia, meaning eastern Czech Republic). It was quite a nice performance and great to hear people speaking Czech (my favorite language in the world, it's so funny!!) On Saturday, a family friend of my host family (Russian guy who grew up in Slovakia but now lives in Czech Republic) came to visit us! We played some games and I learned that he was on the Slovak version of "Survivor" the tv show! So cool. Anyways, around nighttime we all got dressed in our costumes for our Rotary club's "mascarade" dance that night. My host parents wore some old-fashioned American style clothes, and my host brother and the Russian friend both went as different animals. I wore a Slovensky Kroj (traditional outfit of Slovakia) along with Valeria's host sister, Kamila. Valeria wore the national dress of Colombia, and Pablo wore a monk outfit. I started the night leading people into the building with Kamila and showing them where to leave their coats. It was nice to see everyones costumes. Throughout the night we took Argentinian dance lessons, danced Slovak music, ate food and met many people! Towards the end, Pablo, Valeria and I hosted the raffle contest and revealed the winners of stuff. Sadly none of us won anything but my counselor gave me the Škoda jacket that I was hoping to win (Skoda is a Czech car company). We were there until 3:30am or so, and Valeria, Pablo, another Slovak girl who did an exchange in Mexico, and I were the last people to leave. We took a taxi to Pablos house where we fell asleep around 4am. We woke up later and went up for breakfast. We talked a while with Pablos dad, then we all went with his dad to do business in a few other towns, then pick up Pigeons (Pablos dad likes to eat pigeon soup). At the house where we got the pigeons, the owner exited the house with a huge gun and we were so confused haha! But he let us take photos with it and stuff. Afterwards we went to a thermal water spa pool in Zilina called Rajecke Teplice. It was beautiful and literally looked like ancient Greek baths. We spent a few hours there going back and forth between the extremely hot water and extremely cold water hahah. When I finally got home, I went straight to sleep haha. Week 28 - February 25 - This was another relaxing week for the most part! The weather is getting so beautiful and warm! Tuesday I went up to the castle wall by myself for the view of the whole city and to enjoy the first warm weather. On Wednesday, Valeria and I met up with some nice girls in my school who've been trying to go out with us for a while! We went to a cafe for a while, then met up together with Valerias classmates and al hung out in the center. Then, I saw another girl I know, who was with her Slovak friend that speaks Spanish! It was so cool to speak Spanish with a Slovak. Anyways, we ended up hearing some English speakers and went to talk to them. There were two Indonesians and an Indian badminton player in Trencin for an international badmitton tournament. It was great to hear foreigners in Trencin! After the Rotary club meeting I got an email from our Ondrej, the president of Exchange in Slovakia messaged me to tell me that I came first place in the Slovak language test for the district, so they gave me 100$ back from Ski Week, so nice to hear! On Thursday I went to my school in Kubra to teach the kids, and after to my American dance class with Valeria. We'd missed a few classes before-hand so everyone was so much better than us, and we ended up just dancing salsa by ourselves haha. On Friday I went back to my first host families host to sleep the night there as we were going on a trip early in the morning. I thought I was going with my whole family, but then realized that I am only going with my host parents, so cute!! I love them so much. We got up really early Saturday morning and drove to the Tatry. We first stopped at the ski rental place where we rented skis with the exchange students and I got so nostalgic for that week! There we bought passes to go on cable cars up to lower Lomnisky Stit, and walked around a little. I ended up seeing a boy caring a Brazilian flag with two European looking parents and said somethings in Portuguese which confused him so much. Turns out, he is a Rotary exchange student in Hungary! It was so crazy to meet, and we talked for a while. Afterwards, I hiked around the mountain for a few hours with my host parents. It was sunny, but you also had low clouds and we walked through them. It was so cool! Most of the hiking we did was off the path which was a cool experience too. We made our way around the mountain and hiked another hour a cabin to eat. We then went to visit the ice palace and sculptures and sledded all the way down the Tatry to the parking lot, just like what we did at our winter orientation. It was so fun haha. At night we went to our hotel where I had a separate room next to my host parents's (the hotel only has double or single rooms) and it was my first time ever staying alone in a hotel room haha. And staying at the hotel was also Valeria and her host family!! Ill explain first that it's really common for Slovak families to stay together at an all-inclusive hotel like we had, during the day going to ski, and doing activities in the hotel at night. For example, at this hotel, dinner was included in the price, and they had many activities like bowling, sports courts and a pool room. We all ate dinner together then had a bowling reservation. I don't remember who won, but definitely not me! We played soccer for a while after and had a great night. Sunday morning we got up early again, had breakfast then went to Bachledka, the exact ski park where ski week was, so of course again I felt even more nostalgic! Then we went to "Chodnik Koronami Stromov" which is a big pathway built above the forest overlooking the Tatry. The view was amazing from the big tower. They had a big rope net where you could walk on and look all the way down. It was quite interesting. Afterwards we went to Belianske Jaskina, which is a cave near the Polish border. The cave was really beautiful and so big! It was my first true time in a cave. The group we were with was half Polish half Slovak and the tour guide spoke both languages which was so cool to hear. We ate in a traditional Slovak restaurant, then drove to another Slovak town called Kezmarok. The town has a castle and a beautiful old town center. We walked around the city for a while and enjoyed everything, especially the old buildings. It really is such a beautiful town! Later, we went back to the hotel to meet up with Valeria and her family for dinner. We had bowling again that night (I lost so badly), and hung out talking for a while after. I'm so grateful to spend this time with my host family and Valerias family. It's always so great for me to explore more of my beautiful Slovakia!
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AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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