Monday, October 15 As usual, I had my Slovak language class today in the morning, which is fun as usual! After the class, Pablo, Valeria and I decided to go to a cafe in town together for a few hours which we did! We always get so many stares in town cause we speak English haha! When I went back to school, I did nothing but study Slovak the whole day. I can definitely feel my Slovak improving a lot! I've created a new plan for myself to memorize 50 verbs and 50 vocab words every 5 days, and it's working well! After school, I met up with Pablo again, and we went to a cafe together. The cafe's were all kind of empty cause on Friday there was a huge police bust in my city for underage drinking haha! Anyway, there we say Hanka (Valeria's sister) and her friend Natalka, and they joined us until Pablo had to leave. Once Valeria came, Hanka and Natalka had to go and it was just me and Valeria. We went to go get kebab as usual, then to billa for candy, and finally to salsa class. Tuesday, October 16 Again, as usual I got to sleep in on Tuesday cause my class has first period lab. When I went to school, I ended up going to a different English class to give a presentation about my life in USA, and ended up staying for the next four classes giving different classes my presentation. I presented to kids from age 11 to 18. They were all so nice and interested in my life in USA. It definitely was quite tiring though, and I felt bad for the class teacher who had to hear my presentation 5 times. I ended up only having one period of regular school to study Slovak, but it's okay cause the rest of the day was so much funner. Anyway, after school I went out with three kids in my class, and Pablo came with. Later on, Valeria came, and also a Slovak friend of Pablos came. We all talked and had a good time. When my classmates had to leave, the rest of us went to go get kebab, like always haha! Around 5:30, Valeria and I met my classmate from earlier on bus to go to see a hockey game together. The game was not so crowded, but Valeria loved it cause it was the first hockey game she'd ever seen! After the game I walked home and spent the rest of the night with my family. Wednesday, October 17 Today I got such sad news that a boy from my district back home had a heart attack while on exchange in Denmark. He survived but sadly has to go home. Honestly, this scared me so much, and made me value my experience even more. Anyway, school was really fun. A girl had her 18th birthday, so my classmates bought her WINE in SCHOOL! I know, Europe is crazy. After school, I met up with Lina and Valeria and we went to pick up her younger brother from his school, then went to Laugaricio. We ate McDonalds (gross I know) and then went shopping in the mall. We went home kind of early and hung out until 6:00. Lina's parents brought me and Valeria to the Rotary meeting, as they're both Rotarians too. My parents ended up coming to the meeting and we walked home together, stopping at my host brothers floorball center to see him after practice. Thursday, October 18 Today in school, I got to give another presentation about my life to an English class, then left school early to go teach at the school in Kubra. It was a fun class cause we made oragami and talked about the city of Trencin. Afterwards I came home to spend time with my family, and I talked with my sister and friends back home a little! Friday, October 19 I got to give another English presentation today, and studied Slovak the rest of the day. After school I went to lunch with my class then stayed after to get interviewed by the school news paper. The interview took about 25 minutes, but we ended up staying later and talking in the school! It really is nice how Slovak people truly are so interested in my life! After the interview I went to Linas house to meet up with her and Valeria. We got kebab together, then walked to Max shopping center to buy candy and see the movie Halloween. It was a thriller, but really not that scary. I loved the movie cause it was all in English, and reminded me of American Halloween which I already miss! When the movie ended, we all went to town with 4 of Lina's friends and stayed at a cafe for a while. It was a nice day! Saturday, October 20 My family and I got up really early in the morning and drove to pick up Valeria, so we can go to BUDAPEST! It was about a 3 hour drive until we arrived. We first checked into our Airbnb for the night then walked along Danube river, to town. We spent a lot of time at the beautiful parliament building then continued to walk to the town square where we were gonna meet up for a free walking tour of the city. We had a little extra time so we got ice cream and went to a tourist store, where I met Polish people, Italians and Americans! The walking tour of the city was really cool. It started in the Pest part of the city and took us all the way to the Buda side (the city is split along the Danube river). In front of the big cathedral in Budapest I met my first person from Connecticut since I'd left! I recognized the UCONN shirt haha! The walking tour ended in front of the beautiful Matthias Church with a view of the whole city. We spent some time there, then took a subway back to Pest. Below I will attach a photo of how beautiful and clean the subway was. I've never seen anything like it. We ended up taking the tram across the river once more just to enjoy the beautiful city at night. We ate at a very nice traditional Hungarian restaurant, then went on a ferris wheel overlooking the city. It was so much fun! Sunday, October 21 We got up a little late on Sunday since we were so tired, but immediately took the subway to Varosliget park. There, there is a big memorial gate, a castle, and a thermal park. The castle was absolutely beautiful and had a huge memorial/exhibition to my city in Poland cause we defended the Hungarians against Russian aggression, and the Russians ended up massacring many young Polish boys there. There were many Polish people there and I read all about my city. Next we went to the famous Széchenyi thermal bath, which was beautiful. Sadly we didn't have enough time to go in it, but it was cool to see! We took a tram back to the Buda part of the city so I could meet up with Erica, my childhood best friend from Norway!! We meet in front of the big church and hugged for so long! She was in Budapest visiting her sister for the weekend so, of course, we had to meet up! We went to go see her parents, who I haven't seen in about 7 years! Me and Erica walked around and talked for a few hours catching up on eachothers lives. She brought me four big bars of Melkesjokolade, my favorite Norwegian chocolate ever. Once we had to say goodbye, my family and I went to an Italian restaurant in the city center with pizza NAPOLETANO, ohhh how I've missed it. I also had a salad with balsamic vinegar AHH, it was so amazing. We got ice cream after, then went back to the car. After saying our final goodbye to Budapest, we drove to a nearby mall that has an aquarium inside. We spent a few hours there, and of course, Valeria and I bought a bunch of candy. We arrived home pretty late, then went straight to sleep as we were so tired! Budapest was a dream! It is one of the most beautiful cities I've visited and I'm so so grateful for my host family who brought me there to see the city and Erica!!
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I have officially been in Slovakia for two months, and will make a new overall update about my exchange. Routine has absolutely kicked in for me, and I feel completely comfortable here, as if it truly is my home. Part of that is because of my amazing and welcoming host family, and also because I've learned to figure out the whole town and can responsibly survive on my own here if need be. There really aren't days here that I don't have anything to do. In fact, I kind of wish I had more free-time, but I that's only a good complaint. Slovak kids are super nice, like seriously. They invite me out all the time and we have such a great time together. I've been so lucky to be able to travel somewhere new every single weekend. On weekdays, my calendar is filling up with events and activities that I do. Winter is coming, and Slovakia is already quite cold. I'm trying to enjoy every walk home from town and every minute I can spend outside until it'll be too cold. I've gotten the opportunity to talk to so many Slovak English classes and tell them about my life. The saddest thing is EVERY SINGLE TIME, the first questions they ask me are "why Slovakia?" Or "do you regret coming to Slovakia?" And of course, the answer is absolutely not! Sure, Slovakia isn't as known as France, or as big a Brazil, but I'm enjoying everything about this beautiful little country. Being an American in Slovakia also means I get special privileges. People are always giving me free stuff, trying to become my friend, or inviting me places simply because I'm a foreigner. Constantly people in the city center who I don't even know are saying "hello" to me, or other things in English, cause somehow, the whole town is learning about the "crazy boy from New York" who's spending a year in Slovakia. I get the weirdest looks (in a good-way) in public everyday for speaking English. I get even weirder looks when I speak Slovak with the people, who could never imagine an American boy speaking such a random and difficult language. That brings me to my next topic, language. Slovak language absolutely does suck. BUT, I'm not having a lot of trouble with it. Some aspects of the language are so easy. For example, they only have about 3.5 spoken word tenses. Present, future, past, and present-future. Other grammar aspects and pronunciation does suck as well, but is much harder in the Polish language, which is already quite similar with Slovak. It's amazing for me to think about my first few weeks here when I struggled to make sentences, and now I'm telling full stories and communicating fluently with people who can't speak English. The more Slovak I learn, the more different it feels from Polish, but for sure, Polish helps me to speak more fluent in Slovak and remember vocabulary words easier. I am trying my hardest to be completely fluent by the end of my exchange, which I know is possible! While I've been missing small things about USA, and people especially, I'm really not homesick. I'm too busy and enjoying myself too much to think about the things I miss from back home. The hardest thing for me here was having to adjust to the lack of freedom, between Rotary rules and my inability to speak the language/know the country. Back home in USA I was traveling every weekend, representing my Rotary district and living very independently. Here, I needed to readjust to relying on people for many things out of my control and not having the same freedoms, in exchange for the great opportunity. Traveling hasn't been a hard rule for me anyways, since my family or Rotary are bringing me to travel every weekend anyways. I am so excited for the next 8 months in Slovakia and what they have to offer! Exchange is the best decision someone can ever make and I'm so proud of myself for doing it all on my own!
Každý deň, skusím hovoriť viac aj viac Slovenský takže môžem hovoriť lepšie aj uciť sa viac. Teraz, som bol v Slovensko pre 2 mesiacov a chcem napisať trošku po Slovenský. Slováci ludi sa mi opytajú kazdý deň, “prečo Slovensko?” Oni neuvedomujú aké ke krásne Slovensko. Milujem Slovensko, aj som štasťný pretože študenti v Trenčíne sú najlepšie! Ďakujem vas, že vy ste moje kamarátki aj pretože cítim sa tu dobre. Monday, October 8 Sadly today we ended up not having Slovak class as Lubica's younger son was sick. It's okay though cause school was still fun and a boy in my class brought me a "Slovak for Beginners" grammar book. It was so nice. Also I ended up attending an extra 2 hour long English class instead of psychology so I could help out and saw the weirdest thing. In their language workbook, they had a section of questions to discuss in the class and one of them read "You have applied to be an exchange student in the USA and have just learned that your host family there is a wealthy African American family. Would you accept this placement, or request a different family?" I was literally so confused and kind of disturbed by this question cause it was implying that something is wrong with an African American family. In USA a question like this would NEVER be published, but Slovakia does have completely social/racial rules. Anyways, after school I went to a cafe with my class and got to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather. A man came and sat down next to us and had the CUTEST fat pug that I got to hold, I was so happy. Later, Valeria came and joined us, finally meeting some of my classmates. Once they had to leave, Valeria and I got ice cream then went to the castle together. I've been so many times but I don't mind, I love it so much there. At the very top we met more English speakers. It was a Slovak/Kiwi lady who had brought her two New Zealander children to Slovakia for a few months to explore Europe. She was such a cool mom and it was so nice to talk with them. After the castle, we went down for salsa class. After salsa I walked home and enjoyed the rest of the night with my host family. Tuesday, October 9 Today, half of my class was in a field trip in Bratislava and the other half of us stayed back. It was honestly such a fun day since there were so few of us. We did nothing in class and I had no time to study Slovak as we were all hanging out together the whole time. After school I went to a cafe with three of my best friends from class and Pablo joined us as he had a Rotary meeting in town later. We all stayed together and talked for about an hour until my friends had to go so Pablo and I went over to Ziga's house (my Rotary counselor) and we hung out with his daughter and son. We watched mean girls together which I had been wanting to watch since I got to Slovakia. At some point, Pablo had to go to the Rotary meeting and Lina and her mom went shopping so I stayed home to watch Luka, Ziga's younger son. When Lina came back, we went next door to the language school for an English lesson. The class had a British teacher, and 5 students including my third host brother! It was really fun and we played games the whole time. Afterwards we went back to Linas house to have dinner and then I walked all the way home through the beautiful town square! It was quite fun. Wednesday, October 10 Today is literally the best example of how welcoming and amazing Slovak people are. I've gotten so many Slovak books but this week I've literally studied nothing as I am always with my friends in class or doing something else. In the middle of the day an English teachers came to visit me and invite me to present to her level 1 class at the end of the day. I forgot my flash drive at home so I left school to take a bus home and get it. While waiting for the bus, I looked up and there was about 10 girls from the middle school hanging out the the window waving to me. They started making me signs writing "ako sa volaš" (what is your name). I answered and then screamed to them that I am not Slovak, but from New York. None of them believed me me at first but then called all their other friends over once they heard my accent in Slovak. It was still so funny to communicate back and forth with them. I went home, then came back and went straight to my English class where we were having an open discussion on family. Once again, I was shocked and kind of disturbed by the class discussion question which was "which family situation would be better for a child: being raised with bad alcoholic parents or being raised with two parents of the same gender (same sex family)." Once again, I was confused as to why the question was suggesting that there is something wrong with same-sex families as it is completely normal and not seen any different back home. Our teacher polled the class and out of around 20 kids, only two said they disagreed with homosexuality and that it was an illness in the head. I was actually surprised that so many people did support it as Slovakia is a former communist block country that still has religious tendencies. I was even more shocked after the fact when my English teacher told the homophobic children that their opinion is wrong and that they are not modern-thinking kids, which would also never happen in USA. Anyways, I left the seminar early to go to a "freshman" English class and give my life presentation. I presented about the whole class and the kids were so interested and amazing. By the end of the presentation I had at least 20 questions from them and many requesting to follow my instagram and ask more questions! After school I stayed back with some of my friends in the library while they waited for their bus. After, I went by myself to a kebab restaurant in town where the worker heard my accent and asked where I was from. He switched over to English and told me how he's visiting the USA next week!! Pretty much the entire restaurant was staring at us for speaking English (this always happens when I speak English). When I got my food and sat down, two high school kids came and asked if they could sit with me. They were sooo nice and asking me all about New York and the USA. It truly shows the kindness of Slovak people here. Afterwards, I went home, then biked back to town for my Rotary club meeting with my host mom. During the meeting we had two visiting club members who were from Slovenia but spoke German (I'm not sure how or why) but it was nice!! It was another great day here in Slovakia! Thursday, October 11 Since we didn't have Slovak class on Monday we ended up having it Thursday morning instead. Pablo, Valeria and I all showed up to class and Lubica came in with a new girl! She was a 24 year old American from NEW YORK who was with a program in Slovakia to teach English for the year in Trencin! She was really nice and it was cool to talk to another American there. After class, I returned to school and studied Slovak for the rest of the day except for the last period where I got to visit a bilingual section (French/Slovak) and answer questions about my life. I talked mostly in English, not French with them, but it was still cool that they could speak French as well. After school, I went to my other school in Kubra where I spent a few hours together with the kids. We collected nuts (orechy) together and made origami. After this, I went home and made presentations for the rest of the night. Friday, October 12 Today in school I got to visit another bilingual section of the school and talk about my life! I also got to present one of my new presentations (about New York and Connecticut) to my English class. I really love the opportunity to visit other classes as I get to meet so many more people that way. After school, I went to the town square with two of my friends from class where we got pizza and relaxed for a little. I went to a private English lesson of one of my friends and had an amazing time. The teacher was a Slovak woman who'd lived with her family in the USA for a long time. She was so nice and we played games together for the entire class. After this class, I walked all the way home and relaxed with my family for the rest of the night. Saturday, October 13 I got to Valeria's house around 7:30 in the morning and immediately we left for our weekend trip to Brno! We arrived around 10:00 to a Slovak folklore building in Brno where we got to watch some of the folklore practice. I really enjoy watching the traditional dances and songs, it's so beautiful. After about half an hour, Valerias mom brought me and Valeria to the town square to explore. We visited the two main squares of the town, the tourist office, and then the big town cathedral. There we went to the top and saw the beautiful view of town. When we finished, Valeria's older host sister Dorotka had met up with us. We all walked to the town main street where Valeria and I met up with 3 more exchange students. A Mexican, Canadian and another American! Valeria's mom and Dorotka left us, and we had the rest of the day to explore the city all together. First we went to get Chinese food, which we'd all missed so much! Then we went to the town castle. It was a long hike but had a beautiful view of town. We went back into the old town after and visited some statues and sights, then met up with Hanka, Valeria's sister. We found the most beautiful rooftop terrace with a view of the main square during sunset. We took a polaroid photo together, then accidentally DROPPED it and it bounced twice then fell through the smallest crack in the roof haha. Anyways, for the rest of the night we all hung out around the city together, going to a cafe, kebab restaurant, ice cream grocery store, and even more! We wasted so much money, but had a great time. Later at night, just Valeria, Hanka and I took a tram back to our apartment for the night where we could sleep. Sunday, October 14 We got up early again and Valeria, Hanka and I went back into town. We met up with Ana again (Mexican girl) and also the two cousins of Hanka, one of whom studies in Brno. I should mention, Brno is 100% a college city. It's absolutely filled with Slovak and Czech students making the city feel so young. We went around to a bunch of stores, whatever was open. I bought a French/Czech book to help me study, then we all went to eat. After exploring the city a little more, Valeria, Hanka and I took a bus far out of the city center to the Vietnamese part of town. It was so weird. It was elevated, giving you a view of the whole city, but it was completely isolated in the middle of hundreds of fields. The Vietnamese market looked pretty similar to how they look in the photos (from Vietnam) and we got the BEST Vietnamese food. Afterwards we went to this warehouse where you could buy almost ANYTHING in extreme bulk, it was so cool! We bought a bunch of candy and ingredients for sushi, then went back to Dorotka's new house! She had just bought it with her husband and they were fixing it up. We got to see the house, then Valeria, Hanka and I took a walk into the forest where we had our own little picnic, eating all the food we'd bought. We talked for a few hours and really enjoyed the time together. Once the sunset, we went back to the house and convinced Hanka's parents to bring us to Ikea for one last dinner before heading home. Let me just say that Slovak Ikea smells exactly like American Ikea. We all ate vegetarian hotdogs and said our final goodbyes before heading home. It was such an amazing weekend and I truly love the city of Brno. Saturday, October 6 This morning, I met Valeria at the Trencin train station at 9:20 as we were gonna be taking a 4.5 hour long train to Kosice, a city in eastern Slovakia. When we got on the train, there were 4 exchange students from Bratislava that we met with, and even more joined us as we went through more stops. By the middle of the ride, there was probably about 20 of us between two cabins in a train car (Slovakia has trains like in Harry Potter with the private cabins). We had a great time all together bonding and seating like 6 people in three seats. In the train were two former Slovak exchange students and one Belgian girl who was visiting her Slovak friend. I think all Slovak people were confused about why we were so international. When we got to Kosice train station, we walked to the nearby mall to meet with Rotarians and other exchange students. We got many instructions about the weekend and free marathon things (for the marathon we'd run tomorrow). We went to the marathon festival and got to introduce ourselves on stage. Then, we got to meet a bunch more former exchange students and student volunteers from Kosice who wanted to help us for the night! We then all walked together with a Slovak gold medalist in "speed walking" named Matej Toth. We paraded through the town with him for a while and got a photo with him. After this, we went to a nice Slovak dinner, then split up into groups for the night. We each had 2 Slovaks and about 6 exchange students. We got free time, so my group went to a nice cafe in Kosice and all got desert! We later met up again at a torch lighting ceremony and met some more former exchange students there (one of which spoke Polish!!!!). My group basically merged with another group, and we all went together to the Kosice light festival (Biela Noc, like in Bratislava last week.) Some of us ended up splitting up or going our own way, but for the majority of the night, it was me and 7 other exchange students with one Rotex (former exchange student) and a Slovak school girl to help us. She was absolutely the best tour guide ever, we all became so close and I am so grateful to have been in her group. We honestly didn't see so many of the attractions as I had done the last week in Bratislava, but we spent so much time walking and talking together and ate churros and Chinese dumplings. I honestly had such an amazing night together exploring the city, it was really amazing. We later met up again at the mall and went to our host families for the night. Me and Valeria stayed with a very nice woman named Lubomira who was a heart doctor. She spoke a little Spanish and English but was trying to communicate in Slovak with us. At home, her and her husband welcomed us so warmely and offered us SO MUCH FOOD, all home made and from their garden. It was honestly crazy how much more Slovak I could understand in Kosice vs. Trencin cause the eastern accent was more similar to Polish. It was an amazing day! Sunday, October 7 Sunday morning, I got up really early in my host family and ate a huge breakfast that they had generously prepared for me and Valeria. We ate quickly, then drove back to the city to meet up at the mall. When we were all together, we split up based on who was running the half marathon (only 3 Americans) and who was running the mini-marathon (the rest of us haha). All of us mini-marathon runners went outside in the square to watch the half marathon runners began. I had tied an American flag around my neck that I was going to run with, and another American guy noticed me in the crowds of people! It's really crazy how you can meet Americans everywhere!! At some point, the mini marathon began but we had to wait for everyone to start running and spreading out before we could even move haha. During the marathon, all of us exchange students split up completely based on our running abilities. I ended up running the entire marathon with just one boy from Argentina, Joaquin and we did successfully run/jog the full 4.5km. It was so fun to run with the American flag as so many people would scream "USA" or even just stare at me. The marathon went through the town square and beyond, then turned back around through the square. Joaquin and I finished in 25 minutes and were pretty dead after it. We got our metals and waited for the other exchangers to finish. The fastest of us was another American boy who ran it in 19 minutes, and the slowest were the Latinas (including Valeria) who danced the whole marathon haha! It was really quite a great experience!! After the marathon we all got together to watch/cheer on the half marathon runners and pass them water. We ended up getting yelled at like 50 times cause we kept on inching closer and closer to the road when we passed water, so we gave up and went back into the city. The walk there was so fun cause the girls from Florida were playing so many 2000's American songs from my speaker and we were dancing and singing along to them. In the square we got to eat Kebab or pizza if we wanted so me and Joaquin split a huge kebab plate. Afterwards, we went inside the beautiful town cathedral. I fell in love with this city so much! After the free time, we went to lunch at a restaurant. I felt so stupid for buying kebab before cause I didn't realize we were having another lunch. All of us exchange students sat alone in an isolated section and the waiter didn't speak English so he had me go to the tables with him and translate from Slovak to English for him haha! I felt bad cause I really couldn't eat much, I was so full. From lunch, we went to get our stuff then head to the train station. It was so sad to say goodbye to the Rotex and exchange students who weren't on our train. On the train was once again about 20 of us among 2 or 3 train cabins. The first two hours were so fun all together, but eventually the further we got, the more people left the train and we all got so tired. Somewhere during the two hours, we all got bored enough to go to the bathroom and shave a line off all of our eyebrows (I know we're all stupid haha) But it actually looked really cool and we all did it together! After Zilina, every exchange student had gotten off except for me, Valeria and the Bratislava kids. We had about 1.5 hours left but the train got SO FULL we couldn't sit together. In the cabin of the Bratislava kids, two gypsy women took their seats and wouldn't get up. We were translating to Slovak that it was our seats and we had the tickets to prove it, yet it took about 20 minutes and the help of other Slovak people to get them out of our seats. Then, in my cabin with Valeria and one other girl going to Bratislava, some Slovak woman very very rudely yelled at us in Slovak to stop talking, even though we were being so quite. We had all had enough of it, and decided just to squeeze in the isles with each other until it was time to go. Saying the final goodbye was sad cause it meant the weekend was truly over. I had such an amazing time and I really hope I can return to Kosice. Monday, October 1
Monday morning as usual I had my Slovak language lesson with Valeria and Pablo. Today we learned about Slovak genders with nouns and how to make them plural. All I can say is THANK GOD it's mostly the same thing in Polish, or else I would be so lost (sorry Valeria and Pablo hahah). Slovak language, like all other Slavic languages are probably 50x harder than English especially with nouns, genders and grammatical case structures. Going back to class after my long absence was actually really nice cause I missed them all so much. Anyways, we had a great time in school, and sadly after school Valeria was really sick so I went home. I took a really short nap, then had to get up again to go to salsa class. Since Valeria was sick, it was just me and Hanka. In salsa class, we start off by just dancing with all the moves we know, learn a few, then practice with rotating partners. I ended up mentioning to one of my partners that I am from America and I guess she told like... everyone in the class cause for the rest of the night everyone of my partners was asking me about New York City hahahaha. After class I went home and talked with my family for a few hours like I do every night!! I love them sooo much. Tuesday, October 2 Today was another boring day at school, but productive as I studied a lot of Slovak. After school I went to the cafeteria with my class and saw Pablo there. He met with my classmates and we all had a good time. Afterwards, me and Pablo went back to town to hangout and saw another girl from my class, Domča. We all talked together for about half an hour about Slovak and cool vacations! When she had to go, Pablo and I went to get ice cream, then went to the castle as Pablo had never seen it before. Sadly for us, the ice cream cones were both stale and cracked on us. The worst for Pablo, as he had to eat the melting ice cream off his hand after it broke haha. The castle was beautiful as always and we spent a long time exploring it and taking in the view. We then went to the famous Hotel Elizabeth in my town for our Rotary club meeting which was combined today (Pablo is in a different club than Valeria and me). Before the meeting started, two Canadians came in to visit the club! It was nice to speak English with them! The meeting itself was really boring as it was about electric train transportation through the city, and all in Slovak. We were really hungry after so we went to get Kebab in the center with another nice Rotarian, Julius. I was so cool for me cause Julius doesn't speak English, only Slovak and some Italian, so I would speak Slovak/Italian with Julius and translate to English for Pablo. It was the one of the first time's I'd had to be a Slovak translator and it made me feel great about my progress in the language! Anyways, Julius is such a nice guy and asked Pablo and I if we can come to celebrate his birthday in a month. I got home late and slept so well since I've been soo tired these days. Wednesday, October 3 Wednesday is the best school day cause it's the day I have my English seminar (two hour long English class). During the seminar I was looking through my friends books and found hundreds of Slovak - English translated words, and wrote some of them down the whole time. She let me keep the books so I could work on the rest of the words later on. After school I went to lunch with two of my friends, then to town with them. We walked for a little then went to Billa to get my favorite chips. Shortly after I had to leave them to meet Lubica (my Rotary officer) at her English school cause I was going to the foreign police! At the foreign police, my host mom was waiting there for me, Valeria and Lubica. The office has THE WEIRDEST elevator I've ever seen. It was like a rotary elevator that had no doors and never stopped, so once a box appeared, you jumped on, then jumped off on your floor. Anyway, we had to wait around 3 hours at the foreign police. I made friends with a nice Ukrainian boy who was trying to get a work permit so he could work a better job in Slovakia than in Ukraine. He was so nice and explained me the difficult situation for Ukrainians, and was so confused as to why I, an American, chose to come to post-communist Europe for opportunity. It made me feel really grateful to be from USA where so many people wish they could go and work. After the wait, I met with the police officer who checked all my papers and approved my visa. I took photos and finger prints, then went home and straight to sleep. Thursday, October 4 Today as usual, I left school early to go to the school in my part of town that I help out at. It was actually a real fun time as I learned a lot of new Slovak words with the little kids and they collected orech, some type of edible nut for me. Afterwards, I took a bus back to town to meet my friend Tonko (Anton from before) as he was gonna correct my Slovak writing and teach me some more Slovak. We studied at a cafe for a long time, then went on a tour of town. First, we hiked onto the castle wall to get a view of the whole city. Then, we went to the river Vah and walked all along it. At the end of the town, there is a nice park by the river where we had a great view of the castle. We walked back to town for Tonko to take a bus, and I went over to my Rotary counselors house to have BOLOGNESE PASTA! Lina, his daughter, is literally the nicest girl ever and understands everything I miss about USA. I spoke so much Slovak with her mom and younger brother and once again felt really accomplished. After dinner, it was late and my host parents were in town to get their car repaired, so they just came by to pick me up and bring me home. Friday, October 5 On fridays I have "nuta trieda" (zero class) meaning my class starts at 7:00am. I woke up at 6:00 and it was cold and still completely dark outside. It was a bad morning, hahah. However, my day was better of course with my class cause they're so much fun, I really love them all so much. After school, I went out with my Adams class (my first class) to a cafe. We talked for a while, then went to some stores in town to buy a birthday gift for my exchange student friend Joaquin. We picked out the best present for him then all went home. When I got home, me and my host mom brought my dog on a walk to the nearby cemetery where my mom wanted to pay respects to her grandparents. It was a really nice walk and time together and I saw my teacher on the way home. I didn't do much at night as I had a big trip the next morning. |
AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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