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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AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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