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.
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AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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