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.
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AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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