Monday, September 24.
Luckily I didn't have to go straight to school today, but instead had my first Slovak language lesson with Lubica (my YEO) and Pablo and Valeria. Since it was just the first lesson we learned the Slovak alphabet and all the accents in the Slovak language (Slovak has 17 letters/accents that English doesnt have!) School was also fun after the lesson. Once school ended I went to go get Kebab while I waited for Valeria to come to town. We ate my favorite kebab dish and hung out there for a few hours. About 30 minutes before salsa class, we realized we wanted ice cream so we went to Billa (Slovak supermarket) and bought a tub of ice cream with some spoons which we had to eat so quickly before the class. Salsa class was also fun but getting so much harder hahah! Tuesday, September 25. Today was just another normal day at school, but after school I went to a cafe with my two friends Adam and Martin. I love going out with them cause they have such funny stories and know the class so well. By the time we finished and went home, I realized I'd committed to going to a town quiz about Trencin, Oflajn. There, I saw many people from town I knew!! The event itself wasn't so beneficial as it was really difficult Slovak questions about the city of Trencin, but still I had such a great time with my English teacher and some of my classmates. After the quiz was over, I went to Coffee Sheep, a nice cafe in town with my friends and some new people I met in a different class. Sadly by this night I was already quite sick and lost my voice Wednesday, September 26. I woke up feeling really terrible and deciding not to go to school. I didn't have much to do at home so I ended up playing GTA and making yerba mate, a traditional Argentinian tea. Around 3 o'clock Valeria came over to my house to visit me. We hung out and she helped my host mom make pizza rolls until 6 o'clock when we all went back into town for the Rotary club meeting. This meeting was a welcome for me and Valeria, so all host families were there and so were members from the other Rotary club in town. They bought us so many gifts it was so sweet! Also tonight I got to meet my Rotary counselor for the first time, she is so nice! Thursday, September 27. Today I stayed home sick again as I didn't feel well and wanted to rest for my trip to the Tatra Mountains during the weekend. However, in the afternoon, I went back into town to meet up with Lina (daughter of Rotarian in my club) and Valeria, and we all made a list of all the things we want to do/see in this year!! Some of our wishes were a lot, some were small simple things. We met at a new cafe I'd never been and they had American style French fries!!! Woowoo! Afterwards we went back to Lina's house for a little, then I went home as I didn't feel well again. At night I learned that I would no longer be going to the Tatra mountains cause the weather would be bad and cause I was sick. Friday, September 28th. I woke up still pretty sick and literally didn't do anything all day. My host mom was home from work pretty early so I got to spend time with her and help her bottle apple juice from the hundreds of apples my family'd collected from their farm. In the afternoon, I decided to go into town to see the town market where my Rotary club's cafe would be present. I came a little late and the Rotary had already left, so I went by myself to get a baguette then to go to the Church viewpoint and see the town during sunset. When I walked up there I saw my good friend Bibiana there!!! She is the cutest girl ever cause she loves Chicago and always asks me about specific landmarks there hahaha! We talked for a while during the sunset, then I went back home. At night, I continued to help my host family bottle probably about 100 bottles of apple juicy, and also hang up klobasa (sausage) to dry out. My house had quickly turned into a pre-winter Slavic household. Saturday, September 29th. In the morning I went with my host mom and sister to a small market to help them organize clothes for sale. I got to meet everyone but shortly after was picked up by my host dad so we could go see my brothers floorball game. It was my first time watching floorball actually be played and i was excited for it! At the game I see three of my friends at school which was nice after 3 days of being sick! The floorball game made me sad cause my host brothers team won 26-0 and I felt so bad for the other team lol. But anyway, it was such a nice time spent with my host dad. I really enjoy spending time with him. He knowns only very little English, but some how we always are able to understand each other and communicate so well. It helps me realize that my Slovak truly is making big improvements. After the game we went home, ate, then left the house for Bratislava. There, we would see a light show around the entire city called Biela Noc (white night). I walked with my amazing host family along the Danube river until the sunset and we began visiting attractions. The first and coolest one was a shipping crate that had a million little holes punctured in it and was filled with smoke. They shined lights from the outside so when you went in, you could see so many light rays coming at you in all directions! After a few more attractions we went to the tallest building in Bratislava to go to the top and get a view of the whole city at night. It was such a nice view and opportunity. My family and I got kebab together and went to the rest of the city. The rest of the city was decorated with so many lights and colors, and I was so happy to meet up with 3 other exchange students during the night! We went through Stare Mesto (old town), my favorite place and then hiked past the castle for another attraction. There, we met another nice Slovak woman who spoke Italian!! We talked for so long about Slovakia and what we miss about Italy. It was so nice to speak Italian again after so long. After about 30 minutes we'd barely moved in line and decided to just go home. We left around 1:30 and got home around 3:00am, where I slept well into Sunday. Sunday, September 30th. In the early afternoon my host parents and I went to a nearby town called Trenciansky Teplice which is famous for it's natural thermal water pools. The therapy spa town itself was so small and quite with beautiful buildings. We started by going to a pool. First, they brought us all to private rooms and a beautiful Arab-tiled room. There we had to get completely undressed with only a towel to wear. It was quite uncomfortable but the experience was completely "natural". While walked to the actual pool, I met another nice American man who told me about the pool. It was a big pool that smelled like eggs (from minerals in the water.) In the middle of the pool were two "sources" from where the water comes from the ground. We stayed in the hot pools for exactly 20 minutes. It was so interesting as a million little bubble formed all over your skin in the water. I could literally write on my skin by clearing the bubbles. After 20 minutes in the hot water, we went back to our private rooms where we were fully rapped and rested for another 10 minutes. After this we got dressed and went back into the town. It was such an amazing experience. I went on a walk around the town/lake with my host parents and had such an amazing time. I am truly so so so lucky to have such an amazing host family. After walking around we went to an Oplatky store which made fresh Oplatky! Then we went to a very traditional Slovak restaurant which was beautifully decorated. It was such a great day with my host parents.
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AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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