Monday, September 10 Today was another boring day in school, but I've become much closer to my class. Today they bought me a gummy rat cause they know how much I love rats haha! They're so nice and helpful to me, always giving me Slovak words to study. In school I was interviewed and photographed by my school to be put into the school facebook page. Somehow, all the information they reported was wrong, but it's still the thought that counts. After school, I went to town to get my favorite baguette and then met up with Valeria and her host sister. We went to their house to see her new baby kittens. They were so cute I really couldn't contain my love for them. There, we also had the most traditional Slovak meal, bryndzove halusky. At 6:00pm, we had to return to the square for a salsa dance class that Valerias host sister found for us. The class was actually quite fun. The average age was probably 40, and we were the only teenagers, but I enjoyed it so much! After class we went to go get drinks, then back home! Tuesday, September 11 Everyday I get sadder about leaving my current class on Thursday (when my real class gets back from Scandinavia.) I've become to close with them and get closer everyday. After school, I went to the town square with Valeria and we met her friend from art school at a cafe. Her friend lives in a town about 2 hours from Trencin, but dorms here in the week to attend the high school. Since high schools are based on application in Slovakia, it's a common thing to dorm for high school here. Her friend Petra was so nice and funny. We spent about a few hours studying Slovak and telling funny stories. Before going home, we walked up to the castle church to get a view of the whole town. By the town we walked back down to the bus stop, Trencin had the most amazing sunset! It was absolutely beautiful. Wednesday, September 12. Today was overall a good but sad day for me! First of all, my sister Julia had to fly to my other sister Kayla to evacuate the hurricane in North Carolina, and they were together for the first time since they left. I really wanted to be with them and it made me miss them a lot! It was also sad cause today was my last day with my class. I really loved being with them so much and I'm so grateful for how welcoming and fun they were with me. I've had such a great experience already at this school. At the end, I said a sad goodbye to all of them, and of course, my promise to visit a lot. After school I met up in the square with Valeria and my other friend Anton so we could get Kebab together. The whole menu was in Slovak and I really didn't know what to order. The worker, who was an immigrant to Slovakia ALSO, was probably one of the rudest people I've ever met (In Slovakia people don't give tips, so majority of waiters and servers are not friendly or helpful.) The kebab was honestly quite good! After kebab, Valeria, her host sister and I all went back to my school to my school to meet up with Pablo, the Brazilian boy, for the first time! It was nice to meet him, and we went with him to get his bus card, then to a cafe! We talked all together for a while about our exchanges and how life has been in Trencin. We had a few hours until my Rotary meeting so we all went back to my house to see my pet chickens and hang out. Valeria and I both made it back for our Rotary meeting at night and got our first monthly allowance! I love my host Rotary club so much! Thursday, September 13. I got up early again to find my "new" class, who had gym first. Seeing all of them was really nice actually! I hadn't talked to them since the first day of school, but we had lots to talk about, from their trip to my first week here. It was a whole new schedule to get used to, but change is a good thing! I kept meeting more people in the class and really enjoyed it! After school they all invited me out to a cafe with them again. We hung out at the cafe for a while until Valeria came to see me. We hung out for a little bit, then she had to find her host dad who was at some folklore center in town. We walked about an hour until we finally found it. I ended up walking the all the way home cause it was such a beautiful day. Friday, September 14. Today was a fun day in school! I stayed in my English class for two periods and the teacher let both classes sit and ask me questions about USA and my life. Most of the kids were shy at first, but of course, opened up later. After school, I went out with my friends from the old class. We went to a cafe together and had so much fun! They all know about memes and vines and TRUE American high school culture, I feel so comfortable with them. Truly, I'm so grateful. Shortly after going home, two boys in my class invited me to go to see a hockey game in town with them that night. I said yes, and 20 minutes later, I left. They had a ticket for me and explained me everything about the team, Dukla Trencin. Almost all Slovak NHL players are from Trencin and played for Dukla Trencin, including the uncle of one of the boys who invited me, Andrej Meszaros. The hockey game was crazy! Compared to an NHL game it was much smaller, but the fans were soo crazy! It was so entertaining to see the whole thing! They had so many chants and cheers that they all did so well. During halftime, we went to get food, and the food stand was 100% sausages and sauerkraut, the most Slovak thing I've ever seen haha. Luckily for us, Trencin won the game! Afterwards, we went with the hundreds of people back into town to a cafe for the night. Another one of our classmates and her friends joined us. We talked for a few hours all about my class, and my two friends told me everything! They are such nice boys and soooo welcoming to me, again, I am so grateful. It was also the first time I saw true Trencin nightlife. It's such a beautiful and fun city! Saturday, September 15. Today, I woke up early in the morning and traveled with my house family about an hour away to an old coal mine. It's called Bana Cigel and is located within a mountain towards the middle of Slovakia. We had to take an old mine cart 20 minutes into the mountain. This was all followed by a 3 hour tour of the mine and explanation of how it operated. As cool as it was, I struggled to understand what was being said and resorted to learning Slovak during it. I came home and fell asleep from being so tired! At 8:00am I woke up again to go to a party organized by Valeria and her host sister Hanka. Valerias host sister's uncle owns a gallery in town, and he agreed to let them have a welcoming party for me, Valeria and Pablo. I arrived and saw that my friends from class were there! It was the sweetest thing ever. We tried to make the party as American style as possible, but it just ended up with the Slovak kids singing Slovak folk songs together (Hanka is part of a Slovak folkgroup). I met so many new people at the party and they were all so nice to me, inviting me to so many things! At around 12:00am, my brothers movie finished at the cinema and he walked to town to see the party for a little, then go home. I would have slept over but I knew my host family was gonna bring me on a trip in the morning and knew it'd be better to just go home. We walked home together and went straight to sleep. Sunday, September 16. Although we were gonna go on a trip, my host parents decided to let me sleep in and my dad went to work. I did nothing all day until the afternoon when my father got back. My host parents brought me and my host brother to a nearby mountain with a view-tower to see all of Trencin and nearby villages. There, we went mushroom picking in the forest and found a bunch! It's a very common thing for Slovak people to go in the forest during this week to pick mushrooms. It's quite interesting how much Slovak people love mushrooms and know everything about them. They taught me how to chose the right mushrooms and clean them properly. It was actually such a fun trip and good end to the week.
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AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
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