Officially I leave 3 weeks from today, but one of those weeks will be in Chicago, so only two weeks left at home. These past few months have been going so slow but also so slow. It's weird to think that just one month ago I graduated high school. Currently I work every single day of the week, somedays up to 15 hours. I have two jobs in order to pay for my exchange and it has made me exhausted. On my off nights/mornings I am scrambling to spend time with the friends I have left in the USA and preparing for exchange. I've been collecting gifts for my host siblings and for other exchange students who've asked for things. Just 2 days ago I traveled around 1.5 hours to an outlet mall with my best friend and I bought 8 bags of new clothing all for exchange! I'm in the process of designing all my pins for exchange. I think I'll bring district/Connecticut pins as well as a personalized button that a Brazilian exchange student helped me design (te amo Julia <3).
Since exchange is so close, I've started to feel different about it. It's weird cause I've worked with Rotary for four years and followed my best friends through exchange, thinking I knew everything about the program, but now it's all starting to change again. I spent two weeks in California with my sisters and aunt, but by the time I'd come home, three of my best friends and 3/4 of our exchange students had all gone home to their countries. Coming home, I just wanted to see my friends again and hang out with them, but they were all hours away from me. As confident as I was before, I knew these were the types of feelings I'd probably get on exchange. As of now, it's just a waiting game. 3 weeks exactly, August 15 at 18:00, I'll be on a plane headed for Amsterdam to start my exchange!
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A little over a week ago I got a message on facebook messenger from a boy who introduced me as third host brother. Sam told me a little about his family; he is 14 and has a 12 year old sister, they live in a farm, and he plays floorball very competitively. Me and Sam have been talking so much and have even skyped twice. In addition, I've been in contact with my YEO in Slovakia, named Lubica. She is also so sweet, and she is helping me with my travel plans. Originally, I had to go to Slovakia after the 28th of August, as my host family will be in Mexico on vacation until then. However, my third family (who is great friends with the first) has offered to host me anytime in August until my third family gets home. I'm still not sure of my travel date, but I hope I'll organize that soon. A few days after all of this, I had my final goodbye banquet for exchange. All inbounds and outbounds from the district were there. I had to give a quick presentation about Slovakia and my life, and after, finally, I received my blazer! They had my parents come up to put the blazer on me, and my district chair also handed me a RYE backpack and USA flag! Right after the banquet, I went straight to a Logic concert with three of my friends, and didn't return home until the following day to put all my pins on the blazer! I love wearing it. Exchange is starting to feel sooo real.
It's a little late but about two weeks ago I got an email from my first host family! First of all, we were all confused cause Rotary in CZE/Slovakia told us they would give us our cities once we complete all of their requirements, which most of us did. To be honest, I was patient about waiting but some people were sooo anxious about it. But since my host family emailed me, I ended up finding out over a week early! They live in the city of Trenčín! It's right on the border of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and it's absolutely beautiful. There's a big castle on the hill, with the town center right below. I will have 3 host siblings, a 15 year old brother, and 23 and 29 year old sisters! My two sisters both live and go to university in the Czech Republic, so it will be just me and my host brother, Matej! In addition, my host mom is getting married with her boyfriend about one month after I arrive, so it'll be my first wedding! I have also gotten in contact with the YEO of my Rotary club there who told me I'll be year 3 in school (meaning I get to go on the class trip!) and also the Rotary club is going to be providing me with Slovak classes to help me learn. Almost all the other exchange students are in Eastern Slovakia, far from me, but I'm so happy with my family and town. Everything is feeling so real now!
If you read my last post, you're probably really confused about whether I'm going to the Czech Republic or Slovakia, so let me first clarify. My host Rotary District is D2240 which covers both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. My home Rotary told me I was going to the Czech Republic, but in reality I had a 50% chance of going to either, as Rotary there decides. So about a month ago, I woke up to another official email from Adela, my country contact in D2240, and this email welcomed me to the Slovak part of the district. As soon as I found out I got Slovakia, my initial instinct was kind of confused, cause I had studied Czech so much, and already made a really good friend from the Czech Republic, but I spent the whole day talking to students currently in Slovakia and they reassured me that many of the kids in Slovakia had better experiences than in Czech Rep. and that Rotary is really nice in Slovakia, so I completely stopped caring which country I go to (not to mention how BEAUTIFUL Slovakia is.) Anyway, these past few months have been super busy for me. School ends in 15 DAYS! Wow! My school is super interested in my gap year and has featured me in multiple articles for our school paper. I'll put the link below to show you!
https://www.inklingsnews.com/b/2018/04/05/nick-bilotti-18-takes-gap-year-in-slovakia-as-first-year-graduate/ https://www.inklingsnews.com/b/2017/11/29/bilotti-broadens-horizons-through-rotary-youth-exchange-program/ Anyway, I've been taking a lot of time to learn Slovak and spend time with my friends. It's really starting to hit me that I'll be gone so soon, so I've taken lots of trips to New York and am trying to do everything I've wanted to do while growing up here. In terms of the language.... It's important to note that Slovak, Polish and Czech are all different dialects of each other. Between knowing and learning each of the three, I am so confused! One of the current inbounds in Slovakia gave me a very helpful website to learn the language which was created by the EU, for anyone learning Slovak. In addition to all of this, this past weekend was my Spring orientation! It took place in a place called "Camp Rotary" in Boxford, MA, with 23 other outbound students! The four hour drive was definitely worth it for that alone! The Rotex did such an amazing job creating fun activities for us and also really highlighting the information we need to know. I was the only student there going to D2240, but I became good friends with the students going to Italy, as I taught them so much about the culture, helped them with the language and taught them Italian card games! Although this training went over tons of rules and necessary restrictions, it still got me so excited to go! Only 15 more weeks and I'll be getting on an airplane and going. WOW!! This past Saturday, January, 27, I was in New York City with my two friends for a Khalid concert. I'd been waiting for my envelope from Essex for the past three weeks but figured it wouldn't come that Saturday. After eating lunch, I got a text from my mom saying the envelope had arrived! My friends and I facetimed my mom as she opened the envelope. In it, a Rotary "passport" with the words "Czech Republic" written along the side, with a pin attached at the top! It was such a strange feeling to finally receive my country after three years. I was shaking so much and didn't know what to think. I was positive I was going to my other top choices because earlier that month, the chair of the program told me that Czech was already full. Anyways, I was so excited to learn about my placement to care. The first person I told was my friend from the Czech Republic, Matej, who'd texted me everyday asking if I had my country yet. Following Matej, my friend posted a picture of my on my snapchat with the caption "HE'S GOING TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC" and I continued to tell my friends and family. All of this led up to my Khalid concert at night. It was easily one of the most exciting days of my life.
Yesterday, Sunday, I spent most of the day learning Czech. Hmm... I don't know what to say about it. It's about as difficult as I expected. I am very lucky to already know a lot of Polish (my mother is Polish), so I can already understand a good amount of Czech. However, speaking it is so weird! It seems like im speaking incorrect Polish which is so hard to wrap my head around. For example, in polish 'we were' is 'byliśmy,' and in Czech it's 'byli jsme.' Knowing Polish is both a huge advantage and disadvantage, but I'm sure that once I get there, I'll have no problem adjusting to Czech. I've already watched so many videos about Prague and other Czech cities and I'm so happy with my country assignment. THANK YOU SO MUCH JOANNE! |
AuthorNick Bilotti Contact:Instagram: @n.b Archives |