One Month!

It has officially been one month since my arrival in Slovakia. I am becoming more accustom to the daily life, and picking up on the language much quicker than I thought I would. At this point I am semi-able to understand questions people ask me, and some times I can even reply in full sentences. I find it amazing that I studied French for two years and I have already surpassed everything that knowledge in Slovak by far. Naturally, the first things I learned were insults or 'bad words', thanks to my ever so helpful classmates. However, now I have a small but useful vocabulary that is almost sufficient for getting around Zilina and conversing with strangers. One of the strangest things is when I am writing or talking to an English friend and I accidentally say a slovak word instead of the english word I should be saying. This last weekend I was in Strecno again, this time for my first Rotary conference with my new district (including all the inbounds from both the Czech and Slovakia). My new district has roughly 75 inbounds from countries including USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brasil, Columbia, Ecuador, Taiwan, and many more. Meeting with these other foreign teenagers was exciting and encouraging. We had a great time comparing stories and finding out that we had shared similar confusing situations. Besides all the lectures, it was a great weekend. We visited the castle (2nd time for me), and every country was represented by our flags. This made for some exquisite pictures, showing the bonding of many cultures. I look forward to meeting these amazing people again at future Rotary conferences. Besides that, I have been attending school as usual, which now includes a dance class where we learn typical dances. It would be an understatement to call the confusion and embarrassment of my 15-year-old male cassmates trying to dance hilarious. One of my favorite things about my new life is my frequent visits to a rooftop cafe that overlooks the beautiful mountains here. I enjoy a cappicino with moja kamarati almost every day (yes it is a weakness of mine) before catching the bus home. Life here is so relaxed and perfect for me, milujem Slovensko.

After Two Weeks...

After two weeks of being here I have decided that I am completely in love with Slovakia. The first week was slow, but now that my social life has become more existing the time is already flying. The first day of school I instantly became friends with the other exchange student (from Colombia), Ivan. Kids in my class were exceptionally welcoming also, and I knew right away that friends would not be a problem here. From then on, I had no clue about what was happening, nothing made sense and by the end of the day I was the most confused and frustrated I've ever been. However, getting plenty of sleep and trying things again the next day helped a lot, and I realized that it's ok for me to not know what's going on; I'm an exchange student. Being confused about things is something I've learned to accept, and accepting it has made things much easier. As school has progressed I have had a lot of fun with my classmates and helped out my English teacher quite a bit. Now that I have my bus cards and actually know how to use them, it is easy for me to be more dependent and makes going into the city to spend time with friends very convenient.
The other day I was in the city (Zilina) with a friend who loves photography while he was taking pictures of a festival that was going on. We had been everywhere interesting when he decided that he wanted to go somewhere new, so we went to the 13th Century church in Zilina. There we asked the man inside if there was any way we could climb the bell tower in order to capture some better pictures. To our astonishment he said yes, and led the way. Being inside the bell tower was beautiful and an amazing experience. The man opened the gear shaft for us too, as you will see in the pictures I posted.
On Sunday, my amazing host parents took me to Strecno, where a beautiful and ancient castle still stands. Since the castle is on a cliff, both the hike up and the view from it are breath taking. We toured the castle and saw the main rooms including the chapel, crypt, torchure chamber and kitchen. Being somewhere so old, and so filled with history is a feeling that cannot be described through text. I am so grateful for this experience; it is definitely worth all the hassle!