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.