24.8.17
On Thursday, I went to a hockey game with my father and Petra. On the way to the game, we got into a traffic jam. This is because the road leading out of the city is near to these big cliffs of rock. The struggle with these is that they are trying to build a tunnel in the mountains so that they avoid these traffic jams. But every time they cut into the mountain, rocks from the cliff can slide and fall to the road. It is a problem for the city of Martin. So, due to this traffic jam, we were a little bit late to the game, but we did not miss much. The game was Slovakia versus Czech Republic. The Slovak team had a new coach for its players, and it was the first time the players had ever played together, so it was new for them. Slovakia lost against Czech by one point. But it was still very cool to see a hockey game in Europe. People cheering for Slovakia were very proud of their country, and we cheered “Slovensko!” and “My chceme go!” and used our ‘rabkačik’ to make noises. After the game, which was in Zilina, we went to Tesco to buy a SIM card for my phone and I bought myself my first shirt in Europe. It was only $6.50. Then, we went back home and I got ready to go to bed, only to barely sleep at all because of jetlag. I ended up watching Netflix for a while and listening to the sounds of the ocean in order to fall asleep. It was long night. ☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁ 25.8.17 On Friday, I woke up at nine in the morning and made scrambled eggs and coffee and talked with Petra at the table for about a half hour. It was a beautiful day already. Then, I took another shower and then Petra and I went out for gelato. I really liked it, and it was only $.50. It is different than ice cream, but it still tastes very good. I then went home and slept for three hours because I was very tired from the night. I woke up and mom was home, so together we went to the city center. If you remember from my last writing, she does not speak English well. Petka and I downloaded Google Translate to her phone and through this we communicated. It was great though, because she did not have to use it much. I was able to communicate a bit and understand most of what she said. It felt good to be like this. We went to two shoe stores looking for slippers for the home, but we did not find any there. So then we went to the drug store and mom bought me soap for the bathroom. On the street there are different venders of food, one is ‘mini-pizza’ which is just one slice of pizza. I ordered cheese pizza, and it was amazing to eat. It had a lot of flavor because there were many different kinds of cheese on the pizza. Then, we went to the fruit market and mom bought bananas, pears, and peaches for me. At the market are like, one thousand wasps and it was absolutely terrifying. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate bees a lot. They landed on me and my pizza, and one flew right into my face. It was embarrassing because I was screaming a little and people thought it was funny of me. It was super scary, so I walked out and waited outside the market until my mom had bought the fruits. We went home and then I went out with Terka (Tereza) and went to Tesco and the mall. Together shopping was so fun, and at Tesco I bought a super cute romper. We then went to the mall and I bought a red skirt !!!!!! (I have wanted a red skirt for literally a year, and I could never find one in America, but I finally found one here!!!) and a really cute black bodysuit to go with it. I also got a lace up sweater. It was really nice to shop in these places, because clothes are actually of a normal price and not outrageously expensive like America. When Terka and I got home, her boyfriend Tomas came, and he does not speak English, and all he knows of English is basic phrases and song lyrics. So, when Zuzana and Simon (my other sister and her boyfriend) came home, Tomas yelled to Simon “I am the best! I am number one!”. He continued to say different song lyrics, like “This is the end”. And he compliments were very.. Nice. To Simon he yells, at random, “Simon!” “Yes?” “Your English… is so beautiful!”. Tomas is a very funny guy and he is super sweet. I think him and Terka are very beautiful couple. Terka, Tomas, and I went to the city center to the ATM, and I got hungry again, so I bought a hamburger and fries from a restaurant. I did not like the burger very much, and the bun was hard and it felt like it cut my throat. But the fries were amazinngggg. Then, again, we went home. When we got back to the apartment, Petra asked me if I wanted to go back out and meet other Slovak exchange students, those who went to America and Bolivia before. So! I went back out to city for third time in the day and talked to these girls. It was a very fun day. And that night was the first night that I slept the whole night without waking up. It was great. UPDATE ON SLOVAK: My Slovak still is not well. It is a very hard language, but my family has been helping me learn vocabulary, which is so nice of them. I think though, that in these past three days, my Slovak has gotten better. ☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁ 26.8.17 Today, Saturday, we went to the village Poliereka where my family has a beautiful cottage. It is only a 20 minutes drive away from our flat in Martin. The countryside is beautiful and there are mountains everywhere. It is so awesome. When we got to the cottage, mom was making ‘halusky’ the famous Slovak dish of potatoes and sheep cheese. It was not to my liking, so I had other potatoes. The sheep cheese is quite bitter, or tart even. It was not bad, but I do not think I like it very much. In the back of the land my family owns at the cottage the boys of the family are building solar panels to power the house. It is a huge project and the metal is very heavy. After we ate our lunch, Terka and I went to our neighbor Josko’s house and played table tennis for a while. Josko has a huge dog named Dino, but he is old and shy. Josko also has a new kitten, and we went inside to pet it, but because it has only been at his home for two days, its stomach is upset, so it pooped on my arm and my shirt. It was funny but it smelled very bad. So I washed and then we played more table tennis. After this I took another nap (these are now very common for me) and woke up later in the day. Terka and I went for a hike and talked about many things, as she took me to a well where you can drink water right from the mountain. She says it has many minerals, so it has very strong taste but it is very healthy. It definitely tasted weird, but it was good tasting. We then hiked back and I ate dinner, and then as big family we went to Josko’s and spent the night with all of the neighbors in the village. I played ping pong a lot with ocko (papa), Terka, Zuzka, and Simon. It was very fun to play. Later in the night I played the guitar and sang for the village, and though they could not understand me, they said I was very good at playing and singing. Then, Janka, a very kind woman from the village, played guitar and everyone sang music in Czech. It was so cool to hear this. I then went home to sleep for the night. ☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁☁ 27.8.17 Today is Sunday now, which is the last day we spend in Poliereka. It is very hot out, and again I slept normal hours of the night. When I woke up, I went for cold shower by accident, but it helped to wake me up. Again in the morning, Terka and I went for a walk, this time to a different place. We stopped at our neighbor Martin’s house, and he has three beautiful Akita Inu dogs. His house is very big and he built all of it himself. After we went to his out, we stopped at his sister’s house, and she had ten dogs, all of them are Australian Sheppards, which are my favorite dog! I was so happy, and then she told us she sold these in the USA, and hopefully I will get one when I come home in ten months. We finished our walk and came home to eat lunch. It was very good, as it always is when my mom is making food. Then, I took another nap. I think I have taken a nap every day so far. This is not very great habit. After this nap, I practiced my Slovak on my phone as the boys worked on the solar panels in the very hot weather. Suddenly rain started to come, so Zuzana, Simon, and I went home. Then, we picked up Petka and went out to get ice cream. And now I am home, very tired from this long and big weekend, and I am very thankful that I am here. At the same time, I am seeing just how hard this really is. I am missing my friends back home and wondering how things are, and I feel out of place sometimes. I get frustrated because I cannot understand so many of the things my family and my neighbors say to me. It gets hard sometimes, but I am still happy to be here.
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I arrived in Slovakia about 24 hours ago now, and it is so beautiful. The sights, the mountains, the people. I am so lucky to be here.
I flew in on the plane and landed in Vienna absolutely exhausted with no idea where to go. I had gotten about two hours of sleep on the plane, and I was also extremely hungry. I walked out of customs to meet my family, and there were my sister and my father with a beautifully painted sign exclaiming "Vitaj na Slovensku Tessa". Together we walked through the airport to the car with my four bags of luggage. And the we embarked on the three hour drive to home. When we got into the city Bratislava, we stopped and I had my first taste of European coffee. It is so good! I was able to drink a black espresso and it was not bitter, but alive with wonderful flavour. I also had a chocolate twist, and it was pretty good too. We continued to drive home and I saw at least four castles, all of which my sister, Petra, told me the stories of. They are so daunting and beautiful. As we got closer to the North, the hills got bigger and started turning in to mountains, and they slid high into the sky, shrouded soon by clouds. As we drove into Martin there were large rocky cliffs next to the road that Petra told me about. There were wire nets on these rocks because five people had died due to rocks falling. A good little scare for me as I stared right at these dangerous cliffs. After a long drive and a lot of motion sickness, I arrived at the apartment. It is so beautiful, and my room is so big and beautiful. My sister Zuzana made the bed for me, and then I slept for three hours. I woke up, still exhausted, but slightly less so. Then, my sister Petra and Tereza helped me unpack all of my clothes and other items. I moved into my room in less than an hour thanks to their help. I also met my amazingly kind mother, Marcella. She started speaking Slovak to me, because she is still learning English, and I was so confused I could only say "áno" and "ahoj ahoj ahoj mama". She surprised me with a bunch of Kinder chocolate and made me food. I ate as much as I could at the time. Then came Ján, my counselor for the year. Together with my mother we talked about rules and did the "First Night Questions". It was very nice of my counselor to come see me on my first day and introduce himself. Then, my mother started to make more food, but this time I was a lot more hungry, because I ate around ten pieces of these amazing fried chicken things (I am not sure what to actually call them), a piece of bread, and some salad. I can understand now how exchange students gain so much weight. After dinner, Petra and Tereza took me on a walk through the city center and told me about all of the stores, bars, and cafes they have. It was very beautiful. We went walking by someone playing music by a dance floor and a couple was dancing a very fancy looking dance. It was really cool. Also, there are a lot of bikes. A lot. We came back home after we saw the ampitheatre, and then I took a nice shower. It was weird to get used to the new kind of shower, with just shower head and big bath tub. Then, Tereza made me a cup of tea and I drank it as we watched home renovation shows in the living room. Then, I started to get ready to go to bed. In the night, I woke up probably five times to go to the bathroom because my body still was not used to the time change. I was awake for twenty minutes around four in the morning, but then went back to bed for seven hours. I woke up at around eleven in the morning, and brushed my teeth. I had vanilla yogurt for breakfast and talked with Petra at the table. Then, Petra and I went to U Jakuba, a restaurant in our city. It is only five minute walk, and together we ate lunch there. I ordered steak and garlic baguette. It was so yummy and so filling. I also tried Kofola, a common "cola" in Slovakia. It taste like a mix of liquorice and coke. And now, I am in my home, writing this, until at four we drive to Žilina for a hockey game of Slovakia versus Czech Republic. I am so excited. Ahoj! -Tessa |
About Me:I am a 17 year old girl who has always dreamed about traveling and seeing the world. I love culture and language, and the ability to gain knowledge in both of those fields whilst improving myself was something I could not pass up. I am so proud to be a Rotary Exchange Student. Archives
October 2017
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