Ahoj from Slovakia

Well I’ve been here a total of 2 and a half weeks and I thought it was about time that I updated this flaming thing. Well its been pretty good. I’m living with Marina. She’s 27 and from the South of Spain. Shes really nice (even if on a few occasions I have wanted to kill her…. Only a FEW I swear), shes also working on her Masters degree and so has to go home in March, rather than July like me, so she can finish it there. That’s about it lol…

On my first day Lizzie and Sandra (my mentors and some girls I met and became friends with the last time I was here) came a took us shopping. And after Tesco’s we met another girl who we are living with. Emily, a 28 volunteer teacher from the States. Also quite cool. She, just like Marina, really hates our halls. I don’t mind it as much I must say but its getting difficult what with sharing a room with Marina and a bathroom with everyone else and the way the kitchen and whole cooking area are separate from where we are storing our food. I mean I shouldn’t begin having a mini panic attack when I realise that I’ve left the salt in the other room and now have to walk back through the dark hall to get it. BUT apart from all that AND living in the back end of no where (its an hours walk to the town and the bus only comes every half an hour and I’m not even going to TRY and phone a taxi for at least the next couple of months) its really not that terrible. I mean you should see how pretty the garden is. Its like a mini park! But more on the accommodation later.

Well the first week was basically just getting up early everyday to go and met the different groups the Nitra Community Foundation (where I will be working if I haven’t mentioned it before) had funded and collaborated with in the past and also where I’ll be working and who with. On the first day we met Petra, a Slovakian volunteer for the foundation, and she took us to see a group of homeless people who have gotten involved in a programme where the get the clean the streets. It looked like a fantastic project and the whole community supported it… even if it did seems a little bit like they were using the just using the homeless. No one was complaining though. Not even Marina and myself when they asked us to sweep the steps…. It was actually (actually :P) brilliant fun and we got interviewed and put on the news and everything!

A few days later we went to meet the project who we will be working with and just WAIT until you hear what I’ll be doing. Right not only will I be basically a ENGLISH TEACHER (yeah teaching English… me…. The girl who can barely bloody read and write and a massive Derry Mary) but also WORKING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN. They must have thought that just became I’m 20 that I MUST love children and want to work with babies and be a mammy and awk that I just can’t wait for all of that to begin! Naw. Just naw. But the children seem nice enough! They aren’t like the little shites that are allowed to roam around Derry at all hours of the night drink half bottles of vodka and smoking fags from the tender young age of 4.

Well apart from that nothing much really happened in the first week. I just met with Lizzie and Sandra a few times to have coffee (well they had coffee I had non-alcoholic cocktails…. MmMmMmMmM yummy :)) and chatted about films I just MUST see and placed I have to go visit etc etc etc. I met Chris Hills (the Mormon from Newtownabbey who came with us the last time I was here. He fell in love with a girl here the last time and now they are engaged and getting married next June.... So sweet J) It’s fairly safe to say that last time me and Chris were together we didn’t really get along but that was 2 years ago, we have both grown up and I was just so glad to hear an Irish accent that I didn’t care who the fuck it came out of. It was actually really nice catching up with him even if it was only for a few hours. The next day I had to go on my EVS on arrival training in Trecova, a small (and I mean fucking SMALL) mountain village in the back arse of no where.

The other EVS volunteers were AMAZING! Every last one of them as cool as the last and all just looking to have a bit of fun while away. For a few nights we went to the local bar the OK bar (which wasn’t really ok…. It sold alcohol and had a jukebox and that kept us happy). And it was great craic (but only really because it sold alcohol and had a jukebox lol). I wasted So much money playing shite on the jukebox…. I might have to go hungry for few days because of it…. But you see it really is very important the playing S Club 7s “Bring it All Back” and other classic cheese so that everyone can have a good dance….

The first few days where just a lot of training EVS stuff and a few little things about Slovakia that we should know but on the 3^rd day… Just took us hiking. I never realised how unhealthy I actually was until I met the fit this lot! They were all hurrying up the mountain and there was me straggling on behind praying for the next break so we could sit back down again. It did get easier though an I wasn’t the last up to the top. Thankfully. Gives me a little more hope that maybe I can become a little healthier and maybe (MAYBE) survive the next hiking trip. I’m hoping to do again soon but in the snow so I can have a like a Rocky IV montage. I tried singing “Heart on Fire” but no one really got it lol Some people hi...

On the last night we all had a party as well and I promise as soon as I have the internet on my laptop I will upload some of the pictures from it... But now I working on the office computer still and don't have any on here :(

A few thing I didn’t know about myself which I learnt from the other EVS volunteers:

• I’m “White like the snow”
  

• “Smiley on the street"

• I don’t say beautiful I say "BBEEAAUUTIFUL”

• Also can not say doowwn or toowwn, its duwn or tuwn.

I’m so glad I met them because without them I wouldn’t have been able to have been made fun about basically nothing :P But really they were all brilliant craic and I hope I get to see them all again so we can have another good sing along with Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song.”

Well anyway the day after I got back the training event, me and Emily were invited over to Lizzie to have some Tea (Caj) or Coffee (Kava) and as soon as we arrived we realised exactly how awful accommodation is. She has a beautiful home…. Its just a flat but it was the kick up the arse that we needed because actually in Lizzies we started looking for another place to live. Lizzie, Sandra and Lizzies sister were all for helping us look as well. Apparently that’s the reason why she invited us over because she wanted to show us how a home really looks and that we shouldn’t be living where we do….

Well that night we went to see a 2 bedroom flat that was in the centre of town and it looked like a great deal but was more like a…. how could you say?….. A crack house. Not only did we have to walk through a dark alley to get there the actually street had NO lamp posts and was almost completely pitch black. The landlord looked like a drug dealer (good clothes, flashy car, his girlfriend… or bitch…. Sitting in the front seat, the licence plate “NR SPEED”... I don't know if thats because he liked to speed or if its jsut what he sells) and the actual flat? There really are no words. Apparently the last person to live there was an old lady and we are pretty sure she died in there. She died in there and no one found her body for a couple of weeks. I mean the calendar on the wall said October 2007. It was dirty, it smelt terrible, there was no living room, there was no cooker, there is no amount of cleaning that could have made it look ANY better. But it had a great view of the Castle. Really it made us appreciate how nice where we are living now actually is! But yeah… we still aren’t staying lol

So I’ll update when I find soon. Hopefully from my lovely new flat with a room to myself and not have to worry about who’s hair it is on the bathroom floor (EWWWWWWWW)…. Soon…. Hopefully soon.

CHEERIO

*FUN FACT ABOUT SLOVAKIA*

No one can turn on the lights here…. At night no one keeps the hall lights on and its dark all the time. Pitch Black. Emily said it best with “it’s like there is a power shortage that no one has told us about."