4th Month!

Week 13 – November 13 – I woke up really early in the morning and got picked up by Valeria’s host mom with Valeria and Pablo also in the car. We drove another hour and a half to the city of Martin where we had to get our medical exam for our Slovak visa. We were at the hospital for 2 hours maybe and had some … interesting … tests done to us. We went to the town center of Martin to eat and walk around the town. It is a small town but still quite nice!

There they also have a historic village museum which we visited. It’s an outdoor museum with a bunch of historical village buildings. There, I found such a cute cat and I held him for the whole time we walked around the village. I love cats. Afterwards, we went to the house of Valerias host grandma, where they ALSO had a newborn baby cat who was SO cute and fell asleep on my lap, I was dying. We left a little earlier to go visit a castle overlooking the Vah river, but once we arrived the castle was closed. Instead we drove to the city of Zilina to get Chinese food.

It was a long but nice day. Thursday, my old classmate Emma brought me to her English class in another city called Nova Dubnica. The class was so fun and her teacher is the nicest woman ever! Her daughter is living in USA right now, and she understands what it’s like to live away from home during high school, and she treated me just like a mom, it was so cute! …

Castle that was closed

Beautiful Prague

Protest in Prague center

The kitty sleeping on me

The city of Martin

The village museum

All of us (except EMMA, sorry!!)

Prom with Czech friends

Tabor at sunset

Trdelnik!

Joining the protest

View from Charles Bridge at night

Tabor from the city tower

Week 14 – November 19 – Thanksgiving week!!! My classmates were so nice to me this week as they knew about thanksgiving and that I might be homesick. I’m truly so grateful the Slovak kids are so great with me! I was sick the first two days, but didn’t do much until Thursday anyway. On Thursday, the Rotary club of Martin had a big Thanksgiving dinner for a bunch of American exchange students and for Slovak Rotarians. I attended with my amazing YEO and her husband. It was so nice to see the other Americans there. They had us all give a speech about what we’re thankful for, and it went great. They had 3 big turkeys there, and they were for sure the biggest turkeys I’ve ever seen in my entire life. They were HUGE. I’ve never celebrated a true Thanksgiving in USA with all my family and the traditional food, so it was kind of a “first time” for me. They made a really cute photo booth for us and we all took photos! It was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving and I truly am so grateful. …

One of the huge turkeys

Food at the church Thanksgiving

Anna Uman!!! My friend from USA

Exchangers

At the American church

Beautiful Trencin from the castle wall

Americans together in Martin

Week 16 – December 3 – We had Slovak lesson in the morning on Monday and Pablo brought his guitar so we could learn a Slovak Christmas song to preform for the Rotary club on Wednesday. We learned the song “Stoji Mikulaš” which is annoyingly catchy. After the lesson, we were talking together about Asian food and how much we miss it. My YEO/Slovak language teacher had just learned about a new Japanese restaurant that opened in town and decided to invite us to go! It was so fun and nice of her. Her husband came too, and we all ate so much. She is the best YEO ever!! …

Auschwitz

Inside a barrack

American hamburger with the other Slovak exchanger

Wawel Castle

Destoryed gas chamber

Chapel inside the salt mine

My friends and I in Vienna

Museum in Vienna

Valerias Slovak friends and all the candy

Concentration camp

McDonalds with Valeria and Pablo

Me and Magda!

Other exchangers in Bratislava!

Townhall and Christmas marker

Week 15 – November 26

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Anyways, friday my family had planned to bring me to a thermal water park on the way to Poland, but since I was on antibiotics they decided it wasn’t a good idea. Instead we went to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The line for the museum was too big, but we found a Slovak tour group in the camp itself and followed along with them. We got to see all the barracks, gas chambers (destoryed) and other places. We went inside a barrack of Ethnic Polish woman and children, where the conditions were so bad, people couldn’t survive for more than 2 weeks in most cases. In addition, it was sooo cold outside, giving some effect to how miserable winters must have been. I also have to say how disturbed I was by the amount of people taking happy fun selfies/photos infront of Auschwitz, as if it was some cool tourist attraction. Overall, it was a really eye opening experience and I’m glad I was able to go. …