The First Ten Days

So, I am going onto my tenth day here in Slovakia, six thousand miles away from home. I can’t say it has been very easy, but it is slowly but surely getting easier. My host mom makes things a little easier with how sweet she is, but I feel as though she is constantly worried about whether or not I am okay (which can get borderline overbearing at times), but she does it out of love and I am extremely fortunate to have such an amazing person as my first host family. I will only have two host families throughout my time here in SK, which I can’t decide if that is a good thing or not. On one side, I don’t have to deal with moving too much, however if I wind up having problems with either of them, I have nearly half a year with them. Hopefully I won’t have problems, it doesn’t appear that I will.

I begin school on Monday, which I am pretty excited about. For those who know me well, they will be able to tell you how much school will benefit my stay here. I tend to need to remain busy, otherwise I will just think and overthink constantly, which definitely does not benefit me. I have made two friends (other than the exchange students) that attend my school. However, they are all my age, and are therefore in the grade above me, which is pretty unfortunate. I have a feeling they will still make an effort to include me in activities outside of school, though. I enjoy going out with them, it takes my mind off of everything else. I am excited to make more friends at the school, even if they are younger than me. I am hoping new friends will make things here a little easier.

I visited the school on Tuesday and it reminded me a lot of Buena (prison-like, lack of color, despair and grief written throughout the walls…normal high school), which is actual quite relieving. Although, it is five stories high, so that is going to be fun (I am convinced I will return to the US with calves of steel). I met my biology teacher, who appears to be nice enough. I have a feeling that many teachers don’t speak English, though, which will be…interesting. I am sure the teenagers will assist me until I can speak the language though. I am making progress on the language, even if it seems as though I am not. My host mom has been VERY helpful (despite her poor English skills) and we have post-its throughout the living room with the name of the object in Slovak on them. It is cute, and it makes me laugh. I begin Slovak language tutoring on Tuesday. It is going to be for about two months, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5pm-6pm. Hopefully those will be beneficial.

My first rotary meeting is on Monday at 4pm. I will be making a presentation about my life in the US and about the country and Arizona. I had made most of it while I was still at home, so all I really had to do was translate it into Slovak. I think I will create a speech that I want to say along with it, and then translate that into Slovak (get on the good side of these Rotarians ;) ). My host mom says it will be okay if I present in English as long as my PowerPoint is in Slovak, but I will be an overachiever I think. I want to be able to travel more, and doing the translating will probably help me with the language too.

Overall, I am doing okay over here. Some days are better than others, but it is slowly getting better. The busier I am, the better I feel about the transition. Sometimes though, I have decided it is nice to just sit, relax, and listen to music. So, I am making it a point to do that as well, but only for a little bit at a time. I am excited for the opportunities this year is already presenting to me, and I am amazed at how quickly this past week went by. Before I know it, I will already be back home, hopefully with a new outlook on traveling and the rest of the world.

Dovidenia!

P.S. Be sure to check out my other pages in the blog! I have added a gallery (that includes some brief descriptions!)