Some ropes and some Slovak meetings

Hi there random readers!

I don't like to repeat myself but then again, this has been also an intense week. Well, actually the weekend was also quite active because the 'Bratislava for All' days, when all the galleries and museum were open for free to everyone. We saw a lot of tourists these days and also I became one of them.

Saturday morning Matiss and I were meeting with Mirka at 10 in some bus stop in the way to Devin Castle, in the outskirts of Bratislava. It's a very nice and peaceful side of Bratislava, and for me it seemed like a little town crowned by this eye-catching ruined Castle whose picture I'm sharing with you from, one more time, google images.

We spent there the whole morning, having a relaxing walk in front of the merging of the Moravian and Danube rivers, just a few metters away from Austria. Then we came back to Bratislava city center to find a lots of people and we had lunch in a place recommended by Mirka in  Hviezdoslavovo Naméstie -Verne, great atmosphere, nice food, the only reasonable prices in this square.

After we visited a Modernism (aka, Art Nouveau or Secessia) exhibition featuring Alfons Mucha, then joined the Bratislava free-tour guide -maybe a little bit disappointing comparing to the one in Prague, made in Spanish by a native Spanish speaker-, entered the Primacy Palace to meet the mayor of Bratislava and finally back home.

On Sunday I joined my flatmate Stephanie with the intention to enter Michal's Gate and go up and check the view from the top of the tower, but at around 2 pm it was pretty crowded so we decided to take some lemonade and she took me to a surrealistic exhibition in Bratislava City Gallery. There was this installation with books and mirrors forming an optical illusion of a never-ending library, very nice!

Then I met another EVS friends who were already forming a queue to enter the catacombs and we stayed there waiting for more than an hour to go down some steps and stare a tiny little cript with bones and a quick explanation in Slovak. It was somehow frustrating but at least I enjoyed some nice talk in the sun and yummy cheap ice-crem -they have it in every corner here in Bratislava. Later we also enjoyed a beer in a hidden terrace in the center, a place Dasa told me I should go with nice weather and she was so right!

On Monday Tomas, Matiss and I went in the afternoon to Ulita, a youth center for a Roma community here in Bratislava. We had planned some activities for them as a 'Sport Day' event, but we went out of the script following the pulse of the kids interests. I must say they looked slightly wild and a little bit rude for me, but I've never experienced working with kids before and I can not tell if there is a difference. Only the language barrier was a minor stress source for me, but -as I was told- you don't really know if you'd prefer to understand them, lol.

And then Tuesday came and I had a meeting I was in fact looking forward to have. In the on-arrival training we had a simulation game and the trainers helped us to organise our free time and explore our hobbies. I told this girl that I wanted to improve my photography skills, maybe with some cheap workshops but she couldn't find anything suitable. At last she recommended me to get in contact with one friend of here who lived in Bratislava, 'a very open and kind girl, I'm sure she would help you'. And, geez, she was right!

Tejka was very kind to invite me to go together with she and her friends to climb. We agreed that she could teach me some basic theory and then I could practice by just making pictures, but we actually focused more on the climbing. Anyway, I enjoyed a lot the experience -I climbed myself as you can see in the nice picture she took of me-, took some good pictures and laughed hard with them in the context I would call the 'we survived' beer. Po?

Uh, I like to take pictures by night! I took this one in the bus stop under Most SNP.

Nevertheless, I was so soared yesterday! All my back and arms were quite stiffed so I sadly decided to skip my Yoga and concert program and have some rest at home. After I was actually glad I did like that because I had many emails to read, some Slovak to study and so on that I needed that time.

And then we arrive to the present time, Thursday. Today I had my 3rd tandem conversation Spanish-Slovak meeting with a girl who is friend of a friend of mine, so it was kind of a language 'blind date'. She is quite kind I must say and tried hard to explained me some grammar things I've trouble with.

Concerning work yesterday we had the greatest news: we've found all 3 partners we needed for our youth exchange project! I was a bit stressed because we had the deadline next week and we had some rejections as answers but finally we have them: Belgians, Greeks and Italians, together with Slovaks -I believe it would be a quite enriching project connected with youth unemployment.

Yeah, that's all for today I think. Tomorrow we'll have Matiss birthday party, he's turning 20 -just like INEX or Slovakia itself as an independent country-, such a nice age! And Saturday there's this kind of second-hand market event with free live music, also looks promising. Let's enjoy - Pod'me zabavit'!

Good night princes of Maine, you kings of New England -The Cider House Rules 

Sleep tight! :)

Sunday Morning - Mix messages

A song, a curious clip and a nice image and text written by Matiss :)

'Wake up every morning with pure love for yourself. Love the first breath you take, the first beat of your heart and the touch of the sun on your skin as you open your eyes. Love yourself so you can love the people around you. :)'

Keep your head up

Well, well, well. I might sound a little bit repetitive, but time really goes fast around here.

This week started with a sunny enjoyable Monday when I went to the Danube's riverside to relax a little after work, just reading Castaneda for a while in the sun. To come back home I decided to explore new paths so I took the pederastian bridge, in between Most Apolo and Nový Most, and found the way back home crossing a mighty lively park. This is something I like about Bratislava, even close to the center you can find some green spaces where you can just lay in the grass and chill. I took a sample picture from google images about the place I was, nice right?

At work we are writing now the Youth Exchange project. It is sometimes difficult because it's somehow an abstract topic and it requires lot of thinking, rephrasing and discussion about what do we want to do. In my opinion the most stressful day was Tuesday when making a draft about the planned activities for the agenda. I try to always listen carefully to my partner's point of view and respect his ways, but because we are quite different in some aspects sometimes finding an agreement is a little harder, but we manage.

Today, after that day stress, I tried to had a more open position and give him the reason most of the time -but of course I still have to deffend my opinion when different and I'm trying to work in how to express myself better :). Then again, I'm really happy to have Matiss as a colleague because he's a kind grammar-nazi and we'll have a properly written project. It's somehow dissapointing for me and I feel a little frustrated to not be the best at writing because of my grammar mistakes -or my unintended habit of writing spanglish words-, but I'm also learning in this way to not get upset when he corrects me, I'm trying to keep my ego low.

Moving forward in the week we reach yesterday, which for me I can say it was one of the most complete days since I arrived here. Half of the day we visited Integra social house for disable people. I must admit it looked quite challenging for me, I've never work with disable people before and I felt nervous because I didn't know what to expect. Finally I had the sense they were quite normal guys, only -because unfortunate circumstances- they have different needs than an avarage person. I really enjoyed playing with them and the fact they feel just happy to have someone to play with.

After Integra visit we spent some time in the office and then we went to Yoga, as we've been doing since March. I think from now one I'll be just attending Wednesday's lessons because I don't want to be sedentary but also it's not so important for me to be sporty. Then we had planned to attend an audiovisual compilation of greatests mistakes in movies in KC Dunaj, but it was so crowded that we didn't get tickets to enter -just with around 6 people in front of us.

Happily Tomas, also from the office, had a plan B and we went to a benefic concert in the university's dormitory. It's quite american-like kind of campus, with a lot of students so the atmosphere was quite nice. Also the only two bands we managed to watch were very good. Unizoono, as I checked few minutes before in the poster of the concert, was this young band close to indie rock with very nice voices from both female and male singers. And at the end we also enjoyed La3no Cubano, a Slovak band that makes latin music -I knew them from the TM and I was really looking forward to see them again. It's funny because their music is very danceable but half of the public had left in the previous band, and I felt like dancing but also so tired I just sat there and ate my piece of cake -it was benefic concert for some christian association anniversary and we had cake for free, yum yum! Anyway, I liked both bands and especially the version Unizoono made of this song -I think the lyrics are very good.

So yes, when I arrived home I was pretty tired and so I am today. I had an intense tandem conversation session with Nataliya, previous EVS volunteer at INEX -she is from Ukraine but good enough in Slovak to teach me. I think I'm getting good at the method of learning, always trying to create a fictional situation and a conversation about it, but still is tiryng for me to do it for longer than 45 minutes because my Slovak basis is not so strong YET. And I highlight this 'yet' because the list of people I will be making tandem conversation is increasing every day! Next Monday I'll be meeting another girl, friend of a volunteer in INEX friend of mine, and we will have another of these sessions. I should improve my Slovak soon - Musím zlepsit' sa moje slovencinu skoro.

Toto je vsetko. Zajtra viac a lepsie - That's all. Tomorrow more and better :)

About the context

I feel so inspired right now. I've just arrived from Aupark where the film festival Horý a Mesto was taking place. In fact I was in the last session where 3 of the best documentaries throughout the festival were shown. The last of the three was this documentary about climate change, 'Chasing Ice', ending with this sweet song performed by Scarlett Johanson -I actually didn't recognise it was her until I saw her name writing in the title.

Anyway, the real character in this film is James Balog, the visionary photographer -with geology studies background- that decided to visually document the melting of the poles and also was recorded in this 3 years process in amazing landscapes and pretty scary conclusions. You can check the trailer just here.

Dasa, my menthor, was the person who told me about this film festival. She actually told me in Slovak in last week tandem conversation but I couldn't imagine how good this was until what I got there today. Now I think I should have tried harder when I tried to entered in another session the day before and they told me that tickets were sold out. I should have taken it as a hint about the quality of the festival but sometimes it's hard to notice. In any case, now I know what she meant when she tries hard every year to attend it and I feel sorry for her that she got me a ticket and at the end she couldn't manage to come because she got sick. I hope she's resting and recovering now, she's a pretty busy girl but sometimes is good to slow down.

Well, enough of film talking, just watch the trailer and please write if you don't feel an urge to watch the whole movie -I think that won't happen. So yes, besides of the festival it's been a mighty nice day. I'm really surprised that within a week I managed to passed from the thick coat I bought when I just arrived to a rather thin jacket and my second-hand poncho today. It was so warm, I love it! Feels like home.

And I spent my day with Toni, my friend from Liechsteinstein -altough I prefer to say just 'my friend from Vienna' that it's a little less tongue-twisting. I always like when people are visiting me over and I can use them as an excuse to go to Slovak Pub and have some halusky for lunch, hmmm. Then again what I enjoy the most about him is our neverending talks and today I particulary liked the siesta moment in Slavin monument, just laying in the grass with a very nice sun out.

One of today's conversations was about the context. I was explaining to him how I cold really use a change of attitude because of the context. I think there is someting I'm doing here that doesn't fit in the background. It's not Portugal, it's not Erasmus anymore, it's not Mediterranean feeling. This is Slovakia, I'm already in a job position (volunteering but it's work), and I really don't get yet the slavic context, tough I can pretty much sense that is quite more relaxed. So, I guess I also need to slow down in some sense. It's just a matter of adapting, just about the context. 'Adapt or die', rephrasing Darwin.

Nevertheless, day by day, continuing this adventure.

Warm hugs,
Alicia ide spat'

It goes on

Another title that comes to my mind for this post is '¿Quién me ha robado el mes de Marzo?', rephrasing the lyrics of a big Spanish songwriter, Joaquín Sabina.

Yeah, for me it's like I've just blinked and suddenly we are in April (the 11th, btw). I would have to make a big effort to remember all last month and that's why I'm so glad that I've been writing previous experiences here.

After On arrival Training we had one week of work and then it was Easter holidays. I spent my holidays in Prague with some other EVS friends. It was a great experience and we were very lucky that we meet the city from diferent points of view, ie party in Cross Club, historicaly in the (three-hour) Free Tour and localy/culturaly by the hand of a Czech anthropologist, Milan, who kindly hosted us in his (I quote him) punky place and showed us the city. I enjoyed Prague and I'm looking forward to visit again with warmer weather -tough it was warmer and not so snowing as Bratislava those days. Here's a picture of us in John Lennon's wall.

Back in Petrzalka I got sick last week, that passed by mightly quick for me. I made the mistake of thinking I had recovered completely before I did and I went to the office on Friday, which made me got worst again and then I had to stay at home the whole weekend, missing the activities that Inex had prepared for celebrating its 20th anniversary -I can find somehow relieve that I made few collages for decorating Slovak Pub saturday night and that they took pictures of former Inex volunteers with the same frame we used in the Technical Meeting, there was at least a little bit of me there :P

Then, after this long mandatory rest my body demanded me I was willing to come back to the office this week, get back to the action. My colleague Matiss had already started last week with the writing of the Youth Exchange project and I'm very happy that we are moving forward quite fast -tough it's though work sometimes to put in words what we would like to achieve in this project.

Also, just happened yesterday in the office that I received a friday list (document with free places in workcamps) from an organization that was urgently requesting volunteers for a workcamp starting in 2 weeks. It is a project about Festival Namur en Mai and I am very excited I'll be taking part in it :D I will finally go to an international workcamp and it will be also my first time in Belgium, yay! I really liked Belgian people from TM.

Last but not least, two days ago I had my first tandem conversation Slovak-Spanish with my menthor. It was really enjoyable, I guess both at some point found the other person speaking quite funny. Anyway, besides the laughing, I think it's an useful way to improve my Slovak -that and a lot of studying at home, of course. Momentálne hovorím trochu po slovensksý ale mám rada ucim sa jazyky. To je vcetko teraz, zajtra viac.

Dobrú noc!