Let's exercise the memory. The 17th of May I arrived at home at 3 am and I stayed the whole weekend at home and rested -I think it was the sensitive thing to do after such intense experience in Belgium. I only left the house for meeting some other EVS volunteers friends briefly, like Miguel on Friday for a beer, Michele on Saturday for playing billard and a few friends more on Sunday for some national and bio products that took place in Sad Janka Krala, this huge park in between the Danube and Europark.
Then the week started and we had a special event on Thursday: a presentation of volunteering and INEX in one school for 12-year-old students. In this pictures you can see Matiss and Mirka having a little energiser to wake up our public before the presentation, and below there is me in a presentation we made the next Thursday with a little bit older teenagers. I think one week difference was enough for me to develop my presentation skills. I was more relaxed and I felt quite more confident in the second presentation, which is good because I'm always complaining how I don't like public speaking and how nervous I become. Yap, practise makes perfection -or at least improvement :)
Then the weekend was mighty relaxed, except maybe on Friday. I went with my friends to a Balkan-electronic music party in Nekapri Inn, an underground bar here in Bratislava. The music was fun and we were surprised of finding out a ping-pong table in the very last corner of the bar. I enjoyed playing first with Michele -that you should have already realised by now that is my playmate- and then in this 'Slovak' way that consisted on hiting the ball and running because we were like 8 people playing at a time -very enjoyable.
Monday, 27th of May, we had our second visit to Integra and we had a thematic day: Indian style. I think they are quite happy to have some new faces around and they especially enjoy the music, you can see their expressions while listening to it, it's remarkable. There's a little collage I was asked to make to remember it.
Next day there was a big event in Hviezdoslavovo namestie for celebrating European Youth Week. Tomas, Matiss and I went there representing INEX, we even had a shared stand with leaflets and so on and we were helping anybody that could speak English with further information. Also we read some text in Slovak for a 'interview' they made us, talking about our experience as EVS so far for encouraging other young people to go for this kind of enriching experiences.
Then in the last weekend I went to visit Slatinka, this beautiful and peaceful eco-village where I will be leading one INEX workcamp that will take place in August for two weeks. This meeting with the partner was nice because I got to know the place where we will stay and work, and also the kind of work they need us to do there. I had spoken before with my mentor, Dasa, that was a leader there the previous year and therefore I had some idea about some problematic issues I got to ask and I was happy to find out that this year they are solved.
I stayed the night in Zvolen for a EVS volunteer birthday party and I had quite a nice time. We started in her flat with some karaoke and a nice sunset from their 10th-floor terrace, then bowling, then Hospital -that is not actually a hospital but a club-, then Ministry of Fun -another club, with better naming-, and then back home. I was hangover the next day, maybe because I was invited to some borovicka -national drink, 40 degrees- by some locals, but I regret nothing -I think my past me from that day will totally disagree, but nevadi. We played ping-pong in the most difficult conditions ever (with rain, wind and strange people around that insisted on speaking Slovak with us even when we said we didn't understand), had some shameful lunch and then back to Bratislava.
I was so tired that I slept on the car the way back but the rain was so strong that at some moment I woke up because of the loud noise it was making when reaching the car's glass. You've probably heard some news about the floods all around central Europe. We still have the Danube close to collapse but it's not raining anymore and it is supossed to start decreasing tomorrow, so don't worry about it. This is a picture from yesterday that a friend post on Google+, you can check the whole report here.
What else? Aha! I had my Slovak exam on Tuesday and I had quite a good mark, yay! I will eventually retake all of my Slovak-Spanish tandem conversation contacts and I hope by the summer I'm speaking a little more than now -it's still easier for me written than speaking.
For the rest, June's just started and I have already all weekends booked with INEX activities, but I think I will enjoy. Tomorrow to Banska Stiavnica for democamp -practical part of how to be a workcamp leader-, then next weekend some voluntary activities around Bratislava -nase mesto (our city) days-, then during the week the mid-term training in high Tatras -I'm looking forward to meet all these people again and have some nice hiking there-, and then maybe the visit to another workcamp I will also be leading, but that's still need to be confirmed. Now let's cross fingers, last week of June I will be enjoying a well-deserved vacation time in a nice sun in Montenegro and Croatia, why not? :D
I think that's all for now. I will try to write more often again because if not this very long texts is what you get, haha. Take care, my dearest readers.
Hugs,
Alicia
[edit] PS: actually, the Danube did collapse this afternoon in Bratislava, but it doesn't seem like a big deal or at least I hope so =/
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