From theory to practice

Ahojte ludia! (That is Slovak for Hello people^^)

Yeah, lately I've been practising a lot of Slovak -maybe not so much this week but 4 out of 5 days of the previous one, yap. It's curious how depending with who I'm making the session I have different methods, but still it works everytime. Also I've recorded some of the meetings but I haven't found the time yet to go trhough the audio -anyway, it should be quite helpful.

Why didn't I have time for this? Because I've been meeting a lot with Dasa because of the workcamp starting on Sunday, the renovation of Jasenov Castle. I think I already wrote a few lines about it when I went for the previous visit. Since it is the first time that is going to take place there are all kinds of details that need to be clarify before starting. In this process I learnt a lot about organisation and communication, and I'm very happy I could count with the support of Dasa, who is very caring and perfectionist -good example to learn from, indeed.

So we wrote several emails to the participants and to the local partner, exchanging information all the time about practical issues like accomodation, meeting times, free time activities organisation... everything! It's good because know I also feel more prepare for the preparation of the next one, Slatinka, together with Peto. Even though I need to leave for a week for Jasenov we divided the work and he'll be in charge of contacting local partner and volunteers -I feel we're also going to make a good team and, besides, Slatinka has been taking place for few years already so everything should be smoother.

After work in the summer of Bratislava I've been enjoying a little bit my free time. I had tandem meetings, I've tried yoga outdoors in the nice park of Medicka Zahrada -with the cutest open-air tea house- and also tried jumping, which is basically making aerobic and work-out exercises in an individual trampolin for yourself -sounds fun but at the beginning it's quite difficult and gosh, it's intense!

Also this week I attended to two different foreigners' meetings in Bratislava: Monday with Couchsurfers and Wednesday with BLEM (Bratislava Language Exchange Meeting). Sarah is quite involved in the Couchsurfing community here and I joined her and had a lot of fun meeting new people, mostly travelers -and finally came back home at 3 am to work the following day with a little hangover, I didn't miss that but it was worthy.

On the other hand, Wednesday evening I meet a large community of people that are foreigners and they're working here in Bratislava. I was surprised there are so many of them, but as they explained me there are a lot of American IT companies around here and it's easy to find a work spot. Anyway, I stayed for a while in a group of Italians, then to the Spanish community and finally I ended up with a Slovak friend I met by Sarah, who was also with another friend of his -Juraj and Juraj or George and George. I stayed with them for a while and we passed by Rock Ok in the way to take the night bus -for enjoying the concert only aurally, not visually :P

Yesterday I had a short tandem meeting with Eva, one of my new contacts from Janka's birthday party. I was cleaning at home and I arrived quite late -to fulfill the Spanish archetype-, and after, instead of staying with her for Yoga in Medicka, I went with Dasa to buy our tickets together to Jasenov for tomorrow. Afterwards we passed by Lacinka, a communist-looking pancakes place -cheap and tasty, just the way I like it :D Take note: bryndzove je dobre, ale nie slany tvaroh. A potrebujem skusit especialne s vinou a smotanou (grapes and cream).

Then finally I arrived home, tired for the few sleep and the rush of the day, thinking that the family Skype meeting was not going to take long -but I was mighty wrong. This time I started only chatting with my sister since my mother was finishing something in the house, and we got to talk about how is she feeling about coming next year to Poland to study. Also she helped me calling my Spanish phone company to recover my PUK code -my battery was dead when I arrived from the weekend outside Bratislava and I couldn't remember my PIN code. Anyway, I had a great time with both my sister and my mother -and I'm going to give credit to Skype, perfect way to bring us together.

Actually, I realised talking with them more than ever that it's been hard for me to not come back home for such a long time. I mean, last year I was in Portugal as Erasmus and in the second semester I was also half a year straight without visiting my family -oh, wait, 5 months because of that snowboarding trip with my father on February. Anyhow, as I think about it, for me summer represents a kind of Christmas: I'm back home with my family and friends and enjoy the vacations by the sea (also in the winter time is pretty nice to walk in the beach).

The thing is I thought that it wasn't going to be a big deal to stay away so long from home, but actually I miss spending some quality face-to-face time with relatives and friends. In any case, I will survive :)

Well, I think that's all from me -I only skipt telling about a farewell party in Zvolen last weekend that wasn't so bad neither so good, probably because people were too much destroyed because of sangria made with Hungarian wine from plastic bottle, haha.

Right now I feel relaxed and excited, just in the right mood to go start my first experience as a workcamp leader. We'll see how that goes, tell you more when I'm back (after a week living in the woods without coverage and -of course- without Internet).

Take care, pals!

Hugs,
Ali