Busy November

Monday 4th

On Monday I came back to the office after the week off in Poland. Surprisingly, I didn't feel so 'post-vacation depressed' like other times before, perhaps because it felt quite short and yet intense, and also because the cold weather doesn't get me in the most eager position to make long trips.

Anyway, I arrived to INEX's office full of energy and I tried to catch up with all the following events -that are not few. The most urgent one was a national presentation I arranged to do in a foster home for kids but I didn't have much information about it. That's why we contact Svetlana, from this kids organization, and we agreed to have a coffee after my working hours so she could explain me better.

We went to this place, YMCA, only 5 minutes from the office. It's a nice old building with different spaces in it. We chose a not-so-smokey bar and had tea and talked. She explained me the main purpose of the so called 'Harmonia' project, was to show the kids that there are people who can not talk Slovak and that use English instead, to motivate them to learn languages in the future, by presenting my country. She was very nice and we decide to be in contact for the details of the presentation by email.

Tuesday 5th

I don't know if you remember but I told you I was last month in a workshop about how to find an international work or internship here in Bratislava. During this event, they also promoted an illustration agency which has the office in that place, Connect Coworking, and which was looking for some interns. Since many people told me that the process to find a job takes around 2 months, and it was already the end of October, I decided to write myself in the list of interested applicants.

OWL Illustration agency contacted me before leaving to Poland, but I explained them about this and agreed to had an interview once I was back. By email we arranged that it should be on Wednesday afternoon, but then Mirka, my colleague, proposed me to go to this place -Connect Coworking- later in the day because they were projecting a marketing movie for free. I told Petra, from the agency, this and we moved the interview to that day -right before the film projection.

It looks like a nice project for me, but it also happens to be that this agency is mainly 2 people helped currently by 2 other interns, which means they can not afford any remuneration for them -it's quite a recent business, moreover. Also, they wanted somebody to joined them asap, and I still have my contract with INEX and my working hours, so it wouldn't be possible. I was interested in them and they were interested in me, but so far it was not working for this time. They said I should contact them again in January, if I still want the intern position and it's still available -will see.

Anyway, right after we finished it was about the time for the film to start. Mirka had already arrived -and waved at me smiley while I was doing the interview-, and had reserved too places in the first line sofa -didn't need to because there were 5 more people attending the projection, but well. The documentary is called 'The Naked Brand', and it talks about the need of big corporations to be transparent in the currently over-informed world -with the internets! It was very interesting, I'd recommend it to anybody interested in new horizons of advertising and PR. I'll put here the trailer, and in case you felt intrigued, here's the full movie.

Wednesday 6th

On Wednesday I was meeting with my friend Dasa. Since I stayed a bit longer in the office and the time I had was short to come back home before the meeting time, I decided to have a walk through the center in the meantime. Out of nowhere I came across with two EVS friends, Aza -who's also Spanish and living in Bratislava-, and Mariano -Argentinian living in Piestany. There was also Antonio, Spanish living and working in Bratislava who Aza had met months before. They told me to joined them for a beer in Language Cafe, taking place in KC Dunaj, and so I did.

Since I could feel I wouldn't be able to finish my beer within the 15 minutes I had before my meeting with Dasa, I texted her to pass by this place and pick me up or join me and my friends. She came and enjoyed the atmosphere, but I was also already made to the idea of meeting her privately, so we went to Ginger Cafe -the place we had arranged before, only 5 minutes away from there, and really nice house-like coffee place- for a rather intimate moment before returning to Language Cafe.

I think it is the first time I have a picture of some of this meetings, and also is the only picture I have with Dasa that is not in an INEX event, haha -well, I lie, I also have one of us from the day we met in Bratislavsky Hrad, but that's all. We had a great time -we were in the Spanish table so it was good to relax and speak Spanish with fluent people. We met Greg, from France, who had been only studying Spanish for 18 months and had a mighty good level. He suggested us a website for memorizing vocabulary, Memrise, that I checked for Slovak -and they also have courses! It's quite an useful page, feel free to take a look. Not only working for languages but for anything you want to memorize.

As often in these meetings, I was planning to come back home not so late, but it didn't happen like that. When I was about to leave Aida arrived with Simon -the new EVS in Aza's and Aida's organization for autistic people, SPOSA-, and so I thought about staying a while to meet him. The 'while' turned out into hours when the 7E concert that was scheduled to start at 8:30 pm, started at 10:30 pm for free. But I regret nothing, it was great to dance to the Coffeeshock Company reggae and funky rhythms. I left the place to take the bus at 1:30 am, and Aza, Aida and Simon still stayed for partying in other pubs -crazy funny people!

Thursday 7th

This was the day of the presentation in the foster home for kids in Modra, 30 km away from Bratislava. The presentation was at 5pm, which means it was already dark when we passed by the cute little village who keeps a rather old look -I felt like visiting it with daylight sometime.

We arrived a bit late by car with Svetlana and Maja, a colleague from the same organization, took all things in a rush and entered a room with quite wild kids, all age ranges. Since they don't speak English, Svetlana stood by my side all the time for the translations, which started with a brief introduction and an energiser they didn't seem too interested in. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was the only thing they weren't interested it but the thing is that they also had the same attitude towards the presentation.

At that moment it felt quite awful. The kids were not paying so much attention and not being silent while I was speaking and neither when Svetlana was translating. Some things I had prepared were a bit difficult for them to understand so we skipped them, but others were basic enough -they just wouldn't listen. Anyway, everybody seemed more involved when the part of the videos and music came, and when the presentation was over some of the kids came to talk with me -by my interpreter. There was even one 11-year-old boy who introduced himself directly in English, he was so cute.

In any case, when we were collecting the stuff to get in the car and Svetlana saw my long face she worried about my experience. I felt quite bad at that moment because it felt like what I've done and prepared was pretty useless, but then she explained me that some of them were interested but shy and that I should just keep the good memories and the fact that at least some of them felt inspired and motivated to start or keep learning languages. I couldn't get rid of my self-pity at that very moment but I already have. As she suggested, I've kept the memory of those kind kids who came closer to meet me after the presentation, and also those -mostly the same ones- who ran and hugged me before I got in the car. That was quite nice.

Friday 8th

Friday morning Sarah and I woke up earlier than usual to get the train to Trencin (120km from Bratislava), since we were having an INEX presentation in the 'Open Days 2013 na Úrade TSK', organized by Europe direct Trencin. It was so different, firstly because the place is normally used for official conferences and secondly because our public were high-school students -who still remained silent even when they felt bored.

We took the train at 8 am, arrived there at 9:30 and didn't have our presentation until 12:30. It was a bit boring for us because it was in Slovak and we didn't understand almost anything, but when talking with other students it happened to be also bit dull for them, since they were not so much interested in European matters. I was happy to change that when our presentation time came and we start with an energiser and a good answer. Also, we were speaking in English, so they had to made a bit of an effort to pay attention. Anyway, we made it short because after so many presentations we knew they were tired, but in general it was quite good.

After the presentation we took a bus to Priedviza and afterwards to Bojnice, for visiting the castle. With the last sunbeams, Sarah and I made a full photo-essay from the place, reporting the castle from every possible angle. It is a very nice place indeed, and also the square nearby of the little village where it is set. We took something to eat and drank coffee in a rush, for taking the bus back to Priedviza. From there Sarah came back to Bratislava and I waited a bit longer for my bus to Zvolen, for visiting my friends over for the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday 9th-10th

Since Friday evening I arrived rather late and I was pretty tired from the whole day, we just stood the night at home with Thiebaut, Timour and their 'now-I-am-a-sweet-purring-thing-now-it-is-psycho-time' kitty. Besides, party was planned for the next day when a newcommer EVS Spanish girl living in Banska Bystrica (20 minutes away from Zvolen), was throwing a party in the evening.

Finally we decided to come a bit earlier, around 6-7 pm, and join another friends for a home-made dinner. In Yuko's and Hansol's apartment, they prepared risotto with mushrooms and oven-cooked salmon, together with a glass of white wine -tasted even better than it sounds. Geez, it was so good, and specially after so long without eating any kind of fish. I think when I'm back for Christmas I'll ask my mum to prepare fish everyday, haha.

After the dinner we went to a pub called Smädny Mnich (Thirsty Monk in Slovak), drank for a while and made up a questions game to heat up the conversation. Few beers afters we were supposed to move to another place, but we stopped by for some food -kebab and fries. Unfortunately, after that most of them decided to leave already, and so only 5 of us reached another pub -the birthday girl didn't manage to join us because she was sick and feverish, but her flatmate and one more friend did.

We ended up in a metal pub with quite loud music and the mood wasn't fitting so much. Therefore, we decided to leave a bit later, since Yuko and Hansol offered Timour and me his place over -since there weren't any means of transport to get back to Zvolen at that time. We slept not so much, woke up to take the train at 9:30 am and rested a bit longer in Zvolen. It was Sunday, which means after all day lazing around I came back to Bratislava and finally had a good-night sleep, to get ready for the following week.