Back in June II - Eastern Slovakia

Back in time again, it was the 20th of June and I had just finished my quite enjoyable Mid-term training. After a quick lunch and sensitively waiting for the train I had checked on Internet before -I could had taken others that were late, early for me, but there were a different category, which means you'll probably need to pay more-, I took a repairing nap in my way to Kosice.

I recall waking up, watching the landscape and thinking how nice and green is Slovakia, and turning greener and wilder in nature as crossing it from west to east, from Bratislava to Poprad and then Poprad Kosice. Why Kosice? Why not?! It's European Capital of Culture 2013, the second largest city in the country and a beautiful one, as you may have heard by the locals from there -also the easter you go the more patriotic people feel, or something like this I had been told. Aha, lucky me I found a map to show you. See? That red line is the one I took to go and back.

Anyway, when I arrived around 4pm, my friend Peto -an INEX volunteer and soon to be leader together with me in Slatinka eco-village- was waiting for me in the train station, within the 34º the thermometer indicated in the pannel just outside it. Of course, with this melting feeling we agreed that the smart thing to do was just having a rest in his fresh and modern house until the sun was somehow calmer.

Peto is currently studying geography in Bratislava and he lives there, only coming in time to time back home for the weekend to his parents house, where I was their guest. I guess I haven't met many families so far to compare, but really, they treated me like a queen. Even when his father didn't know much of English he tried to talked with me via his son -in the role of a translator-, tough I could understand him in the basics -felt so proud and rewarded when this happened. And also her mother, who tried harder in English, was friendly and curious, making me questions -you know, funny fact, everybody wants to find our why I ended up in Slovakia, me included! :P

Well, his father prepared for me a tasty dinner and after some talking we decided to go for a walk. My impression of Kosice -compared to Bratislava that is the city I'm use to now- is that is peaceful and colorful, and the people in the streets are actual locals and not tourists crowds or crazy bachelor parties guys -no offence, Bratislava :P

Next day we had the other half of the touristic visit by foot, came back for lunch when I was happy to prepare for them pasta carbonara, and -last part- go all over Kosice in Peto's friend car, not only for visiting but for finding a place to buy this lens cover tap of the camara that I had offered to the spirit of the waterfalls in High Tatras the day before, haha. It was hard but we manage to find it in the biggest shopping center around. Shame on me, I don't have a picture with my hoster, but here's one of he and his friend in the entrance to a forest in the outskirts where it was built a tower from where you can see all the city -nice view.

Then, after a moment of stress because of train delays -I told you, can not trust Slovak railways punctuality-, we headed to the train station in his friend's car -really helpful guy indeed- and I took another train to my real destination: Humenné and very close, Jasenov -final destination. See? I am also going to lead a workcamp of a renovation of a ruinned castle and it's very normal -and more necessary this time since it's a brand new project- to arrange an appointment with the local partner and talk over the living and working conditions. Yeah, this was the main purpose of the trip -tough I'm extremely thankful to Peto for hosting me and avoiding making all the way from Bratislava-, and the importance of taking an specific train was because Dasa was also coming.

Who's Dasa? This name should sound familiar for the genuine readers, haha. She's my menthor, she was a leader last year in Slatinka and this year we'll be leading together Jasenov castle workcamp. Since our local partner said that  he didn't speak so much English she was the one who had been in touch with him for this visit and he was waiting for us once we arrived to Humenné to take us by car to Jasenov.

I was actually surprised to find in Humenné's train station a couple in their late-fortys/early fifties. I don't know why but I was expecting someone younger, ale nevadi. Alex and his wife -Barbara might be her name? my bad, I forgot- greeted us warmly and drove us to the Culture's House of Jasenov, where a friendly mayor came by bike and opened for us the place where we stayed the night over. It was a huge place and I didn't take any pictures of the inside because it was already dark, but no! I took this one photo of the dinner we had that night: home-made wild-pig soup, by Jasenov's mayor, check that! :D

Next day it was 22nd of June, Saturday, and we woke up extremely early for a Saturday morning -6:45 am, to take a shower before our meeting with Alex at 8 am to finally take a look to the castle (yes, there were showers! no, hot water was too much to ask, haha). He picked us up with his car and drove us somewhere close in the village, where a steep hill was waiting for our 15-minute walk to the top and find this amazing place.

During this visit Dasa and Alex were talking in Slovak about future work and the history of the castle and the organisation that is nowadays in charge of its renovation. Sometimes they will translate some words in English for me that I really appreciate, tough I felt certain that Dasa was translating the most important parts for me -she's so caring!

After reaching the top the only possibility was to go down again, so we start our descent passing trough some important places: the break area, the cottage where we are supposed to sleep during the workcamp -there were some mould in there, we hope is nothing serious and they will manage to fix it by then- and finally the way back to the car by a beautiful meadow.

I really liked the place and the atmosphere. For me since the night before I felt like in a fairytale, and the view of the castle and the certainty that we are going to live in the forest for a whole week -showering from a stream of water and cooking in a fireplace- just made this feeling deeper. Can not wait for this to start! :)

Alex drove us to Humenné's train station with plenty of time for taking the train at 11:22 am -that's the reason why we had woken up that crazy early, in case you wondered-, making it possible for me to take the connection of an InterCity (IC) train to Bratislava in Kosice and saving 2 hours of trip. In the train Dasa went trough her notebook and made sure to inform me of all the previous questions we had previously discussed, and had been answered by Alex.

Once in Kosice I said goodbye to Dasa, who wanted to visit Kosice since it was her first time there. Me, on the other hand, just wanted to reach home, make a laundry and prepare the things for my next trip, that was just going to start the very next day. But that's another story, a great one and therefore deserves a post on its own. So see you in the next post, unconditional reader.

Hugs,
Ali

Back in June I - Mid-term Training

Well, last time I wrote here it was 3 weeks ago, but don't get me wrong, I've been only back home since last week and I needed some time to rest and process all the places I had visited. So yeah, time to exercise the memory.

The 17th of June I took a train with some of my other EVS volunteers friends destination Novy Smokovez, in the High Tatras mountains -the highest of Slovakia-, with good mood to start our Mid-term Training for volunteers, which turned out being more a meeting that a training but still enjoyable.

We arrived in the afternoon, after around 5 hours train trip from Bratislava, close to the magnificent landscape you can see above. In some places of the mountain you could still see snow remainders. The train from Bratislava was picking up more people attending this meeting and when we changed in Poprad to take this tram-train we found more, what meant that half of the participants were arriving a little bit late -ale nevadi. You can never trust Slovak railway timetables on time, believe me.

Anyway, the place, the people and this great atmosphere that involved us all it was simply perfect. The topics of the discussion might not be for inmediate practical use like there was the first time in the on-arrival but still I learnt a lot about my past experience in the exercise of creating an evaluation graf of emotions of our project. Of course there were also group discussions, teambuilding exercises and games and more games -and breaks with watermelon, yummy!

Nevertheless, the most intense and interesting day was the last one (before the departure day). In the morning we went hiking and I loved the landscape. I know, I've already said it a few lines before, but really, so nice! An especially so different from back home, it makes you appreciate the diversity and beauty of nature.

Then, this night we probably had one of the nicest group conversation of all the meeting. We were discussing about what do we want to do once our EVS projects are finished and it was nice to hear how people describe a bright and happy future for themselves. Some of us were more optimistic than others, that called themselves realistic but sounded rather hopeless. Anywho, we had a moment when optimistics took the word and we all agreed that at least you need to try. Because it doesn't matter how much society insists on calling us the lost generation, they could never take dreams from us, and if we dream strong enough then we are able of doing anything ;) Aha! Forgot the context of this relaxed and inspiring talk: with the sunset as a background, and later the cover of the night, out in the garden, surrounded by stars and with the light od the candles.

Next day we got more practical and we made a bit of review of useful websites to continue volunteering projects, other kinds of youth exchanges and internships, study possibilities in Slovakia and ways to work abroad without money but without expenses either -like workaway or woofing. Note to self: make a word document with all this sites not to forget them!

And that was all. After that session in the morning we had a quick lunch -quicker than what I would had like to- in order to take our tram to Poprad. Then the Bratislava group took their train and I waited for mine just in the opposite direction: Kosice. Why I was taking this I would tell only in the next post, so be attentive, soon more and better :)

PS: that moment when I was waiting by my own -after 4 days without much privacy-, and then I noticed our beautiful trainers also waiting for their train two platforms far from me. That exchange of mimical hugs and kisses from the distance right before the first vagons makes them dissappear from my sight, and the sudden certainty of their magical cappability to take the best from our group. Geez, I feel so lucky I'm having this great experience^^

Hugs,
Ali

Active June

Good morning, beautiful readers!

Wow, this June is being intense and it looks like is not going to slow down in the next two weeks. But stay calm and let's start from the begining.

Two Sundays ago a big event around here took place: Sarah, from Belgium, joined the INEX team and the EVS flat so, just like Matiss, she is now a colleague and a flatmate. Few words about her: she loves cycloturism -making tourism while traveling in her bike-, she's quite excited about learning Slovak -she goes everywhere with her little self-learning language book- and she's also keen on photography -which means that in these days I've experience not being all the time in the back of the camara but also appearing in more pictures. Here's a picture of her -shame on us, we still don't have any together!

The first week of June pass by pretty fast -as always in EVS time. I was busy with new contacts of Spanish-Slovak tandem conversations but I also found some time to spend with Sarah and Olga -another INEX colleague-, who showed us a very cheap and tasty pancake place in Bratislava, close to the train station. You have a lot of different toppings, both sweet and salty, and they cost around 50-70 cents each -I told you, very cheap :D

 Then at the end of that week we went to Banska Stiavnica, one of the most beautiful towns in Slovakia, altough I can not say that we visited much because we had another aim. INEX Democamp, the practical part of how to become a workcamp leader, took place there from 7th evening till 9th afternoon. We actually learnt how to organise or how to react in a lot of different situations that can appear in a workcamp and I feel quite prepare now to co-lead the two I signed myself in. We even were give a short training about first aid and, funny fact, the rythm of making CPR is the same of 'Staying Alive' song of Beegies, as Vinnie Jones explains you here.

And because there is not better example than practice we also permormed some voluntary activities Saturday morning in the Scout House where we were staying. Cutting wood, transporting it, cleaning a storage room and -the task I was given- cut the grass -I felt like a samurai with this machine, it's fun but also quite tiring and you end up with a lot of small pieces of grass all around.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned it before but this EVS is really changing my attitude toward kids. Since INEX is like a big family with young couples with kids, sometimes you also have to babysit or just play for fun with the kids. This is Mishko, the head of the office son. He insists in calling me baby -'babo' in Slovak- everytime he sees me, but I have fun teasing him also.

Then, because attending this training on the weekend, we had Monday free and I had a complete picnic day. I met a Slovak friend for going to Slavin at lunch time and we had sandwiches and Moldavian wine -yap, interesting yet tasty combination. Then when he started singing and playing guitar it started raining -unfortunate coincidences, he actually sings quite nice-, so we waited a little until it stopped, passed by this pancakes place and then I had a tandem appointment. After it there was the second picnic in Medicka Zahrada, with more sandwiches, frisbee and badmintoon.

Next day we had the official INEX lunch in Slovak pub for welcoming Sarah, since Matiss and Tomas had only arrived two days before looking good, tanned and smiley after two-week training in Sicily. The part of the introductions was hilarious, how we see and talk about each other. For Sarah might had sounded a little bit strange, but she'll eventually get and share our particular humour. After lunch we came back to the office and we prepared for the afternoong the Tea Meeting where Sarah talked about herself and about her country -now we can say we are experts in Belgium. This funny video is quite explanatory.

On Thursday it was Saint's Anthony day in Spain. Here in Slovakia they also celebrate it but they call it 'name day'. We call it 'saint day' and it was my grandma's and aunt's day, so my mother decided to take the laptop to my aunt's house where they were waiting for me to come back from the office and have a lovely familiar Skype meeting. It's always so good to meet them and hear all the compliments and affectionate words they have for you :) Here's a captured image at the end of the session. Unfortunately I forgot to make it at the beginning so my uncle, my older cousin and her boyfriend are missing. My sister is not in the picture either because she was in Cordoba because of her university exams, but still you can appreciate how beautiful family I have -as my grand-grandmother said: '8 grandchildren and non of them ugly!', haha.

In this last week we've been also getting ready for 'Nase Mesto' days. It's an event all over Slovakia that consists in a weekend of voluntary activities not only by voluntering organisations but also private companies. On Friday we went to Integra center for making some gardening work -I was in charge again of cutting the grass, my father would probably complain that I was trying to avoid it always back home, lol-, and also yesterday we went to a kindergarden -and again some work in the garden and playground. I must admit physical work is not my favourite, especialy yesterday that I was already tired from the day before. But is so automatic that I find it also relaxing -maybe only for a short time period. Some pics from Friday.

Also on Friday afternoon we had an informative session for the so called 'first timmers', the volunteers that are going for the first time abroad. I made a presentation about the origin of volunteering and the workcamps, but we also treated more practical issues like what to bring or intercultural differences you have to be aware in this context.

Yesterday, after this long days, I decided that a good way to chill out was going to this barbaque I was invited. It's a pity we don't have any pictures because I think it was quite unusual to sit in a park, make a fire in a huge pot and sit in an also mighty big piece of textil with Indian motives. We were meeting at 6 pm but it actually started a little bit later and we stayed there until almost midnight, in a cosy atmosphere with candles, friendly people and interesting conversations.

Today is Sunday and I will take it calmly, haha. There's a plan of going to watch -or even joining- this bungee jumping in Lafranconi bridge later at 3pm, but I think I won't stay long. I still need to pack my things for tomorrow, that I'm going together with other volunteers to our Mid-term training in High Tatras until Thursday.

On Thursday I will stay the night over with some friend -I'm not sure yet if in Kosice or Liptovsky Mikulas-, because next day my menthor -who will be also co-leader with me in one workcamp- and I have an appointment with the local partner of Jasenov Castle in the eastern part of Slovakia. It's an ordinary visit to the place we will be living and working for one week at the end of July, so we can inform better the volunteers coming about things like accomodation, food and location. Google images sample.

And well, after Saturday morning visit we will come back to Bratislava and finally on Sunday morning my adventure to Montenegro and Croatia will begin. It's odd and yet perfect for me, because I was looking forward to make a trip to some Balkan countries but I still had no idea how to make it. And then two weeks ago Olga, from the office, asked me if I wanted to join her and some friends of her in this trip she had planned, sweet! She even has an agenda, this day beach, that other day lake, and the other visit to a city. She's really good at this and the places look very nice. So I will let you know when I'm back how great it was :P

Take care, pretty readers

Hugs,
Ali

Busy May - Last Days

Oh, my! It's difficult to catch up once I've already had some delays in the reporting, but let's try.

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 =/