Second month - Swerve off topic

The month has almost past, so here is another story from Slovakia. Things are changing fast. Spring has come. And everything looks more cheerful with the green colours. There is more light, no snow anymore. Yesterday I found out that it gets dark about one hour earlier than in The Netherlands because Bratislava lays more east. 

Daily life is exciting. I bought this fluffy angora sweater on a bazar in an old school, everywhere I go I leave rabbit hair ;) But it's so soft.

Slovak people drink different coffee. The supermarket shelf for instant coffee is quite big. There is no slow coffee hype here. Instead I could say there is a fast coffee hype. But the coffee in the office is okay.

I like the work in the office. For example I am making a game ‘Spot it!’ for Inex. We can play this game at the camps for the summer. For this I need to draw pictures, it helps to learn Slovak. Now it’s spring we often have lunch outside in the garden.  We are organizing a game night and we will arrange a special April Fool’s day for the people in a centre for special needs. We will be clowns and I will play a song on my guitar. I like these challenges although there are many things that I’m a bit afraid of.

I start to appreciate communist buildings more. The sunset on the flats can be really beautiful sometimes. And as I have learned from my Greek friend, you should look at the details of the blocks if you want to orientate. They are painted in nice colours. Many shops are hidden in these blocks and close by is a yoga studio. This has a cosy atmosphere inside.  My first impression was that blocks are coldly. But if you look better you can find secrets in this city. 

I found a nice climbing hall here as well, but I don’t have so many people to climb with as in Groningen.

We had full weekends; on my weekend in Brno (Czech Republic) they had the best coffee in a small hostel called ‘Mitte’. In Brno I was surprised that I could

hear a woodpecker near the castle when we lay in the grass. This would be pretty rare in the Netherlands. But in Slovakia you can hear them too.

We had a training for camp leaders in Senec, a small place near Bratislava. This was very useful because I don’t have so much experience with being a leader. Now I know different ways to communicate with groups, before I never thought about this.

On my free day I went to Vienna with Quentin, my EVS colleague. We went to Schloß Schönbrunn where people were doing handstands in the grass. And we climbed the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Up in the tower was a very nice man who told us that they clean the cathedral every month with a climbing team. This building is made of sandstone, which is very sensible to pollution.

Last weekend I had my first weekend voluntary camp. It was in Eco Slatinka. A beautiful small village in the middle of Slovakia, there was no internet or tap water. They had

a wood-burning stove and oven. The weather was beautiful. We made a bonfire every day. In the morning we were saving frogs by helping them to cross the road. They want to go to the river on the other side of the road after their winter sleep. In the afternoon we planted apple trees with special names. The alley we planted was named translated to English something like ‘alley of European understanding’

And then last but not least. Today I met a chimney man and we shook hands. In Slovakia this brings good luck, if you touch the chimney man or if you touch a button of your clothes when you see him.  

First Month in Slovakia.

Before I went to Slovakia, I decided to write this blog in Dutch, but It’s part of the EVS program to improve my English. So I made this change. Don’t blame me if my English isn’t correct, it’s a learning process like whole life.

So many new impressions. Everything was new, but I felt at home very quickly because of the wonderful people that I met. It started when I arrived at the airport of Vienna. I found my suitcase immediately at the baggage drop. And then my Slovak mentor was waiting for me together with another mentor to welcome me with Dutch tulips, Staphorsts hood gear made of paper, traditional Slovak sheep cheese, my name cut out of orange paper and poppy seeds cake. They eat so much poppy seed here, I can’t wait for the summer, I expect the whole landscape to be red of these flowers. I also started to eat oats with poppy seeds in the morning. I tried to have no expectation before I came here, so I wouldn’t be disappointed when I came here. But when I went to the on-arrival training I felt so lucky because our project is well arranged as far as I can see now.

The first week we got some time to adapt to our new surroundings. And we, Nadia from Romania, Quentin from France and me from the Netherlands, made presentations about our countries. Now I know that Romania has the largest population of bears in Europe. Here in the high Tatras are bears as well. I would like to go hiking there, because everyone says it’s so nice there. If I go there I’ll write about it and make pictures for you. Slovakia’s nature is surprisingly beautiful. They even have a small rain forest in the north east close to the border of Ukraine and Hungary. There are many caves, castles, waterfalls and nature reserves. In the first weekend we were blindfold, brought to a park to play a city game, it was very exciting! We smelled all the flowers of the gates of the presidential palace and ate really nice pancakes with interesting fillings. 

One thing I learned at the training after we spoke with a social worker of the Roma culture, who has Roma roots himself. Is that Roma people don’t want to learn by teachers. They were taught by their grandmothers/grandfathers to learn ancient crafts. They are proud of their traditions. That’s one reason why they don’t always accept to learn in current school systems. The iceberg of a culture is deep under water and there are so many things we don’t see or understand as a foreigner. When we adapt to a culture we need to respect the culture, but also be ourselves.