First day at school

Today was my first "conversation class" at school :) It was Russian language and I was positively suprised how interested and not that shy at all children were!!! Because usually when some stranger comes to the class, pupils get shy and are afraid to speak. However, these children even sang for me :D

To be honest teacher wasnt that good, but I can understand her since she doesnt teach Russian... However, she has to because other teacher got into car accident and cannot be at school for some time... Anyhow, I will be very happy to help as much as I can..

I really enjoyed it today!!!

slowly getting used..

Last weekend was great!
On Friday I went to visit other volunteers in much bigger city and realised how nice it is to escape Krupina sometimes... I like this city, but I sometimes I catch myself thinking that there is no air to breath (ok, maybe its a bit too dramatic..) since town is so small and everyone knows everyone! However, when I was in Banska Bystrica which is only 50 km from here, it felt like no one is watching and if I do something stupid then no one will care :P Of course, I didnt do anything bad, but it was nice for a change to enjoy myself somewhere else in Slovakia!

On Saturday when I got back from BB, I was a bit tired, but full of energy to go out with some nice people here :) To be honest, I am not a disco person.. To get me dancing You first need to get me to a bit different state of mind ;) So, when we went to the "club", I was pretty sure that there will be no dancing from my side, but I was wrong :D After few shots and a drink, I was ready to check that dance floor, which was ok :P I was as well very suprised, that I already know quite a lot people here. It made me think that this is one of those nice things about small cities, because it gives sense of community, on the other hand, it is frustrating, because it lets people to rumor more :P This was the first time in my life when I stayed in the "club" till the end, when everyone slowly is walking towards the door and some people are carried out by security guys..

And on Sunday, I was finally to see some ice-hockey :) It wasnt a professional one, but I still enjoyed it despite the cold in the hall. I realised that it is much, much, much..colder when there are no other viewers inside :P However, watching a game, even if it is amateur, was loads of fun and good relax.

Well, and this week started with me sitting in 2 English language olympiades. I read some texts for pupils and did speaking parts with them. I really do hope that I did my job good, and they could understand me. Of course, teachers told me that I should speak slower since students are not that good, and I know that I have this problem of fast talking :P
Anyhow, slowly, slowly Im moving further and actually thinking a lot about where I belong and what I want to do with my life. I hope EVS answers some of my questions or maybe at least puts me on the right track.. :)

Some action...

Finally after three weeks of holidays Slovak boys and girls are back to schools!!! This makes me happy since I would like to volunteer at schools and help them out with some English and Russian language conversations :) I dont know how will it go and will teachers be interested in that, but on Monday me and my colleague went to three of Krupina's schools and principals in all of them seemed very nice.

One big minus is that people here think that if I am from Latvia it means our national language is Russian... well, at least it feels that they think like that. Maybe its because of the Soviet Union or just because people arent interested in other cultures... Im just angry since every time I have to explain that I know Russian because of my roots (which are Belarussian by the way) and that I have never studied Russian, which means I can speak it and I tought myself how to read in it, but I dont write.. Anyhow, I think its good to speak as many languages as possible and I am proud to speak Russian, I just dont want people to put Latvia into Russian speaking nation, because both language are pretty different!

Speaking of English, then I think I have it on a quite ok level :P It was just funny that one of the principals was asking "what about Your English?", "well, will see how it goes..." :D its just funny..

Overall Im satisfied and I really, really do hope that something starts to move further! I know, I was warnned by other volunteers that it takes some time (up to 2 month) when things start to work out, Im just getting a bit tired to sit on my ass..

And today I got my Slovak living permission :) Picture is horrible, but at least I can sleep better knowing that everything is legal in case anyone asks.. :P

Well, that would be shortly from me.
Hugs to everyone!!!

New Year, new inspirations

My first post this year :)
I dont really know what to write this time since there is not much happening, because Slovaks have pretty long holiday season... Children for three weeks are free from school!!! So, I cannot really start offering my help since there is no one to help to :P So far I have decided that I should help with Russian and English languages in schools, because I cannot make any other project due to language barrier...
Actually language barrier is not that bad anymore since I can understand much more and when I go out and people try to test me then I am very proud of myself since I can pass their tests ;) My problem is that I dont have that big vocabulary :( And I really, really want to speak Slovak ASAP!
Speaking of new observations about Slovaks, well then You should notice that when You meet a new person here, You greet him/her with shaking hand and giving kiss on both cheeks :) For a person from North, where people are a bit colder :P it is unusual behaviour, however, if at first I was a bit uncomfortable then now Im pretty used to that and I actually like it a lot :) Because it breaks ice between people much faster!
Oh... I forgot to mention that I have been to some discos here :D Im not that big of a disco person as many of You know, but I have to explore all the aspects of Slovak life and since many people here go there, I will try to enjoy it, too :)
And to all my girls, new observation about Slovak men... They are very, very, very... funny!!! I have never met so many funny men in one place :D

First Christmas and second New Year in Slovakia

Its been a while again since I wrote here... However, I hope no one is angry with me ;)

I wanted to say a bit late "Merry Christmas" and in few hours A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR ;) Hope next year brings loads of happiness and success!!!
Its going to be my year (and all those born in '86), if we look at the Chinese horoscope, so I am looking very much forward to it and hope it brings me more luck ;)

Anyhow, more posts next year ;)

Loads of hugs to everyone

for ladies :)

I guess some of my girl-friends would like to know a bit more about men in Slovakia :)
Well, in two weeks I have discovered that here are two types of guys-
1. very self-confident
2. a bit shy
However, both are very cute! When I know something more, I'll let You know ;)

"on-arrival" in Terchová

As You can see I havent done much writing. This was due to the fact that last week I was on my "on-arrival" training in a beautiful place called Terchová :)
Its pretty much North from where I live and nature there was amazing!!! Such beauty and majesty...
So, lets start with the beginning of my journey... Slovaks have a really nice website where its possible to plan all the trip from point A to point B, and that helps a lot, because it shows all the times and stops and so on... which for non-Slovak is very helpful!
I planned my trip through Banska Bystrica, because there lives another volunteer, so we decided that it would be much more fun to travel together, and in case of getting lost.. that would be much more fun together, as well :D The whole journey from Krupina to Terchová took me about 4,5 hours (~168 km) and three bus changes. Anyhow, I got a chance to see so many beautiful places here, mostly mountains and often only sounds I could make were "wow", "ahh", "wow, wow, wow"...
However, few times I as well screamed inside ("aaa...") since bus drivers here are very, very wild, especially on turns! So far there are two things, which I dislike in Slovakia- the way people drive here (they dont stop on pedestrian crossing, wild driving up or down the mountaines..or just regular streets), and their public busses, which sometimes seem to be a bit dangerous to be driven..
However, views behind bus windows were amazing :) The more we were going up the mountain, the more my ears were shutting (I dont know the right word in English, but its like when one is flying and afterwords it takes some time when ears work properly again :P, do You know what I mean?), but it seemed that Slovaks are born without this problem... Interesting! So, after changing busses me and French volunteer finally got to Terchová and the view was perfect! It looked like from some kind of Christmas movie- mountains covered in snow, small city in the valley, stone church...
Very easily we found pension we stayed in and since we were first to arrive, we decided to go for a beer and I wanted to eat.. When we found place called "restauracia" which means "cafe" or something like that, they told us that they dont serve any food, only alcohol :D So, I decided that beer in some way is food, but drinking it on an empty stomach..
When we came back, I found out that my room-mate is a girl from Lithuania :D we laughed that two of us choose the same room since we are from neighbouring countries (for those who dont know :P ) and actually our EVS projects are very close to each other as well. She lives in an eco-community not far from me, and I admire their way of life, since I know that I wouldnt be able to live this way...
By the end of the evening we slowly started to remember each other's names and we even got some assignments to do.. I wasnt that happy about it, because my "pre-departure" was a week before and I was afraid that I will get one more info overload.. However, by the end of the week I was happy to realise that it didnt happen, and the whole thing was a lot of fun :)
I wont go in too many details about the whole week, since Im sure You all can imagine that day approximately looked like that- waking up, beautiful view behind the window, breakfast, gathering together, some assignments, launch, gathering together, dinner, gathering together, a bit drinking, sleeping..
However, I would like to mention our hiking trip to Malá Fatra National Park.

The place is breath taking!!! Again I will mention mountains :D beautiful! River that was half frozen, and a very dangerous roads up since some parts of roads were covered in ice...

And as You can imagine some people fell down. However, it was so great to see that they are not bothered by the fact that they either fell down on an ice or got wet feet in a river.. They kept having a nice time ;)

During this trip my love for hiking grow even bigger and as well I realised how much I would like to learn climbing! So, this would be one of those outside the project activities which EVS offers :)

Overall, last week was amazing with loads of laugh and fun and excitment... Im looking forward to meet all these lovely people again either by visiting them in Slovakia or next time during the "mid-term" training ;)