So What Happens Now?

This post has been a long time coming. It has been a combination of not being in the mood to write, exhaustion from walking around all day, and feeling confused about what to write. Y'all have already seen my first impressions post. All is good, pretty, very European. That interpretation or what Slovakia is has not changed. It has only grown.

The last time I posted on this blog I hadn't even arrived in my home of Kosice yet. I was still at training in the capital city of Bratislava, and I had no clue what to expect. I've been in this apartment for almost two weeks now and I still can't decide how to generalize it, the city, or my experience here. It is so overwhelming!

I will start from the beginning and try my BEST not to make this post several pages long. But I'm not well known for being straight to the point. 

My roommate Elizabeth and I left Bratislava with all of our baggage in tow on Friday. We took a 5 hour train directly to Kosice. I had no idea when I arrived at the train station with 130 pounds of luggage that there were no elevators or escalators in the train station. So walking all the way to the train involved going up and down 4 flights of stairs with all of my luggage and zero preparation. I was flustered. Luckily, I had help. Bless those men who helped me.

We arrived in the afternoon and were received by one of the vice principals, and the principal of the school. They greeted us warmly and took us straight to our flat. I had seen what it looked like via video chat with the previous tenant, but she didn't tell me that they'd be doing construction throughout the summer. So when we arrived to the front door, the apartment looked like this. (picture to the right)

Aside from the entrance, the flat is bliss. It is very well furnished, I have the dishes that I need, the bathtub is huge, there is a TOWEL WARMER. I feel so elegant just knowing my house has a towel warmer. It's so great. 

Kosice is a city of about 200.000 people. It has a breathtakingly beautiful city-center, and the atmosphere is pure freshness and relaxation. It is the most peaceful, clean, and inviting city center I've ever been in. Maybe it's because it's not a huge tourist destination. I have no problem keeping Kosice a secret. Despite being a city, and a European one, I haven't noticed crazy driving, a ton of smoking, or litter everywhere. The people in this city seem to genuinely care about it. That is, except for the less-than-artistic graffiti gangs. I don't appreciate them. 

Kosice is the type of place where you walk or ride public transport basically everywhere. 10 minutes on a bus 2 blocks from me takes me to the city center. 15 minutes on a tram the other direction takes me to the huge supermarket. A 5 minute walk from my flat towards the city center is the most quaint little market I've ever seen. They sell fruits, vegetables, flowers, honey/jams and wicker baskets exclusively. I love going there because not only are the prices better than at the store, I am very into supporting small businesses. The photo to the right is what I picked up last Saturday. 

Some people might be surprised by this, but I still haven't started teaching yet. The first week we were here we spent the days sitting in our office trying to get things organized and figure out what supplies we'd need. This week we have been working 6 hours a day on lesson plans. I will be teaching 8 courses, and 17 classes per week. Some classes will meet once a week, and others twice. The classes are various levels of English Conversation courses, as well as U.K. and U.S. Social Studies. 

I teach in a bilingual school that offers two programs- 5 years, and 8 years. The 8 years start at 10 years old and graduate at about 18 or 19. The 5 years start at about 13 (our 8th grade) and graduate at about the same time.The grades have funny names based in Latin like Prima and Kvinta. I'm not going to bore you with what they mean. I am finally getting a hang of it and I've been working on it for two weeks. These students do not take classes together, and are tested into the school (so yes, they do already speak English). I am not teaching them how to speak English, and I am also not grading them on their grammar. My classes are based on discussion and English conversation. My aim is to improve their verbal English fluency in order for them to do well on the mandatory Slovak College Entrance Exam: the Maturita.

The Maturita is similar to the SAT, but they offer it in Slovak, English, and German, it is required, and it has both a written and oral component. The goal with this school is to get students into the best colleges possible, so they start focusing their studies on Maturita topics at a very early age. The principal told me last week that there are 702 schools in Kosice, and ours consistently ranks within the top 10. It's a lot of pressure for a girl fresh out of college who has a degree in Social Entrepreneurship. 

Outside of working on lesson plans and trying to keep the house in order, I try to spend as much time as I can keeping up with loved ones and exploring the city. I've spent a good amount of time in the city center, going through the shops and cafes. Kosice has SO MANY CAFES. The food here is very meat and potatoes. I've been here for 18 days and I have yet to have been served something green for a meal. Don't tell my family this, but I kind of MISS IT. Mostly green beans and broccoli, but if my grandma found out that's all I'll be eating at her house for the rest of my life. The market is mostly raddishes, onions, potatoes, and things I've never seen before. So I'm going to have to get desperate and eat something from a can. It's still a vegetable if it's from a can right? 

It's 7 hours ahead of Texas time here. Just typing the word 'Texas' makes me sad because of all the horror and sadness happening back home with Hurricane Harvey. I am not going to dwell in it, and I am not going to make this post all about it, but I am going to spend quite a bit of my personal time reflecting on how lucky and privileged I am to be here and be safe. I don't have clothes to donate, I don't have money to send, but I do have positive thoughts and prayers. Today Elizabeth told me that she'd like to go tour St. Elizabeth's Cathedral downtown because it was the middle of the day and a great time to see it. Of course I made us late and we walked in right in the middle of mass.

I was so embarrassed. I hid in the back and walked around as I heard the congregation sing their hymns in a language I had no hope of understanding, and I found this little box. In the box were these candles and for each 50 pence you put in, a candle would light for 5 minutes. Usually I see these and I think of so many things I'd like to pray for or about that I just skip it and move along, but this time I only had one thing on my mind. I pulled 50 pence from my coin purse and stuck it in the little slot, and lit a candle for Texas. I hope you find a bit of time in your day to light a candle for Texas in your own way. 

Dobre Den Slovakia

I'm writing this post from the comfort of my dormitory at the Lutheran Seminary in Bratislava. The view in front of me as I type this is among the most peaceful I've ever seen. I've already eaten lunch and most of my loved ones back home are just now getting up. I think the time difference will continue to be weird for a while. 

I think it's pretty obligatory that I talk a bit about my journey over here, and how I made it to the Seminary. I flew out of Houston at about 4pm Saturday and had a very uncomfortable 9.5 hour flight into Paris despite getting about 3 hours of sleep thanks to my bizarre blow-up travel pillow (pictured below) and an unwise amount of Melatonin. 

Once I arrived I was so sore I couldn't stand up straight, and could barely walk. Reluctantly, I hobbled into a pleasant, unassuming massage kiosk near my gate. 20 minutes, and $30 (and a Pull and Peel Twizzler) later I walked to my gate feeling lighter and more relaxed than before I'd even left. Unfortunately it did nothing to alleviate the jet lag.

At about 12:30 my flight to Vienna took off, and I thought I'd try a neck brace instead of a blow-up pillow (pictured below). I fell asleep immediately after take off and woke up 5 minutes before landing. My neck felt great. However, after more than 16 hours of travel not including wait times, all I wanted was some sleep. I arrived in Vienna and within 15 minutes of landing I was already being loaded into the shuttle to Bratislava with my co-workers. 


I made it to the Seminary at about 4pm Sunday Bratislava time. I was beyond thrilled to be there because I knew I'd have two hours to sleep, but after carrying 112kg worth of luggage up three stories to my dorm, all I wanted to do was tell people I've arrived. I was so proud that I'd arrived. 

I went to dinner at a restaurant directly across the street from the President's Mansion. It is a beautiful estate, too bad the President doesn't even live there. I finally made it to my room and to bed at about 10pm, and woke several times throughout the night. I gave up and got ready for the day at 6:30, and went out on the porch. It's generally around 70 degrees here, and the breeze is divine. I couldn't get enough of it. I even kept the door open all night because we don't have A/C (don't worry, no creepy crawlers or peeping Toms where I am). 

Today was my first Slovak lesson, and man, I am struggling. We have only covered days of the week, numbers, and a few colors and it is so mentally taxing that it's giving me headaches. All of the water here is carbonated and room temperature, so staying hydrated is a battle as well. I'm forcing myself as well as I can, but that stuff is just gross. The meals have all been meat and potatoes (no complaints there), and the staff at the seminary are just charming. I'm having a great time here, no homesickness quite yet.

I just came back from an exhausting 5 mile hiking tour of the Bratislava's Old Town. It was elegant, quaint, clean, and quiet. I would recommend it to everyone. It was more peaceful that I could have ever imagined and has this appeal that makes it seem forgotten, but in a very beautiful way. None of the images I've posted thus far have been edited in any way other than cropping and sizing to accommodate the blog. I'm not speaking on my photography skills, but simply that this is how gorgeous this country really is. Please come see it, we would love to have you!

As a send-off I'd like to challenge y'all to a bit of Slovak. Look up a video on the numbers 1-10 and send me a video of you trying to pronounce it. For each video (either through Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, or Whatsapp, I will send you a piece of delicous Slovak candy! This offer ends at the end of the week so get to studying! 

It's Getting Real Y'all

Apologies for the informal title, but that is really what I've been thinking lately. I've compiled all of my visa paperwork, I have begun gathering the things that I'll be packing, and my car has been sold. I'm sitting on my bed killing time before one of my best friends (Emily Braun) returns to spend our last evening together for at least another year.

My other good friends are either on their way to their new jobs out of state, or are spending the weekend celebrating their last vacation before graduate school. It's extremely sad to realize that everyone I know and care about will be going in such radically different directions in their lives. It's heartbreaking, but it's also genuinely beautiful because it shows how unique we are, and how all sorts of different paths can lead to fulfillment in our lives.

There was no secret contest between friends to see which one of us would end up furthest away from home, but if it were I'd win two or three times over. I am the only one of my friends leaving the country, yet I don't feel in any way that my journey will be any more or less difficult or fulfilling than my peers. I'll be honest, knowing that there is only one other person in my entire college class doing something similar to this is really scary. Going to a place that speaks no English, surrounded by nothing and no one familiar is starting to sink in. About 5% of the time I find that realization thrilling and invigorating, but 95% of the time it makes me so nervous that my stomach turns and my palms start to sweat.

I've noticed that I haven't taken much time this summer to reflect on my upcoming move. Each time I start to think about it and begin getting nervous I remember a task that I need to complete or something I need to buy. It certainly hasn't hit me yet that I'm leaving the continent for at least a year in just over a week. 

I will admit that I caught myself feeling very sad and nostalgic a few days ago while passing my old high school. I was on the way to deliver my car to its new owners, and took a turn that would lead me to the house that my friend Alaina lived in for the whole time I've known her. They were doing construction on the high school and seemed to be changing its entire facade. Alaina's parents had just sold the house to move out of town.
I'd never liked the car that I was selling, but getting out of it and handing the keys to the new owners gave me a feeling I've never felt before. It was an ugly combination of sadness, dread, and fear of change. I know that what I'm about to be doing is going to be the time of my life, but I find no shame in missing familiar things, and dreading the inevitable longing that I'll feel for them. 

I'm beginning to start the goodbye process with my friends and family. This is the part of this whole thing that gets me the most. I haven't cried a single time since before graduation, but I know this is going to hit me right in the heart. As I reflect back on my time abroad in England and think about the things and people that I longed for the most while I was there, I realized that I didn't miss my loved ones all that much, because the people that mattered were the ones I kept in contact with the whole time.

The things I missed the most was the land. The rolling hills and the cactus, the wildflowers and the sound of cicada's in the evenings that remind me of sitting on the front lawn of the farm with my grandparents. The smell of barbecue. If anyone could mail me those things that would be great! 

I've spent the last few minutes trying to come up with a fitting parting statement for this post. I kept coming back to this old Irish poem that I've been thinking of quite a bit as I get closer and closer to leaving. It goes by many names.

May the road rise up to meet you. 

May the wind be always at you back. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields 

and until we meet again, 

until we meet again. 

May God hold you in the palm of His hand, 

until we meet again.