A Little Over A Month

This post is for my mom because she said I needed to post today. Hi Mommy! I've been here for a little over a month and I feel as though I left Oregon just a week ago, but also forever ago. Everyday is a new day with crazy memories which I couldn't thank MANY people enough for. 

I recently did a presentation about my life to a couple different classes at my school and it was really fun. For a while I was nervous because my last slide said "Questions?" and it would have been extremely awkward if no one had any questions so for the longest time I thought about deleting that slide. But more people felt comfortable talking to me because I had my friend there just in case of translating. I got a lot of good questions! My favorite was when a teacher asked what we did for Columbus Day, he asked if we had school, and what all happens on this day. Mentally I was laughing thinking about all the American holidays that we don't celebrate and even the ones that nobody knows about unless they have a paper calendar. I told him that when we are younger we do arts and crafts and read stories about the holiday but once we get older, we only talk about it if the teacher is interested. He then told me that he makes his class do arts and crafts and reads stories to them about many other American holidays, including Columbus Day (they are older than elementary students.) If you have been wondering what he teaches it's English and I hear he's a bit crazy about the US. I got questions ranging from really personal, to questions just about how exchange works and what it's like. There will be another day like this in May; by then my presentation will all be in Slovak (hopefully.) 

Today I told my mom that I was going to travel the world and live in tribes in Africa. Now none of this is fully true but, exchange does change your thoughts about the future and priorities. Many things that I had put second in my life have now become my number one priority, and life seems to be easier this way. Today I went on a walk and watched the sunset. I of course took pictures but they could not do it justice. I felt very peaceful and was thinking about how lucky I am. Earlier today I also went on a hike with some friends it was short but a very beautiful one. Afterwards we had talked about how everyone's always wanting to go, go, go; nobody stops to even take a breath anymore. This exchange has gotten me to appreciate so many small things in life and I haven't even been here for that long. I can't wait for the future.

Many things almost stopped me from going on this adventure but, there was something (or maybe someone) that made me get on the plane. I've been very unlucky in life and I feel as though my luck has turned around. I wanted to go on exchange for a total different reason that is why I signed up over a year ago, Honestly if I knew what this past summer was going to be filled with I don't think I would have signed up. I had to think about the girl who had signed up for this adventure and all the reasons why, even if I am a different person then I was I still had to listen to her. But, as I said earlier I felt a pull to go; I guess you could call it my gut. Usually listening to my gut is a bad idea but, this has been a VERY good idea.

Thank you to everyone who has led me to this VERY good idea!
-Emani