Okay so I almost had another mini panic attack last night haha (not really but it WAS ann anxiety inducing experience to say the least!) My family and I were off to visit some family friends and they happen to live in one of those many blocks of flats that are around. So I was secretly very excited to get to finally go inside one of these buildings (I was very curious to find out whether or not they look as in rough shape on the inside as they do on the outside....). Much to my surprise the the living areas of the flats were actually very nice! This particular flat was beautifully decorated (in all IKEA! I might add :)) with new flooring and windows, so it looked warm and inviting.
On the contrary, the halls and corridors outside the living areas are not so inviting, nevermind the ELEVATOR! Now this is where my horror comes in. We had to get on this little tiny tiny tiny elevator thing (we being three full grown adults) to get to the seventh floor. Now some of you may know that I am not a huge fan of elevators in the first place as I had a recurring dream of being trapped in a glass elevator as a child, but anyways.... I was horrified to discover that this was actually the contraption we had to take up seven floors. It was literally only one meter by one meter in size and its one of those ones where you get in close the door but it doesn't really actually seal the elevator because you can see and feel the wall moving on the side. And when you got into the thing it sunk more than a few inches and it creaked and squealed the whole way up. Boy oh boy am I glad I don't have to take that up to my house every single day! I still can't quite believe we made it all the way up. I just kept having these visions of the whole thing (myself included) plunging to its demise.

Other than that not too much has happened since yesterday. More school today. it went until 1230 or so then we went for lunch. I think school is going to be trying. Its very difficult to understand anything thats going on and very few of the teachers (except for the english teacher who is AMAZING And my favorite!) translate anything or explain anything. I would say they don't even acknowledge my presence but I think they do sometimes and I just have no idea what they are saying! Every so often I hear the words exchange student and then everyone laughs usually so I'm not too sure if its good or bad.
We got our schedules (which are subject to change) today so I kind of know what I'm in for now at least. There are a lot of subjects! In geography we are supposed to learn ten new words in slovak each class and then in Math we will be tested on them instead of trying to comprehend math in slovak. (which is almost impossible I found out today). We (being the mexican and I) are also going to give a presentation on our home countries to the class at the end of the year in Slovak. So I'm excited for this because it will actually give me something ot work on. Every student in the class was assigned a country and that is like our final project I think. And in English we get to give presentations on ourselves and where we come from and things like that so that will be good. I'm glad some of the teachers are trying to accomodate us and at least attempt to integrate us into the classroom. If they didn't I don't know if I would make it to the end. You have no idea how long five hours is when you have no idea whats going on and no way of figuring it out. Today was the longest day of my life!!! School is boring as it is and then when you can't even understand the language, well then its just a blast....* note to self-bring something to do!
Now I am getting ready to go to my rotary orientation meeting. It is three days long in Strecno. I am very very very excited! It looks like it will be a really fun weekend! I can't wait to meet all of the other exchange students from all over the world! So my next post won't be for a while but ill fill you in eventually! JUst brace yourself for my return because i will probably have a lot to say!

P