My stomach feels better but how that came to be I can't be entirely sure. I think the cure was simply time, my host dad thinks the shot of borovicka did it, my host mom the black sludge I took on a spoon, and mariely thinks the spoonful of olive oil she suggested, but regardless of which one did the trick I feel ALOT better! Thank goodness!

I had a really good day yesterday which was nice. For one it was the first day of sunshine after having rained here for more than 16 days (thank goodness I was in Italy and greece for most of that!). It was police day yesterday so there was a little festival put on at the sportove centrum. Mariely and i went because a girl we know was dancing there. It was really cool to see her dance. I'm not exactly sure what kind of dance it was but to me it looked like the equivalent of cheerleading. There were girls dancing in several formations twirling batons and waving pom poms wearing short skirts. Sounds like cheerleading to me. But it was nice and there a group of really little kids and they were SO adorable! There were also at least one man of every kind of police in Zilina there along with all the emergency vehicles. They did a show where shots were fired off into the sky and then a helicopter flew down really close to the crowd of people. Also they had parachuters dressed in full on swat uniform jump from the helicopter and land in the middle of the crowd of people. It was actually really neat to see and not at all what I was expecting (when I went i had no idea it was police day...). so that was in teh morning and for the afternoon we had a Rotary event with our club. We don't get too many of these so I was kind of excited for it. Like usual I didn't really know what it was for. We had asked and were told it had something to do with a group of 5 people from America. Extremely descriptive I know. But we met at noon in a schoolyard (which isn't actually as random as it sounds because one of the rotarians is the principal of said school) for goulash and pivo (stew and beer). A very Slovak thing to meet for. It turned out to be a gas. Quite a few of the Rotarians showed up with their wives, kids, and grandkids and we spent the afternoon drinking (yes they let us have some alcohol!) and telling stories. The five people from america turned out to be part of a GSE; group study exchange. This is yet another cool Rotary thing where five young professionals do an exchange for a short period of time to another country where they work on some kind of project and get to do alot sight seeing and cool stuff. They are in Czech and Slovakia for one month and have been here 12 days already. Zilina is the only city they are visiting in Slovakia so we are the lucky ones who get to meet them! But they were a really cool group of people. Most of them seemed to be in their early thirties. They worked in Law, international development, psychology and leadership, and as a teacher. But it was so much fun having the opportunity to speak to native english speakers and especially native english speakers who are as excited about Slovakia and the world as I am. We had some really good discussions and they will be at the Rotary meeting tomorrow as well so I look forward to that.

This afternoon I went with my host family to my uncle's house. My cousin aunt, uncle and grandma were there and it was a really nice visit. we had dumplings and bear for lunch (with soup as an appetizer of course) and it was soooo delicious. My host uncle killed the bear himself and everything! Then after an extraordinarily delicious helping of cream cake I went rollerblading with my host sister and cousin. This was an adventure because it was esentially my first time rollerblading (unless you count the time I went when I was six....). I managed to only fall once but when i did man did it make me feel old. It hurts when I fall now! especially on the asphalt, that's definitely not the softest landing spot. But It was actually a lot of fun and there is this absolutely stunning path that runs all the way along the vah river from Strecno (a neighboring village) into Zilina. So we were on there and I was astounded at the number of people who rollerblade here! There were so many people on that trail rollerskating I could hardly believe my eyes! But us three girls had a lot of fun together. My host sister being 15 and my cousin 13, they are really hilarious ages to hang out with. We scoping out cute boys and equally horrified at the old, sweaty men in spandex.

And now I am home again. One more week and then I am off to my second last trip EVER here! Can you believe it! Today I have been NINE MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is a long bloody time, but now it doesn't feel long at all. It's funny to think it's been nine months because when I look back on the year I feel like I remember every little detail and it really does feel like yesterday that I was meeting my first host parents. I am ready to come home that is for sure but it is going to be hard to leave. I guess how alex put it is the best: I'm really excited to come home but I'm really not excited to leave. Complicated huh?!

:) p