28/03/2025

After the emotional moment, we said our final goodbyes, and started the check-in. It didn't take long, and soon we were waiting near our gate.

After a looooong boring flight, we arrived at Vienna, and first thing I did was essentially get a coffee in a shop inside the airport, since I didn't have many other options nearby. I only wanted a small coffee but I ordered an americano oblivious to the great mistake I was about to commit. There I went, happily asking for a small, and when they called my name they gave me the biggest coffee I've ever drank in my life. Only later did I realize that what I truly wanted was an expresso, after my sad mistake. You want to know what's worse? THE COFFEE WAS TOO HOT TO DRINK. Yes, I didn't want it too hot because I had to catch a bus in like 10 minutes, and the others saying that there was almost no time, pressuring me, were not helping. Thankfully, professor Paulo comforted and assured me that I wouldn't have to throw away my 5€, so I did as he recommended and headed outside to help the coffee cool down. After gulping down that illegal amount of caffeine, we kept on waiting for our Flixbus to arrive, so we could go took a bus to Bratislava. When we finally got on the bus, I was mostly practicing my hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ) reading skills, but I chatted most of the way there with professor Paulo. ☺️

After that, we took an uber to our hostel, and a little rest later, we got to exploring the city. We saw many beautiful things while walking: from buildings to monuments, everything was so unique and mesmerizing, especially at dawn.  

And after walking and exploring for a bit, our stomach started complaining, so we decided to settle in a nearby restaurant. I decided to have a spinach soup, it even had cheese and was soooo creamy! I also had some lemonade with my teacher Paulo. I loved it!

As it was starting to get late, we headed back to our hostel, and rested for the rest of the night. I hope tomorrow will be fun too!

29/03/2025

Today I we all met up at 9AM on the lobby, so we could go have breakfast together. I, along with other people, got the Breakfast Snack Pack provided by the hostel themselves. It was 2.50€, and it had a chocolate croissant, an orange juice, a peach-flavored muesli bar and an apple. Honestly, it was a huge deal! We all ate together at a table near the hostel's garden. 

After we were done eating, we got to exploring again. We started with a sort of a flea market in the area, and it was really nice. I saw a couple of shops and paintings being sold as well! 

After that we walked around a bit more,  we found a tower while walking, and most wanted to climb it, but I didn't so I just bought some souvenirs while they were up there. I even took photos of them, look:

When they got down, we all followed prof. Paulo and found a small shop that sold chimney cakes - I decided to go with a raspberry flavored one and it was actually really good! The raspberry sprinkled on it was genuinely just too sweet but the actual dough was god-like.

After having a quick snack we started heading toward the Bratislava Castle and was it a long way up... Seriously! I was so tired and sweaty from the huge amount of stairs on the way up that my face became the same color as the chimney cake I had just gobbled down moments earlier. Butttt I have to admit, the view up there was actually worth it. Check it for yourself:

We then bought tickets to go see what the castle had in store for us.  Its was told inside its walls, through paintings, sculptures and many other items preserved from that time period. Each room told a beautiful story and the art there was truly mesmerizing. We got to explore the castle while still learning about its history, which was awesome.  Words are not enough to describe it, so I took some pictures to prove it:

So much exploring got our stomachs rumbling, so we went to a well-rated restaurant neaby: 17sbar

I decided to go with a traditional slovak dish - a garlic soup server inside bread. Honestly, it wasn't bad at all, only complaint I have is the taste being too strong for me. But I also had some pizza slices from my friend's plates haha.

After that we went back to the hostel to relax a bit, and when dinner time hit, some of us were not feeling too hungry, including me, so we went to a Tesco in the area and got some snacks for the night. I settled with a protein yogurt and also a Kofola (if you're curious, it tasted like if Coca Cola and Dr. Pepper had a child). Annnd that was it for today! Tomorrow we will head for Levice, so I have to really get a good nights sleep. I can't wait to see the city for myself!

30/03/2025

We walked around a bit more and then we grouped up again, so we could all have lunch together. Since Martim and Leandro are two hungry boys, they already had eaten lunch earlier, so they were trusted with the important task of protecting our luggage, allowing us to feast without the risk of having our things stolen.

If you don't know me yet, I'm a complete sucker for cheese, so I got some fried cheesy goodness to fill my stomach:

After we got done eating, we quite literally made a run for it so we could get the tickets in time, and by some miracle force we actually made it JUST in time.  And by that I mean by the second, literally: We got on an uber again and since teacher Paulo arrived first, he went ahead and bought the tickets for us, and when he finished doing so it was quite literally 1:50PM on the clock, so we quite literally had to figure out where our train was and do it quick. Well, some kind of divine force must have helped us because the genuine chance to make it just in time was way too slim to be possible, but it happened somehow!

After an hour or so had passed since then, we were getting close to our stop, so we all got up and went to the nearest exit door on the train. We chatted for a bit until the train slowed down and eventually stopped, and we could finally see Levice and the teachers.

The teachers were so nice! They were very sweet and they took our luggage and drove them to our hotel, while professor Peter showed us around Levice and the location of the hotel we were going to be staying at. 

We were served tasting plates of traditional Slovak food, and it was so tasty... their cuisine is full of cheese, and I'm not complaining! The experience was very nice, the ambience was comforting and the food was REALLY GOOD. I'm genuinely very thankful for this whole experience, and even more for the time and effort everyone is putting into this project. I'm so happy!

31/03/2025

When we arrived at the school, we were met with a beautiful welcoming ceremony... I almost cried... the girls did such a beautiful performance, and the songs they sang while dancing were very soothing. They danced energetically, showing us their traditional dances. After they finished, they went and also welcomed us with another one of their traditions, which was small pieces of bread seasoned with salt, and it tasted amazing.

After almost absolutely bawling my eyes out, they showed us the teachers' office, which is where we could store our belongings while we were at school. And they also served us some traditional Slovak breakfast, and we all ate it together. We even took a group photo, look!

Some time later, after we were done eating, the teachers gave us a small tour of the school. Then, we got moving since we were going to see the city hall, and meet the people who took care of the things that were related to Levice, and that includes one of the Deputy Mayor of the city as well! When we got there, the Deputy Mayor, Mr. Mgr. Peter Benček , greeted us, and he showed us a video about Levice. He even mentioned he knew  a Portuguese person living in Levice, which was a music teacher, and our eyes immediately lit up. 

We talked for a bit, and then he arrived! His name is Nuno Figueiredo, and it was nice to talk to a Portuguese person that wasn't us. After that, they gave us a tour of the town hall, and then we arrived at an office where meetings were held. The table was funny-shaped, and the Deputy Mayor told us that it was shaped like Levice's layout, and it was really cool that they did that. 

Then, we went to see the towns castle, and even though we didn't get to go inside (yet), it was a beautiful sight to see.

Then, after exploring what the expositions had to offer, we went to get ready to have dinner, and I took the opportunity to just pay the restaurant then and there as we agreed, so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. And by the way, we had a Schnitzel with a side of rice and fries, and it was AMAZINGGGGGG. 

01/04/2025

Today is the first day of the month! I completely forgot that today was a special day, but the kids at the school definitely reminded me alright, and you'll see exactly why, haha.

Starting off, me, Sara and Duarte went ahead of the others so we could withdraw cash from a nearby ATM machine, since we needed it to give to professor Peter and to pay for our lunches at school. It was pouring a bit, but nothing much other than that, Then, we arrived at school and started our second day. Today we were going to give some presentations about Portugal, and since Martim and Arturo were the ones who prepared them, I honestly didn't know what to expect. However, fortunately everything went well, but we soon found out we needed to remove lots of information to take the presentation shorter, so it would be easier to digest for the children, but other than that it was good! We got to meet lots of children, and talk to them personally. AND we really liked a boy named Vincent, since he was very funny and his English was perfect, and I also met some other girls, which were very nice to me. ☺️

The one who I will hardly forget is Emily, because we have very similar interests and she even drew something for me when I said I liked Hatsune Miku 🥺, JUST LOOK AT IT IT'S SO CUTE.

After that a teacher of the school offered us Merci chocolates... WHY ARE PEOPLE SO NICE HERE??' And after that we went to visit some more classrooms until lunch, and in one of the 8th graders class, they tried to prank their teacher by putting tape on the doorway so she would run into it, and in another classroom they piled up some desks near the door so the only way the teacher could come inside the classroom would be by climbing through the holes in the barricade of desks. I wish we did this in Portugal 😂. Either way, you may be wondering what we had for lunch (WHICH I HOPE YOU ARE), and we had this at the school canteen:

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of this dish, but it's edible, you know? Either way, after a whole morning of doing presentations and hanging out with the children at the school, we went home and took the opportunity to catch up on the blogs and such. Oh and when it was time to eat dinner, this time we had carbonara!! Yum!!

Our first workday was great, so I'm hoping tomorrow will be the same too (OR BETTER!!)😊

02/04/2025

Today was a huge day for us, since we were going to present and teach some students about LEGO SPIKE! We had already prepared the whole presentation and planned out how things would go, and we couldn't wait to get to the school and make a good impression on both the students and the teachers, while also introducing them to programming. So, we all got ready and started heading to school.

On the way there, it was pouring a bit, but it didn't stop the nature from looking beautiful. Here in Levice everything is very calming and it's full of nature, which I always appreciate. And one good thing, we found an even quicker shortcut to get to school earlier. 😎

When we got there, we quickly made our way to the teacher's room, drank a glass of water and went to see professor Peter. When we entered his classroom, he was in the middle of teaching his students, so we were quiet until the break, and we even got to taste the professor's wife's brownies! They tasted really good, and I can't stress enough how lovely the teachers here are with us (literally! They're so sweet in fact that they might even make me develop cavities from how sweet they are). 

After his class was over, he told us that the room next to where we were, which was very fitting for the occasion since it's room number was 404, Tech jokes aside, we got to work and took the LEGO SPIKE boxes to said room, and started to check if they had all the pieces inside them. Well, we soon realized in fact it would take too long to check EVERY SINGLE BOX (there were 9 boxes in total, 4 of LEGO SPIKE ESSENTIAL and 5 of LEGO SPIKE PRIME), so we just checked if the main pieces were in the boxes and prayed it would go well.  We got the tablets ready and got the presentation good to go.

And not long after there were the students, entering the room one by one, and forming groups of 4 as we asked them to, so the boxes would be enough. When everyone was seated, we taught them about LEGO SPIKE in general and how it worked and why it's used, and soon got to action. Each member of each group got up, took a box and a tablet and went back to their seats. We walked around the room teaching the students and walking them through LEGO's own tutorials, and they soon got the hang of it! While most decided on following LEGO's builds, some of them liked being creative, and creative they were! Literally, I don't even know how to describe this masterpiece:

Although we were quite nervous and not sure how it would go, the workshop went really well! While it didn't go as we has imagined, it couldn't have gone better. The students were having fun, and we were too, seeing their progress and them making their own builds was truly a sight to see, and we also got to chat with some of them which was amazing as well.

Butttt, those were the 7th graders, and we're not done yet! After 90 minutes of the first half of the workshop went amazing, we were looking forward to meeting the other students as well, which were 8th graders. We repeated everything that worked really well the previous time, and it was fun as well! Although they weren't as enthusiastic as the previous class, we still had fun nonetheless. 

Since they mostly didn't need our help, I personally took the time to create a Google Forms with the time that we had left so I could collect the class' opinions, since Duarte asked me to do it. I managed to do it in time, and according to the feedback we received from them, they loved it! Seriously, see the statistics for yourself:

This made us feel really good about our performance, and we can't wait to teach the school's teachers about LEGO SPIKE as well! 

Not too long after the workshop ended, all of us went to eat lunch together, and today the food was reallyyyy good. THEY EVEN GAVE US DESSERT! Yes, it's like an ice-cream cereal bar? But without the cereal part, of course. It also had chocolate around the ice-cream-like filling. 

Then, after we got done eating,  we went back to the teachers' office to get our belongings, and while most of us went back to the hotel, Tomás and Sara stayed behind because they both wanted to work with a robot in professor Peter's lab. While they were having fun, we were working on catching up with our blogs and everything in between.

Then, at 7PM we were all at the restaurant together as previously agreed with the restaurant, and we patiently waited for our plates to be served. This is what we ate:

It was really tasty, but we really have to start eating healthier stuff, so we asked the owner to get a bean soup next time, haha. Either way, we ate and then went home to resume our work and get ready for the next day. Tomorrow the teachers are going to take us to visit some places, so I'm very excited, but not so much for the waking up early part. 😂

03/04/2025

Today we woke up really early to go to a secondary school here in Levice. We had to be at school earlier than usual ( 7:40AM ) so we could get going to the engineering and electronical vocational secondary school here in Levice at 7:45AM. We got inside the teacher's cars, and started heading towards our destination.

We were greeted by the headmaster of the school, who told us to follow 2 teachers that were going to guide us during our quick stay. The school was huge compared to the amount of students enrolled ( about 150 students ) and we were asked to guess how many of those were girls, to which I said 60, but I couldn't be farther from the right answer...THERE WERE ONLY 3 GIRLS. Either way, the teachers supervising us showed us the way to our first class, in which all students were about 1 year or more older than us. Oh, and the teachers offered us some snacks, which I did NOT refuse.

We got ready to start the presentation, and a couple of technical issues later, Duarte and Sara started presenting Portugal this time, with Arturo on the computer to help them if needed. Although the teachers were always asking questions about Portugal and commenting about their experiences with the country ( since one of them had already been in Portugal before ), the students... let's just say they didn't care much about the presentation 😅. 

After that tough moment we went to see some projects of the students in their last year of high school, they had some REALLY cool ones, and lots of them had gone to competitions and got a really high placement, some of them even got podium! Most of the projects were examples of how stuff worked in real life to help students learn about it in a more interactive way, for example, a train project where the rails would detect the train, and in advance close the gates, so cars wouldn't get ran over, like in real life, It's so cool, look at it work:

And the projects didn't end there - we saw a smart house project, a fruit drier which worked as well as high-end ones but was cheaper, a huge lego arm that separated each lego coming in the conveyor belt into their rightful containers, and also an automatic sprinkler! The students were very creative and the projects looked so cool and interesting. 

When we arrived, we got right to filling our bellies. This is what we had today:

A working sesh later, we decided it was time to go back to our hotel since dinner time was approaching. But we then decided to pass by Kaufland, and we bought a couple of things we needed, and the way there was so beautiful...

We got ready, and then went to the restaurant. This is what we had today:

04/04/2025

A quick bite of snacks later, we started heading towards some classrooms in which we would present about Portugal in the ones we only talked with the students, and the other way around. It was actually quite fun and nice, and I even took the opportunity to ask for recommendations in where to visit, when talking to the students. I made new friends, and everything went smoothly 😊

After doing that the whole morning, we got ready to go have lunch. This time we had this:

When we entered the stadium, a lady working there gave us a foldable cardboard sign to show our support for Levice. Then, we got moving to the actual pace were the match would take place, and they already had music playing and everyone seemed excited to see the match start. We followed the two boys guiding us, and sat near the basketball court.

The basketball match was so fun! It was very exciting and Levice won of course! During the breaks we would get a quick show from the cheerleaders, and also some performances from a dance group. Check it out:

05/04/2025

Today we're going to Nitra!!! And yeah, we woke up SUPER early, so we could get to see as much of the city in a day. We were SOOO excited to see so many things that I planned out to do, but our sleepiness got the hold of us on the train. Literally, I was quite literally K.O.

After the whole train trip, we arrived at Nitra's train station. I was already feeling energized from my power nap in the train, so I immediately got to moving. We didn't have the opportunity to have a proper breakfast yet, so we went to a nearby grocery store to try to find a quick bite, but we didn't really find anything. However we did grab some water there, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Then, we went to a nearby coffee shop, and me and a couple of others had breakfast there. It was soooo tasty! This is what I had:

After the whole train trip, we arrived at Nitra's train station. I was already feeling energized from my power nap in the train, so I immediately got to moving. We didn't have the opportunity to have a proper breakfast yet, so we went to a nearby grocery store to try to find a quick bite, but we didn't really find anything. However we did grab some water there, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Then, we went to a nearby coffee shop, and me and a couple of others had breakfast there. It was soooo tasty! This is what I had:

A moment of having breakfast later, we got moving, and I lead the way. We passed by beautiful scenery, and took pictures of a church we passed by:

Then, we headed towards the main attraction of the day: The Nitra Castle and the Basilica of Saint Emeram. In our way there, we passed by many things, check them out:

When we arrived near the castle, we asked for directions in a nearby local store, and an Italian lady helped us out, thanks to my great Italian skills (jk 😂). After receiving very helpful directions, we made our way to the long staircase awaiting for us. Climbing to the castle entrance was a true workout, and I'll just leave it at that. However, the view up there was more than worth it. Check it out:

And after seeing so many beautiful things, some of us wanted to explore a bit more, so we decided on a time to meet up, and separated. Personally I went to go buy some souvenirs to take back home, and since my grandmother is Christian I bought her a little angel figure, which looked so cute. I hope she will like it! 

When it was time to meet up we all went to the entrance of the castle and made our way down the hill. Then, we went to the city square full of little shops and restaurants, and decided to settle for an all-you-can-eat one, called Panda. The food was so nice, and for a small price we all were very very very full. I'm loving today so much, and so are the others. I'm happy everyone is liking the visit I planned ☺️

Cats cats cats, cats everywhere! We got welcomed by a waiter wearing cat ears, and got seated in a nearby table. I decided to go with a cappuccino with a dessert on the side 🥰

The atmosphere of the coffee shop was so nice, and the cats were the cutest! They even had portraits of themselves hanging on the walls with their names, which was so nice and so cute. I petted lots of kitties, and had so much fun... I'm glad everyone enjoyed it too.

After our fun encounter with cats, some of us wanted to go see a shopping center nearby, so we all went there and separated to go see all the stuff we wanted to see. I went with Sara to go get some beauty products, and we also stopped to go get me a new claw clip for my hair. Oh and we also had a quick coffee at the Starbucks inside the mall.

After everyone was done, we went to the train station as we had previously agreed, and we waited for everyone to arrive so we could go catch the train.

But... Duarte and Arturo weren't at the train station yet, and the clock was ticking so we got all very worried, so we contacted them to see what was going on and... they were in the wrong train station. By the time we all realized this, they wouldn't be able to catch the last train in time, so we all decided to not go and wait for them so we could think of another way to get home. By this point, all of our batteries were basically almost dead, and the lady at the train station didn't speak a single ounce of English, so were basically quite screwed, 

We called the teachers, and discovered the best way to get home was the last bus to Levice, at 9PM. Well, by this point we were very tired and cold, and I was shivering so much that Martim gave me his sweatshirt, and Duarte his jacket. I felt very bad about it, but I would get sick otherwise... Well, that was when I suddenly realized that my backpack was NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. I panicked, looked for it everywhere and.. nothing. Well, today can't get worse can it? Yes, it can, because my headphones, my umbrella, and my glasses were in there, along with many other things. This is when I thanked god for not bringing my laptop with me because my back is fragile, and also was thankful that I still had my phone and wallet with me. Could've been worse, but dang I'm so unlucky. Anyways, crying wouldn't solve anything so we made our way to the shopping center, my feet very sore and crying for help (i was quite literally struggling to walk properly), but we all got there safely and half of us went to go get McDonalds (because it was quick) and the other half (including me) stayed upstairs charging our phones.

It was so dang stressful, but we all ate and everyone was alive, and that's enough. We then went back to the bus station, and since I wanted to feel like I had done everything in my power, I talked to a police car patrolling near the station and reported my backpack missing. We were also advised to go to the train station and ask again, but there was no luck. But they told us to call the station tomorrow, so we went back to the small lobby near the busses, and waited for ours.

Then, at around 9PM we went to where our bus would be at, and got inside. To apologize for the whole incident, Duarte and Arturo payed for our bus tickets, and I slept the whole way home. 

When we arrived at Levice, we let the teachers know we arrived safely, and I was feeling really down, so they all comforted me. I'm happy everyone ended up being okay... Thankfully I have tomorrow to grieve some more and most importantly, rest. 

06/04/2025

TODAY IS REST DAY!!! You read that right, I'm not moving a single inch today. I mean, mostly because my feet are killing me, but also because we need a whole day's rest from all that chaos yesterday.. Yesterday, as we agreed, we woke up at whatever time we wanted, so you bet I slept a lot, but then we had to meet up in the kitchen to set things straight and make sure no one is owing no one. While we were discussing business (kinda), I had a bowl of cereal, this time with milk (THANK GOD, because some days ago I had to have it with water, I KNOW, DISGUSTING, but I had no other choice. Let's just say I now know first-hand why we use milk instead of water). 

Then, we had a bit more time for ourselves, so I worked and worked and worked until it was time for lunch. We had previously agreed on cooking today, so Tomás and Sara went out to get some ingredients, since they decided we were going to eat omolets. Well, to put it simply, the eggs looked... how do I say this - weird. And usually people don't like describing food like this, so you can imagine how bad it looked. Well, we decided that if we wanted to survive we had to throw out the eggs and the sad excuse for omlets they were making. Someone wanted to get kebab, so get kebab we did. But our misfortune didn't end with yesterday, oh nonono, because not only was the delivery driver confused on the location, the food arrived cold, and even though we all ordered kebabs WITHOUT chilli.. well you can guess it already. All. Of. Them. Had. Chilli. Well, it's safe to say I almost passed away that evening, but I THANKFULLY had something sweet so I immediately shoved it in my mouth. Glad it ended up being fine. 

The rest of the evening I continued working as one would, and nothing worth mentioning happened, except me emailing the Slovak Rails to see if they have any news regarding my bag, and surprise surprise, the answer as a no. Well, looks like I'm stuck here like this, but it could've been worse. My dad says that some evils come for good, because I needed new glasses, and everything I lost was only material, so it's all okay.

For dinner we ordered pizza, and it was so delish 🤤

We all ate together, and chatted for a good while during and after eating. It was a very nice bonding moment ☺️

07/04/2025

Having some time left, the teacher took us to another class to talk about what we would be doing tomorrow, which will be stuff to do with hardware and building computers. Since we'll be going back to that IT school tomorrow, he also showed us the electrical monitoring room and after that teacher Peter and teacher Mariana were ready to pick us up, so we went to the entrance of the school, took a group picture with the IT teacher of that school, and went back to the school we're doing an internship at for lunch. This is the group picture we took:

Oh and this is what we had for lunch today:

The rest of the evening most of us hung out at our hotel, me included, spending most of the time working on my blog, like I'm doing right now, haha. Either way, when it was time to have dinner I got ready and headed to the restaurant, and this is what we had today.

After that fulfilling dinner, me and Sara went to Lidl to get some stuff that we needed. I got a couple of different yogurts and raspberries.

08/04/2025

Today we woke up as early as yesterday since we were going to visit the same school! After we arrived at our usual school, professor Peter and another teacher who teaches P.E. took us to our destination, by car. When we arrived we were welcomed by teacher Roman, and he took us to a room where we were going to be disassembling and assembling computers. Sebi helped me, like yesterday, and he was very helpful ☺️

After doing what we were assigned to do, we had a 45 minute break, in which I took the opportunity to have a yummy baguette and a green apple juice. AND Duarte also bought me a coffee, how sweet of him!! We also talked to the students in the class where we were just now, and it was very fun to chat with them. 

After that long break, we went back to class, but in a different classroom. This time, an English teacher welcomed us, and she proposed an activity for us where we would separate into groups in which there would be 2 of us in each one, and the rest would be Slovak students. After that, the teacher told us what we were going to do - write down answers for the following topics regarding Slovakia:

• Location

• Places to visit

• Cuisine

• Famous people

• Souvenirs

We absolutely smashed these questions, and now I know a lot more about Slovakia. It was very nice! After that activity, teacher Roman brought in new students and the current ones had to leave. We all talked for a bit, and we got to know each other a bit. After that, we told professor Peter to come pick us up, and pick us up he did. When we arrived at the school, this is what was waiting for us at the canteen:

After eating that delicious chocolate-covered dough, me, Sara and Pífaro went back to the hotel, and to our surprise, we saw Sebi on our way home! He decided to accompany us, and when we arrived Pífaro went inside, but me and Sara stayed outside and we hung out us 3! It was very fun, and we chatted a bunch until Paula and Duarte came to pick us up. Paula is a student of the school we're staying at, and she wants to be an actress one day, so she invited us to do some activities in her club. When we arrived there, we were welcomed by the members of the club, which were very young compared to Paula, but so very nice! We played a game at the beginning so we could learn each other's names, which was a kind of hot potato in which we would say our names out loud, and remember the order in which we received and sent the small bag. It was very fun and I actually managed to learn some of their names. Then, we did the same game but in a different order, so we had to memorize another pattern, and then we did both at the same time, haha. It was a true brain workout, that's for sure.

After that, we had a tiny break, and I talked to some of the girls there which were true sweethearts. ☺️

After that, we watched acting performances of some of them, where they used mimicking, and they are really talented at what they do! I really loved the performances.

Then, at the end of the activity, it was time for the Portuguese to be in the "stage! The teacher brought out a foldable wooden wall divider, in which we would, one at a time, get out from behing the cover and make eye contact with everyone in the room, for as long as we wanted. Then, the people in front of us would say what they felt from us. The teacher told me that I gave off motherly energy and had a very heartwarming vibe, which was very sweet to hear. Then, after all of us had our turn doing that, we all got in a circle and said our farewells, and the teacher thanked us for being present and I told him it was our pleasure to be there, and that I loved spending the afternoon with them. Today was so nice...😁

Then, we went back to our hotel and got back to working again. When it was time to have dinner, we all met up at the usual restaurant, and today we had the following:

Tomorrow we won't need to wake up early, so we'll have plenty of time to rest a lot tonight. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us!

09/04/2025

Today we didn't have to wake up early, so we all met up at the lobby at around 8:30AM, and we arrived at school at around 8:50AM. When we got there, the teacher's lounge was full of children since there was a kind of competition going on at school, so we went straight to the lab where teacher Peter was having class. It didn't take long for the class to end, so as soon as the kids left we got straight to work -  well, we still had to wait for the people who would help and teach us, so we waited for a couple of minutes and THEN we got to work. We did have some technical problems in the beginning because when trying to clone with a DVD, the computer would for some reason not recognize any hard drive, so we had to think of another solution, and that was take out the HDD and clone its contents to an SSD, and then use that SSD to clone into another SSDs.

All we did the whole morning was wait for the SSDs to be cloned and dismantle all the PCs in the classroom, and do the most important part which was take out the HDD and replace it with our cool new SSD. It was very fun and I learned a lot! The two men helping us taught me a lot, and I'm glad they took the time to go to our school and teach us how to do it.

After being busy doing that the whole morning, we went to have a well-deserved lunch. This is what we had today:

Then, after filling our tummies, we went back to the lab because our work wasn't over yet. We finished up every PC in the room, organized the room and made everything look nice. Then, teacher Peter reminded us that we were going to be teaching the teachers about LEGO SPIKE and how to implement it into their classes and improve their teaching methods. We were more than glad to do that, and we got right to work to make sure all the boxes had enough pieces and that they were organized. It took as a long time, and we managed to complete 4 boxes (there are 9 in total), so for me it's a win!

As much as we wanted to, we couldn't do more because we were going to an animal shelter in the area, so that will have to be a task for another day. We all went downstairs at 2:30PM, and followed teacher Mariana to the shelter. I'm not going to lie, it was a loooong way there, but it was super worth it. We saw so many cute doggos and they all looked so happy to see us! Most of the doggies wanted to lick my hand, and they were all good boys/girls, and you could even take them for a walk!

There were also two kitties there, but they were not in cages like the dogs, they ran free, but I doubt they would want to get too close to the dogs anyway. Oh and one of the kitties was super friendly with us, but the other was a super scaredy-cat haha. The cat even got on my lap and started preparing dough for her pizzas. Look, I appreciate her hard work, but she was giving me some needle therapy while doing it. Either way, she's a cutie, so it's okay! 😂

After getting home we just spend the rest of our afternoon in our dorms, and then went to have dinner. And OMG, we ate like KINGS today, seriously, they served us FRIED CHEESE!! 🤤

I can't wait for tomorrow, since we're all going to Bratislava with the teachers, and we will also go to some hot springs!!

10/04/2025

Today we got up reallyyy early! We all met up at the school at 7:15, yes at 7 in the morning. I'm going to be honest with you, I didn't sleep much, but it's allllllright because I can always sleep on the bus. When we all got there we got moving to the parking lot where the bus was parked, and we all got in and got ready for our trip. The scenery we passed by was actually quite nice, and the trip was peaceful.

We got welcomed by an employee of the company that looked similar to teacher Mariana, for some unknown reason, and she had a sort of a secretary position in the company. She guided us to the entrance of the HQ, and then we all went to the 6th floor. Then, another employee welcomed us with some sweets (which were so good), and we had a quick feast. 

After having a quick snack another employee, this time the Project Manager WHICH spoke Portuguese, and caught us off-guard (I LEGIT GOT SCARED 🤣), but it was because his wife is from Portugal (good taste!). Either way, he showed us around the office and the various parts of their workplace, and we got to see the many aspects and people that it takes to develop a game. From the game designers and the 3D modeling artists to the programmers and data analysts, there were so many types of people needed for a game company. It was very nice to see how open and relaxed they could be in their workplace, some of them even had figures and posters near their desks! I hope to one day work in a place with this kind of environment ☺️

After the tour we got to ask many questions, and we discovered that these companies earn veryyyy well, even for a game I never heard about! The employees get payed well and have benefits, which is amazing. Although I'm not sure what field in IT I'm more keen on, I'm definitely certain that even though it sounds cool, I don't wanna be a game dev. Why you may ask? Well, because I'd be afraid to stop loving videogames due to the stress related to that position, so I'd rather not. However, for some small projects I'm down!

Oh, and they even gave us gifts, which included a notebook, a pen, a hat AND a bag! I'm so happy we visited Pixel Federation... It was such a good experience and now I have a good insight on how a game developing company looks like on the inside. Oh, and look at how good I look with my new fashion sense 😎 

After seeing and exploring the company, we went to get some lunch at a nearby mall. The mall was in fact so close that we went by foot. The way there was nice, but outside was a bit too windy, so I had to keep holding onto my new hat so it wouldn't run away. When we got there, we set a meeting point and time, and then they let us have some time to refuel. I wasn't too hungry from the amount of cakes the company offered, so I only got some wraps at a Pizza Hut. They were actually pretty nice!

Then, we went back into the bus and started heading towards Podhájska! The journey was truly long, but it was so worth it. We did do a stop in the middle, and I grabbed yet another sandwich, yum!

After arriving at the village, we went straight to the place were they have the thermal waters, and we went inside immediately. We all got ready and then the fun began! There were so many types of pools, but most were quite warm OR BURNING. Look, I know I was supposed to be ready for hot water, but IT BURNED MY SKIN. Somehow it did almost burn at like 39ºC, because it legit felt like 70ºC (I WAS FEELING LIKE A SCHNITZEL 😭). The place was so fun it even had a spa, a pool bar, and a jacuzzi! I really enjoyed my time there, and I wish i had my phone in there, but it might have been dangerous for me to have it. We all had a lot of fun, and it felt very nice. I WANNA GO BACK!!!!

And YES, there was so much hot steam I got turned into a tomato. This is me after spending almost 2h in the thermal pools 😂

Then, when we arrived back at the hotel since the energy in the area was down, the restaurant that we had a contract with actually had prepared food for us in advance, because of teacher Peter and because of the restaurant's amazing staff, so we had a great meal in the comfort of our kitchen. Thank you so much!

After eating, I hung out a bit and then took a good shower to get rid of all the chlorine and all of the junk that wasn't good for my hair. Then, I got back to work and then rested really well. Can't wait for tomorrow!

11/04/2025

Today we had a bit more time to rest, since we had to meet up at 8:30. When we got there, teacher Peter welcomed us with some sweets and some salty cookies. I'm so grateful ☺️ THANK YOU!!!!!

Then, after having a quick snack we went straight upstairs and got to work. Some days ago, we had changed the storage type of all the PCs in one classroom, so we had to fix some issues that we were having and also try to install Windows 11 on them. In the other room, we were doing the same thing we did last time. Also, since we would be doing a workshop were we would teach teachers of the school about LEGO SPIKE, we had to prepare everything for it, so we divided in two groups, where one would work on the PCs and the other on the LEGO SPIKE. Well, I decided to go with the LEGO part, so I got straight to work.

I basically did that the whole morning, while most were taking care of the PCs. The ones helping me with the LEGO's more mostly Sara and Pífaro, and sometimes Raul. We did a little break at around 10AM, and then kept on working hard, and we managed to complete 3 boxes! We then went to lunch at around 12AM and then did a bit more work while the time for our class wouldn't start. Oh and we were listening to music while working, to hype us up 😅. Here's what we had for lunch today (yipee for fish!)

When it was finally time for our class, we went to a nearby room in the same floor (4th) and waited for the teachers to arrive.

When everyone was there, teacher Peter started by explaining in Slovak what this workshop was about and why it was so important for this kind teaching method to be implemented in early grades. Essentially he explained that it helps develop children's logical and cognitive functions early on, which is very helpful for their brain development. This kind of teaching also helps them learn to problem-solve, so it's amazing! 

After teacher Peter finished explaining and introducing our workshop, we got straight to work. Duarte mainly lead the workshop, and I was assisting him however I could. There were three groups of teachers, and after realizing that it would be quicker to teach each of them individually instead of trying to do it lecture-style, we divided ourselves amongst those groups. I mostly helped the group where Leandro, Martim and Sara were. It was really fun to teach the teachers about LEGO SPIKE, and they loved learning too 😊

After our workshop ended, the teachers started leaving one by one. Oh and teacher Miriam and Mariana arrived near the end to see how our workshop was doing, and teacher Mariana gave us the tickets for tomorrow's basketball game!

We then tidied everything up, and then went to the teacher's room. When we got there, teacher Peter was there and had some cakes for us (I swear we're going to come back to Portugal with at least two more kgs, but I'm not complaining since the cakes taste really good).

Some slices of cake later we left and went back to the hotel. We then worked a bit and then when it was time to go have dinner, we made our way downstairs. This is what we had for dinner this time, PIZZA!!!!!!

We were very happy to be eating pizza, but most of us didn't enjoy the corn aspect of it. I still loved it though!

After filling our bellies, we went back to the hotel and I wanted to dye my hair again really bad since the color was already fading, so I got right to work. Oh and since it was late and sleeping with the dye on was not an issue (in fact it made the color more vibrant),so I just got ready for my beauty sleep, and this is what I looked like 😂

I just hope that I don't get the sheets pink tonight, but with my setup I most likely won't. CROSSING MY FINGERS 🤞

12/04/2025

GOOD MORNING! I woke up with my neck a bit sore (no surprise there) but I DIDN'T MAKE A MESS WITH MY DYE!!! When I woke up was just as I had left it, so everything ended up working out (THANK GOD!!). Anyway, I went straight to the bathroom to take a shower to rinse off all the dye that had been marinating all night, and then got ready to see the volleyball game that would be happening at 10AM. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and after drying my hair thoroughly I made my way downstairs so we could all go to see the game together. 

As agreed, we met downstairs and started heading towards where the volleyball match would be happening. When we got there, we got inside the building and made our way inside, and found the girls getting ready for the match. We stood there watching the early parts of the match, but I wanted to sit down to really use my energy to focus on the match, so I asked a young girl near us if it was okay to go sit near the parents, and she said it would be fine, so I made my way and sat on the bench next to someone's mom.

The girls were really talented, and their attacks and defenses honestly blew me away. They were quick and effective, and their teamwork was being words. Just see the snippets of the game, and you'll know exactly what I mean.

Their passes were smooth, attacks intense and defense attempts very heroic - they would throw themselves on the floor if it meant not letting the ball hit the floor, which really put me on edge. The whole game I was watching the very quick trajectory of the ball and how each player reacted to it. I loved every second of it, and guess who won ALL 3 SETS. Here I'll give you a bit of time to think......... OK, it was Levice of course!

Levice absolutely SMASHED the other team, even though they didn't think they could (since the enemy team was in second place), but they still won! Levice for the win!!

After the massive win, most of the others played volleyball with some other kids, but I stayed back since I didn't feel confident in my skills, but it was nice seeing them have fun. Since I thought that was it for the morning, me and Sara started heading toward the hotel, and we saw so many beautiful things on our way home 🥺

When I got home, I worked a bit more (as usual) and that was mostly it for my morning. I know the others had lots of fun, and wish I did too, but it's alright! Either way, I wasn't feeling to hungry so only at 14:30 did I go to Lidl to get some ingredients to try to cook up something. I bought pasta penne, some sausages and some juicy mozzarella. Oh and Sara accompanied me too, and then we went home to try to do something with our ingredients. I got two pots full of water ready, one with the pasta and the other with the sausage, but since I left the big pot for the pasta, the sausages were too big to fit in the other pot so I had to cut them in half, which would made them kind of burst 😂

I just waited for the water to start boiling, but it was taking so long which was very weird. Turns out I had the power of the stove top set on low not on high, and since there's no indicator of which one it is, it was an unlucky guess, so I just put it in the high level and soon the water started to simmer. While waiting I played with Sara on our phones until everything was nice and thoroughly cooked. Andd this was the end result:

It may be super simple but dang, it's good. Either way, that was our evening. Pretty uneventful, but today we're seeing a basketball  match again, so it'll be so much fun!

We waited until it was time and also had delayed our dinner for today so we could see the match without leaving halfway. Here are some snippets of the game, I loved it, and LEVICE WON AGAIN!!!

Today was a very sports-driven day, but it was nice honestly. The match finished earlier than expected and we made it early to dinner. Today we ate reaaaaally well, at least in my opinion since I love carbonara.

13/04/2025

For some reason today I was extremely tired and sleepy, so I slept until it was 10AM. Then, I went to have breakfast (which was the same as yesterday's) and enjoyed the morning mostly inside my room. I genuinely have no idea why I was so sleepy today and why I am so sleepy now, but I mostly napped the whole day, so nothing worth mentioning happened. But my lunch was store-bought fried cheese that tasted very very very oily, butttt the cheese actually tasted really nice. 

Besides napping, I mostly spent the day either playing something on my phone or just hanging out with Sara, who was trying to catch up on the blog which was like 13 days late at best and 15 at worst 😂

Oh and I think I found my new addiction - Kofola. Look I know I might have said that it wasn't good, but now it's what I crave. I believe Kofola is an acquired taste and now I'm a fan. Look, I'm even doing my blog right now with a side of Kofola. 😌

Well, I worked for a little more and napped for a little more, but I eventually started feeling kind of down, and Duarte helped me cheer up. Sara helped me too, and she heated up some leftover lasagna for me, which made me feel appreciated. I'm so happy and grateful for having such nice and caring friends 😭

Either way, the rest of the day I prepared most of the presentation we were going to be doing tomorrow, because I wanted to redo our presentation about Portugal. I know, I'm a perfectionist, but I can't help it 😅, and Duarte also helped me make a new Kahoot as well, which was a big help. Thank you!!

Anddd that was it for today, can't wait for tomorrow!

14/04/2025

Today I woke up at around 6:40AM, and got ready, had my breakfast and then headed downstairs, and when everyone was there we made our way to the school. Today the weather was nice, I liked the temperature outside since it was quite comfortable and refreshing. We arrived at the school at 7:30AM, and when all of us were ready, we went to the secondary school by foot, and waited for the teacher who would be guiding us to arrive, and when we did he showed us the school. It was a very nice and well-kept school, and even though it was kind of big I could still feel the cozy vibes of the place. In this school there were mostly girls (at least in the building that we were in because there are 2 in total), so I felt at home, haha. Anyways, the teacher guided us to a small auditorium were we would be talking about Portugal. We prepared everything needed for the presentation on their school computer, and then waited for the students to arrive to start the presentation.

Me and Duarte were the ones who did the first presentation of the day. We talked about our customs, traditions, festivals, cuisine and famous Portuguese people. I believe we did our job well, and after the presentation the students did a Kahoot we had prepared the night before. Everything went well, and the teachers took us to go get a drink downstairs. After a quick rest we went back to the same room, and this time Raul and Sara presented. It was nice as well, and the Kahoot went well too, and after presenting we went to visit some classrooms! We talked with people, got to know what they thought about the school and much more. It was nice to talk to the students ☺️

Then, we went to go see the salon inside the school, since they had beauty and cosmetic-related vocational courses. When we got there all the girls were in the middle of doing each other's hair, and it was nice to see that they liked what they were doing. One of the teachers that guided us there asked me if I wanted to have my hair done by them, and I eagerly said yes, and let them do my hair as they pleased. Since the girl encharged with my hairstyle was doing some waves on another student, she did the same on my hair. Honestly I don't think it fits me too well but that's up to you to decide, haha. This is how I looked:

After the salon visit we went to go get a quick snack at the school buffet, and I got a croissant called "7 days" which was the same in the snack pack back in the hostel in Bratislava (ah... memories...). Then we went to another class, this time they were more tech-related and I talked to a girl named Emi which was super nice and talkative. Anyway, after chatting for a while it was time to go have lunch, and go have lunch we did. We went to the entrance of the school, told teacher Peter we were done, and then we went to the school by ourselves since it was very close. And this is what we had today:

After eating, I went back to the hotel along with some of us, and worked for the rest of the day, and since I had an important meeting at around 7 (which is when our dinner was scheduled), Duarte was super super nice and went with me to reschedule our two dinners for a bit earlier. Oh and this is how today looked outside!

When it was dinner time, me and Duarte ate together. The food was delish, and I even got some dessert because I was feeling fancy ☺️

Then, we both went home, I had my meeting and it went well, and then I worked a bit more (routine, routine) and went to sleep. Today was nice!

Oh, and me, Duarte, Sara and Raul hung out and played some party games together! It was so fun!

15/04/2025

Today I woke up at around 6:40AM, and got ready, had my breakfast and then headed downstairs, and when everyone was there we made our way to the school. But, Sara was feeling really well, so we had to leave her behind.. She had a really bad headache, so she took some medicine and we hoped she would make it to at least a couple of classes.

Today the weather was nice, I liked the temperature outside since it was quite comfortable and refreshing. We arrived at the school at 7:30AM, and when all of us were ready, we went to the secondary school by foot, and waited for teacher Karol which would lead us to all the classrooms we would visit today. Unlike last time, today we will be teaching some of the students, so that's very exciting! 

When the teacher arrived, we went inside and he guided us to a classroom on the upper floors of the building. Inside the classroom were the graphic design students, and since they learnt some web development previously, we started off by showing some of our final projects for our course. First off was Arturo, followed by Raul.

 Then, we didn't have much time left on this classroom, so when the bell rang we moved classes.

This time we're back to a previous classroom we had visited, and with teacher Karol's guidance we decided it would be nice for them if we taught them some web development. I came up with the idea of building an online portfolio by scratch, and did it live while the others students followed my steps. They sure were creative I'll say that, but since they hadn't practiced for a long time they couldn't follow me fast enough. It's all good though, because I copied my website files onto their teacher's USB drive, so they could see what I made. 

Then, we went back to the first class we went to, and since Sara was feeling better she joined us this time. She got to showcase her Android app, and then she did the same thing I had done in the previously class, so she got to creating a portfolio live as well. It's safe to say they loved doing this with us. Not only is it useful now it is also going to be useful later on when they had to create their portfolios.

After this it was already lunch time, and teacher Peter had messaged us to know if we wanted him to order some food for us since most of us didn't like the sweet day at school, so me and Duarte eagerly accepted, and I got a bowl while he chose a burger instead. We did still go with the others to the school cafeteria and kept them company, and then went upstairs to the lab where teacher Peter was. We talked a bit about tomorrow, and had fun chatting with him. Then, when our food arrived we went downstairs to the teacher's lounge so we could eat. Me and Duarte went ahead and ate out meals when the food arrived, and not long after finishing teacher Peter joined us. He also chose a bowl like me, and we chatted a lot about the world, political stuff and many many things. It's really nice to talk to him in this more casual kind of way.

After having that nice bonding moment the ones who remained of our group went upstairs and worked on installing Windows 11 on all the computers in the lab. There were some very very annoying problems but no problem for us! We figured it out and fixed all the PCs we could in our time frame. I personally learnt a lot, and I like helping teacher Peter and this school while I do trial and error. I'm happy I get to learn so much here!

But it wasn't all work today - we got to experience with the VR headsets in the school for the first time since we have been here. Ever since I knew about Virtual Reality I've always wanted to experience it, and today was the only real opportunity I got to explore it. I loved it, and I only felt nauseous when quick movement happened (like when my character was moving quick so my brain got confused with what was real = nausea).

We had a great evening today. To reward ourselves, we went ahead and had a taste of Kofola straight from the barrel in our lovely Baran. It was not as sweet as it and it was really good as the bottled one is. It was nice! Not long after it was time for dinner, so eat dinner we did.

16/04/2025

After having lunch most of us decided to stay the rest of the evening at school to finish installing Windows 11 on all of the PC's in the computer labs, and that included me of course. We worked a lot to try and fix some errors we were getting, but we managed it obviously. But our evening wasn't just work, we had some fun too! While waiting for the downloads and possible errors we would get, me, Duarte and Raul had some fun with the school's VR headsets. We laughed and had a lot of fun. Oh and the teacher that was in that classroom previously came back periodically to check on us. He didn't speak English, but he seemed very happy to see us work and be dedicated to our tasks. And a while later after not seeing us for a while he came back and brought us some sweets..🥺

We thanked him and then he said goodbye to us. We're so grateful...

We worked for the rest of the day and also I took the opportunity to upload some pictures to my blog since the Wi-Fi back in our hotel is very unforgiving, haha. And I even left a little drawing on the white board inside the room, since Tomás inspired me 😅

Oh and we also talked with Sebi and hung out at Baran and drank some Kofola and had dinner while we chatted ☺️. It was very fun to talk to him again, and he even invited us to his house for us to see his place. It was very nice and cozy, and he even played songs for us on his guitar. It was so nice... Then we headed back to our hotel and he came with us to our game night! We had lots of fun today!

This is what we had for dinner tonight:

17/04/2025

Today I didn't have to worry about waking up early, so I took my time and had a very well-deserved beauty sleep. When I was ready to leave my comfy bed, I had breakfast and took the opportunity to go do my laundry, which I had been postponing for a while since I had no coins on me. I washed my stuff and waited for lunch time, which we would be having at Baran. Today we ate like kings almost! This is what we had:

Then we continued our hike since we were almost reaching our destination. It was a nice but tiring way there to say the least. My face was really red the whole time 😂

And we're finally there! It's so beautiful up here, and it has a big camping vibe to it. Marcel's dad also joined us, and we had a great time! There were also some teenage boys in the camp, and they had a bottle of Kofola with them... I'm going to be honest, I was having cravings.

Since teachers Mariana and Miriam are true sweet souls they gave us rewards for completing our hike, and those prizes included cakes, little pizzas, and some drinks! Oh and we even tried a ginger beverage, which looked like alcohol at first glance (especially since we saw teacher Mariana pulling out SHOT GLASSES) but no, no alcohol at all - just a really strong taste, which is the reason for the small dose. Let's just say that was very true. The flavor was indeed strong, but after the initial punch of the drink passed the aftertaste was nice.

We hung out and had tons of fun today! Our hike was beautiful and the reward we got for it was more than worth it. The view here is amazing, and the weather today doesn't do this place enough justice. I loved it so much!

After enjoying the day, we made our way back which was just as tiring haha. We chatted with the teachers and I loved it! Event though it was pouring when heading back home, we still had an amazing time. After being approximately 10 minutes away from our hotel, we said goodbye to teacher Mariana and teacher Miriam, and went back home. 

After entering my room I went straight into the shower to try wash off any possible ticks that I could've gotten (going hiking is no joke! 😂), and thankfully I found none. 

I relaxed for the rest of the day, had my dinner at Baran, and went right to bed. I will surely sleep really well tonight 😅

18/04/2025

We ate, had a good time, and we even DESTROYED a whole 1L bottle of Kofola while eating. I'm already loving today 🥰

Either way, after eating I kept on working (because that's my life here 😂) and also hung out with Duarte the whole evening. It was very nice, and I even took the opportunity to do my laundry. Honestly, even though most people don't LOVE doing laundry, I genuinely love it - it's so nice! You just stuff the clothes in a washing machine and work while you wait for the cycle to finish and - voila, your clothes are clean and smell very nice! I would even do my laundry at home if I could, but I'm too busy for that because of school... Oh well, keep up the good work mom and dad! 😂

Anyways, when it was time for dinner I cooked up my signature plate as I did at lunch time, and Sara ate some of it too. It tasted really good but I'm starting to get sick of this dish (no surprise there). Anddd that was my day! Tomorrow I have to wake up mega early since we're all going to Banská Bystrica and we're catching the 6AM train, like we did in Nitra. I HOPE EVERYTHING WILL GO WELL THIS TIME 😭

19/04/2025

Today we woke up soooo early to go get the earliest train we could, like last time we went to go see another city. To be more precise, we all met up at the lobby at 5:40AM, and when all of us were there, went to the train station here in Levice. 

At the trains station we were, waiting for our train which would be at around 6:10AM, and after asking workers which one and where we had to catch it, we were told that there was a bus replacement for our first train, so we went to catch it. The ride was smooth, and we had to stop in another town were this time we would catch a train. The man who scanned our tickets accompanied us throughout the whole trip, which was a huge help in terms of guidance. Service workers here are really nice!