My Erasmus experience in Slovakia by Diana Tarín

Hi, I'm Diana Tarín and this last year I had the chance to travel for two months to Slovakia to live what for me was the best experience of my life.

When Darío, a Spanish school mate who was also on the exchange, and I arrived we went straight away to our respective host families´ home. Lenka who was my exchange partner during this whole process introduced me to her family and friends with whom I shared great moments. Her family, mother, brother and father were all really kind and generous the whole time. Her parents took us to the most touristic places and could share time with the family as I could see extraordinary landscapes. As for the food I couldn't be more satisfied, despite the differences on the meal times, the family prepared traditional dishes in which I could appreciate the interesting and delicious Slovak flavors. The only inconvenience was the language because neither of the parents spoke Spanish and the mother didn't speak English but that only made me want to learn Slovak more with Lenka and the classes in the school.

The first foto was a trip with the mother to see a dogs sled race, the second one is a visit to a palace with Lenka and a friend of her and the third one is the visit to Lenka's brother in Prague.

During my stay in Slovakia I went to Gymnázium bilingválne GBZA where I had several classes such as mathematics, physics, english as well as free time were I could keep studying the subjects from Zaragoza. While attending the classes I could notice differences between Slovak and Spanish classes. The most noticeable ones were that Slovakia classes last less while the breaks are longer and that Spain classes have the tendency to be louder I was very comfortable in the classes thanks to the teachers who were always making sure we were integrated and also thanks to the classmates. In order to get more involved with the cultural environment I wanted to take some extra activity but in the school I couldn't find one that convinced me so I enrolled with Lenka and one of her friends in a gym near the zone.

Photos of when we first came and the last day in GBZA

The time I spent with Lenka and her friends and classmates allowed me to get to know more of the culture of the country from the point of view of people my age. But this trip didn't just give me knowledge about the country, it also let me grow as a person, it helped me with communication and people skills, resourcefulness and it helped me upgrade my English and gave me the Slovak basics.

The first photo is with Lenka and her friend and the second one is a street from Zilina in my way home

In general the exchange to Slovakia was a very enriching experience, I learned a lot, made awesome friendships which I hope they last a lot and I had the most extraordinary moments thanks to the people that organised this from Spain and Slovakia and took care of us in every moment.

First photo of me in Tatras and second and third photo of me and Lenka