Lauren's memories after her exchange in our club:
"After high school I chose to spend ten months in a foreign country as a gap year before going to university. Though I didn’t know much about Slovakia when the country was assigned to me, I was eager to experience all I could of its culture, language, and people. A few months later there I was exploring Košice, eating halušky, drinking kofola, and hiking the Tatras—all while trying to speak Slovak! Everything from ordinary days at school to exiting weekends at Rotary meetings made my exchange amazing! Having recently returned from my adventures, I can now say that I left Slovakia feeling successful about my exchange. Success for me meant a hard goodbye.
This past year gave me a few new families (going from having no brothers to three!), new Slovak classmates, and a bunch of new best friends from all around the world! I didn’t just gain lasting memories, but also family and friends that will remain even after the memories fade. Though it was difficult to leave everyone and everything which made my year so amazing, this is what reassured me that my time there was a success. Before my exchange I didn’t know what exactly it was that I was looking for in my year abroad, nor what I wanted to accomplish by the end of it, but as time passed my perspective changed; as I met new people and tried new things I stopped worrying about what I would think of my exchange at the end and began focusing more on what was happening in the present. My time spent in Slovakia taught me to embrace every opportunity, overcome adversity, keep an open mind, and never say no to babka’s food!
Though I miss everything from my exchange lots, especially the beautiful nature that I don’t have in Florida, I know I’ll be back soon to visit! Until then I’ll just have to keep up with my Slovak studies and find some bryndza so I can make halušky on my own! Maybe I can find out how to get kofola and horalky, too!"
