Sometimes people come into your life for a short amount of time and leave a longer mark on you than people you have known since pre-school. It's funny huh? How people can leave an imaginary stain on your new white shirt. That's how I feel about my host sister. Honestly she's just really my sister, it's like I have known her since birth. She's the older sister I never had. Since I have only an older brother it felt like I had someone to talk to.


Someone to talk to, alright! She even taught me Slovakian. The culture there is so different than here in America. When my family and I go out to dinner my parents sometimes crack a joke with the server. One night we took our host student out to Hibachi, she found it so different and uncomfortable to even say thank you to the waiter!


In Slovakian they use conjugations, it is a lot harder than English. Besides that it is amazingly similar to Latin. I take many languages, although I don’t know any of them fluently, I would hope to eventually. I’m learning French, Latin, Hebrew, English (there’s always something new to learn), and of course maybe Slovakian. I like using what I learn in class in real life situations too, that’s what makes the filled pages of notebooks worth it.


I love video chatting across the world to Slovakia. It’s amazing even to think at anytime I could just have a family across the world, if I needed a get away. I’m also super close to all of them thanks to electronics. I know there can be a bad side to these robots, but as long as it is used correctly than you can get the best out of what you have in front of you. This is the best thing about this generation, the technology and appliances open to us at any time of the day.


While the cars in the United States are triple the size of most cares in Slovakia there are many other size differences too! They only have a washer, they hang their clothes to dry, and in the winter they have a storage room that simulates the outdoors summer weather for the clothes to dry. The first time she came to do her laundry she was super confused. The food portions are way different also. In Slovakia they don’t have hamburgers or hotdogs, but they eat potato and cabbage daily. A normal snack for them would be three carrots, my mom would probably have packed a pastry crisp!


Saying goodbye to my sister was going to be hard for all of us. We went to Disney, Concerts, and sometimes I even went to her concerts (she plays the violin). It is great though because now, for my eighth grade graduation trip we are going to Slovakia! I can be reunited with my best friend. Dovidenia! That means goodbye, until next time!