TUESDAY
Six Slovak students met Joko at the railway station and got on the train to Poprad to spend one incredible week in the cottage of Janko Jesenský in Tatranská Lomnica.
We changed trains three times. The most interesting part was the second train, when Joko made fun of the ticket inspector. He showed her tickets from the previous train. She said they were OK, but we still needed to change trains in Starý Smokovec again. When I told her that Joko was making fun of her, she said she knew and left. When we finally arrived at the cottage, there were already people from Ukraine waiting for us.
WEDNESDAY
During the whole day, Dasa and I were sitting near the entrance, welcoming students coming from other countries (the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, the United States, Latvia, and Slovenia).
Some groups arrived during the day, some early in the morning, and some on Thursday. We were divided into four mixed groups of all nationalities. The reason was to make us speak English as much as possible.
The evening programme started with my presentation about Slovakia. Dui was laughing almost all the time because, right before my speech, he said he hoped I wouldn’t be talking about general facts because people would fall asleep. I did talk about some general facts, but also about other things in Slovakia, and he found it funny. Whatever.
After the presentation, Dasa, Sandy, Tana, and I were dancing to a Slovak children’s song, and then we taught it to everyone. For the next two hours, Dui entertained us with games that helped us remember each other’s names. Then hungry Europeans tried typical Slovak food prepared by Slovak girls – bryndza with bread and onion, and Coke.
THURSDAY
All the groups left the cottage after breakfast. Slovak girls joined groups 1 and 4, led by Boris and Saso, and later Martin Vacek arrived.
We went to Štrbské pleso by cable lift. We were supposed to go up to Lomnický štít, but it was too windy. Tana and I went first to tell people where they should wait for others. It was fun watching people getting off the lift because it only slowed down slightly but kept moving.
When we arrived at the observatory, a man working there told us the history of the building and explained his work. Then we went back to Tatranská Lomnica.
After two hours of walking downhill, we were completely exhausted. But in the evening, we were again full of energy and perfectly prepared for the presentations of the nations and the disco afterward. I really liked the Polish presentation, but the others were great too.
FRIDAY
We woke up to a beautiful day. Our teachers thought it was the perfect day for hiking, so we all went to the railway station to catch the train to Štrbské pleso.
When we finally arrived, we met three special guides of the High Tatras—Ondrej called them “green men.” We were again divided into groups, and on our way to Popradské pleso and the Memorial Cemetery, they talked about the fauna and flora of the High Tatras.
We also took water samples from the lake to find out whether the water was clean or not. After that, we visited the Museum of the High Tatras.
The funny thing was that the Bulgarian teacher Branko and his friend got lost already in the village of Štrbské Pleso, so they just took the train back to Tatranská Lomnica.
In the evening, we played games with Jonah. The goal was to discover how important group unity is. We didn’t finish until 2 o’clock in the morning, but we really had fun.
SATURDAY
Another beautiful day meant another hiking trip. First, we went to the museum in Tatranská Lomnica. We watched a really good video about the Tatras—I had never seen such a nice film about the nature of our mountains.
After the film, my group went to Starý Smokovec and then we walked up to Hrebienok. On the way up, I felt so hot that I had to take off my winter coat and one sweater. Some people were too tired, probably because we didn’t sleep enough, so it was a bit difficult to get them moving.
When we finally stopped at a restaurant and looked down, we could see only clouds beneath us. It was wonderful.
After a short break, we continued to Bilík’s cottage and to the Studenovodské waterfalls. When we returned to Tatranská Lomnica, we lay down and fell asleep in a few minutes.
SUNDAY
We stayed at the cottage to clean it, while others went to the Belianska Cave. In the afternoon, we were supposed to go ice-skating, but the stadium was closed.
So we used the time to prepare decorations for the Halloween party. We had never seen so many pumpkins, witches, cats, spiders, and bats before.
Some girls made a huge pumpkin on the blackboard, and we were ready for the party. While we were painting, Siobhan, her husband Dan, Dui, and his students were baking pizza and “crazy bread” for people wearing masks.
The winner for the best mask was a policeman protecting a nuclear power plant from Greenpeace using shaving foam. I also liked Jonah’s mask—he was “tucný” (fat), because the first Slovak word he had learned was “tucný.”
After the party, we had another disco. Some people were dancing until 5 o’clock in the morning.
MONDAY
The last day. Some people left early in the morning. Everyone was happy that the camp was at least as good as expected, but also sad that we were leaving all those nice people and the beautiful place that had been our home for one week.
Special thanks go to the Soros Foundation (OSF Slovakia and OSF New York), our principal Mrs. Tesserová, Joko, Mrs. Vacková, Mrs. Straková, Mrs. Siobhan Lockhart, Dan, Dui, Robert, Big Jonah, and also to the students from 3.E, 4.D, and 4.F, and to all former Šrobárka students and friends from Slovakia and the Czech Republic who helped with organizing.
And as many people said before: don’t forget that iEARN is a big family.
Ivana Hojnosová
List of participants
Slovenia:
- Grega Krajnc,
- Uros Kotolenko
- Aljaz Gmajnar
- Iztok Fifnja
- Andrej Cerjak
- Branko Marcetic
Estonia:
- Margus Pedaste
- Karl Kalamees
- Signe Kivimäe
- Katrina Koha
- Karin Vares
- Nikita Koshelev
- Terje Tuisk
USA
- Siobhan Lockhart
- Dan MacLaughlin
- Dewy Smolka
- Robert Koch
- Eva Wong
- Jonah Wittkamper
Hungary
- Istvan Szabo, M
- Rita Kovacs
- Judit Kovacs
- Peter Parej
- Balazs Tujner
Ukraine
- Tetyana Sporynina
- Natalya Vernikovska
- Serhiy Tolmach
- Daria Hlazatova
- Oleg Liubkivsky
Romania
- Silviana Florina Serbu,
- Bianca Ionela Neacsu
- Cristina Tabuica
- Raluca Oancea
- Andreea Stanescu
Czechs
- Ilona Novotna
- Hasnik Josef
- Hasnik Zbynek
- Jiri Cirahol
- Petr Castek
Bulgaria
- Evelina Lubomirova Kocheva
- Petar Velizarov Todorov
- Dimitar Mihailov
- Petar Todorov
- Zlatina Gueorguieva Gueorguieva
Lithuania
- Aurelija Lukociene
- Jurga Valanciute
- Karolis Tautkevicius
- Tautvydas Tarbunas
- Lina Sindaraite
Macedonia
- Miteska Suzana
- Bajkovski Blagoja
- Velkova Adrijana
- Arsova Ljupka
- Ristevski Jovanco
Poland
- Renata Witucka, F
- F
- F
- M
- M
Slovakia
- Martin Tropos Kolesar
- Alexander Sef Adamec
- Ondrej Horvath
- Martin Vacek
- Boris Fiala
- Dasa Fitzova
- Sandy Galova
- Ivana Hojnosova
- Tana Mikitova
- Iveta Karchnakova
- Jana Dibakova
- Daniela Cekovska