The whole story began
on that hot July afternoon when I got off the plane at the Newark Airport. I couldn’t believe I was already there – in this gorgeous city even Frank Sinatra was singing about: “New York, New York!”
Suddenly my daydreaming was interrupted by the sound of those well-known voices calling my name. And there they were: Joko, Shaggy and Martin – the other three members of the Slovak team heading for the 6th Annual I*EARN Conference that took place from the 11th to the 17th of July in Puerto Rico.
They had arrived in the U.S. before me, so it was no wonder that right after their first hugs I was overwhelmed by them talking about all those exciting “adventures” they had been experiencing during the past two days. I really liked the story about them being given free tickets for the New York Mets game by a total stranger and cheering up the players with the “real” baseball fans without having an idea about the rules of the game! 🙂
We spent three more days together in NYC before we left for the Caribbean. We were staying with Joko’s friend Jonah and his “roommates” at the small apartment in New Jersey that was slowly getting a bit crowded by so many people sharing only two rooms. But the lack of space, no air conditioning, or sleeping on the floor didn’t mean anything to us in comparison to the friendship and hospitality we were given at this place. Thank you once more, Jonah!
For the short time we had for “exploring” the biggest city in the U.S., we really did a lot: We sawn the Statue of Liberty, the Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the famous Fifth Avenue, and the Twin Towers. We went to the Museum of the Natural History, the stock market at Wall Street, had a walk in Central Park, ate in China Town, visited one University campus, watched a “3D” movie in the IMAX-theatre, spent an evening on the top of the Empire State Building and had fun just hanging out, buying souvenirs and writing postcards home.
One day, lucky Joko found a couple of dollars on the street and invited us for dinner to this fancy…pizzeria! Pizza never tasted so good for me as after that long day we spent “running around” the “Big Apple”!
And then there came the day of our departure for Puerto Rico. Really exhausted, we fell asleep on the plane and woke up after landing on this tropical island. It was about one o’clock in the morning when we were standing at the airport in San Juan and were waiting for somebody to pick us up. But evidently nobody had been expecting our arrival… What should we do? We took a taxi to the downtown of this Puerto Rican capital and tried to find a place to sleep before we started looking for some other “I*EARN-people”. The only problem was that in the middle of the holiday-season all the hotels were full so we spent more than hour just driving around San Juan checking the hotels. At this point we also understood what a “language barrier” meant because even in the hotels there were people only hardly speaking any English – and we had never learnt Spanish before…
So, thanks God , long after midnight, we finally found a place where they offered us the last two-bed-room left. Really happy, we expected at least a three-star hotel for the price we spent for this night … Oh yeah, we were given a special service – “ Puerto Rican roach hunt “ instead of sleep… But, on the other hand, I must say that this whole “midnight adventure” was a lot of fun! 🙂
On the next day, we found the Conference center, we took part in the opening ceremony and danced at our first Caribbean party. From this day on, we had the local music group come and play for us almost every day so we could fully enjoy the unforgettable beat of the rhythmic Puerto Rican songs.
The Conference program was really full. There were many seminars and workshops going on every day. I*EARN members from all over the world were presenting their projects, and the conference participants were suggesting new ideas for the next year. It was a great opportunity, for all the youth and also adults there, to learn something about new cultures, the problems people from different ethnical backgrounds have to face, and above all, it was a great opportunity to make a lot of new friendships! Going to the beach, swimming after the sunset, singing or dancing together to the Caribbean music and discussing many topics made all of us feel very close and united.
Every country presented they work at the workshop – so did we.
We prepared a really nice presentation of the First Environmental Camp that took place in October 1998 in the High Tatras, Slovakia. It was probably one of the most visited workshops of all. The fact, that Joko had lost our camp-poster at some bus station in New York didn’t change the quality of the “multimedia presentation” we held in San Juan. We also danced to Slovak music and the participants of our workshop could buy “Slovak I*EARN” T-shirts or multimedia CDs.
Many of the kids liked us talking about Slovakia and last year’s camp, and planned to come to the High Tatras this fall. The interest is really big; unfortunately, the amount of places is limited…
Yes, our “mission” to Puerto Rico was successful. Hopefully, the Slovak team will be able to proudly show the results of the annual work next year at the 7th I*EARN conference in Beijing, China.
From Slovakia: Joko Vrabel, Martin Vacek, Martina Sebenova, Gabriela Magurova
Slovak photos part
Our workshop presenters and some other students
In front of a yellow bus Mato, Shagy, Gabi, Joko and Seli from Israel
Palma, Gabi Shagy and a puerto rico guy
In front of a yellow bus Mato, Shagy, Gabi, Joko and Seli from Israel
In a hotel in San Juan
How to eat a rice by sticks #1
How to eat a rice by sticks #2
Susi, Kalifornia, Joko, Rachel, Melicent having a fun
Evening party in San Juan, Evening party in San Juan, Evening party in San Juan
Shagy and Gabca at a party
Youngsters at a party
Joko with a prety puerto rico student ;-))We also spent couple of the days In New York
On the top of Empire State building
Gabca in front of a wall in Empire S.B.
Who are this guys???? (try to find out)
Gabca, Shagy, Joko in IMAX cinema in NY
Joko a Shegy eating in china town in NY
We in front of Big apple
Shagy and Joko at the Time square in NY
Shagy and Twin towers
Mato and a monster in American natural history museum
Mato and a monster in ANHM
Mato, Shagy and Joko in front of NY Mets stadium
Mato a Shagy lying in front of Manhatan
Mato in front of Statue of liberty
Mato between the Twin towers
Mato sleeping in our friends flat in NY
Gabi, Shagi, Joko in a subway
Exhausted Shagy
