Sylvan Hoover follows directions, then goes above and beyond

Deter, SK

How, could you assign me to this place? They've put me up in this huge apartment w/ a living room, kitchen, my own bathroom, and the odd interior room which has only a single ceiling light but is otherwise empty. I'm not sure if I'm ever going to want to leave. Maybe I'll just become one of 'those volunteers' and settle down with a nice slovak girl ;-)

I am having a wonderful time. The people are amazingly friendly, the scenery is spectacular, and I really couldn't be more pleased about where I was placed.

About 500 people:

My host, the mayor, has held the position since the end of the Cold War. Bullhorn's are located around the village that provideannouncements twice a day and traditional hungarian music in the afternoon. The village lies at the end of a 3km dead-end road, so traffic is light.The village is a bit isolated, and public transit is really not an option. But, there are regular trips to a larger town about 45 minutes away in peoples' cars, so if I need something from the town I can normally find someone who's leaving soon and bum a ride.I now haunt city hall. I live in city hall. I teach in city hall. I eat in city hall. There is a small apartment in city hall where I sleep. There is a preschool in the building, w/ the most quiet kids I've ever not heard (I'm told their teacher is very strict), and so I eat from their kitchen. Meals are filling. Major ag here is pork, so for the first 3 days B,L,&D was all pork. Then mysteriously that stopped, and now everything is fried. For dinner this evening I had fried bacon ball (like meat balls but made pretty much entirely of bacon) and breaded fried cheese balls. Other meals have included jelly doughnuts for lunch, and these incredible jelly filled dumplings covered in chocolate, also for lunch. The village has gotten EU funds for improvements, so the facilities are very nice.

Students: 71 students in total of which 59 of them are at the absolute starter level, 10 are high school students (so they can understand simple phrases), and 2 students have taken university-level English and are at a developed conversation level. Those 2 students account for 100% of the village that I hold conversations in English with. The students are very enthusiatic. The adults seem to be the most excited, and that is the class I have an Englishspeakerpresent.

The classes: I have 6-7 one hour classes per day. The first four run from 9-13, and consist of all the non-adult classes. I have one high-school class, one 'kid' class - ages 7-10, with maybe 20 word english vocabs, and two youth classes. The youth classes are split because half of them come by bus from neighboring villages, while the other half are local (and the third half already speaks fluent english). They have maybe 40 word English vocabularies, and the girls are obsessedwith Tokio Hotel, which I had never heard of till I got here (personally, not my thing). Sometimes I hold an extra class in the afternoon relating to less useful material, i.e. 4th of july, PB&J, smoothies. My hosts are very accommodating, so class materials are ample.

Out & about: Around the village there is great hiking. They are trying to promote the area as a hunting destination. Evenings here are very lax. The pub closes early, and most folks go to sleeprelatively early and wake early. Weekends are filled w/ visiting festivals in neighboring villages, and camping/graduation/bonfire parties organized by recent university graduates from surrounding villages. Folks who've been to my classes, and now know basic greeting conversations, have taught others, so when I walk about town I always have a number of conversations that all play out in identical manners. Ittruly is a exciting to be conversing w/ folks in English who a couples weeks ago knew barely an English phrase.

Deter is incredible. You must send future volunteers.