May started with me trying to make up for the lost time on the previous month. I kicked it off, with a weekend visit to my friend Akos in Budapest. He was kind enough to show me around the sites I hadn’t been to in my first trip there and to let me stay overnight. We visited the House of Terror – former Nazi and Communist headquarters in Hungary – with it’s shocking and somewhat immersive exhibition. The Museum of Fine Arts that covers everything from Ancient Egypt and Classical Antiquity to the 19th century, plus the temporary exhibition “Mining Towns: Banská Štiavnica, Kremnica and Banská Bystrica”. During these days, I finally experienced some good weather with temperatures reaching a toasty 30°C and the sun coming out for the entire day.
The following week Barbi and I went to the town of Trnava to give a presentation on volunteering and the European Solidarity Corps. This was a very pleasant working day, train travelling to a lovely town, having Buchty for lunch, and then talk to some quite friendly students, couldn’t ask for better.
In the office we had already been preparing everything for our Míľa pre Mamu, an event to celebrate Mother’s Day. Hundreds of families turned up at Medická Záhrada, to take part in the different activities we had lined up for the afternoon, and it was rewarding for everyone: the kids got their ice cream for completing all the activities, the families got smiles on their faces, and we got to see everyone’s happiness around!
On the 17th I took advantage of the Museum’s Evening event to visit the Slovak National Gallery. Dozens of paintings and other artworks caught my eye, but the exhibition on the top floor left me in complete awe. A collection of glass sculptures by Zora Palová, with absolutely amazing shapes and colours that took me a while to fully appreciate.
Back in the office, things were starting to get busy! We had some very helpful volunteers, during volunteering week Bratislava, in our office. They helped us take care of our garden, but also arrange things for the Workcamp season that’s almost here! Sarah hosted this month’s Tea Meeting with her Bookbinding Workshop, it was lovely to see it unfold while giving a helping hand and, at the end, everyone was very pleased with their own work. I worked on some promotion for the International Workcamps, but also for June´s Tea Meeting, with my Workshop on Media Bias. Meanwhile we also had the second part of the Leadership Academy, with Monika. This was perfect to get more knowledge on how to manage the workcamps, and also to take some doubts that have already risen from the initial planning with our coleaders.
Let us say goodbye to May, and hopefully welcome June with some sunny and warm weather.
