The treasure from the cellar

"Neuveríš mi. Ale sneží! Dnes ráno  20/02/96 sneží!"

V piatok som prišla k našim upratať si svoje veci v pivnici. 

Ostali tam, odkedy sme sa odsťahovali. 

Dve skrine vecí, najmä kopec papierov. 

Niekoľko zošitov zo strednej mi pripomenulo zlaté teenagerské časy. Našla som tam dejepis, francúzsku literatúru, informatiku z predhistorických čias počítačov T603, maturitné otázky zo slovenčiny. Moje neohrabané písmo a niekedy zaujímavé konverzácie na okraji zošita s Mireille, spolusediacou. 

Našla som tam aj dve krabice letákov z ciest po Francúzsku, Španielsku, Rakúsku, či iných zaujímavých miest. Všetky som bez milosti vyhodila. 20 ročné letáky by už asi nikoho nemotivovali. No, ostalo mi to doteraz... vždy si zovšadiaľ donesiem kopu autentického materiálu s nádejou, že sa zídu v škole na vyučovaní. Niekedy sa už aj zišli, ale ani o tomto som sa nechcela rozpisovať. 

Ako 16ročná som si začala dopisovať s ľuďmi z celého sveta. Písali sme si po francúzsky, čo sa mi na biligválnom dosť hodilo. Neskôr to bolo aj po anglicky s Angelou z JAR, s Richardou z Viedne, s Oľgou z Atén. Pivnica bola archívom starej korešpondencie. Voňali už starinou, mierne zatuchnuté, ale s akou radosťou som sa v nich prehrabávala. Veď nakuknite a určite budete súhlasiť.

"You won´t believe me. It is snowing! 

This morning on the  20/02/96 it is snowing!"

On Friday I went to my mum´s house to tidy my things 

which were in the cellar. 

I have left them there since we moved into our house. 

Two cupboards full of things, especially an amount of paper. 

Some exercise books dated Secondary school remembered my teenager life. I found History notebook, French litterature, prehistoric ICT related to T603 computers, graduation questions from Slovak Language. My clumsy writing and sometimes interesting notes at the edges of pages... notes that we exchanged with my classmate Mireille. 

I also found two boxes of leaflets and flyers brought from my journey to France, Spain, Austria and other interesting places. I threw them away without mercy. 20 year-old leaflets can´t motivate anybody. BTW, I am still doing it... I am still collecting them... I usually bring some authentic materials from everywhere. I do it hoping that they will match with my lessons. I have already used them several times. However I didn´t want to talk about it. 

When I was 16, I started to be a penpal with people from all over the world.We wrote each other firstly in French, because it suited my bilingual school. Later on, I also used English more with Angela from South Africa, Richarda from Vienna or Olga from Athens. My mum´s cellar was an archive of my old correspondence. The letters had signs of old age, they were musty, but I was going through them with such a big pleasure. Have a look and you will surely agree with me.