Project “New Eyes” ® – How did it change my life?

Hello, before I start babbling about how was it great and such, I want to say a few words about myself.

I’m Pavlina Spoutilova, ordinary and „quite“ normal 22 years old „always teenager“ girl. The only thing that makes me a bit different is that I LOVE English. I study it since my very early childhood and nowadays I teach it at home. I always wanted to be different from others. Everybody has Skoda car, I want Chevrolet. Everybody learns English, I teach it and, almost every of my friends has whole family, I don’t. I’m supposed to be original.

One really boring day at school (you know the most boring days, sun is up, holidays is comming and you have to sit in a classroom), I was sitting, no, almost sleeeeeeping during a math class, while my teacher was talking about non-sense derivations.

Nothing could happen I thought. But it wasn’t true. That one day changed my ordinary life and brought new excitement into it. The class was almost over when the door opened and a foreign woman came. She wasn’t alone. A handsome guy went with her and also a bit older man, all three really sympathic. The two men weren’t Czech, they couldn’t be. I was right. The woman was Czech and came first. She started talking about Americans who came to Czech republic, to Susice, to join a special project called New Eyes, which aim is to meet new people, learn new languages and have a lot of fun during 2 months of summer holidays. Firstly I thought that I wasn’t a type of person who can join foreign people, I couldn’t speak so good English and I was too shy…

But, the new wave of new feelings was stronger and I came to the meeting point, where everything started..

I went with my mother. There were the nicest, the kindest people I’ve ever met. Americans. That was my first feeling of meeting them. They started to talk to me and I lost my worries, I wasn’t shy anymore. So that was my first contact with Americans.

But there’s one much more important thing that I want to talk about. One person who made it all special to me and whom I thanks to that PNE will stay in my mind forever.

First time I saw her, she made me smile. She was so king and, was the first person who started to talk to me. She broke the barrier of my shyness and I felt free to talk with her. Her name was Heather Hirschi.

I talked every day to her. Thanks to her I met all participants and could join all the meetings. Sometimes, when she was free during the day, she came to my mother’s and we talked for hours. My family took her as a new family member.

I wanted to spend all my free time with them all. With my new family. And I did. Project “New Eyes” ® doesn’t mean only an international project of two countries that starts and ends. It means new way of life, with new habits, new people and new ways of communication. Thanks to this project I’ve changed my meanings about people from foreign countries and my mind is open to all new opportunities. I’m thinking differently.

4 years ago I found my sense of life. I met new person who changed me. I’m thinkind about things we did, about all the letters we wrote and making up my plan. I wish I could see her again, and I hope I will. I have her as my mother. I love you, Heather.

PNE breaks the ice between nations, build new relationships and brings harmony. It can change casual habits and brights stereotype lives. I’m glad that PNE exists and I’m thankful to everybody who took the challenge and join it.