Sorry Guys. Im not dead. I just have much less access to the internet. See, I moved to my new host family, who is SUPER AWESOME AND AMAZING; however, we have been very busy running around and having fun and also the only computer is in my host sisters room, so it is kind of awkward to use it. Which is bad because I really need to send the penpal emails. But they are ridiculously long. So anyway, I realized that this blog has gotten away from its main purpose, which was to tell you the interesting things I have been doing and I have just been talking about everything. Which i think is kind of boring. However, since I have not written in a LOOONG time I will just give a short recap of the awesome events of my awesome life.
1. On the last day with my old host family, host mom and dad went mushroom pickin gin the forest. Then they cleaned and cooked the mushrooms and they were probably one of the best things I have ever eaten. Mushrooms. from the forest.
2. When I got taken to my new host family, my whole old host family came along and there was this awkward like 30 minute conference where they were telling hte new family all about me, and I had no idea what they were saying.
3. My new host family has a cat. I love cats. It is white and fluffy. Also, one day we saw some puppies that a woman was selling at the market and they were soo cute. They were all sleeping in a duffel bag and we got to play with them and one almost peed on Reid.
4. Oh, so my new host sister's name is Asia (Asha) which is a nickname for Joanna (Yoanna) and she is really awesome. Today is her 18th birthday. Also, Reids future host brother is her best friend and they decided to do this hosting thing together which is good because Karol (polish version of Charles, kind of pronounced like a 2 syllable Karl) is my new favorite person ever. He is a dancer and does hip hop and ballroom dancing and tried out for the Polish version of "So You Think You Can Dance"
5. Karol and his friend Lukasz (who is the 2nd best ballroom dancer in Poland) are teaching Julie and Reid and I a hip hop dance routine. We have been having dance classes after our English classes. We are going to bust out our moves at the mid program conference this weekend at Zakopane. I am so excited.
6. Also, I have met my future husband. I do not know his name, but he is number 4 on the Polish Junior National Men's Volleyball team. and he is beautiful. And I took 2 pictures with him yesterday after the Poland vs. Argentina Volleyball match, and will be attending his match tonight as well.
7. Today was probably our best lesson we have ever taught the whole time we have been here. Yesterday we watched the movie "Hot Fuzz" which is a really funny Police movie. So today we talked about law and the courts and things like that. Anyway, so we did like a short lecture on courts and they had a worksheet to fill in as we talked and then they had like a few minutes afterwards to finish it up, and during that time Reid (who had brought his guitar to class) hid his guitar, then pretended it went missing, then we accused one of the students of stealing it and pretended to put her on trial. And we had people be like the prosecutor and defense attorney and witnesses and the jury. Reid was the judge and I got to do all the "please rise" and "do you swear to tell the truth stuff." But anyway all the students got really into it and it was really fun and they actually spoke English and proved that they understood what we ahd been talking about earlier in class, so yes. Awesome. (Oh yes, also the fake trial thing was my idea)
I think that is it for they awesome things I have been doing. I think I figured out though, that like at my old host family, my host mom was the one who had wanted an English speaker in the house and here my host sister was the one who wanted me ehre. So, it is much better because she is like excited to like do stuff with me and wants me to have fun and talk to me, wheras Karolina nd Ewa jsut kind of didnt really know how to fit me in their lives. Also, my new host parents are really cool. My host dad is a retired vet who writes poetry (like he is published) and my host mom is a teacher. And they are really nice and stuff. So yes, I am doing fantastically and am not dead, but will probably not be writing in here as much as I was before.
HOWEVER, while I was not on the internet FOR A WEEK, I recieved 1 email (2 if you count the super long comment from Youngjoo, which I do, thank you to the 2 of you). This is upsetting. I am pretty sure you ahve not all just been sitting around doing nothing for a week. Keep me updated, yo.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
You know, I always try to log into the blogging website with my facebook password. Which is my only password that is different from all the other ones. All my passwords are the same except the facebook one. I think the reason i always try to use my facebook password here is ebcause i have to type out my whole email address, and it just feels so natural totype the facebook password after I type @duke.edu. I'm sure everyone out there really feel priveledged to now know that information.
I dont really feel like writing a blog entry right now, so pardon me if this is not the most thrilling and captivating thing I have written. But, I feel like I should because otherwise more and more stuff will happen that I have to write about and I will just have to write a really long entry and keep putting it off and putting it off and that is something I am not allowed to do. At least not until I am not in Poland anymore.
I have been doing lots of serious-type stuff lately. Yesterday, my host sisters, Julie, and I went to the Warsaw Uprising museum, which was really really interesting. Because, you know, I am a history major. Also because its a brand new museum and interactive and about an event in history that more people should know about. But yes, required lots of serioiusness. Also, I watched The Pianist today. So, I have been very inundated with Polish World War II history lately. It has made me do some serious thinking, but the products of my serious thinking I do not think I will share with the world, because I do not think I could phrase my thoughts appropriately.
My less serious activities ahve included that I was supposed to go to the swimming pool with Eva and Karolina on tuesday night, but I dont particularly like swimming pools. Like the whole getting wet thing without the awesomeness of the ocean, or a waterslide, or even a rainstorm, is not for me. So instead i hung out with Reid and his host sister and her friend, and when I came back I found out that Ewa's 10 year old turtle had died and no one had gone to the pool because they were all very sad.
Also, while we were in Warsaw yesterday, we ate lunch at the mall food court. I did not realize Polish mall's have food courts, but apparently they do. I ate McDonalds, Ewa ate KFC, Karolina got some polish plum dumpling things, and Julie decided to test the mexican food. I was afraid of the mexican food because the Polish people were just completely not going at all to either the Mexican food or the Chinese food. I am not sure if this is because the Polish palatte is not a fan of these tastes or because they were really bad. Julie said her food was OK. I did not want to risk it though.
My class at school continues to frusterate me. This is mostly because at this point in their English education, what these kids really need is help with grammar. Which I am really not the best person to provide them with. One of their Polish English teachers who had to learn English grammar to be able to speak the language is. I would be very good at helping them with vocabulary/conversation/and American Culture; however, our kids no such a limited amount of English that is very close to impossible to teach these thigns. Its very frusterating because I feel pretty much like our lessons are useless. Like the only benefit they are getting is listening to a native english speaker talk for a bit. And, really, they could rent a movie for that. Also, Reid was saying that like he has been talking to other volunteers and like their class are more advanced so they are getting to like lead debates and have their kids create skits and these are just all things that our kids are not capable of at all. Its just very GRRRR. I dont know what to do though except keep trying and hopefully they will learn something this summer?
This is not a particularly upbeat post thingy, but I swear I am pretty happy. In an effort to end on an upbeat note, I think tomorrow I am going to see the Sex and the City movie with Reids host sister and her friends. This will be like my fourth opportunity to see this movie, I have turned it down all the other times, but really the movie theater in Ostroleka plays one movie at a time, and there is very little else to do here...
In closing, thanks to those who have emailed me. You brighten my day. To those who have not emailed me, you should. because you like me. or thats what I tell myself anyway.
I dont really feel like writing a blog entry right now, so pardon me if this is not the most thrilling and captivating thing I have written. But, I feel like I should because otherwise more and more stuff will happen that I have to write about and I will just have to write a really long entry and keep putting it off and putting it off and that is something I am not allowed to do. At least not until I am not in Poland anymore.
I have been doing lots of serious-type stuff lately. Yesterday, my host sisters, Julie, and I went to the Warsaw Uprising museum, which was really really interesting. Because, you know, I am a history major. Also because its a brand new museum and interactive and about an event in history that more people should know about. But yes, required lots of serioiusness. Also, I watched The Pianist today. So, I have been very inundated with Polish World War II history lately. It has made me do some serious thinking, but the products of my serious thinking I do not think I will share with the world, because I do not think I could phrase my thoughts appropriately.
My less serious activities ahve included that I was supposed to go to the swimming pool with Eva and Karolina on tuesday night, but I dont particularly like swimming pools. Like the whole getting wet thing without the awesomeness of the ocean, or a waterslide, or even a rainstorm, is not for me. So instead i hung out with Reid and his host sister and her friend, and when I came back I found out that Ewa's 10 year old turtle had died and no one had gone to the pool because they were all very sad.
Also, while we were in Warsaw yesterday, we ate lunch at the mall food court. I did not realize Polish mall's have food courts, but apparently they do. I ate McDonalds, Ewa ate KFC, Karolina got some polish plum dumpling things, and Julie decided to test the mexican food. I was afraid of the mexican food because the Polish people were just completely not going at all to either the Mexican food or the Chinese food. I am not sure if this is because the Polish palatte is not a fan of these tastes or because they were really bad. Julie said her food was OK. I did not want to risk it though.
My class at school continues to frusterate me. This is mostly because at this point in their English education, what these kids really need is help with grammar. Which I am really not the best person to provide them with. One of their Polish English teachers who had to learn English grammar to be able to speak the language is. I would be very good at helping them with vocabulary/conversation/and American Culture; however, our kids no such a limited amount of English that is very close to impossible to teach these thigns. Its very frusterating because I feel pretty much like our lessons are useless. Like the only benefit they are getting is listening to a native english speaker talk for a bit. And, really, they could rent a movie for that. Also, Reid was saying that like he has been talking to other volunteers and like their class are more advanced so they are getting to like lead debates and have their kids create skits and these are just all things that our kids are not capable of at all. Its just very GRRRR. I dont know what to do though except keep trying and hopefully they will learn something this summer?
This is not a particularly upbeat post thingy, but I swear I am pretty happy. In an effort to end on an upbeat note, I think tomorrow I am going to see the Sex and the City movie with Reids host sister and her friends. This will be like my fourth opportunity to see this movie, I have turned it down all the other times, but really the movie theater in Ostroleka plays one movie at a time, and there is very little else to do here...
In closing, thanks to those who have emailed me. You brighten my day. To those who have not emailed me, you should. because you like me. or thats what I tell myself anyway.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Mostly Food, again
So, if you had told me before I left that I would consider a breakfast of hardboiled eggs, peas, and mayonnaise a good breakfast, I probably would have laughed. But that is what we had for breakfast today, and it was pretty good. You like put the egg through this wire thing that cuts it in little squares, then you add peas, then you miz it with mayonnaise. So I guess, like eggsalad with peas in it. for breakfast. Well, I liked it. It broke up the monotony of eating sandwiches for breakfast and supper everyday well.
Additionally. For Lunch/Dinner today we had potato pancakes! OHMY GOODNESS! I love latkes. soooo much. I ate so many, it was only me and my host mom because my host sisters (who have returned home, more on that later) went out to get pizza with their friends. I think that they are tired of having me around. I heard what I guessed was a long conversation of my host mom forcing them to invite me out to pizza, but i did not want to go. They had tried to slip out of the house while my host mom was driving Julie home and i went along for the ride, because i wanted to see the outside of Julie's house. But they were leaving right as we got back and were forced to invite me. But I got to eat potato pancakes, instead of pizza, which is awesome. and also I am watching a movie I borrowed from Reid so I am in general pretty happy right now.
In Poland, when people get married, the next day they have a giant party that is like "The Wedding Reception: Part Dwa" where all the guests who live in town come to another party to eat the leftovers and their is music and dancing and stuff. Yesterday, I went to this with my host parents for the wedding taht was on saturday. It was really fun! I had a good time, even though I could basically talk to my host mom and then the girl I was sitting next to had been placed beside me because she knew some english too. It was funny because the family gathering felt very familiar and seemed to have the same kind of feelings and sounds and stuff as like a gathering of our family, the only difference being that I didnt know these people and they werent speaking English. There was lots of food. First there was soup, then chicken and potatoes and really good coleslaw (i like coleslaw a lot more than i thought i did, which is probably good because they eat so much of it here, cabbage is good for you right?) and then there was cake. Apparently all the femal relatives make different cakes so I had to try 2 of them, but they werent like american cake so I liked them ok. Especially this one that was like pure melty chocolate for an inch of the top. There was also wedding cake but I didnt try that because. cake. So basically at that point i figured dinner was over, because we had gone through the whole dinner thing and reached dessert, right? But no, they kept bringing out more meat. This included chicken stuffed with pork, pork stuffed with pickles and radishes, something that looked a lot like a deep fried ham sandwich, and then this giant (like the size of my half a cow brisket) piece of meat (most likely pig) that had been baked inside an even bigger loaf of bread. I turned down everything except the last kind of meat, which i had to try because it was a regional dish. I am always required to try the regional dishes.
Anyway, after all the eating, we are just sitting and talking, the girl next to me, who is 27 and has a broken leg from a motorcycle accident is telling me how all the older people are talkign about how she needs to get married and thats all they ever talk about but she is still young and doesnt want to. Then my host parents are like, we have to go pick up eva and Karolina from the bus back from camping. So we went and picked them up and then bruoght them back to the party, they had to change in the bathroom and like deoderize and stuff. They did not enjoy the party, i believe we only brought them so that they would get fed. So after my host sisters were done eating, we watched people dance for about 10 minutes which was very fun and then we left.
When we got back (at like 6pm) almost everyone fell asleep. Because my host parents ahd been at the wedding til 4 am the night before (and my host dad was up before 10 in the morning) and Eva and Karolina were tired out from scout camp. But it was funny just because everyone crashed all around the house. I worked on my lesson plans and got 2 done and then watched some Office on my computer and read a little. It was a pretty fun day. Also Eva and Karolina insisted yesterday that they were too tired to even try to speak english. I think they are happy that i am leaving in a week. I am not. I will miss my host parents a lot, they are really awesome. If oudn out that my next host family is not the family I thought iw ould be staying with. Not that i knew anythign about that family either, but I am scared. My host family didnt know anything about my next host family either, except their name, which was Polish and said to fast for me to catch.
Oh, one more funny story. So I think one of the boys that went ot scout camp had a crush on me. He was like 16ish I would guess and had a funny haircut where the the sides of his head were shaved but the top was not, like a really wide mohawk. Anyway, I didnt take any notice of him for all of camp, except that he seemed to like the weird canned meat spread at mealtimes. When I was leaving though, I was shaking everyone who was arounds hand and he came up and hugged me. I thought he was just trying to make his friends laugh or something, ebcause he hugged me again when I was like walking away. Then when we went to the bus to pick up Ewa and Karolina, he smiled and waved, and none of the other kids did, even the ones I had talked to while I was there. And he was staring at me the whole time as I stood their awkwardly while my host parents helped the girls with their big backpacks. Then when he was leaving he came up and shook my hand. My host mom called him my "lover boy". It was so awkward.
Also, I have not ehard much from you people lately. I know a whole weekend has happened since i got emails from most of you and fun and exciting things tend to happen on weekends. or you know, just anything, like sitting at your computer, learning to count cards for vegas. or listening to Protomen. or studying MCATs. or being in London. or something. Anyway, the point of this is email me, yo. Peace Out.
Additionally. For Lunch/Dinner today we had potato pancakes! OHMY GOODNESS! I love latkes. soooo much. I ate so many, it was only me and my host mom because my host sisters (who have returned home, more on that later) went out to get pizza with their friends. I think that they are tired of having me around. I heard what I guessed was a long conversation of my host mom forcing them to invite me out to pizza, but i did not want to go. They had tried to slip out of the house while my host mom was driving Julie home and i went along for the ride, because i wanted to see the outside of Julie's house. But they were leaving right as we got back and were forced to invite me. But I got to eat potato pancakes, instead of pizza, which is awesome. and also I am watching a movie I borrowed from Reid so I am in general pretty happy right now.
In Poland, when people get married, the next day they have a giant party that is like "The Wedding Reception: Part Dwa" where all the guests who live in town come to another party to eat the leftovers and their is music and dancing and stuff. Yesterday, I went to this with my host parents for the wedding taht was on saturday. It was really fun! I had a good time, even though I could basically talk to my host mom and then the girl I was sitting next to had been placed beside me because she knew some english too. It was funny because the family gathering felt very familiar and seemed to have the same kind of feelings and sounds and stuff as like a gathering of our family, the only difference being that I didnt know these people and they werent speaking English. There was lots of food. First there was soup, then chicken and potatoes and really good coleslaw (i like coleslaw a lot more than i thought i did, which is probably good because they eat so much of it here, cabbage is good for you right?) and then there was cake. Apparently all the femal relatives make different cakes so I had to try 2 of them, but they werent like american cake so I liked them ok. Especially this one that was like pure melty chocolate for an inch of the top. There was also wedding cake but I didnt try that because. cake. So basically at that point i figured dinner was over, because we had gone through the whole dinner thing and reached dessert, right? But no, they kept bringing out more meat. This included chicken stuffed with pork, pork stuffed with pickles and radishes, something that looked a lot like a deep fried ham sandwich, and then this giant (like the size of my half a cow brisket) piece of meat (most likely pig) that had been baked inside an even bigger loaf of bread. I turned down everything except the last kind of meat, which i had to try because it was a regional dish. I am always required to try the regional dishes.
Anyway, after all the eating, we are just sitting and talking, the girl next to me, who is 27 and has a broken leg from a motorcycle accident is telling me how all the older people are talkign about how she needs to get married and thats all they ever talk about but she is still young and doesnt want to. Then my host parents are like, we have to go pick up eva and Karolina from the bus back from camping. So we went and picked them up and then bruoght them back to the party, they had to change in the bathroom and like deoderize and stuff. They did not enjoy the party, i believe we only brought them so that they would get fed. So after my host sisters were done eating, we watched people dance for about 10 minutes which was very fun and then we left.
When we got back (at like 6pm) almost everyone fell asleep. Because my host parents ahd been at the wedding til 4 am the night before (and my host dad was up before 10 in the morning) and Eva and Karolina were tired out from scout camp. But it was funny just because everyone crashed all around the house. I worked on my lesson plans and got 2 done and then watched some Office on my computer and read a little. It was a pretty fun day. Also Eva and Karolina insisted yesterday that they were too tired to even try to speak english. I think they are happy that i am leaving in a week. I am not. I will miss my host parents a lot, they are really awesome. If oudn out that my next host family is not the family I thought iw ould be staying with. Not that i knew anythign about that family either, but I am scared. My host family didnt know anything about my next host family either, except their name, which was Polish and said to fast for me to catch.
Oh, one more funny story. So I think one of the boys that went ot scout camp had a crush on me. He was like 16ish I would guess and had a funny haircut where the the sides of his head were shaved but the top was not, like a really wide mohawk. Anyway, I didnt take any notice of him for all of camp, except that he seemed to like the weird canned meat spread at mealtimes. When I was leaving though, I was shaking everyone who was arounds hand and he came up and hugged me. I thought he was just trying to make his friends laugh or something, ebcause he hugged me again when I was like walking away. Then when we went to the bus to pick up Ewa and Karolina, he smiled and waved, and none of the other kids did, even the ones I had talked to while I was there. And he was staring at me the whole time as I stood their awkwardly while my host parents helped the girls with their big backpacks. Then when he was leaving he came up and shook my hand. My host mom called him my "lover boy". It was so awkward.
Also, I have not ehard much from you people lately. I know a whole weekend has happened since i got emails from most of you and fun and exciting things tend to happen on weekends. or you know, just anything, like sitting at your computer, learning to count cards for vegas. or listening to Protomen. or studying MCATs. or being in London. or something. Anyway, the point of this is email me, yo. Peace Out.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Guys I'm So sleepy
So I guess I will first answer questions that people wrote in the comments.
1. As compared to Russia, I think the culture shock ahs definitely been more. Just because, I WAS very homesick for the first part of Russia, but I think that was mostly because school had just ended and I missed people. But my experience in Russia was very American since i was living and interacting almost exclusively with the other Americans in the program. So, while we were in Russia we werent really immersed in Russian life at all. I did have some frustration that things that would be simple to do in America were a big mess of difficulty. But here it has definitely been much more difficult. I feel like this is a more worthwhile experience though probably as I am getting much more exposure and better, more realistic experience of life in Poland.
2. Youngjoo, i dont really have any ideas for you. I dont think my classes are that good and my students are 13-17. I guess, the best advice I would have is to keep activities short. So like break a lesson down into 10ish minute activities. And come to class very prepared, and have back up activities incase your run out of stuff. (I really need to take my own advice here)
Ok, so my life of late. I am very tired. This is because I woke up at 630 am. On a saturday. Actually the latest I have slept since I have been here is 10 and I had trouble sleeping that late. I think this is because when I was adjsuting from the jetlag i had to get up every morning between 7 and 8 so that my body got on a good rhythm, unlike the go to bed at 3am and wake up at 1pm one that I am often on in America.
Yesterday, my host mom took me to Warsaw. I did not know how long we were going for so I had to pack my bag for all weekend and all weather, plus all school stuff, so my bag was very heavy. Plus, as most of you know my backpack is semi-broken, so it does not distribute the weight healthily upon my back. So I find out that we are only going to Warsaw for friday night, spending the night at my host Aunts house in the Warsaw 'burbs and then coming back to Ostroleka early in the morning. Unfortunately, I could do nothing about the heft of my bag at this point as we left for the bus station straight from school.
Reid was actually going to Warsaw for the weekend to meet his dad and he was taking the same bus as me and my host mom. Initially i was sitting next to my host mom and Reid was sitting next to some "hot girl" but my host mom decided that since she was going to read the whole time Reid should sit next to me, so she changed seats with him, just as he was about to offer the "hot girl" some of his paprika chips and he as stuck sitting with me. Then my host mom spent the whole 3 hour ride to warsaw talking to the "hot girl." In Warsaw first we walked Reid to his hotel. Then we walked around the city. I was carrying my giant heavy uncomfortable bag. It made seeing the sights of Warsaw less pleasant. ALthough it was a very cool city.
Also I was very hungry. It figures this was the one time my host mom wasnt asking me if I was tired or hungry. Anyway eventually my host mom told me that we were going to this place that she knew, that she liked very much that was very good. Do you know where we ate? Pizza Hut. It was much classier than Pizza Huts in the US though. They had a full menu with Salads and Pasta. I got pasta, but the portion was so small that my host mom and the waitress had this whole conference about how i needed more food, so i tried to order a salad with mozzerella balls and cranberries but they didnt let me because it didnt have meat and apparently I needed meat. The waitress decided I needed a chicken caesar salad and brought me that. It was mediocre.
After that we walked some more and it started to rain. I had to pee so we went inside this little tea shop that was very pink and very packed with decorations. The tea costed 10 dollars. I did not get any. My host mom got some coffee which was like 3 dollars. I dont know who would pay 10 dollars for a cup of tea. RIDICULOUS. So we waited out the rain, and then we walked more. My back hurt soooooo much. Finally we met my host uncle(? I guess) and he drove us to their house where i got to leave my bag. Then we went to the mall, where we went to the movies and saw 21. It was in english with Polish subtitles which was nice for me. The movie was ok. I kind of guessed how it would end 10 minutes in but it was still fun to watch a movie. After that we went back and I slept til 630 in the morning when I had to wake up because we were taking a bus at 8.
The bus we took only took us to Pultusk which is an hour from Ostroleka. From there we were supposed to get another bus. We got in at 9:25 and the bus was supposed to come at 9:55. It finally arrived at 10:35 but was so full that it wouldnot take on anymore passengers. My host mom went to the station and found out the next bus was too full also. So, my host dad drove down to Pultusk and picked us up. But not before I got to walk around some more with my giant bag! On the way home We stopped and ate pierogi. Which were kind of like knishes i think. They were meat wrapped in potatoey dough and served with coleslaw. We eat a lot of coleslaw here. They also had buttery fried onions on top of them. It was all pretty good.
This afternoon I went into town to meet Julie because we were supposed to hang out because my host parents were going ot a wedding and we need to buy gifts for our host parents at some point because we move to new families next sunday. We discovered that apparently all teh shops in Ostroleka close at 2pm on saturday and are not open sunday, due to Poland being 95% Catholic. I really dont understand when people buy things, as the shops close the same time people get done work on weekdays. Anyway, we met at 3:45 and were not being picked up til 9, so we had quite a bit of time to kill. All the food places were, of course, still open. So I got ice cream. Then Julie got a kebab. Then I got a kebab. Then we sat at the kebab place and talked for a while. Then Julie got ice cream. Then we decided to explore ostroleka a little. We found a movie store and looked around it for a little bit. Then we went back to the center and sat around and talked some more. It was a day full of intense excitement.
Now I am home alone and using the internet. I wish people were online so that I could talk with them. I miss you all VERY MUCH. Im probably going to go eat something and then go to bed. Tomorrow will probably be devoted to some major lesson planning. yippee.
1. As compared to Russia, I think the culture shock ahs definitely been more. Just because, I WAS very homesick for the first part of Russia, but I think that was mostly because school had just ended and I missed people. But my experience in Russia was very American since i was living and interacting almost exclusively with the other Americans in the program. So, while we were in Russia we werent really immersed in Russian life at all. I did have some frustration that things that would be simple to do in America were a big mess of difficulty. But here it has definitely been much more difficult. I feel like this is a more worthwhile experience though probably as I am getting much more exposure and better, more realistic experience of life in Poland.
2. Youngjoo, i dont really have any ideas for you. I dont think my classes are that good and my students are 13-17. I guess, the best advice I would have is to keep activities short. So like break a lesson down into 10ish minute activities. And come to class very prepared, and have back up activities incase your run out of stuff. (I really need to take my own advice here)
Ok, so my life of late. I am very tired. This is because I woke up at 630 am. On a saturday. Actually the latest I have slept since I have been here is 10 and I had trouble sleeping that late. I think this is because when I was adjsuting from the jetlag i had to get up every morning between 7 and 8 so that my body got on a good rhythm, unlike the go to bed at 3am and wake up at 1pm one that I am often on in America.
Yesterday, my host mom took me to Warsaw. I did not know how long we were going for so I had to pack my bag for all weekend and all weather, plus all school stuff, so my bag was very heavy. Plus, as most of you know my backpack is semi-broken, so it does not distribute the weight healthily upon my back. So I find out that we are only going to Warsaw for friday night, spending the night at my host Aunts house in the Warsaw 'burbs and then coming back to Ostroleka early in the morning. Unfortunately, I could do nothing about the heft of my bag at this point as we left for the bus station straight from school.
Reid was actually going to Warsaw for the weekend to meet his dad and he was taking the same bus as me and my host mom. Initially i was sitting next to my host mom and Reid was sitting next to some "hot girl" but my host mom decided that since she was going to read the whole time Reid should sit next to me, so she changed seats with him, just as he was about to offer the "hot girl" some of his paprika chips and he as stuck sitting with me. Then my host mom spent the whole 3 hour ride to warsaw talking to the "hot girl." In Warsaw first we walked Reid to his hotel. Then we walked around the city. I was carrying my giant heavy uncomfortable bag. It made seeing the sights of Warsaw less pleasant. ALthough it was a very cool city.
Also I was very hungry. It figures this was the one time my host mom wasnt asking me if I was tired or hungry. Anyway eventually my host mom told me that we were going to this place that she knew, that she liked very much that was very good. Do you know where we ate? Pizza Hut. It was much classier than Pizza Huts in the US though. They had a full menu with Salads and Pasta. I got pasta, but the portion was so small that my host mom and the waitress had this whole conference about how i needed more food, so i tried to order a salad with mozzerella balls and cranberries but they didnt let me because it didnt have meat and apparently I needed meat. The waitress decided I needed a chicken caesar salad and brought me that. It was mediocre.
After that we walked some more and it started to rain. I had to pee so we went inside this little tea shop that was very pink and very packed with decorations. The tea costed 10 dollars. I did not get any. My host mom got some coffee which was like 3 dollars. I dont know who would pay 10 dollars for a cup of tea. RIDICULOUS. So we waited out the rain, and then we walked more. My back hurt soooooo much. Finally we met my host uncle(? I guess) and he drove us to their house where i got to leave my bag. Then we went to the mall, where we went to the movies and saw 21. It was in english with Polish subtitles which was nice for me. The movie was ok. I kind of guessed how it would end 10 minutes in but it was still fun to watch a movie. After that we went back and I slept til 630 in the morning when I had to wake up because we were taking a bus at 8.
The bus we took only took us to Pultusk which is an hour from Ostroleka. From there we were supposed to get another bus. We got in at 9:25 and the bus was supposed to come at 9:55. It finally arrived at 10:35 but was so full that it wouldnot take on anymore passengers. My host mom went to the station and found out the next bus was too full also. So, my host dad drove down to Pultusk and picked us up. But not before I got to walk around some more with my giant bag! On the way home We stopped and ate pierogi. Which were kind of like knishes i think. They were meat wrapped in potatoey dough and served with coleslaw. We eat a lot of coleslaw here. They also had buttery fried onions on top of them. It was all pretty good.
This afternoon I went into town to meet Julie because we were supposed to hang out because my host parents were going ot a wedding and we need to buy gifts for our host parents at some point because we move to new families next sunday. We discovered that apparently all teh shops in Ostroleka close at 2pm on saturday and are not open sunday, due to Poland being 95% Catholic. I really dont understand when people buy things, as the shops close the same time people get done work on weekdays. Anyway, we met at 3:45 and were not being picked up til 9, so we had quite a bit of time to kill. All the food places were, of course, still open. So I got ice cream. Then Julie got a kebab. Then I got a kebab. Then we sat at the kebab place and talked for a while. Then Julie got ice cream. Then we decided to explore ostroleka a little. We found a movie store and looked around it for a little bit. Then we went back to the center and sat around and talked some more. It was a day full of intense excitement.
Now I am home alone and using the internet. I wish people were online so that I could talk with them. I miss you all VERY MUCH. Im probably going to go eat something and then go to bed. Tomorrow will probably be devoted to some major lesson planning. yippee.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
I'm pretty sure I'm not an outside person
So, Scout camp was absolutely terrible. I tried to go into it with a good attitude but really, I came to the conclusion that I would not have enjoyed it had everyone spoken english and had everyone been my friend, therefore the fact that everyone spoke Polish and I barely knew anyone just made it doubly terrible. I DO think that it is good that I went though, because this way I will not regret it which I might have done had I decided not to go.
Anyway, since there was barely anyone for me to talk to for 2 whole days, I got to do a lot of thinking about how I felt about Scout camp which I will now relate. This will probably be really whiny, but I swear I tried as hard as I could to have fun.
Daddy, I would like to add that I think it is amazing that you were a boy scout and thank you for never making any of us go through that.
Ok so, to go to Scout camp, I had to wake up at 5:45 in the morning because we had to get on the bus at 7:00. So to begin with I was very tired. The bus ride was 3 hours long. This was not really the bad part yet. I had my iPod and I was ok. So what scout camp looks like, is you know in the fourth Harry Potter book when they go to the Quidditch World Cup and they talk about the campsite and it just being a field with tents as far as you can see. That is kind of what this looked like. Except the tents werent magic so the tents were not nice inside. Also, the areas were roped off so like scouts from Mazura were in one section, scouts from Silesia in another, etc. Each area had a wooden archway thing to enter it which some scouts guarded at all times, though I really have no idea why as their only purpose seemed to be to salute people who walked through the archway...sometimes.
My major issue with scout camp was that everything was in Polish. So I never had any idea what was happening, so all these people would be bustling around me doing things and I would be confused. I tried to ask my host sister Karolina but she just seemed annoyed by all my questions, and did not seem to understand how frusterating i found it that I had no idea what was going on. I felt bad because i knew she wanted to be doing whatever everyone was doing and having me there was keeping her back sometimes. I don't really understand why she was so gung-ho about me going because a lot of the activities she was like "oh you cant do this because you dont speak polish" even like some of the games that i totally figured out how to play just by watching. Anyway, it is very confusing and frusterating when you have no one to talk to and feel like an annoyance.
The other problem I had, was that I do not like being outside. There is not much furniture outside and i dont like sitting on the ground. There are bugs under you and you dont know where and it is gross. Also, there is no temperature control. In Poland the weather is very erratic, i dont know if I have mentioned this. At one point it can be sunny and hot, while 5 minutes later it is cloudy and cool, then it gets sunny and hot again, the next minute it is pouring down rain. Then at night it gets so cold you can see your breath. For example, the first day I was there for parts of the day I was comfortable outside in a tank top, by the end of the night I was barely warm even though I was wearing a tank top, a t-shirt, a button down shirt, a wool sweater, my duke sweatshirt, a turtleneck wool sweater, and a raincoat. 7 shirts. I could barely move. (the sweaters were borrowed because one of the girls was really sweet and realized i was going to freeze to death. I didnt understand because some of the scouts were just running around in skirts and knee socks. It was SO cold.
Anyway, the worst moment of the whole time is that on the first night there was an ognisko. At this point during the day, all i have eaten is a sandwich for breakfast at 6:30 in the morning, a peach on the bus ride, and 2 pieces of bread with sour cream for lunch. So i am starving. And I think, at least their will now be Kielbasa. But apparently I was wrong. The traditional scouting ognisko does not involve food. What it did involve was sitting uncomfortably in wet grass facing the wrong way on a hill. You know how if you sit on a hill you should face downward so you are not fighting gravity. Well we were facing upward, and you have to sit a special way, which makes your legs numb and then they all sung songs in Polish, then this guy spoke for a really long time. All of this is very boring and awful when you can not understand so it is like sitting uncomfortably and freezingly in the wet grass doing nothing for an hour and a half. I did not have all of my sweaters yet and was not close enough to the fire to feel its warmth. And then there wasnt even any food. I was basically on the verge of tears because I just wanted to go home, and if i hadnt known that I was leaving the next day I probably would have fallen apart. And no one could even see how I felt because it was too dark to see anything. Luckily at this point, one of the girls got me the other sweaters and i felt a little better once I was warmer.
After the ognisko we walked to the Medieval battle grounds in the dark for a "Scouts Promise" ceremony. It was very strange and cultlike (actually all of scouts is kind of cult like, there is a lot of marching and rules and uniforms) They had flaming torches and people cried and my host sister told me it that it was the most important moment in the life of a scout. I didnt really understand what was going on, but was glad that afterward I finally got to go to bed. Sleeping outside was one of the better parts, because i curled inside of my sleeping bag so the bugs couldnt get me and going to sleep doesnt require me to understand any Polish.
The tents got really gross after only 2 days there. There were so many flies. at one point a guy fell asleep during, i guess, a break and i counted 10 flies on his pants alone. It was so gross. Also there was this giant bug like the size of my palm that just fell from the ceiling and at that time I was the only person in the tent besides this guy that was sleeping, so i had to kill the bug. It was the scariest thing ever. It just wouldnt die. I had to step on it like 10 times til its guts came out and its legs stopped moving. uueeerrgh. There were about 3 times in the day where they made us take all of our stuff out of the tent and gave us 15 minutes to put all of our things in our bags, and then collected all the leftover stuff and would assign jobs to the people it belonged to. This was supposed to help keep the tents clean, but it didnt really. Oh also, there were 2 tents, one where everyone slept and one where everyone kept their stuff. Both had lots of flies. By everyone i mean like 30 people, in one tent. I have pictures of the tents.
Also, so since I was a visitor from the united states. I had to raise the US flag in a special ceremony. and they announced that I was there, it was really weird because i guess i stood out a lot because random people would say "Hi Kate" when i passed, which weirded me out, mostly because kait is the name I am called by family, and even friends call me Kaitlin so like that all these random people i didnt know was calling me Kait weirded me out. (My host family calls me Kait because they have a lot of trouble saying kaitlin).
Everyone there played guitar. And they played Polish army songs. I dont know.
By the end, a couple of people who took some english, plus the nice girl who got me the sweaters tried to help me out (more than my host sisters) which made me feel a little better, but mostly i was focused on going home.
I was so glad when my host parents came to pick me up. It was very nice to be in car and then we went to a restaurant and I got coke and soup which was amazing because all we had been eating was bread with different spreads on it and i was so cold and hungry. Then we went home and I got to shower bath and being clean was amazing. My hair had been so gross and i smelled so bad. I can not imagine camping for a lot of days. Especially if there was no bathroom. We had a bathroom, it was gross and you had to bring your own toilet paper (luckily I was prepared) but we had a bathroom.
Today Jo and Andzrej (The coordinators of our program) came to do a site visit and observed us teach and made sure we are happy and healthy. It was fun to see them and to hang out with Julie and Reid because they speak english and I have gotten to do so little of that. Class went ok, we talked about written communication. I got to use the "How to send flirtatious text messages" article from my 17 magazine but they had a lot of trouble understanding the word flirtatious, even when i demonstrated by hitting on one of the students... Then we talked about writing notes, and had groups become experts at writing different types of notes (postcards, thank you notes, requests, invitations, rsvps, etc) and tomorrow they will get to present to the class. Then we talked about penpals. And a select few of you, i have emailed asking if you would be willing to a be a penpal. If anyone else would like to be a penpal to a Polish kid, let me know as some more will probably show up and we are trying to make this an summer-long project. If you do though, you will have to be VERY responsible and timely in the sending replies.
Well i think that is all for my scouting adventure. This weekend, i think i might be going to Warsaw with my host mom, i am not sure. Also, she wants to take me to see things, but does not speak that much English so that will be interesting. I am with this host family through the 20th and then i move to my next one, which i know nothing about other than that they have a 17 year old daughter. It will kind of suck to move because I am just starting to get comfortable here.
I hope everyone back in the US or in other countries are doing awesomely and that you send me emails to let me know exactly what you are doing. I would like to to thank everyone who has sent me emails lately, and hope that you will continue doing so.
Anyway, since there was barely anyone for me to talk to for 2 whole days, I got to do a lot of thinking about how I felt about Scout camp which I will now relate. This will probably be really whiny, but I swear I tried as hard as I could to have fun.
Daddy, I would like to add that I think it is amazing that you were a boy scout and thank you for never making any of us go through that.
Ok so, to go to Scout camp, I had to wake up at 5:45 in the morning because we had to get on the bus at 7:00. So to begin with I was very tired. The bus ride was 3 hours long. This was not really the bad part yet. I had my iPod and I was ok. So what scout camp looks like, is you know in the fourth Harry Potter book when they go to the Quidditch World Cup and they talk about the campsite and it just being a field with tents as far as you can see. That is kind of what this looked like. Except the tents werent magic so the tents were not nice inside. Also, the areas were roped off so like scouts from Mazura were in one section, scouts from Silesia in another, etc. Each area had a wooden archway thing to enter it which some scouts guarded at all times, though I really have no idea why as their only purpose seemed to be to salute people who walked through the archway...sometimes.
My major issue with scout camp was that everything was in Polish. So I never had any idea what was happening, so all these people would be bustling around me doing things and I would be confused. I tried to ask my host sister Karolina but she just seemed annoyed by all my questions, and did not seem to understand how frusterating i found it that I had no idea what was going on. I felt bad because i knew she wanted to be doing whatever everyone was doing and having me there was keeping her back sometimes. I don't really understand why she was so gung-ho about me going because a lot of the activities she was like "oh you cant do this because you dont speak polish" even like some of the games that i totally figured out how to play just by watching. Anyway, it is very confusing and frusterating when you have no one to talk to and feel like an annoyance.
The other problem I had, was that I do not like being outside. There is not much furniture outside and i dont like sitting on the ground. There are bugs under you and you dont know where and it is gross. Also, there is no temperature control. In Poland the weather is very erratic, i dont know if I have mentioned this. At one point it can be sunny and hot, while 5 minutes later it is cloudy and cool, then it gets sunny and hot again, the next minute it is pouring down rain. Then at night it gets so cold you can see your breath. For example, the first day I was there for parts of the day I was comfortable outside in a tank top, by the end of the night I was barely warm even though I was wearing a tank top, a t-shirt, a button down shirt, a wool sweater, my duke sweatshirt, a turtleneck wool sweater, and a raincoat. 7 shirts. I could barely move. (the sweaters were borrowed because one of the girls was really sweet and realized i was going to freeze to death. I didnt understand because some of the scouts were just running around in skirts and knee socks. It was SO cold.
Anyway, the worst moment of the whole time is that on the first night there was an ognisko. At this point during the day, all i have eaten is a sandwich for breakfast at 6:30 in the morning, a peach on the bus ride, and 2 pieces of bread with sour cream for lunch. So i am starving. And I think, at least their will now be Kielbasa. But apparently I was wrong. The traditional scouting ognisko does not involve food. What it did involve was sitting uncomfortably in wet grass facing the wrong way on a hill. You know how if you sit on a hill you should face downward so you are not fighting gravity. Well we were facing upward, and you have to sit a special way, which makes your legs numb and then they all sung songs in Polish, then this guy spoke for a really long time. All of this is very boring and awful when you can not understand so it is like sitting uncomfortably and freezingly in the wet grass doing nothing for an hour and a half. I did not have all of my sweaters yet and was not close enough to the fire to feel its warmth. And then there wasnt even any food. I was basically on the verge of tears because I just wanted to go home, and if i hadnt known that I was leaving the next day I probably would have fallen apart. And no one could even see how I felt because it was too dark to see anything. Luckily at this point, one of the girls got me the other sweaters and i felt a little better once I was warmer.
After the ognisko we walked to the Medieval battle grounds in the dark for a "Scouts Promise" ceremony. It was very strange and cultlike (actually all of scouts is kind of cult like, there is a lot of marching and rules and uniforms) They had flaming torches and people cried and my host sister told me it that it was the most important moment in the life of a scout. I didnt really understand what was going on, but was glad that afterward I finally got to go to bed. Sleeping outside was one of the better parts, because i curled inside of my sleeping bag so the bugs couldnt get me and going to sleep doesnt require me to understand any Polish.
The tents got really gross after only 2 days there. There were so many flies. at one point a guy fell asleep during, i guess, a break and i counted 10 flies on his pants alone. It was so gross. Also there was this giant bug like the size of my palm that just fell from the ceiling and at that time I was the only person in the tent besides this guy that was sleeping, so i had to kill the bug. It was the scariest thing ever. It just wouldnt die. I had to step on it like 10 times til its guts came out and its legs stopped moving. uueeerrgh. There were about 3 times in the day where they made us take all of our stuff out of the tent and gave us 15 minutes to put all of our things in our bags, and then collected all the leftover stuff and would assign jobs to the people it belonged to. This was supposed to help keep the tents clean, but it didnt really. Oh also, there were 2 tents, one where everyone slept and one where everyone kept their stuff. Both had lots of flies. By everyone i mean like 30 people, in one tent. I have pictures of the tents.
Also, so since I was a visitor from the united states. I had to raise the US flag in a special ceremony. and they announced that I was there, it was really weird because i guess i stood out a lot because random people would say "Hi Kate" when i passed, which weirded me out, mostly because kait is the name I am called by family, and even friends call me Kaitlin so like that all these random people i didnt know was calling me Kait weirded me out. (My host family calls me Kait because they have a lot of trouble saying kaitlin).
Everyone there played guitar. And they played Polish army songs. I dont know.
By the end, a couple of people who took some english, plus the nice girl who got me the sweaters tried to help me out (more than my host sisters) which made me feel a little better, but mostly i was focused on going home.
I was so glad when my host parents came to pick me up. It was very nice to be in car and then we went to a restaurant and I got coke and soup which was amazing because all we had been eating was bread with different spreads on it and i was so cold and hungry. Then we went home and I got to shower bath and being clean was amazing. My hair had been so gross and i smelled so bad. I can not imagine camping for a lot of days. Especially if there was no bathroom. We had a bathroom, it was gross and you had to bring your own toilet paper (luckily I was prepared) but we had a bathroom.
Today Jo and Andzrej (The coordinators of our program) came to do a site visit and observed us teach and made sure we are happy and healthy. It was fun to see them and to hang out with Julie and Reid because they speak english and I have gotten to do so little of that. Class went ok, we talked about written communication. I got to use the "How to send flirtatious text messages" article from my 17 magazine but they had a lot of trouble understanding the word flirtatious, even when i demonstrated by hitting on one of the students... Then we talked about writing notes, and had groups become experts at writing different types of notes (postcards, thank you notes, requests, invitations, rsvps, etc) and tomorrow they will get to present to the class. Then we talked about penpals. And a select few of you, i have emailed asking if you would be willing to a be a penpal. If anyone else would like to be a penpal to a Polish kid, let me know as some more will probably show up and we are trying to make this an summer-long project. If you do though, you will have to be VERY responsible and timely in the sending replies.
Well i think that is all for my scouting adventure. This weekend, i think i might be going to Warsaw with my host mom, i am not sure. Also, she wants to take me to see things, but does not speak that much English so that will be interesting. I am with this host family through the 20th and then i move to my next one, which i know nothing about other than that they have a 17 year old daughter. It will kind of suck to move because I am just starting to get comfortable here.
I hope everyone back in the US or in other countries are doing awesomely and that you send me emails to let me know exactly what you are doing. I would like to to thank everyone who has sent me emails lately, and hope that you will continue doing so.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Disappointed
I have to admit, I did not check my email all weekend, so when I got on the computer today I was looking forward to a mailbox full of awesome emails; however, all my emails were about penis enlargement. Then I was like, well maybe someone has commented on my blog. But no one had, so that is very sad.
Other than that, I am doing pretty well. This weekend has been rather eventful. On Friday night Ewa, her friend Pioter and I all went to the cinema to watch the U2 3D concert, which was...ok. Ewa fell asleep. They did the songs I liked/knew/didnt find boring at the beginning. I have to say that I think Bono is a little annoying. I spent the whole movie trying to form an opinion on him, having no knowledge beforehand about him other than he is really famous, the lead singer of U2, and does some humanitarian stuff. Here is what I came up with. He seemed really small, but seemed like he had so much energy trying to push his way out of his body that at times it looked like he might explode. He also seems to think he is really cool. Which makes sense because the world for the most part thinks he is really cool, but a lot of times he looked silly and like he was trying to hard, and maybe should laugh at himself a little more. However, maybe he does this and I just dont know about it. I think that the guitar player "The Edge" (i learned from the credits) seemed more actually cool.
So yes, on saturday I woke up and my host sister Karolina (Karohleena) told me to pack my bag because we were going to the Mazura lakes. So we went to their grandparents house in the Mazura lake region which is about 2 hours away. We swam in the lake, it was not warm outside. The water was really clean though. I am glad I know how to swim because after how poorly I bike rode i needed to prove that I could do something. Oh, so a really awkward moment was that my host sister assumed there would be places to change into our bathing suits near the lake. There were not. Which resulted in us trying to cover ourselves with our towels and change into and out of bathign suits. Of course in the process of doing this the only attractive Polish boys i have seen since Warsaw walk by. I would also like to change my previous statement, and say that while Warsaw did seem to have a good number of attractive boys, the rest of the country seems to be lacking. All the really hot Polish girls that Reid is always hitting on seem to be paired up with really unattractive boys. Also, they seem to be into the Speedo's here.
The grandparents house seems to be set up so that it can be family vacation headquarters and can sit and sleep about an infinite number of people. There are a million chairs and sofas and they all fold out into beds. Each of the three upstairs bedrooms can sleep between 3 and 7. There is a futon on the balcony. There is a tent in the yard. They have a million towels and toothbrushes and toys for kids. While we were their, my host moms sister Ewa was there with her 4 year old daughter Paula. Paula was afraid of me. Oh! Also, you know how some people claim animals hate me (cough hannah cough). Today my host family was talking about how much the dog is going to miss me when I am gone.
One other thing I wanted to talk about was the lack of the concept of "ruining your dinner" here. I first noticed this when everyday after school Ewa and I stopped to get ice cream (sometimes twice!) even though we were headed home to eat dinner (they eat dinner meal around 1 or 2 ish). Then while we were at Mazura we were leaving the lake and headed home to have an ognisko,but the Aunt Ewa was like, I really want some french fries. So we all went and got fries and then went home and had an ognisko. I just find this really funny because in america there is so much "dont eat dessert before dinner" and "dont have a snack now, we are eating soon" that it is funny how much that concept does not exist at all here.
So this week, i think I am going to the Scout camp Jamboree on tues/wed. and then coming home and teaching thurs/fri. Then going to Warsaw with my host mom on the weekend. I think. See they wanted me to go to scout camp through sunday, but 1. i did not want to live outside that long and 2. the whole reason i am in poland is you know to be a teacher at the school here, and if i am at scout camp i am not doing that and will feel guilty. So i think that is the arrangement that was decided upon, but i am never really 100% sure of what is going on here. Going with the flow has become very essential to my life.
Oh! also, so i hadnt seen my host mom since wednesday night, and I was very confused as to where she was, but I know on wednesday she had been sick, so i thought maybe she had just been asleep and staying in her room or something. Then when we went to the lakes she didnt come. Then they kept talking about picking her up from the bus. I later found out that my host mom had been in Berlin for the latter portion of the week, when i thought she was home sick in bed....
I have learned to eat carrots! not like the uncooked kind, but when they are cooked and mixed in with something else I have finally been able to not pick them out. Because everyone has told me that when they are in something like this, you cant taste them and they just taste like the rest of the food. But my mind always made up the carrot taste and then i would be grossed out, but since I have been here, and a little before (when I made crab soup) i have gotten really good at not imagining the carrot flavor. I think this is really good because carrots are good for me.
So that is all for now. Its very difficult to write both this and emails, because a lot of times i dont have enough information for both. But i still really like getting emails, because I miss everyone back in the states (and in other places like London, Korea, and China) a lot and getting emails makes me smile.
Have a wonderful day, and if I dont update tomorrow you will have to wait a few days because I will be in the wilderness.
Other than that, I am doing pretty well. This weekend has been rather eventful. On Friday night Ewa, her friend Pioter and I all went to the cinema to watch the U2 3D concert, which was...ok. Ewa fell asleep. They did the songs I liked/knew/didnt find boring at the beginning. I have to say that I think Bono is a little annoying. I spent the whole movie trying to form an opinion on him, having no knowledge beforehand about him other than he is really famous, the lead singer of U2, and does some humanitarian stuff. Here is what I came up with. He seemed really small, but seemed like he had so much energy trying to push his way out of his body that at times it looked like he might explode. He also seems to think he is really cool. Which makes sense because the world for the most part thinks he is really cool, but a lot of times he looked silly and like he was trying to hard, and maybe should laugh at himself a little more. However, maybe he does this and I just dont know about it. I think that the guitar player "The Edge" (i learned from the credits) seemed more actually cool.
So yes, on saturday I woke up and my host sister Karolina (Karohleena) told me to pack my bag because we were going to the Mazura lakes. So we went to their grandparents house in the Mazura lake region which is about 2 hours away. We swam in the lake, it was not warm outside. The water was really clean though. I am glad I know how to swim because after how poorly I bike rode i needed to prove that I could do something. Oh, so a really awkward moment was that my host sister assumed there would be places to change into our bathing suits near the lake. There were not. Which resulted in us trying to cover ourselves with our towels and change into and out of bathign suits. Of course in the process of doing this the only attractive Polish boys i have seen since Warsaw walk by. I would also like to change my previous statement, and say that while Warsaw did seem to have a good number of attractive boys, the rest of the country seems to be lacking. All the really hot Polish girls that Reid is always hitting on seem to be paired up with really unattractive boys. Also, they seem to be into the Speedo's here.
The grandparents house seems to be set up so that it can be family vacation headquarters and can sit and sleep about an infinite number of people. There are a million chairs and sofas and they all fold out into beds. Each of the three upstairs bedrooms can sleep between 3 and 7. There is a futon on the balcony. There is a tent in the yard. They have a million towels and toothbrushes and toys for kids. While we were their, my host moms sister Ewa was there with her 4 year old daughter Paula. Paula was afraid of me. Oh! Also, you know how some people claim animals hate me (cough hannah cough). Today my host family was talking about how much the dog is going to miss me when I am gone.
One other thing I wanted to talk about was the lack of the concept of "ruining your dinner" here. I first noticed this when everyday after school Ewa and I stopped to get ice cream (sometimes twice!) even though we were headed home to eat dinner (they eat dinner meal around 1 or 2 ish). Then while we were at Mazura we were leaving the lake and headed home to have an ognisko,but the Aunt Ewa was like, I really want some french fries. So we all went and got fries and then went home and had an ognisko. I just find this really funny because in america there is so much "dont eat dessert before dinner" and "dont have a snack now, we are eating soon" that it is funny how much that concept does not exist at all here.
So this week, i think I am going to the Scout camp Jamboree on tues/wed. and then coming home and teaching thurs/fri. Then going to Warsaw with my host mom on the weekend. I think. See they wanted me to go to scout camp through sunday, but 1. i did not want to live outside that long and 2. the whole reason i am in poland is you know to be a teacher at the school here, and if i am at scout camp i am not doing that and will feel guilty. So i think that is the arrangement that was decided upon, but i am never really 100% sure of what is going on here. Going with the flow has become very essential to my life.
Oh! also, so i hadnt seen my host mom since wednesday night, and I was very confused as to where she was, but I know on wednesday she had been sick, so i thought maybe she had just been asleep and staying in her room or something. Then when we went to the lakes she didnt come. Then they kept talking about picking her up from the bus. I later found out that my host mom had been in Berlin for the latter portion of the week, when i thought she was home sick in bed....
I have learned to eat carrots! not like the uncooked kind, but when they are cooked and mixed in with something else I have finally been able to not pick them out. Because everyone has told me that when they are in something like this, you cant taste them and they just taste like the rest of the food. But my mind always made up the carrot taste and then i would be grossed out, but since I have been here, and a little before (when I made crab soup) i have gotten really good at not imagining the carrot flavor. I think this is really good because carrots are good for me.
So that is all for now. Its very difficult to write both this and emails, because a lot of times i dont have enough information for both. But i still really like getting emails, because I miss everyone back in the states (and in other places like London, Korea, and China) a lot and getting emails makes me smile.
Have a wonderful day, and if I dont update tomorrow you will have to wait a few days because I will be in the wilderness.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Its friday!
So, I have been a teacher for a whole week now. I am so tired. It is like 2:30 and i just took an hour and a half nap and really, i could go to bed right now. Im very glad to have 2 days off before I have to do any more lesson planning.
Today, being the 4th of July, we talked about Independance day. I did a lot condensing and writing on the board to try to give them some background for what Independance day is in America. Then they did a crossword puzzle. We also talked about holidays and how they are celebrated. I dont know if the kids were being shy or what but they kept telling me that Polish people didnt do or eat anythign special for holidays. They were just like, yea we go for walks, watch tv, eat dinner (a bigger dinner than normal? No) So i dont knoe about these Polish kids. Then we had them all make up holidays and present them to the class and then vote on which one they would want to celebrate. The winner was "natural day" in which you sleep in a tent and go outside and help clean up the environment and only eat fruits and vegetables. Did not really sound like my kind of holiday.
Speaking of sleeping in tents, apparently I am going to some sort of scouting jamboree thingy with my host sisters. I might miss teaching classes for a week? I dont really understand what is going on? or how long i am going? or what it is really? But i believe it involves living in a tent and there is going to be a reenactment of a medival battle and people come from all over Europe and i really hope there are bathrooms. I am scared.
Tonight I am going with my host sisters to see a 3D U2 concert at the cinema, so that should be interesting? Well I guess that is all for now. Adios amigos.
Today, being the 4th of July, we talked about Independance day. I did a lot condensing and writing on the board to try to give them some background for what Independance day is in America. Then they did a crossword puzzle. We also talked about holidays and how they are celebrated. I dont know if the kids were being shy or what but they kept telling me that Polish people didnt do or eat anythign special for holidays. They were just like, yea we go for walks, watch tv, eat dinner (a bigger dinner than normal? No) So i dont knoe about these Polish kids. Then we had them all make up holidays and present them to the class and then vote on which one they would want to celebrate. The winner was "natural day" in which you sleep in a tent and go outside and help clean up the environment and only eat fruits and vegetables. Did not really sound like my kind of holiday.
Speaking of sleeping in tents, apparently I am going to some sort of scouting jamboree thingy with my host sisters. I might miss teaching classes for a week? I dont really understand what is going on? or how long i am going? or what it is really? But i believe it involves living in a tent and there is going to be a reenactment of a medival battle and people come from all over Europe and i really hope there are bathrooms. I am scared.
Tonight I am going with my host sisters to see a 3D U2 concert at the cinema, so that should be interesting? Well I guess that is all for now. Adios amigos.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Bike riding and teaching
Yesterday I rode a bike. It is very sad that no one from america was there to see this. See my host parents were like, you know how to ride a bike, right? and i said yes but i havent ridden a bike since i was like 12. I never rode a bike that had like different speeds and breaks on the handles. My bike had streamers on the handle bars and you pedaled backward to stop. It was also much smaller than the bike i was expected to ride yesterday. So i made a fool of myself for a while. I fell into some bushes and almost got hit by a car infront of the house. Stopping was very difficult because i had to get off the seat for my legs ot touch hte ground so every once anda while instead of sucessfully stopping i would jump out of the way and the giant bik ewould crash to the ground. Its so terrible that i feel like i needed to be teased during this whole event but my host family was just trying to be nice and like worried andI just kept laughing and what a fool i must have looked like. SEE HOW BAD THE ENGLISH IS!!!
Yes but anyway, they are like we are going to ride bikes, and i have no idea where or what, but i ahvent started my lesson plan and i will still need to take a shower bath and it is already 8 pm. But anyway we ride our bikes about im going to guess 2.5 miles (it takes 40 minutes to walk, if you walk about 15 min miles) to school to visit my host sister at the science camp. The there is this presentation from a guy who went on a trip to Turkey and Iran and pcitures of his trip and it is all in Polish, so i am tired and dont understand and it was very hard to stay awake and i still needed to shower and plan my lesson and my partner teacher guy is supposed to call and i was scared my phone was going to go off in the middle of the room. The presentation enver ended, but my host mom asked if i wanted to go and i said yes. When I got back I decided that iw ould only shower bath and go to bed and wake up early in the morning to lesson plan.
Unfortunately when I woke up in the morning i felt really nauseous and lesson planning did not want to happen, so class today really sucked. We did show and tell which lasted about an hour and went over some work they turned in yesterday and played a question game (because we were trying to encourange speaking english). I thought class was really boring and I am the teacher. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.
Yes but anyway, they are like we are going to ride bikes, and i have no idea where or what, but i ahvent started my lesson plan and i will still need to take a shower bath and it is already 8 pm. But anyway we ride our bikes about im going to guess 2.5 miles (it takes 40 minutes to walk, if you walk about 15 min miles) to school to visit my host sister at the science camp. The there is this presentation from a guy who went on a trip to Turkey and Iran and pcitures of his trip and it is all in Polish, so i am tired and dont understand and it was very hard to stay awake and i still needed to shower and plan my lesson and my partner teacher guy is supposed to call and i was scared my phone was going to go off in the middle of the room. The presentation enver ended, but my host mom asked if i wanted to go and i said yes. When I got back I decided that iw ould only shower bath and go to bed and wake up early in the morning to lesson plan.
Unfortunately when I woke up in the morning i felt really nauseous and lesson planning did not want to happen, so class today really sucked. We did show and tell which lasted about an hour and went over some work they turned in yesterday and played a question game (because we were trying to encourange speaking english). I thought class was really boring and I am the teacher. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Shower Bath
So my host family, in the bathroom that I am to use does not have a shower curtain. There is a shower head. But not shower curtain. Apparently I am supposed to take baths. I have no idea how to take baths. Like at all. It is awkward and involves me making a huge mess of the bathroom and not really feeling clean when I am done. I hope my next host family ahs a shower.
There are 3 volunteers teaching at my school and about 20 students needing to be taught. Anyway, that is definitely not enough for 3 classes, so me anr Reid (other volunteer) are teaming up to teach the pre-intermediate class. Which is the suckier class to have because the other class is upper-intermediate and knows english much better. We talked about family trees today and divorce being common in america and creating weird family situation. They want us to teach one class for three hours everyday, which is ridiculously long, so we are teachign 2 hours and saying people can stop by for extra help after class if they want. No one wants.
Yesterday we were hoarded onto a bus with our host siblings and people from the science camp to go on a field trip the science camp was going on. We went to a tower in the middle of the forest, and then to a wooden village and then we off roaded in the bus to a place where we had an ognisko. The kielbasa was better at this one than the other one. I managed to fall off a bench and stick my elbow in a puddle of ketchup at the ognisko, so all in all it was a sucess. Then we went to another museum and then we went home. I was very tired by the end. Also i felt sick last ngiht. I guess the kielbasa did not agree with me.
Today we walked home from school (40 min, i am going to be in such good shape by the end of this) and go ice cream on the way.Reid walked with my host sister and I because he lives 5 minutes away and his host sister is not in our class. I feel bad because my host sister has to wait around for me everywhere, like after class and stuff and when i just want to talk to reid and julie because i know them and they speak english. But yes, my host sister taught reid how to say "hey baby" and "hows it going baby" in polish to the hot girls in the street. Before he had just been saying hi and she told him they probably thought he was stupid.
Its weird staying with a host family, just like you know how when youa re a guest at someones house and you feel awkward like you are interrupting the rhythms of their and the familys life with your prescence. That is kind of how i feel, plus there is a language barrier. I know that if I was the host I would be happy to act how my host family is acting and not feel weird at all, but I guess taht is just how it is.
I totally knew Spain won the Eurocup. I watched Torres score a goal yo. I spent the whole time I watched trying to figure out which team was hotter. I decided they were both mediocre. The goalie for Spain was pretty attractive though.
ok. I am gonna go email people now, so email me.
adios.
There are 3 volunteers teaching at my school and about 20 students needing to be taught. Anyway, that is definitely not enough for 3 classes, so me anr Reid (other volunteer) are teaming up to teach the pre-intermediate class. Which is the suckier class to have because the other class is upper-intermediate and knows english much better. We talked about family trees today and divorce being common in america and creating weird family situation. They want us to teach one class for three hours everyday, which is ridiculously long, so we are teachign 2 hours and saying people can stop by for extra help after class if they want. No one wants.
Yesterday we were hoarded onto a bus with our host siblings and people from the science camp to go on a field trip the science camp was going on. We went to a tower in the middle of the forest, and then to a wooden village and then we off roaded in the bus to a place where we had an ognisko. The kielbasa was better at this one than the other one. I managed to fall off a bench and stick my elbow in a puddle of ketchup at the ognisko, so all in all it was a sucess. Then we went to another museum and then we went home. I was very tired by the end. Also i felt sick last ngiht. I guess the kielbasa did not agree with me.
Today we walked home from school (40 min, i am going to be in such good shape by the end of this) and go ice cream on the way.Reid walked with my host sister and I because he lives 5 minutes away and his host sister is not in our class. I feel bad because my host sister has to wait around for me everywhere, like after class and stuff and when i just want to talk to reid and julie because i know them and they speak english. But yes, my host sister taught reid how to say "hey baby" and "hows it going baby" in polish to the hot girls in the street. Before he had just been saying hi and she told him they probably thought he was stupid.
Its weird staying with a host family, just like you know how when youa re a guest at someones house and you feel awkward like you are interrupting the rhythms of their and the familys life with your prescence. That is kind of how i feel, plus there is a language barrier. I know that if I was the host I would be happy to act how my host family is acting and not feel weird at all, but I guess taht is just how it is.
I totally knew Spain won the Eurocup. I watched Torres score a goal yo. I spent the whole time I watched trying to figure out which team was hotter. I decided they were both mediocre. The goalie for Spain was pretty attractive though.
ok. I am gonna go email people now, so email me.
adios.
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