This country is somewhat ridiculous.

So, I don't really feel like writing a blog entry, but seeing as I have lots of things to write about and a good deal of time right now, I should probably get it over with. So yes.

1. Friday (yesterday) was Reid's last day of class because next week he is going to Prague and Berlin(possibly?) and so I will be on my own next week. In honor of his last day, we played baseball during class. We had had a lesson about baseball a couple of weeks ago. It wasnt a very formal game, considering there were 6 people playing. My favorite part was how we were using a bottle of coke as second base, so that if you got to second, you could have a refreshing drink. We also ate ice cream and our students gave us presents. By presents I mean they gave us ceramic cow piggy banks that are wearing Poland scarves. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will not be returning next week, in which case I will just help Julie out with her class.

2. Ok, so now is the big thing that I havent felt like writing about/chose not to write about because
a. I do not think I can convey how ridiculous this is in words
b. Mom would have worried about my safety if she knew about my participation in this
Last week, Karol told Reid and Asia and I that he had signed us up for a "Playing with fire workshop". And really after a week of witnessing this workshop, I really cannot come up with a better descriptive term for what this workshop was. Reid and I kind of gave up on the participating because it took entirely too much time and we decided that we were both too clumsy that continuing on in the workshop would be a bad idea. So anyway they 2 days we attended (monday and tuesday) the workshop lasted about 5 hours. We made it an 2.5 hours those days. Those days also did not involve any fire. Mostly you just learned to spin a stick around. (because see eventually the ends of the big stick would be lit on fire). So I learned some cool stick twirling moves but thats about it. Also on tuesday the instructor felt it was necessary that everyone "do the worm" as a warmup. After having seen the "fire show" that was the product of this workshop, I still do not understand why we were required to do the worm. The instructor himself was an interesting guy. He was pretty much alway shirtless and liked to rub his stomach while he gave instructions, We think he was trying to unspokenly communicate "Look how nice my abs are." Our other theory was that he is a super hero and he activates his powers by rubbing his belly. Anyway on wednesday, after our Makow friends had left, Karol told me and Reid that we should come down to the river so that we could "play with real fire." Do you guys understand how ridiculous that statement is? The scene down by the river was even stranger. There are all these kids with big sticks and they are cutting up pairs of jeans and wrapping them around the ends of sticks and securing them with wire. Then pouring oil over them and lighting them on fire. Then there are kids with chains that they spin around and on the ends are fire. And best of all, there are all these kids who are practicing spitting water and making like a big mist, because...they will then fill their mouths with the oil stuff and spit it into a flame to make it look like they are breathing fire. Apparently if you mess this up the fire will fly back onto your face and hair. Surprisingly, no one was injured at all over the course of the week. Probably because Reid and I declined to participate. We DID each spend about 30 seconds twirling one of the flaming sticks, but really I only did it so now I can say that in the past I have twirled a flaming stick. On thursday, at practice down by the river, "fire hands" made their appearance was well. These are like gloves with wires on the ends of the finger and at the end of each wire is a piece of fabric that can be lit on fire. Seriously the whole thing is ridiculous. Reid and I just watched it like "this would never ever ever happen in the united states, this would never happen in the united states..." Apparently fire twirling is popular in this country though. We told Ola about it when she came to visit and she said that Makow, which has about 10 -20,000 people and 1 restaurant, has not one, but two fire clubs that learn these sorts of things. Last night was the fire show, where the kids from the workshop showcased what they learned. I look lots of pictures and videos since my words alone can not adequately convey the strangeness of this adventure.

3. I am going to the Mazurian lakes in a few hours, to you know, spend my last weekend in Poland in style.

So, please write me emails to keep me amused during my last week here. I'm SOO excited that I will be seeing you all so soon.