Blogging through Thunderstorms

Hey Everyone,

So this week I haven't been able to do that much because of lots of rain (or so it seems comparatively to other days.) But, I have still had my time to go outside, play sports, and walk in the woods (and while walking, see former WWII trenches, which I didn't find out about until we stumbled upon them and my host sister nonchalantly informed me what they were.)

As for classes this week, Tuesday was a session on Family, so we did a fair amount with family trees and the like. Wednesday was about clothing, in which I was finally about to use the People and Rolling Stone magazines that I brought. And lastly, today, Thursday was about weather. With my oldest class, we went to the computer lab, and talked about different climates around the United States from boiling Las Vegas to New York (which is only slightly warmer than here in Poland) and nice cool, never changing San Francisco. The following picture is of me telling my youngest class to go back to the classroom after playing some Frisbee with them.

One thing that has been big in the news here, however, is all of Obama's dealings with Russia and Medvedev. This is in part due to the importance of Poland's relationship with both countries, but also due to the controversy over the United States building a missile shield for Poland, which Russia finds provocative. But, Obama was able to reach a deal with Russia to connect Poland's missile shield to Iran's nuclear program. So as long as they continue with their nuclear program, the US gets to build Poland the missile shield. Nice way to shift attention away from Russia, Obama. Also, the G8 summit is newsworthy for Poland as it is represented by the EU, and because of the problems that are facing the leaders going to Italy.

In Poland, there is a competition called the 'Know America' contest in which two of my host siblings did well in. For the contest, you are given about a 100 multiple choice question test (in Polish, so I had to have it translated) which you get a couple of weeks to look up answers. I found these questions very interesting as some were general fact ones like 'Who was the first US president to die in office' or 'What was the 17th amendment' but there were a wide range of topics, and many of the questions I did not know the answer to. (Hard to not be a know-it-all about American being an American overseas because you are expected to know everything about your country.) But, I was especially surprised by some of the not so flattering questions on the test from 'What happened to Japanese-Americans during WWII' and 'Which bridge has had 1,250(ish) suicides' (Golden Gate Bridge.) There were also the Polish-American questions promoting the connection between the two countries that I had no clue at all about ('What state is the U.S. Ambassador to Poland from'). Besides the test, you have to write an essay about some US topic (my host brother compared Obama and McCain's positions during the election last year.) Then the finalists get an all expenses paid trip to Warsaw to meet the American ambassador.

I made sure I took some more pictures of the area around my house, so in this next picture, you can see some of the farmland nearby. I have actually biked on the ridge at the top of the picture (but not recently due to mud.) Also, all the cherries are now ripe (or beyond ripe) so I have been eating cherry after cherry, which I just love (and often just picking them straight off the tree.)

Before my final picture, vote Sandoval! If I can from Poland, surely you can too.

Now, the final picture shows some typical clouds we have been getting a lot of ... (especially today.) But now, my students can describe the weather in English!

'Till next time,

-Andrew