Midway through my final week of teaching

Hey Everyone,

Hey all. So, my time here in Poland is beginning to come to a close (even if I don't want it to) so I plan to make the best of the next few days left here. But, before talking about what I have been up to, first, a big thank you to my host family (which I am sure will become a reoccurring theme over the next few entries.)

My teaching has basically been going well, even if I have begun to lose a bit of the authority aura I came in with, meaning the students feel more comfortable talking behind my back. But, I am dealing with it (hopefully successfully.) Yesterday, I did jobs, and dressed up in the nice clothes that I brought with me since I wanted to use them at least once, and I figured job day would be a good topic to put on the black pants. Unfortunately, once I was all dressed, I realized that I had no idea where my black shoes were (I'm still not sure) and hence I had to pick between flip-flops and very white sneakers. I decided to go with the flip-flops. Besides just jobs, I also worked a bit on writing with the older classes and differentiating between formal and informal English (especially for writing e-mails.) With my oldest class, I had them semi-prepare for English interviews by putting up a bunch of common interview questions on the board and have them answer them. Although challenging, they did well.

Today was a nature/landscape theme topic, and the main thing each class did was listen to music and fill in the missing words. The songs I had them listen to were Blowin' in the Wind (Bob Dylan) and The Speed of Sound (Coldplay.) As the classes got over, I gave them sheets with more and more blanks to fill in, but I made sure that every class had all the required words up on the board to make sure that they knew them. Between the songs, I also took the younger classes outside to help them remember the words for basic things around them (trees/rocks/road/stairs/etc.) The picture on the right comes from my oldest class, where I did a version of pictionary in which I would throw a marker at them while telling them what to draw. By using multiple colours at the same time, I made sure there were at least two people drawing up at the board at all times.

I have also continued getting outdoors a lot, and finally brought my camera along with me for a bike ride. The following picture is one my host sister took of me biking up on the ridge above the town of Poraż.

It is a bike ride I have done a few times now. Although tiring to get up to the top (and especially coming back up this huge hill before getting back to the house) it is a very beautiful scenic bike ride of the area. Even with all the recent rain causing very muddy dirt roads, I really enjoy the views and the challenge of avoiding all the mud.

I have also had my share of volleyball and badminton here as well. I have to say that the Poles love their volleyball, and their national volleyball is often on the Polish equivalent of ESPN (or often, at least some volleyball game.) I love how my host family had to inform me the the US national volleyball team is basically the best in the world, and won the gold medal at last year's Olympics (a match they watched.) Who knew?

Besides just playing and watching volleyball, I have also been on many short hikes into the forest (after all, it is just a minute's walk from the house.) Usually, when I go into the forest with my host family, everyone is on the lookout for good edible mushrooms to use in the next Polish meal, but often people wake up really early in the morning (5ish) to go mushroom picking if they want buckets of them (which I haven't done yet, I'm only beginning to be able to tell the difference between the ones that are edible or not.) The following picture is from a hike in a forest a short drive away with a nonedible mushroom in front on the trail.

The Polish food I have gotten here in Poland has been quite nice and enjoyable. If someone asked me to describe Polish food, two big things come to mind: potato and cabbage. It seems that everything Polish contains at least potato or cabbage (not quite everything, but a lot.) You know that when you order a hot dog and it has cabbage in it and you aren't surprised, you must be in Poland (or maybe another country in this area.) The other really interesting thing to me is how often fruits are served as part of the main meal and aren't always desert, despite being sweet. Having something blueberry filled for lunch as the entree before cake is normal, and it took me a while to get used to eating something sweet as a main course. How different.

During my time here, I have also had the chance to see a couple of regular American movies that I haven't seen yet with Polish subtitles, including Benjamin Button. But the best (and most applicable movie) I have seen was The Pianist. If you haven't seen it, it is a great, moving movie about a Jewish pianist in Warsaw based on a true story (which I couldn't quite believe after seeing the movie), but for me, I particularly found it interesting to see after visiting Warsaw. The movie opened my eyes to how Warsaw was completely destroyed during World War II and why it looks as it does today. However, it was strange to see the movie in English but with Polish subtitles, the actual language that would have been spoken.

So, before I go, I just want to say two blog related things. First, I believe you can open the pictures by pressing on them (single or double click) and seeing full resolution (but it depends on the browser.) Second, if any of you have questions about Poland, please use the comment box. This is basically the last entry that you can ask questions to and I'll still be able to ask people around me for an answer (if I don't know it or if it doesn't relate to me.) So, I will leave you with a picture of the town of Poraż that I took on my bike ride.

'Till next time,

-Andrew