Last Thoughts on Poland

Hi Everyone,

Yes I know, it has been a while since my last entry, but I have just been here in San Francisco resting up and getting over my annoying cold, and preparing for my departure to Big Sur (tomorrow with my family) and then to India in exactly one week. All very exciting.

Here in San Francisco, I have not been up to too much, just meeting up with friends from all different schools, which has been really nice. Always nice to touch base again with friends from all parts of growing up.

Coming back to San Francisco has meant a bit of a change to my regular life style back in San Francisco. Probably the most annoying thing to return to was my cell phone. I had finally gotten used to not having one in Poland, which I really did enjoy. (Almost like going 5 weeks without internet at Walden, the summer music camp I attended.) But, when I got back I had to return to the cell phone, and the impracticality to know that I can always be reached. Even though it is convenient, I still prefer not being tied down in the same way. Despite these feelings, I will almost definitely get cell phones in Paris/Cape Town, and maybe even in India (depending on what is suggested.)

After growing up in a city like San Francisco, going to a rural area is going to be different. So, after coming back to the city from rural Poland, I have wondered about how many of the differences in things like family are city vs. rural changes, or if they are true differences between the United States and Poland. How much is the Polish friendliness I found everywhere just part of Poland being more of a rural country than the United States? I'm not sure.

One thing I have appreciated coming back to is baseball. Very hard to follow the Giants on a regular basis when all of the games take place right in the middle of the night in Poland! Hopefully the two trades they made are the missing pieces to a good playoff run (and maybe even a shot at the division?) I particularly enjoyed the baseball game I attended with my dad in which Lincecum got 15 strikeouts. Rarely do I groan when a Giants pitcher gets a non-strikeout out, but this was a case where a ground ball caused some annoyance, 'You had 2 strikes on him!' Even if it was against the Pirates, an amazing feat.

Ok, I did promise you the picture of my oldest class (including my host sister.) I miss teaching the classes and the enjoyment of watching them all learn (or at least hopefully having fun.)


And lastly, one more picture of Poland, probably the last one I will ever put up. And this picture is of my host family, probably the biggest factor of my enjoyment of my time in Poland. I miss playing cards with them (something we did very often.) I miss the random road trips we would take to visit another place in the Polish countryside. I miss being able to ask my host sister random questions about Poland (although her being able to answer them was another question.) So one last time, I will not forget the wonderful kindness and acceptance of me my host family showed and thank you! Here we all are on the last day right before I left.


Next entry will include information and pictures of Big Sur.

Bye bye Poland,
-Andrew