Czesc! I am so sorry that I am late. It’s been a busy and…. Interesting couple of weeks. Or, should I say- months? I’m really very embarrassed that I’m this late with my update. When I think about it, I realize that in 15 days I will have to write another one! I will do my best to remember everything that has happened in my 4th month, however. Here goes. Happy Belated Holidays, everyone! To all future exchange students: time is really a weird thing, and I have no idea where mine went.
Week #13 (November 17-23): I spent this week visiting a friend from Mexico, Mauricio, in his host city, Lask. He lives with a very nice family in an area that was strangely similar to Cherry Valley. It was also a lot colder than Wroclaw, and while I was there it snowed! My first Polish snow! It was also the first time I felt a pang of homesickness. I had forgotten what it was like to have siblings (Mauricio has an older host brother and a younger host sister, the same age as my sisters). The family also played Christmas music all weekend- the very same CD my family plays with Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the song “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” It was weird to feel so familiar, and I think I am so used to differences that the familiarity caught me off guard. I also lost my mobile phone in the week, which didn’t help. I felt truly horrible about it and was worried sick about how my host mother would take it when I got home…. However, I still had a great time! It was in this week that I truly started to understand Polish, I think. I didn’t realize how important it was to make your family speak to you in the language you’re learning. His family spoke a lot of Polish to me, and by the end of the week, I was understanding a lot more than when I had come. We went to a nearby city, Lodz, to spend a day touring and walking around. After a week of being in Lask, Mauricio and I took a bus to visit yet another friend from Mexico, Hector, in Lublin.
Week #14: My week in Lublin was really great! I spent the first few days with Hector, Mauricio, and Rodrigo, all from Mexico. It was a lot of fun to see my friends from different cities again, but for the most part I couldn’t’ understand was conversations were about. I don’t speak Spanish… however by the end of the week I had learned a few words. During the week, we mostly walked around Lublin and hung out in the big mall with other friends from the city. We went to dinner at Rodrigo’s house, I spent a night at Michelle’s house, a girl from Pennsylvania, and I went to a movie theater! Yes, this was an extremely big achievement for me! For those of you who don’t know me that well, one of my many irrational fears is movie theaters- don’t ask me why because I have no idea. I think this was the first time I set foot in a movie theater in years, possibly 5 or maybe 7. We saw James Bond, and although I had to bite my thumb nail and curl up in a ball the whole time, I actually sat in the theater for the whole thing. We also had to say goodbye to a dear friend of ours this week, who’s going home to America early from Exchange, which was sad.
We also visited Majdanek- a concentration camp located just outside of Lublin. This was very difficult for me. It was one of the hardest things ever. I don’t even really know how to write about it. It was so horrible. I was astounded that one person I went with was taking pictures. I didn’t cry, but I felt death. It’s weird to say that, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it. I forced myself for the hour or so we were there to think of what this camp meant. I couldn’t comprehend anything. How someone could possibly, possibly make something like that. What mentality? Every time I think about this, there’s like this hole in my chest that doesn’t want to close. It’s changed a lot about how I thought. I can’t think about it. Oddly enough, the birds made it much worse. And the…hush? Everything.
Week #15: I was shocked to come home to an entirely different city center! The whole market square was a small gingerbread village, with kiosks selling all kinds of goods, a mini carnival, and Christmas celebrations everywhere! This week isn’t something I can really comfortably write about, so I will be brief. When I returned from my vacation in Lask and Lublin, there were several complications with my host family that I didn’t feel comfortable with. After discussing this with my counselor from home and here, I was moved to a different family. The family had less than 6 hours notice that I would be coming to live with them, and that made it hard to really “fit in” their family life. Because I was already feeling alone, the fact that I lived basically by myself made this even worse. I knew that they had not planned on my interruption, and so I felt like an intruder and a misfit. They tried very hard to make me feel at home, even bringing me a beautiful Christmas basket for St. Nicholas Day! I am grateful that they offered their upstairs apartment for me as a place to stay until I move to my next host family.
Week #16: I spent this week getting used to a “new” life. I live upstairs from my family, so I have a lot more space than I am used to. I also cook most of my meals, which is fun! It a little bit weird, and I can’t say I like being fully alone, but it’s a learning experience as is everything else I do. I learned to use a new tram line, how to walk to the city center from my new house (it takes about an hour, and I love to walk!) and how to speak with my host family! Though their children (older, in their 30s) speak English, they have families of their own and don’t live at home. My host parents speak VERY limited English, a few words, which is the most amazing thing. I have learned So much in only one week of being here! I have to say EVERYTHING in Polish, no exceptions. It’s excellent and it’s amazing how much progress you make when forced. We also had our Christmas Rotary Meeting in Wroclaw this weekend, with all the students from around Poland. It was great to see everyone, and I think I got a total of 8 hours of sleep in two nights. There was a lot to talk about. I also started reaching out to more people, seeing who I hadn’t talked to before. It’s amazing what you find when you look. I made some really great friends over the weekend that I didn’t know very well and stayed up until 5 in the morning talking with Marjorie (from Ohio) and Kate (from New York- NEW HARTFORD if you can believe it!). They’re great girls and very smart. We had some great talks.
Week #17: This week was rather difficult, emotionally, again. My new family told me days after moving in that I would be moving again in 2 weeks! This sent me into a tizzy… all I wanted was a little stability. I know that flexibility is key to being an exchange student, but I was going through a tough time, so…. It was hard to stay as flexible as I wanted. They were going to Portugal and as I wasn’t allowed to stay alone (understandable), I could either find somewhere to go, someone to stay with me, or move in two weeks. And then two weeks after THAT I’d move again. Thus, ending up in my 4th family when it was meant to be my second. My parents immediately started coming up with options, agreeing that having to move again and again was a little crazy. After going through several plans, we finally settled on one that was approved by all people involved: My Grandma! It was decided that I could stay in this house until the end of January if my Grandma stayed there with me while my family was gone. I got a bit sick this week, too. My host parents really freaked out and had me under house arrest for three days. I only had a cold, but they were convinced I was dying… they even had a doctor come to the house. This week I really started hounding down on my college application, so I didn’t mind being under house arrest too much. It gave me endless hours to write, rewrite, edit, and think. I also got in trouble (yeah, my host mom actually YELLED at me- first over the phone and then she came upstairs to continue yelling) because I wasn’t wearing socks. It was quite scary, and I think I’ll wear socks from now on. My Polish is improving drastically with this new family, and I had two dreams in Polish this week!
I also decided that I was going to do anything I could to get out of my original school, which I hate. Since I’m only 15, I wasn’t allowed to be in high school and so I was in a class with 13 to 15 year olds. I have Polish lessons in a different school and so I asked my Polish teacher if she had any suggestions as to where else I could go, and she set me up with an interview with the director! After about 30 minutes of Polish and talking about what I liked about her school (this is where I go 2 days a week to Polish class, it’s a small, educationally passed private school attached to a University), she invited me to attend in which ever class I preferred! So starting in January, I’ll have a new school.
Week #18: This week started out with the Rotary Christmas Party. We (the exchange students) started the evening by performing what had to be the most embarrassing theatrical performance in my life. I don’t think we stopped laughing the whole time. The plot revolved around the Nativity scene, but really I don’t think you could tell that unless you were told first. Fortunately, the Rotarians had a sense of humor and I think they laughed at us the whole time, too. Then we had Wilgila (traditional Polish Christmas dinner) and then there were musical performances. I sang Cicha Noc (Silent Night) in Polish and then White Christmas in English. After the meal, a bunch of us went home to my new house and had a big sleepover. It was so much fun, but really sad at the same time. I think we were all thinking the whole time that this was one of the last times we would all be ‘together’ as Jade, our beloved friend from Australia, was set to leave in the first week of January. It was just starting to sink in how much we would actually miss her. And this was our last sleep over.
I think I should devote a different post to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I will follow with that as soon as I’m able.
Again I’m sorry this has taken so long.
My Polish is improving (much due to the fact that I live in a family now that speaks only Polish). I’m doing pretty well, a little shaken just by these unexpected changes and so much unreliability for a few weeks. But it’ll pass. My Grandma is coming the 26th of December and staying for 2 weeks- I can’t wait for that! It’s the perfect time, too. This way, I won’t need to move families again, I’ll be with someone I love for the holidays, and I’ll be able to show someone from home my new country! Other than that, I’m good!
So, until later.
