Month #6 1/2

So I know it hasn’t been another month yet, but I’m posting a 6 ½ month update! I leave on a tour of Europe in 5 days and I’ll be in Carcassonne, France on my 7 month anniversary. So here’s a half month:

End of Week #26 (February 26- March 1): My host brother took me to the orphanage this week to ask if I could volunteer there. At first, the director said absolutely not, that it was impossible and a horrible idea. Matek (my host brother) talked with her for about 20 minutes, trying to convince her that it could work. She said they never accepted volunteers there, only workers. He finally convinced her to try it out though, after much discussion. Thursday was my first day volunteering. My instructions were to spend an hour teaching English to 6 year old kids. I only had a day’s worth notice, so I hadn’t had time to prepare anything special. I figured I’d spend a day getting to know the kids first.

First I had two little boys as my class, and the director informed me that they had very bad attention problems. I soon saw that she was right, because after about 5 minutes they were bored stiff and started beating each other up. No matter how hard I tried, they wouldn’t listen, and their pillow fights and such got crazier and crazier. I had convinced myself that volunteering in an orphanage wouldn’t be a difficult task. I would just go for an hour a week, sit down with the kids, teach them English. Now I saw it was totally different from what I’d anticipated. First of all, no matter how hard I tried to push the feeling out of my head, it was heart breaking. Yes, these kids were happy, smiley and friendly. But it just broke my heart to work with them, and I’m not sure why. I wasn’t sure what to teach them… so I worked on “my name is…” for the first day. Now they all say “MY NAME IS ADDY.” They don’t quite have the concept yet. Eventually my hour was up and I had to leave. One girl, Martyna, asked me “When will you be back? Tomorrow?” I told her in one week and she started crying. “Why not tomorrow? I promise, I wont’ be bad! I want to learn English!” It was hard to leave.

On Friday, my friend Ingrid came to gymnastics with me and then spent the night. Gymnastics is going very well- after 2 years of not being able to do so much as a pushup, I’m surprised that I can actually still do the tricks. My arm is very weak, but it doesn’t hurt. It’s a shock to me. When my coach says “okay 25 pushups” I always panic, and then I remember that I can actually do the pushups now. It’s amazing. I started working on back and front saltos again, and he said soon we’ll move off the trampoline and onto the floor. Ingrid and I went for a really long walk on a path I discovered by accident the other day. It’s situated along the Odra river, between the river bank and the Wroclaw Zoo. At one point, you can see right into the animal cages. It’s pretty cool.

Week #27: At the beginning of the week, I made another discovery along my river path: 5 trees within the zoo walls COVERED in huge bird nests! It’s really a breathtaking site. I estimate that maybe there are 30 or 40 birds. I was going on a run, but then I noticed the birds and ended up watching them for 45 minutes. They never stop working- they’re always moving around, chasing each other off, collecting things for their nests. I can’t believe I’m so ignorant, but I’m not sure if they’re herons or storks. I’ll have to look that up….
Piano lessons were normal. My teacher and I are kind of getting sick of Mozart, so we started some new stuff this week. Thursday was a benchmark day for me- I added fish to my diet. Yup, after a few years of total vegetarianism, I decided that protein would probably be a good thing to have in my diet. Pretty exciting. I didn’t even get sick. I visited the orphanage again, this time a little more mentally and physically (?) prepared. I made a trip to the bookstore earlier in the week and bought a few English learning books for kids. I also brought with me some items I thought might motivate them to learn some new words: an alarm clock, newspaper, pen, pencil, notepad, keys, cell phone, etc. The camera is what really interested them, naturally. We made a deal that if they worked really hard for 45 minutes, we’d spend 15 minutes taking pictures. Bribery is a life saver. They worked diligently for about ten minutes and then they were bored. I tried everything- singing, games, etc. They just don’t care! It’s very frustrating. It’s a really hard job, but I feel so good doing it. Plus, I could never back out now- the kids expect me. And after seeing their faces when I leave, I could never let them down.

Later in the week, I attended a seminar about the financial crisis of the world. I tried to listen to the Polish speaker, but I often fell back on the English translator, because there were some pretty advanced words used. To sum up the speaker’s opinions, the United States will never again come out of depression and Poland will be much better off once the Euro is official currency. He advised all of his peers to take out loans in Euros because they will profit more. “Also,” he said, “Don’t move to the United States.” Ah… the pride I have in my country.

I spent the weekend cleaning my room and working on my Polish presentation for school. I also made banana bread for my family out of old bananas I found in the kitchen. We didn’t have any eggs though, so it turned out really mushy and I thought it was pretty gross. But everyone else in the house loved it and asked me when I going to make it again, so I guess it was a big hit! On Sunday, my host parents returned from a week-long vacation they were taking in the Swiss Alps. They brought back so many goodies with them- I got dark chocolate granola, goat cheese and goat yogurt. They’re really nice about the fact that I don’t eat too much cow dairy… they made sure to bring home a lot of goat products!

Since I’ve injured my tendon, gymnastics was free of flips and splits this week… but we did a lot of strengthening work, which meant that by the weekend I could barely walk. I don’t think my arm has had this much movement in 2 years and it was so sore over the weekend that it hurt to brush my hair haha. But- it’s really a great workout and it’s getting me back in shape so I won’t complain!

Week #28: A friend of mine, Breanna, is visiting Wroclaw this week from where she’s living this year, in the Lublin region. I helped show her around Monday and locate a bunch of gnomes. Monday was also gymnastics again- since I’ve added a third day to the week. After gymnastics I went to the Rotary meeting and got my DVD from the Cancer Benefit Concert! It doesn’t work on my computer… but I’ll try on my host sister’s computer. The director of the band I sang for told me that there’s going to be another benefit concert (for the same company that helps with cancer research for children) in April and one in June that he’d like me to sing for. He says he thinks I should sing a pop song in Polish, though, so I’ve got some learning to do.

Tuesday night was dinner with the professors who published my dad’s article in the book they wrote! It was a wonderful time spent, and we all had a lot of fun. They’re pretty young, with two boys under three years old, so I was happy they made time for me. We went to a vegetarian restaurant (perfect for me!) and since their English isn’t very good, we spoke Polish the whole time. It was a really reassuring thing, too, because it convinced that my Polish is really improving. I was even able to make jokes that they understood and laughed at, so I was pleased. I also got my dad’s copy of the book, which they signed. It’s really crazy how small this world is. It was so weird to open the cover of a newly published encyclopedia in Wroclaw, Poland, and see my dad’s writing (IN POLISH) on the first 50 or so pages. I learned some things I didn’t even know about him by reading the biography, too.

I’m pretty sure that Wednesday was one of the best days of my life. I woke up to find a missed call on my mobile phone (of course the ONLY night I decide to go to bed early and the ONLY night I turn my mobile on silent…) from home in New York, and an email from my mom saying “ADDY CALL ME! RE: SIMON’S ROCK!” I realized that she must have received my notification letter! Of course, it’s 6AM in the morning, so I had to wait allllllll day for an appropriate time to call her. I was literally shaking I was so excited. I couldn’t concentrate in class or sit still. I went to the mall and looked for memory cards for my camera, hoping to distract myself, but it didn’t work. Finally I was able to call home without waking my parents up in the middle of the night, and that’s when my mom told me the great news: I was an AEP finalist at Simon’s Rock. Really, I could not have been happier. It was the best news ever!!!! I was still freaking out that night, and had so much energy that I didn’t know what to do with it. My gymnastics coach and I decided that I should get into college every day, because my tricks are a lot better when I have extra energy.

The orphanage went much more smoothly on Thursday. For the first half, we sang songs. I had a great group of kids (the two little girls, both named Magda, who claim that we’re best friends and that they love me the best in the world- gosh they’ve just stolen my heart) who enjoyed the songs and the games. The kids and I came up with a little agreement- one song in English, then one in Polish. That way, they pointed out to me, we were both learning and they didn’t have to do ALL the work. We sang The Hokey Pokey, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Miss Mary Mac, and Put Your Finger in the Air (by Woodey Guthrie.) Then we did “head, shoulders, knees and toes…” until they were all screaming “TOES” at the top of their lungs. They were really curious as to how to say “dupa” (or ass) in English… so I gave them the nicer version, butt. Then they went around saying “Masz fajna butt” to each other, or “you have a great butt.” Ahh six year olds. One of the little boys, Damien, picked up some English from a song he heard, and sent me into shock when he came up to me singing. I was speechless for about five minutes. Maybe I can learn a Polish pop song from him. After that, we stopped singing (I didn’t want to know what else they had picked up sing the song he was singing was kind of inappropriate, plus they were getting fidgety) and switched to hide and seek. After several rounds, they started playing in English. They’d count, and say “ready here I come!” Success! We took pictures at the end again, as I promised. They seem to work a lot better when they know they can use my camera at the end. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about different ways to keep in touch with these kids after I leave.

I started talking with other AEP-ers through facebook, and that’s how I spent my Friday night after gymnastics. In gymnastics, I finally was able to do my back and front flip alone (yes…. Stillllll on the trampoline because my coach doesn’t know me too well) and we started working on a back pike. On Saturday, I finished shopping for the Euro tour- I got snacks and a pair of shoes that I needed. I did laundry, and worked some more on my Polish project. I also continued to “meet” and talk with more of my future fellow classmates online. I think we’re all pretty excited to be in school together. I feel a little jealous that they’ll all get to meet each other before orientation- at AEP day in April- but… I’ll be in Italy so I guess it evens out.

So that’s my 6 ½ month update. The Euro tour starts this Friday. We’ll be spending the night on a bus driving from Poland to Amsterdam. Then we visit Amsterdam, Belgium, France (for 3 ½ days), Spain (2 days), Monaco (1 day), and finally Italy (about a week!). After that, I’ll be doing some traveling around Poland—to Krakow and to Warsaw. Then we have our Rotary meeting in Krakow in late April.

I’ll continue with gymnastics, with the orphanage, and with piano lessons. My host brother and I are also going to start going to the gym together when I get back from traveling, so that should be fun. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have a huge update after the Euro Tour.  So until then….

At the Orphanage with Magda

Month #6

"Blue Kentucky Girl" at benefit concert, February 7.

A half year. Is that even possible—true? It’s so strange.

Well, my live has really picked up a new chapter here in Wroclaw. It’s almost like since I moved families, I’ve sort of started over again. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time! I wasn’t unhappy, but I just wasn’t completely satisfied I guess. Now it’s all changing, and I’m just really enjoying everything that’s going on with me. So here’s exactly that:

Week #23 (January 26- February 2): At the beginning of the week, Kaitlyn and I went to an opera, The Elixir of Love. It was well done, and the singers were pretty good, but the best part was that I actually followed the whole story because I could understand the super titles. It was a nice feeling of accomplishment, and I even noticed a misspelling. The day after the opera, my friend Kate came to visit me from Olsztyn, where she lives in Poland. Kate is actually from New Hartford, which is only 45 minutes away from where I live in New York. So I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other a lot in the future, which is good. I also had a college interview that day via skype and I think it went very well. Gotta love the internet. Unfortunately, I got sick the day she came, but it was just a cold. We spent the week catching up, walking around Wroclaw, and cooking really good meals. Since I have my own kitchen, I cook for myself everyday, and it was nice to share it with someone and have some new ideas. We saw a movie one day, walked for hours, and had a nice, relaxing week. My host mother was at a spa for the week, and so I was taking care of the guinea pig for her.

My cold turned into a nasty stomach bug the day Kate left (fortunately for her) and so I spent my weekend lying in bed. I was supposed to be packing (for the big move on Sunday!) but I put it off until I could sit up for more than five minutes without getting sick. When I wasn’t better the next day, my host mother took me to the doctor who gave me at least fifteen different medicines and told me to stay in bed. I finished packing up Sunday morning, and despite still having the stomach bug, I moved Sunday night to my new house. It was embarrassing, the amount of baggage I have. I’m not sure where it all came from! Nevertheless, I had the warmest welcome I’ve received since moving to Poland. I only wish I could have equally returned all the smiles, but my stomach was still really upset. However, everyone was very generous and nice and helped me move in and feel at home. I went to bed sick, but actually very happy.

Week #24: My new house is gorgeous, there’s no doubting that. I stayed home from school for a few days because I was still contagious, so it gave me time to get to know the house, the routine of the family, and unpack. I also explored the house a little, which was a wonderful adventure. It sort of feels like a castle. When I first moved in, there was a full sized pine tree in the main room downstairs. There’s beautiful artwork all over, and everything looks like it belongs. I love the style of furniture and the colors. I have now a host brother, Mateusz, who lives in an apartment upstairs with his wife, Agata; a host sister, Paula, and her boyfriend, Gustavo, and my host parents, Gosia and Adam. It’s a lively household and I never feel alone or bored. There’s always something new to learn and do- it’s really nice! My host brother promised to help me find a sport (possibly gymnastics!) and a place to volunteer. It so happens that there is an orphanage not 100 meters from the house.

When I went back to school, I spent the whole first day figuring out how to translate and mail my Polish school transcripts to the college where I’m applying in the US. It’s kind of a complicated process, but it all worked out in the end. I also bought a “cowgirl” outfit for my upcoming concert (on Saturday!), and it sort of resembles a cow girl. It’s the best I could do in Poland. In my new school, I have two big projects due before the end of the year, so I’ve been working pretty diligently on the first, which is a presentation about myself, my family, and my life at home. This week I started the writing portion for that. I also had music rehearsals with the band I’ll be singing with.

On Saturday of the week, I had my concert. I learned only a few hours before it started that it was, in fact, a benefit concert for children with cancer. This made a huge difference to me, and I was even more happy to be singing in it. We started rehearsing hours before, for sounds checks and to make sure everything was balanced, etc. It’s a pretty good sized theater, and actually 700 people showed up. The concert itself went very well, I didn’t forget the words or anything and I got a nice round of applause. My second host parents even had flowers delivered to me on stage!

Sunday was a recovery day for me. I was still sick (it’s a bad flu that’s going around Poland I guess, I have had it for like 2 weeks) and I cleaned my room and had a really long political discussion with Gustavo.

Week #24: On Monday, my host brother made an appointment for me to meet with a special gymnastics coach to see if training for me is a possibility. When we arrived, we discovered that what he had found was more artistic than sporty, but the woman there informed us of where we could find acrobatics training. Anyway, we stayed and watched the girls for a while just because it was so amazing what they can do with their bodies. There were 5 year old girls there who were sitting on their own heads for minutes at a time- it was kind of grotesque. It’s just so nice to have family that is willing to help me! It’s such a nice feeling, I can’t say in words how much I love this new family and how much I feel like a part of it. It’s wonderful. The next day, my host father took me to the sport gymnastics place where we set up private trainings for twice a week. Because of my arm, I haven’t done acrobatics in over two years, so I’m a little nervous but really excited because I think I might finally be able to do it.

School has been the usual, I’m understanding more and more of the classes. I have some cool occurrences this week in math class- I actually understood some of the problems! Yes, I know, math is a language in itself, but it still was cool to understand what was going on. Piano lessons are going very well- I’m playing Mozart’s Turkish March and it’s coming along quite well. Friday was my first training for acro sport, and it felt great to be moving again. I have a private trainer who speaks English (which is good, because I haven’t learned the words for back flip, or cartwheel yet… shame on me) and who actually spent 3 years in a circus in Montreal. I finished my project this week and will present it sometime next week during school.

Valentine’s Day is popular here, and I think it’s an American influence. My host parents gave me a beautiful necklace in the shape of a heart – made with Polish silver and amber – and a box of chocolates. Gustavo (who likes to cook maybe even more than I do) and I made French toast for breakfast and I added to it by giving him the maple syrup I brought with me as an early birthday present. My family is starting to catch on to my unfortunate case of gullible-ness and the jokes have started already. It’s nice to be joking with people again. Also, I went to a Heart’s Day special at the mall with some friends from school- we saw the movie Twilight in theaters. It’s fun to hang out with them. Oh and speaking of movies and such, I’m proud to announce that I think this exchange might be making me more aware of American pop-culture. I’m learning all sorts of things, like who A-Rod is, and that baseball=world series and football=super bowl. I have started watching The Office which I’d never even heard of before Gustavo gave me the seasons on DVD. But I still couldn’t tell you what Brad Pitt looks like or where baseball teams are from. Oh well. I pretty much use Sundays as recovery days- sleep late, pajamas. Another nice thing about my family is how relaxed they are… it feels so normal here.

Week #25: This was sort of a not-so-wonderful week. My entire project (that I worked on for up to 3 hours a day for 3 weeks) was somehow ruined. I couldn’t figure out how to get it back, and my dad couldn’t help much since he’s in the US. I guess PowerPoint overloaded and changed the format of my project to one my computer can’t read… or something like that. Whatever happened, I now have to do the whole visual portion of the project over again.

Piano lessons were good this week- I gave my teacher a late Valentine’s Day present with American candy that my parents and sisters sent over in a package for me. She said she’s never gotten a present from a student before, which I find odd since she’s so nice and patient too. Gymnastics was good, too. Since my coach doesn’t know what I can do and since I haven’t done it for a while, we’re starting out slow. The first training was just stretching (and the next day I could barely walk) and this week we did some simple tumbling.

On Friday I had a weird experience on an autobus, actually. A student sat across from me on the bus and smiled, which I found to be quite odd. It took me a few seconds to realize that I didn’t even smile back, but just stared at him. I thought about this the whole bus ride. When I first arrived in Poland, I decided that the stereotype that people don’t smile in Poland wasn’t true at all. And now I’ve changed my mind. Yes, of course people smile. But from my observations, the older generation doesn’t smile often in public, especially on public transportation. I remember reading about a study where over years of living together, a couple begins to “look” like one another, because they begin to make the same facial expressions and so on. I think that can also be said about social culture. At home, I always smiled at everyone on a street, if I knew them or not. And here, after only 6 months (SIX MONTHS!) of living in a culture that doesn’t smile nearly as much, I’ve changed. And I guess that’s why this guy smiling at me on the bus really caught my attention, and maybe I was even a little confused by it. A smile? What’s that? I don’t know, it was just a weird happening. Anyway, I spent the rest of the day smiling at everyone, to ensure that I still could. People looked at me like I had three heads, not just a pleasant smile.

On Saturday I had a sleepover with Ana, an exchange student from Mexico. We watched movies and talked until pretty late. Over the weekend, I worked on reading a children’s book in Polish and got about halfway through. I find that I understand more that is spoken than is in writing, and I have to read out loud to recognize some of the words. Sunday I went to the ballet with my previous host parents. The ballet was good, but I got really annoyed when a Rotarian there told one of his friends that I don’t understand anything in Polish. His friend was asking me the basics- name, age, where I’m from. And the Rotarian turned to him and said “You don’t have to talk to her, she doesn’t understand anything.” His friend told him he shouldn’t say things like that in front of me and he replied with “But really she doesn’t understand, she speaks English!” Then he took about a whole thirty seconds to ask me my name, in verrrrrrrrry slow and babyish Polish. It was a little offensive, but oh well.

Week # 26: School was fascinating the first days of the week. In math class, we’re continuing with the same that we’ve been doing for a few weeks, but in Polish and History class we’re talking about WWII and the holocaust. Which, if you think about it, is one of the most fascinating things in the world. To be talking about the Holocaust in a high school classroom in Poland is just amazing. I’ve never wanted so badly to be fluent. I wish I could understand every single word they said, so I could catch on and notice all the pauses and know exactly what they were thinking and their opinions. It’s a good incentive. From what I do understand, I’m still intrigued. They’ve been discussing poems, drawings, and events having to do with the horrific events, and I can’t wait to learn more about it.

The strangest and coolest thing has happened that has really proven to me how small the world is. So my dad has written a few books and a bunch of articles with someone from his work about his research. Stuff like the history of the web, internet politics, etc. Two years ago, he got a request from a Polish professor to translate and publish one of the chapters –that my dad and his friend from work had written– into a book that the professors in Poland were writing.  My dad sent the request off to his publisher and they approved, etc., and he actually completely forgot about the whole thing. Then earlier this week, he got an email from the Polish professor telling him that the book is about to be published, and they want to mail my dad’s copy to him. So he looked up the University where the professor is from and of course, it is from the University of Lower Silesia, which is in, of course, Wroclaw! Even more strange, is that the University is basically a part of my high school- exactly it’s 0.6 km away! So I’ve set up a meeting with the professors, and instead of them mailing the book, they’re going to give it to me personally! It’s really awesome and I’m excited to have another connection- especially one like this! Such a small world, no?

Anyway… my 6th month anniversary was Wednesday. It was so weird- I say that because 6 months is a very long time, and it’s just so crazy that it’s been that long since I have arrived. I feel so squished. I’m terrified that I won’t learn enough of this interesting language before I leave. I’m trying to come up with my own definition of fluency, because I think it’s really hard to define, and live up to that. But six months! Six whole months of living here! There’s so little time left! The Euro tour is coming right up, then there is a Rotary meeting in Krakow. Then school goes on and eventually comes to an end, there’s a district conference in May, another rotary meeting in May. My mom and aunt are visiting in the beginning of June. AHH! I have so little time!

Later this week, my host brother is going to take me to the orphanage to see how I can help there. Gymnastics goes on, piano goes on. I love my house more than I can say. The family is wonderful, generous, kind, friendly. Things are going great! I try not to think about the future too much because it makes me nervous. College notification, the short time I have left here. I’m scared to go back home, actually. So I’m just concentrating on right now, and living it up.

Until next time…