Cześć!

So the first event of Tuesday was a kid jumping out the window. Ok, so we are on the first floor, the kid is 13, and it was really kindof funny looking back, but I was embarassed when the principal came and talked to him and another teacher came and told me that maybe that wasn't a good idea. Ok, duh! We were playing a life-sized board game. I asked the kids to come up with what to do on each space, and one of them said "jump across the window." I told them that they could not do that, but they could sit in the window sill. Oops. Too tempting...

I love my haircut! I was kindof nervous, but the stylist seemed to really know what she was doing and everything turned out well. My hair is now about two inches shorter, and thinned out in layers so it feels much lighter. I also have swept bangs. It turned out just the way I had envisioned. Yay for successful haircuts!

Yesterday after school, my host mother took the host siblings and I too an indoor pool. I haven't been to a public pool just to splash around anytime lately, but I had a really good time. They had a big, waterpark-style slide. Is it sad that I had a ton of fun with this? I went frontwards and backwards, laying down, and sitting up, trying to run into Anna, David or Ola...everything. Later we went to a huge store. Like Walmart super center size or bigger. I got some stuff to make legit chocolate chip cookies for the food lesson next week. (I have not yet seen these in Europe.)

Today, I met the girls in my second class to go shopping in the city. They are all about 12. When I mentioned to them that we could do some shopping when we went into the city, they all screamed like crazy! It was pretty much hilarious. They are at just the right age to take... young enough to where going shopping is a super fun event that they are not "too cool" for, and old enough to know what is going on and feel free to have fun with it. I invited my host siblings and their 16-year-old cousin to come along. They didn't seem to enjoy themselves but I think that they felt obligated to be there. That kinda sucks... I wish that they had not felt that way and just gone on home. One memorable moment was when we were on the bus on our way to the city. There was a guy who started talking to my girls and he was wearing a shirt that said:
Boys
On
Stag
Shitfaced
and that he was. Like a good teacher, I gave the "he's drunk" signal to them and made sure they didn't give out any names... but that was pretty funny.

Tomorrow, we will go to Zacopane. (I guarantee that that is spelled wrong.) I am not sure what exactly is there, but it is supposed to be beautiful. It is far away and will take all day, so I think that the family is really putting themselves out. That is very nice... just makes me feel kinda bad because there is no way that I can repay them for everything that they have done.

I have slacked off in the picture department so here are some from the past weeks:








Here is my little classes "class monster." They named it "Emily." How endearing. ;)













My little class














View from Dagmara's man's sailboat on Lake Rożnów










Asha and her kids in the Old castle ruins atop a big hill













The view from atop that hill. Um, can you say "good place to take a date?"













Anna and me in Sanok






















Some of the the neighborhood kids outside of the Merchut's house







My girls today in the city









-------Some noteworthy things I have discovered about Poland---------



Alcohol - Beer and Vodka are big. You can drink them when you are 18, and they will actually ask for your ID, unlike some other european countries. However, drinking is socially acceptable, and most adults seem to do it quite a bit. I have been offered beer or Vodka almost every day. I like this. Don't judge.


Catholisism - Everyone is Catholic. Like 97% of the population. (An actual statistic) When I went to church with the family last week, it was full and there were people outside. They sat there the whole time. I am pretty sure that they could not tell what was going on. I would have gone home. Why waste your time sitting and picking grass? Is church an obligation thing? A ritual? Not so sure how I feel about this one... it seems like you lose some of christianity when it is a ritual... like everyting. However, this is not my place to judge... I do not know for sure what those people think or believe. I just don't plan to be a part of it myself.


Food - Great. I will be recipe-clad when I arrive in Texas.

History - People seem to be open about talking about communism in Poland and other historical things. You can definitely tell when you come across something left over from then.

People - Generally very warm. The people working in the school and my host families have been absolutely wonderful, but they are not the only ones. People everywhere have been nice... unlike some experiences I had in Hungary...

Style - The girls dress up a lot, especially those in the city. I think that they start from a young age being taught how to dress and that it is important.
---------------------------------

Signing off!
Emily

More from Wola Rzędzińska!

sporatic internet access = sporadic blog entry

That means I have lots to tell!

Lets see, so I got to go sailing last week with Piya, her host sister, Dagmara, and Dagmara's boyfriend. He had a sailing liscence, so we went out to a lake about an hour from here and rented a boat. That was a lot of fun! I have never been sailing. Good thing to have tried. I think that I will give learning how to work the sails a shot sometime.

I finished out my first two weeks of school with celebrating the 4th of July with my classes. Piya and I got the ingredients for American flag cakes. (You know, the kind that has blueberry stars and strawberry stripes.) Finding that stuff was a trip. Apparently, fruit is a little more hard to come by in these parts... especially in Wola Rzędzińska. We ended up getting to a larger store to find the sought after supplies, and ended up getting home around 10:30. I then realized that I had gotten myself into another one of those hmm-I'll-cross-my-fingers-now-because-this-was-probably-a-stupid-idea situations. (Those are actually good because if they don't work out, they end up making fabulous stories.) I had some makeshift ingredients, five cakes to bake, and no means by which to measure. (They don't have measuring cups.) Luckily, Natalia and Kinda were glad to help and we got it done pretty fast. Other than a little juice runnage of the frozen blueberries, everything turned out fine, and the kids seemed to enjoy having cake in class. In fact, it was kindof a big deal... the little kids asked for recipes. Even though I knew that that was probably because all things taste amazing when you get to in class, and that this was merely a classic yellow cake recipe, and that these were 7-year-olds , I was a little bit flattered. We colored flags, put them on sticks, and talked about holidays in class.

I left Wola Rzędzińska the next day for LE Poland's "midpoint break" in Sanok. The region that Sanok is in is really beautiful... lots of hills, lots of green-ness. However, there is not a whole lot to do in Sanok. After you look at the hills for a few minutes and enjoy some Piorogi, you have pretty much done what there is to do in Sanok. It was nice being back with the group. Odd, too, to switch from being waited on "like a king"/babysat, to being on your own and speaking English. It was nice. We exchanged lots of teaching ideas. I needed this! I think that pretty much everyone was running out of ideas, and this way we were able to tell each other what worked and what didn't etc. After a relaxing weekend, I was ready to go back to Wola Rzędzińska... mainly because the lustre of Sanok had worn off.

So far this week, we have colored ideal boyfriends or girlfriends and described them, talked about clothing... run around the parking lot playing sharks and minnows clothing/land edition, and picked out words from common songs that they knew. I am really looking forward to doing the food days... one day talking about kinds of food and making paper cookies, the next having a (Walmart-style) food/clothing store.

Monday afternoon, I changed host homes... moving from the Merchut's to the Usien's. This was the original plan... for me to change houses midway though, but I was still a little sad to leave the
Merchut's. I will still see them around, though, so that's good. So far, I have had a a really good time with the Usien's. They had a new toothbrush, toothpaste, razors, and a loofa in the bathroom. They drove me to school today and had Russian style Piorogi ready when I came home. Yum! My favorite! I am a foodie, but anyone would love this stuff. It takes forever to make, too, so that was really cool that she did that.

I met up with Piya, Ginger (another American), Ginger's host sister, and Dagmara in town today. We had a beer and then went shopping a bit. They have this beer here called Redd's. It is really good... definately a woman beer, but very tasty. I bought some shoes. They are pretty cool heels. Shoe shopping is so fabulous when you have a favorable exchange rate!

As we were leaving, I asked Dagmara about places to get a haircut. I made an with a place in town, but when I got home, my host family insisted that I go to a place in Wola Rzędzińska.... they said that it was really good and was no problem... I hope that that doesn't mean they are going to try to pay for it... I will keep my fingers crossed on the turnout of my haircut! I have it tomorrow. We will see.... :)