Happy Halloween, Warsaw 306!

I was a bit delinquent last week in my blogging (my apologies!) so this installment will cover two wild weeks in one… 

Last week started off pretty standard.  I spent a second weekend in a row here in Warsaw, finding some time to go to the Warsaw Zoo on Friday the 19^th, and dining at an American/Asian fusion restaurant, called Sphinx, with some of the other Lattitude volunteers on Saturday.  Although the temperature said it was supposed to be in the 60’s that weekend…it was becoming very obvious that cold weather was near!

The zoo was by FAR my favorite part of the weekend, although it was a challenge to find at first!  We hopped on Tram 4 after meeting at the Palace of Culture and after my inaugural tram ride across the Vistula, the four of us finally made it to our destination after asking no less than five polish folks for directions.  The words lewo and prawo were key in getting us there!  Thank goodness for the brief ‘directions’ lesson from orientation week…

With the chilly weather, many of the animals had been moved indoors (read: horrible smelly buildings through which zoo-goers were allowed to walk); but in just over an hour at the zoo we were able to see the vast majority of the animals – save the elephants whom I think have already been shipped to warmer climates for winter.

 

Bri, Maddy, Casey and I having some fun at the photo wall!

Maddy and I having dinner at Sphinx.

 

After our Zoo and Sphinx adventures it was back to school for us.  The school week (October 22-25) was definitely the coldest yet, although still very much bearable.  With some of the teachers having to be absent, and other classes going on excursions, my class schedule was a bit jumbled – with me even teaching my own lesson altogether under the guidance of Mr. Kuvalchek (sp?).

Last week’s topic was Halloween!  And for a country that doesn’t celebrate Halloween with any regularity, I was stunned by how much the kids knew about the fun holiday! After an interactive presentation with each class, we had fun coloring jack-o-lanterns, and completing Halloween-themed word-finds to complete the lesson.

Now for an update on week 2 of this two-week blog post…

If the school week of October 22-25 was considered normal, this week (October 29-November 1) was anything but… 

My “week” started off with a fun weekend trip to Budapest with the seven other Lattitude volunteers from Poland.  We took a cheap flight from Modlin (which is surprisingly far out of town…) and got into Budapest in the early evening on Thursday, 10/25.  All went well with the weekend for the most part – we did a dinner cruise along the Danube, created our own self-walking tours of the city, and ate traditional Hungarian foods. Budapest is really gorgeous; it has a truly eastern European feel to it that I have never experienced before.

On my self-guided tour of the city: Standing in front of Heroes Square!

In front of the rolling his of Buda…

 

But, all good things must come to an end, right?

My “good times” came to a crashing halt on Saturday afternoon as I came down with Strep Throat and Tonsillitis.  My incredibly sore throat, pounding headache and achy muscles made for a less than ideal flight and bus ride back home to Warsaw on Sunday, but lots of rest was in my future... 

Coincidence would have it that my mentor, Beata, was also out for the count after losing her voice earlier in the weekend. With both of us sick, we were given the week off from school to recuperate.  And that leads me to today:  Halloween Day.  I guess you could call my costume that of a sick, pale ghost, but in reality that’s exactly what I feel like.

So until next time – and hopefully with better health! – Happy Halloween, Warsaw 306…