It's hard to believe that my time in Poland is nearly up - time seems to be flying! I've had a lovely couple of weeks both in and out of school and I'm struggling to comprehend that it's all about to end.

The main highlight of my last few weeks was the couple of days I got to spend with my mum and aunt when they popped over from England for the weekend. The weather was brilliant and I had a wonderful time taking them around my favourite places in Warsaw and showing them a bit of what my life here is like. In the way of tourist sites, we visited the Old Town, the Palace of Science and Culture, the POLIN museum, the Jewish cemetery, beautiful Łazienki Park and wiled away many hours just wandering and exploring the city. We also spent a joyous afternoon in the company of my incredibly host family who perfectly personified Polish generosity and hospitality, something I'm so glad my mum and aunt were able to experience. 

As I begin to wrap up my schedule with most classes, the older grades have been putting on talent shows (one of my favourite lessons!). So far we've had many creative dances, freestyle football displays, a two-person rendition of the 'Cup Song', a keen baker bring in a batch of his best cupcakes (yummy), a few rounds of karaoke, some gymnastics and lots more. The kids' courage never ceases to make me smile. 

With my younger classes I've been thoroughly enjoying reading two English picture story books my mum brought over. Despite the language barrier, the children appear to love the books (with some translation from Beata) and become really invested in the narratives. These have definitely been some of my favourite classes with the younger children all semester.    

I went to Berlin with my friends for a long weekend. Berlin's always been 
somewhere I've wanted to visit and I wasn't disappointed. I loved how modern 
and yet how historical it manages to be at the same time. Highlights certainly 
include Museum Island where we saw the famous Bust of Nefertiti (something I 
was very excited about), the murals at the East Side Gallery and just 
generally wandering around in the sunshine with my friends. I think the only 
downside of the weekend was getting my phone and ID stolen but that's not 
enough to change my perspective of a city I could quite happily live in. 

 These past few weeks have seen my work life following the same general routine and schedule, so not a huge amount to report there. In terms of my social life, my friends and I have come to the realisation that it's the beginning of the end of our time in Poland and our time together so we've been trying to spend as much time together as possible. Not last weekend but the weekend before, I whiled away a lovely afternoon in the sunshine at Łazienki Park which is just as beautiful as everyone keeps telling me.

I then went to a medieval knights tournament with my host family, which was certainly something out of the ordinary for me!

Rarely do I get the opportunity to watch grown men dress up in costumes and whack each other with swords while onlookers, including to severed heads on spikes, ohh and ahh at every blow. This past weekend I traveled back to Kraków to see one of my friends for the last time. While we were there we passed much of our time making the most of being together but I did spend Friday at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. 

It's not like anything I have ever seen before or really like anything I'd ever even heard of. Again, many students and teachers at the school have recommended it and I'm glad to say that their suggestion did not disappoint.     

After last week's insanity, this past week had been very quiet. At school the 

kids are still very cute and I'm still just carrying on with the set lesson 

It was interesting to see Warsaw empty over the weekend. I, unlike many of my 

plans, even with the occasional class outside! 

friends, stayed in the city and spent a bit of time just wandering around 

The weather was so nice that my host family decided to turn on the barbecue 

parts of the city I haven't explored yet and enjoying the beautiful gardens. 

which left me fondly remembering summer afternoons spent having barbecues back 

home. 

Jessica:)

I began my week by running the introductory 'interview' lesson with the older Monday and Tuesday classes. As usual, I really enjoyed these lessons and had to smile at some of the portraits of me that were produced. I was flattered in one class I particular where a group of students spent about fifteen minutes arguing about how to go about drawing my hair!

On Tuesday afternoon I made a mad dash to London where I spent the next two days at my future university, getting a feel for the place and an in-depth understanding of the course I'll be taking. I'm so glad I went as I now know pretty much exactly what I've got myself into for the next three years.

Finally, over the weekend two of my friends and I explored the beautiful city of Torùn. Though it is small, Beata's home town has a lovely relaxed atmosphere and plenty to fill up a weekend of gingerbread munching and sightseeing. I especially loved the House of the Esken Family, which is now a museum, as it gave me an insight into medieval and pre-medieval Poland, someone I haven't had before.

Jessica:)

In truth, this week has been really quiet so I don't have a huge amount to report. I've been spending a bit of time playing catch-up and making up for missed lessons with some classes, while with others I've been wrapping up my lessons completely (as my timetable changed on Thursday). This has meant that I've been treated to multiple talent shows this week and a wide variety of acts including break-dancing, ballet, science experiments, the flute and even half an hour of English karaoke. 

Thinking about it, pretty much all of my social outings into Warsaw this week have revolved around food. My friends and I discovered a lovely little chocolate shop full of solid chocolate sculptures on Tuesday, a cute vegan street food place on Friday and a Czech restaurant that we visited with all the Warsaw volunteers to celebrate our friend's birthday. Perhaps when the sun comes out we will spend less time indoors and eating... But I doubt it.  

Jessica:)

In most of my classes before the break we were still continuing with the set 
lesson plans as all the classes are at different stages of the schedule. I 
don't have any qualms with this to be honest, it means I can run the 
plasticine activity for a few weeks! In a couple of the lessons, however, the 
teachers and I did special Easter themed classes. These were really engaging 
for me because Easter in Australia is quite a commercial event whereas in 
Poland (as I was learning), it is still a very family-orientated and 
traditional holiday. In truth my Easter became family orientated as my brother 
decided to visit Warsaw from the UK. It was lovely to see him but 
unfortunately the rain and cold followed him here from England. 

Over the Easter week, I visited Prague with my brother and a few of my friends 
who live around Poland. To begin with I was nervous about spending so much 
time in Prague but we left not having done everything and very keen to go 
back! It's a beautiful city and while we were there Easter markets were dotted 
around the city so we passed many an hour sampling all the Czech food and 
drink we could.

My past week (or three days) at school have been much the same as usual with 
the addition of a new lesson 'Poland's Got Talent'. During this class the kids 
stand in front of their peers and (in English) present their talent or a 
collection or something they're proud of. Every time we ran this lesson I was 
amazed at the students' courage to sing or dance or show off their personal 
sketch book for their friends. It's so lovely to see confident kids and to 
know that they feel comfortable and safe enough at school to do that.

My weekend's been quite low-key. I feel like it's gone very quickly, but I 
think that's just because I'm not used to being a normal adult and working on 
Fridays! Saturday was beautiful so I went into town with my friends and saw a 
completely different Warsaw to the one I've been living in for months. The 
streets were bustling and I'm sure I saw more people while wondering around 
yesterday than I have done in the whole two and a half months I've been here. 
It was wonderful and I cannot wait to keep exploring the Warsaw and Poland in the sunshine!

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