Hey Warsaw 306 kids,

I hope you’ve all been getting on well these past couple of weeks. It’s now only a month until Christmas. I expect you’re all very excited about that - I am too! I personally can’t wait to experience a traditional Polish Christmas. I don’t know much about what that might be, but I’ve been told that there’s definitely lots of delicious food. I also hope that it will snow soon. I know that snow is very normal (and sometimes annoying) for Polish people, but for me it’s pretty special. I’ve never had a white Christmas before and I’ve only seen snow 3 times in my entire life! Fingers crossed!

So, what have I been up to? Well, a couple of weeks ago I visited Budapest in Hungary. I spent three days visiting different attractions. I also ate lots of Goulash, a typical Hungarian soup made from capsicums and sausages. It is completely delicious!

As soon as I arrived, I noticed how different the Hungarian language is to Polish and lots of other European languages. It didn’t sound like anything I had heard before. Apparently Hungarian is the hardest language for English speakers to learn. Now I understand why!

I visited the National Museum and saw a very interesting exhibit. It was about how Hungarian culture has changed over the past 2000 years. There were some very pretty clothes that Kings and Queens used to wear, as well as some very old weapons from 400 years ago.

My friend and I also visited on of the famous bath houses in Budapest. They are beautiful, warm, outdoor pools. Even though it was freezing and raining outside we were nice and warm in the baths. It was a very nice way to relax on a Saturday afternoon.

We also visited a flea market just next to the bath houses. It was very interesting as they sold things from WWII and Communist times, as well as lots of other curious junk. I bought a thick leather belt, so now I have a souvenir from Hungary and my pants don’t fall down!

Oki doke*, well that’s all from me for now. I’ll see you in classes!

Sarah

*This is a very Australian way of saying “okay”

Captions for photos:

A dress that a Queen once wore

The beautiful Margaret Bridge at night time

Howdy students!

Well here’s a crazy fact for you, I am officially half way through my time here at Warsaw 306. I have sadly had my last classes with some of you, but I’m also very excited to meet the other half of the school starting Monday. I never knew that two months could pass so quickly! There’s a very popular english phrase “time flies when you’re having fun.” This definitely sums up my time in Poland!

I hope you’ve all had a lovely long weekend and enjoyed the All Saints holiday. I went for a walk on Friday (All Saints) and was amazed to see the huge amount of people out visiting their loved-ones’ graves. I thought that the ceremony of the day looked very beautiful - all the flowers, candles and decorations. It was quite special for me to see this day because we don’t have anything like this in Australia. My family visits my grandparents’ graves on their birthdays, but their isn’t any national holiday to pay respect to the dead.

Another recent holiday was Halloween on Thursday. While I didn’t go trick-or-treating, I did experience some spooky Polish celebrations at my host sister Nina’s birthday/Halloween party. All of class 4d came to my host family’s house on a Friday evening dressed in lots of scary costumes. There were witches, skeletons, mad scientists, wizards and more! Earlier in the day I helped Magda (my host mum) to prepare some creepy treats for the party. These included jelly worms, witch finger biscuits and some (very Australian) fairy bread.

The kids played lots of party games including Singstar, apple-bobbing and freeze dance. The food was also very popular. I was very pleased to see that Polish kids also like Australian fairy bread, as most of it was gone by the end of the night Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves greatly and it was a pretty creepy and fun night!

Now I better head off to bed to get up early for school tomorrow. I look forward to meeting all my new classes!

See you all around school (feel free to come and say hello ).

Sarah

Captions to accompany photos:

Some very Australian fairy bread
Delicious witch finger biscuits

Class 4d looking spooky and scary for Halloween

Me giving my best scary look

Sarah

Hi everyone!

Well, I’ve had a rather fun two weeks. I’ve really enjoyed teaching you about Australian schools, sport and food. I hope that you’ve enjoyed learning about them too!

I haven’t done a lot of travelling, however a couple of weekends ago I visited Berlin. It is a very beautiful city. I arrived at about 8 o’clock in the morning on a Thursday and spent the day wandering around the city. Although it was raining, and my backpack got soaked (in other words: very, very wet), I was still very happy looking at all the old buildings and interesting little shops in the north of Berlin city.

I visited the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, which was a very beautiful contemporary art gallery. I saw lots of paintings made recently by German artists. I didn’t understand all of them but it was still fun to go look.

In the afternoon I visited the house that my grandmother grew up in. It was very cool to walk down the same street that my grandmother walked down when she was 16 years old. She lived there with her parents until they all moved to Australia. I took some photos of the house to show the rest of my family when I return home.

During the rest of the weekend I visited a couple of different museums and galleries. These included the Egyptian Museum. This place had lots of different objects from Ancient Egypt. They had an entire room which was filled with mummies! There were 27 all together and they were all once Egyptian kings and queens. It was very spooky.

For dinner one night I ate at a Turkish restaurant. I had incredibly delicious falafel* with hommus** and fresh, crunchy salad. The decorations inside the restaurant were very pretty and middle-eastern looking. There were coloured glass lamps and red, orange and brown patterned carpets. I was very happy with my meal.

This past weekend I stayed in Warsaw. I visited the University of Warsaw to have a look around. The buildings are very beautiful and I was interested to learn that the university is almost 100 years old! I also went for a swim on Saturday and caught up with some of the other volunteers for dinner that night. It was a very relaxing weekend.

See you all in classes!

Sarah

* Turkish balls made of chickpeas.

** A dip made of chickpeas.

Hi kids!

Gosh, the past two weeks have gone by super quickly! I’ve spent them doing lots of different things, including getting to know a lot of you. Thank you for all your brilliant class introductions. I’ve tried to remember names and favourite colours, but please forgive me if I muck them up every once in a while.

I hope you liked learning about Australian animals this week. I really like animals and they are one of my preferred topics. For the record, my favourite animal is the Great White Shark. Although they are very scary and have giant sharp teeth, I am very impressed by how big and powerful they are. In the next couple of classes I would love to hear which animal was your favourite, if you would like to tell me.

Last weekend I took my first trip outside of Warsaw. I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in beautiful Krakow. All of my volunteer friends came with me and we had a lot of fun. I am now addicted to pretzels, they are so delicious!

I went for a walk on Friday evening around Old Town and saw the big Market Square. Apparently Krakow has the biggest square in all of Europe, so I’m very glad I saw it. I think it’s really cool how all the buildings are lit up at night. It looks like the statues and decorations on the buildings are glowing.

On Saturday I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was a very sad and moving experience, but also very informative. It was very surreal* to walk around on the same ground where so much terrible history has taken place. I went with 4 other volunteers, so we were able to comfort and support each other. Returning to the hostel that evening we were all very worn-out from the day.

That night we all ate at the hostel restaurant and I was starving. I had a big, delicious pizza. It may have been the best pizza of my life. It had lots of cheese and delicious vegetable toppings. 5 stars for that pizza.

The next day I got up early to explore some of the town. It was a lovely, bright, sunny day. I visited the beautiful cathedral in Wawel Castle and a market near the Market Square. At this market I saw some traditional Polish singing and dancing, along with some traditional games. My favourite game was one where the competitors used a broom to push a cabbage along the ground. I thought that that was pretty funny, but also looked like a lot of fun too!

Although I did a lot over that weekend, there was lots I missed out on. I will have to go back to Krakow again soon.

I look forward to seeing lots of you in class next week. We’ll be learning about Australian schools which should be pretty fun.

I’ll be sure to write again soon!

Sarah

Hi Warsaw 306,

I’m Sarah, your Australian volunteer for the next 3 months. I am very excited to be working at your school and I hope we can have a lot of fun together.

Back in Australia I live in a city called Melbourne. It’s on the south-eastern coast of Australia and has a population of about 4 million people. It will be summer in Melbourne while I am here in Poland and, believe me, it can get very, very hot. Some summer days are over 40°C!

I arrived in Warsaw a week and half ago and I have spent most of my time learning about teaching and eating pierogi, yum! For my first week I was staying with 12 other volunteers from Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia. Together we explored Marszałkowska Street and the Old Town. One of my favourite things that I have seen so far is the mermaid statue in Old Town Square. I was very interested to learn about how she came to be the guardian of the city.

So far I have had a great time in Warsaw. I’ll keep you updated on this blog about my other travels too!

See you all in class,

Sarah

Here I am (that’s me in the stripes) with all the other volunteers learning about teaching!

So my time in Poland is almost up. Today was my last day at school and I will be leaving Poland on Saturday to embark on an adventure through Europe before heading back to the farm in New Zealand. In my time here, I have seen the beautiful beaches in Gdansk, Sopot, and Hel, the amazing Old Towns of Warsaw, Krakow, Torun and Gdansk, the stunning forest in Bialowieza and the steep rocky mountains in Zakopane. Yet, there is even more to explore here in Poland. I have experienced more snow and colder temperatures than I have ever before. I have eaten a lifetimes worth of soup and have drunken plenty of tea. Poland is a beautiful country. It need not to compare itself to other countries and instead embrace the beauty that is Poland. I'm not ready to leave and therefore I really hope one day I can return and explore a little more. I haven't ever travelled as much as I have while I've been here and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I've seen some incredible places.

 

Thank you for welcoming me into your school and a big thank you to Beata for being amazing, supportive and a joy to work with. Also, thank you all very much for the album you have contributed towards for me. I will treasure it. I hope you've all learnt something about New Zealand and I welcome anyone who wants to travel to New Zealand one day. Have a great summer holiday, stay safe and good luck with your future adventures.

Amber:)

Over the past few weeks, I've spent some good time in Warsaw, lapping up the sun and seeing the sights. It is unbelievable the change in atmosphere that has occurred after winter finished. I thoroughly like Warsaw now and don't want to leave. Instead of listing everything I've done, I've put together a list below of what I like about Poland, in no particular order.

Last weekend I went to Bialystok and Bialowieza to the forest. Nestled on the border of Belarus, the town was very isolated but had a local small town feel about it. We cycled through the forest, visited the Bison and an area of huge trees while admiring the beautiful forest. It was stunning even if it was raining the whole time and I was eaten alive by mosquitoes.

10 Things I like about Poland:

1. Wifi is everywhere. Whether you are at McDonalds, a park in Warsaw, an isolated town in the middle of the forest or 135m underground in a salt mine, it's likely you can get wifi.

2.Men are gentlemen. They let women go first through doorways, open doors and help lift your bags into the overhead compartment on the train.

3. Once the snow melts, everyone and everything comes alive. The winter is cold, dark and gloomy. It appears no one enjoys it. But once the snow clears, everything changes. The countrysides are now field after field of lush green grass. The atmosphere in the city has changed completely. People are happy and now smile and laugh. Many people cycle. There are flowers growing in the parks and the fountains are flowing. Poland is much more beautiful in the sunshine.

4. Tea. I had never drunken tea before I came to Poland. There are endless varieties of flavours.

5. The forests are beautiful, even if it is raining. Apart from the mosquitoes, I love everything about the forests.

6. The world is at your feet. Here in Poland, the travel opportunities are endless. Bordering 7 countries with different languages and cultures, you are in the heart of Europe. Jump on a train, bus, drive or take a short plane ride and you arrive in a completely different country. This is amazing.

7. The parks in Warsaw are beautiful in Spring/Summer. Humming with people and squirrels, a walk among the green trees is the perfect place to enjoy the sunshine. Poland does public parks very well.

8. The Bison is huge. It's one staunch looking animal.

9. The chocolate is delicious. Whether it's E Wedel or Wawel, I can't get enough.

10. The public transport is efficient and I've even worked it out. Warsaw is twice the size of New Zealand's biggest city and therefore I'm proud I can find my way around. Trams and buses are so regular, just turn up at a stop and get whatever you want to go in Warsaw.

 

 

Amber:)

Two country's in two weeks has been busy. On the 18th of April, a couple of the other volunteers and I escaped to the good weather in Budapest. Unfortunately while packing I was anticipating similar weather to Warsaw and ended up having to buy shorts, it was so hot. Although, we were hardly complaining and were more excited to finally have some heat. We had a jam packed weekend trying to fit in all the sites of Budapest. We climbed Buda hill, walked through the Castle, climbed, crawled and slid through the caves in the hills (conquering the 'Sandwich of Death'), took a free walking tour - learning about Hungarian history, relaxed in the thermal baths, soaked up the sun and got sun burnt. I did take a jacket just in case. However, only needed it once I landed back in Warsaw.

 

For the holidays, I spent a very enjoyable week in Slovakia with my hosts. We hiked through the beautiful Tatra Mountains, relaxed in the thermal baths, took a day trip to the tourist-packed Zakopane and walked through the old streets of the local towns. We had weather from all seasons. The snow was still lying around in the mountains on the first day while the sun was shining. We sweated in the sun in Zakopane and hiked through the rain, thunder and lightning on another day in the mountains. I love hiking in the mountains at home but don't go as often as I should so I thoroughly enjoyed this week away.

 

I hope everyone in well rested after the break and I'll see you all back at school this week.

Amber:)

Easter provided the opportunity for me to travel, so I made the most of it. Although I could have done without the snow. This Spring has not been in any way what I expected. On the up side though, I have never experienced a white Christmas (but have always wanted too) so instead I have now experienced a white Easter. 
For my Easter travels I first left for Germany to spend Easter with my friend in Magdeburg. She had planned a lot of things for us to do. Unfortunately, the weather didn't allow this. Instead, we went on a lot of walks in the snow. I do have to admit, the snow is still very pretty and I enjoyed the walks through the forest. I went on my first Easter hunt (in the snow) and ate plenty of chocolate. 

Before leaving Germany, I spent a day in Dresden. We saw the main sights of Dresden as well as a wonderful view across the city. In addition, we went to the Green Vault which has some spectacular rooms to view including an Amber Room. 
Leaving Germany, I then went to Prague. I thoroughly enjoyed the train ride down, along the river with the forest, cliffs and stalactites of ice to view along the way. I also saw hills for the first time since I have been in Europe. The land here is unbelievably flat. In Prague, I was meeting up with some fellow volunteers to spend the week there. Unfortunately, I got terribly lost went I first left the train station. It took me 2 hours to find the hostel we were supposed to be staying in, even though it was only a 20 minute walk. I guess I saw the 'real' Prague during this time. I really was wondering why Prague was so highly recommended. However, finally I did find where I was supposed to be. The atmosphere of Prague is what makes it. There are so many different cultures and languages on the street, packed with tourists from all walks of life. I enjoyed this. Unfortunately, I was unwell for my entire stay in Prague and struggled to see what I wanted to. Fortunately however, I did manage to; go on a walking tour through the old town, had a short tour of the castle, climbed the hill to Prague's Eiffel Tower (the view is worth seeing, not the tower), went on an underground tour and also saw a Black Theatre Show which although small was very cool to see. 

The weather appears to have finally brought Spring to Warsaw. I can feel the atmosphere of the city changing already. So I'm going to try to lap up all the sun I can.

 

Amber

The snow was exciting at first, but now it's time it left. I've been told it's spring however this snow just seems to be never ending!!! I've had a life times worth now. There will be no need to experience much more at home. 
Despite the cold, last weekend I escaped Warsaw and headed to Torun.

 

I went with 3 other volunteers from Australia so we had a fun and relaxing weekend, filled with many laughs (mainly at each other). There is always a bit of friendly rivalry between New Zealanders and Australians. It was good to leave the noisy, busy city behind and explore the quite streets of Torun. Although we had to frequently find warmth to defrost our limbs, we saw much of Old Town Torun over the weekend. Apart from walking the quiet streets, we climbed the Old Town Hall Tower and had a beautiful view over the town. The sun was shining, but the cold was bitter. We also made Gingerbread in a museum which was a lot of fun. The instructions we in Polish but luckily the guide spoke a little English and could give us some pointers. I'm sure everyone thought we were crazy as we giggled our way through trying to make gingerbread. In addition, we crossed the bridge at night to view the spectacular Old Town lit up along the river. A camera can never capture this as it is really seen. I thoroughly enjoyed the calm atmosphere of Torun.

Easter is only just around the corner now...lets hope Spring is too!
Enjoy your upcoming break 306.

Amber:)

 

 

 

 

 

I've spent some quality time in Warsaw in the last two weeks. Two weekends ago, the majority of the volunteers came back to Warsaw for the weekend. It's was good to catch up with everyone and see how everyone's placements are going in their parts of Poland. I managed to get in a bit of sightseeing also.

Although I had already see Old Town Warsaw a few times, a friend and I took a free walking tour through the Old Town. This was interesting as I see new things every time and the tour guide told stories I had not heard before. For example, the legend about mermaid. I do wish however that the weather would have behaved. It started to snow and was way too cold to spend hours walking the streets. My feet were most certainly numb after this walk.

To get inside and warm up, Anna and I then went to the Choplin Museum. It was highly recommended by a friend of Anna's. I didn't know much about Choplin beforehand and came to the conclusion afterwards that Polish people are immensely proud of him. The museum displays all aspects of his life from friends and family, his students and the set up of his apartment right down to a model of his left hand. It astounded me the effort and the detail used to portray his life.

A couple of us also visited the Copernicus Science Centre. It was a Saturday afternoon and there were people everywhere. I went to a similar centre in Wolfsburg, however the one here in Warsaw is much bigger. We had a lot of fun playing around here, though we didn't get to see everything unfortunately. I didn't actually know who Copernicus was before coming here to Poland, so I am learning something everyday.

The last sightseeing stop for the weekend was the Royal Castle on Sunday. As it is free entry on Sunday, we decided to grab this opportunity to have a look inside. It was late in the afternoon so we were rushed through but we still got to see the castle and all it's glory. The detail inside is stunning and the rooms are so big. The gold, the thrones and the art are all incredible.

In addition to the above sightseeing, I also spend Saturday morning at Eryk's football. The combination of bitterly cold weather and the snow covered fields meant that the games had to be played inside. Football is not as popular in New Zealand as it is in Poland so I haven't watched Football too often. However, I love team sports and competition and therefore enjoyed watching these games. I was impressed with the talent and skill of the players and Eryk also played really well, scoring 2 goals!!

This past weekend was a quiet one. I did however fit in a few hours of sight seeing on Friday when a couple of us went to the suburb of Praga. I was interested that the movie 'The Pianist' was partly filmed here as I studied this film at school. We couldn't see as much of Praga as we had hoped due to the wind picking up. The wind brought a whole new level of cold with it.

I have been here over a month now. It's unbelievable how fast time fly's.

 Amber:)

So, the past week has been a busy one. Since I had some time off from school I thought I would make the most of it to travel.

First, I went back to Krakow with my host mum for the weekend. There I took a walking tour around Old Town and went to a few Museums which i didn't have time to see the weekend before. I like Krakow and think it is a beautiful city.

 

On Tuesday I travelled to Germany to see a friend. I couldn't believe how fast it is to travel to Germany. This is a novelty as in New Zealand it is a lot more difficult to travel to other countries. In Germany, I went to Wolfsburg, Wolfenbuttel, Quedlinburg, Potsdam and Berlin. Among many things, I saw the Sanssouci in Potsdam (the King's summer palace) which is amazing, the really old town of Quedlinburg and sat in a Porsche in Wolfsburg's Volkswagen factory. This will probably be the one and only time I get this close to a Porsche so this was very exciting.

 

I wish you all a good week 306.

Amber:)

 

 

Hi 306, I'm Amber from New Zealand, a small island country in the South Pacific Ocean. My hometown is Eketahuna in the Lower North Island with a population of 600 people in the township and a total of 1100 in the surrounding farming areas. I grew up on a dairy farm, living there for 18 years before moving away for University. Eketahuna is a very small town and therefore Warsaw is a very big place to me. The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Warsaw was there are people everywhere. I left New Zealand in the summer and we had been having 30oC + days so the cold weather was a bit of a shock at first but the snow makes it all worth while. It does snow at home occasionally but I still think it is exciting when it snows. Compared to home, your school is very busy. But it has been great meeting some of you over the past week and I look forward to seeing more of you over the next few months.

Last weekend, a group of us volunteers traveled to Krakow to have a look around. New Zealand's history starts in 1840 so I find it amazing how old everything is here. We went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine which was so big!!! We also looked around the Wawel Castle and old town Krakow. Krakow is a very beautiful city and I can only marvel at all the history and old buildings.

Will write again soon,
Amber