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 19th,
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…
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