This week I got to explore the home grounds of Fryderyk Chopin. My host family took me to see the musicians museum. 

We walked through the gardens and even his house. 

It was a first for me to listen to a machine guide as we walked through the park (mine stopped working halfway through).

 I also got to meet some of my host family's friends, and I talked about home and the differences between Poland and New Zealand. 

Dominique:)

This weekend a group of volunteers got together on an adventure trip to Gdansk to catch up with friends.

The 5 hour bus trip was an experience I'm only to glad to say I slept all the way through :P. On the first day we visited a castle and hit the shopping centre..... that had a giant water wheel :D

It was awesome. we later saw a bridge full of locks with names inscribed on them, I heard that this was done between couples who sign there names on the locks then throw the keys into the water, so we decided to all sign our names on a lock and do the same thing. 

The next day was sooo amazing because there was sunshine!!! We decided to head to Sopot and visit the beach and walk along the wharf.  

Dominique

Hello,

So this week my host family and I did some spring cleaning in the garden. My host brother built a small vegetable garden in the back yard and today He put in the first seeds for tomato plants. We also created a sand castle (the best sandcastle in the history of sand castles!). 

Later on we found rope and we tried and failed to make a swing..... note to self swinging into trees hurts :(....... and I enjoyed watching my host brother tennis championship game. 

On Saturday the other volunteers and I met up in Old Town and explored the market and scenery, 

The weather was amazing:D and later in the evening we meet ex volunteers and they showed us some good restaurants and clubs.   

Dominique:)

Hello,

The other volunteers and I decided to take a cultural trip around Krakow last weekend. We got to see some amazing sites such as a castles the Jewish quarter and Auschwitz. The sights were breath taking and I'll never forget the beautiful scenery. We spent four days in the centre of Krakow, most of it we were lost and couldn't find our way around, but that led to the discovery of several amazing restaurants because walking in no direction makes a person pretty hungry. We also meet some people from our home countries. We shared stories of our travels and differences of home and Poland. Plus I think we saw our first snow falling ever :D

Dominique

Hello :)

well so far for my first week in poland the biggest change for me would be the cold 'shivers', though apparently this is warm weather???

I've come in a group of 30. 8 from New Zealand 20 from Australia and 2 from Canada. To celebrate the beginning of the trip, the volunteers and I got together and made a family meal. (we are not the best cooks!!)

Walking through the centrum we got lost sooo many times and occasionally crossing the road while looking the wrong way, but now we've settled into our homestays and things are becoming more and more familiar so hopefully by the end of the week I will no longer find myself in the wrong village or town :P

Dominique. 

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