Birthday Bliss : )

My 26th year is off to a great start! Genna made an authentic Anne Nelson Apple Pie on my birthday, It looks like it went up in flames, but don't worry it was just the flash. 

Over the weekend we stayed in a cute cabin and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors in the mountains.

 Blowing out my mountain cheese birthday "cake"

 A huge thanks to Genna, Adrian, Iza and Kat for organizing the amazing weekend! Thanks to everyone for the cards, gifts and kind messages. Your love was felt from near and far! 

Year 2!

Poland 2.0 is off to a busy start. Time is flying by and there is never a dull moment. School has been going really well. I have almost all the same students as last year, which has been really nice! I'm teaching 26.5 hours a week. Mondays and fridays are my busiest days teaching 8.5 and 7 hours each day. It makes for a really busy schedule, but I enjoy it for the most part. It is so great to know what is going on at school and not feel lost and confused all the time. 

After 2 crazy roommates this year we have an AMAZING roommate. Katherine is from the UK. She spent the last two years teaching in Vietnam. Kat is super nice, really interesting to talk to and loves traveling. I think we will be great friends. YAY! 

We also got some pets this year. We started off with a delightful array of tropical fish. Kat, Genna and I each got 3 of a different kind and cool coral colored sucker fish. Day by day we came home to more fish belly up. Now we are left with 2 of Genna's and our awesome sucker fish. We kind of want to get more, but I'm afraid they will just die too.

After a pretty crappy September, weather wise, October has been AWESOME! We have been spending lots of time outside on the weekends and soaking up all the sunshine we can before the Polish winter is upon us. 

Window Washing

Spring has arrived in Bielsko. To fully enjoy blue sky and sunshine we decided we needed to wash our windows. They got a "little" dirty this winter. I definitely haven't mastered the streak free techniques, but at least I can see through the windows!  

Weekly Schedule

I have been meaning to write this post this for months! 

Finally, today is the day. 

This is my current schedule. There are some changes week to week, but mostly it stays the same. I have  a variety of different lessons each week. Most of my lessons are Helen Doron. They are with kids age 2 to 8. Most lessons are 45 minutes. The kids sit in a circle on the carpet and I teach them using flash cards, toys, and a lot of games. 

Four hours a week I teach OPS or Oxford Primary School. These lessons I'm kind of like a specialist. Think of going to music or gym in elementary school. It's kind of like that. 

All my other lessons are one to one. Most are preparing for something and need to practice speaking English. I have a love hate relationship with these lessons, because it is hard to know what the students want to do or talk about and they often ask me grammar questions that I have no idea what the answer is. On the other hand they are nice because I get to really know the people. They enjoy sharing about their lives in Poland and also learning about me. 

At the begining of the year it was a lot to keep track of. I spent most of my day running around the school like a chicken with my head cut off. Now that there is only 10 weeks left of the year. I feel like I have a good handle on things. I can plan all my lessons pretty quickly and generally enjoy all of them. 

Afternoon in Cieszyn

After visiting Auschwitz we decided to go to Cieszyn. It was a nice afternoon, Genna and I had never been there and lots of people recommended a "great Mexican restaurant." 

We ate first and were reminded you get what you pay for. My whole meal was about 25 zloty or 8 dollars. Needless to say it wasn't very good, but it was still nice to eat out with friends. 

After eating we walked around the town. 

It was great to be outside and enjoy the spring day. 

We walked up to this cool tower. Adrian showed us that it is featured on the 20 zloty note. 

Can you see it? Ask Genna how long it took her to see it. : ) 

Then we walked down to the river. Cieszyn is on the boarder of Poland and Czech Republic. On the middle of the bridge there is a line that divides the counties. As you can see, I enjoyed being in two countries at once. 

Saturday was an excellent day with friends! 

Thanks Adrian, Iza and Sam!!!

Visiting Auschwitz

On Saturday we went to Auschwitz I and II.  We started at Auschwitz II Birkenau, the larger of the two camps. It was incredible to see just how big it was and imagine life for all those innocent people. We spent nearly 3 hours walking the grounds and taking it all in. 

It was humbling spend time in a place where over a million people, no different than you and me, were murdered.  After making our way around Birkenau. We drove to Auschwitz I. 

There we went on a guided tour. While waiting for our tour to begin, we had a little fun with our super stylish headsets.

When the Germans took over Poland during WWII, they acquired this Polish Army Base. The blocks were already build and The German Nazis turned it into a concentration or work camp. Later a gas chamber was built and Auschwitz I became an exterminate camp as well.  When the camp became too small Birkenau was built.

On the tour we walked through the gas chamber. The most upsetting part for me was seeing scratches from finger nails on the walls. It clearly illustrated how painful their death must have been. 

It's hard to imagine a numbers as large as million. There is a whole hallway filled with shoes taken from people were killed at Auschwitz. All the shoes in this hallway is just 5% of the shoes collected. This picture shows maybe a quarter of the hallway. Seeing these shoes made it clear how many people's lives ended at Auschwitz. 

It was an informative day and forever changed how I remember The Holocaust. 

Pear Pizza

Gallo Nero is an Italian restaurant that Genna and really like. We went their for my birthday, but hadn't been there since. They deliver so one Saturday night we decided we would try to order it in. 

It took us a while to navigate the Polish website, but after some copying and pasting to google translate we found what we wanted to order. Ravioli with salmon and cream sauce. Number 12 on the pasta menu. Shouldn't be too hard to order. Right? 

Genna called and after having the phone passed off 3 times she talked to "Big Papa." There was a little trouble with communicating our street, but after spelling it half in English half in Polish Big Papa knew where we lived. Once she hung up we were feeling very proud of ourselves for doing this on our own. 

About an our later our food arrived and much to our surprise the delivery person had 2 pizza boxes. We were both a little hesitant, but thought the pasta might be in there. We paid and went inside. We opened the boxes and realized we had two HUGE pear pizzas. 

We tried to be optimistic. "Maybe we'll really like it and it's a great opportunity to try something we normally wouldn't have." After about 3 bites all my optimism was gone. It was the weirdest pizza I've ever choked down. 

Later we went back on the website and realized Pear Pizza was number 12 on the Pizza menu. So over all we did pretty well ordering. We got 2 out of 3 correct. Number 12 and where we lived. Next time just need to make sure there is more emphasis on the pasta. 

Feeling Better

4 antibiotics and a month and a half later I am finally feeling like myself again! When we were in Paris I had what felt like a bad cold. The next week in Bukiwina it turned into a sinus, ear, and throat infection. 2 antibiotics later I was feeling better, but still not back to normal. A week later it came back. 

When you go to the doctor in Poland they recommend you stay home for a certain number of days and write you a sick note. The first time I was sick I still felt ok so I continued to work. This time I wanted to make sure I got better for good so I used the sick days. Today is my first day back to work since March 21st.

Still Snowing!

On Easter we got all this snow! 

More than 10 inches. 

On Easter. 

You might be thinking "that was your last big snow of the season."

Today it is snowing again and not just a few flurries. 

Thursday and Saturday MORE SNOW!

Here's to hoping for spring's arrival next week. 

Christmas in Poland

At the begining of December there was a Christmas program at school. The Primary School Students preformed the Nativity story in Polish. They sang Christmas Carols and spoke about Christmas Traditions in German, Spanish, and English. 

I have a group of 3 students twice a week. It's a brother and sister and the brother's friend. The boys are 8 and the girl is 6. They made me these adorable cards for Christmas. 

On Christmas Eve we went to Ilona's house for dinner and experienced a traditional Polish Christmas. It was really great to learn about their family traditions! Thank you so much for including us in this special day! 

A big thank you to everyone who sent cards and gifts. Each was so special and thoughtful!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Mexican

Mexican food isn't quite as popular in Poland as it is in The States. 4 tortillas costs about 10 zloty and I have only been to one grocery store that sells taco seasoning. 

Needless to say Genna and I were very excited when we saw a Mexican restaurant the first time we were in Krakow. It didn't workout for us to eat there that time, but Genna and I made a pact that we would go the next time we were in Krakow. 

We went back to Krakow a few weeks later and once again it didn't work out for us to eat there. Both disappointed, we promised we would go next time we were in Krakow. Two weeks ago we took our new roommate Nicole to Krakow and yes we ate at The Mexican! 

After wanting to eat there for nearly two months Genna and I had high hopes for this place. Although it was pretty good it didn't quite meet our expectations. The first sign things weren't going to be exactly what we were hoping was when we got our chips and salsa. Notice the size of chips container. Yes, we got 7 chips. 

Keeping with Polish Tradition Genna's enchiladas were served on sauerkraut!