July 5 Adventures

On Friday I tried a homonym game that came to me once in the middle of the night in my Minnesota bed. I took words such as write/right, to/two, and cent/scent, altogether 40 words and then had each students draw out 8 words from an envelope. Each would announce the chosen word and how it was spelled and then ask their fellow students who had the partner word. Then each would put the words into a sentence. This worked quite well and wasn't really too hard at all to create.

For the 2nd lesson we played Halloween Jingo. This is in preparation for a Halloween party that one of the volunteers is planning to coordinate for next week. Lacking pumpkins this time of  year, we plan to make jack-o-lanterns with watermelons. This lesson should have gone from 10:00 - 10:45, but by 10:30 we were frustrated with the wind blowing everything away, so we quit early, taking our break from 10:30 - 10:45.

Then we headed off for town. The first stop was church. Since last year I've been curious to know what the signs on the monuments said. I was certain they were military/veterans monuments, not religious ones and I was right. We were especially delighted when we realized one was for men who had been part of the Polish Underground during World War II and that the monument now also included their code names such a tiger.

Polish cemeteries are amazingly beautiful places compared to those in the United States. They were equally intrigued by a gravestone that included a beautiful etching of a deer. All graves are covered with flowers -- it's quite common to go at least once a week to care for the flowers on a family's graves.

I had the students picked out a gravestone and then tell me in English when that person was born and the date on which the person had died. A birth date on the gravestone may be written something like this: " u 29 IX 1942r." Thus this is not exactly an easy assignment. Then we all hit the grocery store.

I found one of the favorite purchases is American Cziken. I think in the United States we would call this ramen noodles!

Right after obiad 8 of us left for Krakow. We arrived at the hotel used by those who would be staying in Krakow a few minutes after 4 PM. I then walked over the train station intending to take a train to Katowice. However, nothing was listed. I went to a ticket window and was told I must instead us a bus. When I waited a bit more and nothing appeared for Katowice, I called Dorota explaining I had a problem. She suggested I go to Information (Informacja) and when there hand the phone to the person behind the counter. I found, however, this person spoke good English telling I had to go by bus, even though I ticket clearly written for the train.

I waited a bit more and still nothing appeared and when nothing appeared for a train to Katowice, I walked to the nearby Andel's Hotel. I asked if they had a vacancy for 2 nights. Yes, they did and when my surname was entered in to the computer, my info popped right up due to my stay in an
Andel's Hotel last summer. I called the hotel in Katowice and explained I could not get there for the weekend and cancelled my reservation. And then I was off for Krakow adventures. More coming about then tomorrow!