A Locomotive in Lódż

Almost one of the first things I saw in Manufactura when visiting Lódż was an incredible train.

 I also saw sculptural figures of a man scattered about the rynek area.

 It took me a day to put all of this together. It is a tribute this year to the Polish author, Julian Tuwim,
Click on his name above to learn more about his life and work.

And why a train? I think that's because one of his famous poems is Locomotive. You may read it in translation here. 

Here's another photo of the train.

 And a close up of the headlight on the engine.

The crochet is the work of Agata "Olek" Oleksiak. Click here to learn more about her and the work that she does. Much to my surprise, she now lives in the United States.

It was great fun to see the work of Olek. Little children were having a great time examining the train. And I am glad to have learned about Tuwim. These type of outdoor exhibits are one thing I like about Poland. I have learned so much from outdoor exhibits, things I might never have found in a museum!

Back from Poland

I arrived back from Poland at about 6 PM Minnesota time. That is 1:00 AM Central Europe Time so it was a long day. The flight left 2 hours late and when I checked in I got a 5 Euro voucher to spend is a restaurant. I didn't mind that until I got on the plane and found it was a "dumb" plane. By that I mean we didn't have individual entertainment screens, only drop down video screens every 12 feet or so, dropping down from the ceiling and less than a size of a piece of paper. So it seemed like a long flight. I couldn't make my Kindle last that long.

I was busy at Reymontowka and got behind on writing about adventures in Poland. In the next couple of days I plan to do some more writing. Stay tuned.

Polish Night

One of my favorite things at language camp is Polish Night. That was last night, and the campers put on a great event.

It opened with the campers performing the Polish National Dance, the Polannaise.

 They finished this by gathering on the steps and then sang Kocham Cie Polsko ( Hope I got the Polish right!) This is one of my favorite songs.

We volunteers were welcomed then with the bread and salt ceremony.

Then the campers described the geography of Poland.

They went on to share information about important national symbols such as the Polish flag.

The next topic were important Polish figures such as Maria Curie and Copernicus.

Finally we were invited to share in eating Polish pickles and smalec.

We then danced with the campers for awhile. After we were exhausted, we joined the Polish camp staff in the dining room for refreshments and great conversation.

You too could have such fun! Check out www.globalvolunteers.org  for more information.

Random Pictures from Warsaw

On Friday afternoon I took a train from Kotun to Warsaw Wschodnia station with four other volunteers. I helped them find their connecting train to Krakow. Then I found another train that would take me across town to Warsaw Centralna station. From there I took a short walk to the Marriott Hotel and checked in and got a room on floor 32. I walked over to the Zlote Tarsy shopping center for supper. Then back to the hotel where I crawled into bed. It had been a busy week with hot, hot weather. Just before dropping off to sleep I could see some lightening.

The next morning was cooler and rainy. I had some coffee in my room and then walked over to the Centralna station again where I got coffee and waffle at a Starbuck's shop. Either Starbuck's coffee is getting better or they do it better in Europe. I met three other volunteers who came that morning and helped them get to the bed and breakfast where they would stay. From there we started up Nowy Swiat and so did the rain. We ducked into the Blikle Cukiernia for drinks and eats and watched the rain pour down. When it let up a bit we walked as far as Holy Cross Church, the church famed for holding Chopin's heart. After a visit there we started for Old Town. The rain also tried to return. I got my fellow volunteers to the ticket booth at the castle and then headed to Old Town alone.

What follows are simply random things that caught my eye. This posting is definitely not a travelogue for Warsaw.

I saw this amber boat in a jeweler's window. Over the course of my stay this year I've seen some spectacular amber pieces, and this is one of the most interesting ones. Readers can also see a reflection of nearby buildings in the store window.

I walked around the rynek noting that the gray sky made a good back drop for the buildings of Old Town.

I headed off on a side street trying to remember where is the monument to child soldiers who fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Found it.

I find this very poignant.

Now it was time for obiad and I took care to find a table in a sidewalk cafe that was well under an umbrella in case of rain. So glad I did for I hardly sat down when the heavens open and heavy rain came down for about 30 minutes.

I had a great meal, but did have some friends looking for a spot out of the rain and also trying to see if they could pinch some bread.

Decided to head back to the hotel.

Found a sign for bubble beer. Can't quite imagine what this is.

Look carefully and you can see bubbles come in cherry, mango, or lychee flavors.

I knew I was finishing everything on my Kindle and had not brought my computer so I could not order more library books, so I stopped at Empik, a large book store. It's always fun to look through a store like this and see what can be found.

A flask, a very large one, for celebrating Boss Day.

I continued my walk back to the hotel and noticed something along the side of the street.

 This is a sad place. It marks the spot where 102 Polish people were executed on January 28, 1944. What a tragedy.

Playing Uno like Makao

Now that title may be puzzling to readers, except those in Poland. Today the temperature is floating close to 100 degrees, and we are basically outdoors all the time. It was hard to keep the children on task for learning English.

I tried some teaching first hour, for useful phrases such as May I go to the toilet and May I get a drink of water? They all wanted to practice those phrases and then ran out of the class to do those activities.

Second hour I decided to try something different. We made a word train and that seemed to keep everyone really engaged. Word train works like this. I started the train with the word computer. Someone had to think of a word that began with R is connect the "cars of the train." If red is the word, then the next word must begin with D.

We did a good job of covering the table with words.

 Here are three of the four boys in the class with some of the finished product. And I must add that one time the word was Rhianna followed Adele. I also impressed them when they wanted L to be Lewandowski and I could spell it!

For the third class hour we played Uno. In Poland there is a card game, played with a regular deck of cards, called Makao. It is a more complex version of what in the United States we call Uno. For example, if someone puts down the Draw 2 card and the next player has one of those, he/she puts it down and the third player ends up having to draw 4 cards. This rather puzzles new volunteer teachers who come to Poland until they learn about Makao. I really like to play Makao and do it with high school students, having them use their English skills to remind me what is special, for example about Jack of Clubs. For this age group, Uno is better because I make them say the color and number for cards they play, such as Yellow 4 and Green 7.

I am teaching this session in the art gallery building. This room has about a 20 foot ceiling for which I'm very grateful. Yes, heat rises. The building is also shaded by large trees. The morning is usually fairly comfortable, but the boy laying on the table rather exemplifies how the kids were feeling today.

The weather report is promising today is the last of this kind of temperature. Truly hope so!

First Day with My New Group

Global Volunteers has a rule that one doesn't take photos until relationships are established, so no pictures from the first day. We always have the students make a name tent to help us learn their names. Hobby is a word in Polish that we share in English, so we can ask kids about their hobbies and have them put something on their name tags. When that all was done I reviewed the alphabet. They have pretty good pronunication, and can think of things that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

For the second class I started out with To jest in English is This is and Co to jest is English is What is this? I told the students we were going on a walk around the Reymontowka campus. When they knew the name of something they were to say: This is ______________, and if they didn't know they were to ask What is this? They ended up using 65 English words in the walk. They also can respond to questions such as What color is this or How many-- such as how many horses do you see? They did find 19 new objects for which they didn't know the name, and couple of things associated with swimming pool maintenance for which I didn't know the name.

We happened upon a wheel barrow carrying dried leaves, a shovel, and a brush. Later in the morning I heard someone working right outside my classroom with the wheel barrow and ran to take a picture. I had the plan to take photos of everything that was new and put it in a power point presentation to use later in the week. I was thinking the woman would probably soon be putting the wheel barrow away and I'd miss the photo. The fence and gate, other objects for my project, will be there 24/7. The woman doing the yard maintenance thought it was quite funny that I was taking a picture of the wheel barrow.

In the third lesson we worked more on vocabulary, but in fun ways, and for the fourth lesson we played Number Bingo. These students do a good job pronouncing the numbers, although sometimes they default to Polish.

The afternoon seems short when one isn't done with obiad until 2:30. I proofread the journal for the last team and sent that out to all the team members. Then I started to try to figure out what to do for tomorrow's lessons.

Again I have delightful kids, but this time 4 boys and 3 girls, whereas in the last camp I had all girls. There definitely in a difference in the activity level when one has 4 boys who are 9 years old and in love with "futbol.'

Endings and Beginnings

The first language at Reymontowka this year officially ended on Friday evening with a program. It was one of the best in which I've ever participated. The  parents arrive anywhere from 4:30 PM on and help their children pack and move suitcases to the car. We all eat some supper around 5 PM and then the program begins around 6:00.

I was seated waiting for the program when a former student walked up to me and said, "Why didn't you send me a Facebook message and tell me you were here?" I replied, "I though you would figure it out!" He had come with family members to see the final program because his cousin had attended the language camp. He asked me to visit his home yet while I'm here. That may be another story later.

The program always begins with an introduction of we Global Volunteers, and the Reymontowka director always graciously stresses that we are truly volunteers and that we pay all of our expenses to be here.  Next the students present us with a thank-you poster and we receive a Reymontowka T-shirt.

Then the fun begins with all the language classes doing an English presentation.

Here is one of my fellow volunteers coaching her students through the song, Don't Worry, Be Happy.

We had 8 language classes and so to keep the program interesting, student dance performances were placed after every three classes. The first dance routine was done to New York, New York. The second one was really cute, too -- Please Mom.

Then comes a theatre performance. This one was about children's dreams.

Here's a photo I took during the nightmare sequence.

 It shows siblings of the campers reacting to the nightmare scene.

Then we volunteers had a surprise. We sang the Linger Song. The first verse goes:

Hmmmm, I want to linger,
Hmmmm, a little longer,
Hmmmm, a little longer,
Here with you.

After we had sung the whole song in English, we did one Polish verse. We were surrounded by our students. It truly was a special moment.

I'm behind the girl in the blue dress on the right hand side of the photo. We are listening to one of the team members read a short thank-you speech.

Then it really was time for kielbasa and shirt-signing.

The next morning we were at breakfast at 7:30. After breakfast our team presented a thank you poster to the kitchen staff.

We were then off to the airport where we encountered a very long baggage drop-off line. While waiting, a man, another departing passenger, noticed a Global Volunteer shirt and said, "I'm one of those." He went on to say that he had done programs in Romania and Ecuador. Made waiting a bit easier. Once my fellow team mates were heading to airport security for their departure, I headed downstairs to start meeting the new people coming in. But that's a whole another story.