Warsaw, Teaching, and Lithuania

Hello everyone!

So last time we talked, I told you we were headed to Warsaw on Saturday (Poland's capital).  Mikolaj's flight didn't get in until 11pm, so we had some time to kill before we went to the airport.  Kasia and Mariusz took me to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, then took me to dinner, the mall, and Harry Potter 7 (for the 2nd time for me)!!


The museum was the highlight of our trip (yes, even better than Harry Potter :) ).  I cannot believe how much Warsaw had to go through during the WWII.  It was completely destroyed by Hitler, as a warning to the rest of Europe.  We saw a six minute video that was a digitally recreated scene of what Warsaw looked like after the war.  It was devastating to see, but so powerful and eye opening for me.  The museum itself was beautifully constructed, with interactive displays throughout, and thousands of artifacts from the Uprising.  Look for pictures on facebook!  They will do more justice to the museum's aesthethic than my words can.

Now that I was finally appreciating Poland's struggle for what it truly was, I could fully understand the pride I felt from every Polish person I've met on this trip about their country. (did that sentence make sense??!)  It also made me love it here more.  It's a wonderful country that gets overlooked far too often.

And of course, another week of teaching went by!  I love teaching these little Polish kids; they're so much fun and they seem to really enjoy my lessons.  In fact, Kasia told me a story about three of my students--two brothers and a sister (Kacper, Franek, and Zosia).  They went on vacation early because of the nice weather, and so they had to miss a few of my lessons.  Their mom told Kasia that they were being sulky on vacation becuase they were sad to miss my lessons!  They made their mom give them English lessons, which they kind of liked, but told her "You're not Katie!"  That was a great story to hear!! It made me feel so important and like I was really doing a good job here :)

Not too many students showed up this week, but I still had a great time with them.  I really loosened up and I was able to play more games with them, laugh with them, and communicate in my broken Polish! And when I say communicate, I mean I said "Take to home" or "Come" or "This, here!"

And now the weekend is here, and I am in Lithuania!!!  It's still pretty awesome to be able to say "Yeah, ya know, I'm just goin' to Lithuania for the weekend."  It's me, my host family, and another family that's friends with my host family (includes husband, wife, 12 yr old daughter Magda, and 6 yr old Marcin), and THEIR friend, Mozena.  They are all so great!  I have loved hanging out with them the past two days so far.  They love to laugh, drink beer, and eat.  Perfect fit!  Last night, we got in around 10pm.  We decided to hit the town after we checked into our (AWESOME) hotel.  We found this great restaurant and got some delicious Lithuanian food, then went to another restaurant to get some Lithuanian beer.  Bartos (the beer) is really really really good.  It's traditional to get it with a lemon slice in it...so good!  It tastes like Juicy Fruit gum.

Today (Saturday), the men all went to play in the Bocce Ball tournament and us ladies (and Marcin) went to the Old Town.  It's about a mile walk into the Old Town, but we got some great views walking down the main street.  It was so much fun.  We saw at least 5 or 6 weddings happening today.  It was wonderful.  We walked down by the big river, got some lody (ice-cream), then walked over to a church built in the 11th century...it was amazing.  I love visiting old historical sites like that and imagining the people that used to walk around and live in the castles of that time period.

Tomorrow, the girls play Bocce Ball!!! Can't wait!

Love,
Katie