Blogs from Lower Silesian, Poland, Europe - page 7

Advertisement

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw October 14th 2010

Well to start off, today is a holiday from school in Poland for "Teacher's Day," basically a celebration of education and teachers. So no school today, and we're leaving for Italy in a few hours!!!!!!!!!!! So since we have no school today, the students celebrated yesterday. They bring teachers candy and flowers and other gifts. Both Des and I got roses yesterday from our classes which was super nice. Yesterday starts off normal, get to the bus stop to wait around 8:35 since the bus is supposed to leave at 8:45. The bus didn't get there until 9:15. Verrrry late. Luckily we made it to school just in time to find out that we were supposed to be there to teach an earlier class that nobody told us about. So we missed our 2nd period class. ... read more

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw October 9th 2010

Another week down. Teaching was ok. Friday we had a meeting with all the other teachers in this program that we're a part of in another city. All day listening to people speak in Polish and not having a clue what they were saying. When we got to the school where the meeting was I tripped on a step and fell in front of probably 50 people in the outdoor courtyard and twisted my ankle so its still swollen up like a baseball and hurts but I can walk on it so I'll be fine eventually. Today we decided to stay home and prop my foot up so tomorrow we'll go into Wroclaw, the "big" city, and buy our winter coats. Only 3 days teaching next week before we go to ITALY!!!!!!!!!! Both Des and I ... read more

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 30th 2010

So for the last 2 days, the school has surprised us with extra lessons. Earlier extra lessons. Instead of starting at 9:50 like planned, they wanted us to teach the 8:50 lesson also. The problem with that is our normal bus leaves at 8:50. The next earliest bus leaves at 6:55!!! So we get up at 5, shower and get ready, eat breakfast and pack our lunch, walk to the bus stop, take a 30 minute bus ride to school, wait an hour and a half in the teacher lounge, then start teaching at 8:50. To say it is inconvenient would be an understatement. We started our extra lessons yesterday at the private school also. Nobody showed up to any of our 6 lessons yesterday and today. Sooo the other teachers gave up 15 minutes from ... read more

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 28th 2010

We had to leave school early today because our boss took us to meet with the "border patrol" today who wanted to talk to us about our visa applications. We pretty much just sat there as everyone spoke Polish for an hour then they asked us 2 questions (which had to be translated of course). 1. What is your purpose here in Poland and how long do you plan on staying? (answer: to teach English and travel all over Europe on the weekends. We will be leaving when school is over in late June) and 2. Did you know that the city of Chicago has more Polish people living there than the capital of our country Warsaw? (answer: no, I did not know that). And that was the end of the interview. We should have our ... read more

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 26th 2010

So last week went pretty smoothly. Our topic for last week's lessons was music, so most of the students enjoyed it and participated some. On Wednesday and Thursday though, over half of the students in each class were absent because they were preparing the school for their 90th school celebration this weekend. A lot of them were in their school chorus that was singing a few songs for the weekend celebration. Our 2nd to last class Thursday didn't show up and a couple students from that class came to tell us that they were all in the auditorium watching the chorus rehearse the songs. So we walked over to the auditorium and got to see them sing (in Polish of course), but they were realllly good! Then we found out that all of the last classes ... read more
Tree with white leaves that was above us eating on the patio of the pizzeria
The circus came to Sycow!! but it was only Friday at 4:30 (just for 1 day, strange, I know) so we missed it because we were at IKEA!
IKEA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 16th 2010

We got our first paychecks today!!! So happy. Yesterday was a very long day. None of my classes were happy to take the test I had to give them and they surely let me know about it. In my last class, I asked them where some good restaurants were in Ostrezesow and one told me about a Chinese Place!!! Now, I know this might not sound like such a big deal, but I can EAT some Chinese food. That and Mexican food are what I love. Right after school I told Des we were going to eat at this place. It's called Hanoi. We walk on over, the menu is all in Polish of course, so we took 20 minutes looking up "sweet and sour chicken" and "noodles" in my pocket dictionary. Finally they bring out ... read more
"Pancake" aka crepe
An awesome note my students had written on my board today! (trying to get out of a test... )

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 13th 2010

Just found a couple of websites with a lottttt of really cheap flights from here to Rome, Paris, Dublin, Spain, Norway, Germany, England, Scottland, etc. Can't wait to plan out some trips for February when we only have to work 2 days a week! This weekend we're planning on taking the train to Krakow since its only a 3 hour trip and staying Friday and Saturday night. And since Auschwitz (the biggest concentration camp during the war) is only a short bus ride from Krakow, I think we'll go and spend the day on Saturday there seeing the museums and camps. I know I'll take a lot of pictures. Very short day at school today. We were supposed to only have 4 lessons but 1 entire class skipped school so we only had 3. Those kids ... read more

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 12th 2010

Well its been a while since my last update but not much has happened. Still not used to the food or the language but we're learning new words everyday. The town we live in, Sycow, is very small and there is nothing to do so we pretty much are going to have to travel every weekend to stay sane. Monday through Thursday we taught. Monday we had 5 lessons in Sycow, Tuesday we had 7 in Sycow, Wednesday we had 6 in Ostrezesow, and Thursday we had 5 in Ostrezesow. We teach 16 and 17 year olds. They are alright I guess, no big problems came up other than the few classes we had were not 1 student could speak English. And both schools kind of sprung extra lessons on us when we arrived each day ... read more
stream
School in Sycow where we teach
Sycow

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 5th 2010

I took a couple pictures on Friday when we were waiting for the next train in Wroclaw. Today I took a bunch of Sycow (the town we live in) on our way back from eating some odd pizza for lunch.... read more
Elf statue on stairs
a University in Wroclaw
University entrance and Des

Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw September 4th 2010

So Thursday was our first day teaching students. We had 5 classes each, 1 class of 17 yr olds and 4 of 16 year olds. All we did was introductions pretty much so it went fine. Most of the students speak good enough English for me to understand but a few are almost complete beginners. Either way, I will have 20 classes each week, with all different students each class. I only teach each student once a week. Its great because I only have to plan out 1 lesson per week. Friday morning we had to get up early to catch the 8:45 bus to arrive in Wroclaw at 9:55, then take a train from there leaving at 10:08 to Opole, where our boss lives. (The train and bus station are right next to each other) ... read more




Tot: 0.125s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 8; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0607s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb