Random feelings...

Some random feelings in the last few days...


Bliss: just sitting outside in the Market Square for lunch, soaking up the sun on a warm sun shining Sunday :)

Shock: The shooting in US! It's just unimaginable!! ><"" and it's true how it's just a matter of time before the next shooting at some other school... so sad but true :(

Happy: that Poland/Ukraine won the bid to host the Euro 2012 Football Championships! Lots of proud Poles around today :)

Anger: when my NZ stuff at Global Village got stolen!! My kiwi bird, Blues rugby ball, book of NZ photos, my @Auckland bandana, kiwi Tshirt and my LOTR playing cards!! grrr.... maybe I shouldn't have left my stall but who knew people would take stuff from the table! ><"

Delight: when I found a shop selling fresh-ish fish and it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. Had a really nice "seafood meal" tonight ;)

Easter Sunday

Right, next Easter back in NZ, I'm going to try to make it a Polish Easter! It's so nice! Actually I think the nicest thing about Easter here is just the gathering of family and of course the awesome food.

Went to Marshall's home for Easter Sunday for traditional Easter breakfast! The table was beautifully laid with so many colourful eggs (a few weeks worth of eggs I thought!), candles and just really nice. We started by sharing pieces of hard boiled egg (sharing the egg, we express our wishes and greetings!) had Zurek soup, and then ham, sausages, bread, more eggs, horseradish... ohhh I think I tried geese meat for the first time today! it was yum! Dessert we had the cakes called babas and poppy seed cakes again, as well as these "100 eggs cake" these heavy multi-layered cakes that takes a lot of effort (and eggs!) to make.

I also really got into 'egg decorating' ie scratching patterns on my egg, pity it's hard boiled already so I'm not sure how long it'll survive. The patterns included a silver fern and koru design so a kiwi-polish Easter egg ;)

After "breakfast" (at time of brunch) we had a walk to visit the cemetery, came back, ate "dinner" (I emphasise the quotation marks cos it was around 3pm!) more food then Marshall and I went to the famous Jewish cemetery in Wroclaw. It was established in 1856 and had about 1200 tomb stones preserved. There were lots of famous ppl buried there including nobel peace award recipients and the whole cemetery almost in ruins actually, it was just sooooo old. I look at a few of the birth/death years and think OMG this was before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed!!

It's been a really nice and relaxing day, I really appreciate the warm hospitality of Marshall's family inviting me to their place for Easter - such a family day and willing to share with me.

Easter Saturday

Wow, had a reaaaally nice Easter Saturday today. I was invited to my buddy, Stefan's family home for Easter Saturday. When I was walking to his place, I was delightfully amused that people were walking around on the streets carrying little baskets of eggs, flowers, bread, some simple little baskets, some lavishly decorated. I know the Poles keep a lot of traditions but really seeing it happening, people out on the street, carrying out these traditions is another thing!

After arriving at Stefan's place, we walked to the local church (this little Baroque style church) to get our little basket of eggs blessed! Yesterday was supposed to be fasting and the food needs to be blessed before we can eat again today. In the olden days, people put all sorts in the baskets: ham, bread... all the food they'll eat but thankfully these days usually just put eggs in basket just as a symbol. There were heaps of people on the street, walking from and to the church, everyone goes to get their food blessed even if they're not Catholic apparently. So we entered the jam packed church and the priest said some blessing or something and then the fun begins when he walked around, carrying a mini-broom-looking thing and started "blessing" us/our baskets with water. Oh the look of glee on his face! He was having sooo much fun getting us wet :)

So, with our eggs all blessed, we checked out a few other churches/cathedrals and proceeded back home for "Pre-Easter Lunch". We started with this yummmm as zurek soup with the blessed eggs, homemade chicken+pork pate, salad, then had roast pork with plum stuffed inside, these Polish dumplings, beetroot salad, all very traditional sort of Easter food. Dessert was this "bebe" (not sure if I spelt it correctly) which translates as 'Old Woman', triple layered cake, poppy seed cake and MY homemade Afghan cookies ;) And of course along with this Cranberry vodka... mmMMmmm

After stuffing ourselves silly, we went out, drove to Sleza, the closest mountain to Wroclaw (It feels soooo luxurious being in a car btw!). We had a really nice walk up to the top of the mountain with a beautiful view at the end. I really enjoyed being up on the mountain, seeing some green scenery, fresh air and reminded me of tramping back home.

We got back to Stefan's place, more food (cold food for supper) including this really nice chicken meat/veges in jelly (gelatine)! We tried to finish more of the food from lunch and just sat at the dining table and chatted over tea. Stefan's parents are sooooo nice! They didn't know much English and with my even more limited Polish, we still somehow managed to have really interesting conversations - with Stefan translating back and forth. They were really curious about New Zealand and just pictures it as paradise (which I don't refute).

Today's definitely one of the highlights of my time here!
Easter Sunday tomorrow at Marshall's home - yay! :)

First month update email

This is my first general update of my life in Poland! (written 20 March) As most of you would know, I arrived in Wroclaw, Poland a month ago and yes... it has taken me this long to finally write an update! :P

OMG the month has just FLEW by just like a blink of the eye! I still can't believe I've been here a month already! I am definitely in the 'honeymoon' stage - everything is still new and exciting. I even look forward to going grocery shopping in the supermarket for goodness sake!

Gosh it really is hard to summarise all my feelings in just one email. I just feel so lucky being here. Being in a beautiful city, living in a nice flat, get along well with my flatmates, made so many great friends here, so many other trainees here, in a local committee who really looks after their trainees and nice working environment.

A bit more about my job... I teach 2 to 3 classes a day and about an equal amount of classtime to prepare for the class. The working hours are pretty flexible apart from the actual class times. Hence most of the days, I can start at noon or later (pretty much whenever I feel like it) cos most of the classes start late in the afternoon. Works VERY well for me! I teach from elementary to upper intermediate, both children and adults, though mostly university aged students. There are only four other teachers and it is a really lovely working environment, they are really supportive in helping me develop my skills as a teacher as well.

The most challenging thing so far I guess is the language. Even ordering a simple meal at a restaurant is not that simple (I love the food here btw!). I'm lucky I eat almost anything cos there's been many times I've just been adventurous and ordered something totally random off the menu list or an item that looked easiest to pronounce! But going to be starting Polish lessons this week! can't wait!

Highlights

• Weekend trip to Polanica (town famous for its mineral water that smells like rotten egg but apparently VERY good for you...). Skiing at nearby ski field!
  
• Visited Ksiaz Castle about 80Km from Wroclaw, a beautiful castle built around 13th century - third biggest castle in Poland.
  
• Went to a Polish punk rock concert! The atmosphere was wicked, so glad I went. Who cares if you don't understand what they are singing.
• Went karaoke (Polish style!) with some students of mine. It was in a students pub and we all sang in groups. Our group won!! not cos of our singing ability though, we won free beer through a cheering (=screaming) contest.