Zakopane, The Gatlinburg of Poland

We went to Zakopane today. Zakopane is in the Tatra mountains, right on the border with Poland and Slovakia. It was very interesting, but the best way to describe it (to anyone who has been there and understands the analogies anyway) is to say that it very much was Gatlinburg in Poland. There is a small center with some streets off of the center. The streets are lined with "log cabin" style building which hold shops selling everything from cheese to shoes, wood carving, postcards and knick-knacks and for good measure, real stores thrown in.
The city is doing relatively well for it's self financially, like Gatlinburg, but the outlying countryside is full of people who depend on winter, when the skiiers come. When it's not winter, the rest of the year is spent trying to stretch the pennies that were earned in winter and selling things like woolen sweaters, mittens boots and everything that no one has any use for in the other seasons of the year. This year, snow came late to Zakopane (January or February) which made the winter season super short, making the earnings for most of these people much smaller than usual.
Looking at the buildings, homes and everything around the area, you wouldn't guess that these are people who are struggling financially. It looks much like a Swiss village with the chalets and large homes. The large homes however, contain sometimes 2-4 families. The chalets are really only rentable in the winter and during the summer and fall stand empty.
After walking through the center and making it to a Mexican restaurant for lunch (I know bad idea... Mexican in Poland, and it wasn't the greatest by any means,) we go to hit the inclined railway to go to the top of one of the last mountains standing fully in Poland and not shared. The view was amazing, but to get to the view, you have to walk through little shops hocking the same stuff as down below. Sad to see it turned into a "shopping mall" as John put it. People have such an estranged relationship with nature so often, that without these things present one forgets that they can actually ENJOY looking at mountains, breathing fresh air and seeing nature. (There were pictures of bears all around, which I'm led to assume inhabit the area. We didn't see any!)
Anyway... in short it was interesting. Nice to visit, but probably WAY better in the winter during ski season.

Warsaw... a bit late

Ok, so here's my blurb about Warsaw. I wasn't feeling in the greatest of moods when we left, as we left 2 hours (almost) after the time that I was told I would be picked up. The road to Warsaw is not a nice straight highway. It was crowded and hilly and curvy. The terrain reminded me a lot of Kentucky, which I thought surprisingly odd.
When we arrived in Warsaw, a feat in itself as it only took us 3 hours compared to the normal 4-5 it takes most people doing just a bit over the speed limit, Becky calls a few hotels and we end up staying at The Hilton. Pretty posh digs!
After we have "landed" at the hotel, thought about a nap and then been pulled back out by Becky, it's dinner time. We go to her favorite dessert place in the whole world... she likes desserts... which turns out to be this little restaurant with a 2nd floor so short and cozy. There are flowers painted on the ceiling, along with little angels and at one point John remarks "It's like going to an aunts house for dinner." The dinner was FANTASTIC! Crepes filled with herbed goat cheese. Then mango cake for dessert.
After dinner, it's out for a walk around the "Old Town." Majority of the "Old Town" if you know anything about history, was destroyed by the Germans during WWII and exodus. At one point, I see a beautifully painted building with a date marker which reads 1954. Old by Warsawian standards, I guess.
It was really amazing being there and experiencing all of the cool things, like the park benches set up around the city that play Chopin music while you sit on them. Or how about the church across from the Copernicus statue, where Chopin's heart is buried. (In the church, not in the statue.) While we were there, there was a memorial for the former President who was killed in the Katyn airplane crash back in April. I was walking along observing the memorial, when I was asked nicely to step off of the sidewalk and into the road (a pedestrian street) while passing in front of the Polish White House. Strange....
There are many MANY more amazing sites to be seen, and I can't wait to go back sometime when there is some daylight as the pictures came out a bit blurry due to the darkness and the moisture from our breaths that hung in the air.
The return drive was just as quick and the trip was pretty great. Just wanna go back and spend a bit longer seeking out the places that are referenced in "The Zoo Keeper's Wife" which I read recently before departing for Poland.

Wroclaw, Poland

Yesterday me, John and Becky (my new best friends in Poland) jumped in the car and drove the 270km to Wroclaw, Poland. When we left, it was gray. Then on the way we ran through rain and about the time that we actually passed the exit for the city we were headed to the clouds parted and it was blue skies. We get up the road a bit and in a twist of fate, are about to run out of gas. We pull of at a small town and get gas only to find out that we had actually passed Wroclaw by about 40km!!! (Imagining we had actually started out with a full tank of gas, we would not have run out of gas til AFTER the German border and would have spent a lovely afternoon in Germany, instead of Poland haha) Anyway, we go back and get there, find a parking spot and get out into the sunshine. BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!! The city has a main square like the one here in Krakow, but it's much smaller (still pretty huge) which makes it much more accessible. The buildings are all shades of different colors, absolutely stunning. The town of Wroclaw itself was started as a city on an island in the middle of the Vistula. We walk over the bridge and walk around there a bit. There are like 400 churches in this city. Ok, maybe not 40, but a lot! Did I happen to mention how beautiful it all is? It may be that we hadn't seen warm weather or the sun for that matter, in about a week if not longer here at home.
The city of Wroclaw is a gnome city. They have about 400 (this is a literal count now) little tiny 8 inch statues, strewn about the downtown and main square guarding treasure, drinking beer, wishing people good luck and just being gnomes. You know how those little buggers are!
We left at dark and made it home in 2 hours. For those of you converting the distance 270km in about 2 hours... yes, that means for the majority of the time we were doing between 100-115mph. Not the best part of the trip, but we made it safely. Gracias a Deus!!!

Real Week 1 Finished

Ok, so last week was just practice since it wasn't a full week, but real week 1 now finished. It was a good week.
A lot of learning has taken place over the week for both me and the students. Maybe more for me though.
My brain doesn't want to think of anything else to say for now, so that's it. Ugh.... maybe my brain will work tomorrow or Sunday.

School Today: Scandanavia

Today at school two really awesome things happened. One was awesome because it was amazing and the other was awesome because it was amazingly funny. Let's start with funny....
Ok, so if you are as old as I am (or older) or have a passion for Sesame Street you will know where I'm going with this.
The chef. The guy who is Swedish... can't cook a thing to save his life and "talks" like this "Uda, Fluda, Guda, Buda." You know,
a real Swedish accent. Watch this hilarious youtube video before continuing:
cut and paste this into your web bar, I can't get it to hyperlink http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UmUX68KtE
You will NOT be sorry you did!!!
Well I have this one little guy in class, Felix, from Sweden. He's the cutest little guy. I have not seen him come to school yet without his hair sticking up in random cowlick spots. he is also the one who started singing "If you like it put a ring on it" in class the other day. I begin listening to him talk today and although i have not noticed it until today, sure enough he is TOTALLY the Chef from Sesame Street or the Muppets or whatever... they've crossed paths so many times, the two shows, it's hard to keep them straight anymore. He's reading out of a textbook today and this is what I hear (try it with your best Swedish accent) "The-uh plant needs light-uh to make-uh the food-uh." It's just so amazingly awesome. Never EVER in my life had I ever thought that Sweeds actually talk that way. Low and behold, it is so!!!! Amazingly hilarious. It must be that he spends his summers and vacations in Sweden, where he picked up the accent and since it's just after summer vacation... voila-uh
Ok number 2 thing... and this is just awesome because it is. Today we go to hear a girl's choir from a small city in Norway who came to Poland for who knows what reason (I'm guessing maybe Auschwitz.... who knows.) Anyway, they put on a concert for the 3-7th graders. It was amazing! They sang folk songs and wedding marches. They sang traditional Norwegian hymns. A few girls even played musical instruments for us. It was pretty awesome. Too bad I don't have any video. They sang like angels and they were all super nice!!! It was really great!!! international schools really do have some pretty amazing opportunities... where in NOLA are you going to hear a small girl's choir come to sing for your school? haha... no seriously though, amazing day. Poppa de popcorna.

Weekend

Weekend 1 after the first week with kids is winding down. Had a very nice weekend, albeit a little boring. I have washed clothes, washed dishes, cleaned floors. The only thing I have left to do is fold laundry (after it dries), wash some more dishes I dirtied up and sit bored around the house. I have finished a book I brought home on Friday, which I had hoped would last me the weekend. Not having a tv feels liberating, but it also feels like a bother. I have read in the past 2 weeks the new book by Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna and The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. I plan on rereading the whole series, which at the rate of the first book should just take me about 4 more weekends (as there are only 4 more books in the series I have not recently reread.)
The weather is gray and yucky. I might have to just put up a good front anyway and bear it because I think I'm going to go out pretty soon and do something. Not sure what.. a little too cold for ice cream (it's 50 degrees) here. So, not sure what I will do.
I went out and did errands yesterday morning, so that 4 miles worth of walking is already complete haha.

All the single ladies

Today we were having snack, as is the customary ritual from 10:04-10:14 in the morning and I hear a kid in my class start singing. Imagine this tiny little Swedish boy with hair sticking up on the sides. He just starts singing to himself Beyonce's "All The Single Ladies." This of course spurs a few other kids into singing and one other boy says "I don't get that song. Why would you sing I'm a single lady? And what's up with that one part if you like it then you should have put a ring on it. What kind of ring? Where would you put it???"
So of course, all I can do is double over laughing hysterically! And for the rest of the day, I'll probably be singing "All the Single Ladies." Kids are just funny!
Oh, and I went to hang out with the K kids for a little while today. They are so cute!!! Tiny and pocket sized. Even though they are mainly a class of ESL speakers, they were hard at work! Good Job Grade 0B!!!!!

First Day Jitters

I didn't have the normal first day jitters going to school today. It may have been attributed to the fact that I knew I have a small class or possibly that I felt prepared. It may have been that I knew that they anticipated the change from Kindergarten to Grade 5 for me and so some of the pressure was off a bit. Probably it was a combination of all 3.
The day (my longest teaching/duty day of the week) actually went rather well. It literally flew by and at 3:30, I ws wondering how it had happened to get so late, so quickly.
The curriculum is new for me and there are a lot of changes in scheduling etc being made right now. However, the kids I have this year seem eager and competent. I don't want to jinx myself, but I think it might be a good year. Of course, it's far too early in the year to actually be able to tell if it will be or not.
As I always say though, if you can survive day 1, you can survive day 180!
Here's to hoping that the 178 days in between are as excellent as today was.