Week 2: July 10 - 17

We have completed another week here at Nadwarciański Gród and it's safe to say that we absolutely love it here!
Everyone has gotten into schedule at the camp. For some that means getting up early to fish or pick mushrooms, for others that means late nights up talking on one of our patios. For most of us, however, that involves tons of walking, bike-riding, and the occasional silly picture:

We started this week off with a karaoke session with the kids on Sunday evening. It was so much fun! We sang tons of Polish pop and rock songs (or tried to, at least) and even a few Abba and Queen hits! 
Later, we celebrated the birthday of two of our American staff members, Magda and Rachel. It was so kind of the Polish staff to go out of their way to celebrate in such a big way. There was tons of cake, champagne, and chocolate. We had another birthday to celebrate - Ken's birthday - later on in the week on Tuesday and it was just as great a time - that is, until the Polish staff rushed in dressed as vampires to spook us in preparation for the next day's Halloween celebration.



That's right - despite all that birthday cheer, the biggest celebration of the week was definitely our Halloween party on Wednesday. Why celebrate Halloween in July, you ask? It, like the Fourth of July, is by and large an American holiday, so we wanted to show the Polish students what it was like. The American staff went all-out to try to give our Polish kids the best Halloween party they have ever seen and it was a success! The staff and students alike dressed up in their finest - or, for some, bloodiest - Halloween outfits. We then organized a variety of activities for the students to participate in, including fortune-telling, cookie-decorating, bobbing for apples, and crafts. Also, we decorated and staffed one of the creepiest haunted houses ever. It was so much fun! We finished up the party with another staff bonfire, complete with bigos and kielbasa.

Certainly, the next day we were all exhausted from all the Halloween festivities. However, the majority of us managed to get out on an awesome kayak ride down the Warta River, which neighbors the camp. The river was surprisingly shallow - shallow enough, in fact, for some of us to get stuck during our trip - but the trip was amazing. After a few hours of rowing, we stopped at a local restaurant for a break before heading back to camp. 




Fridays are typically school days for us at the camp. However, we all went on a field trip to the nearest larger town, Wieluń. It was fun just to get out and walk around a town after having spent the majority of the past two weeks in the woods. Afterward, we all went to another aqua park. The kids certainly had fun swimming!

To compensate for time lost on the field trip, we had classes on Saturday. However, it is clear that students and staff alike are eager to celebrate Polish Day tomorrow!

Week 1: July 1 - July 9

Week 1:
     Although it feels like it's been months, we have just completed our first week of classes here at Nadwarciański Gród in Załęcze Wielkie, Poland. It has been an eventful but absolutely amazing week at the camp, which itself is gorgeous. Here the general scoop on the major happenings of the last week here as we, the American staff members, have arrived and started teaching our various classes:

     After a few very long plane rides complete with some delays, we all managed to meet up in the airport in Warsaw on the morning of Friday, July 1st. Soon after, we made our way to the hostel, Dom Przy Rynku, which was located right near Stare Miasto (Old Town). It just so happens that we were in Warsaw on the day that Poland was celebrating its assumption of the presidency of the European Union. Despite the rainy weather, it was amazing to celebrate with the city on our first day there! There was even a concert going on outside our hostel.

     The next morning, we got up early and headed off to the Muzeum Maria Skłodowska-Curie. There, we learned about Maria Skłodowska-Curie's life and scientific discoveries.
Afterward, we loaded up the bus and left for Załęcze Wielkie.


     We were all so excited when we made it to Nadwarciański Gród because we were greeted by about 100 students performing an adorable dance for us! They were so good, we vowed to have the students teach us the dance at some point. (They did.) 
Afterwards, we were welcomed by the Polish staff with an absolutely amazing dinner spread, complete with a few traditional Polish dishes. It was great to gather as a group and collect ourselves after all the traveling we had done in the preceding days. 



     The next day, we had an opening ceremony. Despite the rain, all the American and Polish staff members gathered under the awning of the classroom building and formally introduced ourselves to each other and the students. Afterward, we all attended a performance showcasing the traditional dances and garb of various regions of Poland. It was so cool to get a taste of Poland's eclectic traditions so early on in our trip! Although the ceremony and dance performance both were great, it was clear that we were all eager for classes to start so we could get to work. 



     That being said, Monday was the first day of classes. By all accounts, they went great!
     Here's a brief word about how those classes are organized: We, the American staff members, are teaching and assistant-teaching a variety of classes for the students. Specifically, we each teach 4 periods of art, music, and theater classes every morning. In the afternoon, students attend conversation and sports sessions after obiad, or what we Americans typically call lunch.
     After having been at the camp for only two days, we already had a reason to celebrate on Monday night: America's Independence Day, colloquially known as the Fourth of July! Since part of the mission of this camp is to give our students a taste of American culture, we absolutely had to celebrate it! So, a group of teaching assistants dressed the cafeteria up in reds, whites and blues.

     Later Monday evening, we all hung out in a large tent area with the kids, who performed little songs and skits for us. 


Afterward, we roasted several hundred marshmallows with the kids so they could make a quintessential American campfire treat: s'mores. For the majority of the students, it was their first time trying s'mores!


     We also had a staff campfire during the night. It was a great opportunity for us to talk to our Polish counterparts and, of course, eat some smoked kielbasa. 
 
     Early on in the week, we had some time to learn some fun camp cheers and songs with the kids. The students taught us the cute dance they performed for us when we arrived at Nadwarciański Gród and in exchange, we taught them the Hokey Pokey! 


     Speaking of dancing, there was a disco for the kids in the courtyard of the classroom building here at the camp on Friday. It was a fun time for us to get together and just dance. Some of the American staff was particularly surprised to learn that the Polish kids listen to the majority of the songs that are popular back home in the U.S. And we were particularly excited to get to dance to a few polka-style dance songs, complete with accordions and all. 


     As if that's not enough, we finished the week of off with a trip to visit the shrine of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa at the Monastery of Jasna Góra. By all accounts, the shrine was beautiful. Afterward, everyone stopped by for a boat tour of caverns at a nearby silver mine. It was very chilly and narrow down there! But everyone got a chance to warm up at a local aqua park, where the kids and staff both had an awesome time!


     Well, that's what we have been up to here at Nadwarciański Gród. So far, we're having a great time getting to know our students and the Polish staff!