Young and Youthful

Hello people.

About 15 minutes ago, I was on Facebook. I saw all these links my friends had posted to their blogs, and made the impulsive decision to create a blog.

Impulse seems to rule everything I do. It's the reason I got a Facebook account, the reason I decided to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 for the second time back in November (best movie ever by the way). It's also the reason that I'm living in Poland for four months of teaching. Kind of like a productive gap year.

You see, two years ago, I was a little baby sixteen year old, and my idea was that after school, I would go to University, get a double degree in History and Anthropology, and become a Journalist. Anyway, it was a Wednesday, and they were doing a career seminar in the Library. I didn't feel much like going to my elective, where there were way too many Year 9s, so even though the idea of a year overseas wasn't something I was much interested in, I went anyway. There were no Year 9s in the Library.

And one hour later, I decided that I was going to Poland. That nothing in the world would stop me from doing it, that that afternoon, I went to the Bookshop that my parents own, and I told them I was going to Poland... They laughed. They didn't believe I'd do it. I showed them.

Months passed, and I didn't sway from the idea. I didn't really want to go to University, not right after High School anyway. I was seduced by what Poland had to offer. Although at that point, I still knew nothing about the country. In my mind, I imagined it might be something like 'the Sound of Music', even though it's set in a completely different country, even though it's not 1936, even though I'm one of those unfortunate people who can't sing to save my life, despite the fact that my greatest wish is for life to be like a musical.

I couldn't wait, I wanted to go to Poland then and there, and not wait another one-and-a-half years to finish High School and deal with a pile of stress over NCEA and UE and all that crap. But I waited, because I had no other choice. I told everyone I knew that I was going to Poland, and it makes my head spin how many times I was asked "why Poland?" Well why not Poland? Just because no one ever thinks of it when they think Europe. They think of Germany or France or Spain. Someone even had the nerve to ask "what's in Poland?" Obviously they've never been there. Of course, hypocritical me at that point knew nothing of Poland despite my determination to go there, so all I could answer with was "the biggest statue of Jesus in the world". Turns out all the locals hate that statue. They think it's the tackiest thing in the world although I personally think it's pretty cool.

And so 2010 was the year to plan. I applied to Lattitude Global Volunteering. I had the interview. I was accepted. Then it was a matter of waiting for my placement details. There was an orientation meeting. I met the other NZ volunteers destined for Poland like myself. I learnt of my placement. I was in Poznan, an attractive city, just over the border from Berlin. I was to teach at a semi-private Primary and lower Secondary School built just after Poland was freed from their Communist oppressors. I wrote to the school and from them, learnt who my host family were to be. I wrote to my host family. It turned out that they were the most perfect people in the world for me, and in February 2011, I left the Land of the Long White Cloud, for Poland.

Two months have past and my Polish is still very limited. I crave a native English speaker. I'm at the point where I'd even take a loud obnoxious American who keeps complaining about how much better it is in "the greatest country in the world". But instead, I met a cool American back in a hostel in Krakow who's lived in Poland for eight years and cooked us all this free food on the BBQ.

At this point, I haven't done as much travelling as I should have, but you have to understand that when I got there it was very VERY cold. We're talking minus 20 degrees on a daily basis. Slowly, the weather got better, and now, it's even green and pretty. 20 degrees everyday. So far in Poland, I've been to Wroclaw (pronounced Vroh-tswaav) and Krakow (the only city in the world I've been to that I would describe as magical). I also went to Berlin and regretted that I only had 2 days there, because you need a lifetime to see it all.

And now I'm in Budapest for my Easter break. I'll tell you what it's like later when I've seen more of it, but the hostel's pretty cool, though a bit small and crowded, and they overbooked so they should be giving some people the boot soon. Not me though, I booked 3 weeks ago.

And so to conclude, because I have been talking way too long, I love Poland. Homesickness has been a bitch to me, but I try and ignore her. Maybe one day, she'll learn to love it here as I do. I love my adorable students, my host family, the other volunteers, the woman at the bakery near the school. Even the random strangers I meet from time to time. I mean, any of you who read this has to admit that what I'm doing is cool, compared to going straight to University and waiting until you're old and boring before you travel.

Youth is for being young. I'll study next year.
Do Widzenia (Polish for goodbye).