A Wonderful Christmas Time

Foreword: The past two weeks have been a blur of Christmas and Italian travels. Blogging about all of this is going to take a long time, so please be patient.

Before heading out for my Christmas journey to Italy, I was able to celebrate Christmas with my students at collegues at LOTE/GTE. All of the following festivities took place on the Tuesday before Christmas, which was the last day of school for 2009. The first part of this special day was the assembly. There were two (one for GTE and LOTE); I opted to only go the second one since I mostly taught LOTE students, and it allowed me to sleep in an extra hour. The assembly lasted about an hour and had many different sections. The choir sang Polish Christmas songs first. They were absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately, the only words I understood were "gloria in excelsis deo," but I still loved to listen to them sing. Next was a nativity play put on by the GTE theater club. Unlike other nativity plays I have watched in the past, this one began with Adam and Eve and somehow made its way through the Bible Jesus' birth. I am still a little confused on how this happened, but it seems like they did a good job. Then everyone who was at the assembly sang some Polish songs; again all I knew was "gloria in excelsis deo," but I still enjoyed singing along with what I knew! The final part was a reading done by three of my LOTE third graders. I had no idea what they said, but it was about Christmas. By the end of the assembly my head was spinning from trying to understand so much Polish! I was happy to move onto the 3B class party where I was sure I would get at least a little English.

This party was by far my favorite part of the whole, and I was so thankful for getting to attend. This class went all out in order to create a special Christmas atmosphere for their party. They had pushed all of the tables into one big one, covered it with a table cloth, and then decorated it will food, juice, tea, chocolate, festive napkins, and other trinkets. It was beautiful. After the class teacher welcomed us, we ate cake, drank tea, and talked. Someone translated for me every once in a while, so I could keep up. But for once, I was not frustrated at all by not understanding. I could tell when they were joking and the sentiment of what they were saying. Even in Polish, they can still make me laugh!

Next we shared Christmas wishes with each other. We do nothing like this in America; the closest thing I could compare this to is doing affirmations with campers after a week at Lutherlyn. At each place setting there was an oplatek, which essentially looks like a large rectangular communion wafer with a Christmas image stamped onto it. In turn, I spoke with each of my students offering them a wish and receiving one from them. I was wished things such as, "a wonderful Christmas," "safe travels to Italy," "a good New Year," "a handsome boyfriend," "a kind husband," and the scariest one of all "many, many children." Sharing such a special moment with my students was amazing and was one of my favorite moments of the whole year so far. I felt like a part of their community, part of their family. They even invited me back next year! I told them that I would start saving for my plane ticket.

The party wrapped up with a gift exchange, Secret Santa style. They got each other mostly books, and I even got a small gift. I was extremely surprised and very flattered. After some more talking and a class photo, the party broke up. The students went to go mingle with the students from the other classes, and I headed down to the teacher's Christmas party.

Now I thought this would be short affair, with finger food, chatting, and maybe a speech by the director. I was wrong. The party ended up being a full-fledged three course meal for all the teachers and staff in the Aula. The tables in the Aula were arranged into one long rectangle and was set with a place for everyone. The directors sat at the head of the table and everyone else filled in around. We sang songs (with lyric sheets this time so I could follow along!), listened to several speeches, and then ate. The food that was served was from the traditional Polish Christmas meal. The soup was a beet broth with meat pierogi-like things in it. The next course was a potato salad with fried fish, and the last course was a special cake, but I didn't have room left for any! We also did a gift exchange where each person got a present based on a number he/she drew out of a large bowl. I got a "special" number and a "special" gift, a Polish Christmas CD and a Polish cookbook in English! I was very excited!

Sadly I had to leave early in order to catch my train out, but when I was saying goodbye to the director she said, "I know that you couldn't understand much today, but I trust that you were able to understand the feeling and the warm emotion of Christmas." And she couldn't have been more right! I was linguistically lost for most of the day, but left school feeling more connected and more a part of their community than ever before.

Blessings,
Colleen