Winter Break Check-In

Every winter, Polish students are given a two week break. When this break occurs is based determine geographically and rotates through the different regions. Our winter break was last week, and this week, making today the middle point. Two weeks is the longest time we have off from school the whole year, including Christmas! And even though we had only been at school for six weeks, everyone was ready for the break.

I spent last week visiting the American teachers in Tisovec, SK. I didn't really do a whole lot of activities, but it was such a blessing to relax and to have so many other Americans around. It was the most I have seen since Thanksgiving! They still had school, so I spent most of the days at home reading, knitting, sleeping, or just listening to podcasts.

In the evenings we did a variety of different things. On Tuesday they have their "Friday Night Lights" Bible Study. A bunch of the girl students came over to one of the houses of the missionaries and they watch an episode of this television show, and then talk about some topic. It was really cool to see the girls get so into the movie. Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, so we did potluck dinner with all of the missionaries and had a devotion. It was my second Ash Wednesday without ashes. I missed the tradition of going to church, but I wouldn't have been able to understand it anyhow being that it would have been in Slovak, and I can't pretend to understand Slovak. Thursday I got to join in on a pizza dinner with one of the first year mentorship groups. The students were a lot of fun and seeing them interact with their teachers was awesome. Friday was a relaxing night of just hanging out. I don't know if they always do so much together, but it was great for me to have so much social time since that is something I miss the most.

Their situation is very different from mine here in Poland. They teach at a bilingual school, so their students take REAL classes in English, not just English as a foreign language. Therefore, the American teachers teach classes like religion, biology, history, and even physical education and they have a more tangible authority and give REAL grades. Their school is also a boarding school to which the students commute for the work week. This gives them the evenings to interact with the students, whereas my students disappear to their various villages to be with their families. Seeing a different school caused me to think a lot about my placement and I wondered where I would prefer to be if I could change/do it again. One is not better than the other, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Now that I am settled and assimilated in Poland, I think I would stay here, but if I knew nothing of Poland, settling into Slovakia would have been wonderful too.

So this is now week two of winter break. This week will be more active than last. One of my closest friends from Roanoke is coming for the week and we're going to Wittenberg! I'm super excited to get my Lutheran history fix. She will also come back to Cieszyn with me for a few days.

The break has been wonderful and I am looking forward to the rest of it. I am somewhat nervous about starting school again because transitioning from Christmas break was very difficult. Hopefully that fact that it will be March will make a difference.

Oh and the weather here. Snow, snow, and more snow. Haven't seen the grass since 2009.

Peace,
Colleen