9/5/13

Last day of Green School and thank god too! Since there is no internet, I am using all of minutes up to talk to my parents. I definitely went over my limit of minutes for texting and calling for the month.

Sailing today was super calming unlike the other day. I actually fell asleep on the way back to camp. There was a light breeze and the lake was calm. The only thing that made the ride a little less relaxing was the gun shots coming from the forest where the Polish Army practices. But I laid on the bow of the boat and soaked up the warm sun. Greg (a 16 year boy) laid on the bow next to me and we spoke English the whole time. We talked about the differences between Poland and United States. He has never been to America so he was very curious about many things. Greg asked me about: sports like football, soccer, and basketball; bread, cakes, and candies; peoples’ personalities, hair styles, clothes; alcohol, drinking age, and how drinking isn’t as openly accepted like in Poland; and weather patterns.  It was interesting to hear his point of views towards America and our culture.

Later we broke into teams and went on a scavenger hunt around the camp. We named our group the Wild Cats because the girls liked that name in English. We went around solving riddles, taking pictures, and finding clues. We ended up winning 1^st place overall and our prize was a diploma. It was actually fun and I solved all the picture problems by observing the plants in the pictures and looking around the camp for the same plants. One cool puzzle was having to come up with a way to show the Olympic symbol with our bodies. I came up with the idea to use our legs because other teams I assumed used their arms. We also had to find a wooden statue in the forest and take a group silly picture around it.

Stephanie Raquel

9/4/13

I never realized how skilled I am at kayaking. We drove to the lake where it is warm and has small channels weaving between the forests. No one wanted to be my partner though because they were afraid to speak English with me. When the headmaster said for everyone to choose their partners… the boys all chose girls and then it was just me standing alone. Sunny was chosen but some quiet guy. I was standing there, alone, on the grass. Talk about an embarrassing moment. The headmaster told the guy also standing alone to be a man and ask me to be his partner. The boy finally gave in as everyone watched him walk over to me.

Turns out we were a good team and he spoke pretty good English. He was just embarrassed in front of his friends to have to kayak with the foreigner. I guess this is going to happen to me a lot. I am the intimidating foreigner to them even though they are intimidating to me because there are more of them.

I just remembered, the weirdest thing happened to me after breakfast!! I was sitting in my bed taking a cat nap while Sunny was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. Then there was a knock at the door so I pushed the covered off of me and started to get up. A boy, 16 years old, then opens me door and walks right into my room and straight up to the edge of my bed. He just stands there and stares at me. I said, “Yes?” He said hesitantly, “are you in 1M?” I said, “No.” He stands there for another minute contemplating something then turns around and walks out of my room. I guess in Poland they don’t know they need to wait for the response after the knock before they walk into someone’s room. Now I know to keep my door locked.

We had to do team building exercises like your team of 6 people all have to stand on 1 crate for 10 seconds. We also had to make a huge machine by each person touching the others, making a noise, and having an action. It was a very interesting looking and sounding machine. Another game was having to get your team on the other side of the rope by going over the rope. You couldn’t touch the rope or use any other types of material besides your teammates. We were being timed so the guys on our team lifted all the girls and threw us over the rope. Then we had to lift the guys over the rope. It was mind boggling how to get a 175 pound guy over the rope with just us girls. The best game though was when we played a hand game. Everyone sits in a giant circle. You place both your hands on the peoples’ knees next to you. You have to watch their hands closely because 1 tap of the hand means passing the energy but 2 taps on the knee means bouncing the energy back so it goes back the other way. I ended up winning though! Being a very observant person really paid off. I can’t wait to play this game at home.

After all the exercises, Sunny and I stayed with the staff by the fire pit. The staff gladly spoke English with us. This man Greg was an English professor so he was more than happy to speak English with me. All of the staff and I played a card game called Dabble. On the cards are pictured. Each card has at least one picture the same on another card. There are only so many pictures total so there are many combinations. There are 5 different games within this major game. We played it in English which was entertaining because the staff didn’t know all the pictures’ English names. I actually lost a few of the games but it was a really fun time!

At night I sat with the staff around the fire pit while they played English songs on their guitars and drums. We sand “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele and “Hit Me Baby One More Time” by Brittany Spears. The polish kids sat around staring at us and we just laughed when we forgot some of the words to the songs.

What a great day!!

Stephanie Raquel

9/3/13

Today was actually a pretty good day. I went sailing on the very windy, cold lake. I wore 2 pairs of pants, 3 jackets, and kept my hands in my pockets a much as possible. While on the lake, the waves were choppy and the windy was whipping around. My hair kept getting in my face so I tucked it into my hood. The captain was a crazy guy! He would scream, jokingly, whenever the boat would tip on its side. Sailboats are designed to tip on its sides because it has to move easily with the wind. I got to steer the boat for a little but I really didn’t want to because it was hard to steer with the wind whipping from each direction. You can’t keep the boating going in one direction. The boat had to keep moving back and forth on the horizon. Sunny gets motion sickness easily but she held up really well. On the ride, the captain, his skipper, and the other girls were speaking Polish so I was left to my thoughts along with the captain’s occasional scream.

Once we were back on land, Sunny and I went to Cabin 3 where we played a speed game with the other kids. For 1 minute, people have to walk up to each other and introduce themselves. Everyone is practically new to the school and to their classes which leveled the playing field in order for me to make friends. Kids came up to me, sometimes Sunny and me, and asked us questions in English. The teacher said it is a good chance to practice your English. I didn’t mind the bad grammar. I was just so thankful I was having some interaction with other people.

I discovered that NO ONE knows where New Jersey is located. People need to study their United States maps because I am highly insulted!! Everyone asked if I was close to New York City…Glad there know where New York is located. The teacher didn’t even know where New Jersey is located. That is pathetic to me.

The stars here are gorgeous! Looking up into the night sky, I see about triple the amount of stars here then I have ever seen in Margate. I never realized how many stars there are in the sky. Sure I know there are an infinite amount but it was very beautiful to see some together in the sky.

Poland has a lot of nice things here but I have to say food brands is definitely not one of them. Food brands in America like Hershey’s and Schneider’s are so much better than the Polish brands.

Lying in bed I still feel like I am on the sail boat. I hope tomorrow is as good as it was today. Don’t let the good day momentum stop.

Stephanie Raquel

9/2/13

My second day of Green School and I’m still not happy. It is a little bit better then yesterday but not the best. On my bed I can feel the medal springs under my body. This is super uncomfortable. This room is really crappy too. There is no heat so I have to take extremely hot showers to warm up. There is no wifi in this cabin but in other cabins the kids have wifi. In order to call my parents, I have been using all my minutes up. I call my mom upset, but I won’t tell my host family. As far as my host family is concerned, “I’m great and everyone is great here!”

The weather is freezing here. Rainy, windy, and cold. I have to wear 2 pairs of pants, 3 layers of jackets, and sometimes gloves. A warm shower definitely does the trick at night.

Today is a big blur to me. I built an airplane with a group of girls. It looked more like a kite to me by the end. Plus the girls didn’t know what to do so I was trying my best to communicate to them. They were more concerned on making it look pretty then having it function.

Later we went to a class where everyone learned CPR. The teacher talked in Polish so I ended up falling asleep because I didn’t understand anything.

After dinner, we went to the gym to play sports. My team in volleyball dominated. The kids were surprised I played so well. I’m sure I would have made Gina very proud if she saw me play. But one thing that is different in Polish gym then in America..they have very different warm ups. They run around the perimeter of the gym swinging their arms. I guess it’s to warm up their arm muscles but in America we definitely do not do that. It was extremely funny to me to watch the kids do these exercises.

The Headmaster of my school taught 4 of us about a poem written by Seamon Hearey. He is known as the greatest poet of all times, won many awards, a proud Irish man, and sadly passed away this year. We read the poem “A Call” which was about the anticipation of death. Death causes you to love deeper because it represents how short life can be for anyone. Everything is only temporary. This made me think about the exchange; it sucks now but that will only temporarily last. By the end of the exchange I will be crying about how I DON’T want to go home. Soon it will be okay!

After supper, Sunny and I hid in our room. I am tired and it is freezing outside! It’s about 7 degrees Celsius. But sadly a teacher came looking for us and told us we had to go out and find something to do. We ended up going to this drum session in the basement of one of the cabins. It was actually really fun and the drum teachers spoke English to us. Sunny and I beat on the tops of the drums until our hands hurt. We were the last ones in the room. One of the drum teachers with long dreadlocks did a very interesting trick on me. He took this medal bowl and cork stick, placed in on my chest as I laid on the floor, rubbed the edges of the bowl gently with the cork stick, and the bowl vibrated my chest. I could feel it vibrate my heart and my chest. It was the most interested feeling I have ever felt. He said it relaxes people as they focus on the vibrations that are sent through their bodies. It was nice to focus on something other then my frustration with the language.

Honestly, Sunny and I cried to each other again in our room. We are extremely homesick and the lack of friends here…it adds on to our shoulders. I am very lucky to have Sunny as a friend. We sat together crying about how we missed our moms and we didn’t realize how hard this exchange actually is on people. Sure people warned us about the heartache and frustration but when you live it, it is completely different. You never understand truly how it is to be frustrated until you go on exchange to a country where you can’t speak the language.

I absolutely tip my hat off to all exchanges around the world right now! Stay strong everyone..I hear it gets better!

Stephanie Raquel

9/1/13

I’m on my way to Northern Poland to a city called Gizycko. It is about a 7 hour bus ride from Lublin. Sunny and I don’t know anyone except the Headmaster. People speak English but they don’t want to talk to us. It’s definitely overwhelming to be surrounded by people who only speak Polish. It’s also hard to even have English thoughts when you only hear Polish. The girl behind me constantly hits my chair and speaks obnoxiously loud. 5 more hours to go!

We stopped at a gas station and there was no toilet paper in the bathroom! I don’t know how every girl went to the bathroom without toilet paper. Apparently it is common for the bathroom to not have toilet paper. I need to buy packs of tissues to carry around with me.

I met a girl who is very nice. Some girls here, I’ve noticed, wear all black. Definitely not the style I’ll be wearing this year. I love colors! (Just like my mom.) Her friends that she introduced us to seemed nice also. Sunny and I kept saying to each other that we can’t wait to understand Polish so we know what everyone is saying. Sometimes I understand simple words they say like a number or girl (Osiem =8 and dziewczyna= girl) I hope I make friends on this trip. I can’t help but sleep the whole bus ride though because I haven’t caught up on my sleep yet.

When I first got to the school, everyone was starring at me. Boys, girls, teachers all starred. A few people even knew who I was! It was strange when a man in a red jacket walked up to me and said, “Hola.” I said, “Hello?” He said, “Hello, are you Stephanie?” I said “yes.” Then he walked away nodding his head. Looking around at the kids; some girls are pretty but the guys aren’t very good looking.

It is FREEZING here! My teeth are chattering constantly. Thank goodness I brought my North Face jacket with me! I should have brought me UGGS too. My feet are freezing in my flats. It is already 10 degrees Celsius which is about 43 degrees F.

At a restaurant when we stopped again, I saw empty seats at a table so I asked the kids sitting down if we could sit in these empty seats. Shockingly, the kids did not speak any English. A young boy finally spoke up and told us to sit down. We all just starred at each other because we couldn’t communicate with each other. Apparently these kids were in the first class meaning they are 15 years old so they don’t have enough practice with English. No one else spoke to us though. I am thankful to have Sunny with me because I would be super lonely without her.

Towards the end of the night, people finally started talking to us! They are being forced but honestly it’s better then nothing. Sunny and I are trying really hard to put ourselves out there. We walk right up to girls and introduce ourselves. The kids may not understand but it shows we are being friendly. We realized though that our class, 2B, isn’t at this green school. We are in class with 17 year old kids but at this camp are 14-16 year old kids. This sucks because I really was looking forward to making friends with kids in my class.

I hope tomorrow is better!

Stephanie Raquel