Cześć. Jestem Abby. I am an exchange student from the United States.
I have been here for a month and everything is every different. I live with a host family. They are nice and take they have taken me to many different places so far (which I am very grateful for). I have done many different things such as mushroom hunting in the East, gone to Torun, and language camp in Gdansk. Poland is every different from the United States.
I have been taking polish classes after school almost every day besides Tuesday’s and Friday’s. The teachers are very nice and understanding. I am really enjoying the classes. Sometimes instead of just sitting in class we go out and use our skills that we have learned. School has been very different here. School is boring because we don’t do anything. I usually just sit in class and do nothing. I think that just sitting in class all day is not helping at all with us learning the language. It doesn’t help if the teacher is speaking fast and you don’t know what to do. I think that this should be changed. The other exchange students do different things instead of going to the regular classes. If we could do something where we don’t have to go all the classes or change how we learn in the school that would be better.
A typical week schedule would be to wake up around 5 a.m. and get ready for school. Leave the house around 7:15 a.m., ride my bike 2.5 miles to school. Once I get to the school, then I would go to class and it doesn’t start until 8 a.m. I go to all my classes which are math, english, french, p.e. geography, and etc. My class schedule changes every day, which means that I have different classes every day. Lunch here is a little different; there are no lunch rooms which means that you have to pack your lunch or by a sandwich. The typical thing is to eat in between classes; we usually have two 25 minute breaks. I don’t understand anything right now so it is hard. All of my classes are in polish and I usually just sit there. Even my French and English classes translate to polish. So right now, I don’t have to do homework unless if I understand it. Since I don’t understand anything in my classes I bring a book to study such as my SAT or ACT book. I am also doing Judo on Tuesday and Thursday after school too.
I love the classes; everyone is nice even though some don’t speak English. I also workout at a gym and swim too. On the weekends I usually just workout or hang out with my friends. Sometimes on the weekends we go to places. The most recent trip I toke was to Gdansk. That was nice, but it was kinda boring. I really do appreciate everything that they are doing but sometimes we don’t understand each other which is becoming a problem. So far living with a different family has been very hard. Sometimes I feel that they don’t get me. But I think that it’s changing for the better. I recently cooked for them and that was nice (even though I made a bad cake) they still said that the other food was good. I also liked talking to the counselor. Sometimes I just need a break from everything and to talk to someone else. She is very nice and I enjoyed talking to her. The first month has been a roller coaster with everything. I hope that the doubts that I have change. For the next month I would like to get closer to my host family and spend more time with them. I am enjoying Poland and mostly everything that it has to offer.
My future plans are to learn polish, travel to more parts of Poland, and make new friends. For now, it has only been a month and it has been a crazy packed one; and with that I hope it continues to get better.
With that I say Dziękuję and Do widzenia (Thank you and Good day).