The Solidarnosc Museum, Gdansk

At the beginning of March (I know, I know, I am SO behind) Anneke, another volunteer living close by, and I went to the Solidarnosc Museum near the centre of Gdansk. In all truth, I knew nothing about Solidarnosc before setting foot in this museum, but I left with great empathy for all Poles who lived through this time of suppression and scarcity, and a massive respect for those who drove the change and stand for freedom that was at the core of this movement. I also left kind of wanting to have a career in designing museum exhibitions...

Hard hats of shipyard workers from the beginning of the Solidarnosc movement, affixed to the ceiling

The original plywood boards outlining the twenty-one commands of the shipyard strikers

...I mean, this museum was so well designed. It was multimedia, interactive, and - most importantly, it not only presented information by giving you screeds and screeds to read. Each room was unique, interesting, and conveyed its own message through form and aesthetics, and let the artefacts, footage and photographs predominantly speak for themselves - the audio guide also helped. Seriously the best  museum I've been to so far.

Wrocław - Miniatures, Gnomes and a Panorama

Wrocław is one of my favourite cities in Poland, and this weekend ranks as one of the most fun and memorable. We spent about half a day just exploring old town, and came across so many little bronze statues of gnomes doing different things. A jolly old gnome laden down with croissants on the window sill of a bakery. One carrying pails of water across it's shoulders as it sat on a fire hydrant. Climbing up lampposts, slouched against walls, and generally causing mischief - these little men were a delight to find, and truly make Wrocław unique.

A little bit more Gdansk & a Warsaw Weekend

The Gdansk shipyards

Me looking like a red marshmallow in my Antarctica jacket - oh, in front of the Gdansk skyline

On Wednesday after school this week, one of the teachers, with her husband, took me to a few places of historical interest around Gdansk. First was to a fortress or something that you could see across the river, then to a hill up behind the train station in Gdansk. There are some old bunkers in (on??) the hill, well as a sculpture of a wavy red cross erected in 2000 to bless Gdansk throughout the new millennium. 

My favourite part of the Gdansk skyline are the cranes you can see in the shipyards. To me, they're synonymous with Gdansk, and when I see them, they not only embody all that Gdansk is, with it's economic growth, it's ties to the sea, and it's function as Poland's trade gateway to the world, but it also symbolises a bit of Gdansk's past.

Auchwitz & Krakow Weekend

After taking about an eight hour overnight bus ride (commitment) down to Krakow on Thursday, three of my friends and I got up nice and early on Friday to go on a tour to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. It truly was an eye-opening and sickening experience.

 We started in Auschwitz we we got systematically shown through the major parts of the museum. It took a little while for it to hit me, the gravity of what had happened here, and it took even longer for me to comprehend that this had happened to actual, once living, human beings. I still struggle to comprehend that it was caused by human beings. It was a little bit harder to go into each building as the tour progressed, knowing that some other horrible reality was inside. But at the same time, I felt obliged to. If I can pay respect to the countless victims of this terrible event by hearing their stories told and seeing the remains of what happened to them, then, in this small way, I will do it. 

First Taste of Gdansk & Sopot

A revolutionary apartment block

Zaspa as the sun goes down

I and another volunteer, Anneke, trained to Gdansk where we were picked up by our first host family. The next day our host mum, Magda, took us to the pier at Zaspa, Gdansk, and along the beach. The craziest thing that I couldn't get over was the fact that there was SNOW on the sand. Those two things just don't go together for me.

Yes, it's snow...

Warsaw O Week

I know you would normally associate an Orientation Week (or O Week, for some) with university, but  as many of my friends and others at my age head off to tertiary education, I can't draw parallels between what they are doing and what I am doing, except for maybe this one week at the start where you learn a whole lot on both an academic and social level.

I got very excited every time it snowed for about the first two weeks...

For me, 'O Week' started on Sunday at Warsaw Airport, where all the Australian and New Zealand volunteers from their long haul flights met with our in-country co-ordinator, Beata, and some previous volunteers, who were happy to share their stories and advice from their Lattitude experiences. Bleary-eyed and nervous, but keen to get stuck in, we all made hesitant conversation as we were transported to Wilson Hostel, in Plac Wilsona, which was to be our accommodation for the next seven days.

Our training started the following day from 9 till 6 at the British Council in the centre of town. The first day everyone's body clocks were confused as the sun went down at 4:30 - it felt suddenly like 9pm, as that was when the sun had set back home, in the height of summer, that the others had left behind only a few days ago. Our day of training usually consisted of 45 minute lessons in the morning which covered teaching topics such as classroom management or how to incorporate picture books into teaching English, but also more background knowledge like Poland's education system. Monday after lunch saw us split into two groups and observing english lessons at the British Council (teaching English is their primary concern, after all) then constructing lesson plans for the following day, where each of us had an activity to lead in the lesson. On every other afternoon of the week, the group of volunteers would collectively lead the lesson, then the English teacher would provide feedback and together we would construct the lesson plan for the next day.

A strawberry marshmallow from the
bubble mall

The morning lessons were usually fun, if not informative, but the afternoon lessons, when we actually got to be in the classroom, were probably the most valuable. They gave us some confidence in teaching before we got plunged in the deep end at our placements.

But O Week, of course, is perhaps 40% about what you learn, and 60% about who you meet. Our group of volunteers is a great bunch, who all got along really well from the start. We spent our lunch breaks in the "bubble mall"(a.k.a Złote Tarasy) across the street from where we had our course, and whiled away our evenings dancing, yarning and generally having fun in the hostel. Everyone is friends with everyone else, and there aren't any cliques or anything at all. Everyone just wants to get along with everyone else and have a good time. So that's what we do :)

Neon above the Polish restaurant we went to

On one night, Beata took us to Fotoplasticon, a place where you can see old photos of Warsaw from the post-WWI period. Street scenes, pictures of parades and the Fire Brigade give the viewer a unique insight into the bygone days of the capital, and gave me a newfound appreciation for the place and its history.

Another highlight of the week was iceskating. The rink was housed inside a massive stadium - a concept never even considered by the majority of us. My friend caught a very well-timed video of us skating - check it out below... :P (I'm the one in the yellow jacket on the right)

We also had the chance to sample Polish culinary delights with a dinner at a traditional restaurant on the Tuesday night. Appetisers consisted of cheeses and sausages, a caprese salad and sour cabbage. After this I was pretty full, but main was tasty enough to squeeze and extra bit in: marinated chicken or fish and salads. A top time, I'd say. The group (which we soon came to call the Gap Family) had known each other for just three days by this point, but awkward silences were far from our minds. It's surprising how quickly you get to know people, when you're with them all day every day.

By the end of the week, we had made promises to visit each other around Poland, as a way to see both the country and each other. As we each went off to our respective host families, or caught trains to other parts of Poland, any speed wobbles we may of had at the start were now more or less eliminated. With ties firmly established in this country and clear tasks ahead of us - to teach English - I think it's fair to say that we were ready for the real adventure to begin.

Love,

Addie xoxo

How it All Began...

My adventure isn't going to start when I get on the plane, oh no. It started waay before that, in March, would you believe. I remember frantically rushing around trying to complete my application form to Lattitude only a few days before it was due. Yeah, that was a little stressful.

But I guess I should go back even further, and explain why I ended up applying to Lattitude anyway. A couple of years back my parents began talking about the possibility of my taking a gap year after high school and before I go off to Uni. I made sense for many reasons. I am young for my age group so to start my degree aged 17, my parents thought, was too young (I had my own reasons... what about O week?!). They made another good point that an experience such as this, to live independently, to take once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and to see some of the world will help me to grow up a bit and set me up well for when I knuckle down into study the following year. For me, a major attraction of taking a gap year was (and still is) the opportunity to travel, and Europe has consistently been high on my priority list.
But, fearful that I may not want to come back and study after a year out, my parents urged me to find something which will give my gap year structure and direction. Working with overseas relations was an option, then Mum told me about a daughter of her friend who had recently done a gap year with an organisation called Lattitude. My Mum was impressed by the volunteer placements available and the range of countries offered, but I never actively pursued this idea until year 12 came around and we all had to start figuring out our futures fast. I looked into other exchange and volunteer programmes, but decided to go with Lattitude because of the breadth and depth of placements offered, and the solid support system they had in place for their volunteers.

After applying for a volunteer position in March, I was interviewed in April by the New Zealand manager of Lattitude and a returned volunteer who had gone to Malawi, to help them to find out more about me in order to match me to a suitable placement. Going into the interview, my top three choices were the UK, Canada, and Poland in descending order. After the interview was done the interviewers came back and said that I would be be able to handle a placement more challenging than UK or Canada, countries which are English speaking and very much part of the western world. They presented me with new possibilities - Fiji, Malawi, Poland, India, all of these were discussed. I left the interview room with a head full of information and a very big decision to reconsider.
After emailing returned volunteers from these countries, and doing other research, I settled on Poland as my first choice. Being that Polish, not English, is their native language, it would be challenging enough, while still being in Europe for those all-important trips around the continent that I am so looking forward to.

But apart from the perhaps more superficial reasons, such as travel, I wanted to volunteer to truly give back to a community, and to be able to see the difference I can make there. Doing a student exchange would be just as interesting and exciting, but volunteering I believe will give me a unique insight into the people and culture of Poland as instead of using a service of theirs (i.e attending a school) I am providing them with one, by teaching their young people necessary English skills.

One of the biggest learning curves I have been met with so far is the share amount of planning that goes into a trip such as this, and the time management needed to stay on top of it as well as my school work and other commitments. On previous family holidays, it was Dad would manage all our visas, flights, accommodation, etc etc, but now, though my parents are playing a crucial part in helping me to prepare for this trip, more of the organisation, planning and responsibility is being placed in my hands. Let me give you an illustration...

Yes, so a lot more than I had been expecting. But, all this preparation is 100% worth it. There is less than a month to go now until I fly out, and I can't wait!

Love,

Adelaide