Ketchup

Yoooooo, what’s up.

I know, I know, I’ve been kinda of the grid (my bad!), but boiiiiii do I got things to tell.

I just spent 7 weeks in Europe, I got back on Sunday, and I just started my new job at Cafe Cairo… yesterday.

Nowwwwww Poland. Yes, Poland. I should probably talk about the country I stayed in for three weeks, huh? As many of you know, my mom was born and raised in Poland. It’s part of my history, part of my culture, part of my identity… but not as much as it should be. 

The main reason I chose to do WorldPackers in Poland—instead of, say, Thailand—is because I haven’t seen my grandma in a decade-ish. Additionally, there are sooooooooo many people who are related to me, or who my mom is/was close with, in Poland. In other words, I had some city-hopping to do while teaching English in Grodzisk Mazowiecki.

The list of people to visit:

• My grandma
• My grandpa
• My mom’s nephew and his girlfriend
• My mom’s childhood friend and her husband
• My mom’s childhood friend’s daughter
• My mom’s cousin’s son
• Etc.

Polish people are a sturdy bunch; these are people who hold fast to their culture and history, even as the entire world wanted to tear them apart and burn them away. 

Warsaw: a city that was utterly destroyed in WW2 and rebuilt.

Krakow: a city of legends. Every stone you touch has a story and a myth that probably includes princesses, murderous brothers, dragons, and/or head-chopping.

Wroclaw: kinda like Krakow, but with dwarves :)

I ended up going to Warsaw several times, Krakow a couple times, and Wroclaw (pronounced “Vro-tswav”) once—all to visit family/honorary family.

Anywayyyy, teaching with me was a guy from Columbia, Tomas, and a lady from Britain, Shannon. We all lived in the same house, each with our own room (that doubled as our classrooms). We would go grocery shopping together and spend our breaks together. Tomas was the guy who I could play games with. Even at 29 years old (or something like that) he’s not too old for stupid, childish games that I love. Once, Shannon walked in as Tomas and I were CACKLING amidst our game of “what trait would make you NOT want this superpower?"

Tomas isn’t one for long conversations, but Shannon IS. You know those people who, no matter how long you’ve been talking, neither of you can SHUT UP because there’s just always more to say? Always another interesting segue. In our talks, I also picked up her favorite phrase, “bless his/her/their little cotton socks.” I can’t get rid of it. I say it all the time now, and people always look at me the way I looked at her the first time she said it—like, “ehhhhh????”. British people truly do speak a different language.

My boss lady, Kasia, was GREAT. A bit crazy, maybe. A heart-jerking driver and a rapid-fire talker, but kind, relatively organized, and a great conversationalist. Though, to be honest, I don’t know how much I trust what she says. Apparently chopping blond hair makes it go darker quicker???? I think she took Rapunzel a little too seriously. Anyway, she brought us donuts randomly, so I like her.

Now, the lessons were pretty much just an hour of talking about random stuff. I think I already told y’all about this a few blogs ago (?). I talked to each “student” about anything and everything for an hour:  politics (oh boy), photography, shopping, Minecraft, motorcycles, modern art, Fortnite, soccer, wind turbines, sim cards, chess, uno, a cat… be impressed. The Fortnite one was HARD.

Sometimes I had classes of 10-20 college kids (which was fun as heck), and sometimes I had classes of 10-20 elementary kids (which was EXHAUSTING and I will NEVER do that again if I can help it). My patience ended up being my kryptonite when the kids started doing TikTok dances, shouting skibidi-toilet (????) at me, and doing cartwheels. Good GRIEF, teachers are underpaid.

Anyway, that was Poland for me! 3 weeks of random-as-heck conversations, walking around, and planning side trips.

Little things:

• I thought Shannon (my fellow English teacher, and friend) was 40 for 2 weeks because she made a sarcastic comment that I didn’t catch as sarcasm. She nearly strangled me when I told her. She’s 23.
• Eating black bean brownies at 1 am with my god brother.
• In the Czarny Las house, I claimed a mug with a clover on it, and became perhaps a tad bit attached. Shannon knew this. When I left and the next volunteer came, he also claimed the same mug and Shannon “almost nicked it off him.” 🥺
• My boss lady said I have “the ability to bond/connect with people really quickly and that my ‘students’ will miss me” ❤️
• Tomas taught me how to drive manual! I’m not bad :)
• On the way from Wrocław (a city with a city center so beautiful, with so much intricate detail in every building, it’s overwhelming) back to Warsaw, I used a Rideshare app, Blabla Car. I met two amazing, and FASCINATING people. Between the three of us, it seems we must have had every job in the world. Anita hopped from career to career as a linguist, archeologist, teacher, etc. and Jacek is studying physics, mechanical engineering, flying, and ship navigation. We were all dead on our feet so we didn’t talk the entire 3-hour drive, but when we did… man, they were so fun.
• So uhhhhh, I’m a published author. I wrote a poem for a scholarship, and although they didn’t give me any money, the poem did make it into a book. Don’t know how that happened. This "little thing" is unrelated to Poland.

Extra: There’s this “homeless” man with a home, who sits on a corner in Warsaw, selling overpriced books and borrowing out his favorites (to his favorite people). He says he’s addicted to talking to people. What an admirable man.

Thanks for reading! ❤️