Two Normal, Not-So-Normal Days in the MLC

 WEDNESDAY

At the beginning of the week, I - Wendy - already knew Wednesday was going to be crazy.

In the morning, I went to a gimnazjum to give cultural presentations. On Tuesday, I was informed that the starting time changed from 10:40 to 08:00 – “a little bit earlier”, according to one of the coordinators. So on Wednesday I woke up at 06:30 and I felt “a little bit” sleepy when I arrived at Zespołu Szkół numer 23, together with my colleague Umut.

Presenting my country to gimnazjum classes, boys and girls in their puberty, is one of the most challenging and interesting parts of my job here. The only thing teenagers seem to know about my country, is the fact that smoking weed is not entirely illegal. And – apart from that story – it is quite hard to get their attention, let alone to keep it. Sometimes their hormones just take over and all they want to do is to sleep, or to annoy others. Yet somehow I like it. This feeling when you manage to hold their attention for a while, or when you make them laugh, or when you ask a question and someone shouts out the correct answer... That’s pure gold. Rewarding and exhausting at the same time.

In the afternoon I had Polish classes, first in the office from 14:00 until 15:30, and later on at the University of Wrocław, from 17:00 until 18:30. In between the lessons I had to work on my presentations for the next day. A lot of brain work, and by the time it was half past six, I was “a little bit” very tired but the day still wasn’t over.

At seven I had to be at the Opera, together with some of my colleagues, because we found some super cheap tickets. A great opportunity to – finally – see the beautiful opera building from the inside! The opera itself was a bit of a letdown, but I also have to admit that my expectations had fairytale-like dimensions. Somehow I was thinking that, upon entering the opera, my daily clothes would transform into a beautiful dress. A handsome dandy would take my hand and guide me to my seat, which would offer an amazing view, and together we would watch the opera, front row, while he would explain the story and offer me his opera glasses every now and then... Of course, none of that happened. It even wasn’t - as we thought before - an opera called 'Giacomo Orefice' by the famous Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin. No. Chopin never wrote an opera. What we watched, was an opera by this not-so-famous Giacomo Orefice about Chopin... What a blamage.

But then, when I came home, I found an Italian guy in our kitchen who was baking pizzas for my flatmates and me. Sometimes life can be a fairytale. So around 22:30, instead of going to bed like usual, I had my first bite of a delicious pizza and it was way after midnight when my head finally hit my pillow.

THURSDAY

On Thursday I had to wake up early, again. But this time I went to the train station, in order to take a train to Żmigród. The train ride itself was very memorable, because – surrounded by Jose, Michael and Özgür – I got some interesting insights into the male brain. In fact, the discussion was so entertaining that we almost forgot to get out of the train on time.

Shortly after our arrival in Żmigród, Michał and Paulina took us to a kindergarden. There we had to present our countries in a simple and playful way, with some games in between to keep the attention of the children. Personally I find this kind of presentations less rewarding, but I had a good time. There are definitely worse things in life than entertaining kids. Plus, we got a certificate and a box of chocolates afterwards. :)

Then, after a short pit stop in the supermarket, the group split into two smaller groups. Paulina took Michael and Özgür with her, and Michał went to his home town together with Jose and me. In that small town there is a church and a school, and in this school Jose and I had to - guess what? - present our countries. But the environment was different (for example: this time we could use a smartboard ánd a blackboard) and the age of the audience was different, so it didn’t feel like I was doing the same thing over and over again. Also, when the intervals between presentations are short, the act of presenting becomes more natural to me. It gets easier to try out new things and to experiment with the way I deliver the information - which strengthens my presentation skills ánd the presentation itself.

After a presentation about Spain and one about the Netherlands, it was time to go home. But first Michał invited us to his parents’ place, where we had a tasty lunch. Of course this took longer than expected, so in the end we had to rush to the train station, full speed. Fortunately we met the others on the platform and soon after four EVS volunteers jumped on the train back to Wrocław.

Back there, I went to the office as fast as I could, because on Thursdays I teach Dutch. Thanks to my busy schedule, I still had a lot of work to do: I had to arrange a projector, find out if (and how) it worked, print some exercises, finish the lesson plan, prepare the training room... By the time the first student arrived, I still wasn’t ready. Another blamage, unfortunately. I put a lot of effort in the language course and I like to teach, so being late (even though it was not entirely my fault) made me feel unprofessional. Still, the lesson went fine - at least I tried my best and the students seemed interested. In the first half I introduced a difficult grammatical rule, which really puzzled the students. So I think they were glad it was the third lesson: 'CULTURE' time! Once in every three weeks half of the lesson is reserved for cultural information. This time, I guided the students through the history of the Netherlands. Which was also complicated at times, but not as complicated as grammar. ;)

And after the Dutch lesson, around seven o'clock, I went home. This time there was no Italian guy, so I had to make my own food, and after dinner, a talk with my mother (on Skype) and a talk with my roommate (in our room) I fell asleep, happy and tired as EVS-usual.