Summary; first month in photos

Bystrzyca Kłodzka

 During the first week we had a lot of activities to get to know the city and each other.
This is from city game in Bystrzyca, from a dance point. No, I can't dance. Yes, I'm excited.

 I absolutely love dogs around here. Firstly, most of them just roam free around town and are rarely on leash. At first this was kind of an culture shock - if there would be a dog running free in Finland it would be catched immediately. I think it's even illegal to let them be without a leash. But I've come familiar with my neighbourhood canines; I see them everyday and greet them with a friendly cześć.

 

 Free Hugs point. Actually I think polish people are very nice. But similar to finnish people, hard to approach.
I didn't get any hugs that day.

 I packed ten bags of Salmiakki with me to relieve my homesickness. But also, I have offered it to other people -it isn't, how could I say, a popular delicacy around here. One or two of the ten people who have tried actually finished the one piece od candy.
I have also been getting to know the delicacies of Poland as also seen on this picture.

 After I started working at the school I've received a lot of these. They're letters from my lovely students. These have a lot of effort put into them; the last one I got was just a blank paper with a hole cut into it. But it still warms my heart.

(in polish, pani refers to a female person, as here "miss" in this letter, but also used for any female "mrs.", "miss", "you" or "her". I love it)

 Some pictures from my flat. 

Actually today we had a cleaning day so it's not that messy anymore.

 I wanted to post this picture to explain one of the biggest culture shocks for me. This is a typical train station in Poland.

Nothing else to say about that.

Budapest was absolutely beautiful.

 

With my lovely flatmate. She's awesome, but austrian.

One of the projects here that volunteers take part is called Euroweek. Polish children around Poland spend a few nights here and volunteers make presentations for them about their home countries, have different activities with them, games and trips. They get to meet a lot of people around the world, learn from other cultures and improve their english. And of course have a lot of fun. It's really great.

 The nearest big city here is Wroclaw, which is also very beautiful. From my first time there I was a little traumatized, but day trip last weekend was very nice.
It takes just under two hours to get there and travelling here is dirty cheap (although for me, coming from Finland, everything here is dirty cheap).










And yeah, these guys were playing covers there. They were so so amazing.

 

There would have been so many photos if I would have tried to put them all so this is just shortly something from my first (super awesome great) month and my life here.

First month shock; backgrounds

Exactly one month ago, almost exactly at this hour, after a whole day of horrible travelling, I stepped out of an old scary train to the train station of Bystrzyca Kłodzka. At that moment the station seemed just as old and terrifying as was the train. 2 weeks before that moment i had received an e-mail stating "Free voluntary position in Poland for someone who can leave quickly". I didn't actually know what I was getting myself into, even though I was planning on volunteering before. I just assumed I would go at earliest in 2014. But fortunately I took the chance and replied.

I had so little time to prepare myself for this journey I never even had time to get nervous about it. I just told my boss I'm leaving for six months, I said goodbye to my friends, hugged my family and kissed my dogs. I waved at my family after the safety check at the airport, I knitted some socks and did some crosswords on the plane and had my first polish encounter with some nice man on the train. But it was this moment as I stepped out of the train with my suitcase and my guitar case that I became aware of the situation.

 The first night I felt so alone and scared. I was shocked and the question "how did I end up here" was playing in my head all over again. It's funny to think back at that moment now. After a few days everything became easier and the first shock was diluted, mostly thanks to the amazing people I have met here. 
 

During the first week I got to know another volunteers and the city. Mostly I've been learning my way around independently or from older volunteers. I'm also eager to learn polish. I'm not even lying if I tell you that I'm studying everyday. In polish lessons, by myself and of course in everyday life situations, for only a minority of people here speak english (this was the first and biggest shock for me when I came to Poland. I was so lost at Wroclaw train station and not to even mention at the train, for as I told it was old and scary; no information anywhere and my polish pronounciation made it quite an adventure for me to get off at the right station). 

As I began to work at the integration school, which is my main project here, everything became easier again. I absolutely love my work, and will write more about that for sure.

Now time has passed so fast. I've enjoyed my time here so much - I'm not sure where the days went. I even feel a little bit sad to realize i only have 5 months left. During this one month I already travelled to Chech Republic, to Hungary, also a little bit in Poland, and have had an awesome time. Still it feels there's never enough of it. I'm still adapting to the situation and getting to know the country and the culture - and most of all getting to know myself.