Promoting Russian Culture and Language!

This year we will continue different activities about Russian culture and language we started last year. Russian is one of the most popular language to study in Poland. The main aim of our meetings is to know more about history, culture and traditions of my country, to help students speak more free and to be fond of language they study. Modern system of education focused on exam success. But it’s not enough. Feelings, freedom of communication, using knowledges in the future, spacious mind are very important too.

Every Thursday I visit Russian lessons in Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Piotra Skargi and help students to learn my language (not so easy).  There are two aims of this work: 1) to prepare for exams (grammatical part) and 2) communication skills. Always first part prevails. Everybody are too shy, can’t feel comfortable speaking foreign language.  So we decided to organized extra meetings for those who want to overcome communication barriers.
29 of December took place opening of «Russian Club for students». The aim is communication. This sunny day before holidays we started from different language games. For example, «Sahara». The participants presented themselves as survivors of the crash in the Sahara desert. Under the debris of the plane they have found fifteen items that remained intact after the crash. Their task was to rank these items according to their relevance to your rescue. At first everybody worked alone, then in pairs, and finally in a large group. The discussion was very interesting and fun, but not always using Russian.

17, 20 and 26 of November Zespół Szkół im. B. Prusa  invited me for opening Russian lessons. This meeting was more about Russian culture: we talked about Russian holidays – why New  Year are the most popular in my country and Christmas is not, what is Maslenitca, Matryoshka, bliny; famous people, differences and common features between Russian and Polish languages.

19 of November  me and  Volunteers Club from Gymnasium nr. 1 went to kindergarten to present a verse of Polish poet Julian Tuwim «Rzepka» based on Russian  fairy tale. My task was to tell this story on Russian. Children laugh a lot. For them Russian was very funny as for me Polish for the first time. I was surprised because Polish version are longer – 10 characters vs 6. Children was playing main characters who tried to pull out turnip in original story. This performance makes everybody smile .

SUPPORT IN LEARNING ENGLISH
Except Russian we helped to learn English. Every Tuesday  we have English lessons in Swietlica for children. It’s not usual lessons with blackboard and pointer. We sing songs, dance, play different games, make a performance  and do everything funny what can help us to learn English.
During 2 last month every Wednesday I spent with a group of ladies studying English. They want to study English for their job. Our main aim is to start speak basic English easy and fast. On the preparatory meeting we talked about motivation and visual images which help us to open another world. Only one hour in a week with teacher isn’t enough but everybody try to do the best. I hope tht very soon we will speak English very well.
That what kind of regular meeting and activities we have. There isn’t too many photo. But it’s important part of our job that we like and will continue during new year. Do zobaczenia, Elena.

The Christmas Dinner!

Hello,

We were invite for a Christmas dinner, in a school, so we decided to prepare some food for them, as well as bring some songs from Russia and Spain, so the first day we started to look for some songs as well as for the lyrics, once we had the songs we started to prepare our food. Huevos Rellenos, from the Spanish side, and Blini from the Russian side, the organization also prepared some present for them.

Well it was mmmh Wednesday, and everything was ready, so we to the school, we put our food in the table along with all the other food, for me was something new, this kind of thing, as we don't do something similar in Spain, we have christmas dinner and so on, but we do in a different way than they did here, at least from the part I come from and from my school I never had something like this.

We were all sitting around the table, the lights were low and there was a nun in the room, first the teachers started to talk to say thanks to the people and so on, and after that the nun started a speech, I didn't understand it but I guess it was related with the christmas festivity, I'm not a religious person so I didn't understand that thing pretty well, but everyone were silent and paying attention, after that she give us Opłatek that we had to share with people, and wish them something good at the time you break a piece and share with them, you can wish also something bad! but it's Christmas so lets everyone enjoy :D

After that we started for me the best party! eating and singing songs in different languages, the was also pierogi, some cake, fruits, some kind of fish, I don't like fish at all so I didn't even bother to ask for the name of that dish, well... actually I like fish, but I prefer beef, there were a lot of sweets and the decoration was really nice, with small lights under the tablecloth was giving it a beautiful view

We were there for about two hours,  and after everything was over and everything cleaned we started to pack back our things, to take some rests of the food, ( never throw food! ) and to head back home after spending a nice evening with people and with a big smile and a full stomach!

Have a nice day!

The good deeds of Christmas time!

Hello ! We were thinking what to do, we wanted to do something nice to other people, so there we go!, Let's make cookies for seniors and spend a christmas day with childrens in the day care center

So there we started with the cookies! sweet isn't it? we bought the things needed to make around 200-300 cookies and actually it was the first time for us to make those kind of cookies, so the day before we practice a bit with the recipe, we burnt the first ten cookies tho, but well, thats how you improve.

On Friday we started to prepare the mass, early in the morning to let it rest for an hour in the fridge

We started after that to look for some box to put the cookies inside, it was quite funny us going from shop to shop asking for that, in the end it wasn't needed, well the main point.

We started to prepare the cookies, we gave them shape and we start to bake them after that the fun part started, decorate the cookies with children!

It was funny, and in the end we had more cookies than expected we even made some custom cookies or rabbit face cookies, children and some seniors were working and eating together during the work, good thing we had enough to save for the next Friday!

Enjoy watching and don't eat too much sugar! 

Then on Tuesday we went to the day care center, dressed as fat santa and slim santa, to spend some time with those children who helped us with the cookies as well to give them some presents, yes always candys!

First we ask for some Santa costumes as the real one was too fat to leave lapland and join us, christmas was close so he asked me the personal favor of replacing him, we didn't have a grinch so things went good, still I like the grinch a bit.

So we went there, and we started to sing songs with children and to play with them, yeah we also took photos so we can send to the big Santa there in lapland, we want our presents also you know? so we have to be nice, though in my country the ones who give us the presents are the three wise men, and not this fatty candy eater

Actually first photo looks like a pyjama, but I can't help it, working in that belly right now...

Well we gave them some sweet as a presents for saying songs and good wishes for the others, and we were talking and playing with them, also we prepared some spanish dessert for them, rice with milk, but it seems that not many of them enjoyed it, when you have food on the plate you have to eat! but for children it can be tough to try new tastes and flavors, still there was one kid who ate almost everyone else plate!

Well then with these Santa apprentices we left today! they have to eat more still! :)

HO HO HO

Cooking in Pultusk

Hello!

Today I went to Zespól Szkól im. B. Prusa to talk about different dishes I could cook to teach them, we were talking about the dishes Me (Hugo), Sylwia and one of the teachers of the school "name" and about the different possibilities I could teach to the students, we were discussing about different kind of meals, like starters ( Tapas ) main dishes, desserts, salads, etc. the options were the following:

For tapas we had: Pincho de anchoas, Cebolla caramelizada con queso de cabra, Tomate con oregano and Huevos rellenos

As starter we had Gazpacho, that is a tradicional cold soup made of vegetables, with the main ingredient tomatoes

as a main dishes we had Paella and tortilla de patatas

and torrijas for dessert.

After the talking with the teacher they agreed on the idea and we arrange the meeting for the next Tuesday where I should go to buy the food with one of the teachers to Lidl on Monday, to prepare everything for the next day, and so we went to Lidl and bought everything, maybe a bit more than expected, but its better to have an excess than to have a lack of ingredients.

Everything was ready and set for the next day, I had to wake up at 7 in the morning! yeah! even if don't believe it, for me it was a crazy time to start cooking or teaching how to cook the different dishes! but is something that I like so it wasn't that much problem, I was just a bit sleepy at the beggining

We arrived to the school at around 8, Elena and me, and we meet with the teacher so we went to the kitchen, quite amazing kitchen, really big and a place for everyone with a lot of things for cooking, the mood of the people was nice and they were ready to start cooking, and they were quite interested in that, also they were funny and talkative, so it's always a pleasure to work with people who likes to talk and are not like robots

We started making 6 groups of people and each group were going to cook a recipe, aditionally 2 groups were cooking two more dishes and everyone else who choosed could cook a small paella

to decide what group will cook everything we wrote the names of the recipes in pappers and then they took a papper, we had 6 groups and 8 dishes, they started to cook, while I was explaining the what to do and how to do it, and oving around the kitchen helping the in what I could, I also had the help of the teachers from the school and from the own students,

After around 3 hours of cooking the food were ready, and we all started to try the different dishes, also the director from the school were there with us eating the different dishes.

They asked us to go there again so I supposed that they really liked it, I was really happy as people seems that they were having a good time, some dishes were better, some needed a bit of salt maybe, or the rice a bit more done, but for the first time, the general taste was really good, so we had a good meal all together

Thanks for reading! now time to eat!


P.S All photos belong to  Zespól Szkól im. B. Prusa

Christmas meeting for Volunteers and habitants of Pultusk

Hello!

For saturday 6th we decided to organize some kind of meeting, call it party, for volunteers from Pultusk and Warsaw as well as anyone from Pultusk who would like to come for it, the idea came as the day before was the international volunteer day, so we wanted to do something related to it plus a christmas like dinner.

Firstly we started to think in how to do it so after a few talks we decided that everyone, or a group of a few people should cook something and bring the meeting that was held in the office, thanks to that we had different kind of food, there will be a photo of the menu later, but in general we had some cakes, food for a few countries and the force to eat it all! that was the most important thing there

Sylwia, our coordinator, has the great idea to give special Badges to every person who went to that meeting, so we lined up together and she started to do an amazing speech about things I barely remember, but that were imprinted in my mind, and after she gave a badge to everyone, we also made one for her as she deserve it for the hard work she is doing!

We started then with the karaoke, at the beggining people were a bit shy to sing, but as the night was passing more and more people started to sing, there we were talking, eating, singing, around
 25-30 people for the international volunteer day meeting, we started that meeting at around 6pm and it ended at 5 am, so it means that people were having fun and enjoying the time with all of us

In general was a great experience that we would like to repeat again, the worst part was the cleaning before going to sleep ;)

Oh I almost forgot! the present thing! We were exchanging presents with each others.

Take care!

Visit to the high school in Wyszków

Hello everyone!

Today we went to a high school in Wyszków, with the idea to explain a bit about the Spanish and Russian cultures and to talk about how the voluntary service is going along in Spain and in Russia, also to promote a bit the organization "FIYE" in Pultusk.

Firstly Sylwia talked about what is to be a volunteer in Pultusk, and what are the tasks that they do, and how the organization goes, after that, was the turn of Elena, she started to talk about the holidays in Russia, and how they celebrate them, as well as some typical things they do in christmas that not all the countries do, the students were quite interested in that.

After that it was the turn of Hugo, he didn't talk about the global of Spain, but about his region, Andalucia. showing the different autonomic comunities as Huelva, Sevilla, Cadiz, Jaén, Malaga, Cordoba, Granada and Almeria. After that he started to show some differences between a friend from Andalucia and a friend from a different part of Spain, once again the students were having fun.

After that the students were able to spend a bit of time talking with them, about Russia with Elena and about Spain and everything in general with Hugo, the interventions were lasting together around 30 mins, 15 mins of presentation about the countries and 15 min of talking with the students about things they wanted or if they had any question about something, half of the class was going with Elena, and the other half with Hugo.

Also mention that Elena and Hugo talked about how the organizations of the EVS are being held in their countries,  in general was quite interesting the day, with a surprise of a hairdressing contest in the end!

Thanks Everyone for Reading!

Gzowo! the adventure with the kids!

Hello Everyone!

Today we went to Gzowo, to a small school that was taking children from different villages close to the town, we had three different classes where we started to speak a bit about Russia and Spain, about Russia Elena speaks about their culture through holidays, and about Spain Hugo started to speak of how the conquest of the arabs and how they throw them back, as well as some cultural aspects.

Also it wasn't the only thing, Elena had some games with the kids and Hugo were teaching them how to dance Macarena, the classes were of 45 minutes, where along with Sylwia the times were 20/20/5 minutes, around 10-15 for the speaking and 5-10 for the games with the children

At the beggining some of the teachers bring Elena and Hugo to the town as they were living in Pultusk, and busses... well you know... they are really slow, so it was a good trip there to Gzowo, after that they were waiting in the teacher room, where they were offered coffee and cookies

They were show the school by the english teacher, the different classes, the new things, the old things, the toilets, the library, the secretary, and every other place inside the school, the kids were nice, the teachers were nice, so the place was comfortable, and the cookies with the coffee were good

In general it was a great experience, and the hope to go back there again.

Thanks.

Language days! ( How to cook with Kien )

Hello again! and the time finally came to the different high schools around Pultusk and in Pultusk! Elena, Dumitria, Kien and a fellow, went there to talk about our countries and our language for the language days!

Here we have Dumitria talking about Romania! mostly where were going school by school and talkign about our culture, and our languages, in some schools the children were enjoying more than in other according to the country we were speaking of.

Kien talking about Vietnam

He became quite famous isn't it?

The question everyone was asking to Kien was how to cook Dogs, as its different than in Poland where you don't eat dog or cat meat, also he was speaking about the Tet holidays and how they use both calendars as well as their 54 etnics in his country along with other things.

Elena pointing at the st Basil Cathedral in Moscow.

She was speaking both Russian and English according to the will of the children, too bad they don't know Spanish so I could express myself better in my presentations!

She was talking about the flag, the weather, the people, and the similarities between both languages, as well as how they made the alphabel for the slavic countries using the latin one.

Quite interesting presentation with a video in the end.

Here I'm using the help of a student who knows a bit of Spanish to read some words that was in my presentation! a big clap to IGA! I was talking mostly about how we take the life, sports, culture, parties, and typical Spanish Sayings.

I even tried to teach people how to dance flamenco with not much success as I'm not good either at it








We have a special guest from Germany who wasspeaking about his part of the country, he waseven wearing the typical clothes from there!

In the end, after three days going from school to school it end good, we give the things to them and some of the students seems to enjoy the days, it was mostly students between 14 and 17 years old. Here is a photo of the team!

Take care people! ;)

Hugo.

Pultusk Days! (The Tent and the Apples!!!)

Hello again! I hope you are having a nice day.

During Pultusk days we had two small events, first one was to walk around the longest main square in Europe or even in the Universe and after that a barbecue, and to held a tent giving information about the organization and making games for the people, so I'll talk about the both cases here.

 In this photo we are doing the walk around the main square, there were plenty of organizations, we were the number 20, Dawid and Elena made the pancarts we are helding, mostly it was walking around to make people see us, there weren't much people. Dawid told me that other years the main square was more crowed, maybe the town need to adapt to the new times and offer more than a walk to the people there.

Anyway it was good, and after that we went to a place to make a barbecue with all the participants and with whoever wanted to join us!

We arrived at around 6 to the fire place, some people were playing voleyball as the world tournament was helding close, actually as I'm writting this I know already that Poland won the final, and other were eating sausages in the fire.

We were around 20-30 people in the barbecue so was quite funny until the mosquitos invade the place, after that we continue the party in Klaudia's house

<- Sylwia and her birthday cake!

She looks so happy!


Kuba working as volunteer in the race ->







Mostly that was all on Saturday, then the Sunday came, tired after the semifinal versus Germany and the correspondent party I woke up to work in the tent with a big smile and a lot of energy! everyone where there, we were working from 9 to 16:30, and we even got a price of participation!

One of the thing we proposed to the children was to make balls using ballons and rice, we went out of rice! and some time ago I heard about Russia blocking the Apples from Poland, so what a better thing to do that to use apples to make games for children, in the background you can see those two girls having fun trying to eat the apple without using the hands.

We even had a competition based on time, and some prices!

Our expert painter Sylwia was helping also, look at the queue of children wanting to paint their faces! and at this moment of the day there weren't that much, in the end both Elena and me had to help also with the paintings, also Olga came to help us a bit later with this matter. The children were having fun, so we were happy for that, also their families were asking about us, so I guess the things went nice. At around 2 I took my break for eating.

During all the day there were different tents around the square, with different topics, my favourite one, the one from the cooking school, that was giving away free food for everyone. Was really tasty, too bad I found out that thing after eating my lunch, so I couldn't try that much!

But the best moment of the day, well the last actually, was when Sylwia, my coordinator had to go to get the price of colaboration! There is a nice photo about it.

She is that girl with the black t-shirt. Of course it was promoting our organization, so in the end the day went good, and after that, at least in my case, that I was totally tired a good Spanish "siesta".

Special mention in this day to Roman and Zsofia, who came from Warsaw to help us to arrange things, and all the volunteers from Nadlesnictwo who came on Saturday for the walk around the main square as well as the Pultusk people who colaborated with us during both days!, oh yeah! and everyone else who was present there!!! It was funny to spend that day with all of you people.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writting about it. Have a nice day!

Hugo.