Hello !
My name is Marine, I’m 21 and I’m from France.
I came in
Poland in September 2019, and I stay until August 2020.
I live and
work in Pomiechówek, a small town 45 minutes away from Warsaw by train.
I work in a
library. My main work is about promoting the new books on Facebook (I take a
picture of them and create a nice background for the post) and making new
covers for the books. But sometimes I have other tasks, such as decorating the
library according to the seasons or taking pictures of the events lead in the
library !
Once a week I go to the kindergarten and twice
a month to the primary school of Pomiechówek to read a book in English to the
children. I really enjoy it, the kids are always full of enthusiasm and
energy !
A few times
since I arrived in the library, I had to make a presentation of my country, for
the primary school (in English) and the high school (in French, thanks to the
French teacher I’m linked with). Once I also made a presentation of the French
traditions for a class of the primary school, presentation which ended by a
testing of crêpes and a demonstration of Breton dance !
I live with one flatmate who works in the
cultural center of the village, in the same building than the library. So we
see each other pretty all the time !
We spend our
free time at the flat, watching movies together or trying to teach our own
langage to each other ! Sometimes we go to Warsaw, to buy clothes in
second hand shops, to watch movies in the cinemas or just to make a bit of
tourism !
Like every
volunteer from EVS, we have langage lessons. From time to time, a polish
teacher come to the library or in our flat. The lessons are quite difficult,
Polish is not an easy langage… But fortunately we are surrounded by this
langage all day long (with our colleagues, the custumers of the library, the
books, the shops, the sellers, the advertisements, etc), so we can’t but make
progress !
At home with
my flatmate, at the library with my colleagues and with all the other
volunteers I met, I mostly speak English! I’ve never spoken English that much
before I arrived, so the first few days my brain was completely lost and
couldn’t stop mixing French and English ! Now my English is almost fluent,
I’m very proud of it !
So during this year I improved my English a
lot, I learnt Polish from scratch and I also started to learn German, with my
Austrian flatmate ! That’s for sure a intense and productive year !
Since I
arrived, I had the occasion to travel in Poland. I went to Płock, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Warsaw of course, Poznań, Cracow, the village of Skierniewice and Pułtusk. I traveled with my flatmate, other volunteers, my parents and/or a
friend of mine who came in Poland ! I didn’t want to come back in France
for this year abroad, but I miss my family and friends sometimes. Luckily my
parents love to travel, so they came in Warsaw for Christmas ! 2 in
1 : we saw each other again and they discovered a new city/country !
I started
this ESC after 3 years at university in a Art history degree. I didn’t know
what to do after that so I looked for a way to live and work abroad, and the
ESC was the perfect way for that. It’s an amazing experience that changed my
life (and it’s not finished yet…). After this project I will come back in
France and certainly leave again quickly, for I want to have more and more
experiences abroad, with another language and another way of living (maybe
Scotland or Canada, I’m still thinking). The virus of discovering cultures and
language and to take risks infected me !
But for now
I’m still in Poland and I planned to enjoy every minute of this
adventure !
See you,
Marine
