SEE YOU SOON, ANN!

My EVS in Poland

Hey! I am Ann-Katrin but the most people here call me Ann. I am at the end of my proyect and I want to tell you what I did in Poland during 11 months. 

Let's start from the beginning! I am here since the 2th September, but I remember my first day as would it be yesterday. My coordinator picked me up from the airport in Warsaw. After a 45min drive, we arrived to my hometown (Pultusk) for 11 months. I felt really welcome when I saw this Czech girl standing on the balcony with a big smile. It wasn’t a surprise that we became friends quiet fast. 

On the same day I met my other flat mates and some polish people to play soccer and I found some amazing friends in them. I also realized some differences compared to Germany. When I find out that you can't go for shopping on a Sunday I was really surprised. On Monday we had to do organization stuff but on Tuesday I had my first day in Kindergarten. I went there and everything felt unusual but after a few days it was the most normal thing on the earth. 

But what were my tasks in kindergarten? 👀

👦👧
Mostly I helped the teacher during classes or to change the outfits of the kids when we went for a walk or to the playground. I learned how to deal with 20 kids at the same time and that you always have to look at them. They have a lot of crazy ideas. 
My favorite days had been the ones when we went for a trip. I think it wasn’t only me who enjoyed these days😎😁😁.  At some point, when our polish began to be better, we (another German volunteer and I) started msking some presentations about Germany. I guess the kids liked it but not only they learned from us we learned from them too and I have to say, kids can be really good teachers.

I had some other tasks as well. Sometimes we went to schools and had languages cafes with the students or we talked about volunteering.  On weekends, we went to some events to show of our projects or helped out in other organizations. 

I also went for two weeks to a holiday camp for kids and I gave some English lessons or helped during other activities.  Such a camp is always a nice option to get in touch with people and I hope I keep it.

I wrote a lot about work but don’t worry a volunteers have a lot free time too.😅
Most of the time, I spent it with my friends playing soccer, volleyball or go to a bar but I had some nice walks around ore area too. On weekends we made trips as well. I was lucky to discover Warsaw, Poznan, Torun, Gdansk, Krakow and Zakopane. I mean, it's always good to see something from the country you live in. Now I know the seaside🏖, the mountains ⛰ and some cities🏙 and I can say Poland is a very pretty country.

But not all of my trips were just for fun. My first trip was to Warsaw where I had my on arrival training. I met a lot of new persons and learned more about the people, the country I live in and how to deal with problems. My second training was one from my organization. We travelled to the country side and spend their 4 days together with a lot of work and a lot of fun. After the half of my project I had my midterm training. I went to Torun for this training. The main topics in this training were self-reflection and what will I do after EVS.

Now I only have four days left till I will go back to Germany with all memories I made. After this time I can say I will come back. 

See you, Poland! ❤