Arrival in Poland

We got to Poland and everything is great.   We left our hotel in London at 3 am and took two different buses to get to the airport.  If you ever have a choice, I don't recommend using London-Luton airport.  It's about as far north of central London as Bel Air or Beverly are relative to Baltimore or Boston.  If, however, you want a quick flick and have only a single carry-on bag, and don't plan to see London, then it's a great airport.  It's new, clean, and bright.  It's much smaller than Heathrow, and it's out in the country, so getting around is easy.  We flew on EasyJet, which is like England's version of Southwest, a discount airline where they charge extra for everything.  We took off 45 minutes late, but landed 15 minutes early.  I didn't get an exit row seat because Sarah was under 14.  The exit row was right in front of me and the guy sitting there stretched his legs out and reclined his seat into my lap.  I wanted to smack him, but I didn't.  Again...I'm glad it was a short flight--just under 2 hours in the air.  I was on the aisle and the window seat next to Sarah was not taken, so she laid down to sleep most of the way.   We got to Warsaw on time, but ended up having to wait at the terminal over two hours because the flights from New York and Chicago were both late.  Our program director said she wished everyone had the flight arrangements I made.   Then, after the other flights arrived, we got on a tour bus and went to a local hotel for lunch--tomato rice soup, potatoes, cabbage, and breaded fish patty.  It was great and Sarah loved it, too.  But, we still couldn't leave Warsaw yet because we were still waiting for one woman coming from California who had a flight cancelled.  We didn't end up leaving the city until after 4 pm.  We had to travel across two-thirds of Poland to get to our site.  You can look it up--it's the town of Przytok.  We had a few bathroom breaks and we didn't get there until just after 1 am.  The bus could go only 45 mph---I don't know why.  We had a supper of potatoes, cabbage, bread, cucumbers, butter, and jam.  And then we went to bed.   One of the Polish directors woke us up at 11:15 this morning for a meeting, so we slept well.  We had a quick lunch and got to our meeting before the half of our group who slept longer than we did.    There are 20 Americans in our group--10 teachers and 10 assistants.  Most of the teachers are older than I am.  The assistants are in high school or the first two years of college.  They are older than Sarah by a few years, but she fits in well.  Of the 10 assistants, there are 9 girls and 1 boy.  Of the teachers, there is a set of grandparents with three of their grandchildren as TAs.  There are four women with their daughters as TAs.  Our American director is here with her husband as a teacher and a daughter as a TA.  Then there are two other women who seem at least 10 years older than me.  One of the teachers is a young woman who just finished college but will do her student teaching in the fall before she becomes a teacher.   Our room is amazing!!  The school is a special education school during the year, so it looks like a school.  The students live on campus from Monday through Friday, so there are dormitories that look regular.  Sarah and I got a room that is a teacher's apartment.  It's a one-bedroom apartment with a private bath and a little kitchen with a stove and a fridge.  Most of the others in our group are in a regular dorm with a bathroom down the hall.  Our room had only one double bed, so I slept on sofa cushions on the floor last night and Sarah got the bed.  But, today, the director moved a sofa bed into our room.  Sarah is back there now, so when I return I'll find out who gets which bed.  She is great at organizing.  She and I have become really good at sharing a room.  She said I snore a bit, but if she falls asleep first, she doesn't hear it.   The campus here is beautiful.  It's a palace out in the woods about 5 miles from a small city.  We have meetings and meals in that building.  Many of the dorm rooms are in there as well.  Sarah and I are in the other building that looks like a regular college campus building.  Part of the building has classrooms and part has apartments and dorms.  The library is on the top floor of the three-story building and is where Sarah and I will have our classroom.  It's not really a library--just a large classroom with cabinets that have books.  We like it.   It's quarter to five now.  I'm going to go check on Sarah in our apartment then move some stuff into our classroom.  We are meeting at 5:30 to go to a lake for a picnic.   Tomorrow morning we will go to 8:00 mass at a church that is a 10 minute walk from here.  It's nice that everyone is Catholic so we don't have to think about how to find a church.  Being a vegetarian is uncommon here, so at meals I just eat the potatoes and cabbage and leave the meat.  Sarah has mostly enjoyed the food, but, like London, there is no ice here, and the milk is in cardboard boxes like what Mom keeps in the cupboard for cooking.  It has 3.2% milk fat.  It's extra sweet, too.