End of April: Where Does the Time Go?

TL;DR or Quick Summary 

1. Things are going well! I am realizing that I actually have very little time left in Poland and Białystok. Even though I am looking forward to coming back to the US, I know I will miss things here. 
2. I'm a terrible person for not posting sooner. I have gone from about one post a week at the beginning, to one every two week, and now we are at about once a month. 
3. Classes are about to start winding down. We have about a month left and I feel like it's just going to fly by. Which means that I will need to start preparing for finals soon. It's a shame that I will not get to continue working with my students after this year. 
4. Adventure-wise, I have been many places since my last post: Dresden, Berlin, Poznan (again) Budapest, Krakow, Vilnius, and now I am on my way to Riga! In between that, I have also spent some good time in Białystok with friends. 

So I only have about 2 months left; I return to the US on July 3rd (just in time for fireworks and BBQ). While 2 months is still a long time, I feel like it will go by quickly, especially as I prepare my students for finals. Fulbright has been a experience unlike any other. I have talked to several Fulbrighters coming to Poland next year and when they ask what Fulbright Polska was like, it's hard to give any type of succinct or coherent answer. 

Students at the board

Classes

After so many months of working with my classes, I really feel comfortable with my students. I never really felt uncomfortable with them, but now classes have a warm and congenial feeling. 

Due my attendance at the Berlin Fulbright conference, Easter holidays, and the May holidays classes in April have been pretty spotty. I have really only seen my students about once every other week, which has made classes interesting to teach. Over Easter break, I decided to hold an online class. For each of my classes, I recorded a 10 - 20 minute video lecture and sent them out to my students. There was an accompanying assignment for each lecture. While I had to re-record some of the videos several times, I thought that overall the lessons were fairly effective. I have linked to the videos below if you would like to take a look. 

For Integrated Skills, students read a NYT article about 23andMe, a service that provides genetic testing to consumers. Until recently, 23andMe could only provide information about a person's heritage based on genetics. However, the FDA recently granted the company approval to test their customers for certain genetic dispositions, including a disposition for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Student then discussed their thoughts about the matter. 

My second year writing class, focused on vague pronouns and faulty parallelism. First, students completed several different practice and example sheets where they identify and correct mistakes. After that, students corrected a wonderfully written story by me. In the story are many pronoun and parallelism mistakes. Most students did fairly well and many came up with very amusing edits.

Finally, my fourth year writing class, wrote a short essay on the different types of bias that appear in media sources. They had a two part homework assignment. First they had to choose three issues/events/topics that were in the media. For each they had to find two different news sources and compare how the same event was presented in each. Then, for the second part they had to formally analyze how each source is biased. While I still have not gotten around to grading those essays, I am very much looking forward to it. 

List of different adjectives 

This past week, students read (or rather attempted to read) The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité. It a poem that explores the difficulty (and sometimes complete insanity) of English pronunciation. Do you know how to pronounce victual? It doesn't rhyme with actual. After students struggled through the poem, we heard the correct pronunciation from a video. My students were pleasantly amused that I could not correctly pronounce everything . It was a great lighthearted lesson to break up class.  

Next week, when classes resume I will start talking with my students about their final projects and essays. 

Travel 

Over the past month, I have had quite a few great experiences, both in Białystok and not quite so close to home. 

Germany - Berlin Conference

View from a German National Park just out side of Dresden

The last week of March, I was lucky enough to be one of five chosen to represent Fulbright Polska at the annual Berlin Fulbright Conference. Fulbrighers from all over Europe were invited to the conference. It was a great opportunity to network, compare experiences, and discuss the purpose of a Fulbright grant. I learned that Poland is very unique in how it uses its grantees; nearly all other European countries have their grantees in primary and secondary schools. I did not meet anyone else who was teaching at the university level. Hearing about everyone's different experiences was incredible; people were placed in large cities and small towns. For many Fulbrighters, their local population does not speak any English. I also heard about interesting and exciting programs that many Fulbrighters are implementing. 

Outside of getting to know other Fulbrighters, there were several interesting speakers, presentations, and small group discussions. Topics ranged from how to best integrate into your community to discussing sensitive issues (i.e. politics) to refugee resettlement in Germany. Personally, I most valued the small group discussions, especially when they included people from multiple countries. 

While we did not have a ton of time to explore Berlin, I did manage to make it to the Berlin zoo with a mix of American and German Fulbrighters. For zoos, I suppose that it was okay, but nothing fancy. I did learn the in German, polar bears are called ice bears, which I think is a much better name. 

Easter Break - Budapest, Krakow, and Zakopane 

Eating Zapiekanki in Krakow

Budapest 

For Easter, two of my friends managed to escape their tedious and uneventful life in the US to visit me. In Poland, Easter is one of the biggest holidays of the year and as such, we had 4 days of classes canceled, which allowed for some convenient traveling. They landed on Saturday afternoon and we spend a quick evening in Warsaw. An introduction to pierogi was mandatory as was a walk through Warsaw Old Town. 

Accidentally at a protest

The next morning, Sunday, we flew to Budapest. It was the first of several flights on a propeller plane. Getting through the Budapest airport was an experience as we had to change money ($1 is about 300 Hungarian Forint) and wait about an hour for bags to come off of the plane. After making it into town and dropping our bags at the AirBnb, we started walking through the city. If you haven't seen pictures before, Budapest is absolutely gorgeous. Walking through the streets, you see buildings of different styles that somehow work well together. 

After a while, we ended up walking along the Danube River, and saw a crowd of people moving towards the other side of the river. Like any independently thinking people, we decided to follow the crowd without question or concern. Eventually we realized that we were in the middle of a political protest of the current Hungarian government. People were protesting a decision by the government to restrict the types of universities that could operate in Hungary. After several speeches (which were helpfully translated by a friendly local) the crowd marched across the river and to the Parliament building. We decided to slip out before the crowds started leaving, but it was an incredibly unique experience (whether joining it was intentional or not).

The next day, we couldn't find any additional protests to join, so we decided to play the normal tourist role and see some stuff. We started off with an early tour of the Parliament building which was incredibly ornate, both inside and out. The only tour that still had open positions was at 8am (booo waking up earlier), but it ended up being a good thing as our tour group had the whole building to ourselves.

Night train from Budapest to Krakow

After Parliament, we did a walking tour, walked through Buda castle, and hiked up a large hill/small mountain to get a great view of the city. The weather was really in our favor and I even managed to work on my tan some! We ate at many good restaurants and explored some cool bars (I think one was rated best bar in the world by some magazine). Overall Budapest was a fun city to explore and just stare at.

The next day, we left Budapest by night train. It was my first experience with a sleeping train and I was a little bit hesitant, but it ended up being a fun and convenient way to travel! We were 3 people in a 3 person compartment, which worked out perfectly. The space a kinda cramped, but when you know the other people there, it doesn't matter so much. I would highly recommend a night train to anyone thinking about it. 

Krakow 

Blooming tree in Wawel Castle

We arrived bright and early in Krakow and immediately started exploring the city. Although I have been to Krakow before, it was a lot of fun to show it off to other people. It was Easter week and the celebration was in full swing in the Krakow market. There were plenty of booths set up (although not as many as Christmas) selling food, clothes, cheese, gingerbread, and pretty much anything else. Waiting for our tour of the city, we climbed the bell tower of the main church on the market square. 

Our walking tour was good and gave a good overview of the city. The weather, unfortunately, was not as cooperative. While it was not back to full Polish winter, I would definitely call it return of the Polish winter. It didn't stop us from enjoying the city, but make it less fun. We only had about 1.5 full days in Krakow, so we couldn't do a ton. We took a tour of Schindler's Factory, which is a now a museum about life in Krakow under German occupation. It was a wonderful museum, but I wasn't a huge fan of our tour guide. 

That evening, we needed to head back north to Warsaw so one friend could catch his flight. After experiencing the pinnacle of modern efficiency that is the Polish rail system (our train was an hour late), we made it to Warsaw and settled down for the night.  

Zakopane

On the top of the Tatras Mountains 

The final leg of my Easter Extravaganza was a trip to Zakopane, the Winter Capital of Poland. As I discovered, even though it was the middle of April, winter was still alive and well in Zakopane. Walking down the main street of Zakopane, I got the feeling that the shops did not match the feeling of the town. Every other shop was an expensive outdoors store; jackets, ropes, ice picks, helmets, harnesses, boots, skis, snowboards, and every other piece of possible winter adventure equipment was for sale or for rent. We probably weren't in the local part of town, but the main street definitely like one extended REI.  Our main reason for heading to the south of Poland was for hiking and we hiked some pretty nice trails!

The first afternoon, we stayed relatively low and did a nice loop around Nosel. It was a surprisingly vertical hike, but rewarded us with some great (and not so great) views. From the top of Nosel, we got a great view of the mountains and what we could expect for the following day. Unfortunately, we also saw several areas that had been heavily logged; it was a pretty jarring difference.

The last day, we took the lift to the top of the mountain and immediately discovered that we were very unprepared for the weather. On the lift, there were people in full ski gear (with skis) and those in full hiking gear (with ice picks). Once we were at the top, we discovered the full gravity of our mistake. We only stayed at the top for around an hour, but did manage to waddle around on the ice and snow on the top for a while. Despite (and perhaps because of) the cold I am determined to go back and experience Zakopane with different weather.



So that's all for this post! I know I tried to include as much as possible, but wanted to make sure I posted in a (somewhat) reasonable amount of time. My goal for my next post is around 2 weeks, but we will see how that works out. I apologize for any grammatical mistakes in this rapidly written post!

Mid-March Madness

TL;DR or Quick Summary

Reasons some of my students chose to go to university.
Click to enlarge. 

• Classes continue to go well. I think I finally have a firm schedule for this semester. It is very nice to already have a rapport established with my students. I know what to expect from them and they (generally) know what to expect from me. 
• So far, I have focused on smaller response pieces from my writing students. It has been a fairly successful strategy so far. 
• With the rapid departure of winter, I decided to take advantage of the cool temperatures one last time. With two Fulbrighters, I went to Slovakia for the weekend to do some skiing. 
• Long story short, I survived skiing, but lost any skiing skills that I once had.
• Finally last weekend, I went to Cologne, Germany for the weekend. It was a very relaxing trip with some of the best weather I have experienced in a while.
• Next week, the last week of March, I am heading to Berlin for the German Fulbright Conference. 

Class Updates

Classes are going well and I have a feeling the rest of the semester is going to blow by super quickly. I have continued to try to use similar themes throughout my classes; this strategy has mostly been paying off. I spend less time searching for topics and more time customizing lessons for each individual group. The main topics I have touched on so far include the value of college (discussed in my last post), types and sources of energy, and same-sex marriage. I have tried to stagger large writing assignments so that I am not overwhelmed by a torrent of papers and I have been marginally successful so far.

Conversation Class

I only see my conversation students every other week, which definitely gives the class a more disjointed feeling. The other option however, would be meeting for 45 minutes every week, which doesn't seem like enough class time; so every other week is not really a bad option. 

So far we have practiced many of the potential questions for their final English practical exam. This week, the most controversial question was, 'What can be done to improve the image of the police?' Many students did not have any answers (good or bad) for this question. They said that many Poles still view the police as 'out to get them' and that they are not very respected. It was an interesting snapshot of Polish views. 

After practicing the practical questions, we moved on the potential job interview questions and useful words/phrases for job interviews. I tried to make use vocabulary words/phrases that would be new to them and for once, I was successful! Next class, students will participate in mock job interviews and hopefully get hired at mock jobs!

4th Year Writing 

Image from The Simpsons episode, Homer's Phobia

This week in my MA writing class, I wanted students to practice argumentative balance in their writing; basically presenting two arguments fairly and without bias before stating your view. Since it would be trivial to write about non-controversial, I decided to make the topic same-sex marriage, a sometimes touchy subject in Poland. I even had one student warn me ahead of time that any class discussions might become uncomfortably heated if we had a thorough discussion on the topic. Since the goal wasn't a verbal discussion, I forged ahead!

To bring in some good old American culture, we started off the class by watching an episode of The Simpsons. It was titled Homer's Phobia and was about Homer's friendship/fear of a gay man. While not about same-sex marriage, it does focus on discrimination and trying (and failing) to rationalize this discrimination. I think most of my students enjoyed the change of pace.

So far, I have only made it through about half of the essays and the majority of students have presented fairly balanced arguments. As for their positions on same-sex marriage, the split has been about 50-50.

2nd Year Writing 

Nothing super exciting to report on my 2nd years. We have been practicing rules for article usage (I know it is an exciting topic) and when to use specific transition/linking words. I was fortunate to find a wonderful set of rules that lays out specifics for using articles in 'edge cases.' Instead of telling my students 'that feels wrong,' I can now point to specific rules that give a more satisfactory explanation. I would say that it was been useful for my students as well. 

My major goal in practicing transition/linking words is to move my students away from 'what is more' and 'on the other hand.' These are effective phrases, but not if they are used every third sentence. This week, we will focus on writing process essays (and not simply how to make a PB&J). Some topics I have been thinking about include: how to make a good first impression, how to teach someone to text, and how to be successful in college. 

Integrated Skills 

Energy related vocabulary words. Click to enlarge

Ah integrated skills, the class that seems to get the short end of the stick. Integrated skills meets at 8am on Wednesday, which means that I cannot make copies before class (the copy room isn't open) and Tuesday is my busiest class day, so I have less time to plan and make copies. Readers who have suggestions about planning further ahead and being more prepared can send their suggestions to my suggestions box. 

I have tried to devote more time to the class this semester and so far, I have been doing alright. Students have given a quick presentation and read fairly in depth articles about different energy sources. From these articles, students created a vocabulary list for the unit and will have a quiz over these words this week. Last semester I did most of the talking in class and I am trying to reverse that trend this semester.   

7 Hours in Slovakia 

View from the middle of the mountain

As winter starts to wind down (or rather melt away), I thought it was a good time to take advantage of something present in Poland, but (generally) not in Texas: mountains and snow. One of the Krakow Fulbrighters had previously taken a day bus to Slovakia for a day of skiing. The bus was only about three hours (one way) and the prices for the ski pass and rental equipment were pretty reasonable. It seemed like a good deal.

Getting artsy with a chimney dessert

Being back in Krakow reminded me of the great time I had over New Years with Kim and it was really nice to see many of the same places again (although thankfully at a much warmer temperature). Krakow really is one of Poland's most beautiful cities; if you are ever in this part of the world it is definitely worth a stop. With another Fulbrighter, I took a tour of the Jewish Quarter of Krakow, Kazimez. While the tour guide was not the greatest, it was still an interesting tour. I saw several locations where Schindler’s List was filmed. It was surreal to be standing where several iconic scenes were filmed.

The weather was very cooperative and that weekend's weather was some of the best I have experienced in Poland so far. The next morning, I boarded a bus heading to the Slovakian mountains. Well, more accurately I wander around the parking lot serving as a bus station looking lost until a driver asked if I needed help. The bus ride was uneventful but the scenery dramatically changed as we hurdled south.

As we approached our destination, the mountains were still concerning devoid of snow. There were some patches here and there, but nothing substantial enough to ski on. We finally arrived at the 'ski resort' and it was somewhat underwhelming. These was only one run down the mountain and it combined blacks, blues, and reds (here reds = greens). After getting all of our rental gear, we headed up the mountain for our first run.

Beautiful weather in Krakow

It is safe to say that I lost nearly all of my skiing abilities over the past 10 or so years. While I didn't have any catastrophic falls, I was not the most elegant person falling skiing down the mountain. In my defensive, the snow was pretty rapidly melting and there were some areas that were roped off because the snow was too melted.

The most frustrating part of the trip was the fact that most restaurants and services did not take credit cards and there was no ATM in the area. Slovakia uses the Euro and we foolishly did not come with any (although we figured they would take cards or at least have an ATM). Fortunately we were able to pay in zloty (Polish currency), although at a terrible exchange rate. Overall, I am glad that I went, but I think I have had enough skiing for now.

That night, back in Krakow, we celebrated a Fulbrighter's birthday. It was just a small group of us, but we did have a lot of fun.

Cologne, Germany 

First time walking past the Bonn Cathedral 

The next weekend, I traveled to Cologne, Germany. Why Cologne? Well first I really like Germany and second, round trip tickets cost less than $50, a very good deal. The downside to the flight was the terrible arrival time. I landed in Cologne at 11:30 pm. So not ideal, but certainly still worth it. 

With Kim, I had traveled to three cities in eastern Germany (Hamburg, Berlin, and Dresden), but I had never been to western Germany and I wasn't exactly sure how different things would be. While much of the architecture was more modern, it still very much felt like Germany.

University park in Bonn

After arriving late in the evening, we crashed for the night. The next morning we got breakfast at one of Cologne's many small hipster cafes (it reminded me of Austin) and headed to Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. One of the Fulbrighter's I was traveling with had studied in Bonn several years ago and she was excited to see it again. It was only a quick 20 minute train ride away.

Arriving in Bonn, our Fulbright guide quickly overestimated her sense of direction in Bonn and we ended up walking past the same (beautiful) cathedral several times throughout the day. Despite the backtracking, Bonn was a beautiful city; it was very walkable and there were plenty of green spaces, shops, and restaurants. The locals were out in full force taking advantage of the great day so the park was packed with people.

Beethoven's birth house

Beethoven was born in Bonn, so of course there was a museum at his birthplace. While it was not the most interesting museum I have ever been in, I learned a lot about Beethoven's early life and career. We walked past the former capital building of West Germany, a brilliant and elegant white building. In the university park, we searched for and eventually found a bench to sit and people watch. We ate lunch at a great Korean restaurant and we ended our day in Bonn with an impromptu trip to Birkenstock's factory outlet store (not my idea, but I did buy a pair of nice shoes).

Cologne Cathedral. It really
seems to appear out of nowhere

The next day, we stayed in Cologne. Thinking ahead, we had bought groceries the night before and made a nice breakfast (for those of you wondering, my scrambled eggs were flawless). After breakfast, we toured the Cologne Cathedral, one of the largest/most impressive/most expensive cathedrals in northern Europe. Construction of the cathedral took around 600 years and it currently holds the remains of the three wise men in an ornate golden box. Our guide of the cathedral was probably the most passionate and genuinely enthusiastic tour guide I have ever had. She even made the descriptions of tile work interesting.

After the tour, we had lunch at a small cafe that claimed to serve burritos. While certainly not up to Tex-Mex standards, the burritos were pretty good. It was enough to hold me over until my next Mexican food infusion. After lunch, of course we had to have dessert and we found the closest gourmet cupcake place in Cologne.

Chocolate fountain 

Finally, we went on a free walking tour of Cologne. The tour got off to a rough start, as our guide asked all 30 people in the group to introduce themselves, say where they are from, and say what their biggest dream is. Additionally, his parents were on the tour as well which seemed to make him more nervous. After a rough start though, it quickly got better and he talked a lot about how the culture in Cologne and this region of Germany is different from other parts. Apparently Carnival (Mardi Gras) is a huge deal in Cologne and the city essentially shuts down for several days. Sadly, we were a couple of weeks late :( After the tour, our guide took us to the local beer brewery that specialized in champagne beer. Essentially, it is a light beer with extra bubbles, tasty, but nothing to write home about.

My final day in Cologne was spent at the Chocolate museum. Short story, yes it was basically Willy Wonka's chocolate factory minus Oompa Loompas. There was a full functioning chocolate fountain with unlimited free samples, freshly made chocolate squares right off the production line, and more information about the culture and politics of chocolate than I ever imagined existed. It was definitely worth a visit. The rest of the afternoon, I caught up on some work before my late flight back to Poland.

Overall, it was a great weekend trip. The weather was perfect and both Bonn and Cologne had a lot to do. I would love to come back and spend more time in the area.

What's Up Next 

This week my conversation students have their mock job fair, I need to finished grading my MA same-sex marriage papers, and I need to finalize topics for the BA process essays. Luckily I have the rest of the afternoon to procrastinate. On Thursday, I head to Warsaw and then to Berlin for the week long Fulbright ETA conference. I am really looking forward to it; it will be very interesting to compare my ETA experiences in Poland with those from other countries. There will be various seminar sessions and presentations, but I am not sure exactly what everything will be about.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

Bonus Pictures

The Summer Semester Begins

TL;DR or Quick Summary 

• This was the first week of the summer semester. I am teaching the same classes/students as last semester, plus new conversation classes. 
• I teach 3 conversation classes, which is the entire 2nd year. At the end of the year, my 2nd year students will have to pass a big practical English exam so I will have some hard numbers to see how I did. 
• Based off of feedback from last semester, I made several changes to my Master's writing class and so far, I think I am liking the changes.
• The weather has started to warm up here. Currently it is a balmy 42F (5.5C) and raining liquid water (not that cold frozen white stuff). Halfway through writing this post, the cold frozen stuff made a vicious return.
• Despite the fact that the semester has just begun, I have a feeling that it is going to start to fly by pretty soon.
• My next few weeks involve a fair amount of travel, which I am both looking forward to and expecting unending exhaustion. 

The days are getting longer, the temperature is rising, and the snow is melting. I can feel spring coming. I can't believe it has already been 5 months since I have been in Białystok and in Poland. There is so much to look forward to this semester and so much to accomplish before it's over. In brief, this semester I am attending a conference in Berlin, leading two education seminars on technology in the classroom, traveling far and wide, teaching three new conversation classes, and trying to get some sleep. 

I don't want to make too many predictions about this semester, because looking back on last semester any predictions ended up being pretty far off. But I do think that I will enjoy my second (and final :( ) semester in Białystok. 

Start of the Summer Semester 

The first week of class is always an unknown, but at least this semester, I had several days to prepare for my classes. Over those few days, I went through tons of different ideas to give my classes more consistency and substance. While I am happy enough with how last semester went, there is a lot of room for improvement this semester. Below I will talk about my individual classes and what I hope to do in them. 

Master's Writing 

My master's writing class is probably the class that causes me the most stress, not that it is any fault of the students, merely their advanced English abilities. Having never taught (or taken) a graduate writing course, sometimes I find myself at a loss of what to teach. Last semester, there were several lessons that were below my students' level; while most students politely completed the lesson anyways, I want everyone to feel like the class is actively benefiting them. #EveryTeacher'sGoal

So after much agonizing (searching the Internet and talking to other Fulbrighters), I decided to shift the focus of the course from small, somewhat unrelated, separate topics in writing to responses to different cultural topics. I hope this shift will allow me to have more cultural exchanges with my students and will be interesting for my students. Ideally, each class will include one area of writing to focus on (vague pronouns, parallelism, specific vocabulary, etc) and one topic on which to write. Students will write smaller pieces that are more focused; hopefully this will allow them to get more feedback from me. 

For the first class, the cultural topic was the usefulness of university in modern society. We watched the Last Week Tonight episode on March Madness and the NCAA. It was not directly related to the topic, but I thought it gave an interesting insight into a big part of American university culture. It discusses the ethics of paying (or rather not paying) college athletes. For the writing aspect of the class, students responded to an opinion piece that listed reasons not to go to college. I asked students to simply write their response to the article using their own experiences at university. 

Nearly all of the student responses mainly agreed with the article. Students argued that many of the classes at university did nothing to prepare them for the real world; some claimed that many young Poles attended college simply because they did not know what they wanted to do after high school. I expected several students to agree with the article, but the vast majority of students seemed to at least partially agree with it. Many mentioned that it was viewed as necessary to hold a degree, but that the degree didn't prepare them for the real world. It was a good opportunity to see what my students really thought about their higher education system 

This week, I am thinking about discussing a recent NPR podcast on college Hook Up Culture. If you are interested, the podcast is only 24 minutes, so it won't take up much of your time and is an interesting listen. I really don't know how my students will respond to it, but I suppose that is the point of discussing the topic. No matter the result, I will certainly update my faithful readers on the result. But for you, my faithless readers, those who read something besides my blog, I cannot promise anything!! 

2nd Year Writing 

I think out of all my classes late semester, I was most satisfied with my second year writing classes. For the most part, my lessons were fairly useful and coherent (although there were one or two that were iffy). In general, I have firmer grasp of what I want to teach this semester. I want to focus on smaller skills (similar to the Master's class) instead of big essay structures. I think that structure has been beaten into them enough through several classes. 

For the first week of classes, I was kind of in a holding pattern; I was not sure how many students were going to show up for the first day of class. Last semester, it was a mixed bag. Most students came on the first day, but several tactically decided to use their two unexcused absences in the first two weeks. I did not want start off with a critically important lesson due to the potential absences. It turned out to be a good decision. My 8:00am class was surprisingly present, but my 1:15 class was about half present. I'm sure attendance will pick up as the semester goes on. 

Last week, the lessons focused on creating effective transitions out of disparate stories (or at least that was the hope). The inspiration for the separate stories came from images cut out of magazines. Overall the lesson was good for the first day of class, but it was not as effective as I was hoping it might be. Buying Polish magazines was a small adventure because the covers were often misleading. I ended up with a unique mix of topics including horror movies, motherhood, politics, and what I think was teen fashion. The cashier gave me a generally confused look while checking out. 

This week, we will discuss the usefulness of higher education, like we did in my master's class. However, the response piece will be different and have different priories. 

Conversation

This semester, my new classes are all second year conversation classes. There are three classes and they meet every other week. I already had 2/3 of the students in my writing class and I had met the other 1/3 through observing my mentor. I hope that it will prove be a good opportunity to have more meaningful conversations and exchanges. 

First of all, if any of my students from my first conversation class read this, I would like to say thank you for all the great advice and suggestions that you gave me during the first class. The suggestions made my later classes more productive!

In each conversation course I asked my students to write down two or three skills they wanted to focus and improve on in the class. I got a variety of responses including job interviews, sports, technology/video games, politics, anything but politics, and international topics. By far the most frequent suggestion was to practice the questions for the end of the year practical English exam. During the speaking portion of the exam, students blindly pick two questions from a pool of 100. They then have 5 minutes to prepare a response for one of them. There are some interesting and sometimes difficult questions on the list. Throughout the semester, I hope to get through most of the questions.

Besides the end of the year exam questions, I also want to discuss cultural and social differences and similarities between the US and Poland. I am not entirely sure which topics will be discussed, but I certainly want to keep it interesting for everyone in the class. 

I will also be continuing my informal conversation class with professors and graduate students. 

Integrated Skills 

The last class to discuss! This semester I want my integrated skills class to be much more coherent and organized than last semester. With a good amount of planning on the front end, I think that the odds are in my favor. My biggest goal this semester is simply to have my students talk more. Last semester, while there was a good amount of student speaking in the class, there could have certainly been more. So, to start off this semester we jumped into light student presentations. 

Using the same topic as my other class, usefulness of higher education, students will present in groups. Keeping topics similar throughout my classes seems like an obvious idea, however it took the advice of another Fulbrighter to make me really question why I wasn't doing it before. Keeping the same topic throughout the week will hopefully decrease my planning stress and let me focus on customizing the lesson for each class. 

Anyways, this week students will give a short presentation on the topics. Before their presentation, I hope to go over some useful phrases and presentation strategies. We will see how it goes. 

That's All Folks!

This was probably one of the duller blog posts (no angry camels in the post), but it was definitely nice to type out my expectations and hopes for the semester. Many of my university colleagues have asked me how the start of my semester is going and so far it's going fairly well. I do not have nearly as much to adapt to as last semester. For the most part, I am aware of how the system works here (although there are still several things I am still trying to figure out). 

March looks pretty busy for me, both in teaching and in travel. I will be taking a weekend trip to the south of Poland to do some skiing. It has probably been at least ten years since I have last skied, so we will see how it goes! As I mentioned earlier, I will also be leading an education seminar on using technology in the classroom. A lot of what I want to talk about is how to effectively use Google Docs and Google Slides in high school lessons. I have some good idea for what I want to discuss in the presentation and a couple of weeks to finalize it. The conference in Berlin is hosted by Fulbright Germany and is mandatory for German Fulbrighters. The German commission also invites several people from other European countries and I was selected as one of the Polish representatives. 

As always, thanks for reading!

Winter Break: Escape to Morocco

Sunset in Marrakech, Morocco

TL;DR or Quick Summary 

1. The semester ended with the successful summiting of Mt. Essay and a long but eventually fruitful exploration of the online grading portal USOS. 
2. After leaving Białystok, I headed to Warsaw to meet up with a friend. We visited Treblinka, the German extermination camp outside of Warsaw. 
3. After that, the journey to a sunny land begin. To get to Morocco, I had a one day layover in Milan, Italy and then flew to Marrakech.
4. Marrakech (and Morocco in general) was a completely different place. I wandered markets, bought rugs, and rode camels into the Sahara. It was a great adventure!
5. The trek back to Poland and the Fulbright Mid Year meeting was a test of endurance, an exercise in sleep deprivation, and a demonstration of the wonders of coffee.
6. In the last few days before the summer semester starts, I am applying for jobs back in Texas and planning out the some of the semester. 

Summiting Mt. Essay and Discovering USOS 

Me, the last week of classes

As mentioned in my last post, the final assignment for most of my classes was an essay. Since they were writing classes, it only made sense. While I do not regret the decision, it was certainly a marathon effort to get everything done before I left. 

My 2nd year students were given the options of three different essay topics and then had to write a 2-3 page argumentative essay. Most were fairly successful. Many ended up choosing the same topic, 'Is it possible to be a hero in the modern world,' which made many of the essays monotonous, but well written nonetheless. The second most popular topic was 'Is it better not to know what is going on if we cannot do anything about it?' Those essays that addressed this topic were probably the most interesting. Students were split on their positions. Several claimed that being aware of things completely outside of your control would just lead to depression and a sense of helplessness, while others claimed that being aware of uncontrollable events was a necessary part of life. Overall, it was impressive to see how their improvement over the semester. 

My 4th year students had more free reign over their final essays, which made grading them more interesting. Somewhat surprisingly, the only topic that was repeated was 'Should couples live together before marriage?' Out of the four students who wrote on this topic, three argued that couple should not live together before marriage and one (who is currently living with his girlfriend) argued for the other side. Overall, their essays were well written and well organized. For this semester, I hope to offer my 4th year students more practical English skills since they can already write quite well. 

The final challenge of the semester was figuring out USOS, the online grading system used by my university. While the system 'works' once you get everything set up, it was a challenge to get to that step. Through the help of many people in my department, I was able to get everything set up and entered. At one point, there were two secretaries, one administrator, and two professors trying to help me gain access to all of my classes and students. If any of you are reading this, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy end of the semester to help this bumbling American! 

After submitting grades and fielding some last minute student emails, I was off to Warsaw. 

Treblinka Memorial 

Warsaw and Treblinka

This section will be sad facts about experiencing the remains of Treblinka, so if you are you here for my witty commentary and adventures, feel free to skip down to the next sections. 

Like nearly all of my trips out of Białystok, my first stop was Warsaw. There I met up with an old friend from camp who was on a trip through Europe. Due to the cheap flight schedule, we only had a day in Warsaw and actually decided to leave to city and visit Treblinka, the extermination camp about an hour outside of the city. It was (by design) pretty isolated and we had to take a train followed by a taxi, driven by the wonderful (if completely unable to speak English) Stanisław. 

The site itself was completely destroyed by the Germans during their retreat, so it was a very different environment than Auschwitz/Birkenau. There was a small museum about the site and the reconstruction attempts of various universities and scholars over the years. Treblinka was composed of a small labor camp and a larger extermination camp. The prisoners at the labor camp were primarily used to quarry gravel and in other local industries. Conditions were harsh and most people died during their time at the labor camp. 

Stone shards with city names 

The extermination camp was just that. Victims arrived and disembarked at a station designed to look like a normal rail station. They were told it was a transfer station and that after a shower they would be on their way somewhere else. Instead, they were lead to gas chambers, killed, and then burned or buried. Today, there is almost nothing left of the camp. Ground penetrating radar has been used to try to determine the layout of the camp and the location of mass graves. 

At the site, the is a large T shaped monument surrounded by large fragments of stone with city names carved into them. I could not confirm this, but I assumed they were the names of the cities from where the victims came. For most of our time at the site, we were the only two people there. The ground and trees were snow covered and the I only really heard the wind and the crunching of snow underneath my boots. It was a very somber experience. 

Treblinka is worth a trip for anyone interested in learning more about the concentration camps. 

The Duomo in Milan

Milan: A Rainy Day in Italy 

The next day, we began our journey to Morocco. The way the flights worked out, we needed to spend one day in Italy to get the best prices. I was happy to have some authentic Italian food and do some city exploring, unfortunately, Milan was not having it. We arrived to Milan fairly early in the morning (thank you 6 am flights) and dropped our stuff at the hostel. After having a minor tussle with my bank about travel notices, we headed out into the city.

It was a rainy and just overall miserable day in Milan. The temperature was warm for Polish standards, but combined with the constant drizzle, made for a cold and wet day. We walked to the major tourist site in Milan, the Duomo, a massive cathedral situated in the center of the city. Even in the rain, it was very impressive. The inside seemed even bigger than the outside and was maybe the largest cathedral/church I have ever been in.

Inside the Duomo

The admission included access to the roof of the Duomo which was a very unique experience for me. Walking along the stone shingles in the rain while being several stories up in the air was an experience. The rain and clouds gave everything a more serious feeling and brought the gargoyles to life (they really served as fancy gutters).

On the roof of the Duomo 

Food wise (I mean how could I go to Italy and not talk about the food), lunch was disappointing, but dinner made up for it. For lunch, we ate at a restaurant near the Duomo (mistake number one) that wanted us to use a fancy electronic self ordering system. It was similar to the ones at McDonald's but much, much worse. If I had not been so hungry, watching everyone in front of me trying to figure out the system would have been hilarious. Once we finally ordered, found a seat, and got our silverware, the food was very meh. The disappointing lunch however, just increased the need for a great dinner.

After trying and failing to see da Vinci's The Last Supper (you have to book tickets weeks, if not months in advance), we wandered through a park, were seemingly chased by a vindictive taxi, and accidentally walked into a castle. Back at the hostel we made friends with a Taiwanese medical student attending school in Poland! We invited him to dinner with us and had a great time. This restaurant did not disappoint. I had a great sausage pizza that I wish I could have taken back to Poland with me. The next morning, we were off to Morocco!

In Search of the Sun: Marrakech 

Soaking in the sun on the hostel roof. This is the first time I
have exposed my arms in months.

Getting off the plane in Marrakech was a like a little taste of home. In fact, Austin and Marrakech are almost at the same latitude. It was about 70 F (21 C) and I had to roll up the sleeves of my sweater. In order to avoid the hassle of getting a taxi from the line, I had arraigned a pick up though our hostel. Unfortunately, I made a mistake Google told the wrong landing time and we got to hang out at the airport for about an hour. After finally getting to our hostel and dropping our stuff, I just sat on the roof top patio soaking in the sun. 

The Market Experience

One market from above

Eventually, we decided to get a small taste of the city. It was certainly different than the calm of a Polish city center. Walking into the main souq (open air marketplace), I was surrounded by noise, colors, and smells. There were many tourists (identified by sunglasses and a somewhat overwhelmed look) but even more Moroccans going about their daily business. There were probably 30 juice stands that all sold the same juices for the same price. There were street vendors with hats, bowls, watches, and other small souvenirs. There were women going from tourist to tourist aggressively attempting to (and sometimes succeeding at) give you a henna tattoo. There was a long section of stands selling grilled food that smelled amazing and whose price was negotiable. 

Fishing for bottles in the main souq

At night, the market underwent a transformation; it became even more crowded and alive. In the open square, large circles had formed around different performers or events. Several circles had musicians playing upbeat music. In one circle, people attempted to knock over a filled soda bottle with a ring on a stick. Another contained a mini flight club where two men in boxing gloves had a short 30 second fight. It was the place to be at night. 

Spice store

Leaving the main souq, there were endless alleys and streets lined with people selling soap, oils, fabric, lamps, charms, rugs, clothes, and practically everything else. It was like being stuck in a shopping mall that had no signs, bathrooms, or organization. That said, it was a great experience. Walking through the streets, you would transition between districts with very little warning. I went from the leather curing district (it smelled like a chemical plant) to the metal working district (also like a chemical plant) to the dyers district (no distinct smell) all in rapid succession. 

Since I don't look Moroccan (I know, I was shocked to discover this too), vendors would call to in different languages to try to get my attention. French and English were the most common, but there were also attempts in German, Dutch, and Spanish. None were overly aggressive and some had some very creative attempts to get my attention. 

• 'Very low prices, only 1 million Euro!' 
• 'Free lunch, only today!'
• 'Come come, it is free! ... Free to look!'
• 'Skinny girl, skinny price!' (This one wasn't directed at me)
• 'Come my friend, you are too skinny, you need to eat!' (This one was directed at me)
• 'This is my best product, you drink and then BAMZI!' (Man selling Moroccan Viagra)

Lake Lalla Takerkoust and Jet Atlas 

The magic of Jet Atlas

The afternoon of my first full day, the whole Fulbright crew (8 people at this point) decides to head out of the city and visit a nearby lake, Lake Lalla Takerkoust. The first step was getting a taxi for 8 people that would take us 45 minutes out of the city, wait for about 3 hours, and then drive us back to the city. With a little the help of a great French speaking Fulbrighter and a little bartering, we able to get a pretty good deal on the taxi. 

Dinner on the lake

Unsure of what we would actually find at the lake, we headed out undeterred. One we arrived, the lake was beautiful, but most of the shoreline was dirt and undeveloped. However, about 100 meters away from us was a patch of green land that looked surprisingly luxurious. We decided to investigate and discovered the magic of Jet Atlas. It was like a mini-country club with a small patio, light restaurant, infinity pool, and hammocks. It seemed like the kind of place you would need a membership to enter, however, the gate was open and no one was there to tell us no, so we walked in. 

Inside we dropped the big bucks and ordered some water, coffee, and even two cokes (I'm surprised they didn't kick us out). We hung out at Jet Atlas for about an hour and a half moving from patio to hammock to gazebo. Sadly, no of us came prepared to swim so we could only stare longingly at the infinity pool. 

After leaving Jet Atlas we had a traditional Moroccan meal, the tajine. It is dish with meat (chicken or beef), veggies, and often couscous cooked in a clay dish. It is often pretty oily and served with lots of bread. While it is a good dish, on our desert excursion, we basically had it for lunch and dinner three days in a row. So by the end of the trip, we were all pretty tajine'd out. 

The next morning, we woke up early to start our three day desert adventure.

Lake Lalla Takerkoust at sunset

Desert Excursion or How to Spend 3 Days in a Small Bus 

The Fulbright Crew. We all actually made it into one picture.
The real miracle of the trip!

Our two night, three day trip took us across the Atlas Mountains, through old movie sets, and to the dunes of the Sahara right next to the border of Algeria. In the mini bus were the 9 Fulbrighters, 2 Dutch girls, 2 Argentinian guys, and a Spanish couple. And of course, Jamal, the driver who constantly smirked at the obnoxious Americans in the back of his bus. It was a good group, but I think we were all ready to have some space by the time we got back on day 3.

Day 1

On the road through the Atlas Mountains

The first day we left Marrakech early in the morning and headed east, over the Atlas Mountains. Going through the mountains was slow and curvy. The back of the bus definitely felt a little car sick on the journey, but luckily Jamal stopped frequently so we could get out and take some pictures (and more importantly so he could smoke). The Atlas Mountains were beautiful and changed from lush and green to dry and brown pretty quickly.

Ait Ben Haddou, abandoned city in Morocco 

The first major stop Aït Ben Haddou, an old abandoned city that has since been used in numerous movies. Jamal dropped us off in the modern city across the river and gave us an hour. We crossed over the small stream in the mainly dry riverbed and hiked into the old city. While several parts were in poor condition, some people had set up shops and several moved back in. Some of the movies filmed there include: Lawrence of Arabia, Indiana Jones, Gladiator, Prince of Persia, and Game of Thrones. It was a cool site to visit.

After that it was back in the bus until we got to our lunch spot, were we had tajine. The rest of the day was spent driving further east, although by this point we were out of the mountains so the ride was easier. The night we spent in a surprisingly nice hotel in a ravine. It was a hotel full of other people doing the same trip as us and everyone was understandably exhausted. For dinner we had tajine.

Cozy hotel fireplace

Right outside of my room was a small and fortunately warm fireplace. After dinner, the Argentinians, a Fulbrighter, and I had an interesting conversation with another bus driver. In different languages (Spanish, French, and English), he claimed to have met several famous actors and then proceeded to discuss his ideas to improve the world. While I didn't completely understand everything he was saying, it was really enjoyable to hear someone's genuine opinions about the world and the way he sees it.

Day 2

I just wanted a picture of the rug
but then this happened

The next day after a relatively quick bus ride, we stopped in Tinghir, the largest city in the area. We had a tour of the fields and city that ended up in a Berber (nomad) family's home where they wanted to sell us some Moroccan rugs. As they told us, 'No one enters thinking they will buy a rug, but then you buy two.' For me, this prophecy held true. I ended up buying two rugs, a larger white one and a small black one. Whether or not the price was actually good, I know I would have spent much more money on similar rugs back in Marrakech. The rugs are currently bringing some non-green color to my overly green apartment.

After rug-mania, we stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant by a river. We had tajine.

Three hours of driving later, we finally arrived at the desert. The sand dunes really seemed to come out of nowhere. One moment there was flat and dry ground, then a couple of small sandy hills, and finally on the east side of the road, unbroken sand dunes. We arrived at Merzouga, a small town that surprisingly also was home to the Moroccan National Auto Museum. 

My faithless steed: Barack 'Spitty' Obama

Getting off the bus, I saw our mode of transport into the desert, 15 angry camels all tied together. My camel was not having a good day. As he stood up, he let out a roar that sounded like a dying Brontosaurus. I was informed his name was Barack Obama; I gave him the nickname of Spitty, for reasons that should be obvious. He had the bad habit of stopping too late and rubbing his mouth all over the back of the person in front of me. I think he did it on purpose.

Camp fire in the desert

After about 30 minutes of riding, we arrived at our camp for the night. It was a large grouping of tents. There was one central tent where we congregated, played cards (BS is apparently a universal card game), and ate dinner. Surprise, we had tajine! After dinner, we headed outside where our hosts started a fire and played drums. There was some minor dancing, but no large group musical numbers spontaneously occurred. After about an hour, it started to get cold (the low that night was below freezing) and people started to trickle off to bed. One of our hosts introduced us to some of his desert games, most of which were played with camel poop. That's one experience I did not imagine having.

Day 3

Sunset in the desert

The next morning, we got up way before the sun so we could make it back to Marrakech at a decent hour. The morning was still quite chilly and breakfast was waiting for us on the other side of the camel ride. After climbing up on Barack (with a good morning roar) we started the slow trek back to civilization. Maybe it is just because I have not ridden a horse in a while, but camels are much less comfortable to ride. During the ride it is mildly uncomfortable, but getting off the camel causes the built-up soreness in your thighs to become readily apparent. We had our usual breakfast of various types of bread with apricot jam and butter. Fortunately there was also coffee. 

The rest of the day was spent trekking back across Morocco with Jamal. We took a couple of short breaks and our final tajine lunch stop. Going back across the mountains this time proved even more interesting due to heavy rain. I don't know how frequently in rains in Morocco during the winter, but we were certainly treated to a nice long shower.

Our camel train 

In his infinite wisdom, Jamal concealed the fact that he had a microphone and aux jack for the stereo for most of the trip. I suppose he didn't want to have a sound track of terrible songs for the entire journey. However, for the last hour and a half of the trip, he let us use it. Unfortunately it didn't work with everyone's phone, so we only got to listen to one Dutch rap song. 

After about a 12 hour bus journey, we arrived back in Marrakech and had something other than tajine for dinner. It was a much needed change. One quick shower later and I collapsed into bed for some well deserved sleep. 

Overall Morocco was a great place! The people were nice (even if most were trying to sell me something), the food was good (in moderation), and there was a lot to do. I would very much enjoy returning and seeing some of the other cities, Fez, Casablanca, or Rabat. Winter seems like the ideal time to be there because summer temperatures can get very hot and the sun was a great break from the cloudy Polish winter. The culture and general feel of the city is very different than the US or most of Europe and stood in sharp contrast to most of the other places I have been. If anyone is considering a visit, I would highly recommend!

The road out of the desert

Looking Forwards 

This semester will start next week and I hope to have a better grasp on all of my classes from the start. I already know most of my students; they know what to expect from me and I know what to expect from them. Teaching English has definitely been a challenge, but because of the support from my university and students, it has mostly gone well. 

I will continue teaching my writing and integrated skills classes, but will also add conversation classes. This will hopefully be an opportunity to have more frequent and open discussions with my students. 

Anyways, thanks for reading! Hopefully there are not too many proofreading mistakes in this post!

Bonus Pictures

Our desert campsite

Main souq

The lobby of our hostel

At the rug store