Welcome to Warsaw!

Dzień dobry everybody!

I have made it a full week (Plus some) in Warsaw! Yayy!!

I am having a great time so far! And I'm happy to report that my arrival to Poland was the complete opposite of my arrival to China in 2016.

Although, my journey from Albuquerque did take me 30+ hours and four flights!

Warsaw from the Plane

View from my bedroom

Snowing!

Journey recap:

I went from Albuquerque to Phoenix with a short layover. 
Then from Phoenix to Los Angeles with a 7hr layover. 
Flight 3 was from LA to Moscow, Russia with a short layover in Moscow. 
And then finally my last flight was Moscow to Warsaw!

There was one little snafu in LA with the weight of my "cabin approved" hand luggage being "overweight" (what can I say, a girl has things that she needs in her carry-on 💁🏻). The guy at the check-in counter was pretty nice (and a little rude), he let me add stuff to my checked cases (yes, caseS. Winter clothes take up more room than summer clothes) to balance out all the weight, and then I was ready to rock-n-roll!  I started my journey at 5:30am on November 30th, and arrived in Warsaw at 7pm on December 1st. It was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG travel day.

While on the flights I watched some movies, read a bit, and tried to sleep- which didn't really happen thanks to my seatmates elbowing me and man-spreading into my limited foot space.

I did manage to catch a few glimpses of the Northern Lights out of my plane window, which I thought was SUPER cool!!

Not the best pic, but here are the Northern Lights!

When I finally arrived in Warsaw the Director of my new school picked me up and took me to my new flat! He even stopped at a little market and bought me some groceries to start out.

My flatmate- Julie was still home when we arrived, so it was nice to quickly meet her before she left for a Friendsgiving party.

On Sunday Julie took me to the closest big Mall- Arkadia. Where we had TacoMole (veryyyy similar to Chipotle) for lunch, bought me a Polish SIM Card, opened a bank account (yes, the bank branch in the mall was open on a Sunday!!! Crazy!) and went to Carrefore (Very similar to good ole Walmart) for some more groceries and supplies (ex: towel, blanket, Tupperware, etc)

The weekdays were mostly spent getting acquainted with work. I had a few hours of training and paperwork on Monday & Tuesday. Wednesday was spent lesson planning with Karolina in preparation for my Christmas themed Kids Clubs (50min lesson once a month that is included with the course that they buy). Thursday and Friday I had 3 kids clubs each afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed being back in a classroom with kids- and it didn't hurt that I got to sing Christmas Carols! 🎅🏻

This week I have also been teaching Christmas Kids clubs at some of the other locations as well as subbing classes for a teacher who left early. Next week I will be shadowing a teacher and her classes because after Christmas I will be taking over her schedule/classes. 
I'm not 100% certain but I believe that my schedule will be:

MWF at a primary school, and then TR at AngloSchool (Language Center).

Saturday (the 8th of December) evening we had our schools Christmas party! We all met at one of the locations and decorated cookies, sang carols, and enjoyed a typical polish meal! While the meal wasn't my favorite I promised myself that I would at least try everything, so I had: vegetable salad, Herring 3 different ways, cabbage perogies, and borscht. For dessert we had an assortment of cakes and cookies. I got to meet a lot of the other teachers at the party, and overall I had a great time!

I didn't take any pictures at the party, so here is a picture of one of my co-workers dog!

So as you can see, I'm trying lots of new things (hello vegetables!) and starting to explore around the area I live and other areas Warsaw! I'm hoping to really get out and explore now that I have a little bit more of a set schedule and I'm finally over jet-lag (YESSSSS! the first few nights were roughhhhhhh!) I have found a few places close to my flat that have some good cheap food like these pizza things and polish hot dogs. 😉 And I stumbled upon some pretty Christmas lights while slightly lost on my way home the other night.. (see pics below)

 The pizza thing.

Polish Dogs!

Christmas Lights!

I will be headed to London to celebrate Christmas with Lauren and her family! While in London I will also be meeting up with my best friend from kindergarten, Jenny for a few days! 

Cant wait for this adventure, and already planing the next!✈️

Well that's it for now! I most likely wont post again until after Christmas, so I hope that each and everyone of you has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year! 

I'll see you in 2019!

Adios for now,

Margaret💛 


PS. If anybody would like to send me a Christmas card, Birthday card or just a letter in the mail I will happily give you my address! Just send me a message and I'll give it to you!