I am going to Grudziądz!!!

I feel a little disoriented posting because I haven't posted in a while so my rhythm is a bit off, but here I go.. So I know I told you all that I would not find out until July where I will be going in Poland, but the truth is I found out in the beginning of May. I know I know shame on me, but everything goes by so fast you forget to post. I found out because my host brother Robert, who is super cool and plays guitar sent me an email saying that I will live in his home situated in Grudziądz a river town right in the north of Poland.

 I guess most people get contacted by their counselors or through their guarantee form( the sheet that contains all your details from your host country––remember to check the glossary!) but mine was maybe a bit weird. Robert's english is not the best, which is not surprising as Poland was under the soviet influence and thus most people learned Russian as a second language and while it has been some time since the U.S.S.R it still leads to some sort of deficiency of English instructors. I love this though because it just means I can practice more polish. Which also is not that great, but I can read and understand about 50% now which is awesome since I only started learning in the beginning of the year. Here is the book I am using it is a lifesaver--if you are learning polish make sure you get the mary corbridge version I have heard the newer TYL is less reliable; I also recommend that ALL exchange students get a 301 Verbs Book they are super helpful.

Thanks to this book I have been able to write back and forth to Robert in polish except now we speak more in English for his sake, and now I have many more contacts I can use for language learning exploitation. The bittersweet part is that Robert will be an exchange student in Idaho next year and I will probably only meet him for a couple of days; however, I still will live with an awesome little sister name Ola ( short for Aleksandra––poles love diminutives and I love nicknames so we've anglicized her as Lexxie ) and a younger brother Remek who is around 13, and apparently a very good bmx-er. Hopefully, He can teach me some sort of coordination while I am there but I doubt I will pick it up haha. My host parents Mr. and Mrs. Stachowski also seem really nice and I think they are signing me up for guitar lessons; I really hope I can be an awesome exchange student for them.

Lastly, I've talked also to my host aunt Małgorzata who seems super nice and fun. She even suggested maybe going to the seaside when I arrive ( Grudziadz is only an hour and a half from the baltic sea). She also has a little baby girl, and I am excited to spend time with the both of them. I am so excited to live with them, and skyping with your host family really helps ease everything, and I can't possible imagine how people managed without it before. I don't know if I will have more than one host family––I am assuming no but either way I lover them already and my host families generosity never ceases to amaze me. I just know I will have the most amazing year.

Here is a video of Grudziadz, and I next post I will describe my last orientation and preparations processes.

To Wszytko Boję Się ( All That I Fear)

So, I am pretty much a loser because my second orientation was two weeks ago and it is now two weeks later haha. I really hope I don't make this a habit because there is nothing I hate more than exchange blogs that take forever to update.  I do have a legitimate excuse though, last weekend was my birthday(GO ARIES!!), and I didn't really spend a lot of it inside. I finally turned 17 and I got to admit that it is pretty weird. What is even more weird is that next year I will be 18 and celebrating it in Poland! I wonder what type of cake I'll have and how I'll feel about coming home so soon seeing as this time of year most of my exchange friends only have 3 months left here( specifiquement toi Manon!) . It's crazy how big of an impact these exchangers have on your life, and it is very depressing imagining them gone as if they were just memories. In the very back of my mind though, I kinda do want them to leave. I know this is horrible, but I just want to be able to leave already. My head seriously bursts into a thousand particles of happiness when I think about leaving. I have had to keep myself as distracted as possible so not to think about it.
Swim team has started so with that and homework I really don't have that much time to think about it, but neither do I have much time to study polish. I usually end up cramming on the weekends, but on the bright side I am almost done with declension. Declension is probably the hardest part of polish and it just involves changes nouns into seven different forms depending on grammatical aspect and the three  genders, plus another 7 for their plural variants. Don't panic though some of it overlaps and maybe one word can really only be changed 10-14 various ways.

Anyways back to the orientation, it was very long I have to say.We got our blazers that we were measured for the previous time and we got to learn more about culture shock and different situations we have to deal with. We also went over monochromic societies and polychromic societies and how there are many things that we don't notice in each others cultures because we assume they are the same. For instance, the fact that the U.S.A is very time obsessed and everything must be at a set time as opposed to many latin american countries that are more relaxed and tend to not worry so much. At the end though we got a great dinner and we danced or something similar to that; I don't think many of us were very talented, but me and my friend ,an outbound to Brazil, turned it into a sort of crazy tango.
The following day we went through a lot of the same, it sometimes gets receptive but I guess they really want us to get the B's down. However, the highlight of it was meeting the rebounds. Especially when they told us about reverse culture shock, how you come back from your exchange and you are sometimes angry, and you stop agreeing with so many of the things your country is. They also emphasized that people don't really understand you are gone for a year how you come back and people think you are the same person but you have totally matured and you may not have the same interests of mind set, and that that is the most difficult part of reverse shock. I loved that I got to hear this from students who actually were there because they are always the most valuable source of information.
They also told me to just have fun and like everyone else that knowing the language is really crucial especially when you are at school because you are only interesting for a couple of minutes until they find out you can't say anything. It was overall very helpful and I am glad we have these orientations.

Now that two weeks have passed since this date, many people already know their city,and it makes me cringe with jealousy because I won't get to know til around July: waiting really is the hardest part. I have also begun to watch polish films and I watched Bad teacher in Polish although they call it Bad Woman. I am not sure why. It is really helpful to watch them with polish subtitles because like I said before reading is number one. My friend has also lent me some cd's and I have been listening to a lot of polish music; I am posting a link to those who want to know how it sounds.

Na Razie,

Angel Salas

What your mind wants

Often times, what you really wish for does not happen and in the instances it does you become confused with reality and what the future brings. I will admit that in January when I found out I was going to Poland I felt–surprisingly–indifferent. I wanted this my whole life and I felt nothing. However, now I cannot be more excited; it is so hard to concentrate. I get random burst of happiness that I can't even control myself. Every day at school I wonder how different it will be to move to a country and not speak any english it all. Like on an alien planet, I feel as if it is all a world apart. This all materialized in my head and that's when the blue moment comes in. In beginning of the year I felt like I was not going to miss anyone, yet for the first time, while riding up to my first orientation, I realized how for a whole year I won't touch my family or friends, I won't see them, I won't laugh with them. Nevertheless, I also realized that I will have so many new great people to meet. I, hopefully, will also have in Poland what I have here. How lucky is that? To have those types of relationships on two sides of the world! To think that the polish radio that I listen to everyday will translate in my brain to real words and phrases!

And that brings me to main point: Rotary Outbound Orientations. Orientations were a mystery to me and I never knew what went on in them. I just knew they were essential to a successful exchange. In essence, we learned how to be able to approach people and introduce ourselves as independent people, as well as say where we were going and I was so excited to know where everyone will go. I also got to see my inbound friends again and many other kids got to meet the inbounds( remember to check the glossary) for the first time. The inbounds are all pretty much crazy and yell "Kurwa!" while rotarians are speaking, but the rotations don't seem to mind and everything is just hilarious. We learned skills to learn new languages and the professor with small rimmed glasses and gipsy skirt  kept singling me out because she heard I was good at languages, so I felt a tad awkward the whole time. A valuable thing I got from it though was to listen to your host language as much as possible even if you do not know what they are saying. Rotary could not express enough the importance of the correlation between success and language level, so for anyone thinking about exchange start as soon as possible. Other than that we got to talk to other outbounds which is very assuring knowing they feel the same. They are all great and I am sure we will all become closer friends. Finally, we got measured for our blazers!!!!!!! DYING TO PUT PINS ON. We also received our huge country pin which is really awesome.

My second and penultimate orientation is the second week of March where we will talk more in depth about scenarios and travel. I will probably not post till after that so you will have to survive, if anyone even reads this. It is also from 8am to about 9 pm sat and again 8:30 am til a bit after noon sunday, so I will have lots to write about. I also have a ten page essay due for May about Poland and for next orientation I must give a mini speech in Polish as if I was in Poland telling my host club thanks for hosting me and introducing myself and various other little things. To do this we have instructed to study our host language 2 hours a day–it becomes enjoyable I swear.

So until next time bye and don't hesitate to ask any questions.

Angel Salas

I am going to Poland!!!!

Okay so this post is a little overdue as I received my letter the 5th of January and so the excitement has worn off a bit, but yupp as you all have read I am going to do my foreign exchange in Poland!!!! :DDD
It's crazy because I really can't believe that I am officially gonna be an exchange student, even now as I write this letter I am not as excited as I should be because it still all seems like a dream. After you have wanted something for so long it seems hard to believe it is becoming reality, but nonetheless I can't even describe how happy I was upon receiving my letter.I will be leaving at the end of the summer, but  I do not know what city I will be placed in yet and that is kinda driving me crazy. I would really like to be in a midsize city because I have lived in a small one all my life; I want to experience something new. Also It would be neat to live––in Olsztyn–– by my friend Kasia who is the inbound from Poland. She is super funny and on christmas she gave me the flag/scarf in my picture and a bunch of other great Polish stuff; candies, pudding/jello/goop stuff––don't worry it seems good, I just haven't made it yet though because the directions are in polish, and she also gave me travel books. Another awesome city would be Gdańsk because it is the biggest sea port of Poland and is part of Trujmiasto––A tri-city area where you can pretty much just hop around.

A part from finding out that I am officially part of the RYE class of 2012-2013 not much has happened. Winter break was great and I skied a lot, even though we don't have much snow. I study my polish all the time and I fall in love with it more and more everyday. However, I feel like my english spelling is beginning to get jumbled, something that used to never happen. Perhaps I should pay more attention,so  if any of you see a mistake please tell me.

Lastly, I also got my email for my first outbound orientation on February 4th. These orientations are to prepare me for going on exchange, but I am not really sure what we do when we go so I will have to tell you about it when I get back from it. I do know; however, that I will be getting measured for my blazer!!! For any of you who do not know, THE Blazer is the staple of the foreign exchange student. They are usually blue but I have seen various colors, but on thing is for sure: They are covered with pins from around the world. I can't wait to get my blazer and put the five pins I have already received from exchange students here! The blazers to me always seemed so cool, so exchangey! I just am really excited. With excitement comes blues though, and while I have usually been the kid who wanted high school to be over so that I could see the world, It is sad that I am almost already done––around 90 days left. Of course I have made the best of it this year, but I can help thinking that it all went too fast. I am sure tomorrow I will regret saying this in Honors Physics, but still life goes fast and that is why I recommend to everyone to become a foreign exchange student. You are only young once, you might as well go live it up. To have fun without drugs and alcohol though, by traveling the world see they ways others live, by learning a new perspective on the world, by learning a new language which invariably will lead to success in your future life. Too often people put these types of opportunities off, they say 'oh I will wait til I am in college' which turns into 'I will wait til the kids are out of the house' to 'I'll wait til I am retired' which ends with ' I wish I would have traveled more when I was young'. Honestly, I don't think colleges would care if you took a year to learn a new wait of life. If anything you will be more prepared for an independent atmosphere, so before I get too preachy I just want to say to anyone questioning becoming a foreign exchange to just do it. It will be the time of your life and you will not regret it. It will be tough, but it will be all worth it.

Sincerely,

Angel Salas


p.s I feel like I have too many commas sometimes so correct my grammar if it is distracting