SHANNON! (very late...)

So I accidentally missed her reply before, but here is the awesome Shannon!

-She wants to go to Poland because her family is Polish and she is very interested in visiting the motherland.

-She loves naptime (word.) and hardcore chilling.

-She is a big fan of food, especially those that are flavorful and fresh. Her fav is quiche and she does not have any food allergies. She's kinda vegetarian, but will eat meat in Poland for the experience.

-She wants to be at the beach and a Radiohead concert right now.

-Last movie (probably seen more since then): Smoke Signals
"Some days it's a good day to die. Some days it's a good day to eat breakfast"


I'm so excited to meet you all!

writing to host families

Yes, of course you can write in English, though you might want to throw in some Polish vocab like Dziendobry(hello!) or Pozdrawiam (before you sign your name). Basically just introduce yourself and for the most part, someone in the family should be able to read your email. Polish people rarely check email though, so don't be surprised if it takes them awhile to respond.

Hey!  this might be a silly question, but if we write our host families an email... they will be able to read english, no?  

I just wanted to make sure  :-)

Best for the End

Because I found Stephanie to be so cool and fun, I decided to wait a little bit to tell you all about her. Stephanie plans to attend law school after she is finished at George Washington. Stephanie would like to spend her early years traveling, but ultimately wants to end up with her family and friends on the east coast. She enjoys passing the time on scrapbook and with friends. Stephanie wanted to join LE Poland because she has always had a fascination with Eastern European culture and wants to give some of her time and effort to other communities. After some time enjoying scrapbook with her friends, she loves to sample different cuisines and has found Thai and Italian to be among her favorites.

*drumroll*...here's Peter!

Peter is an economics major at Harvard, with a minor in psychology. He is interested in both areas, specifically the inner workings of both subjects. With this, he'd like to go into finance. However, this was not always the case as he wanted to be a professional golfer when he was younger. Even now, one of his favorite hobbies is golfing and though it is time consuming, it's something he truly enjoys.

Peter has travelled before, mostly around the U.S, Mexico and Canada. He has also been around Asia, particularly Malaysia. Peter has visited Eastern Europe before and really enjoys both the culture and way of life there. He wanted to dedicate this summer to volunteer work and LE provided the chance to do so and was also a unique experience.

Introducing Anna Klis

Anna Klis was a good sport about answering some interesting questions. I first asked her who her favorite President was. The answer was John Tyler because of his cunning political abilities. One of the coolest places she has visited was Salamanca, Spain. She lives in Texas with her Mom and Father, who are both scientists from Poland. She is very smart and will be getting a PhD. in Econ.

Now, the most interesting question she answered was this: How many George's do you know at Georgetown?

Her answer was one.

I look forward to meeting the smart and kind Anna in Poland.

Anne Marie

Anne Marie will be joining us in Poland from Ireland where she studies teaching. She is excited about the opportunity to both travel and teach, combining two of her most significant interests, with us this summer. Poland is especially interesting to her because of the large population of Polish emigrants she has come in contact with while at home in Ireland. She loves to eat potatoes, "spuds" as she calls them, and other Irish cuisine like bacon and cabbage. She has very diverse taste in music and watches almost no TV, despite the fact that is usually on an annoying her in her home. She is busy studying for her exams right now, and is looking forward to the summer, and of course to Poland!

Christina

Christina wants to go to poland because she has been to eastern Europe, but never made to Poland, and since then she has always wanted to go there. Also, she wanted to go somewhere she had never been to before, because it would be much more of an experience going into the program without any ideas of what to expect.

As far as her hobbies go, she absolutely loves listening to music. she has a radio show at georgetown, and love to play all the music she listens to. Mainly indie/folk/rock. She also loves to read... just about every type of book. She is double majoring in psychology and sociology (with an emphasis on social justice). So going to a different country to teach english is exactly something that fits her interests. I asked her to describe herself using 3 words and they are creative, caring, and quarky.

hope to read about the rest of you soon!

Introducing Florrine

Florrine is from Singapore however she is currently in her senior year at the London School of Economics.  After she graduates she plans on going back home, however she thinks it would also be nice to spend another year in London.  

Florrine wanted to go to Poland because she has never traveled to Eastern Europe.  Also, she think sit is going to be great to experience the close knit community and family that is common in Polish culture.  

Lastly, I asked her what her favorite flavor of ice cream was, and what type o music she listens to.  She really likes green tea ice cream, most likely because she loves Japanese food.  She mainly listens to chinese pop, but also listens to classical music.  She has played the piano for most of her life!

Florrine sounds like a really great person and I am so excited to meet the rest of you in Krakow!

Blog Introductions - Get to know each other!

I want you all to get to know each other (we have a great, diverse group), so I am going to let you all introduce each other on the blog. I will be pair you with someone and please find out 5 interesting things about them - send them an email with five questions (appropriate, please!), that you think would give us some insight into that person. Could be simple questions of course. Then, introduce the person on the blog. This should be fun! Here are the pairs:
Louise - louise_0708@tiscali.co.uk and Margarita - ritka@nyu.edu
Florrine - florrine@gmail.com and Christina - cmc234@georgetown.edu
Anna - aak55@georgetown.edu and Matthew Weber- webermj@bc.edu
Stephanie -sng@gwu.edu and Peter psingh@fas.harvard.edu
Shannon (moskitis@standford.edu) and Yuan - yuanliu@fas.harvard.edu
Anne Marie - galteeview@hotmail.com and Lisa - mankow10@gwu.edu

Please try to do this by the end of the week. Only takes a few minutes!

flight links

We need you to book your flights because tickets will only be getting more expensive from now on. They already are more expensive this summer than last, and the longer you wait the more you will pay. In case you need some helpful websites, check out:
http://www.orbitz.com/
http://www.statravel.com/
http://www.kayak.com/
http://www.studentuniverse.com/

Health stuff answers

After attending Georgetown's orientation on Sunday, this question was pretty much answered. LE does require health insurance, but we don't need special shots or anything. The girls recommended getting insurance through STA or another similar organization if you do not have a plan that carries on through the summer. I just got my application for my fall study abroad health insurance through a different program. If anyone has further interest in getting health insurance, I should have much more info as soon as I file those papers. I will be happy to share that with anyone who has more questions. Just let me know. Hope everyone is doing well! Good luck with all your exams!

Health stuff

Hi Everyone! Sorry if I repeat questions that have already been addressed, I'm trying to catch up. I'm really excited to be joining the group! Anyways, I'm wondering if there are specific health issues that I need to deal with before going to Poland. Are there specific shots I will need to get? I think my health insurance expires in May when school ends. Am I required to have insurance to travel with LE? Will insurance even matter in Poland? Thanks!

ATMS...

Forgot one thing - before you go abroad you might want to let your credit card company know that you will be making foreign transactions. Sometimes if you don't tell them, they get suspicious and may cancel your credit card while abroad and leave you hanging, this happened to my friend!

ATMS, computers, etc.

Great questions.

Honestly, I have not heard about credit cards not working abroad because of these chips, but I will definitely check into it more just to be sure. Has anyone else heard? I doubt this will be a problem as last year I know all of the volunteers used ATMs and everything was fine.

Thus, I would definitely plan on using ATMs but ONLY in Krakow. Krakow is a major city and ATMS will be plentiful and easy to use. Outside of Krakow, in your villages, DO NOT plan on using ATMS. You will not find one. There may be some in Tarnow or Ustrzyki Dolne, but I would not rely on that. As you will not need that much money if your villages (basically, you will only be spending money if you travel on weekends, buy ice cream for your children =), or go out at night in your village), I would say take enough money out at the end of orientation to last you four weeks. Of course your host family will be willing to help you if you get into trouble and need money fast, but this is a hassle that can be avoided. Also, I would not recommend bringing traveler's checks at all to Poland. Eastern Europe is not yet very familiar with the idea of traveler's checks, and I wandered around for half a day in Budapest trying to find a bank that knew what they were. Also, you obviously never want to be traveling with too much cash on you either. Oh, in case you're thinking about bringing cash - definitely bring some because you never know. But, exchange rates are better on ATMS.

Regarding computers, honestly, would not recommend bringing one. First of all, I worry about it being stolen. And, you most definitely will not have wireless in your village, though I think we will have it in our hostel. Unless you really need it to organize your lesson plans I don't really see the need for one. You will most likely have internet access in your home stay (if not, it will definitely be in your village somewhere), and Krakow is full of cheap internet cafes. That all being said, I had a friend who brought his laptop and watched way to many episodes of Friends the whole summer. The thing is, you want to be spending as much time soaking up the culture and being with your students and host families. I was without one for 3 months, and honestly it was great to get away from since it dominates my life at home. Thus, it's totally up to you - just remember the risks.

Copy machines, wouldn't count on it. You never know, may have one, may not. You could try to find a place in Krakow to make copies if you don't want to lug them over by plane.

Please remember you second set of volunteer forms IS DUE ON APRIL 15TH!!

Also, I will be placing you all soon and getting you in touch with your host families (they don't all have email unfortuanetly).

After going to the training session today, I had a few questions:

1. I know that some areas in Europe have changed their ATM cards to have a micro chip in them, and can no longer read our credit cards.  Is this the case in Poland?  Will we have access to an ATM machine?  Should we just bring cash?

2. As far as bringing a computer... Is it necessary?  Should we bring one? Will we have access to an internet cafe?

3. Lastly, when it comes to our teaching materials, and wanting to make copies... I doubt that wherever we will be teaching will have a xerox machine.  Will we have access to towns where a xerox machine is available if we want to copy a story for the students to read or something?

Thanks!  I hope everybody is getting excited!  I know I am!

Checklist - Due April 15th

1) Personal Information Form. (Save this file as LastName_First Name_PI)
2) Travel, Medical, & Emergency Contact Info Form. (Save this file as LastName_First Name_TME).

3) Email a photocopy of your passport to your PD. (You should also email this one to yourself to have on record wherever you are).

4) Read your Country Addendum: what to expect and how to prepare for your time with LE.

Don't forget about Training Days! They are mandatory

Stanford (Francesca): April 12th, Megg Pitts (Toyon Hall)
NYU (Ilona): April 13, 9am - 5pm
Georgetown (Margaret): April 13, 9am – 5pm
GW (Christina): April 4, 714 21st St. (Honors House of Undergrad. Fellowships and Research)

Harvard (Marianna): April 26th, commencing at 10am
LSE (Sayuri), Brighton (Aoife), Brown (Tessa): TBA

These are a great way to get to know some other LE-ers and to start brainstorming some teaching ideas.

our HOSTEL

Hey all,

We will be staying at the ASTON HOSTEL, in the center of Krakow. This place was recommended to me by a friend, and the location is excellent. Check in will start as early as 9 AM on June 18th, but again, you are expected to check in by that evening. 3 people per room (girls/guys separate), and you will matched with people in our program only. This was one of the cheapest hostels I could find where we weren't going to be sleeping with 10 other random people. Cost will be $14.10 per person for the first two nights, and $23.50 for each of Friday night and Saturday night. Total cost per person will be $75.20. Please send a check made out to me (Cathy Lacki) to the address below ASAP, but no later than May 1st!:

1305 Potomac Street, NW. Apt. 201
Washington, DC 20007

Aston Hostel
Dluga Street 41, Krakow.
+4812 2925555
biuro@spanie.com

http://www.aston-hostel.pl/en/

Directions:

From the railway station: if you want to walk to our hostel, You need to turn in to Basztowa street and then to Dluga street or You can just ask for Dluga Street - it will take You about 7 minutes to get there on foot. If You rather not to walk, You can take tram number 5 and get out on the second stop called 'Pędzichów' , Aston Hostel is situated on the same side of the street You get out.

From Airport You need to take bus number 292 and get out on stop named 'Nowy Kleparz' from there You need to turn into Dluga street., and find number 41, it's us!

We will be checking out and heading to the train station on Sunday, June 22nd, morning/afternoon.

Flights

I've found http://www.orbitz.com/ very helpful in finding flights to Poland in the past. Please post if you find any good deals.

Dates

Everyone needs to be in Krakow by evening on Wednesday June 18th - Orientation will start on Thursday June 19th officially, though we may do something the night of the 18th for those who aren't tired. We are flying into the airport in Krakow -airport code KRK. Orientation will run through June 22nd - on that Sunday you will be sent to your villages.

Hey, I am looking into buying my air tickets to poland.  What airport are we flying into?  And what day do we need to be there?

imporant VISA info

Volunteers - please check this blog frequently. I will uploading a lot of information here, so please make sure to keep up! As many of you will have the same questions, feel free to post questions/comments/concerns/cool things you find on the web relating to Poland or teaching, here. Of course, you can still email me at anytime.

First question I've had is regarding VISAS. Please check out the following website and make sure you don't need one for Poland. US citizens and citizens of Ireland and Great Britain do NOT need a VISA for Poland, since they are all members of the EU. If you are a citizen of another country, please check this out and contact me (it may take awhile to process one).http://www.washington.polemb.net/?document=104

Also, I found a great website which covers everything about Poland:http://www.poland.gov.pl/

3/20/2008

Hey everyone! I'm just trying to figure out this whole blog thing...it's kind of fun!