first week in sum

Well this has been a week and a half. One of the kinds where you don't even know where to start.

I got into Warsaw on the 9th of Feb, which was my first time ever being in Europe. Everything about Poland that I have seen so far is so incredibly undescribable. Everything is different! I am in love with the buildings built right after the war, the coolest being the ones with the choice courtyards.

So, back to the airport, we arrived about 15 mins late, and cruised through the (lack of) customs department. In the arrivals hall Beata was waiting with Magda, soon to become the best resource in Warsaw ever. Us awesome Kiwis then had to wait about an hour and a half for the bloody Ozzies to come out, and by that time Willy T and I were tired of holding the GAP sign (I felt like a taxi driver ahahaha). We then had to spend an extra half an hour waiting for someones guitar that had been missplaced. After that whole ordeal, we promptly loaded a bus, and started making our non-virtual connections.

For the first week we all stayed in an incredible youth hostel called Nathans Villa that really made the first week a blast. With all the people coming and going, it was like the airport all over again, but I managed to find some spanish speaking people, also some peeps that went to UCI, which was pretty cool.

From 10am to 6pm all 34 of us had TEFL training, which was cool because we got to interact with students of all ages, and also get pointers from experienced teachers.

Now, to the part that you are all most likely interested in:

ALCOHOL

There have been a couple of big nights, but nothing major. Between the 34 of us, we managed to scope out the whole of Warsaw in a week. The best district being Nowie Swiat (New World), and the most prefered club being Klaps/Dildo, or Patricks, the local Irish Bar. The other thing we can all pretty much agree on is Kamikazee...what I consider the official GAP Poland 2008 drink.

It is a concaution of vodka, Blue Bols Vodka, and lemon juice. You can have it in four shots, or as a cocktail (I prefer the later, as it is nice to taste).

And then there is the beer (pivo in Polish). It runs from about 6 to 10 Zloty (arround 3 to 5 USD) for half a litre of beer. And thats about it for the booze.

So everyone dispersed two days ago to either a temp host or to the actual placements, but Hugh, my GAP partner, and I got stuck in some grotty hostel, that we were promised was nice. It has started to grow on me at least, but mainly because, once again, the people are great to talk to.

The biggest let down is the lack of wireless (which Nathans had), and the Windows 98 on the excuse of computers that they have. Also, we are not allowed in the hostel between 10am and 5pm, so if you forget anything, thats it for the day! (My conspiracy is that there is a brothel being run out of it by day ahahaha.)

So right now I am sitting in an OK 24 hour net cafe, with American hits playing in the background...deffinately feels like home! My time is about to run out, and I really should be off to bed, so I wish you all well and thanks for reading!


Ryan