Hello!
This past week has been a really exciting one for myself. I feel as though because I am staying so busy, that time is just flying by. I honestly feel as if I just left the states yesterday. My time is almost over here an NCCS, with tomorrow (Thursday) being my last day of teaching. It has been such a unique experience to teach abroad. I had no idea what to expect and was a little nervous. However, I can say now that this experience has allowed for me to grow as a teacher and also as a person. I suppose I should start filling you in on the good stuff, right?
Last week was an exciting week for me in Krosno and also at the school. Krosno is known for their glass making. They even have a museum here that you can go tour. On Wednesday afternoon I began my tour which was in English..... It was a headset with an English recording of the tour, while also being with a group of people who had the tour in Polish. Sometimes my headset would be finished and I stood there patiently waiting for the tour guide to finish talking in Polish. It was a really interesting place to visit and see how glass was made. I got the opportunity to tour one of these places in Denver, Colorado a few years back. What made this different was that the museum in Krosno actually lets you try and make the glass yourself! It is definitely harder than it looks to make the glass. It was really fun though.
On Thursday, our school had a very special guest come visit. The US consulate from the embassy in Krakow came to visit with us and also give a presentation to some of the students at the school. 2018 marks the 100-year anniversary of American and Poland having a working relationship. The consulate plans to tour several parts of Poland to celebrate this partnership. He was a very nice guy and gave a really nice presentation.
Fast forward a few hours and now I have arrived at the Krakow airport to fly to Oslo, Norway! A few weeks ago, I was looking at possible destination to travel to online. I was checking bus tickets, train tickets, flights and was still not finding anything. Luckily, I finally came across a round trip ticket to Oslo for a really low price and the times worked perfectly for the weekend. It was a long travel day there, but it was so worth it.
One of the first things I did while in Oslo, was going to see the famous ski jump. The Holmenkollbakken is the largest steel ski jump in the world. Over 70,000 people can watch the ski jumping competitions on the hill. Oslo was very foggy when we went to visit the ski jump, but it was really nice to see it up close. It is a lot bigger than what it looks like on TV during the Olympics. The next few days were spent exploring the city, listening to street side musicians, exploring museums, and enjoying all of the views Norway had to offer. I got to visit so many different museums in Oslo. 1. Noble Peace Center. 2. Fram Museum 3. Viking Ship Museum 4. Oslo Reptile Park 5. Norwegian Museum of History. I feel as though I am missing one or two, but to say the least I was able to see a lot. The city of Oslo has a city pass that you can purchase at the beginning of your trip. The pass includes public transportation and admission into almost all of the museums in Oslo. It was a very nice thing to have as it saved quite a bit of money.
As always, my time flew by. Before I knew it, I was leaving Norway and traveling back to Poland. This week has been a little sad, as I have started to say good bye to some of my students. They were so awesome to teach and I also learned a lot from them. Check back next time for update.
Take care