A Really Fun Week at Angloville

It’s Friday night and my Angloville week ended earlier today. Talking 12 hours a day was tiring but also energizing and rewarding. It was so interesting getting to know both the Poles and the other English-speaking volunteers! I loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone interested.

Thursday afternoon was the high point of the week, with the Poles each giving a 5-minute presentation in English on any topic they were interested in. The man who I mentored through the week, Jarek (pronounced Yarek), did a great job on a presentation about his company and it’s sales plan. He had practiced it with me several times during the week and each time we made corrections. But I could tell his English was getting better. On Thursday, it was perfect. I was so proud of him!

After the presentations finished, we had dinner as usual in the hotel restaurant. Then the party started!  Lots of drinking and dancing, even by me. I had my first ever Mad Dog, two of them actually – a shot of  Polish vodka, Tabasco sauce, and raspberry syrup, burning all the way down. Plus some homemade cherry vodka that one of the Poles had brought in. Everyone was well lubricated, dancing, and having fun. I left the party a little before 12:30 a.m. but it kept going until after 3:00 with everyone having fun.

This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find I didn’t have a hangover. But breakfast at 9:00 was quieter than usual, since many people got up late. After two final one-on-one sessions, there was a ceremony at which completion certificates were handed out and pictures taken. The ceremony photos will be emailed to us. Then we ate a final lunch at the hotel, said our goodbyes, and boarded the bus at 2 p.m. to head back to Warsaw.  The bus arrived in the city about 4:45 p.m.

Sharon, another volunteer, and I were headed to hotels near the airport. Since it was rush hour and the bus driver said taxis would be slower and more expensive during the rush, we decided to get something to eat, wait downtown, then catch a taxi or Uber together to our hotels.  So we walked around the giant Palace of Culture to a small outdoor bar that served pierogis and beer. I ate my first Polish pierogis there, washed down with a low alcohol raspberry lemonade. Both were good. Then we made our way to the nearby Novotel Hotel to get wifi for our phones and a glass of wine.  About 7:30, we shared a cab to our hotels.

The Hampton by Hilton at Warsaw Airport provided me a friendly welcome and excellent room. It’s nice to have a room to myself again, after sharing a room at Angloville as all the volunteers do.