Last week, I wrote about being robbed in Poland, which almost made me go home. However, I stayed and had a wonderful time teaching English to Polish kids with the program Angloville. 

The couple who ran the Airbnb that I stayed at was very nice, and not only did they let me have dinner with them, but the woman also walked me to the train station on my last day with them. They also checked up on me later in the week to see how I was doing. 

For Angloville, you would meet up at the Palace of Culture and Science if your departing city was in Warsaw, which mine was. This is one of the most beautiful places in the city, as it is one of the few that was not done in the boxy, communist-style. Unfortunately, this is because most of Warsaw was destroyed in the second world war. However, it is amazing to see how well the city recovered. 

While at the Palace waiting for the Angloville bus, I met some of the coolest people, some of whom would become good friends of mine. This helped me relax significantly because it meant that I was not going to be traversing around Poland by myself anymore. 

I will only mention a few people because the list of people that I met in my time there, or even in the first week, could take hours. 

The first person I met was Tania. She was the primary coordinator for mentors my first week, and she is awesome. (Yes, I will say this about everyone, but I mean it!) She lives in London but she is Spanish and Italian. She was also robbed in the same manner as I in her first week, so I felt a lot less alone. Later, she also helped me rearrange my trip so that I didn’t have to leave Warsaw. She also bought me a donut. I owe her big time. 

Another coordinator, Jojo, was from South Africa where she taught us about the history and all the cool places she’d been in Africa. 

There was also a girl from Sri Lanka, Sammy, and an Irish girl named Orla, who I lived with during the first week. They taught me all about their cultures and how they got to Angloville. 

Lastly, the first week I met Noor and Kessem, who let me room with them between weeks after my debit card went missing, and later, got me back to the airport. Noor is also having me practice my French with her every weekend. Like, these are amazing people. Did they make me drink garbage beer? Absolutely, but it was fun nonetheless. 

When we arrived at the hotel that was four hours outside of Warsaw, I got to meet the kids of that week’s program who were pretty cool. I learned all about their culture, which isn’t very different from ours, but definitely different. For example, it’s not common to ask to pet someone elses dog over there, and honestly that made me very sad. 

I am not allowed to say the names of the kids that I specifically worked with, but I can explain what I did. 

Out of 40 kids, one or two would pick a mentor to help them with their end of the week presentation. I helped one with a presentation on her cat, and I learned that she wanted to have a million animals like me when she got older (I only have 18.) 

I helped the other with his presentation on Sherlock Holmes. He was 17 and she was 12, and I learned that he is working on becoming a chemist and wants to make the world a better place. 

There were several people that I wish I hadn’t met. But, because of the copious amounts of people who made me feel at home and made me want to keep going, I want to do it again and again. To my many friends here and abroad, thank you. 

Story: Amelia Jennings