Being McKinley: I made it to Poland

   For those of you who do not know, I am now officially an Au Pair (or nanny) for an awesome family right outside of Warsaw, Poland. Most people asked me why I decided on Poland, and it was easy for me. Obviously I love to travel and see all the tourist sites, but I love being in places that are off the path. Places that not very many tourists go... like Poland. I am living with a family in their home, eating their food, driving their car, going on all of their trips and hanging out with their children for the next few months. It's going to be an adventure to say the least.

   I have been in Poland for two weeks now, and it has been a blast! I got picked up at the airport by the Dad, Alex. He then drove me to the summer house, which reminds me of Sun Valley with tree’s, streams and the great outdoor with no shops or anything nearby. I stayed there for a week with Grandpa, Anna’s brother, Mickey, who is handicapped, and Maks, the five-year-old boy. Around 9 or 10 at night Grandma would come home from work and then leave again early in the morning. Our days consisted of taking walks, fishing, playing tag, eating a lot of yummy Polish food, reading books while Maks watched TV and sleeping. My first week in Poland was nice with relaxing while not doing much, but after a couple of days I was tired of being all cooped up in a house where the closest town is 15 minutes by car.
    On Tuesday afternoon, the whole family went to pick up Julie, the seven-year-old girl, from summer camp. She went to a performing arts camp and at the end they put together a show where they sang and danced a few songs and after we watched a few LONG movies that they put together over the week. Imagine watching six movies, which were all 10-14 minutes long, all in Polish that little kids created. It was great. But honestly they were done well, I was just bored by the end. After we packed up Julie and the car we drove to their house in Warsaw.
    I have been here for the past few days, and we have had a lot of fun. The kids are great and play well together until about 3 PM, when they start getting tired and annoyed of each other then are super cranky, and they fight and yell and scream and cry. I guess that’s kids though, right? It hard because I can adequately communicate with everyone in the family (even the extended family) except for Maks, so he starts to get annoyed with everyone speaking in English. I think that has been the biggest struggle for him so far, but we are working on having him learn English. My biggest struggle is when they all start speaking in Polish. Usually, they are just discussing things like parents or explaining to the kids what is going on, but every so often I hear my name being said or the few words that I know in Polish. I usually have NO idea what they are saying, but I know that it is about me. Sometimes they will translate it and other times I think they forget that I don’t know Polish. Everything about becoming an Au Pair is a learning experience.