Favorite Photographs

With exactly two months left in Poland, I’ve started to do a few of the “don’t leave Poland without...” items on my list and that includes carrying my camera with me everywhere and taking more photographs.

For some people, a camera is a wonderful way to capture an experience, a feeling, or a memory, and they love taking photographs. I don’t typically take photographs because – for me – I feel like the camera distances me from the experience. I find that I prefer to write about experiences rather than photograph them. I carry a notebook with me everywhere and often jot down things I want to remember. It's re-reading these quickly scribbled notes that keep memories alive for me.

But photographs do too and I know I don’t want to leave without taking a few more photographs. I’m often very self-conscious about whipping out my camera, especially because I like to photograph everyday scenes, people, and events. It’s the ordinary that feels especially precious to me in my last months here. But there’s nothing that makes you stick out like a sore thumb in a tiny town like Cieszyn quicker than whipping out a camera on, say, a public bus. (I whipped out my camera on the “L” train in Chicago this summer to take photographs to show my students, and I think my family wanted to pretend they didn’t know me for a few minutes. Because, after all, who takes photographs on the “L”? People are like that here too. “We thought that girl was normal but then she whipped out her camera at the supermarket...”) (I could digress into a significantly longer blog post here about the constant tension between my desire to blend in and my knowledge that in many ways I am – and always will be – an “other” but this is a post that’s supposed to be devoted to photographs and I’m going to stick to that plan.)

But I’ve decided that it’s worth feeling a little self-conscious because in the future I’ll want to have these photographs to look back at.

I’m not very good about posting photographs on this blog – because I never take any and therefore don’t have any to post! – but I finally have a few favorites to share with you from the past couple months.

On a walk through a park my friend Bożena and I discovered a cotton candy cart. This is my all-time favorite photograph of her – it captures her perfectly because she is such a joyful person.

The line outside Cieszyn’s best bakery at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning.

Isn’t it fascinating that people around the world love feeding birds? And that you can find pigeons everywhere? I love watching children at the Cieszyn market square chase after pigeons and debate whether they should donate the roll their mother gave them to the birds or if their own stomach needs it more.

There’s a special atmosphere in Polish cemeteries that I can’t quite describe in words. The graves are lovingly maintained by family, friends, and strangers and always lit with dozens of candle lanterns. In Cieszyn, the Lutheran cemetery is on a hill about a half-mile from my apartment and from my bedroom windows I can see the candles flickering in the distance.

You know how when you think of Poland in the winter you picture a place that’s cold and gray and snowy and dreary? Well, that’s often exactly how it is! And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I finally have a few preschool and kindergarten photographs to share with you. The school agreed to let me photograph the children whose parents signed the photography release form and I’ve tried to grab a few photographs here and there either right before or right after our lessons. I’m not going to share their names, but I’m happy to share a few of their angelic faces.

The biggest news in my kindergarten class is that they are losing their teeth left and right. I love how in this photograph you see N.’s new gaping hole in her mouth thanks to the tooth she yanked the day before. The kids also love showing me their newest toy or new favorite book every week and one week N. had gone to a 3D showing of a movie that afternoon and she wore her 3D classes all day.

Here are some of my wonderful 3 year olds. H., the little blonde boy I’m next to in the second photograph, fell in love with balloons over Christmas and now draws balloons every opportunity he gets and loves to talk to me (in Polish) about balloons. We do a little craft project every lesson and it only takes H. about 2 minutes to decide to ditch the project I’ve thought of and start drawing balloons. It makes me smile just to think about it. Here’s one of his masterpieces. (All the other kids were drawing the animals we had learned that week.)

One of my favorite lessons this spring was helping my high school seniors become more conscious of the “uhhhs” and “urrrms” and “hmmms” that are scattered throughout their speech because they're docked points for this on their English exit exam. (And I have nothing but sympathy and first-hand understanding of this challenge when speaking a second language. I’m constantly saying “hmmm” when I speak Polish because I need time to think of what to say!) To raise their awareness, we did an activity where they answered questions with a partner and if their partner heard them say any filler words (“uhhh,” etc.) they got to blow their party horn. We had a blast and it was a silly, non-threatening way to help students become more conscious of this common foreign language challenge.

The school Olympics this year were wonderful. For the Olympics, every homeroom has a theme, and one of my 8^th grade classes dressed up as butchers and pigs and served cold cuts and sausages to the teachers. Every class I teach has a special place in my heart, and something about this picture captures my love for this particular class and their unique personality. Oh, and in Polish, pigs say "Kwik! Kwik!"

For the Olympics, one of the teachers brought her almost-2-years-old daughter. She stayed near her mom because, well, 300 teenagers are a little loud and a little intimidating when you’re that short. But she got more and more comfortable as the day went on and that was in part because the students were just so kind and gentle with her and it was really beautiful to watch.

There’s a little street called the “Venice Street” in Cieszyn that I walk along to get to some of my classes in the Czech Republic. It’s a simple little road but I love the stream and it’s always so peaceful and quiet.

When I walk home at night from the Czech Republic I walk through town because the side streets aren’t well-lit. This is a photograph of what I call “kantor way” – kantors are currency exchange offices and when you cross the Polish-Czech border you have half a dozen kantors to choose from if you need to change money. “Kantor way” is a fun reminder that I signed up to teach in Poland but ended up getting two countries for the price of one.

Bless their hearts, my students are terrible at following oral directions. I can’t judge them because when I was their age I never bothered to read directions. Although the majority of my lessons are speaking focused, every once in a while I like to have a listening lesson. In my most recent listening lesson, the students had to re-build a mini-golf course that I had designed by listening to my instructions. In the last 10 minutes of class they got to play the course with a plastic mini-golf set I bought at TESCO. It’s amazing how well kids will listen when they know that they’ll eventually get to hit a little orange plastic golf ball. Only 3 or 4 of my students had ever played mini-golf before and it was pretty hilarious watching everyone play mini-golf with a teeny-tiny golf set designed for 3 and 4 year olds (especially because I teach some very, very tall boys).

Here’s a picture of the main street in Cieszyn. This photograph captures three “favorites.” First, the two men are old friends greeting each other – and you can’t go anywhere in Cieszyn without running into a familiar face. Second, you can see the little balloon stand that appears in the spring (and from which I must buy a balloon before I leave). Third, there’s a man people-watching from his window – and I love how people here stand in their open windows and people-watch. I think I might return to Cieszyn when I retire, buy an apartment on the main street, and spend my afternoons people-watching like him.

The Planty is a path and park that surrounds the city of Krakow. It’s one of my favorite spots in all of Poland. I love walking this path.

Here are two of my Wednesday evening students. They’re moms of two students I teach at LOTE/GTE. I realized this week I didn’t have a photograph with them and definitely wanted one. I especially love the second photograph because we always laugh a lot in our lessons. Sometimes people here look very solemn in photographs. It’s one reason I’ve stopped taking a lot of “posed” photographs because people often look so grim even if they were smiling moments before. Americans “say cheese” and know that if someone whips out a camera you’re supposed to smile. It’s fun how Poland and the Czech Republic have challenged my American assumptions about photographs. After all, if you really think about it, it is a little weird that we all smile and “say cheese” just because someone told us to. There are a couple pretty funny photographs of me with students or friends where I am literally the only person smiling. No one would have any trouble identifying me as the American in these photographs even though people always tell me I look very Polish.

This is an apartment building I pass every day on my way to school. There’s a blue bench outside the building and people are always sitting there, visiting, talking, reading, or just resting. Sometimes someone will lean out one of the windows and chat with the people sitting below on the bench. (I’m hoping to get a picture of people on the bench and in the windows before I leave.) This is one of my absolute favorite photographs and I can’t explain why except to say that for me it truly captures life here.