Prepare to Serve

Monday, September 8, 2014

Johannes! Powiedz mi o sobie!

ya! email time! wooo! I forgot my list of stuff I was going to include in this email... so there will be no email today!!!!
... żart!

Don't worry, there will be an email, I may just have to fill in the gaps next week.

First of all, I have a gap to fill in from last week, I forgot to tell you guys about the terrifying tram ride Siostra Whiteley and I had last Tuesday. First off, there are two types of trams here, there are the speedy, fancy ones that have air conditioning and TV screens, from which we find out tommorrow's weather. And then there are the tin cans on wheels... litterally, they have no air conditioning, instead they have windows that you can occasionally force open. We had just climbed into the death tram that was going to take us 2 stops away to the senior couple apartment. We went one stop, a few people got on with us, and then the doors shut and the tram started inching away from the platform, at literal inchworm speed. Suddenly the cabin started getting really smokey, and no one could properly breath. A couple of us tried to force open the windows, but they were stuck. The tram was breaking down, but it was still moving, very slowly toward the next platform. I couldn't help but think, as I was choking on the smoke, "I should have known I'd die in one of these trams". When we eventually reached the station and the doors finally opened Siostra Whiteley and I practically exploded out of it. It was a crazy situation, I'm sure it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time, because I think that tram is still in operation, but it was pretty freaky nonetheless.

And now onto this week, it was pretty chill, the most exciting thing that happened was that the Stumpfs were here! They arrived on Wednesday, we first saw evidence of them at our English class. Siostra Whiteley and I were preparing to start when three people walked past the door. We only caught a glimpse of them, but we knew right away that it was zee Germans! I turned to Siostra Whiteley and mouthed "they're here!" Poltergeist style. We didn't get to actually talk to them until after English though. Stumpf's parents are super cool, they took us out to get Indian food and we got to chat with them for a while. His mom has almost no German accent, but his dad has a pretty thick accent, his name is Johannes (we think, still not sure) and he is an enigma!

We got to hang out with Stumpf a little bit during the week too. We got hot chocolate (which was basically just hot pudding drunk through a straw) and we took him to the hipster resturaunt. We sat in menu seats this time. At one point Stumpf recognised one of the songs they played, all the music they play there sounds like a song you know, but then you realise it's a different song you don't know, but he actually did know this one. So, we joked that he had won the hipster prize, which would probably be something ridiculous that most people would have no use for, like a typewriter, or an old-timey bicycle... or a bee keeper suit.
Speaking of hipster stuff. at one point, during out dinner with the Stumpfs, mama Stumpf (or Lady Cathrine, as we've been calling her for the past month... not sure why, her name is Marianne...) Asked if our parents are part of the facebook group, Poland moms and dads (or something like that, not sure if you guys are). She said you need to get an invite for it or something and my response was "well, my dad is so hipster he was probably already a member before I even opened my call" lol, Siostra Whiteley, I laughed, I'm not sure if the others got it though. We're not sure Stumpf quite understands our hipster jokes, it might be a German thing...

We also had our Sport Saturday, which Stumpf joined us for. Other than us missionaries, the only people who showed up were Stumpf, Ola, and Cindy, so that was kind of lame. But it was still pretty fun. Most of the group played Basketball, and the rest of us (Whiteley, Owens, and I) played Badminton. Eventually Stumpf and Ola joined us. The whole time we were playing Badminton I kept pretending that the rackets were light sabers, because they had blue and red ones. At one point it was Me and Owens with blue rackets, against Whiteley and Stumpf, with red rackets. I referred to them as Sith Lords and said dramatically "I should have known all along that my Jedi Master was really a Sith Lord!" Siostra Whiteley just laughed and rolled her eyes, and Stumpf and I spun our rackets and made light saber noises :)

Oh yeah, we taught more accents to our English class, we taught them stuff like 'aks' and 'ya'll' and 'imma be' we taught them to leave off the 'is' and 'are' when they want to sound street, example sentences - "you crazy!" "where you at?" i tak dalej (etc.) We also taught them how to speak with a Brooklyn accent, and various southern accents, and valley girl, and a little bit about the Minnesota accent, but I couldn't really do it justice. Our class is tons of fun. Also, on a more serious note, we taught them how to make the 'th' sound. I never realised until I had to teach it, that it is a weird sound, it's really hard for people to make that sound when they are learning English, it's totally normal to me, so I never even thought about it, but it's a weird noise!

Anyway, this week we aren't teaching English because we have legal work to finish in Warsaw. Siostra Whiteley, Elder Owens and I are traveling to Warsaw tomorrow morning and will be returning Wednesday night. It's another 2 Owens days, woo! The week after, however, we are having our exchange. I will be staying in Wrocław, and Siostra Whiteley is going to go be with Siostra Petherbridge in Kraków for a day. Siostra Bąk, will be coming here with me. She is in her first transfer, so I will be senior companion... I'm only freaking out a little bit :) She's from Minnesota though, and we will be teaching English together, so I am excited to show them what a real Minnesota accent sounds like.

I had another cool language moment at church yesterday. I had a conversation with Siostra Kuchno, like, an actual one, not one where I just understood what she was saying and responded by smiling, nodding, and saying "tak". I understood what she was saying, understood the couple of times when she asked me questions, and responded with multiple word answers! Woo!!! So yeah, that was cool.

That was basically it for the week I think. Not a whole lot happened this week other than our friends from "zee fazzahland" stopping by for a visit.

Kocham Cię, & Keelah Selai

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