Thoughts for the day:

The future depends on what we do in the present. --- Attributed to Mahatma Ghandi
Always fall in what you’re asked to accept. Take what is given and make it your way. ---Attributed to Robert Frost

Thoughts above were shared by Sammi

The end is approaching fast for our band of volunteers at Zakopane. After the first few days here in Poland, many of us felt as if we had lived here for months. Alas, the days have gone by more and more quickly over the past two weeks with our students learning their conversational English by morning, hiking in the afternoon, and relaxing at night.

Today went by quite smoothly. Some of our students created monster children for their 2250 Make-a-Baby activity. Piotr thought his custom-made miniature boy would make an ideal child for taking off his shoes and socks at the end of a long day's work, which for some reason elicited contagious laughter from Kathy. I presume the rest of the American teachers maintained their aura of seriousness during lessons.

Many of the volunteers and just a handful of students went on a hike in Dolina Kościeliska (scientifically rated by my mom a 1.2576 out of 10 on the difficulty scale) and others stayed behind to play in a ping-pong tournament or relax during the afternoon. The day concluded with a meeting after dinner to discuss how to conduct our final classes on Friday. The team is preparing to go on a hike tomorrow with about half of the Polish students up to the famous Morskie Oko lake in the mountains while Lori remains behind to teach the remaining students for the day.

Looking back on today and the past two weeks, it is extremely rewarding to know that we have helped contribute in a small way to the intellectual development of these young adults. Above all, I believe that we have shown our students not only how to improve their English, but also how to enjoy learning the language. That is the most important lesson we could teach them in our short time here