FROschTOsch

by Julita Kowalów, Karolina Krukowska, Magdalena Mańkowska, Katarzyna Sielaczek (LOG)

Sport is one of the most famous way of spending free time in our school. It’s very important for young people’s health and mental condition.

Our students take part in many competitions and they attend many extra ordinary lessons after school. They devote their time for improving their sport skills. Also our teachers commit themselves to training pupils.

We have 3 school representations: volleyball team, football team and basketball team. They achieve many successes in regional competitions. Our biggest achievement is the fact that we have been champions in our region for 7 years in volleyball and basketball as well.

We are proud of our sportsmen and we wish them more and more success.

by Julita Kowalów, Karolina Krukowska, Magdalena Mańkowska, Katarzyna Sielaczek (LOG)

Euro 2012 is  organised in Poland for the first time. As we all know it’s associated with many changes and improvements in our country’s infrastructure.  It’s  a great opportunity to promote our country in the world. It is  also a great entertainment for football supporters.

The sports stadiums are being built in Gdańsk, Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław. These buildings were designed not only for sports competitions but for other kind of entertainment like concerts or shows. We also started to renovate our railway stations and airports. For example we built a new terminal in Łódź and we are building many motorways.

Euro 2012 is a chance to cooperate with neighbouring countries mainly  Ukraine. Poland and Ukraine are planning to organize  the final together. During the sport event in our country there will be about 3500 journalists who will be reporting championship for millions of people all over the world. Communication network area’s preparation are connected with cooperation with Ukraine, therefore it is a task  which must be mastered together.

On the other hand, it is a big responsibility to cope with such a duty. There are some complications with infrastructure. There are some delays, the motorways may not be built in time. Chinese consortium which is building motorways in Poland doesn’t  pay Polish subcontractors on time so they went on strike. Problems are also appearing in roads’ investments and building of National Stadium. The disparity between official work plan  and actual situation is 16 per cent. But authorities think that these problems won’t disturb in completing the task on time.

There are 361 days left to the Europe Championship and despite of some complications we hope that everything will be successful.

by Linnéa Tölle and Nina Weber (BvA)

When we arrived at our hostel, a great breakfast buffet was waiting for us. A large table, full of different things, as if we were royals. Even the room in which the table stood had a charme like a royal palace. That showed us how important hospitality is in Poland. We were quite surprised about it because it was the first time that we saw such hospitality. The mayor’s wife, who is very friendly and polite, accommodated us very well. Every morning we got such a great breakfast and it’s obvious that we felt very well because of the good start in the morning.

Politeness and good manners are really important to Polish people. They showed it to us in different ways, for example at the bonfire, which took place on Sunday, where the Polish people gave us dishes for eating without us having to ask for them.

When we were visiting the school in Gostynin, which is older than 100 years, some of us went upstairs, finding the music and art room and suddenly singing came out of the room. Straight away boys brought us chairs, so that we could sit and listen to the beautiful voices of the Polish students. That showed us the difference between German and Polish students. The German students would have stopped singing straight away and no thought would have come to their mind to bring us chairs.

All in all, we can sum up briefly that the Polish people are very polite and friendly and we had a very interesting and good time with them in Poland.

by Martin Piechullik and Jill de Clerque (BvA)

Płock is a city in central Poland. It was the capital city of Poland during their reign from 1079 till 1138. Płock is a city full of history, a place where you can see century-old tradition and history of state and the nation. The most important church of Płock was built in the beginning of 20^th century. It is called “Temple of Mercy and Charity “. It is located on a steep, high hill called Wzgorze Tumskie situated above the bank of the  river Vistula (German: Weichsel). This impressive, monumental building was reconstructed many times. There are relics of the following architectural periods: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Classicism. Documented historical sources present Płock as a significant, dynamic centre of politics, culture and art.

When the Polish and German students visited the city of Płock, we first walked at the market square. After walking a while  though Płock we were standing in front of the church of  Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Płock .We had a guide who showed us the treasury of the relies of the church. After that we visited the church inside and were able to see the coffin of Bolesław Krzywousty who was buried there in the 14^th century. When the guiding tour was finished,  we moved to the river Vistula. There we had a great view over the city.

The bus took us from the river Vistula to the shopping centers of Płock where we had time for shopping and to have some food. The shopping centers where  as big as those in Germany. After two hours we were taken back to our hotel by the bus.

All in all, Płock is a small old history town which was very interesting to visit.

by Philip Kulej (BvA)

From the 8^th up to 13^th June the German Comenius group of Langenfeld had a visit to their partner city Gostynin in Poland. When we arrived at the hostel in Gostynin, I went towards my room.

But after  ten minutes, Mrs. Arnold called me and asked me to come down to her and Mrs. Śniecikowska – she is the wife of the major of Gostynin and our hostel leader.

Because my whole family is from Poland I know this language and could help to translate a few things at the morning for example when the breakfast should start. After our breakfast we went to the school, the Liceum Tadeusza Kościuszki in Gostynin and had there a German-Polish guide who showed us the school. I understood  everything the Polish students talked about  us .

On the trips to Plock, Torun and the old town of Warsaw, the Polish students got to know me better and were surprised when they heard I can speak Polish. So sometimes I had to translate  between the German and Polish students when they had problems to communicate in English.

One afternoon Mrs Arnold, Martin and I met  the mayor and his wife at the hotel by coincident and had a difficult conversation about the Polish and German school system. The conversation was very intensive and long. So I had sometimes difficulties to translate things but Martin can speak Polish too, so we helped each other and had a successful conversation.

At our last breakfast in the hotel we had a special guest, the mayor Mr. Włodzimierz Śniecikowski,  who talked to  us about the history of Gostynin  and other things. All in all my  unexpected translator job in Poland was very exciting and was a lot of fun.

by Philip Kulej (BvA)

Deeply religious? Hospitable? Ambitious?  Those are only a few of the best known prejudices about Polish people. But how much of it is reality? Only clichés or even more?  This and also the differences and similarities in comparison to the German culture, I, as a student with parents from Poland, would like to discuss in the following article.

The first prejudice is, that Polish men are much more religious than German ones and I have to admit, that it is even more than a cliché, it’s definitely the truth. Religion has a huge priority, especially in the previous generations of the Polish. During visits to the part of my family who is still living in Poland, it is quite usual to go to church every Sunday and there are only very few excuses, whereas in Germany, church only plays a minor part and  isn’t  that important in everyday life. In my life religion does exist, because of my parents, who have shown me the importance of faith and the Christian traditions. I don’t have to go to church every week, but on Christian holidays, church attendance is an inherent part.

In addition, they say that the Polish are a very sociable and hospitable people, that they are also rather active.  And I can say: It is no lie. While Germans, for example, prefer celebrating in a relaxed way, Polish parties are much louder and livelier.  So Germans can be characterized as showing a more silent and reserved behaviour, but nevertheless I can say that they know anyway how to have fun.

But the Polish and the Germans have something in common, too. One example for it is the precision and their conscience. Both of them take their work as well as other tasks very seriously, they are ambitious and perfectionists.

To sum up, I can say, that I can identify with both cultures and I wouldn’t like to miss one of them because both of them are enriching my life.

by Marta Lewandowska and Małgorzata Leonarcik (LOG)

School is really important in every youth’s life. Education determines our future career – our job, our status, our satisfaction. This is why deciding on our path is such a serious matter. In every field, we need different qualifications. School can help us develop our abilities.

When we decide on our school life, we also choose our leading subjects. That means we learn the subjects we need in our future job, e.g. Maths for engineers, Biology for doctors. However, when choosing a path, we are still very young and inexperienced. It is hard to make a proper decision. Youths are likely to change their mind as they learn new things and find their new passions and interests. It means that even if someone has been learning History diligently for 2 years, he can suddenly go on to learning Physics and taking a path of an engineer.

We conducted a survey at our school. We wanted to find out opinions of our schoolmates that chose different majors. The questions was their future job and their reason for picking it out. We think that the survey made many people think about their life.

The results of our work are quite interesting. We found out that people that chose Science as their main subject (and also Biology, Geography, etc.) are more likely to take jobs connected with it. People learn Biology and Chemistry because their plan for life is being a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist.

If one spends much time on Maths, he probably dreams about being an architect, a banker or a businessman. The reason for that can probably have something to do with a specific character of the subject. A student needs to think logically and to understand many rules and laws of the nature.

There’s a difference in regard to humanistic subjects. The subjects are rather not very specific and it may be the reason why students’ plans differ so much. It is quite common to find people who want to be psychologists, lawyers, journalists, but others prefer being geodesists and doctors! They don’t care that it’s difficult to take this path, while they aren’t used to learning Science. They want to fulfill their dreams no matter what. Maybe humanists are just such full of passions people that think with their heart and not their common sense…

We also asked about motivations of young people. Most of them chose… money. Maybe Poland is still a poor country and that’s the reason why every one dreams of being rich. Wealth can help fulfill all the dreams and aspirations. Isn’t that sad?

However, many people choose their job according to interests. When someone likes drawing, job of an architect is actually perfect for him. One can realize his potential and be satisfied in his life. We are also proud that some of our schoolmates just want to help others- that is the reason for being a doctor or a policeman. Other causes can be: a contact with people, traditions in family, travels and prestige.

However, it is also quite disappointing that not every one has a good reason for choosing a particular path. Life is sad when one doesn’t have a motivation. It is harder to achieve your goals, when you don’t feel like really achieving them. That is why, our young age can actually create a problem. We are still indecisive and we don’t know much about the world. We can dream, but we can’t be sure… And (for good or for bad) it is the most important time for us, when our future life is being determined.

Let’s take this challenge!

by Izabela Woznicka (LOG)

In October 2010 the second edition of the project created by the global association AIESEC Poland took place in our school. It is called ‘Enter Your Future’ and this project enables students from the whole world to take part in the international practice.

In Gostynin we had an opportunity to meet three students from Georgia, Indonesia and China. Together with my friends, I had a chance to participate in these lectures. They were mainly devoted to enterprising and how to work in groups effectively. Of course, all of them were in English. This language was the only way to communicate for all of us. Never have we taken part in such classes before. That’s why, at the beginning it was really hard to forget about Polish. Some students were also stressed, but it wasn’t necessary to feel this way because it turned out that our guests, who came to Gostynin, were very friendly and sociable. What’s more important, they were very patient while working with students. The culture differences weren’t a serious barrier for us. On the contrary, we were extremely interested in listening to girls talking about their home countries.

After we had introduced ourselves, we could focus on the main topic. We worked in groups all the time and we were supposed to both communicate and get on with. Our tasks were really exciting and we had to even take advantages of our art abilities. Moreover, our views were taken into consideration because of sharing information about small and huge enterprises. I was really amazed by one task. It was connected with creating an advertisement. We could advertise one chosen  product. Both the idea and the art work were really important. The winner group received a special prize for the best advertisement.

We were really keen on these practical classes and it wasn’t a waste of time for anyone. Good fun helped us improve the foreign language. In my opinion, a nice atmosphere is one of the most important things in effective learning. I think practical lessons make everyone learn English more fluently and they can give us more useful skills than typical lessons. That’s why I was so excited about my visit in England in November 2010.

by Karolina Krukowska (LOG)

Catholic Church usually celebrates Easter in April. It is the springtime Christian festival, a very specific period of time for all the believers. The celebration of Easter is preceded by Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday. Palm twigs are indispensable accessories of the events of this day.  At Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection,  and His victory over death and sin. On Saturday we go to church to consecrate Easter food, like bread, sausages, salt, pepper, and especially eggs. Egg is a symbol of new life. “Pisanki”  are eggs coloured by various colors , with decoration. They are decorated with wax and then soaked in dyes. Like the reason for decoration, people can resort to their imagination: flowers, plants, Jesus, bells, sheep of Easter, rabbits. These beautiful eggs will be a decoration of the table of Easter and it will be eaten next day,  during Sunday breakfast. It is a big ceremony.
Easter Sunday starts with the mass of resurrection. Then, breakfast will be celebrated by the family. Because it is breakfast, known as “holy”, which is the time of meeting with family in Poland during Easter. People wish one another “Happy Easter” (“Wesołego Alleluja” in Poland) and have an occasion to talk together, too. Often breakfast continues all day, because Poles likes much to remain at the table.
On Easter Monday, it is “Smigus-Dyngus” or “Lany Poniedziałek- Wet Monday”. This celebration is only in Poland. During all the day, it is allowed to throw water on others, same unknown! The best idea is thus to remain at home all the day, because during a short walk or  even going on foot to church, we are likely to be wet! And there is not the right to be annoyed. Obviously, one should not exaggerate with the quantity of water thrown on an unknown person. We should cultivate the tradition but without making people angry. Formerly, “Smigus-Dyngus” in the Polish culture was very  particular among the unmarried women and men: the men tried to put the biggest possible amount of water on the girls whom they liked, thus showing them their interest and their feelings! The more received water – the more the girl was loved. And the girls said “thank you” by offering more decorated eggs! It is a beautiful  tradition. Easter isn’t a huge celebration in Poland, but it is the happiest one and it is also the symbol of spring.

by G. Fiedler (BvA)

On March 23, 2010 the FROschTOsch project meeting had the privilege to welcome two very special guests, Ms Erna Funk and Dr. Stephan Lipski. They were both born into the German minority in Gostynin before World War II and told the FROschTOsch team about how Germans came to live in Poland 200 years ago, what life was like as a German among Polish neighbours and what they experienced under Nazi German occupation.

2 Germans born in Gostynin report