Month 2 in Poland - September 2025

Hi, this is Adam. It's my turn this month to write a summary for our friends and family. Big milestones this month.

I want to tell you a bit more about my school and my class. I started 4th grade because kids in Poland start their education one year later, comparing to the US. All the kids in my class were born in 2015. We all have lockers and we need to change shoes at school (so no muddy or dirty shoes). The school is enclosed, that means we have hallways and corridors, instead of blacktop and open air space. This is mostly due to the weather. Here in Poland we have 4 distinct seasons, winter is cold and it snows occasionally. Also, it can rain in any season, unlike in California.

Each day we have different subjects and we walk from classroom to classroom to attend each class. We have Polish and Math daily, English (4 times a week), PE (4 times a week), Life Sciences, Art, Technical class, IT, History, Music, and Health Education. Each day of the week we have a slightly different schedule and we are dismissed at different times, the earliest for me is 11:30 and the latest is 16:20.

At school we get grades, 6 is the best and it's like A++, 5 is very good (A), 4 is good (B) and 1 is the worst (F).

Spotlight on PE: Before each class we go into the changing rooms and put on a white t-shirt and dark shorts. We only go outside when it's warm. On colder or rainy days we have PE in the big gym or the smaller one. The big gym is essentially a basketball size court where we can play a variety of team sports. The smaller gym is used for gymnastics type of classes.

I am also taking Robotics and I started Polish Scouts (Harcerstwo) at school.

I have this friend whose name is Jeremiasz and it translates to Jeremiah in English. He is also new to this school and we attend Scouts together. Interestingly, Polish elementary education is 1-8. So from 1st to 8th grade the kids in your class stay mostly the same. The upside is that kids can form close friendships that last, the downside is the feeling like you don't get to meet that many people at school.

Let me just add that this is a public school in the neighborhood that we live in, which is also where my mom grew up and where my grandparents and uncle still live. We are all close by and we love it!

This month we also went to an indoor play place (bawialnia), they are very common in Poland and you can easily find one within a one mile (or two kilometers) radius. We try to spend most of the weekends doing something fun. We visited uncle Maciej (Monika's brother) and Aunt Lucja's mountain cabin in Zawoja where we make bonfire, hike in the forest and enjoy the nature. We also hang out at the countryside where our great-grandfather and great-grandmother were from. My mom used to spend summers and weekends there growing up. It's very peaceful, right by a river and my grandparents grow vegetables there. We picked cucumbers, zucchinis, watermelons, tomatoes, grapes and raspberries.

Alex surprised us one day by showing us that he can blow his nose. Out of the blue he just learned it by himself. What a boy!

The cherry on top this month was Julia's visit. Do you remember our au-pair? She lives in a town in the north of Poland so she took a train to Krakow and we showed her around. We played tourists in our own city. We showed her the old town, the Wawel castle, dragon's den, Kazimierz - Jewish district, Nowa Huta - the communist town, and Muzeum Czartoryskich with Lady with an Ermine, the only Leonardo Da Vinci painting on view in Poland (he only painted like 10).

That's all for now, I wonder who will be the author of this post next month...

The view from our living room.

The view from the kitchen. Our housing estate is the last one in the city limits, beyond are villages and fields, we're also on the hill surrounded by lots of vegetation.

One of the city symbol is the Obwarzanek (bagel). The first time it was mentioned in the archives was 1394 when it was ordered for the Queen. It cost 1 polish cent back then.