Emma & Deshante': Day Two

Emma

Hello from Poland!

What a busy and fun week this trip has been so far! A hot and sunny few days has shown us how beautiful this city is. We have had time in our off hours from volunteering to explore and see the beautiful culture and the amazing buildings and churches, taste the incredible food, and meet such nice Polish people. The transit from our dorm that we are staying at is so easy and helps make our eager minds go out and take it all in! The first few days we have already gotten to go to the very popular city center market a few times to see some beautiful churches and have a few meals there. The colors of the buildings are so unique and historical. St. Elizabeth's Church has what feels like an endless spiral staircase, but leads to a gorgeous view that overlooks the entire city. The view is truly jaw dropping. There are little gems around the city, like a lock bridge that Caroline, Chelsea and I decided to go to and purchase a lock, write on it and throw our keys in the river for good luck. (I will always remember this!) It feels like everywhere you turn here there is a special piece of history. 

C+C+E: SPAD '18

I have been working in the media section for my volunteer experience. Working directly with the Polish volunteers has been so fun! We had a lot of time the first day (training day for the athletes) to really get to know each other. We all get along so well and I can tell they love to get to know us just as much as we love to get to know them. They also appreciate our attempts at speaking Polish and have helped us with that a lot! My responsibilities are mostly making sure certain journalists and photographers are not entering places that he or she can not be in during the game. This also means that I am right on the field during the game! We have only had to tell a few of the photographers to back up and no one has given us too much of a problem. We will probably have the same type of responsibilities for the speedway competition later in the week. The Polish girls have told us that speedway is going to be amazing since it is extremely popular and that it will probably be completely sold out. It was so fun working the football game where Poland was actually playing, because their country pride is awesome. I really love getting to watch athletes interact with each other and watch sport be the uniting force

Nowi przyjaciele!

between all of these people all over the world. The Opening Ceremonies were one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It gave me chills as each country was called; watching and hearing the crowd cheer, seeing their respective flags wave!

Sport climbing is an incredibly popular at the World Games--it was completely sold out for the session I was going to watch. Athletes participating in it look like real life Spider-Men and Women. There are actually three different categories: speed, lead, and boulder. Boulder simply means that the athletes do not have any support from any harness or rope. For the men, an athlete from Japan won gold, Germany won silver, and Russia took bronze. For women, a woman from Serbia won Gold, Japan silver, and France won bronze. Speed competitions are exactly what they

Friday Night Swiatła

sound like--who ever goes to the top fastest wins. For men, Ukraine took gold, Iran took silver, and Russia took bronze. For women, Russia swept competition winning gold silver and bronze. Lead climbing is when there is a certain time frame and the athletes see each go as fast as they can and whoever goes farther wins. The finals have not been completed yet.  

I have had a great time so far and cannot wait for our excursions and to work more football and speedway in the next few days! I also am trying to go watch as many competitions as I can during my off time. Thanks to all the professors and U of L for organizing this trip! 

Deshante'

Dzien dobry z Polski!!! Or in English, Hello from Poland!!! Today was our 3^rd full day in Poland, second day of volunteering and the first day of competition of American Football. We were specifically selected to work American football it was definitely an interesting day. I was placed in the logistics and information department, where we assisted with player transport, VIP transport and answering spectator’s questions. This was quite a challenge because of the language barrier. However, it is very surprising how well Polish natives spoke English. They begin learning English at very young ages and take years of it. They were patient and very understanding with us. Some of the Polish natives that we worked with have even been teaching us a lot of useful terms and helping us immensely with translation.

Also, the Polish people we have been working with have also been gave us plenty of amazing places to visit. One of my favorites was market square. It is one of the most diverse and vibrant places in the city.  The streets are filled with talented artists both musical and creative. The area is riddled with tons of shops with plenty of ways to embrace the Polish culture. But the most importantly the food!!! This is absolutely my favorite thing so far. The Polish have perfected just about everything when it comes to food. From the traditional Polish food like pierogis, sausage, and Cole slaw to American classics such as the hamburger. Every restaurant has its own specialty and they do it extremely well. The architecture was also soooo beautiful. In the center of the market square is a castle with centuries of architecture renovations. Styles like, gothic and romantic. If you think classic renaissance, that’s exactly how it looked. It was spectacular.

Now when it comes to the games one that is has caught my eye is speed skating. Speed skating in one of the most intense and simple competitions at the games. The fastest inline skater wins. On both a track and a road setting these skaters go all out for the Gold. Distances include 500m and 10,000m in both men’s and women’s divisions. Unfortunately, because this is such a fast and simple sport the events only last a day and because we were at American football we missed all the events.  Today

both the women and the men competed. In the finals, today Italy won both the Gold and the Bronze medal and Colombia won the Silver in the 500m race. For the men Germany took the Gold, Venezuela took the Silver, and Chile took the Bronze. In the 10,000m for the women Colombia finished with Gold, Belize with Silver and Taipei with Bronze. The men Argentina took the Gold, Switzerland took the silver and Mexico took the Bronze.

We have been in this amazing country less than a week and it and its people have already embraced

us and made this a once in a lifetime experience. Poland has gotten better and better every day, I can’t wait to see what the rest of this unbelievable adventure has to offer.