Odblaskowi najeźdźcy... czyli Ania na placu zabaw

Jestem w Polsce z rodziną.

I'm now in Poland with my family.

Był to bardzo nagły przyjazd na pogrzeb mojego dziadka. Mama po niecałych trzech tygodniach spędzonych na Tajwanie, musiała znowu wyruszać do Polski. Szybciutko spakowaliśmy walizki, i całą piątką wylecieliśmy z Tajwanu w rękach trzymając bilety kupione dzień wcześniej.

It was a very spontaneous leave for my grandfather's funeral. Mom had to leave to Poland not having stayed more than three weeks after coming back to Taiwan from there. Hurriedly, we packed our bags and the five of us flied out of Taiwan, holding boarding passes bought the day before.

Mimo, że cała rodzina razem przyleciała do Warszawy, to tata musiał wrócić na Tajwan pięć dni po przyjeździe, ja będę wyjeżdżać w połowie maja, a mama z Jasiem i Anią pod koniec miesiąca. Niestety przez ten tydzień kiedy był tu ojciec, nie mogliśmy wyjechać nigdzie poza Warszwę. Jednak cieszyliśmy się ładną wiosenną pogodą i poszliśmy we czwórkę, ojciec z trójką dzieci, na plac zabaw.

Even though we came to Warsaw as a family of five, Dad had to head back to Taiwan only five days after landing, I'm leaving mid-May and Mum, Jaś and Ania at the end of the month.

Unfortunately, we couldn't go anywhere outside Warsaw during the week my Dad was here. We did enjoy the beautiful Spring weather though, so Dad took the three of us out to a big playground.

Anka jest niezmiernie ruchliwym dzieckiem, uwielbia się na wszystko wspinać, skakać i ciągle biega. Bardzo lubi zaprzyjaźniać się z innymi dziećmi wszelkich wieków, płci, narodowości i umiejętności językowych.

Naturalnie, bardzo się cieszyła ze spaceru na plac zabaw, i od razu się rozbiegała.

Ania is a very energetic kid who loves to run, climb, jump, hop and skip anywhere and everywhere. She also loves to befriend kids of different ages, nationalities or even language abilities.

Naturally, she was very exited about the trip to the playground and ran off right away.

Po jakimś czasie brykania z Jasiem, starszy brat usiadł by odpocząć.

After some time of accompanying, Jaś sat down to rest for a while.

Wtem, cała wycieczka przedszkolaków wbiegła sznurem na plac zabaw i każdy sprzęt został zajęty przez małych najeźdźców uzbrojonych w odblaskowe kamizelki.

Suddenly, a whole group of kindergarteners flooded into the playground, resulting in every equipment being covered by the army of yellow florescent vests.

Anka była oszołomiona nagłym tłokiem, ale szybko wróciła do siebie i podchodziła do rówieśników, próbując wciągnąć ich do konwersacji.

Ania was a little bit overwhelmed by the crowd at first, but quickly recovered and started walking up to her peers, trying to strike a conversation with them.

Zamiast pytania, "Jak się nazywasz?" lub "Mam na imię Ania. ", podchodząc do energetycznych
dzieci zadawała to samo pytanie, "Co robicie??".

Instead of asking, "What's your name?" or "My name is Ania.", she broke the ice by asking, "What are you doing??".


Wszystkim spacer poza dom bardzo się podobał, i wszyscy mieli okazję nacieszyć się piękną pogodą.

Everyone liked the day out very much, and we all had the chance to enjoy the nice weather.

Ski 'instructoring' czyli uczenie jazdy na nartach... w Japonii

BARDZO PRZEPRASZAM ŻE TEN POST JEST PO ANGLIELSKU. MOGĘ PRZETŁUMACZYĆ JEŚLI KTOŚ ŁADNIE POPROSI ... chociaż ... to raczej małoprawdopodobne.

Teaching a few kids skiing for a few days and taking them out for little ventures around an unknown city and ski resort is not as traumatic or impossible to succeed as it sounds like. Or sounded like. It was all I panicked inwardly about one week before 'The Adventure'. I've had some experience of taking care of kids, also finding my way around an unknown Japanese speaking environment and of course, skiing.
But put that all together, and add a few pairs of the kid's parents and senior instructor's hawkish eyes... Well, I did mention some inward panicking, right?
Turns out it was not so traumatic. Turns out I really liked the rush. Rush of having 5 consecutive batches of kids in 21 days and the ambition of making them love skiing and me (of course). And I was undoubtedly fueled by all the positive vibes my trainees were passing off, making me really like this job.

Let me give you a somewhat clearer picture of what I was doing in the country of ever-changing weather and snow condition.
For 21 days I had been residing with my sweet, sweet 11 year old brother (who was seriously getting on my nerves) in room 705 - which was in a horrific state. Sorry Mom, you're not getting any pictures.

Room 705 is in the simple yet quite big Prince Hotel in 雫石; read: Shizuku-ishi. 雫石 is in the northern part of Japan's main island. Internet exists only in the lobby, and you could've seen me there every night banging my head on the table and staring at the computer screen which shows that a short, simple video of my bro and I singing Bohemian Rhapsody on the chairlift takes 707 minutes to upload.

It's a ski-in ski-out resort, meaning it's a 20 meter walk to the closest chairlift. There is also a semi-open-air onsen (hot spring). Purpose of it is to relax your sore muscles after a day of shredding. Surprisingly, I was not really sore with all the picking up, climbing, pushing and lifting I did throughout the day. Although I did acquire a fair amount of bruises... some through the domestic abuse my bro inflicts onto me, and some are caused by vengeful bathroom doors. The ski slopes themselves are pretty fun to roll down from, but green - beginner slopes take up a small amount of the mountain.

My lovely students have the tendency of kicking off their skiis and dropping their poles during chairlift rides. And through that I realized how important is the knowledge of 'itchy Nissan' - numbers in Japanese. Not only useful when telling the chairlift operators where had the piece of unfortunate equipment fell, also in passing shoe size, table numbers, counting people, etc.

All in all, I think - I know, that I learned a lot and hopefully taught a lot ;)

For me, experiences of this kind are very useful and important, especially if I want to do more of 'instructoring' when I 'grow up'. I had a wonderful time.

ANIA, czyli adoption from a 15 year old's point of view

This was written on the road down to the south of Taiwan, when we were finally bringing Ania back home for good.

The first time I learned about adoption and its meaning probably was watching the movie "Annie" and reading the book "Anne of Green Gables". As someone who loved both of these girls (who had similar names, personalities and even looks) as well as characters from other books and movies, like Stewart Little, I was convinced that adoption is something completely normal.

Later on, I learned about people who are unable to have their own kids, and homosexual couples who in order to build a family, have to adopt.
So adopting a kid or even a baby is a two way thing, both sides complete each other.

The first thought of adoption came up when my little brother mentioned that he wanted a little sister. The topic came up just as many other topics about, shamelessly saying, skateboarding, having a guinea pig or playing saxophone.
I must admit, that my brother certainly has an interesting way of convincing my parents, much more productive and successful than my way, whatever that is.

I'm not bluffing when I say that I've always wanted a little sister. The idea of taking care, teaching and helping to make life choices of someone younger was very appealing (ex. say no to drugs 'n stuff).
I had a fair amount of experience in taking care of kids and seeing how I had pretty much failed with my own brother, I am pretty confident that this time, I'll do it right.

Running out of ideas, I just asked my mom what  more should I write? She asked me, what do you think will change in your life after adopting Ania?
Well, except for the fact that I'll have one more cute kid to star in my videos which will definitely raise the YouTube views, I might just get a little bit less lazy and more independent, I mean, who can't refuse the adorable little face telling you to wake up?
A much grater change might occur in Jas's life, because frankly, Ania is moving in with him.
The whole house has gone through some visible changes: after Ania's first few visits, I saw my old toys, CDs and books resurfacing around the house.

(...)

This is turning into a real-time updating on our current adopting situation, but I would care less.

I'm now back in the car again with my dying 9 year old computer, a drink in hand, which is passed over to Ania from time to time so she could take a sip while staring continuosly at the raindrops falling on the windshield. She appears to be deep in thought and I can't help but wonder what is going through her adorable 3 year old mind. After all, a goodbye with the people who raised you and whom you called "Mom", "Dad" and "Sister" your whole life is quite a lot to take. In company to her foster family, were also her neighbors which I guess have grown pretty close to the wonderful bundle of joy. Everybody had their eyes rimmed with slight traces of tears, but tried the best to hide them.