Grateful Hearts

We started off our day with our usual breakfast of cold cuts, but as a special treat Dr. E got us donuts upon our request. After having breakfast we went to a mall where Dr. E had coffee with Daniel and two other Polish pastors while the four of us girls went shopping. We looked around for a little bit and then went to Auchan, a grocery store similar to Wal-Mart but in the middle of the mall. We got LOTS of chocolate to take home!



Most of our day was spent at Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu w Dąbrowie Górniczej, where we were invited to be part of their International Day.  We represented the US, while other students from Turkey, Ukraine, Armenia, Nigeria, and Poland represented their countries.  The day began with the Turkish national anthem on lead guitar, followed by the Ukrainian national anthem on bass, and the Star Spangled Banner on alto sax. We watched a presentation from two Turkish students and then gave our own presentation focused on the education system in the U.S. as well as where we are from. We talked a little bit about Malone and showed a quick video and then each talked about our hometowns. A Ukrainian student then gave a talk about his school in Ukraine.  Then a band dubbed the Fantastic Five performed a few songs and a few of the other international students performed a song or dance from their country. After the mini concert, we played some games, had a snack consisting of foods from the countries in attendance, and took lots of pictures. Karleigh got to do the chicken dance as part of a competition!

After the International Day, we attended a lecture at another campus of the university in Katowice about international business relations, and then we went back to Daniel's for dinner. As always, the food was delicious! We spent a lot of time just hanging out with the family since this was our last day to see most of them. There was a lot of joy and laughter!



Then we had to say goodbye. Nobody likes goodbye, but this one was particularly hard. Dr. E will talk all day about how much he loves Daniel and his family, and the four of us have also come to love them in just the few short days we spent with them. But as Winnie the Pooh put it, ""How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." Although it is so hard to say goodbye knowing that we won't be coming back for a wonderful meal and play time with the kids, we are so grateful to have had the chance to know such loving, hospitable, fun people. And of course, we are grateful for social media so that we can stay in touch!



Tomorrow we are going to one more school to help the students practice their English, and then we are headed to Krakow for one last adventure before we hop on a plane to start our journey home!