| Monday, August 11, 2014 Across the Pond & Back Again On Thursday August 7, I returned from my one month stay in Poland. I was on an exciting adventure teaching voice and guitar as part of the Kosciuszko Foundation’s TEACHING ENGLISH IN POLAND Camp held in Załęcze Wielke, Poland. The experience was life enriching. I spent the first 3 weeks of my journey teaching 64 high school level students. They were incredible! I was under the direction of my high school theatre teacher, Tom Rusnak. He inspired 10 teachers and 10 TAs to enlighten, inspire and educate the 117 students attending this year's Fine Arts Camp. The camp is sponsored by the Kosciuszko Foundation of New York. It is dedicated to promote educational and cultural exchanges between the United States and Poland and to increase American understanding of Polish culture and history. Founded in 1925, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of Thaddeus Kosciuszko's enlistment in the American revolutionary cause, the Foundation is a national not-for-profit, nonpartisan, and nonsectarian organization. I had 4 classes a day, 5 days a week. We focused on guitar, voice, sight-reading, and movement in rhythm. The students learned such songs like "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, "Learn Me Right" by Mumford and Sons, "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay, "Cups" from Pitch Perfect, an improvisation on minor pentatonic scales as well as a group number, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. I also held an advance guitar activity that brought forth a gypsy jazz ensemble of 9 guitars and 2 vocalists. We performed "I'm Confessin" as part of the Expo or final performance day in camp. Also performed at the Expo was the Improvisation on the Minor Pentatonic Scale for my beginning guitar students as well as 48 students singing and performing Cups. This was AWESOME! Aside from watching the students grow, I too had a bit of a personal growing experience. I had experienced a bit of tummy troubles while at camp (10 days of bread and water to be exact). On the last Sunday of the camp, I felt a little weak and took a rest day. I picked up my ukulele and wrote a wee song about camp and saying goodbye. There was a talent show scheduled a couple of days later and I thought that I may perform it. As I was watching the talent show, the day waned. It became darker and darker and I wasn't sure if I would be able to read my words. Plus I was feeling vulnerable with such a new song that I had pretty much convinced myself to play something more rehearsed and shiny. I put my uke down and tuned my guitar for an old standby tune. Just then, my student comes off stage from playing and tells me, "Fae! I was brave!", something that I had been telling the students to be from the first day of classes. I said, "Yes! you were. It's time I was brave too." On Thursday July 31, at the close of camp, at the end of the Expo performance, with the help of 117 students and about 40 staff members, my new song "Hold on Till Tomorrow" or "The Camp Song" was sung to a room full of parents and friends. It was one of the most precious moments of my musical career. I will never forget that moment, those students, that feeling. We had days off from teaching. Weekends were field trips to nearby cities for culture and history. In my short time in Poland I experienced adventures in such cities as Warsaw, Łódź, Wrocław, Wieluń, Kalisz, Krakow, Częstochowa, Wieliczka's Salt Mine, Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains. I kayaked on the Warta, strolled along the Odra River, and sipped whiskey on the Vistula River. I visited castles, churches, museums, Auschwitz, saw the President of Poland, sang with 800+ people in the centre of Krakow, performed for the Marshall of Łódź and more! It was such an amazing journey! Moving Forward With the jet lag still lingering, and the magic of travel still swirling in my heart, more new songs are coming! As well as my new CD, Castle Walls!
Oh summer... you woo me. Thanks for listening and following!
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During lessons
