Read Day 4 here

I spent a week completing a cultural exchange programme facilitated by the company Angloville, where I provided conversation practice to Polish adults near Bialystok.

I slept a little better last night. Kal still snored to high heaven, but I slept on the sofa. Meanwhile, Ricardo moved his mattress to the hallway and blocked up the door frame with his bed. That mean instead of waking up at six, I woke up at seven.

At half eight, it was time for breakfast. I spent most of breakfast teaching Voytek chess vocabulary in English. He was very happy to receive my help.

Afterwards, we had an hour of free time, so I had a walk around the hotel grounds.

I’m sure it would have been lovely in the summertime, but it was bloody cold that morning. It also crossed my mind that there might have been a bear somewhere stalking me, but thankfully I didn’t get eaten. And Kat told me that the bears tend to live more in the mountains compared to where we were.

At half ten, it was time for the presentation sessions where Kat and I helped Darek put his presentation together. We got him to do a dress rehearsal where he talked about his hometown. And I offered some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned from performing at open mics from over the years – eye contact, taking your time, take up space etc.

An hour later, I had a conversation session with Monika – who is a financial manager at the mobile phone service company Orange – and definitely one of the weaker members of the group. My next conversation session was supposed to be with the chess-player Voytek, but instead of chatting, we just played online chess. Over fifty minutes, we must have played five or six games. It was good fun.

And now it was lunch time where I had the same mincemeat wrapped in cabbage that I had at in Warsaw. I enjoyed it so much that I finished off two other people’s portions.

After lunch, Ricky and I had two hours of freetime. With nothing else to do, we went into the sauna and steam room. And it was so good. The sauna was sixty degrees. We felt so exfoliated. It was a proper cleanse. Ricky also regaled me with his comprehensive live experience from being a ski instructor, travelling the world and competing on Ninja Warrior UK. After we were finished with Angloville, he said he was going to Sri Lanka.

Alas it was back to the grindstone with a pronunciation session at half four. I was with another man called Voytek – teaching him some of the trickiest sounds in the English language like the “th” sound,” as well as disappearing vowels. I think he was the oldest and one of the weakest members of the group. But he also showed great improvement and progress. He also said that owns a business running summer camps for children. After we finished, he took great pleasure going on Google Maps and giving me a virtual tour of Poland.

My next conversation session was with the sanitary engineer Agata. The conversation was about negotiation within your job. I taught her some informal phrasal verbs about agreement like “bang-on, spot-on and pack it all in.” She found the verbs very helpful.

The penultimate session of the day was a debate session that was supposed to be between the Voytek rom the pronunciation practice and fellow participant Kasia, while being facilitated by Robin and I. However, with Voytek going AWOL, the three of us talked about the different photo prompts that Angloville provided.

Then at half seven, it was time for dinner. I’m not really sure what it was. Theresa wasn’t feeling well, so I ate her food. Robin also didn’t like the food, so I ate hers too. It took me eating three plates to realise that I didn’t much like the food at all. I think it was some type of stew with buckwheat.

At half eight, it was time for our final activity of the day: a game called Stop the Bus. We were in groups: I was with Adele, Piotr and chess-playing Voytek. We were given a letter and five or six categories. Within a time limit, we had to find an answer for each category that corresponded with the letter we were given. The categories included cities, countries, made-up animal, why is Tyler always smiling and why did Tyler go to prison. Adele and I were very naughty and we put increasingly rude answers to tease and embarrass Tyler. Our answers started with V and K but they’re too rude to be typed here. I would definitely be shadow-banned. LOL.

Then at nine it was back to the spa. This time I was joined by Kat, Lydia, Voytek and Tyler. Kat and I found out that we similar political views, so we were able to talk and consolidate our own respective echo-chambers. Being Bulgarian, Kat doesn’t believe in the traditional liberal view of Communism being the best ruling system. I also don’t think that Communism works. I’m sure that view will get me cancelled, but I can’t think of any successful implementation of Communism. I also talked with Tyler about how a throw-away job application led to him leaving his retail job and starting work in Angloville.

We were kicked out of the spa at half 10, so Voytek and I joined Ricky, Kal, Elvia and Adele who were drinking heavily. Earlier on, Ricky bribed Voytek to drive to the shop and buy him some vodka. And Voytek did well. He brought back two bottles of the smoothest vodka ever and they only cost £8 each. Although, he and I mainly stuck to red wine. And you know we played some chess too! I also introduced him to chess with shots! Or, in this case, while drinking.

Concurrently, there was a work Christmas party going on, so Ricky tried sneaking in and stealing some food, but he got quickly kicked out by security. The balls on that lad. By midnight, it was time for bed. it was a good end to a good day. A day of saunas, smooth vodka, inappropriate answers and a whole lot of chess.