POLAND

LocationPoland lies in Central Europe.

The area is 312 679 km².It is inhabited by 38 million people.

Government: Parliamentary republicUE accession: 1st May 2004

The longest river is the Vistula

ClimateThe climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north and west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south and east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between 17 °C (63 °F) and 20 °C (68.0 °F). Winters are cold, with average temperatures around 3 °C (37.4 °F) in the northwest and −6 °C (21.2 °F)in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year,although, especially in

the east; winter is drier than summer.

Poland borders with seven countries.

Germany

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Ukraine BelarusLithuania

Russia

Famous peopleMarie Skłodowska CuriePolish-born physicist and chemist famous for her work on radioactivity. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes - in physics and chemistry. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Frédéric François ChopinPolish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher, of French–Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music. He is also known as "The poet of the Piano". Most of Chopin's works involve the piano. They are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth.

Polish cuisinehas some mixture of Eastern European (Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, etc.) It is rich in meat, especially beef, chicken and pork,

and winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish bigos), and spices, as well as different kinds of noodles the most notable of which are the kluski.

Christmas in PolandChristmas is the best time of year. In

Poland, Christmas is celebrated in a very special way. People begin to think about Christmas and prepare carefully for it since early November. Even in Advent we can observe the signs of Christmas coming - the cities, the shops, the streets

are decorated elaborately.

In the southern part of the Poland mountains are Bieszczady, Tatra Mountains, Sudetes and the

Carpathians.

In the north of the Poland there is

Baltic Sea.

In the Bieszczady Mountains lies Lake

Solina, where we often go on trips.

Warsaw

The capital

Zakopane - the capital of Polish mountains

Wawel

Rzeszów – our hometown

GdaNsk – a harbour city

First day of springFirst day of spring it’s a holiday, which is

celebrated on 21st March. On this day, students from our school dressed up as a punk, stars,

emo, Teletubbies, athletes or ‘pyjamas party’.

Valentine’s dayIn our school we also celebrated Valentine's Day. We

decorated corridors and classrooms with red hearts. We also had the Valentine's Day post. The boys and the girls could

send Valentine’s cards.