It's A Brand New Day (Part 2)

Since one month's adventures take a lot of explaining, I've had to split the post in half.  If you have questions or comments don't be afraid to post them below.  It's always interesting to hear from you.

I name no names.

Even though we've been quite busy, it doesn't mean we haven't had other adventures along the way.  One of the first adult classes we sat in on was a conversation class that consisted mainly of middle aged to elderly ladies who are all of artistic persuasions.  When they realized that we were new to town, two of them decided that they -- with the aid of one of their husbands -- needed to show us what the part of Gliwice immediately surrounding the school and our flat had to offer us in terms of food, fun, and culture.  Immediately after class they took us around Old Town a little before showing us some good places to go for lunch (while asking the staff if they ever had anyone on that could give service in English).  A couple weeks later, another pair of students (one of whom was with us previously and brought her husband to this outing as well) took introduced us to the Silesian Jazz Club in Old Town.  Unfortunately the bouncer wouldn't let anyone into the club until 20 minutes prior to the show, so we headed back out to the street in search of something to fill the time.  It seemed as though our ladies were experiencing their twenties all over again, since they wanted to explore all the clubs that they either thought we would find interesting, or that they had never been to.  Old Town does seem to be a very happening place for nightlife and we learned about some new places that we will definitely have to visit...but that isn't even the funniest part of the whole evening.

The funniest part is that the ladies took us into this one club that they had never visited before (it's name was "Chicas" which we knew is the Spanish word for girls)...we thought they would turn around the second they saw the glass stage with poles, but that never happened.  They then proceeded to ask the manager if she spoke English (which she did), then asked her to come talk with the lovely girls all the way from Canada.  They looked intrigued when the manager explained that 20 PLN would get us a lap dance and a vodka shot while we and the only man in the group felt very awkward about the whole thing.  If that wasn't enough, they were debating going to the club on the other side of the jazz place, but one look at the sign told us all we needed to know while the older ladies stood there debating what a "Leasby Show" was (they pronounced it "lezby show," which made me question something entirely different).  Somehow her husband convinced them that they should take us to some of the more interesting places in Old Town...which they thankfully did.

The Kajetan Drodz Band at the Silesian Jazz Club

We eventually went into the jazz club and had a decent time listening to the Kajetan Drodz Band, when I decided it would be fun to try some of the Polish vodka I had heard so much about.  I thought it would be possible to get a small bottle like the Smirnoff we get at home...

No such luck.

Instead there was a 500 mL bottle, mercifully split between 5 people and there is still half of it sitting in the fridge that I sincerely hope someone is going to help us drink.  Since the old ladies were mixing alcohol, one of them stopped after a sensible number of shots (2), while the other I strongly suspect had gotten herself thoroughly buzzed (if not plastered) before her husband took her home for the night.  Oops.

Don't get me wrong, these ladies are all complete sweethearts, every one of them.  We enjoy their company and appreciate everything they are doing for us, but sometimes the miscommunication is entertaining too.  They offered to take us to a 'concert' featuring the work of a Nobel prize winning Polish woman.  Since Sarah and I both enjoy music a great deal we said it sounded like great fun and agreed to go.  They gave us tickets in class and we met that Sunday to go to the theatre... but it wasn't a concert.

It was a poetry reading.

I'm sure it was lovely, but since we don't speak much Polish the experience was unfortunately lost on us.  I have to confess that we spent most of the time making up words in our heads based on the facial and vocal expressions of those reading the poetry.  At least it was only half an hour and somewhat humorous for everyone.  If we have learned one thing from this, it's that clarification is key. 

As I write this Sarah and I have completed our training at Speed school and have our first teaching shifts this week.  There will be more to write about and I definitely hope to be more diligent in maintaining this blog now that things have settled down.