Okay! Here goes trying to do better at maintaining this thing in order to keep my posts shorter.
Sarah and I had our first classes at Speed on the first week of February. Not too many...just a couple of hours to get our feet wet. I had a couple of adult groups on Thursday that seemed to be way more curious about me and the place I came from than they were about actually covering the material they were paying me for -- but I guess some of that is because there aren't a lot of Canadians that come to Poland, let alone ones that come to Poland to teach English. Now that the real work has begun I feel much better about the abrupt transitions we've had to make, both in daily life and the methods we're used to working with. As for Level, things didn't work out with our covering for the teacher who is on medical leave since our boss had no luck convincing the students that they wanted to try learning English from a Native Speaker -- so we're mostly doing class visits and ToC type work when they need us.
Work aside, things have been extraordinarily quiet for us since we started getting an income again -- except for some of the frantic-making issues relating to expenses and paperwork at home. It will be nice to get our first paycheque since the week before Xmas at the end of this month though! We've made so many grand plans to make day trips on the weekends, but when Friday and Saturday roll around we keep getting bitten by the lazy bug, oversleeping, or conspired against by our bodies in ways that make us not want to leave the flat. Fortunately Brutus has been able to keep us occupied and well supplied with furry snuggles...though his antics and quirks are a blog post unto themselves. He just had to spend a week with his other family while they fed him de-worming medication -- a nasty and disgusting surprise he left in his litter box so say the least! We do very much look forward to having him back.
Apartment photos will come as we continue in our struggles to keep the place neat and tidy. We love this place, and we want to share it with you. At some point there will also be photos from our various meanderings so far, so stay tuned!
After the quiet month we've had, it makes an element of sense that March is going to be crazy busy: we've got a class trip coming up with Level, possible party plans for my birthday, and a potential road trip outside of Poland. I'll try to keep up with the blog as the elements of our adventures unfold, otherwise it'll take me a month just to write the next post.
Don't forget to leave any questions or comments if you have them :)
Glad to hear you two are settiling in and having a better experience now. Its sounds like you have met some wonderful people along your way. What are you eating over there, (aside form perogies and borsch)? Can you get all your usual staples? Is there any food you miss?
ReplyDeleteTake care. Love Aunty Janet
We miss ethnic food the most, since there seems to be very little in the way of international diversity in Gliwice. Maple syrup is crazy expensive because they only import it from Canada, so it's definitely a treat when you can get some. We couldn't even find any when we were in Radom. As far as little luxuries like that go, Sarah's favourite cane sugar syrup (for pancakes etc) does not even seem to exist here, neither do brown (maple) sugar or Old Dutch products.
ReplyDeleteOne of our favourite discoveries so far has been the Polish definition of hot chocolate. Instead of mixing hot milk or water with syrup/powder the way most North American restaurants would do it they simply melt chocolate, then add milk and nuts/fruits/flavoured syrups to give it extra flavour if you like. At our favourite restaurant in Radom even they left the milk as an option. They call it "drinking chocolate," but the truth is you need a spoon to be able to eat it.