GOODBYE 2013!

In a matter of minutes this side of the world is preparing to say goodby to 2013 and all of its related baggage.  I can't speak for Sarah, but I know this is definitely true for me.

This year has definitely had some bittersweet moments, high points and also some very backhanded victories.  On the bright side, there is nowhere for us to go but up from this point.  We are safe and sound and happy in a new town (no thanks to a boss who made us miss our train--but that's a story on its own), looking at new possibilities...and we are both the happier for it even if it means things are a little uncertain for the time being. 

Goodbye 2013...you smiled on me favourably even while you stabbed me in the back.  In short, you were just like every other year, but with extraordinary adventures.

Update

I know it's been a while, but things have been more than a little insane around here.

The uncertainties presented the last time I wrote still have not resolved themselves, so I don't know where we'll be in January, or what we'll be doing.  It's frustrating as hell, but the only thing either of us can do at this point in time is roll with the punches and hope some of them miss.

In order to make room for a new teacher, Kris moved in with us last week.  Then the new teacher bailed at the last minute with absolutely no warning...the bosses found out the day before she was due to fly into Warsaw.  Now everything is chaos and nothing is certain.  I hate having to fight my battles blind, but there isn't much of a choice at the moment.  The worse things get here, the more I realize we were both blinded from the beginning because they certainly didn't tell us much at the outset and we still don't have a complete grip on their full expectations.

I can pray for more organization and knowledge until I'm blue in the face, but at the same time I often find myself suspicious that this lack of disclosure (at least until you are actually in the classroom) is going to be a common theme in the profession.  I often catch myself wondering whether or not we would still have come here if we knew everything they expected of us before we even got on the plane.  It would definitely have made our working lives easier if we had, at any rate.

We have stability until Christmas, but after that it's anybody's guess.

Not knowing has definitely contributed to a lot of the homesickness I've been feeling too.  I know that everybody is just an e-mail or a Skype message away, but it's not the same as having a shoulder to lean on for a few minutes.  It's not the same as being able to go to a park or restaurant to commiserate with your friends -- it's not the same as a hug from your parents.  So much is happening at home too.  How can I be a good pseudo-sister to Jeanett and an aunt to Piper (and future sibling) if I'm so far away?  How do I sit with my parents at the dinner table at Christmas, and hold my mother when it hits her that this is the first year she won't get a phone call (or visit) from my grandmother?

And some days I still feel alone, even though I know that Sarah is always at my side.

Hopefully things at least get a little better next week.  I have the fun of planning/giving Christmas lessons and learning about how things are done in Poland.  This should be interesting.

Time Flies...

Wow!  Where to begin.

Sorry that it took so long to write.  I've been insanely busy trying to keep my head away from the chopping block.  Stress related migraines, persistent nausea, and endless paranoia about the fact that my bosses have been observing me non-stop have not helped me do my job very well.  It all came to a head today in ways that good sense dictates I should not discuss on such a public forum...and I would advise those of you in the know not to mention anything in the comments about it.

Whatever comes next is decidedly for the better.  If you've been reading, you know this place hasn't lived up to what it was sold to us as...and we will leave it at that.  If you wish to know more, I can always be messaged privately. 

Our trip to Krakow last weekend was brilliant though!

We were so enthralled with Old Town that all we ever did was wander around.  We were still exhausted from another stressful week of work that we didn't really have the energy to go for any of the free walking tours, and the not-so-free ones of other nearby sites of interest were rather expensive.  That's okay though.  Krakow is definitely on our "do again" list.  We found an interactive digital museum in our wanderings, and also a store that sold period medieval souvenirs that we will also return to.  It took a great deal of effort not to drool on their weapons, crafts, and illumination.

There was also some sort of market festival going on in the little square that had musicians, craftspeople, food and one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscypek

They served little molded pieces of it off a smokey grill with cranberry sauce and it was so divine I went back for more!  If there was ever a moment where I've proven myself to be an even split between my parents, I think that was it.

Really, the only thing that went wrong for us in Krakow was a restaurant we went to on the main square called Staropolska.  I really wish we could have taken pictures because I cannot exaggerate how ridiculous it was.  We had to wait for half an hour to get our order, and when it finally came it was something I wouldn't even serve at my own table.  I'll go into details when I post the pictures. 

For now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy some Doctor Who.

A Well Earned Break From Work

Teaching about Halloween is supposed to be fun, right?

Well, our bosses seemed to find a way to ruin it for us by subjecting us to still more observations, and than basically tearing us a new one because they didn't like what they saw.  They ticked me off in my meeting and made Sarah cry in hers -- it's getting rather difficult not to take it personally.  Sometimes I wonder if there is something personal behind it: maybe I'm just being paranoid.  It seems I'm always watching my back these days, wondering when it's about to be stabbed.

We did have a nice, relaxing Halloween party after work on Thursday with a few of our co-workers, and a friend of ours who came up from Gliwice to bring us home with him for the long weekend.  We caught the early train from Radom and arrived in Gliwice in the early afternoon -- and I can tell you that the vibe around that city is the complete opposite of Radom.

It is beautiful there!  Because the province of Silesia was part of Germany before WWII it has not seen the same damage as most cities in Poland -- it still has the vast majority of its old buildings, even if they've been re-purposed.  The flats that Peter shares with his family are a twenty minute walk from the train station, and right in the heart of Old Gliwice.  He's on the 8th floor and the view from the apartments is stunning!

The view of Gliwice from Peter's flat.

Halloween isn't as big a deal in Poland as All Saints' Day (November 1st), and Peter's family had no objections to taking us with them to show us what it was all about.

Traditionally All Saints was celebrated as a means of remembering all the saints and martyrs that died for the sake of their faith over the centuries, but in the modern sense (or so one of my adult students explained to me) it's more like "All Dead People Day."  You can also think of it as a more serious version of Day of the Dead.

Candles placed at the foot of a statue of Jesus in the Central Cemetary

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People go to the cemeteries to visit the graves of friends and loved ones -- they clean the graves and leave candles and flowers as a tribute to those that they've lost.  It's fairly normal to visit as many cemeteries as you can so that nobody is forgotten -- however they do realize that this isn't always realistic and will light a candle for those who are far away.  The flowers and candles look lovely by day, but the view is gorgeous after dark with lights as far as the eye can see.

First we visited a small cemetery near the middle of town so that they could pay homage to a few departed friends, and then showed us the Jewish cemetery that was right beside it.  It is part of a UNESCO world heritage site because it is one of the few Jewish graveyards to survive the Second World War intact.  It is often locked away for fear of vandalism, and so few people know it is there that it is commonly referred to as the "forgotten cemetery of Gliwice."  After that, we went to the larger "Central Cemetery" (that was actually closer to the outskirts of the city) and it took us several hours to explore its entirety because it was absolutely huge.

The smaller graveyard.

The Jewish Cemetery.

Saturday was spent exploring Gliwice, its supermarkets, and the Ikea in Katowice.  It doesn't sound like much, but it was great fun.  It was also Peter's father's birthday, so we had a nice meal when we came back and drank to his health.  Both of his parents are very sweet and funny, and very interested in Canada (since they have family in Kamloops).  I would like to just take a second to muse on the typical Polish customs when one has a guest in their home...is it normal to feed people so much?  Every meal the food just kept coming every time we cleared a plate.  By the time we got through the various dishes, cake and sweets and the end of each meal it was a wonder we could move from the table!  They are both thoroughly determined to find us work in Gliwice when our contract in Radom is over -- a sentiment they both expressed frequently over the course of the weekend.  Who knows?  We might even take them up on it.

This radio tower is the tallest free-standing wooden structure in Europe.  It also has some very important historical symbolism attached.

Today we visited the botanical garden with our last few hours in the city, since it was a very short walk from the place we were staying.  We returned to the flat to grab out things before Peter and his mom took us to the train station, and it was with heavy hearts and feet that we returned to Radom tonight.  The people we shared our compartment with on the way back made up for it somewhat, but it has done nothing against the dread of going back to work on Monday, knowing that we both get to look forward to more classroom observations with little or no warning at all.

I hate the company I work for.

On the other hand, the weekend coming up is also a holiday.

Goodbye Radom, hello Krakow!

Why Does Tomorrow Have To Be Monday?

So work this week was not fun, yet again.  On top of everything else we've had to do this week, we got to sit through another seminar in which they briefed us on their expectations -- a month into classes, I might add -- and left us feeling like they had no respect for us as teachers or human beings.  Sarah and I weren't the only ones who seemed to feel that way.  They only thing we can do is grit our teeth and bear it for the next few months, really. I'm pretty sure they understand that if one of us is dismissed the other will likely resign.

Sarah's Birthday was fun, at any rate.  We had a good time with our friends, eating snacks and cupcakes AND HAVING RELAXING FUN TIME.  Friday night we managed to drag ourselves out of the apartment for a lovely dinner at Teatralna -- a high class restaurant close to our flat -- and had a romantic stroll in the fog.  It was a desperately needed excursion, and both of us felt so much better afterward.  We would have taken pictures of dinner, but it was too beautiful to live.  We took pictures of dessert though (barely)!

Panna Cotta with Crushed Raspberries and Chocolate Soufflé with Mint Syrup

A Pile of Leaves in The Park (I couldn't resist).  Love the effect of the flash on the mist.

The Mist-Shrouded Park

Looking down Zeromskiego.

IT'S PAYDAY!!!

Now to plan Halloween lessons and attempt to learn the Thriller dance.  Might start writing a story for a Halloween post too...

And Another One Gone

Sooooooooo.....

There are still a few groups that leave me feeling like a complete and utter failure as a teacher, but now that most of my students have books to work out of there is something for them to focus on and some semblance of order in the classroom.

One of my groups of pre-teens were giving me a tonne of trouble until I explained to them exactly what it takes to get the maximum number of talents from me at each lesson.  The boys began actually trying to get their points, but the girls quickly became distracted by the one student who has not yet been given her book.

My 6 year olds, however are still a handful and weren't very engaged in the lesson.  That goes double for the other class of 6 year olds that I teach on Wednesdays.  They weren't even interested in the reward system that Sarah and  I created together to try to inspire (and by inspire I really mean bribe) them to pay more attention in class.  I think a lot of it is just that they don't understand what I'm trying to tell them, they are confused by the fact that I don't understand them at all, and that the classes are too long for their attention spans.  I wonder sometimes if it wouldn't be more beneficial for them to have the English teacher and the Polish teacher together at all times to eliminate the communication gap and still surround them with English.  I've observed some of my problem groups in their lessons with my Polish co-teacher and they seem to behave for her, and generally like the lessons...but I wonder if the fact that she speaks Polish when it comes to concepts they don't understand in English  -- and setting boundaries when necessary -- is part of the key.

I honestly don't feel like they're learning anything from me.

I seem to be meeting with a little bit of success in the other areas of my career though!  I would look forward to my other classes a lot more if this bloody chest cold would go away...and there's the need to update the on-line register for the last three weeks on top of everything else the teachers have to do.  With any luck, things will get easier as time progresses and things steadily fall into place.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the classroom observations from our boss in Kozienice this week.  Really looking forward to that.  At least I know she will likely come on a day where she can observe Sarah and I in one visit -- which eliminates some of my worst classes.

I am trying really hard to hold on to my optimism, and to keep a cheerful poker face when my students make me want to hide my disappointment in them and myself under the desk.  I've tried throwing as many new tactics at them as I have learned in this last week -- but all of that knowledge doesn't stop me from wondering if I haven't made a mistake in trying to do all of this when my experiences are minimal at best.

I don't have any choice by to keep going though, and the little buggers are going to have to try harder if they want to get rid of me.  I got myself into this, and I am bloody well going to finish it.  Two problem classes out of 24 is an accomplishment, right?

More Thanksgiving Pictures

Another One Down

This week was kind of so-so work wise.

I felt a little bit better with some of the kids that I was actually able to plan lessons out of the book with...but how do you get 5 year olds to sit and help you with book activities?  They don't seem to have the attention span necessary to do it, and they neither understand nor care that you have a certain amount that you have to cover with them in each lesson.

In other lessons it doesn't necessarily help me that not all of my pupils have their books yet.  I get told "you can start in the book now," but nobody has mentioned whether or not things need to be photocopied beforehand and I start class feeling like an idiot for not having this knowledge or being prepared for it.  It's fine when I'm at the main school in Kozienice, but it becomes a problem when I'm teaching at Ilza or Jedlnia because we don't have access to a printer or a photocopier since we are in actual schools instead of a building owned by English College.

As the weeks progress these things will iron out.

Sarah and I are both still frustrated by the small children that we have to teach on a regular basis.  On Friday we miraculously had the same age group at the same time and were therefore able to share the classes--which was bloody FANTASTIC!!!  Neither of us were entirely sure if they were even the same classes we'd had last week because it was like a breath of fresh air!  And we actually had enough energy for the classes that came afterward because we took the small children in shifts.

Now I just need to figure out how to get my one group of ten year olds to stop behaving like the five year olds.  It will work out.

Tomorrow I'm going to one of the other schools so that I can observe how more experienced teachers handle the classes and maybe take my observations back to Sarah. 

Some of the gems from my students this week included "I am a dog," and "my mind" in response to a game in which they were required to name something that was dirty.

The view from the school in Ilza

The view from my classroom.  It's dusk and it was taken through a window so the picture is a little grainy.

In the enormous flurries of last-minute class planning, we haven't really had much opportunity to spend a lot of time on ourselves.  The only respite we've really had from work was this weekend, since we spent it preparing to spend Canadian Thanksgiving with our American co-workers.  The potluck idea failed slightly since everyone else was just as busy as we were, but it was still a good meal with shockingly little left over.  Since our oven is fairly small and whole turkeys difficult to come by, we did a roast chicken with a couple of turkey legs that we de-boned and stuffed prior to roasting in the midst of our extra stuffing...

The idea was excellent in theory -- and it still seems like a workable idea, but I think the practice needs a little tweaking before I can get it right.  I think the turkey was just left in a little too long and the bread probably sapped most of the moisture out of the turkey leg in spite of copious amounts of butter being applies to both the stuffing on the inside of the leg and underneath the skin.

The chicken on the other hand, was so moist and tender that the leg came off when Sarah tried to test its readiness.  The broth had burnt off, but somehow we managed to reconstitute it into a shockingly palatable gravy.  Preparing it was interesting, though.  As I was rinsing it out we discovered that part of the reason the chicken had so much skin around the neck was because the butcher who had prepped it left the cervical vertebrae more or less intact.  Before I could even finish cleaning it I had to sever the remainder of the neck to open up the whole a little more.  Once it was rinsed I couldn't even get all the water out from under the skin--but I think that only contributed to the deliciousness in the end.

We boiled the potatoes, and prepped all the ingredients necessary for Kris to make a fantastic pot of garlic mashed potatoes that I am quite pleased to say we have some left overs from.  They will be extra delicious tomorrow.  No pumpkin pie, sadly.  It seems canned pumpkin pie filling does not exist in Radom, and with everything else we've had going there wasn't enough time nor oven space to roast a pumpkin and do it the hard way.  That's alright...

 

After the feast.

We'll just do it in November when the Americans have their turn at hosting Thanksgiving, since we are one of the lucky few who actually have an oven.

First Week of Work...and an Ironic Realization

I'm sure all teachers probably get the jitters when they're officially being paid for their first jobs, and I'm sure all teachers probably wonder what they've gotten themselves into when they face that first group of rowdy children that refuse to listen to them on the first day of class.  I'm sure most ESL teachers working abroad have a hard time getting their students to focus in those first lessons because they themselves are considered an exotic oddity to these young people that surround them: the Native English speaker.  I'm sure it's normal to come home on your first Friday night after your first week of teaching and wonder if maybe you hadn't made a mistake in choosing this particular profession...

It is normal, right?

Monday was my first official day at work, and it went well in spite of a few last minute changes to my schedule and having no bloody clue what I was supposed to do if my students burned through the activities I had planned before the time was up.  The vast majority of my classes are 90 minutes in length--before this I was only ever responsible for 60 minute classes, and the extra half hour will definitely take some getting used to.

Throughout the week I found that my enjoyment of teaching English varied with the maturity level of the students.  The younger my students were, the less likely they were to want to play language games, or speak English in spite of English College's policy that the students not use Polish in the classroom.  I understand that they're just kids, and they're coming back from a long break during which English was an afterthought.  I also understand that the younger students may find someone who doesn't speak their language at all to be a strange concept.  Their homeland isn't a place where everyone is descended from immigrants in one way or another.  I on the other hand, have spent my entire life around people who had to learn English the hard way--and even encountered a few who didn't speak the tongue at all.  When I was the age some of these kids are, these people seemed mysterious to me and I always wondered what sort of stories they could tell if they had the time.

Funny, that.  Now I'm the curiosity, but only the older students ask for my story. The rest only see themselves stuck in another classroom after being at school all day--and the majority aren't very fond of school to begin with.

Friday was the most brutal day of them all.  After an exhausting week of repeating "getting to know you" activities of varying degrees of difficulty with all of my students from Monday to Thursday, I got to play with a lively group of five and six year olds who understood enough to play "Simon Says," do the "Hokey Pokey," and play a game that involved saying a colour when the ball was thrown to them...and they're attention span gave out 40 minutes into a 60 minute lesson.  I'm not sure what happened after that: my Polish is far more limited than the English spoken by these children.  As far as I can guess, the game they started playing pitted boys against girls (myself included as the flying balls can attest) in an attempt to touch the ball to the other team's rug whilst shouting the random English words they knew as they threw the ball.

After that I had a class of seven year olds that learned how to play "Go Fish" and exercised their prowess at using the question "Do you have...?"  and working on their numbers.  It was also a learning experience for me the first time I heard one of these children say "do you have an ass?"  I was shocked until an exchange of cards illustrated to me that "As" is the Polish word for "Ace."

Then were the 10 year olds who got a little too crazy while playing a game that involved throwing a ball and giving a sentence that begins with "I like" when you catch it.  After one of the cleaning ladies came in and said something to me in Polish (the only word I could make out was "angielski") I managed to quiet them down with a game of Uno--which I have discovered a majority of my students know and love.

I had thirteen year olds who thoroughly enjoyed "2 truths and 3 lies," then spent the rest of the class playing Uno and asking questions about Canada.  After that was a pair of older teens who were preparing for an oral exam in English that students are required to take on leaving high school.  The class was mostly spent getting to know each other and playing "Go Fish" and "War," which both girls thoroughly enjoyed.

The last hour of my Friday was spent with a 2 year old, a 4 year old, and their Dad.  The only expectation was that I play with them and expose them to English at their mother's request.  I think they tested their father's patience more than they tested mine.  It turns out "Peekaboo" can be profitably turned into a game that entertains toddlers and gets them (or at least the 4 year old) to use a little English at the same time.

Last night we hung out with Kris and Ginny (not their real names) and went out on the town a little to experience more of Radom's night life.  We got home in the small hours of morning, and as I fell asleep I realized that I had gotten cold feet about going back to work on Monday.  When I explained this to Sarah she just laughed and said she would gladly trade for her groups of 5 year olds that would rather scream every time she opened her mouth than try to play English games, or try to hide under the tables and in the closets rather than engage in activities.  She also made a point of mentioning that I should understand children at least a little considering I've put up with her for four years.

Maybe this would be easier if I could remember some of the things I thought and felt as a kid, before all of our lives went sideways.  One of my greatest fears as a teacher is one day having to guide that one child who finds theirself in the exact same position I was in.

Maybe these are just growing pains that will go away as we all adjust to this new routine.

I certainly hope so.

If Karen Densky is reading this blog at all, she is probably laughing.  While I was doing my practicum for the TESL program I absolutely loathed the reflective journal assignments because I had made it one of my life's missions to avoid introspection--and thereby avoid touching upon any subject that would bring up painful memories or otherwise rouse other monsters in that Pandora's Box otherwise known as the human psyche. 

I didn't realize until half of this entry was written that I started doing it without even being aware that it was a journal that I have been writing this whole time.

A journal about learning and exploring all aspects of my journey as a teacher and a human being, not just this new country that has become my temporary home.

Follow-up

From what little I've seen of the night life in Radom, I know one thing hasn't changed in moving here: I still prefer to hang with friends in pubs than spend the night dancing in a club.  We went out for a little while with a couple of co-workers to see what things were like and discovered that you are required to check your coat at the door regardless of where you go.  At least that was optional at home.  The one club that the girls decided to stay at wanted 20 PLN just to check your coat and pay the cover charge.  Since it's not really my thing or Sarah's, we just offered to take the other girls' coats back to our flat and let them dance the night away on a much smaller budget than the coat check would have allowed.  On the way up to this place, we also noticed a lot of people smoking on the landings, and neither of us could breathe by the time we got to the top of the stairs.  At any rate, it sounds like they had fun.

Today was a little better.  One of our Polish co-workers organized a little meet-and-greet with some of our other colleagues at the pub we had considered going to last night, but had decided against because we didn't want to check our coats.  We met everyone there tonight and had a pretty good time.  The food was to die for, and the selection of non-alcoholic drinks was actually very decent.  It has a small dance hall just off the main dining area, so you have the choice of hanging out where you can still hear the conversation, or going to dance among the loud music and flashing lights.  There is a non-smoking section on the upper floor and a smoking section in the basement, by the entrance to the dance hall.

It's still a little strange to me that people can smoke in public places here, when you consider that it's illegal back home.  They were selling duty-free cigarettes on the plane, there were smoking booths at the airport in Frankfurt, and people seem free to smoke everywhere here.

More Apartment Pictures!

The exterior of our building.  Our deck is the one above the satellite dish on the right hand side of the picture.

The living room.

More living room, the door to the hall, and the wardrobe.

Getting Out and Getting Used to Life

It's been a busy week.  Now that all the girls are here, the last few days have been spent preparing us for the year to come.  Half of the girls have already started teaching, but the rest of us start on Monday due to a few scheduling conflicts the school was having difficulty working out.  From what I gathered in our training seminars, we are supposed to help our students learn life skills such as teamwork and time management in addition to English--a philosophy I can get behind. 

With the exception of the last couple of days, Sarah and I haven't been eating out nearly as much as we used to, and have been enjoying the use of a kitchen free of "business hours."  We have branched out a little, trying a couple of cafés, a pizzeria, a milk bar, and this cute little bistro that is (lamentably) right across the street from our building.  Not only is it delicious, but it's very affordable and offers a wealth of traditional Polish food in addition to a few dishes from other cultures.  For example, today at the Bistro BSB we decided to sample Hungarian potato cakes and pierogi filled with meat and cabbage:

I've been finding that the majority of words I recognize so far are words that pertain to food--in other words I am proving yet again that I am very much my father's daughter.

I'm finding Radom surprisingly quiet for a town roughly three times the size of Kamloops.  Even late at night back home there is always some kind of noise.  Here, things are quiet for the most part, with the occasional exception of the odd person singing loudly as they stumble home from the pubs nearby.  Yesterday there seemed to be some sort of military ceremony in front of the church on Zeromskiego, and we had to good fortune to see it beginning from the classroom where we were all having a meeting to discuss our plans for our first lessons.  Ania (one of our bosses) explained that the building across from us was an "army church," and that these ceremonies occurred from time to time.  It was interesting to witness, even if we didn't know what was going on.

The language isn't the only thing that has taken some getting used to.  In Canada the government has recently gotten rid of the penny--here there are many more coins than we are used to.  We have the equivalent of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent denominations, and every value under 10 zloty is a coin.  The bills are different sizes in addition to being different colours, but that just makes them easier to find in your wallet.

Shopping for groceries has also been a different experience, but certainly a positive one.  With new surroundings has arisen the need to try a few new foods, and occasionally finding different ways of preparing the foods we used to make at home.  For example, until today we did not have a small pot for making rice, so we got creative with our curry and ate it on a bed of ramen noodles instead.  It's a little unorthodox, but decidedly delicious!

Some places sell pre-packaged ground meat the way most Canadians are used to finding it, but the market in the mall near our house actually allows you to choose the amount of meat you want and will grind it right in front of you!  It was neat to watch and was relatively lean when it cooked down.  We barely had to drain the fat off of it at all.

As if adjusting to life abroad wasn't enough, our bodies decided that Sarah and I needed to grapple with our first Polish colds this week.  In spite of our need to go out, explore, and make our flat a home, we have both been extremely exhausted.  We found some excellent cold pills to remedy the situation, but I found myself quite sleep deprived for the first few days because we didn't realize that the first box we bought was mostly caffeine!  Lesson learned.

The other useful thing we learned has to do with power bars and the nature of the circuitry in our apartment.  When we got our plug converter back from Gwen, we thought we would try to plug in the power bar we brought back from Canada.  Our computers and e-readers worked just fine without converting the voltage, so we thought trying out the power bar that way couldn't possibly hurt.

We were dead wrong.

Not only did the extra voltage blow out the surge protector, it shorted out the fuse that controlled all the electrical sockets for our apartment.  We tried to call our boss for help and found her unable to answer the phone, so we sent a frantic text message to Gwen (our co-worker) asking her to send an e-mail to our other boss to see if he had any suggestions on where we might find the fuse box.  He replied (though Gwen) that we should be able to find either a black button or a red switch in the hall.

We were stumped at first, searching in our flat and the hall outside looking for this mysterious button so we could turn our outlets back on and restore power to our fridge.  Eventually we remembered seeing a cupboard above our door when the cable guy came in to give us internet and decided to look in there.  We found one of the black buttons that Witek had mentioned, but alas it was the breaker for the bathroom.  We sent a few more text messages explaining the situation and were about to give up when I got curious about what was above the shelf in the cupboard above the door.  Even standing on a chair I was still to short to see over it.  In the end Sarah braced herself on the chair and I stood on her back to gain a few extra inches to see over the shelf...and there were two more circuit breakers that we hadn't seen earlier!  In fact, one of them was the very miscreant we had been looking for.

Most houses in North America have each room and most appliances on their own breaker (most, but certainly not all).  It seems our flat has all the outlets for most of the space on one breaker, all the lights on another, and the bathroom/laundry room on one all by itself.

The moral of this story: if you are traveling with a Canadian power bar for your electronics, remember to use a VOLTAGE CONVERTER with them.

As a result of our experience we have since purchased European plug ends for our laptops.

At the moment we are at home, waiting for Gwen to get off work and come home from her school in Zwolen.  After that, the three of us are meeting up with Kate and going to check out some of the night life in Radom.  Tomorrow night we get to meet with some of our Polish co-workers and spend another night out on the town. 

Getting Settled

Huzzah!  We finally have Wi-Fi in the apartment, but naturally the only adapter we had that offered a 3-prong outlet seems to have bitten the dust.  This is going to make it tricky to plug in our laptops until the lady who borrowed our plug converter returns from Berlin.  At least the 2-prong adapter Dad gave us works for the other things that need to charge.

It is great to be in our own space.  It still needs a few basic things before it's completely homey, but it's ours.

So for now I give you the view from our balcony, and shots of the kitchen.  I would load more, but the battery on my laptop is dwindling and I have no means of charging it for the time being.

I will load more when the electronics situation is fixed.  In the meantime, those of you who have access to Sarah's Facebook will find the full line-up there for your perusal.