I can't believe the term is days away from being over. I'm getting ready to leave a job I actually like and will miss colleagues and students horribly when Sarah and I depart. If student loans didn't make life so problematic we would definitely stay for another year, but alas the Canadian system of doing things isn't nearly as flexible as, say, the British one.
The strangest thing of it all is that the last 6 months in Gliwice seem to have gone by at the exact same pace as the 3 months we spent in Radom. I think spending a lot more time surrounded by new friends in a supportive environment does make a whole world of difference. I wouldn't trade the colleagues at English College for anything, but it might have been better if we weren't all being worked to the bone and actually given help when we needed it.
Most of you who knew me before know that I had a lot of misgivings about coming to Poland -- and while my instincts were unfortunately right about English College, they were wrong about the experiences we've had since we put Radom behind us with a promise to each other that we will never return. I love this city and Gliwice feels as much like my home as Kamloops does, albeit rainier and more humid than the place of my birth. As we speak, it's been pouring buckets for hours. I don't know this place as well as I would like, but it is home nonetheless.
There will be time for more reflections in the days to come, and of course (hopefully) a more diligent capture of our adventures past and present.
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Q&A Part 2
3. Why Gliwice?
The short version is that when our job in Radom went south we were lucky enough to have a friend in Gliwice who was kind enough to help us get back on our feet (with the assistance of a lovely lady back in Kamloops who was wonderful enough to let us rent her flat for the time being). We found jobs and fell in love with the city in the meantime.
4. What Are Some of the Biggest Challenges of Living Here?
The language barrier is the biggest hurdle we've found ourselves leaping over. Other than that I would have to say that our biggest nightmares have been paying bills/student loans back in Canada (the Polish Zloty doesn't translate well) and trying to file taxes. Don't get me started on that.
5. What Do You Like About Living In Poland
These won't get answered in any ranked order. I'm just going to write these as I think of them.
1. Bakeries
Oh my gods is this ever one of the best and worst things we could have discovered. Polish baking is fantastic! It doesn't matter whether it's bread or some kind of sweet, the stuff that comes out of the bakeries here is amazing. While W-Z is a chocolatey specialty particular to Poland I have to say one of my favourites is Kremowka Papieska -- aka Kremowka Wadowicki (pronounced kremoovka Vadovitski), which is basically two inches of dense cream between two sheets of flaky pastry and dusted with confectioner's sugar. Sarah is also passionately fond of the coconut macaroons at the two bakeries around the corner from us...they have very different styles of baking them, but she seems to love both equally.
2. Reliable Public Transit
Compared to Kamloops Gliwice, has the bus service of the gods. Even if you're trying to get to an outlying area there really isn't anywhere that busses don't go.
3. Polish Foods
This one may require another blog post. While it's easy enough to tell my readers at home what foods from Canada I miss, the things we sometimes eat here may require some explaining.
4. Things Are Close
Even if they close rather early by the standards we're used to, there's always a grocery store of some variety within walking distance.
5. There Is Always Something New To Learn
I don't know how Sarah feels on this subject, but one of the things I have loved most about being abroad is learning new things about the area, the people and the culture.
What still surprises me after spending the (almost) last year here is that in general Poles are so negative about their country. They don't think it's very interesting or viable on a global basis at all. They usually laugh when I explain to them that from my perspective Poland is like the woman who spent years with an abusive husband, and is finally getting on her feet after she's gotten the nerve to divorce and start over.
They tend to correct this view by suggesting that she puts his body in the trunk of her car and takes him to a lake. They don't have a very good relationship with Russia and it shows in the way they talk about Communism here.
There will be more Q&A to follow. For the moment I have to go do some grocery shopping before things close. There is another government holiday this weekend, and apparently nothing will be open in Gliwice all of the long weekend.
The short version is that when our job in Radom went south we were lucky enough to have a friend in Gliwice who was kind enough to help us get back on our feet (with the assistance of a lovely lady back in Kamloops who was wonderful enough to let us rent her flat for the time being). We found jobs and fell in love with the city in the meantime.
4. What Are Some of the Biggest Challenges of Living Here?
The language barrier is the biggest hurdle we've found ourselves leaping over. Other than that I would have to say that our biggest nightmares have been paying bills/student loans back in Canada (the Polish Zloty doesn't translate well) and trying to file taxes. Don't get me started on that.
5. What Do You Like About Living In Poland
These won't get answered in any ranked order. I'm just going to write these as I think of them.
1. Bakeries
Oh my gods is this ever one of the best and worst things we could have discovered. Polish baking is fantastic! It doesn't matter whether it's bread or some kind of sweet, the stuff that comes out of the bakeries here is amazing. While W-Z is a chocolatey specialty particular to Poland I have to say one of my favourites is Kremowka Papieska -- aka Kremowka Wadowicki (pronounced kremoovka Vadovitski), which is basically two inches of dense cream between two sheets of flaky pastry and dusted with confectioner's sugar. Sarah is also passionately fond of the coconut macaroons at the two bakeries around the corner from us...they have very different styles of baking them, but she seems to love both equally.
2. Reliable Public Transit
Compared to Kamloops Gliwice, has the bus service of the gods. Even if you're trying to get to an outlying area there really isn't anywhere that busses don't go.
3. Polish Foods
This one may require another blog post. While it's easy enough to tell my readers at home what foods from Canada I miss, the things we sometimes eat here may require some explaining.
4. Things Are Close
Even if they close rather early by the standards we're used to, there's always a grocery store of some variety within walking distance.
5. There Is Always Something New To Learn
I don't know how Sarah feels on this subject, but one of the things I have loved most about being abroad is learning new things about the area, the people and the culture.
What still surprises me after spending the (almost) last year here is that in general Poles are so negative about their country. They don't think it's very interesting or viable on a global basis at all. They usually laugh when I explain to them that from my perspective Poland is like the woman who spent years with an abusive husband, and is finally getting on her feet after she's gotten the nerve to divorce and start over.
They tend to correct this view by suggesting that she puts his body in the trunk of her car and takes him to a lake. They don't have a very good relationship with Russia and it shows in the way they talk about Communism here.
There will be more Q&A to follow. For the moment I have to go do some grocery shopping before things close. There is another government holiday this weekend, and apparently nothing will be open in Gliwice all of the long weekend.
Sunday, 27 April 2014
Questions We Get Asked Most Frequently -- And Our Answer
These questions are common when students meet us for the first time, but they also tend to come from some of the few service people we interact with who speak enough English to hold a conversation.
1. Why Poland? You could go anywhere!
Actually no, we can't. Part of the problem stems from some of the political issues associated with being an LGBT couple in the ESL field -- nondiscrimination laws that are a mandatory part of joining the EU mean that our jobs are still protected by law if anybody found us out. Sarah and I don't actually acknowledge the fact that we're a couple at work -- at least outside the staffroom. Officially, we're friends or "traveling companions" when we talk about each other to our students. That being said, there are a lot of places we wouldn't risk going because our lives and livelihoods could very well depend on it. Most of the people we've encountered over the age of 30 are still quite homophobic here, but it isn't as bad as some other places in the world.
The other part of the problem with trying to find work in the EU is that so many schools and businesses prefer Native Speakers who already have EU citizenship (ie from the UK) because everything is cheaper from a bureaucratic standpoint and you don't have to deal with the messy issue of work permits and visas. This is one of the reasons we actually do tell our students.
One of the others we mention is that in the more westernized parts of Europe it is exceptionally difficult to find jobs that don't require you to have a Master's degree. Because University costs dramatically less than it does at home -- even in the countries that don't have free Uni -- almost everybody and their dog has a Master's in something. We get a lot of shocked expressions from our students when we explain what we have to pay and that there really isn't a lot of support for the under-privileged in Canada in terms of scholarships and financial aid. Here, parents are required by law to support their kid through university until the age of 26, even if they have to move to another town to study and public universities are free if you are a citizen...that being said my students find it quite unthinkable that a post-grad degree in Canada would cost too much and result in hundreds of thousands in debt.
Truthfully, it's a lot easier to get an ESL job in Poland because for the most part they seem to be quite happy to have a Native Speaker around. Especially when it comes to people from North America, Poland isn't the tourist hotbed of Europe in spite of the fact that it's drop-dead gorgeous here. We wanted to come here, much to the surprise of those we encounter.
2. What Do You Miss Most About Canada?
There are a lot of answers to this one. Fortunately modern technology enables us to keep track of family and friends, but there are some aspects of life in North America that just can't be replaced. These are some of our top-ranking answers:
1. Ethnic Diversity
We would seriously kill for some real Chinese food right now.
The problem here lies in the fact that more people leave Poland than want to come here, so the rich immigrant population that we're used to being surrounded by doesn't exist...at least not in Gliwice. According to our students you're more likely to find that diversity in a major centre like Warsaw or Krakow, but not a small (by their standards) city like Gliwice...and definitely not in Radom. The very few immigrants we've encountered here are Vietnamese, so Chinese food is mostly a loose interpretation by non-asians.
I never thought I would live to see the day when I got excited by seeing someone on the street who wasn't Caucasian, but the truth about Poland is that the population is extremely homogeneous and they know it. I wonder sometimes if that isn't part of the reason why political correctness and acts against racially intolerant views aren't such a big thing here...even in spite of their history.
Seriously...you should hear some of the comments they make about Jews and Roma here. It's shocking.
2. Reliable Internet
I understand that the company we go through isn't our choice, but seriously! Imperium Telecom sucks things that I probably shouldn't mention in the event that there are young readers looking at this page. It gets annoying that for whatever reason our service kicks out around the 23rd of every month (so far nearly always on a weekend), and nobody ever answers the after hours numbers provided when you try to call them. This makes life difficult when the weekends are usually when we have time to talk to our family and friends back home.
3. The Awesome Things Happening At Home
Not kidding! Kamloops decided to get awesome when we left home and we're jealous! Luckily we could watch the live stream of the Jane Goodall lecture -- which kept us up until 5am -- but had to miss the WCT production of Les Mis, the screening of 'The Last Unicorn' with Peter S. Beagle in attendance...and god dammit who decided to have a Dr. Who themed birthday party in our absence?!
We also miss the normal things like the monthly Kamloops Burlesque productions...even though we went nearly every month. It's still fun to see what new ideas they come up with -- though explaining what Burlesque is and the fact that it was going on to Peter were just as entertaining.
4. Sleeping on a Real Bed
This isn't actually an answer that we give to our students because it requires a lot more explaining than is professionally wise. However it's very true. Admittedly the sleeping situation in Radom was largely due to the fact that we weren't comfortable talking about our relationship status with our employers until they more or less outed us in the car to work one day. But pulling mattresses off the two single beds in separate rooms so that we could sleep together on the floor became an enormous pain in the everything.
We were stoked to see a fold-down couch in Gliwice, but it comes with its own set of challenges -- like Sarah taking over what basically amounts to something slightly smaller than a double mattress, or Brutus deciding he wants to follow my butt around the bed when I need to roll over. We have since come to realize that when we return to Canada we can't do anything smaller than a queen and have it work. The couch is still more comfortable than a mattress on the floor.
5. Certain Foodstuffs That Can't Be Found Here
This list is long enough that it needs a separate blog post.
6. Being Able To Converse With People
The fact that we don't speak a lot of Polish (or any) often means that we can smile and say hello to people, but not much more than that. It would be nice to be able to talk to our neighbours about their day and any suggestions they have for living in this city. It would be nice to strike up a conversation with the people riding next to you for some of those long bus trips to in-company classes in outlying areas. The language barrier has left us pretty isolated here once you take the students and fellow colleagues out of the equation. I can count the number of people with whom I've been able to say more than a few words on one hand. I know this is something that just comes with the territory of teaching your own tongue in a foreign land, but it still can get pretty depressing.
7. Mountains
A person from Saskatchewan could feel very much at home here in Poland. It seems like the closest mountains in Poland are always near the border with somewhere else, no matter where you are. In the vast majority of this country nothing gets more serious than a small hill that even the least exercise inclined could probably climb in 5 minutes. That being said we seriously need to go to the mountains.
8. Having a Microwave
It isn't that they don't exist here: they definitely do. It's just that they're expensive and rather awkward to lug home if you don't want to pay for a cab or have access to a car at that particular point in time. It's really changed the ways we have to think about the way that we time the preparation of our meals and what we make leftovers of because we don't always have the convenience of reheating in a timely manner.
9. Having a Car
While I'm relatively certain I've stated more than once that driving in Poland seems like a scary proposition, we both miss a lot of the convenience that a car comes with. It would be nice to do things like go on trips to the supermarket without inconveniencing Peter, and I'm pretty sure we would explore more if we could drive. Lugging everything to the train station, paying for tickets, and getting everything on/off the train only to drag it all to your hostel is a considerable hassle. I miss the days of being able to just pack the car and go on a road trip.
10. Being in The Same Time Zone
Sometimes we have to contact people and government organizations back home, but the fact that their day is our night can often make that more than a little tricky...especially when we work in the evenings.
Naturally we also answer these questions with standard things like having face time with family and friends, but since these are fairly obvious and require no explanation they haven't been listed here.
Since this post is already enormous, there will be more Q&A to follow.
1. Why Poland? You could go anywhere!
Actually no, we can't. Part of the problem stems from some of the political issues associated with being an LGBT couple in the ESL field -- nondiscrimination laws that are a mandatory part of joining the EU mean that our jobs are still protected by law if anybody found us out. Sarah and I don't actually acknowledge the fact that we're a couple at work -- at least outside the staffroom. Officially, we're friends or "traveling companions" when we talk about each other to our students. That being said, there are a lot of places we wouldn't risk going because our lives and livelihoods could very well depend on it. Most of the people we've encountered over the age of 30 are still quite homophobic here, but it isn't as bad as some other places in the world.
The other part of the problem with trying to find work in the EU is that so many schools and businesses prefer Native Speakers who already have EU citizenship (ie from the UK) because everything is cheaper from a bureaucratic standpoint and you don't have to deal with the messy issue of work permits and visas. This is one of the reasons we actually do tell our students.
One of the others we mention is that in the more westernized parts of Europe it is exceptionally difficult to find jobs that don't require you to have a Master's degree. Because University costs dramatically less than it does at home -- even in the countries that don't have free Uni -- almost everybody and their dog has a Master's in something. We get a lot of shocked expressions from our students when we explain what we have to pay and that there really isn't a lot of support for the under-privileged in Canada in terms of scholarships and financial aid. Here, parents are required by law to support their kid through university until the age of 26, even if they have to move to another town to study and public universities are free if you are a citizen...that being said my students find it quite unthinkable that a post-grad degree in Canada would cost too much and result in hundreds of thousands in debt.
Truthfully, it's a lot easier to get an ESL job in Poland because for the most part they seem to be quite happy to have a Native Speaker around. Especially when it comes to people from North America, Poland isn't the tourist hotbed of Europe in spite of the fact that it's drop-dead gorgeous here. We wanted to come here, much to the surprise of those we encounter.
2. What Do You Miss Most About Canada?
There are a lot of answers to this one. Fortunately modern technology enables us to keep track of family and friends, but there are some aspects of life in North America that just can't be replaced. These are some of our top-ranking answers:
1. Ethnic Diversity
We would seriously kill for some real Chinese food right now.
The problem here lies in the fact that more people leave Poland than want to come here, so the rich immigrant population that we're used to being surrounded by doesn't exist...at least not in Gliwice. According to our students you're more likely to find that diversity in a major centre like Warsaw or Krakow, but not a small (by their standards) city like Gliwice...and definitely not in Radom. The very few immigrants we've encountered here are Vietnamese, so Chinese food is mostly a loose interpretation by non-asians.
I never thought I would live to see the day when I got excited by seeing someone on the street who wasn't Caucasian, but the truth about Poland is that the population is extremely homogeneous and they know it. I wonder sometimes if that isn't part of the reason why political correctness and acts against racially intolerant views aren't such a big thing here...even in spite of their history.
Seriously...you should hear some of the comments they make about Jews and Roma here. It's shocking.
2. Reliable Internet
I understand that the company we go through isn't our choice, but seriously! Imperium Telecom sucks things that I probably shouldn't mention in the event that there are young readers looking at this page. It gets annoying that for whatever reason our service kicks out around the 23rd of every month (so far nearly always on a weekend), and nobody ever answers the after hours numbers provided when you try to call them. This makes life difficult when the weekends are usually when we have time to talk to our family and friends back home.
3. The Awesome Things Happening At Home
Not kidding! Kamloops decided to get awesome when we left home and we're jealous! Luckily we could watch the live stream of the Jane Goodall lecture -- which kept us up until 5am -- but had to miss the WCT production of Les Mis, the screening of 'The Last Unicorn' with Peter S. Beagle in attendance...and god dammit who decided to have a Dr. Who themed birthday party in our absence?!
We also miss the normal things like the monthly Kamloops Burlesque productions...even though we went nearly every month. It's still fun to see what new ideas they come up with -- though explaining what Burlesque is and the fact that it was going on to Peter were just as entertaining.
4. Sleeping on a Real Bed
This isn't actually an answer that we give to our students because it requires a lot more explaining than is professionally wise. However it's very true. Admittedly the sleeping situation in Radom was largely due to the fact that we weren't comfortable talking about our relationship status with our employers until they more or less outed us in the car to work one day. But pulling mattresses off the two single beds in separate rooms so that we could sleep together on the floor became an enormous pain in the everything.
We were stoked to see a fold-down couch in Gliwice, but it comes with its own set of challenges -- like Sarah taking over what basically amounts to something slightly smaller than a double mattress, or Brutus deciding he wants to follow my butt around the bed when I need to roll over. We have since come to realize that when we return to Canada we can't do anything smaller than a queen and have it work. The couch is still more comfortable than a mattress on the floor.
5. Certain Foodstuffs That Can't Be Found Here
This list is long enough that it needs a separate blog post.
6. Being Able To Converse With People
The fact that we don't speak a lot of Polish (or any) often means that we can smile and say hello to people, but not much more than that. It would be nice to be able to talk to our neighbours about their day and any suggestions they have for living in this city. It would be nice to strike up a conversation with the people riding next to you for some of those long bus trips to in-company classes in outlying areas. The language barrier has left us pretty isolated here once you take the students and fellow colleagues out of the equation. I can count the number of people with whom I've been able to say more than a few words on one hand. I know this is something that just comes with the territory of teaching your own tongue in a foreign land, but it still can get pretty depressing.
7. Mountains
A person from Saskatchewan could feel very much at home here in Poland. It seems like the closest mountains in Poland are always near the border with somewhere else, no matter where you are. In the vast majority of this country nothing gets more serious than a small hill that even the least exercise inclined could probably climb in 5 minutes. That being said we seriously need to go to the mountains.
8. Having a Microwave
It isn't that they don't exist here: they definitely do. It's just that they're expensive and rather awkward to lug home if you don't want to pay for a cab or have access to a car at that particular point in time. It's really changed the ways we have to think about the way that we time the preparation of our meals and what we make leftovers of because we don't always have the convenience of reheating in a timely manner.
9. Having a Car
While I'm relatively certain I've stated more than once that driving in Poland seems like a scary proposition, we both miss a lot of the convenience that a car comes with. It would be nice to do things like go on trips to the supermarket without inconveniencing Peter, and I'm pretty sure we would explore more if we could drive. Lugging everything to the train station, paying for tickets, and getting everything on/off the train only to drag it all to your hostel is a considerable hassle. I miss the days of being able to just pack the car and go on a road trip.
10. Being in The Same Time Zone
Sometimes we have to contact people and government organizations back home, but the fact that their day is our night can often make that more than a little tricky...especially when we work in the evenings.
Naturally we also answer these questions with standard things like having face time with family and friends, but since these are fairly obvious and require no explanation they haven't been listed here.
Since this post is already enormous, there will be more Q&A to follow.
Getting Used To It All Again
There hasn't been a whole lot to report this time around. March has primarily been a month of routine, relaxation, and regrouping now that the hectic nature of getting accustomed to new work environments is behind us. We've more or less settled into the pattern of favourite bakeries to go to, the restaurants we like best, and more or less knowing which convenience stores are open latest. The only thing I wish I could change about our daily life is not knowing enough Polish to speak to any of our neigbours. Though I still sometimes wake in the morning with the throb of terror that I would have to go to Kozienice in a few hours, we are both very happy to be where we are.
There have been a few small get-togethers with friends and colleagues, and my birthday was quietly celebrated with Skype calls from family back home. There was a fantastic rock and gem expo not even a five-minute walk from our apartment, where Sarah and I spent a couple hours enjoying all manner of shiny objects before going home to watch a movie and spend a rainy day inside.
April I fear has been just as uneventful. In spite of all our plans to go forth and explore more, fate and the Student Loan Bureau continually conspire to keep us at home. It's okay though. Experiencing a traditional Polish Easter with Peter and Christiana was fun, and decidedly a much more subdued affair than the typical dinners and family gatherings at home.
Eventually the long awaited pictures of the flat will come. We've just been a little tired of late with all the extra hours we've been getting at Speed due to a staffing shortage at the school in Wroclaw.
Next post will likely be an FAQ from the students here about our lives in Canada and how they compare to our experiences in Poland.
Until next time.
There have been a few small get-togethers with friends and colleagues, and my birthday was quietly celebrated with Skype calls from family back home. There was a fantastic rock and gem expo not even a five-minute walk from our apartment, where Sarah and I spent a couple hours enjoying all manner of shiny objects before going home to watch a movie and spend a rainy day inside.
April I fear has been just as uneventful. In spite of all our plans to go forth and explore more, fate and the Student Loan Bureau continually conspire to keep us at home. It's okay though. Experiencing a traditional Polish Easter with Peter and Christiana was fun, and decidedly a much more subdued affair than the typical dinners and family gatherings at home.
Eventually the long awaited pictures of the flat will come. We've just been a little tired of late with all the extra hours we've been getting at Speed due to a staffing shortage at the school in Wroclaw.
Next post will likely be an FAQ from the students here about our lives in Canada and how they compare to our experiences in Poland.
Until next time.
Monday, 24 February 2014
Quiet February
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 :)
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 :)
Thursday, 6 February 2014
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.
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.
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.
 |
| I name no names. |
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.
It's A Brand New Day...
Recently Poland began taking the first Monday in January as a statutory holiday to mark the arrival of the three kings in Bethlehem (I think I've mentioned before that a huge proportion of Poles are Catholic). If we had stayed in Radom, we would have been working Thursday-Friday before having the long weekend to ourselves. Here we were, jobless in Gliwice and the English schools were all sensibly closed until after the stat -- so we had a little bit of time to look around before the hunt for work got beyond the internet. Since arriving here, the vast majority of our travels (the one exception being the trip to Kazimierz Dolny) have been by train, and to wherever our feet can carry us. We have had plenty of fodder here to keep our intrigues fueled -- the festivities at 3 Kings Day, the concerts for charity fund-raising that were in various locations near our home and throughout Gliwice. We learned from Peter that these events were happening all over Europe and even in places across North America.
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| Polish Reggae band playing in the park |
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| Unadulterated Joy |
Once schools opened up again we dropped off about a dozen CV's at different schools that were within easy walking distance of our flat, and by Monday the next week Level Language School gave us a call because one of their staff members had been told she needed to go on immediate long-term medical leave. It was apparently a very fortunate time for two native speaking teachers to walk through the door. We started doing the odd hours here and there pretty much right away, then Speed School of English got in touch with us because they had more hours than teachers to work them. We are almost finished training at Speed, and start our first working days next week. In the meantime, Level had us visiting classes to meet some of our potential students and run conversation class during the winter break. We've worked it out with our employers that Sarah will work Monday/Wednesday at Speed, while I take Tuesday/Thursday -- and the off days will be spent at Level. The only thing that may throw a tiny wrench in the works is the fact that many of the aforementioned teacher's students outright told her when she announced her departure that they were afraid of having a Native Speaker teaching them. After Radom (and some of the observations at level), I understand some of their apprehensions: most of the students worrying about this are kids who may not always have the ability to communicate their needs or get a point across in English; quite a bit of Polish is used in the classroom to explain difficult points; and lastly, all of them are quite close to her so there is understandably a great upheaval in their learning environment. Hopefully most of them come around, as we have met the vast majority of them in her last days and hope that they can come to like us and the different (and by different I mean "crazy," to use the secretary's term) way that we do things with the course material. Will it be difficult? You bet. Difficult for everyone.
That doesn't mean we can't do it! :-D
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