The Poland Diaries

A New Blog

2007-08-10T02:26:00.001+02:00

I've finally begun a new blog, in keeping with the fact that I'm not in Poland anymore. So please visit The Wendy Lady at your earliest convenience.

Things I Will Remember

2007-07-02T11:25:00.001+02:00

Polish customer service (or the lack thereof)

The homeless guy who asked if he could take our unused ramekins full of garlic & tomato sauce at a restaurant last night

Buses & trams that never show up, or randomly take an alternate route

The view from my apartment

The homeless guys who lived in my stairwell

The nicest landlord in the world (even though he asked me to lie!)

Electric lawn mowers

And, of course, all the people I met and/or worked with, including students, teachers, and administrators.

As a closing thought, I'd like to share some sentences that have amused me over the past 4 years. These are all actual samples of students' writing, and they all helped to make my job much more entertaining.

I felt shiver on my spinach.

I think that supermarkets are great creatures.

Another thing is the possibility to wear light clothes, uncovered shoulders and half-naked paunches, which alure the man-kind.

People want to read books, sink into their comfortable armchairs and sneeze.

History wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to learn it.

Right now we have two dogs at home (a sheepdog and a puddle).

My heartiest thanks to everyone in Poland who has made me feel at home here. I never would have made it through 4 years without your help!

I am a Hyphen

2007-06-30T11:26:00.000+02:00

Why yes, I am procrastinating, why do you ask?

The packing & shipment of my belongings has run into a slight snag, but I'm confident (read: stressed out of my mind) it will all work out fine, and my books will eventually land somewhere near Seattle.

So while I slowly come to the realization that the packing gnomes aren't going to appear & take care of things for me, I discovered a quiz for all the grammar freaks out there. And that definitely includes me.

Which Punctuation Mark Are You?

Enjoy, and if you happen to see the gnomes, please send them my way!

Too Much Stuff!

2007-06-24T15:54:00.000+02:00

"That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time." -George Carlin

I'm attempting to get rid of a considerable number of my possessions, rather than dragging them all back to Seattle with me. It's actually been easier than I expected - the more times I move, the better I am at determining what I really need, and what I only thought I needed when I bought it. There's a lot that falls into that second category.

So if you're in the Poznan area, and you're feeling a need for some random kitchen items, come on by and help yourself to my stuff.

Carb Loading

2007-06-20T23:11:00.000+02:00

I ordered a salad and a side of garlic bread at a restaurant this afternoon. I had carefully perused the menu, which said absolutely nothing about any bread being served with the salad, which is why I ordered bread to go with it. Imagine my surprise when the waitress brought me my garlic bread, my salad, and the garlic bread which came with the salad.

This is actually the second time this has happened to me here. (Here as in Poland, it was a different restaurant last time.) What confuses me is why the waitress didn't tell me that bread came with the salad. Did she really think I wanted to consume half a loaf of bread with my salad? Did it not occur to her that I may not know bread was automatically included with the salad, which is why I ordered some? The menu simply lists what's in the salad, with no mention of bread. I looked. Carefully. Because this had happened to me before.

I was a waitress in one of my many former occupations. If someone had ordered something which was already included with their meal, I would have told them. And I've had a waitress tell me here, too - when I asked for rice with my sweet & sour chicken, I was told it was always served with rice.

Apparently, it's just salads. That'll teach me to ask more questions when I order. Or to try a different restaurant.

Where's Nordstrom When You Really Need Them?

2007-06-19T18:02:00.000+02:00

I bought a new pair of sandals a couple weeks ago, thereby guaranteeing that it would rain for the next 3 days. But when I finally wore them, it turned out they weren't the same. My toes poked out noticeably more on the left than on the right.

When I bought them, one of the things I understood the sales clerk to say was that they were guaranteed for 2 years. So I decided to take them back and exchange them for 2 matching sandals. I had the receipt, I'd only worn them twice, it should be easy. Oh wait, this is Poland.

I took the shoes back to the shop and showed them to the sales clerk. She agreed that there was something wrong, then showed them to her colleague, who concurred. Bring on the paperwork.

I gave her my receipt, she filled out the form. She asked me whether I wanted a new pair or a refund, to which I replied that I'd like to get a new pair - I really like these sandals! I signed the form.

I was then told to return in 2 weeks for the decision.

2 weeks?

The decision? You mean you can't decide right now? You have to think about it?

In fact, the decision is likely to be made in some corporate office, far from the shop where I spent my money for a pair of sandals which turned out to be improperly made.

I now have no sandals, no refund, no decision - but I have a piece of paper and a date to discover if they'll replace my lovely new sandals.

Uh-oh

2007-05-27T15:41:00.001+02:00

I've been discovered. As those of you who read the comments already know, one of my students has found my blog. Which likely means that ALL of my students have found my blog.

Ever since I saw the comment, I've been racking my brains, trying to remember if there's anything on here I might not want students to know about me. I do kind of try to keep my personal life somewhat separate from my teaching life. But I also try not to post anything I don't want my parents to know about - yes Dad, that means you, but it's your own fault for freaking out when I happened to mention I was on antibiotics.

I think I'm pretty safe. I do tend to be aware of the fact that my words can go anywhere from here. Blogging isn't private by any means. And even if I did post something I'd rather not announce to my students, it's a little late now.

So to any of my students who happen by, I say, "Welcome." Please take note of the use of punctuation in the previous sentence. Unless you're in a British English group, in which case I should say, "Welcome".

That just looks weird.

Going Public

2007-05-13T15:44:00.000+02:00

This has been in the planning stages for a while, and it's time to let everyone in on it - I'm moving back to the States for a while.

In many ways, this is an odd decision. I'm leading a fairly comfortable life here. I have job security, the nicest landlord I've ever had, and I always said I wouldn't live in the U.S. as long as W was still in office.

However, I've been here for 4 years now. I haven't seen most of my family in 2 years. And I miss the comfort level that comes with living in your home culture.

So, I'll be arriving in Seattle at the beginning of July. My immediate plans are to stay 1-2 years, and then very probably come back to Poland. Or maybe move to another country. Or maybe stay in Seattle longer. Or...some other option as yet unconsidered.

Keep in mind, I came to Poland in 2003 with the intention of staying for 1 year. I'm not terribly good at long-term plans.

My current, immediate plan is to find a teaching job in the greater Seattle area, ideally one that won't require me to acquire any additional qualifications. Do think of me if you happen to be a member of any hiring committees which are seeking an experienced, well-traveled, only slightly jaded ESL instructor.

My Irish Adventure

2007-05-04T14:00:00.000+02:00

I went to Ireland last week, to visit a very dear friend. This friend is a large part of the reason I came back to Poland four years ago. And then she moved to Ireland two years ago. Kind of making me not want to be here anymore.

Anyway, visiting Ireland from Poland is much easier than visiting Poland from Seattle, so we can at least still see each other once in a while. Which is why I went to Ireland last week.

It was my second visit, and I still haven't really seen much. We tend to spend most of our time chatting and eating ice cream, after her kids are asleep. When the kids are awake, they take up most of her time, and a lot of mine too. But they're cute, so I won't hold it against them.

I took the opportunity of being in an English speaking country to get all my hair cut off, so I can finally donate it to Locks of Love. I now have a pony tail in a plastic bag. It's kind of creepy, so I plan to get it in the mail soon. I know I could have had my hair cut in Poland a lot more cheaply, but I've just never been able to master the Polish vocabulary for hair care. After a couple of unfortunate experiences, I made the decision to no longer allow a Polish hairdresser near my head. And it's not that they're bad at their jobs, it's just that I don't know how to stop them from drowning my hair in product. Believe me, I tried.

So my head is lighter, I'm slightly more relaxed, and I'm ready to face the last 2 months of the school year. I think.

Small Pleasures

2007-04-16T21:47:00.000+02:00

I found seedless grapes at the grocery store a couple of days ago.

If you don't live in Poland, you have no idea why this is exciting. It's very difficult to find seedless grapes here. And the Poles don't seem to mind, they just crunch away on their seeded grapes. I think most people swallow the seeds.

They also eat the whole apple - including the core. That still feaks me out a little.

But I found seedless grapes. SEEDLESS!!!

And I enjoyed them a lot.

You Like Me! You Really Like Me!

2007-04-03T19:21:00.000+02:00

Since this is the week before Easter, a number of students have chosen to extend their break a bit. This afternoon, in a class that should have 9 students, 3 showed up.

It's a writing class, but it often becomes a conversation class, since there's only so much you can teach someone about writing. I ran out of stuff a couple of months ago, but we can always discuss a controversial topic & try to come up with arguments that could be used in an essay about it, then they write the essay at home.

Today, I brought in a short article about the chocolate Jesus sculpture, so we read it & chatted about why it's so controversial. After about 45 minutes, I gave the students the option to go home early, or to keep chatting for a while longer. And they chose to stay and chat!

They asked about my Peace Corps experience, and my impressions of Poland, and just generally seemed interested in my life. I guess it's normal to have an interest in someone who chooses to live in a country that so many people are choosing to leave, but it was a little surprising to me. I certainly never had any interest in my teachers' lives outside of school.

So it was a nice way to end my day, realizing that my students just may like me a little.

My Latest Guilty Pleasure

2007-03-27T15:41:00.000+02:00

The joy of 80s nostalgia will not be denied. And yes, Hugh does his own singing.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

Do the Words 'Fire Hazard' Mean Nothing To You?

2007-03-15T19:06:00.000+01:00

To be filed under: things I miss about the USA.

Let's ignore the fact that most shops and pubs in Poland have entrance doors which open inward, making them into death traps should the need arise for the patrons to leave in a hurry. Let's forget that I can't remember the last time I saw a fire extinguisher in a public building, let alone a smoke alarm.

Leaving all that aside, let's examine the stairwell in the building where I work. Not the main stairwell, but the secondary, smaller stairwell at the end of the hall. The one I use just about every day, because it's closer to the office I visit every day, to check my mail, collect classroom keys, etc.

Each floor has a door leading to this stairwell. The doors are usually left wide open. Except for the past two days, when the door to the 6th floor hallway has been shut, because there are two small tables stacked on top of each other on the landing, so the door will only open halfway.

In the interests of full disclosure, let me reveal the fact that I spent a few years working as an usher, so I'm trained to notice when an exit may be blocked. I was also raised by "Mr. Safety," so I sometimes see danger where others might not.

Regardless, I don't think I'm overreacting when I think, every time I see the tables on the landing, "If there were a fire right now, many people would not be able to escape. These tables should not be here. What the hell are tables doing in the stairwell???"

And then I remember where I am.

Tag, I'm IT!

2007-03-04T16:32:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Lisaopolis for the tag.

10) Favorites
COLOR: purple
FOOD: cheddar cheese
MONTH: June
SONG: I can't possibly choose just one, but anything by the Indigo Girls ranks pretty highly
MOVIE: Again, too many to choose one, but, gun to my head, I'll go with The Princess Bride
SPORT: rowing
SEASON: late spring
DAY OF THE WEEK: Saturday
ICE CREAM FLAVOR: mint chocolate chip
TIME OF DAY: 8:32 PM

9) Currents:
MOOD: distracted
CLOTHES: jeans, t-shirt, hoodie
TASTE: mint tea
TOENAIL COLOR: natural
TIME: 4:38 PM
SURROUNDINGS: my apartment
THOUGHTS: why am I doing this? hmm, I'm hungry
WONDERINGS: who invented liquid soap and why?

8) First:
BEST FRIEND: Andrea, we were in kindergarten together. Every day we'd try to convince the bus driver to let me get off with her at her house. Sometimes we were successful.
KISS: Joe Robertson
SCREEN NAME: raisin
PET: I think it was a hamster
PIERCING: ears
CRUSH: Bob Karczewski
HOME LOCATION: Redmond, WA

7) Lasts:
CIGARETTE: sometime in 1998
DRINK: sometime last month
KISS: too long ago
MOVIE SEEN AT THE MOVIE THEATER: Breakfast on Pluto
PHONE CALL: a student's mother
CD PLAYED: Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl
GIFT RECEIVED: cheddar cheese & Cadbury Creme Eggs

6) Have you ever...
DATED ONE OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS? yes
BEEN ARRESTED: not yet
BROKEN THE LAW: I shoplifted a pack of gum in high school
SKINNY DIPPED: yes
BEEN ON TV: on KIRO news, spreading rock salt on Queen Anne hill
KISSED SOMEONE YOU DIDN'T KNOW: define KNOW

5) Things...
YOU'VE EATEN TODAY: toast with peanut butter, bagel chips, strawberry yogurt
YOU'VE DONE TODAY: woken up, showered, taught English, worked on my resume
YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: music, friends, rain, sleep, air
YOU CAN HEAR RIGHT NOW: the fan on my laptop, traffic outside my building
YOU DO WHEN YOU GET BORED: read random blogs, watch DVDs, grade papers

4)
PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY: my apartment, 2 trams, 3 buses, a coffee shop

3)
PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO: define ANYTHING

2) Choices:
a. BLACK OR WHITE : if we're talking clothing, black, if we're talking coffee, white
b. HOT OR COLD: how about warm?

1) THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
live in Seattle again

Fighting the System

2007-03-03T12:33:00.000+01:00

As promised, here's the story of my new schedule.

During the semester break, I got an e-mail from the secretary's office informing me of my new class load. Once I figured out how to read it, I noticed a couple of changes - a new writing group, and the loss of one of my speaking groups. I inquired about the changes and was given the run-around, but I figured I'd just let it be.

Jump to the mock writing exams at the end of the break, where I bumped into a few of my students from my lost speaking group. They were upset about the change, and wanted to know if I had requested it. I was rather flattered that they felt so strongly about it, and promised to look into it.

It turns out, one of the Brits resigned from the university, causing a reshuffling of the schedule to find people to take his classes. That explains the new writing group. Unfortunately, since that particular group has 4 hours of classes per week, keeping my speaking group gives me 2 hours more than a full-time schedule, which means I get paid more.

Having established all the facts, I decided to protest. And was rewarded with an overfull schedule and a happy speaking group.

So I won...sort of. I'm missing the free time I had last semester, but I'm really glad to know my students enjoy my classes. It's the kind of verification you rarely get in teaching, finding out that your students actually want to be in your class. So I guess I'm doing something right, at least with one group.

Accidental Shopping

2007-02-25T17:20:00.000+01:00

Well, it's not as if I tripped and bought something, so maybe unplanned shopping is a better turn of phrase.

Anyway, my 10am student cancelled on me at 10:20am, and we meet in a mall, so I went off to spend the money she would have paid me if she had showed up, and found myself thinking about all the things I've unintentionally bought while living in Poland.

scented toilet paper
artificial honey
apple-mint juice (this one was actually a pleasant accident)
chocolate with liquor inside (some people might enjoy this, but I prefer my chocolate and liquor separately)
DVDs in languages other than English, with Polish subtitles (also the Polish magazines I had to buy to get the 'free' DVDs)

I'm sure there have been others, but these are the only ones springing to mind. And most of these mistakes were made due to my own insufficient knowledge of Polish. I have no one to blame but myself.

I really need to remember to bring my dictionary with me when I go shopping.

P.S. Sorry for the delay between posts, I've been a little swamped with marking essays from the university's mock exams, plus trying to adjust to my new schedule. There's more to come about that fun experience next time.

Culture Clash?

2007-02-12T19:40:00.000+01:00

I'd like to rant about how the university has screwed up my 2nd semester schedule, but I'm still clinging to a tiny hope that it'll get fixed. So instead, today I'm ranting about the homeless guys living in my stairwell.

You may remember this post about my heartlessness, when my neighbor called the cops for me because there was a homeless man sleeping in the stairwell right outside my apartment. I don't know if either of the men there now is the same as the one from before, or if these are two entirely new homeless guys.

At least one of them was there, sleeping, when I got home late on Saturday night. They were both there Sunday morning around 9am, smoking and chatting. They tried to talk to me, but I was grumpy about being up early on a Sunday, and made more grumpy by homeless guys in my stairwell, so I just told them I didn't speak Polish.

They were gone when I got home Sunday afternoon, but both were sound asleep when I left this morning. And one was still there & asleep when I got home this afternoon.

So here was my chance. It was too late on Saturday night to ask my neighbor for help, and I was in a hurry to leave both yesterday & today in the morning. But now I had some time, so I rang my neighbor's bell & told him there was a man sleeping in the stairwell again.

He didn't seem at all surprised, but came with me into the stairwell to look. He spoke with the guy & told him I was afraid of him because I'm American, not Polish. And he told me not to worry, because the guy's peaceful.

That was it. No call to the cops, no concern that someone's basically living in the stairwell of our building. Just, "Don't be afraid, he's peaceful. He has no home."

I'm sorry, I'm going to need some help from the Poles on this one. Is this a cultural thing? Because where I come from, it's NOT OK for someone to camp out in your stairwell, I don't care how cold it is outside. We've already established that I'm a heartless bitch, and I'm ok with that, but I really need to know why my neighbor isn't the least bit bothered by the situation!

Damage Report

2007-02-06T20:53:00.000+01:00

I squashed my finger in a door last week. It was purple for a few days, part of it is still numb, and another part still hurts when I press on it, but it's getting better. Which means today was the perfect time to fall while getting out of a tram and land on my ass, whacking my elbow on the way down. It should be a nice color by tomorrow.

I'm now a little afraid to leave my apartment, especially since I've never managed to learn the Polish equivalent of calling 911. Not that I think I could have an intelligible conversation with an emergency operator in Polish. It would probably go something like, "Hi, um...my knee? But not knee, it's on my arm, I don't know the word. Help?"

Yeah, maybe I should just stay home for a while.

Family Secrets

2007-01-28T15:46:00.000+01:00

My landlord is a very nice man who doesn't speak a word of English. He's very patient with my Polish, and has even invited me to his home a couple of times. I've met his wife and two small children, as well as his daughter from his first marriage. He recently hired me to tutor this daughter, since she's in her last year of high school & has to pass an English exam in May.

During our first meeting, I did the standard small talk lesson, asking her questions just so I could hear her speak & find out her weak points. Additionally, I asked her to ask me questions, one of which was (eventually, after some prodding and rearranging of words), "How do you know my father?"

I was a little surprised that she didn't know, but explained to her that I'm renting an apartment from him. I'm not sure she understood me, but I think she got the gist of it.

After the lesson, as my landlord was driving me home, he asked me not to tell his daughter that he's my landlord. Unfortunately, I had to tell him that I already had, since she had asked me how we knew one another. I didn't feel up to the challenge of prying any further into the issue in Polish, and we both let it drop.

So now I'm left wondering, is this going to cause problems for him with his ex-wife? Is this the reason the apartment is in his current wife's name, rather than his? And why do I feel vaguely guilty for revealing information I never knew was supposed to be hidden?

That's the problem with secrets, you always have to make sure everyone who knows them also knows that they're supposed to be secrets. But then I also have to wonder, if he had asked me not to reveal our relationship before his daughter asked me the question, what would I have told her? I'm glad I didn't have to deal with feeling like I had to lie to her, but I really don't know what I would have said.

Oops!

2007-01-13T21:45:00.000+01:00

There are occasions in life when you fail to think far enough ahead, and suddenly discover you've said something you maybe shouldn't have. This is doubly true in teaching. Let me just set the scene:

Place: a general English lesson (aka speaking class)
Discussion topic: male/female communication

We had just read a text by Deborah Tannen in which she uses an example of a man who invited his friend to stay over without checking with his wife first. This upset his wife. Her husband felt that to tell his friend, "I have to ask my wife for permission," would have been emasculating.

This led to a discussion of how the men in the class view their male friends who are always checking with their girlfriends before agreeing to spend time with the guys. My question was along the lines of, "So when a friend says he has to check with his girlfriend, does it make you think he's whipped?"

As soon as the word was out of my mouth, a student asked what it meant, and I replied, "Oh, it means he has to ask permission for everything, it's short for-"

In my head, I suddenly realized what I had done. "Well, I really shouldn't tell you, it's not appropriate for the classroom."

Again, it was the wrong thing to say. And yes, I ended up telling them the whole phrase, while insisting that they not use it in any formal setting. As they (rightly) argued, how else are they going to learn authentic language? I just have to hope they either forget the phrase (right!) or at least never use it in a situation where it's going to come back to me.

Ah, the many surprises inherent in the life of a teacher!

Arbitrariness

2007-01-02T18:19:00.000+01:00

As I celebrated the New Year with a friend in Walcz, I realized how truly arbitrary it is. It's really just another day, that we all have agreed to view as the last day of the year. It could just as easily occur in March, or June, or whichever random month you prefer.

So I chose to spend it the way I would like to spend a lot of my days - watching multiple DVDs and eating junk food. We wandered out to the town square at midnight, and it was filled with drunk people shooting off fireworks. Not really the safest of spectacles, so we went back home and watched another movie.

And now I have to remember to write 07 instead of 06 when I write the date. Other than that, my life hasn't really changed. I'm just not all that excited about it being a new year.

Not a Carp in Sight

2006-12-24T19:06:00.000+01:00

Today marks the beginning of the 3 day celebration that is Christmas in Poland. This is the day when everyone feasts on the mandatory 12 dishes, none of which contain meat, several of which contain carp. Very fresh carp. As in, we purchased it live at the market, brought it home in a plastic bag full of water, and let it swim around in the bath tub before we killed it for dinner.

I turned down 3 separate invitations to partake of said carp, in favor of holing up in my apartment and watching movies. I just wasn't in the mood to go through the effort required to turn down any particular food item in this country. Traditionally, you're supposed to take some of each of the 12 dishes on the table. I don't eat fish. This makes the traditional Polish Christmas dinner a bit of a challenge.

You see, Polish hospitality is a strange and wondrous thing. It's not sufficient to smile and say "No, thank you." Generally, it takes a minimum of 3 refusals for the message to get through. I guess it's something about the first 2 being politeness, and only at the 3rd one do the hosts realize you REALLY don't want any.

So I stayed home, ate chicken, and am ready for my 3rd movie of the evening. Of course, having turned down all those dinner invitations, I'll probably never get another one - karma's funny like that. But at least I won't have to eat any carp.

Small Changes

2006-12-23T14:13:00.000+01:00

I first started wearing glasses when I was in the 6th grade. I clearly remember the moment my vision started to blur. My sister and I were watching M.A.S.H., and the picture on the TV was just a little out of focus. I mentioned it to my sister, at which point she ran gleefully into the other room to announce to our parents that I needed glasses. Up to then, I was the only member of the family without them, so I guess she was happy I was joining the club. I don't want to believe she was so thrilled because she envied my perfect sight and was happy to discover it was gone, but that may be the case - she was a little cruel to me during our childhood. (don't bother trying to dispute that, Sis, or I'll tell everyone about how you used to pin my arms down before you'd hit me, so I couldn't fight back - oops, too late)

Anyway, from then on, my vision got progressively worse. In 8th grade I switched to contacts, and wore them continuously until about 3 1/2 years ago, when my eyes suddenly became very dry. Shortly before moving to Poland, I switched back to glasses, and have worn them the whole time I've been here.

A couple of months ago, I decided it was time to get my eyes checked, not because my vision seemed to have changed (miraculously, the degeneration has finally slowed down), but just because I hadn't had an eye exam in over 3 years, so I was due. I'd also been thinking about trying contacts again, hoping my eyes had had enough of a rest to tolerate them. So I found myself an eye doctor, and got some new contacts.

That was 3 weeks ago. I've been wearing contacts every day since then. Only one person has noticed.

I'm choosing to believe that this is because my glasses are so great, so suited to my face, that no one ever noticed them, and therefore I look the same whether I'm wearing glasses or not. I'm choosing that option, because the alternative is that no one ever notices me at all, and that's a little depressing. I already feel like invisible girl at work this year, so I don't need any more negative self-image issues.

So there you have it. I was wearing glasses, now I'm wearing contacts, and apparently I look exactly the same. But I no longer have to deal with the annoying fog when I go into a warm shop after having been outside, so I'm just a little less irritated in my daily life.

Postal Wanderings

2006-12-22T20:29:00.000+01:00

My sister sent me a package for Christmas. When it arrived, I wasn't home, so the postman left a note in my mailbox, informing me that I could pick it up at the post office. So I went to my local post office, which is where I've picked up every single package I've received in the last 3 years.

Unsurprisingly for this time of year, there was a fairly long line. After waiting about 20 minutes, I took a closer look at the note from the postman, and noticed something strange. In the place where they write the address of the post office where the package is being held, he hadn't written the address of my local post office, but an address about 15 minutes away, in a different apartment complex. So I stepped out of line, and went to find that post office. (No, I didn't bother to wonder why my package wasn't at my local post office, this is Poland.)

After some wandering, and asking a shopkeeper, I found the second post office. Again, a long line, which I stood in for 30 minutes before reaching the front. I handed the woman my note from the postman. She looked at it for a minute or two, then informed me that I was at the wrong post office. My package was being held at the "big" post office over on the main street, on the other side of my apartment complex. Again, there was no point in asking why, I merely thanked her and left. And then realized I didn't have time to go wait in another line, since the post office would be closing in 15 minutes. Oh well.

The next day, I took a stroll to the "big" post office. Oh look, an even bigger line! 45 minutes later, I made it to the window, handed over my note, and crossed my fingers for luck. Amazingly, I was at the right office, and my package was retrieved from the back room. As soon as I got it home, I opened it and treated myself to some Kraft mac & cheese, as a reward for successfully navigating the maze that is the Polish postal system.

This was just one more reminder of why the post office is my least favorite place in Poland, and has been since my very first day in this country, more than 11 years ago. But I do enjoy receiving packages! :)

Contemplating a Splurge

2006-12-08T19:38:00.000+01:00

Once in a while, you just have to treat yourself. (And by 'you' and 'yourself,' I mean me.) Normally, this isn't a problem. I often buy myself some fancy chocolates, or a glossy magazine with a free DVD included. (Who am I kidding, I barely even glance at the magazine, it's all about the movie.) I'm even on the verge of dropping 100-something zlotys for a set of DVDs I've been eyeing for months. I did feel the need to justify that one, but that's easy now, since my parents just deposited my Christmas present into my bank account - thanks, Mom & Dad!

No, this is a little different. Ever since I first came to Poland, I've been a little bummed about certain things I can't get here. These are mainly food items, like Reese's peanut butter cups, Oreos, Kraft mac & cheese, and ginger ale. When I'm in the US, and have these items readily available, I don't even buy them that often. It's just the idea of them being unavailable that makes me want them more. When some kind-hearted soul takes it upon themself to send me one of the above-mentioned items, I hoard it like I'm stranded in the desert & it's my only food for a month.

(Stick with me, I'm finally getting to the point.)

Last week, I was at my neighborhood grocery store, perusing the drinks aisle, and there it was. Schweppe's ginger ale! For 7 zloty and change per liter!

OK, if you have dollars, this is about $2.50 a bottle. I have zloty. This would be like spending $7 on a liter of soda. It's rather pricey.

And yet, I think I'm going to buy some. Just because I got paid early this month, and I want to. I'll probably get a glossy magazine to not read while I'm drinking it. And maybe even some of those fancy chocolates.

Because once in a while, you just have to splurge.

Some of My Best Friends are American

2006-12-02T22:28:00.000+01:00

This made me giggle. Click and enjoy.

Happy Turkey Day!

2006-11-23T22:13:00.000+01:00

In the immortal words of Pugsley Addams, "Eat me!" It's a lot less dirty if you recall that he was wearing a turkey costume at the time.

Despite living in Poland, I've been privileged enough to have 2 turkey dinners this year, which almost makes up for not having any last year. It's good to get to know other ex-pats. Especially when they host large gatherings with lots of food.

So don't feel too bad for me when you're sitting down to your turkey and stuffing. Though you can certainly think of me while eating pecan pie, since pecans are not yet available in Poland. It's strange, I can buy tortillas here, but not pecans. Not sure what the logic is behind that. But now you know what to include if you want to send me a care package.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Disappointed

2006-11-19T11:16:00.000+01:00

I guess I'm glad I went to bed at halftime, rather than staying up until 4 AM to follow the whole game. That way, I was able to go to sleep with some hope, which was subsequently dashed this morning when I checked the final score. At least it was a close game. And I still love the Cougs - hey, it's easy to love a winner, but not everyone can maintain affection for a team that consistently disappoints.

I'm off to console myself with a turkey dinner. Yes, I know Thanksgiving isn't until Thursday, but when you're in Poland, you learn to be flexible with dates.

It's That Time Again....

2006-11-18T14:26:00.000+01:00

Yes, the Apple Cup is today! Or rather, tomorrow for me, it'll be past midnight here by the time the game starts. No matter, I'll be watching the only way I can, online. For now, let's just leave it at this:

GO COUGS!

How to WHAT???

2006-11-13T21:41:00.000+01:00

This was on my google home page today. Just in case you ever find yourself in this situation, now you'll know How to Regain Control of a Spooked Camel.

Happy 11th of November!

2006-11-11T17:28:00.000+01:00

OK, so it doesn't roll off the tongue quite as easily as the 4th of July, but the sentiment is the same, at least around here - it's Independence Day! Unfortunately, I had to work this morning, but we had a nice distraction when the cavalry rode past the building - about 30 men dressed in soldier's uniforms, riding down the street on horseback.

Since I'm in Poznan, today was also the celebration of St. Martin's day, which means yummy pastries. They're expensive, but so tasty - and who knew there was such a thing as white poppy seeds? I skipped the parade this year, opting to take my pastry home & out of the rain.

On a more depressing note, it was fully dark around 4:30 this afternoon. Yes, it's time once again for my favorite game - remind me why I moved to a country that's so miserable in the winter? Don't worry if you can't think of a reason right now, we'll be playing until at least March.

Ten Years Later

2006-10-30T19:37:00.000+01:00

When I first came to Poland, I spent many of my weekends in Poznan. One such weekend, I passed by the symphony hall and noticed there was an international violin competition going on. I think it was the last day, and of course I was too late to get tickets. And it only happens every 5 years, so I kind of figured I was out of luck, seeing as I didn't plan on spending a while lot more time in Poland.

Ten years later, I finally made it to the competition. It was the last night of the final round, and I got to hear 3 concertos I'd never heard before, performed (it turns out) by the first and last place contestants. They both did the same Sibelius concerto, and each of them performed a Wieniawski concerto as well. Makes sense, since the competition is named for him. And yes, there was a marked difference in their abilities.

I do wonder if there was a bit of a home-field advantage, as the first place winner is a Pole. Regardless, she was amazing. I didn't hear any of the other contestants, but from the way she played on Saturday, I sure would have voted for her!

Anyway, it's one of those things I've wanted to do for a long time, but didn't think was ever going to happen. I'm very happy to have been proven wrong.

Proof of My Heartlessness

2006-10-27T17:57:00.000+02:00

I came home a few days ago around 9pm, pretty normal for me. As I opened the door to the stairwell, which leads to the door to my apartment, I heard snoring. Really loud snoring. I turned on the light, looked down the stairs to the next landing, and saw a man sleeping (i.e. passed out) on the floor. I had two choices at this point. I could either open my apartment door, lock it tightly behind me, and go to sleep, or I could try to get rid of the guy sleeping on the floor, a mere 10 feet from my home. Any guesses?

Of course, I didn't relish the thought of waking this guy up & asking him, in my less-than-perfect Polish, to please find somewhere else to sleep. So I went across the hall to my neighbors - you remember them, the ones with the vicious dog that likes the taste of my knee. I managed to stumble through something about there being a man asleep on the stairs, at which point my neighbor (someday, I have GOT to learn their names!) checked it out, said he would call the police, and told me, under his breath, "He's probably homeless." Um, thanks, I had a hunch.

About 20 minutes later, I heard the door to the stairway close, and the muffled sound of someone waking the guy up. I assume they escorted him out of the building. Regardless, he was gone in the morning & hasn't been back.

So here's my question, which I know no one can answer for me - why didn't I just let the poor guy sleep it off on the stairs? I would have been perfectly safe behind 2 locked doors, and he would have had a warm place to sleep for the night. Although, having had a warm place to sleep for one night, what would have stopped him from camping out there all winter?

OK, maybe I have my answer. But I still feel some of that middle-class, liberal guilt about the whole thing. I really do believe there should be shelters available for the homeless. I have no idea if such facilities exist in Poland. However, I don't want the stairwell of my building to be one of them.

I Wendy, I Wanda, I Wonder...

2006-10-20T23:25:00.000+02:00

We had a teacher's meeting at my school this evening, and the topic of fraternities and sororities was brought up. This is a completely foreign concept to Poles, most of whom have never even heard of it, so naturally, they turned to the 3 resident North Americans for information. The only problem is, none of us were involved in the Greek system, so we all have a fairly negative viewpoint on it. The closest I ever got were a couple of frat parties, and walking through Greek row on my way to campus at WSU during my senior year. I have less than fond memories of seeing the frat boys passed out on their lawns at 10 in the morning.

So here's my question: other than the networking opportunities - that whole we're-sisters/brothers-even-though-we've-never-met thing - what, exactly, are the benefits of being a member of a fraternity or sorority? Really, I want to know, because from my perspective it's just an expensive clique that not only charges you to join, they torture you first just to see how badly you really want to get in. I'm curious about the insider's take on the whole thing.

Mysterious Flies

2006-10-14T21:21:00.000+02:00

Flies keep appearing in my apartment, and I have no idea how they're getting in. I haven't opened any windows lately, since it's gotten to be rather fall-ish out. But every time I come home, there's at least one fly buzzing around the (closed) windows, trying to find a way out. One day there were three of them. And then, they disappear. Are they dying? Going out the way they came in? Is there a tiny fly hole in the wall? Or have I simply, finally, completely lost my mind, and my insanity is manifesting itself in the form of imaginary flies?

The Power of Labels

2006-10-09T18:41:00.000+02:00

All the offices at the university have the names of the teachers who inhabit them posted on the doors. There are several people in each office, due to space restrictions - mine has 6 desks and 8 people. But we're not usually all there at the same time, so it's not a big problem. I haven't even met all 8 people yet.

None of this is my point.

A few days ago, they updated the names on the doors. And there I am, with two little letters and two little dots after my name: M.A. I get a little thrill every time I see it. I wonder how long it'll take to wear off.

First Day Fun

2006-10-03T18:39:00.000+02:00

Ah, the first day of classes. (Yes, I know it's October & most everyone has been back at school for a month already, but this is Poland, and the universities start in October - lucky me!) The excitement, the confusion, the running up and down stairs...

Class number one was in a lecture hall. There are 12 people in the class. The space was a little, shall we say, overwhelming.

Class number two was in the conference interpreting room. A room which I could not at first obtain the key to, because I'm not yet on the list of authorized people who can have a key to that room. Hence the running up and down stairs - down to the key booth (ground floor) where I was refused the key for a reason I didn't understand, up to the secretary's office (6th floor) to see if the key was there, down to the offices (3rd floor) to ask my colleagues for help, down to the key booth with said colleagues to find out why I was refused the key, up to the secretary's office to get permission to get the key, down to the key booth once I had permission, up to the classroom (3rd floor) to start the class. In a room with chairs with no desks, and listening booths. It was a writing class.

After all that, I've managed to change the room for the rest of the semester, to one that actually has desks. It does not, unfortunately, have a board for me to write on.

Obviously, we're a little short on rooms this year. I was originally scheduled to go across town for the writing class, to one of the other buildings. In 15 minutes. Those of you who know how much I hate to be late will understand my reluctance to accept that schedule. For those of you who don't, let's just put it this way - when I'm 10 minutes early, I consider myself to be on time. When I'm on time, I feel like I'm horrendously late.

So that was my first day of classes. Tomorrow I get to stay in the same room for 2 lessons in a row! :)

Catching Up

2006-09-30T13:41:00.000+02:00

It's been a little while, and a few things have happened, so let's just jump right in.

1. I'M DONE!!! With my MA that is. I had my oral exam last Tuesday, which was a little nerve-wracking, but I managed to spit out something that passed for an answer to each of the 3 questions - sadly, none relating to African or European swallows, laden or unladen. Whatever I said, it convinced the committee I knew what I was talking about, so I have a new degree.

2. I think/hope I have at last escaped from banking hell. Some of you may remember this post, where I bitched about my wallet being stolen & not being able to close my bank account in Poznan. Turns out, the account never did get closed, despite my writing a letter to Walcz, just like the bank teller in Poznan told me to. I discovered this last Monday - the day before my exam, because I needed more stress - when I received a bank statement from my old bank, revealing where my missing tax refund had gone. And, of course, I couldn't withdraw the money here in Poznan, since I don't have the bank-issued card allowing access to the account. Never mind that I have a passport and residence card, both with my picture and signature, proving who I am. So after my exam on Tuesday, I took a 3 hour bus ride to Walcz to get my money. And close my account. Really. I hope.

3. The last of my summer guests left this morning. Much as I enjoy having visitors & showing them around Poland, it's nice to have my apartment all to myself again. I've gotten very used to living alone, which makes it difficult for me to share my space, even with people I really like. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from coming to visit, I'm just going to have to limit it to one per season from now on.

4. School starts next week! Which means I have tons of work to do, preparing lesson plans & trying to figure out yet another new school. This is one of my biggest complaints about Poland, and I end up going through it every year - every time I start at a new school, I have to learn my way around all over again, and there's no system in place to help. I keep hoping there'll be some sort of orientation, or at least someplace where all the relevant information has been compiled. But no. Once again, I'm wandering from office to office, trying to find out what I need to know, and not really knowing what questions to ask, let alone who might have the answers. I know it'll all get worked out in a month or two, it's just frustrating to have to go through it again and again. Of course, the simple solution is to stop changing jobs, but that would be so boring! And, more importantly, leave me nothing to complain about!

OK, I've babbled enough for now. Hope everyone's doing well. Be sure to have a celebratory drink in honor of my latest accompishment!

Random Acts of Kindness

2006-09-15T20:12:00.000+02:00

I tried to turn in my thesis today. But my prof pointed out a few problems with the title page, the table of contents and the references. And a typo, to go along with one I had already found.

Off I went to the copy place where I originally had it bound, armed with my basic knowledge of how to ask if it was possible to change some pages without having to redo the whole binding. To my delighted surprise, it was!

So the guy took off the covers, I replaced the bad pages with new, good pages, and he put the covers back on. While all this was going on, the guy who had bound them for me a couple days ago noticed what was going on & asked me what the problem was. I explained that I had made some mistakes, and he went off to make copies for other customers. But when it came time for me to pay, the first guy told today's guy to only charge me 6 zloty, instead of the 21 it should have been.

I don't know what I did to get the discount, but it was a very nice surprise in an otherwise hectic day. And I can now turn the damn thing in for real tomorrow, right before I get on a train to Berlin, to catch a plane to Munich.

Here's hoping you receive a pleasant surprise today.

7/10 of the Way There

2006-09-12T15:28:00.000+02:00

There are 3 questions standing between me and my MA degree. Unfortunately, I have only the vaguest idea of what they might be. But I'll find out on 26 September. Until then, all I can do is reread all my notes and my thesis. Again and again. Until they are permanently burned into my brain. Wow, this graduate school stuff sure is fun!

A Brief Return

2006-09-07T20:58:00.000+02:00

I left my mom at the Warsaw airport this morning, and now have a whole week to myself before my next guest arrives. Whatever shall I do with all that free time? Oh, I know, finish my thesis, clean my apartment, do laundry, try to plan some lessons for the teaching I'll be getting back to in October, and maybe see a movie.

All I really want to know is, where the hell did the summer go? That's a rhetorical question, I do know what I've been doing for the last 2 months, but it just always seems like there'll be more time for everything, and then it's suddenly September again & school's about to start.

I do plan to post all about my wanderings with Mom, pictures included, but it'll have to be another day. For now, enjoy this view of the smallest hotel bathroom I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

Visitors From the West

2006-08-10T19:33:00.000+02:00

My mom and sister are coming to visit me tomorrow. Which means they're getting on a plane in Seattle today. It's not really the best day to be dealing with airport security, but we've been planning this for months, so there's not much we can do about that.

I have to say, I'm annoyed that 21 people (and however many more were involved in the plotting) can screw up everyone's travel plans so completely. When I fly, I always bring water with me, because the drink service rarely comes around when I'm thirsty. Thanks to some assholes, that's not an option now. And neither is (this is my favorite one) toothpaste. (??)

What is it about religious fanatics that makes them think their personal deity wants them to kill people? Which god supports that? For that matter, what sane person decides to plan out that kind of thing? It's not like it can just happen, there's got to be a lot of details that have to be worked out before something like that can be put into action. You would think (or at least I would) that at some point during the weeks or months of planning, someone would stop and go "Hey! Maybe we're interpreting this whole thing wrong? Maybe we're NOT supposed to be murdering thousands of people? Maybe that won't actually get us a ticket to paradise, because it's really not a good thing to be doing!"

Or am I being too logical?

Anyway, my mom & sister are coming to visit, I'm excited about it, and I think it's stupid that they're going to have to deal with 2 hour security lines just to get here. But I do think I'm worth it. :)

Oh yeah, and I probably won't be posting for a few weeks, but I'll spill everything about the trip when I get back.

Polish Health Care

2006-08-07T21:37:00.000+02:00

So I had a routine doctor's appointment today. (Stop worrying Dad, I'm not sick) I had two options.

One: I can go to a public clinic, sit in the hall for 4 hours, and eventually get to see a doctor who may or may not (want to) speak English, all for free because I now work for a public university.

Two: I can go to a private clinic where the doctor will definitely speak English, there will be a minimum of waiting, and I get to pay for it.

I chose two. I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford to go to the private clinic, which cost me, including the exam, lab test and prescription, about $60. And that's a year's worth of the prescription.

A lot of people in this country can't afford that. They have to wait the 4 hours, or more, to see the free doctor, who will probably spend about 10 minutes with each patient.

And the doctors, so I hear, are rather poorly paid. Which is why so many of them have started moving to other countries after they complete their (free) education here in Poland.

What's my point? I have no idea. I just have a hunch there must be a better way.

Be Careful What You Wish For

2006-08-06T22:29:00.000+02:00

I should have known.

Ever since my post where I mentioned how I miss the rain in Seattle, it's been raining in Poznan. Every. Single. Day.

Although so far, I'm really ok with it. And it's definitely needed, after the July we just had.

Unfortunately, it looks like it's planning to stick around while my mom & sister are visiting next week. Sorry about that. We'll just have to go hang out in lots of museums. And the salt mine in Krakow is underground, we won't even notice the rain there!

Sort-of Done

2006-08-05T21:17:00.000+02:00

Yes, the finish line is definitely in sight! The bulk of the writing portion of my thesis is now complete. I still have to get it approved by my prof, and then I can have it bound and register it.

That may prove to be even more fun than writing it, since I'm still not entirely sure what the registration process entails. I have a list of what I have to do. Naturally, it's in Polish. And the office where the registration takes place? To my knowledge, the women who work there don't speak any English.

Now, it's not that I don't or can't speak Polish. I'm generally happy to spit out my garbled, un-grammatical version of things and see what happens. But when it comes to the more important stuff - you know, work visa, residence card, oh, and whether or not I get my MA - I'd really prefer to be 100% sure about what's going on.

I suppose there's nothing I can do about it right now. I won't even know if my prof will accept the damn thing until the end of the month - she's on vacation now, and when she gets back I'll be gallivanting around with my mom. So stay tuned, the 25th of August is the date I'll find out if I have to start rewriting, or if I can start stressing out over the defense.

The Power of Dance

2006-08-04T16:07:00.000+02:00

A Slight Case of Nostalgia

2006-08-03T14:27:00.000+02:00

I've been inspired by Ginapalooza! to compile my own list of things I miss about Seattle.

1. rain (honestly!)
2. being surrounded by mountains and water - wherever you look, there's one or the other
3. Dick's Drive-In
4. diversity
5. feeling like restaurants, stores, etc. actually WANT my business
6. hills
7. Ivar's
8. always knowing which direction is west

These aren't really in any particular order, other than what came to mind first. And believe me, many of these are not things I would have predicted that I would miss.

Please don't misunderstand me, I am in Poland by choice, because I WANT to be here. Just because I miss one home doesn't mean I want to leave another one. But there are moments, like when I've been sitting at a restaurant for 20 minutes and have yet to have my existence acknowledged, that I would really love to find a way to export Nordstrom-style customer service all over the world!

By the way, here's a little Seattle attraction I didn't even know I was missing: Giant Shoe Museum If you're in Seattle & have a chance to check it out, please do so & tell me all about it!

I am an Idiot

2006-07-28T21:36:00.000+02:00

I've been trying really hard not to do too much complaining about the heat, to make up for all the bitching I did about the cold during the winter. However, it's been ridiculously hot for a ridiculously long time, and I'm sick of it. Especially considering that all of my windows face west, which I think I've mentioned before.

However, this is not strictly true - there's also a window in the kitchen, which faces north (the window that is; I'm not sure you can say that a room faces any particular direction - can you?). It's above my eye level (what isn't?) and there's a lace curtain covering the top half of it, so I've never looked at it that closely. Until two days ago, when I discovered that it opens. (This is the part where I'm an idiot. I've lived in this apartment for 2 1/2 years.)

Say hello to the wonders of a cross breeze! My evenings are much more pleasant now. Even the afternoons are almost tolerable. (Oh crap, now I have that stupid Air Supply song in my head, "Even the nights are better...")

It's the Little Differences

2006-07-21T23:52:00.000+02:00

At the risk of sounding like Vincent Vega, there are a couple of things I've noticed lately, things that made me think, "Hmmm, that probably wouldn't happen in the US." Since I rarely even notice the differences between Poland and the US anymore, I thought I'd share these.

The first, sadly, was while I was standing in line at McDonald's. I generally avoid it, but every so often I get a craving for a McRoyal (yes, they really do call it that - you know, the metric system). So there I was, perusing the menu, and I notice a new item - deep fried broccoli with cream sauce. Please tell me they're not offering this worldwide. I don't know why, but I'm really hoping it's one of those only-in-Europe things.

And the second item, offered up for your consideration: I went to see the new Pirates movie tonight - which I LOVED - and we were a little late, which was ok because we figured we'd just miss the 15 minutes of ads that play before the previews. But no, what we actually missed was the first half of the lingerie fashion show. Yes, you read that correctly, but I'll wait while you read it again...

OK, ready to continue? Half a dozen half-naked women stalking across the stage while photos of other half-naked women were shown on the screen. I'm still trying to figure out the relevance to the Pirates movie, or anything else for that matter, other than the fact that it was really hot out today, so maybe they were just trying to cool down by wearing less clothing? Again, I sincerely hope this isn't happening in cinemas all over the globe.

So those are the little differences that caught my attention recently. Now please excuse me while I go back to melting in the heat (it's midnight & it's still 25 degrees).

Survey Says!

2006-07-17T10:38:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Lisaopolis for once again providing me with blog content. Enjoy, learn, and feel free to use it for yourself.

I am a cuddler --- no
I am a morning person --- definitely not
I am a perfectionist --- yes and no
I am an only child --- no
I am currently in my pajamas --- yes
I am currently suffering from a broken heart --- no
I am okay at styling other peoples' hair --- no
I am left-handed --- no, but sometimes I wish I were
I am online 24/7, even as an away message --- no
I am shy around the same/opposite gender at first --- yes, I'm not good with new people
I bite my nails --- only when I'm really, really stressed
I can be paranoid at times --- what do you mean by that???
I currently regret something I have said --- I try not to regret anything
When I get mad I curse frequently --- I can't say frequently, but it does happen
I don't like anyone --- sometimes this is true
I enjoy country music --- no
I enjoy jazz music --- yes
I enjoy smoothies --- yes
I enjoy talking on the phone --- not at all, I much prefer text/sms
I have a car --- no
I have/had a hard time paying attention at school --- yes
I have a lot to learn --- yes, doesn't everyone?
I have a pet --- not unless you count dust bunnies
I have a secret that I am ashamed to reveal --- again, doesn't everyone?
I have all my grandparents --- just one
I have at least one brother/ one sister --- yes
I have been to Europe --- many times, it's become my second home
I have been told that I am smart --- yes, but I'm not sure I agree
I have been told that I have an unusual sense of humor --- yes, and I agree
I have broken a bone --- twice
I have caller I.D. on my phone --- yes
I have bathed with someone --- does swimming count?
I have changed a diaper --- yes
I have changed a lot as a person over the past year --- not that I've noticed
I have friends who have never seen my natural hair color --- no
I have had major/minor surgery --- yes
I have killed another person --- not that I know of
I have had my hair cut within the last week --- not yet
I have had the cops called on me --- no
I have kissed someone I knew I shouldn't --- yes, but I don't regret it

We're Having a Heat Wave

2006-07-05T18:31:00.000+02:00

aka No, I'm Not Done Yet!!!

The quest for the end of the thesis continues, in the midst of 30+ degree weather. (That's around 90 for those of you who use farenheit.) My windows all face west. I haven't opened my window blinds in a while.

In the direction of good news, I have made considerable progress. Two chapters are done, a third is mostly done, and the fourth is half done. I think the end is in sight.

I had an opportunity to mark the 4th of July yesterday with 2 other Americans, a Brit, an Irish guy and 3 Poles. We sang a couple of patriotic songs, the men grilled burgers, it was almost like a real US fourth. I have to admit, I enjoyed it, despite once again being reminded of my odd status here - all the other women were Polish, all the other ex-pats were male. Which group do I join?

As usual (no surprise to those who know me well), neither - I just stayed on the fringes of both. I really need to a) improve my Polish, b) find more female ex-pats, or c) both. What was the middle thing?

OK, enough avoidance, back to the thesis that won't end.

Lacking Words

2006-05-21T15:37:00.000+02:00

So I was taking a little break from the thesis - which is slowly progressing, thanks for asking - and came across a reference to an article, which I then had to track down & read. It's pretty long, but well worth your time. Just in case you need another reason to be afraid of the conservatives:

Contra-Contraception

This is so scary to me, I don't even know what to say about it.

A Brief Break from Self-Imposed Exile

2006-04-29T23:23:00.000+02:00

Since my last post I've turned a year older, made slight progress on my thesis, and been tagged by Lisaopolis. I figure I can take a few moments to respond, since I'm not going to do any real work at this hour anyway. So here are 6 things you may not know about me:

1. I've broken bones twice by falling off a bicycle; my leg when I was 8 and my collarbone when I was 17. I don't ride bikes anymore.

2. Most of the time, I don't mind being so short (5'1"). The only time it really bothered me was when I found out I wasn't tall enough to be a rower. I was a lousy coxswain.

3. I've had crushes on a couple of my students, which I would NEVER act on.

4. I can live quite happily with a filthy bathroom, and only clean it when I know someone's coming to visit. (so always call first!)

5. When I was working as a cashier at Lumberman's, Harry Anderson (the judge on Night Court) came into the store to buy some building supplies & I declined his credit card. I was so annoyed at the machine for rejecting the card, I didn't even notice that it was him.

6. I went to Budapest in 1988, trimmed my bangs while there, and had a few moments of panic when the border guards looked like they didn't believe I was the same person as the picture in my passport, and they might not let me leave the country.

So there you go, now you can feel like you really know who I am. A clumsy, short, Mrs. Robinson wanna-be with horrible housekeeping habits, less than impressive observation skills, and very nearly an exile in an eastern bloc country.

Now back to my isolation chamber, see you in a month or so.

Incommunicado

2006-03-30T18:20:00.000+02:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be out of touch for a while. The panic is setting in, as I've suddenly realized how late in the year it is and how far behind I am from where I need to be. So most fun stuff, blogging included, is off the list of permissible activites until I get caught up. Rest assured, I still love you all just as much (or as little) as I ever did, and if you send me an e-mail I will respond, I just won't be posting here for a bit. And if anyone wants to write my thesis for me, I'll be back in the world of communication that much quicker. ;) (NO, that would be very, VERY wrong. And yet so much easier...)

So until that distant day, continue to "think lovely wonderful thoughts, and they [will] lift you up in the air."

Adventures in Banking

2006-03-11T21:30:00.000+01:00

As much as I do like living in Poland, there are times when my appreciation for my host (hostess?) country wanes a bit. Such as, when I've been trying to open a bank account for 2 months and it's still not open. No, that's not entirely accurate, I can now put money into the account, I just can't take it out.

Let's go back to January, when my wallet was stolen and I decided it was a good time to close out my bank account, since I wasn't really happy with my bank and there was only 3 zloty in the account. I went into my local branch, told them my wallet had been stolen (with my bank card inside, of course), and I'd like to close the account. The only ID I had was my Washington state driver's license, but it's got my picture & signature on it so it shouldn't be a problem, right? Oh wait, this is Poland. I couldn't close my account here in Poznan, in person, with a photo ID, because the account was opened in Walcz (the town I lived in for one year, for those of you who are new to the program). In fact, they wouldn't even tell me if anyone had tried to access the account, because I didn't have my bank card.(???) But, I could send a letter to the Walcz branch asking them to close the account. Yes, a letter. No ID, not even a copy of one, just a letter.

OK, step one, old account closed. I found an online bank that offers online banking, no fee accounts, and they pay interest, AND their website has an English version! So I called them, they walked me through the online application for an account, and I waited for the paperwork to come in the mail. It came in a relatively timely manner, I filled it out, copied my new IDs, and mailed it all back to them. Then I waited. Two weeks later, I called them again. Oh, there's another form I need to send in, it's on the website, ok, I printed it, filled it out, mailed it. Then the fun began.

I got a call from a bank representative. She didn't speak English. She asked if there was someone who spoke Polish she could speak to. She managed to communicate to me that I had put the wrong information on the form & I'd have to send it again. Of course I couldn't just correct it over the phone, have you forgotten I'm in Poland? Fine, I printed, filled in & mailed the form again. A few days later I called to find out if my account was active & was told they'd just received the form but it was wrong again. The woman couldn't tell me why because she didn't have access to the form. Not to worry, I got a call the next day. Again no English, again the form is wrong & by the way we need another form as well. Swell.

This brings us to last Wednesday, when I again printed & filled in the form, photocopied the additional info they needed & mailed it all off. I just called them & the account is still not active, though they have received the form. No word on whether it's correct or not, I should call back on Monday.

With any luck, I'll have an active bank account by this time next year.

Christianity Confuses Me

2006-03-05T21:47:00.000+01:00

Oscars! Nominee Michelle Williams dissed by High School

Girlfriend of Heath Ledger and Oscar Nominee Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) has been disowned by her Santa Fe Christian High School. "Michelle Williams doesn't represent the values of this institution," Headmaster Jim Hopson said, "'Brokeback Mountain' basically promotes a lifestyle we don't promote."
http://www.2dayfm.com.au/music_news/headline_02

So apparently, they had no problem with her having a baby with Heath Ledger (who she isn't married to, as far as I know), or being on a TV show that "promoted" teen sex. It's been a while since my religion courses at university, but aren't those things against Christian teachings too? Why wasn't she "disowned" for any of that? And if anyone at that school actually SAW the movie, they'd see that her character was decidedly anti-gay.

This is what bothers me about religion, people seem to pick & choose the parts of it they want to adhere to & ignore the rest. It just strikes me as ridiculously inconsistent - if you're going to call yourself a Christian, shouldn't you follow ALL the rules, not just the ones you like?

Seriously, can anyone even attempt to explain this to me?

Saying Goodbye Sucks

2006-03-02T21:55:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the less-than-eloquent title, but it sums up my current attitude. The life of an ex-pat is naturally a transitory thing, with people coming into & going out of your life on a fairly regular basis. You learn not to get too attached to other ex-pats, because you know you'll be going your separate ways. But usually, the host country nationals stay put. Unless they go & marry ex-pats. And then the ex-pat's stupid company sends them back to their home country, and the host country national, being married to them, kind of has to go with them. And when that particular host country national is one of your best friends in the world, it pretty much sucks. On the upside, it gives me an excuse to visit Dublin. But that's the only silver lining I can find so far. Anyone who wants to play Pollyanna, now would be a good time.

Stressed and Angry

2006-02-24T15:19:00.000+01:00

So I was already stressed beyond belief, because I'm way behind where I was hoping to be on my MA. After a meeting with my advisor I was starting to feel a little better. I went home, settled in with a cup of tea, and decided to check my e-mail before getting back to work. Oh, look what I found, South Dakota may be about to become the first state in the U.S. to ban abortion in all cases except when the life of the mother is at risk. This means if a South Dakotan is pregnant as the result of rape or incest, or if her health is in danger, she's SOL as far as legal options. What I will never figure out is why anyone believes that making abortion illegal will stop women from having abortions. All it will do is force them to have illegal, unsafe abortions, possibly dying in the process. There you go, all you pro-lifers, 2 lives for the price of one. Feel better now?

if you are in favor of an abortion ban, please don't feel obligated to try to explain your point of view to me, you won't change my mind

Four Things

2006-02-12T13:47:00.000+01:00

I stole this from Lisaopolis, who stole it from someone else, so feel free to steal it from me.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
Snack bar slave & ham glazer, K-Mart
Serving wench, Alderbrook Inn
Catalog sales drone, Eddie Bauer
Warper of young minds, Poland

Four movies I would watch over and over:
Say Anything
Until the End of the World
When Harry Met Sally
State & Main

Four places I have lived:
Redmond WA
Duisburg Germany
Pullman WA
Kleczew Poland

Four TV shows I love to watch:
Gilmore Girls
Freaks & Geeks
Sports Night
Inside the Actor's Studio

Four places I have been on vacation:
Vilnius Latvia
San Francisco CA
New Orleans LA
Cairo Egypt

Four websites I visit daily:
The Seattle Times
BBC News
Slate
various blogs

Four of my favorite foods:
Cheeseburgers
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Cheddar Cheese

Four places I would rather be right now:
Asleep in bed
At the movies
Somewhere warm
Crashed in front of the TV with my girlfriends

Movies that make me get all teary

2006-02-10T20:27:00.000+01:00

OK, thanks to Lisaopolis for giving me something to do besides what I should be doing. To quote her quoting someone else:

"Ok, now, the deal is this: The person who's been memed thinks of 3-5 movies that make them weep. Like really weep. Then that person goes to Google images and finds a pic from the movie that doesn't totally give it away, and paste the image into his/her blog. Then, the memed one highlights the pic and creates a link to the movie's IMDB page (that way, if someone doesn't know what movie the pic is from, they can click on the picture and it'll take them to IMDB so they can find out!)."

Wait, should that be in double quotes? I'm still fuzzy on the transcription rules!

Just a couple of problems, I rarely cry, and I'm really not sure how to do the whole pictures thing. So, I'm going with my favorite quotes from these movies, and I'll include a link to their imdb pages. Anyway, here are my choices for the flicks that can make me sniffle.

1. "The first rule of eye makeup is that you can never wear enough blue eye shadow."

2. "I don't know what a pear tastes like to you."

3. "I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing."

4. "I love to see a woman playing the cello."

5. "Why doesn't somebody go to the bathroom? It always makes the food come."

So there you go, I await your guesses.

Serious Lack of Motivation

2006-02-03T17:52:00.000+01:00

"I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I'm swamped!"

Oh yes, I'm having a Prince Humperdinck moment, and I just can't seem to get myself in gear to do any of the things I'm supposed to be doing. I keep thinking I'll suddenly start feeling the pressure & get it all done at the last minute, like I always did in college, but I also think that's not terribly realistic.

So tell me, how do you motivate yourself to get to work when all you want to do is watch past episodes of Gilmore Girls that you've illegally downloaded from the internet (hypothetically speaking, of course)?

Sadness in the South

2006-01-30T22:12:00.000+01:00

I'm sure everyone's heard about the roof collapse in Katowice, which is about 200 miles south-east of Poznan. I don't really know what to say about it. I just keep thinking about the horror of the people who may have survived the collapse but couldn't get out of the building, so they slowly froze to death. I think that would be my personal version of hell.

There are a lot of Polish flags flying with a black ribbon tied above them - the Polish version of flags at half staff.

One of my students brought up an interesting point this evening. After a roof collapses, everyone starts looking into the safety of roofs all over the country. But there are daily fatalities on the Polish roads - why isn't anyone trying to make the roads safer?

Just something to think about. Stay as safe and warm as possible.

Egypt - The Adventure Continues

2006-01-22T11:14:00.000+01:00

Having realized that I have way too many things to do & not enough time to do them, I decided the most logical thing to do right now would be to blog the rest of my Egypt trip. Also, I've added a link to the pix over on the right, in the links section. This is a little long, because I want to include as much as I can. So here goes...

I believe I left off with a promise to write about the Egyyptian museum. It's incredible on many levels. The mummy room is really amazing - some of them still have hair, one of them dyed his hair blonde. There's an unbelievable amount of stuff in the displays, and most of it isn't labeled, so we had very little idea what we were looking at. Our conversations ranged along the lines of, "Oh wow, look at that!" "What is it?" "I don't know, but it looks really cool. Why don't they label any of this stuff??" The animal mummies were really bizarre - why would anyone mummify a snake? And is 'mummify' an actual word? There was a little German kid who kept bumping into me in the animal mummy room, so we had to leave before I got violent, but we saw enough to be suitably impressed and baffled.

That evening, we took a short boat ride on the Nile. During the ride there was a call to prayer, so the guy driving the boat (I'm sure there's another word for this, but I'm blanking on it right now) stopped driving, walked up to the bow, and went through his prayer ritual. It consisted of a lot of kneeling & standing. I'm really glad we got to see it, especially while floating on the Nile.

The next day, we headed out to Giza. We had the driver who didn't speak English, which ended up being a bit of a disadvantage when we arranged the camel & horse rides. The guy only had one camel, so Mari & I had to switch halfway through, which wasn't a big deal, but apparently the guide told our driver that we wanted him to come with us. Then he told us that the driver wanted to come with us. The driver didn't actually want to come with us, but we had no way of knowing that.

We couldn't get very close to the pyramids, because we happened to be there on the same day as Vladimir Putin. But we still got some great pictures & we got to ride on a camel! At the end of the tour, Mari & I were taken to a papyrus shop, even though we'd already told them we didn't want to buy any papyrus, and they tried to make us pay for the driver's horse in addition to our own, even though we had already agreed on a price. We held firm & paid what we had agreed to pay, but it was a learning experience for next time - make sure you know ahead of time whether the driver wants to ride a horse!

We wanted to see the sound & light show at the pyramids that evening, & we thought that Tomasz & Gabi (the Hungarian couple) were joining us, so we headed back to the B&B. When we were just about there, we talked to the owner of the B&B, who told us they weren't joining us, so we turned around & drove back to Giza. We felt really bad for the driver, since the traffic was pretty ugly, but we didn't really know how to apologize & explain the situation.

The sound & light show is worth seeing, for the chance to see the pyramids & Sphinx all lit up at night. It's also worth it for the cheesy, melodramatic narration about the history of the area. To quote our favorite passage, "Having achieved all their aims, the 4th dynasty collapsed." I still don't understand why we were the only ones laughing! Also, before the show, there was a group of bagpipers. In Pharonic costume. Not sure why.

On to the next day, our last in Cairo, when we saw some mosques, then did a little shopping in the Bazaar. Since you have to take your shoes off in the mosques, and since Mari was in a walking cast, they gave her a shower cap to put over her cast. Mohammed (the owner of the B&B) came with us to the Bazaar, to show us the best shops & help with bartering, and also because we didn't have a lot of time, we had to catch a train to Alexandria at 6pm. The shopping was fun, if a bit overwhelming - every shopkeeper wanted us to come into their shop & let us know it in no uncertain terms.

After our shopping excursion, we went back to the B&B to finish packing up our stuff & Mohammed decided we'd take the metro to the train station since the traffic was bad. So we started driving to the metro station, but for some reason ended up driving to the train station anyway, through the terrible traffic. We did make the train, with about 2 minutes to spare. It was a 2 hour ride to Alexandria, very uneventful, and then we took a cab to our hotel.

I love hotels. Especially when they have huge pillows you can sink into, and a view of the Mediterranean sea outside the window. OK, I love the Ramada Renaissance in Alexandria. I don't think I've ever had better service, the staff is amazing at this place! We did a lot of "We're on the Mediterranean! It's right there!!" Then we ordered room service, watched a dumb game show in Italian, & went to sleep to prepare ourselves for what I consider the high point of the trip.

The new library in Alexandria. I want to live there. Just set up a little bed in a corner somewhere & spend the rest of my life there. The pictures really don't do it justice. It's huge and spacious and well lit and beautiful! I really don't have words for it, suffice it to say that I'll definitely be going there again.

The other thing we wanted to see in Alexandria, the royal jewelry museum, was closed for remodeling, so we had a nice relaxing day, played a little Scrabble, ate a nice dinner & settled in to wait for our driver to pick us up & take us to the airport in Cairo. Our flights were leaving the next morning at 4am, so we figured it would be just as well to drive back late at night. Our driver was supposed to be there around 9:30pm, which would give us more than ample time to get back to Cairo. At 10pm, Mari called Mohammed to find out why the driver wasn't there yet. Mohammed thought we needed a ride the next night. Whoops. No worries, he called someone he knew in Alexandria who came & got us. Our top speed during the drive was 160km/hr. And we made it to the airport in plenty of time.

So, that was my trip to Egypt. I loved it, I highly recommend it, and I know exactly where you should stay if you go.

LIttle by Little

2006-01-20T16:34:00.000+01:00

Click here to see some Egypt pix. I'll be adding more soon!

Egypt - Days 1-2

2006-01-13T19:03:00.000+01:00

While waiting for the picture glitch to be worked out, it occurred to me that I really ought to get down some of the things that happened in Egypt, since they're starting to fade from my memory, much like a really good dream slips away once you wake up & start your day. I'm working on a photo album, and will keep you posted when I figure out how to share it without having to specifically invite people, or if you can't wait just send me an e-mail & I'll invite you.

OK, so I arrived in Cairo around 4am, after my plane from Milan took off about an hour late. As arranged, someone was at the airport to meet me & get me through passport control and customs - I've never in my life cleared customs that fast, they barely even glanced at me! The same guy who met me at the airport drove me to the B&B, we got there just before 5am, & I crashed into bed just in time to hear the first call to prayer. Rather a unique way to start my first day in Cairo.

Mohammed, the guy who runs the B&B, woke me at 9:30 to ask me about what I wanted for breakfast, and to tell me he was leaving with the other guests. I was a bit groggy from lack of sleep, so I was perfectly happy to spend the day alone at the B&B, reading a book out on the balcony. In the sunshine. Looking up every so often to see the pyramids at Giza. And the pyramids at Saqqara. And the Nile. And realizing that I was actually in EGYPT!!

Mari arrived that evening, and we spent a good deal of time being amazed by the fact that we were in EGYPT!!! To put a slight damper on things, Mari was in a walking cast, having slipped on the stairs a few days before leaving San Francisco, but still determined to make the most of the trip.

The next morning, after enjoying breakfast with a view of Giza out the window, we decided to go to Saqqara, Dahshur & Memphis (the one without Graceland) with a Hungarian couple, Gabi & Tomasz, who were staying at the B&B with us. We took 2 cars, Mari & I got the driver who spoke English. The drivers got a little lost, taking a scenic route which really let us see how people actually live in the area - bathing & washing their clothes in incredibly polluted water, living in buildings that would be considered slums in any Western country, but in Egypt are just the norm.

Seeing the pyramids was really quite awe-inspiring. Just the idea of them was amazing, and then to be there, right next to them - I really don't know how to express it. A lot of them aren't open for people to go in, but the Red Pyramid at Dahshur was. I'm not sure it was worth the climb, except that I now get to say I've been inside a pyramid. It was 125 steps up to the entrance, after which we went down an equal distance on a ramp with metal rungs - couldn't they just put in a door at the bottom? It smelled really strongly of ammonia inside, and there wasn't actually anything to see, but I've been inside a pyramid!

Just as we came out, a lovely sand storm started up - sand is really quite painful when it blows into your face at high velocity. And strong winds are not particularly good for car doors - the driver of the other car opened his door, the wind took it, and it refused to close from then on. Keep in mind, this is a lime green car, apparently made in China, and belongs to Mohammed's wife, Ruth, who was out of town. One of the pyramid workers came over with a hammer, which no one used, but we were still expected to tip him. The driver ended up holding the door closed through the open window while we drove to a local mechanic. They managed to get the door to stay shut on its own, but the car's hazard lights remained on for the rest of the week, providing us with comic relief whenever we needed a giggle.

We made an early night of it, with plans to spend the next day at the Egyptian museum, which will be covered in my next installment. I can't be expected to reveal everything all at once, you'd have no reason to return!

How to Die on New Year's Day

2006-01-01T14:47:00.000+01:00

As many of you know, I'm afraid of my oven. I have no problem with gas stove burners, but the whole uncertainty factor of temperature control makes me wary of gas ovens. But I still decided that I wanted to make biscuits today. I'm usually ok with using the oven for anything that requires a high temperature, since I can just turn it on & let it heat up as much as it wants, and my food (chicken, potato, whatever) will eventually be done. Biscuits also bake at a fairly high temp, so I thought it was a good choice, but I also wanted to experiment a bit & see if I could exert the least little bit of control over the temperature.

So I turned on the oven, let it heat up to where I wanted it, then turned the knob down so that it would, theoretically, maintain the temperature without getting any hotter. Unfortunately, when the oven door is closed there's no way to see if the flame is still on, or if gas is just streaming out unhindered. After about 5 minutes I decided I should probably check, just to make sure I wasn't going to pass out from gas fumes. Sure enough, the flame was out. I lit it again, then opened the window to enjoy the balmy 3 degree air outside.

What have we learned from this experience? I was right to be afraid of my oven.

Happy New Year!

Avoidance

2005-12-19T20:04:00.000+01:00

I've decided that Blue Urine would be an excellent name for a rock band, should I ever decide to form one. Not a terribly likely scenario, but if you decide to steal the name, please let me know first.

I'm in the final days of my countdown to Egypt, and a little more stressed each day, as I try to complete a chapter of my thesis, to be handed in to my advisor before I depart the country. I'm really wishing I had started working on it a bit earlier, maybe before tonight. Actually, I've had one page written for weeks, it just never managed to morph itself into a full chapter. Would somebody please hurry up and invent a self-writing computer??

So I should stop avoiding & get back to writing, but I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy holiday of their choice. If you happen to choose no holiday, then just have a lovely day. And I'll be thinking of you all while I'm enjoying the sun & warmth in Cairo!

More Yoga Torture

2005-12-09T15:40:00.000+01:00

My regular yoga instructor is on vacation, so I had a session with the owner today. Her English isn't great, so she was very hands-on. Verging on inappropriate touching, but in a good way. No, it was fine, but it was also rather painful - when I'm putting myself into the positions, I stop when I feel a little twinge. When someone else is putting me into them, she doesn't feel my twinges, so she keeps pushing. Ow! I feel pretty good now, but I'm sure I'll be sorry tomorrow.

In other news, I'm off the antibiotics and on 2 herbal medications, one of which - sorry if this is TMI - turns my urine blue. It was a bit of a shock this morning, but also very pretty. :)

Poznan seems to be having a Seattle winter so far, which is great by me, though everyone else keeps complaining about the rain. I would always rather have rain than snow, which probably makes me certifiable, but so many other things already have, so I'm not too worried about it.

Hope everyone's staying warm & dry!

Waiting...

2005-12-05T22:33:00.000+01:00

So I've been on antibiotics for the past 7 days, only 3 more to go, but the really annoying thing is that I have to wait to take them until 2 hours after I eat. The doctor was very specific about taking them AFTER I eat, not before. I have no idea what difference this makes to my stomach, but the difference it makes to the rest of me is that I can't go to bed right now, I have to wait another half hour!
The problem with teaching at a private school is that most of the lessons are in the evening. Like today, I taught from 3:30 - 8:30, got home at 9, which is when I had a chance to eat something, so I can't take the stupid pill until 11. Normally I'd have no problem staying up until 11, but the best part about antibiotics is how they sap all your energy, so all you want to do is sleep.
They also make it very difficult for me to concentrate for longer than 3 minutes at a time, or even to put coherent sentences together. My apologies for the rambling this has become, I'm just trying to keep myself awake.

Going in the Wrong Direction

2005-11-27T14:07:00.000+01:00

It is events like this that make me hesitant to tell people in this country about my thesis topic. This should not be happening, and people need to know about it.

POLAND: A First-Hand Account of an Official Gay-Bashing

I'm sorry to say, I didn't know this march was taking place. If I had known, I would have been there to support them.

I'm so angry and disappointed by this. Unfortunately, I'm not surprised.

Go Cougs!

2005-11-19T22:27:00.000+01:00

I was very happy to discover that the Needle has chosen the appropriate colors for the weekend. I'm watching the game online, which is a little weird, since all I get to see is a graphic of a football field & a running list of the plays, but I'm very optimistic this year.

12:50 AM update:
And the optimism pays off for once! Final score, WSU 26, UW 22. I'm now doing a quiet version of the dance of joy, since it's almost 1:00 AM & I assume most of my neighbors don't really care that the Cougars won the Apple Cup. But I DO!!! :)

Winter

2005-11-18T23:36:00.000+01:00

It tried to snow today. It even succeeded for a while, but nothing stuck to the ground. I'm not ready to face another Polish winter, I have to get new boots!

I first noticed a few snow flakes while being tortured in yoga class. I've found a class that's conducted in English, which is great because I actually know what I'm supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, I'm not really able to do most of it properly, since my muscles could not be tighter. So I end up in pain for a couple days after each class, but my instructor says that will stop in about 4-5 months. I think she intended this information to be comforting. She also promised to ask a friend of hers about a good masseur in Poznan - this actually WAS comforting.

I bought my ticket today for my December escape to Egypt. I'm very excited to be going somewhere warm, where x-mas is not the be-all, end-all event that it can seem to be in Christian countries. And to be getting away from everything Polish for a week. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy living here - I wouldn't still be here if I didn't - but I need to step back from it every so often, so I can appreciate it again. Honestly, I feel the same way about the US, which is a big part of why I currently live in Poland.

Anyway, hope you're warm & cozy, wherever you are, and not forcing yourself to strike unnatural poses which will someday seem natural.

Slacking off Again

2005-11-10T22:40:00.000+01:00

And again I must apologize for the long delay between posts, I just can't seem to get myself going on anything lately. Poznan has been shrouded in mist for the past few days, which just adds to my sluggishness, as well as adding to my headache - ah, the joys of weather changes.

Tomorrow is independence day, as well as St. Martin's day, which means a parade down St. Martin street and yummy pastries. They have a special pastry which is associated with the holiday, but only here in Poznan. Apparently there are special rules about the ingredients & possibly the size, as well as the price. (?) One of my students told me that if they cost less than 18 zloty per kilogram, they're not authentic. All I know is, they're tasty! For the uninitiated, they're kind of shaped like a croissant, but with poppy seeds inside, frosting on top, & sprinkled with nuts. And the poppy seeds are white rather than black. One more reason to live in Poznan. Or at least visit. :)

Pity, Party of One

2005-10-23T21:47:00.000+02:00

Further reflection has forced me to realize how truly pathetic the previous post is. Of course I’m unmotivated, I have no idea what I’m doing! And I’m obviously not the only one who feels this way, one of the few things I HAVE learned is how non-unique we really are, much as we would like to be otherwise. So please forgive my self-indulgence, I’ll try not to let it happen again, and as punishment I’m leaving the sad-little-me post up to remind myself not to be so pitiful in the future.

Seeking Motivation

2005-10-23T18:55:00.000+02:00

I'm feeling a serious lack of motivation lately, which I think may stem from having done next to nothing for the past 3 months. I spent the entire summer visiting hospitals, sleeping & doing a bit of traveling, with just a tiny bit of research thrown in at the end. Now that I'm back in Poland, I'm trying to get into the swing of things again (cue the A-ha song, please), but it doesn't seem to be working so far.

I have all kinds of plans and ideas about what I'm going to accomplish each day, but all I seem able to do is fake my way through my lessons, drag myself home, and pretend to read an article or two before I find myself staring at the screen of my laptop yet again, wandering the internet and playing game after game of Scrabble.

I'm hoping that having some deadlines will give me the much needed kick in the ass I'm lacking - I have to give a presentation on Saturday about my thesis. I'm still in the fuzzy stages of planning, where I have some data recorded, some articles I think might be helpful, but no real idea where it's all leading. Does everyone go through this with their master's? Please tell me they do, even if it's a lie. :) No, really, I'd like to know.

Enjoying Fall

2005-10-16T16:03:00.000+02:00

It's chilly, but not yet cold. I'm wearing sweaters, but the hat & scarf are still packed away in the cupboard. And the leaves on the ground are delightfully crunchy.

I do like a good fall day, both wandering in the outdoors and returning home to make myself a nice cup of tea & look out at the changing colors. We're quickly approaching my two favorite holidays, first Halloween, and then All Saint's Day. I love walking through the cemetery when it's all lit up with candles. Too bad it only happens once a year - why do people only remember their dead when there's a public holiday for it?

I had a really nice weekend, classes started at the university & I got to spend time with a friend I haven't seen for months. I think I'm going to enjoy my courses this year, but I'm reserving final judgement for the moment - the boredom factor in one is dangerously high. So much depends on delivery, and the first meeting wasn't great in that regard. But I'm willing to give it another session before I decide one way or the other.

Hope everyone has a chance to go jump in a pile of dead leaves soon!

Another Small Victory

2005-10-13T20:56:00.000+02:00

I am officially a Poznan Philharmonic subscriber! I've been thinking about it for over a year & I finally did it! This may not seem like a huge deal, until you remember that I used to be able to go to the symphony in Seattle pretty much whenever I wanted, just by pulling up a seating chart & printing myself a ticket. That's about the only thing I miss about that job - other than all the great people who are still trapped there, while I escaped! :P

Anyway, the process of becoming a subscriber here, like anything else I try to do, took a bit of effort. When I got back into town, I checked the web, but this year's schedule hadn't yet been posted. So I stopped by the office of cultural information in town, and they gave me a name and phone number to call for info, but said I could also go by the office. I went by the office & saw a group of musicians sitting in a hallway & no one who looked like they had any idea about subscriptions. So I finally went by the ticket office (don't ask me why I didn't go there first, just remember that this is Poland and things are rarely where I think they should be) and got the info about the concert dates, plus a form to fill out requesting tickets. So I filled it out for myself & the 2 friends who wanted to join me and took it back to the office, where the woman took the form and told me to come back 2 weeks later to pay. Yes, she would not take my money!

I was a little wary at this point, figuring I'd go back & the woman would have no clue what I was talking about. On the appointed day, I reappeared at the ticket office and said I was there to pay for my subscription. Miraculously, the woman didn't look at me like I had 3 heads, but instead asked me my name, took my money, and gave me 3 subscription tickets! That's right, one ticket per person for the entire subscription of 8 concerts. I didn't dare ask what happens if one of us loses our ticket. I'm currently making plans to have mine surgically implanted.

So that's my latest happy story about navigating my way around this fair city of Poznan and accomplishing what I set out to do. May your next foray into the unknown be as successful!

Flexible Time and Crowded Buses

2005-10-07T19:21:00.000+02:00

Obviously, I have yet to get back into a pattern of regular postings - taking 3 months off from anything can really affect your habits! That goes for teaching too, I've finished my first week back in a classroom & I'm still a little rusty. I'm hoping the students didn't notice, but since most of them are new to me this year, I think I'm safe.

I've started my quest for the ultimate Polish lessons. I had planned to take classes at the university again, but the times they offer won't fit in my schedule - all their classes are in the evenings, which is also when I teach. So I signed up at a private school which takes a list of names & then tries to find a time that works for everyone. They said they'll get back to me by the middle of next week, which could mean anything, so we'll see if it works out. Time tends to be flexible here - one of my fellow teachers mentioned that he had gone to pick up his registration card after 4 weeks, because he was told it would be ready in 4 weeks. The other 2 ex-pats & I who were listening to his story fell on the floor in hysterics at that point. Four weeks tends to mean "sometime in the next 6 months" when it comes to beaurocratic offices around here.

I've discovered that I can walk from downtown to my apartment in 45 minutes. I didn't actually want to learn this particular piece of information, but there was no way I was going to morph into a sardine and cram myself into the night bus at 1:00 this morning, so I took a nice stroll. It really wasn't bad, the temperature has taken a turn upward in the past few days, and the whole route is very well lit.

That's about all the babble I can come up with at this point. I'll be on the lookout for interesting tidbits to report, and I hope to get back into a habit of more regular postings.

Warsaw Autumn

2005-09-24T11:52:00.000+02:00

While I was in Seattle, I found out the Seattle Chamber Players had been invited to perform at a music festival in Warsaw, so of course I had to go! I took the 3 hour train ride from Poznan to Warsaw, met a friend at the Koneser vodka distillery, and enjoyed a great concert of contemporary chamber music. Granted, a distillery is kind of an odd place for classical music, but the acoustics were surprisingly good. It was really a treat to see a Seattle group in Poland, and made me even more determined to subscribe to the Poznan Philharmonic this year. As soon as I figure out how.

It's officially fall/autumn/insert your chosen name of the season here. The mornings are definitely chilly - we're into single digit temperatures. This is the time of year when I wonder why I chose Poland, when there are so many warmer countries in the world. I will continue to wonder until spring. If anyone has any ideas, please share them with me - I'm looking for ways to appreciate the coming winter. So if anyone can be Pollyanna about temperatures well below freezing and 5 hours of daylight, I'm anxious to hear from you.

P.S. Can you believe it, I FINALLY figured out how to add links! So be sure to check them out!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

2005-09-18T19:07:00.000+02:00

Now that I'm back in Poland, I'm starting to reflect on my summer "vacation" and how non-vacationy most of it was. Let's see:

I rushed home on 12 hours notice so I could see my mom before she underwent triple bypass surgery. I spent a month at my parents' house in the middle of nowhere, helping said mom through recovery.

The day after Mom's surgery, Grandma went back into the hospital with her 2nd stroke in 3 weeks. It was the same hospital Mom was in, so at least visiting was easy.

Then came the actual vacation part, I spent a week in San Francisco & another week in New Orleans, visiting friends & seeing parts of my home country I had not yet appreciated. I even made plans to return to New Orleans for some data collection for my thesis.

I trekked back to the Seattle area, put in some hours at my former job, saw more friends, but wasn't feeling exactly perky.

I went to my great uncle's funeral. He lived to 100, so it wasn't really a tragedy, but funerals aren't generally the most fun you can have on a vacation.

Still not feeling great, I crashed out at the parents' again. On Sunday, Mom put in a call to 911 - for me. Wait, isn't she supposed to be the sick one? Monday we spent the day in the local ER, and I got some nice drugs. The following Monday, we spent another day in the local ER, this time for the allergic reaction I had to the nice drugs.

Due to my illnesses, I cancelled my trip to New Orleans. Six days later, everyone else cancelled their trips to New Orleans, and the people who really needed to get their asses there were on vacation.

Finally, I spent a frantic week collecting the research data I should have been gathering all summer, and winged my way back to Poland.

I have to say, there were a few more positive events interspersed with the negatives, namely a trip to Wild Waves with the nephews, lots of visits with family & friends, and plenty of cheddar cheese. And everyone's much more healthy than they were at the beginning of the summer - with the possible exception of the great uncle, but again, the man was 100 years old.

So that was my summer vacation, hope yours was less eventful!

Quick Update

2005-08-15T23:02:00.000+02:00

Yes, I know, it's been forever, but things got a bit crazy for a while. The short version is:

1. I had muscle strain in my wrist so I was trying to avoid any unnecessary typing.
2. I had to deal with final exams for a couple of classes.
3. My mother had a triple bypass so I had to rush back to the US ahead of schedule. (She's fine now & recovering nicely)
4. Now that I'm in the US I'm too busy catching up with people I haven't seen in over a year to spend much time staring at a computer.

I most likely won't be posting again until I get back to Poland in September, unless something amazing happens while I'm in the States. So you'll all just have to muddle through your summer without me. Try to be strong. :)

Polish Summer

2005-05-28T21:48:00.000+02:00

We seem to have skipped spring entirely this year, something I have to admit to being a bit annoyed about - going directly from 50-degree weather to 90-degree weather is a bit abrupt. But I'm trying not to complain, it's still preferable to winter. I just have to adjust a bit - though I'm told I shouldn't bother, it'll be back down to 60-something by Tuesday. Weird.

Sadly, I don't really have much to write about other than the weather. I should mention the show some of the students at my school put on last weekend. It was all the kids' groups, so none of my students, but I really enjoyed watching them perform their songs & skits - without scripts, they had everything memorized! And the native speakers got to take a quiz about Poland and the Polish language - my team won, but we had a 1/2 Pole on our side so it was a bit unfair. I was very pround that I knew the name of one of the statues in Poznan all by myself - we talked about it in Polish class a while back & I actually remembered! Probably the only thing I've retained from that class, but at least there's something.

Only a few more weeks of teaching to go, thankfully. I really like teaching, but this has been kind of a tough year, so I'm ready for it to end. Plus, then I get to come home for 2 months! I'll be back just in time for the fireworks - literally, my plane lands around 8pm on July 4th.

My final thought for the day: when you're feeling less than deliriously happy, just think of a muppet kicking ass with a light saber - it's been making me giggle for 2 days now. :)

The Joys of Teaching

2005-05-19T21:40:00.000+02:00

I got to teach the word 'spelunking' during a lesson this evening. My students had a really good time repeating it throughout the rest of the lesson, long after we had switched topics. That's the kind of thing that makes me love my job. :)

A (gasp!) Positive Experience in a Government Office

2005-05-17T21:36:00.000+02:00

I got a letter from the tax office yesterday. Naturally I didn't understand it, so I called my friend Hanna, and she didn't understand it either, but that's probably my fault for trying to read Polish over the phone. So I took it to work & one of my fellow teachers said I had to go to the tax office and get a form to change my address, since my address is different than it was when I filed my taxes last year. This, of course, thrilled me to no end - I always enjoy trying to communicate with government officials.

Today I figured out where the office was, got on the right bus, found the building, found the office, and the woman was really nice to me! She spoke slowly, didn't get upset if I didn't understand her, and explained what I needed to do, which didn't make any sense but at least I understood the words. I had to write a letter stating that I don't have a permanent residency card but I don't know how long I'm staying in Poland. When I explained that writing in Polish is very difficult for me, the woman wrote the letter for me and gave me a blank sheet of paper to copy it, so it would be in my own handwriting. All this with a smile on her face! I really thought I was in some sort of alternate universe!

So nice public servants do exist, even in Poland - you just don't meet them very often.

Another New Educational Experience

2005-05-10T21:41:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday I took an exam in my Applied Linguistics lecture course, the one I kept complaining about because all we did was write down everything the prof said, word-for-word. The exam really wasn't bad, no surprises as far as content. The real eye-opener for me was the behavior of most of the other students during the exam.

Our prof couldn't be there, so she sent someone else to administer the test, i.e. to hand out the papers & sit at the front of the lecture hall, reading a book, while virtually everyone in the room proceeded to copy from their notebooks. Very few people even tried to hide their notes, to preserve the illusion that maybe they weren't cheating.

Now I know that cheating is fairly widely accepted in this country, and before any Poles get upset with me for saying that, I have both personal experience and the word of several Polish teachers and students to draw on. High school students are pretty much expected to cheat, because they have so much material to remember, and the teachers allow it because they all did it too. It's been perfected to a science, with the tiny little notes folded up & stashed in pencil cases, taped onto thighs (usually just girls, they wear short skirts), or just hidden in the palm of the hand. But I have never seen such a blatant display before, and a lot of my fellow students were also surprised.

I don't really know what to say about it, other than the cliches from the US system, you're only cheating yourself out of your education, etc. In the interests of full disclosure, I want to state for the record that I did not cheat, even though it would have been amazingly easy, and I could have done better on the exam if I had. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been, but I think I'll pass OK without any help from my notes.

Does my not cheating make me a better person/student? Probably not, it just means I grew up in a different environment with different norms of expected behavior. I don't blame any of my fellow students for cheating, especially in a situation where no one seemed to care if they did. Will it make me more accepting when my own students cheat? Not a chance, I'm not stupid enough to let someone else administer my tests & I watch those kids like a hawk! Just because I teach within a system where cheating is tolerated, that doesn't mean I have to tolerate it too!

A Visit to Krakow

2005-05-03T21:18:00.000+02:00

I spent the last 4 days in Krakow, a beautiful city and much nicer before all the tourists descend, so I don't recommend going between now & November! Unless you don't mind trying to wind your way around throngs of people, in which case, enjoy! I really do love to visit, but I could never live in a city that's so completely overrun with vacationers, I really don't know how the locals stand it!

I had a nice visit to the salt mines, and a good walking tour of the Jewish quarter, though it was a holiday so a lot of the buildings weren't open to visitors, and I couldn't find the bagel shop that I'm sure I saw when I was there last July. There was a neat festival going on just below the castle, with a group of monks who had formed a rock band. You really haven't lived until you've seen men in cassocks playing electric guitars. I'm not sure exactly what they were singing about, but they used a word that either means 'moon,' 'prince,' or 'priest.' I can never tell those 3 words apart.

And now I'm trying to finish up 2 papers, study for an exam, and plan lessons for the rest of the week. I'll be so glad when this school year is over!

Celebrating Aging

2005-04-23T22:30:00.000+02:00

So I finally got to go out & celebrate my b-day last night, only 2 days late. Wednesday was just too crazy to do anything, after working from 9:30am - 8:30pm. Not without breaks, but it was still a long day. Anyway, I met 2 friends at one of my favorite places in Poznan, a great cafe called Kamea, and we spent 4 hours chatting over ice cream & liquor. Now THAT'S how to spend a birthday! :)

The downside was, I had to get up at 6:00 this morning & take a 3 hour bus ride to Walcz so I could study with some friends for an exam we have coming up in 2 weeks. It's in my favorite class, the lecture where we get to write everything down verbatim. But the studying was good, the company was good, and the pizza wasn't bad either. It was just the long bus ride there & back that was less than enjoyable.

And tomorrow, usually my one guaranteed sleep-in day, I'm getting up early to attend a linguistics conference at the university. No, I don't have to go, so I really shouldn't complain about getting up early to do something I actually really want to do. Victoria Bergvall is here to talk about how the media presents gender differences in brain research, and to discuss the recent comments made by the president of Harvard in relation to that same research. I got to meet her last week, she's incredibly nice & really knows her stuff, so it should be a great lecture.

Just in case there was any doubt, I think I've officially confirmed my freakishness by admitting my excitement at attending a linguistics conference.

A note to the new PCT headed to Bulgaria, good luck & have a great time! You probably won't be happy every day of your service, you may even be downright miserable some days, but when it's all over you'll be so glad you did it!

And to Basia, I think I'm listed in the RPCV directory, see if you can find me there. If I'm not, I'll try to make sure I am soon.

Feeling Overwhelmed

2005-04-21T22:08:00.000+02:00

Now I know how famous people must feel when they get fan mail! I really appreciate all the comments & will try to address as many issues being brought up as I can.

I'm thrilled to hear from a fellow RPCV, which group were you in? I was Poland XI, and never thought I'd come back after 2 years in a coal mining village (near Konin), but here I am!

As far as tips on learning Polish, all I can suggest is to find someone who speaks the language & speak it with them as much as you can. There are several books & CDs available that claim to teach "Polish in 4 Weeks!" or some other unreasonable amount of time. What I can offer you is the knowledge that Poles are thrilled when people try to speak their language, they're very aware of how difficult it is, and a huge number of them speak at least passable if not very good English.

I'm currently teaching at 4 different private langauge schools, and hoping to get a job at a university for next year - I have an interview tomorrow, wish me luck!

It's nobody's business how old I am!! But I'm old enough to feel nostalgia for The Banana Splits, The Muppet Show, and Schoolhouse Rock - which I have used in some of my lessons! :)

And lastly, sorry to have to get a little mean, but if you don't like the words I choose, don't read my posts. As I've stated, this blog is for me to keep in touch with family and friends. Others are welcome to join, but I'm really not interested in which words you do or don't like, so keep your opinions to yourself. And that goes for proselytizing too, enjoy your religious choices, and leave the rest of us free to make our own. I'm sure there are plenty of religious blogs out there, maybe you should go find one. This isn't the place.

Now, back to making the world a more annoying place for EFL students everywhere! Or at least in Poznan.

Sudden Popularity

2005-04-20T22:14:00.000+02:00

I don't know what I did to become one of the "Blogs we've noticed recently," but I'm pleased & honored to be there! (OK, I DO know what I did, but I'm not telling!) Though I have to admit to feeling more pressure now to come up with interesting tidbits about my life in Poland - it was easier when only friends & family were reading!

Responding to a couple of comments, I didn't mention what breed of dog bit me because it's a little embarassing - it's a dachsund! He/she (I didn't want to pry) is only big enough to reach just below my knee, so that's where the bite landed. I'm actually on very good terms with the owners, and we always say hello when we see each other, with or without the dog, but apparently the hallway is the dog's territory. (I've really got to find out the poor creature's name, so I can stop calling it 'the dog') I even went into their apartment & had a chat for about 30 minutes on the day it bit me - they had to put its muzzle on it before I'd go in the door! I have thought about carrying dog treats with me, this may be what I needed to finally make me do it.

It would seem that I spend too many of my posts focusing on the negative aspects of being here, which is a disservice on my part. Poland is a great country, full of wonderful people and beautiful places, so I'll try to mention more of them in future posts.

Sadly, at the moment the weather sucks, so I'm not seeing as many positive aspects of life here as I could. Spring has given way to winter, which is rather confusing for everyone - I really hoped I was done with wool for this year! But I'm promised things will warm up again next week, just in time for my friend Kellie to arrive for a visit.

I don't have much to say yet about the new Pope, other than - German??? Not the first country I think of when I think about Catholics. But he's really just a transitional Pope, more to give the cardinals time to figure out where they want to go after John Paul II than to stake any real claim of his own on the Papacy. At least, that's my opinion, I haven't spoken to any Poles about it in depth yet, I'll keep you posted as I hear other opinions.

Well, that's enough rambling for today, I still have lessons to plan for tomorrow. A hearty welcome to my new readers, I'll try to keep things as interesting for you as I can, but my main purpose is to keep a link with family & friends back home, so I won't feel too bad if you get bored & wander off somewhere more amusing.

PS Happy Birthday to ME!!! :)

Getting to know the neighbors

2005-04-14T21:10:00.000+02:00

My new Polish phrase today was: "Has your dog had all his shots?" Not a phrase I ever really wanted to learn, but sometimes things happen. Before anyone freaks out, the dog barely nipped me, but the skin was broken a bit, so I had to have a chat with the neighbors. They're very nice people & they couldn't stop apologizing. I don't really understand why the dog hates me so much, he barks every time he sees me & today I guess he felt like the hall was his territory, not mine.

So anyway, that was the exciting start to my day. And the end was when I smashed my thumb in the window I was trying to close at work this evening. Apparently, I'm going through a self-destructive phase. Let's hope it ends soon.

Linguistic Frustrations

2005-04-11T19:51:00.000+02:00

Just a little rant about Polish, possibly the most confusing language on the planet. You just have to wonder about a language where singular is plural (The door are closed.) and plural is singular (There is six students in our group.). I'm not making this up, these are direct translations!

Remind me again why I wanted to live here?? ;)

The Funeral

2005-04-09T10:44:00.000+02:00

They rang the church bells at 10am yesterday, followed by sirens. The bells rang again around 12:30, when the service in Rome finished. I didn't actually see any of the official funeral, since I don't have a TV, but I'm told it was very international.

I did go to a gathering in the evening, which turned out to be a mass. There were more people on the trams than I've ever seen before in Poznan, all headed for the same place. When we got there, we weren't able to get close enough to even see the stage, but they had big screens set up so everyone could see the priests who were presiding over the service. It lasted just over 2 hours (why do I only end up at the really long masses??), during which it started to rain twice. Ever been in a crowd of thousands when people suddenly decide to put up umbrellas?

Afterwards, we walked around the city a bit, since it would have been hopeless to try to get on a tram. I was really surprised by how many restaurants were open, I thought everything was going to be closed all day. I guess they decided that people still need to eat, even when their national hero dies.

I didn't really get much of a sense of despair or loss from the people around me, which could mean they've had a few days to get over it, or I'm just not that observant. Some of my students suggested that people are only going to all these church services because they think it's expected of them, and they don't want the neighbors to think less of them. I hope that's not the case for everyone, but I kind of think it might be for a lot of people.

I'm really interested to see the reaction here to whoever gets chosen as the new Pope. No matter who it is, it'll never be John Paul II, so they'll probably have a tough time winning over the Poles. But we'll just have to wait & see.

A Country in Mourning

2005-04-03T19:25:00.000+02:00

The bells rang for 30 minutes last night, probably longer in Krakow. When I went to bed, I noticed lit candles in most of the windows I could see.

Flags are everywhere today, with pieces of black cloth tied above them. People have arranged candles and flowers in the shape of a cross in front of national monuments. I went into a church & watched as a constant stream of people came in, prayed for a few minutes, and left. A friend told me she feels like she's lost a relative.

And yet, life goes on. Kids are still playing soccer and basketball on the field behind my building. Tons of people were out walking today, enjoying the first really nice spring day we've had, eating ice cream, sprawling on the grass.

I'd like to say this has had some impact on me, but I really don't have any personal feelings about it. I wonder what the rest of the week will be like - the country is in mourning until the funeral. I'll post if I notice anything worth mentioning.

Zegnaj, Karol Wojtyla

2005-04-02T22:14:00.000+02:00

The church bells started ringing about 2 minutes ago. I don't know how long they'll continue, but I'm sure the effects of the death of Pope Jan Pawel II will be felt in Poland for some time to come.

I don't have a strong feeling about the event. Obviously, it's a great loss to Poland, the Catholic church, and the world. Whatever your religious beliefs, I think we can all agree that he was a very compassionate man who did what he could to make the world a better place.

I'm very interested to see how Poland marks the occasion, and will post some of my observations in the next few days.

Ten minutes and counting...

Smacznego Jajka!

2005-03-29T19:23:00.000+02:00

The title is part of a text message a friend sent to me over Easter weekend - smacznego is what they say when you start a meal, like bon appetit, jajka are eggs. It amused me. Many things do.

I had an uneventful Easter, as expected - it's not really a big holiday for me, and yes, Mari, I know you have a different date for it, but that still doesn't make it meaningful to me, so get over it. I did enjoy my very last Cadbury creme egg, which I had managed to hoard until Sunday through an extreme demonstration of will power. Then I celebrated Easter Monday - they like to stretch out the holidays here - by seeing a movie & having dinner at a friend's house.

The most amusing part of the weekend was Saturday, when I trekked out to the new shopping mall that opened this month. It's really westernized, you'd swear you were in the US if it weren't for all the people speaking Polish. I found a thoroughly silly t-shirt (of course there's a pig on it), and got a 5% discount after shooting a dart gun at a big egg painted on the wall. The max was 20%, so obviously I'm not a very good shot, but it was fun all the same.

So that was my big weekend, and yours?

Meandering Thoughts

2005-03-19T22:57:00.000+01:00

I keep promising myself to update this thing more regularly, and I keep not doing it. Apologies to all, but sometimes life gets in the way of our best intentions. And something about the road to hell...

Anyway, I seem to be in some alternate universe where jobs are continually thrown at me - I now have the potential to have 6 different jobs, if they all come through. Honestly, I'm hoping some of them don't, the whole point of quitting Berlitz was that I was working too much. For the time being, I have 3 solid jobs, and two students at Berlitz through the end of March. I currently have loads of free time, which I really should be using to work on papers, projects, etc. for my own studies, but I'm finding myself less than motivated lately. I think it's a backlash from being overworked, I'm so happy to have time for myself I can't make myself do anything with it!

I do want to mention my great uncle Ken, who passed away on March 7. He will be missed by all who knew him.

Please keep in touch, there are times when I really wish I were in Seattle, able to just pick up the phone or stop by & talk to people. Hearing from friends makes that a little more bearable. I know it's my choice to be so far away, but that doesn't mean I always enjoy it.

And, though I rarely say it, go Huskies!

Oddness on Billboards

2005-03-08T19:26:00.000+01:00

So I'm riding back to school after teaching at Komputronik, a computer company in Poznan, and we pass a billboard with a giant picture of a hot dog and the words "My name is Hot. Hot Dog." It was an ad for a gas station that apparently sells hot dogs in their convenience store. I don't know what this means, but it made me laugh this morning, which was quite a feat considering I had to get up at 6am.

Today is a sort of holiday in Poland - Woman's Day. No, not the magazine. It's a holdover from communist times, but the female Poles seem to like it, so it's still around. In the old days (meaning the first time I lived in Poland) all the female teachers at public schools got a bonus - I'll never forget my friend Sarah being alternately happy to have the extra money & upset that it was against her feminist ideals. Now everyone just gets flowers. I guess it's a nice idea, but I can't help wondering why they don't have a Man's Day too, in the interests of equality - isn't that the whole point of communism, that everyone is equal? Or did I misread the manifesto?

Anyway, happy Woman's Day to those of you who wish to acknowledge it, and happy Tuesday to the rest of you. :)

The Story of a Job Search

2005-03-05T14:15:00.000+01:00

As some of you know, I've been looking for a new job since I got back from the US in January. I was actually at the point of being ready to quit my current job, even though I didn't have anything concrete lined up for a new job, something which apparently scared the hell out of my parents - they seem to think I'll end up homeless in Poland, wandering the streets, begging passersby for a few zloty to buy a kielbasa, but they won't understand my broken Polish so I'll end up face down in the gutter, starving & frozen to death.

But none of that will happen, because I now have 3 new jobs, plus my old one for one more week! I had already lined up two of the jobs through some other Americans who just left Poland, and the third one kind of fell in my lap yesterday. I went to meet the school director, thinking we'd be talking about a job for next school year, & he produced a contract for a job that starts on Monday. A little surprising, and a bit intimidating, since I'll be teaching English for Economics, but I'm always up for a new challenge - remember, I'm the one who uprooted her life & moved to Poland! I kind of got sucked into working at my old job a little longer, because they're training two new people who won't be ready to teach until the 14th, so I agreed to teach in the mornings for the next week, and to finish out the month with 3 students who I've been teaching for a while & I really like them.

I really haven't been doing much else lately, just looking for jobs & complaining about how much I hate working for Berlitz. Although I've discovered that every Berlitz school is a little different - the one in Wroclaw (a few hours south of Poznan) give teachers Mondays off if they work on Saturdays. I've also been offered a job there, but it's a bit more of a commute than I'm interested in right now. :)

My own schooling is going well, I just had my first exam a couple weeks ago. I won't know the results for a few weeks, but I feel ok about it, I definitly think I passed it. Now I have to prepare a presentation for April 2, on a journal article that's related to my thesis topic. I've pretty well narrowed down my topic, finally, to looking at how gay men communicate & comparing it to the ways that straight men communicate, as far as whether there are significant differences. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do my research, but at least I have a topic! Until I change my mind again... ;P

OK, I think that brings eveything pretty well up to date for now. I'll try to be better about updating this thing, but first I have to see how insane I am while working 4 different jobs!

Adventures in Laundry

2005-01-25T21:21:00.000+01:00

So there I was, at my local laundromat, which is a pretty big deal because there aren't exactly a lot of them in Poland. This one even has dryers! I lug my laundry over about once every 2 weeks or so, or when I run out of underwear, which happened to be the case on this occasion. I employed my standard method of dumping everything in together because I don't want to pay for more than one load, which has never been a problem because everything has been washed before. You've probably already guessed that the laundry gods were not smiling on me on this occasion. I am now the proud owner of a pair of tights which used to be black, and about 20 pairs of socks which used to be white. And not just any socks - Gold Toes! Bermuda style, to be exact. Sadly, not yet available outside the USA, to the best of my knowledge. They're still wearable, I just no longer own a single pair of white socks. I plan to go sock shopping soon.

However, if anyone was just itching to mail something to Poland, now you know what I need. :)

So that's my sad story, hope you had a better week!

Settling Back In

2005-01-16T13:26:00.000+01:00

I spent a whirlwind 3 weeks in the greater Seattle area over the holidays, mostly with family & close friends. I wanted to see more people, but instead I caught a cold & crashed out at my parents' place for most of the last week - better luck next time. I hope to be back in the US this summer, but that's just a tentative plan right now.

I'm getting settled back into my schedule here, with work & school taking up most of my time. I'm still taking Polish classes, though the semester ends next week & we'll have a month off before starting up again. The bad news is, we have a test tomorrow, which I suspect I will fail. I'm fine with speaking, but I'm really struggling with the grammar, especially when writing. To be honest, I haven't spent the time outside of class that I should have, so it's my own fault I'm so behind with everything. It's mainly a question of finding the time to devote to it - maybe next semester I'll do better with that. Plus, everyone should fail something once in a while, just as a reminder to work harder. At least, that's my theory.

No definite travel plans right now, but I hope to do a little wandering this spring when a friend will be in Europe, maybe England or Ireland. I'll keep everyone posted, so you can continue to pretend you have a life as exciting as mine. ;)