Vahsowich-shveeawnt

That is my phonetic "Merry Christmas" in Polish! Haha Don't ask me to say Happy New Year...it's a doozy! (Vehsowago nihvago rohkoo...or something).

What I've learned about Polish Christmas:
-The big meal is on Christmas eve...12 dishes to be exact, and no meat. This includes perogies (with mushrooms and cabbage inside), fish, and "little ear" soup...the little ears are little perogies stuffed with mushrooms.
-They set the table with hay underneath the tablecloth. This represents Jesus being born in a manger.
-They always set an extra place, because at Christmas people are always welcome.
-Presents are opened on Christmas eve.
-On Christmas day there is lots of meat to be had. This is a day for family.
-The second day of Christmas (Boxing day) is a day for more eating, visiting house to house among friends.

OFFICIALLY ON HOLIDAYS!!! Heading to Heather's to open our mail together, then off to Vienna tomorrow! Fingers crossed our trains work out...apparently a piece of the track between Radom and Warsaw is missing!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR! LOVE LOVE LOVE! xo

Melting

...me that is. With warm fuzzies.

I was given more artwork today by my 7-year olds in Kozienice. One of the little girls came up to me and sang to me, "I wish you a merry Christmas". Very heart-warming indeed.

With my teenage boys, the three that didn't show for the exam last week were here today (and the three who wrote the exam were absent)! I was surprised that these boys skipped actually. They're very smart and are good students. Anyways, that's besides the point. At the end of the class, when I was wishing them a merry Christmas, they all stood up, as if they had prepared a speech. They all took a turn and said really wonderful things - wishing me a great holiday, hoping that all my wishes and dreams come true, and that I always find a reason to smile. It was so endearing! Then they went on to say that they wouldn't know what to do with themselves because they won't see me for two weeks. These are the boys that "found" Stanley in Warsaw. Gentlemen in the making! So touching.

Apparently there are a few guys at the gym now, with their eye on me, reports Dominika. She says I can have my pick now! haha

ONLY ONE MORE DAY OF TEACHING!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow Heather, Cathy, and I will open our mail together. THANKS TO ALL WHO SENT SOME!!!

Speaking of melting though, the weather is supposed to warm up in Vienna this week...like +10 and raining. This makes me sad because I really wanted to wear my red coat, but I don't think that heavy wool, rain, and mild temperatures are such a good idea. There will be plenty more winter though. I have to let this go.

Well, in case I don't blog before I leave Wednesday morning, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I miss you dearly, and will be thinking of you! I can't promise that I'll blog while I travel, and I don't know how much I'll be online. In that case, happy new year too! I'll be back early January sometime! MUCH LOVE. xo

P.S. I totally wore green tights today, and a red and white top. Yup.

You'll shoot your eye out

Oh Christmastime, with its fa la las. There's always reason to sing!

I stopped traffic today. I think it had to do with my red coat. And that's a big deal here. NO ONE stops for pedestrians trying to cross at the zebra crossings. And get this - the man stopped and waved me to go, AND SMILED! Then he was turning down the street I was walking and SMILED AGAIN! Seriously. Have I mentioned that people here don't smile? And that they look at me like I'm a crazy person when I walk down the street smiling? So perhaps the Christmas spirit got the better of this man. It made me happy.

Starting Wednesday this passed week I've been able to do Christmas lessons with my students. With my Thursday and Friday groups, I played Michael Buble's "Let it Snow" and they had to put the lyrics in order. I paused the song after each line. Often they wanted it repeated, but rather than constantly rewinding the song, I just sang the lyric for them. Haha I even did this for my power plant men on Friday! Hope they didn't mind! Oh the joys of being a teacher.

My 7 year olds on Thursday were decorating Christmas trees on a paper template I gave them. Most of them didn't want to take them home to their families...rather they gave them to me! So I have put them up on my wall in my flat. So cute.

Heather's sister arrived Thursday evening! So I met with the girls Friday morning for tea, and to meet my second travel buddy. CATHY IS AMAZING! She brought us candy canes and mini eggs and Quaker oatmeal (maple and brown sugar), oh my!! We did request these things. They made me promise to save one of my bags of mini eggs for the train ride on Wednesday when we set out for Vienna. North American readers - you may get an emergency call Tuesday night. Urgent: please send overnight one bag of mini eggs! Haha I think I have more self control than that...

Back to the candy canes. You can't find them here! This came as a total surprise to me. I had wanted to pick up a bunch to give out with cards I was making for the Polish teachers. Nothing. Instead, I got them hot chocolate. However, with Cathy's arrival, I've starting giving out candy canes too. Two of the teachers yesterday commented on how pretty they are, and that they've never had them!

The Christmas tradition here is to have your big meal on Christmas eve...but NO meat and NO sweets. Their meal? Perogies and fish and soup. I do love discussing these things in class!

Is it wrong that I told one of my classes that for Christmas I wanted their picture because they're my favourites? They're 10 and 11 years old, in Kozienice. Eva, one of the Polish teachers told me that she heard all the students in the hall after class telling their parents that I said this and that they were super excited about it! With my equivalent class in Radom, I taught them "mistletoe". After this they said, "teacher, boy?" to which I told them, no, I don't have a boyfriend. There is one boy in the class, so the girls all said, "Jan!" So I said, "yes, Jan can be my boyfriend". The poor boy.

The drive to Kozienice is particularly pretty right now, through all the snow-covered trees. A little fairytale winter.

Remember how I broke the ignition key to the company car? Well, the secretary in Kozienice was away Friday and will be gone Monday as well. Because I teach in Koz both these days, on Friday after locking up the school I was given the keys for the weekend. Of course the joke is that everyone's nervous about the fate of the keys (I have continued to be the butt of the jokes since the ignition key incident)! I'm getting suggestions that I should wear the keys all weekend so I don't forget them Monday. Feel free to send reminders my way! haha

A quiet weekend for me - laundry and organizing for my travels, getting in touch with people, relaxing. Met up with some girls for lunch today at Totu. It was a perfect winter day - bright sunshine making the snow look extra inviting, no wind, and crisp. Ahhhh.

LET IT SNOW!

It's still snowing! Yahoo!!

Yesterday with my 8 year olds, I played Christmas music during the lesson. I put on "Last Christmas" (not the Wham! version, but the Glee version) and they all started singing along. It was adorable. (The Wham! version is all over the radio here...just like at home! haha)

More warm fuzzies. Last week with my 7 year olds, we were practicing writing names, with a capital letter at the beginning. Then in their workbooks they had to write their name and draw a picture, then write a friend's name and draw their picture. THEY DREW ME AS THEIR FRIEND! Then about five of the girls attacked me at once with a group hug. How can you not smile?

At the gym today, Heather and I spoke French. We've decided to speak more French to each other for practice. An added benefit is that people can't eavesdrop...! Haha

I learned the following "ten things about myself" to say in Polish to my adult class today:
-My name is Leah
-I have one sister and two brothers
-I am from Canada
-I am a teacher
-I like pizza
-I like reading
-I can swim
-I can count to ten in Polish
-I love the snow
-I'm finished!
Ok so that last point isn't about me, but I'm attempting some humour. Wish me luck!

That's all for now. Happy birthday, Dad!

(look at me...FINALLY playing around with the pictures! haha)

The HOLE is greater than the sum of its parts

I have a really hard time throwing away socks and tights that have holes in them. I don't know why I get so attached. Today, however, I would do my mom proud. I threw away a pair of grey tights. How bad did I let them get? Runs were showing, regardless of the length of the skirts or dresses I wore with them, and both my heels were fully exposed, such that about half of my foot wasn't covered. On my walk home from school this evening I finally convinced myself that they had to go. I did, after all, purchase a replacement pair a couple weeks ago in Warsaw. So there. The hole won.

Still feeling especially teacher-y. Most of my classes have exams this week. With the younger students, we have an oral test in the form of a game, as a whole class. I then fill out evaluations and comments for all the students. With teenagers and adults, they write a test in my class (prepared by the Polish teacher) and I call them out from the test in pairs, to speak with them, and this I evalute. Giving grades...look at me go!

One of my adult groups gave me homework last week (I needed some motivation to learn more Polish). They told me to learn ten things to say about myself. TEN!! Overwhelming at first, but I'm working on it! And hey, I'm learning Polish out of it!

It's officially a winter wonderland here. We had the first sprinkle on Friday evening, and snow's continued to fall a little every day. We don't have lots, but there is a thin white blanket on the outdoor surfaces. The temperature is sub-zero...perfection. I AM SO HAPPY!!! This also means that at last I was able to bust out my red winter coat - the coat that made the airmail journey from Canada in October (thanks family)!

The party (and I use the term very loosely) that Heather and I organized for Saturday night taught me/us a lesson - we can really do without Radom nightlife. It was a fine night; we had fun as we always manage. There was a decent turn out, peaking at about ten people at one point (keeping in mind we know maybe fifteen people here), so that wasn't the issue. It's just draining when people at the bar stare at you because you speak English or because clearly you are from a different culture. Throw in the language barrier, and it's just hard in general to meet other people. Not that that's what it's all about - but I am a spectacle every day. It would be nice to go out on the weekend and not be for once! That's why going out in bigger cities is always so great - we don't stand out and it's easier to just BE and meet other people. Radom weekends are much better spent watching movies and saving money so that we can have nights out when we do travel to other cities, inside and outside of Poland. Anyways, the feedback from others was positive. It was a good group out - a mix of Native English speakers and our Polish friends. Yey! Highlight of the night? We cheers-ed to immaculate conception. Uh....

My last day of teaching before the holidays is December 22, next Tuesday. This means that starting tomorrow I won't see some of the classes until after the new year...which means Christmas lessons! Woo! I'll definitely be playing Michael Buble's "Let it Snow!" many many times.

I had a Christmasy afternoon on Sunday. I watched the cartoon "Grinch who Stole Christmas" cuddled on my couch with a blanket, hot chocolate, and a clementine. Just what I needed.

Scattered thoughts. I apologize. Talk soon! Hope your holiday preparations are going well!

I've taken up second-hand smoking

The first step is recognizing the problem though, right?

They really need to be more strict here with their smoking laws. Seriously. Supposedly there is no smoking inside buildings, but people still do it. They smoke in the Radom school building, for goodness sakes! (The classrooms are on the second floor of a building that also houses a dance studio and a salon. It's the women at the salon that take their smoke breaks in the halls! There are CHILDREN everywhere. NOT cool. I cough obnoxiously whenever I walk by them smoking indoors. I'm awfully tempted to spit.) Also, the bars are just as bad. A night out results in smelling like smoke for a good week after, despite washing your hair several times.

I've felt extra teacher-like as of late. I've been busy prepping revision classes and exams. It's that time of year, with the first trimester coming to an end! I can't believe how quickly it's gone. I am so looking forward to the holidays. Less than two weeks!! My fingers are crossed oh-so-tightly for some snow, still. Everything else is set - the lights, the markets, the spirit. LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW!

The teacher who took off last week has been replaced. One of the teachers from last year (who lived in my flat!) happened to be in Prague looking for work. So she started Monday. Quick turnaround eh? I have yet to meet her. Heather and I have organized a gathering/invited people out to a local pub Saturday night so I hope to meet her then! No reason for the event, just because! We're hoping to have a good mix of the Polish teachers we've gotten to know, the Native speakers, and a few others we've met thus far.

Heather and I had a rocking good time in Warsaw last weekend. I still cannot grasp the reality of how much we laugh. On the train ride there, there was a point where I had water in my mouth and SERIOUSLY considered spitting it out because I was losing my ability to breathe, from laughing. Always causing a scene, we are. I somehow managed to swallow the water, which was followed by fits of coughing. Oh dear. We were beyond thrilled with our hostel. It was right on one of the main streets, overlooking the pubs we went to a couple weekends ago with Mariusz! And we had decided we'd have sushi for dinner...the hostel was above a sushi restaurant!! So after settling in (and paying less than half price, thanks to our friend's brother!), we went to Coffee Heaven for a drink. There were two teenagers going at it...like full on making out, at noon! Can't say I've seen that before. Haha There were markets set up on the street too. The hustle and bustle of this time of year is so energizing! We headed back to the mall though (right by the train station) as we had intended to have a day of Christmas shopping there. Then we went back to the hostel, dropped our things, and went out for sushi. SO GOOD! And of course we made friends with the chef. We told him we'd be back. Then we met up with Mariusz (who brought along a friend) and we did a little bar-hopping (it was Heather's birthday after all). So many cool little nooks and crannies pubs around! Heather and I carried on just the two of us, after midnight. We found an indie/alternative bar with a dance floor, and got our groove on. It was a great place! Chatting in the washroom line with some girls they all asked "WHY DO YOU LIVE IN RADOM?" This is always the question we get. Haha So good to hear English! Then we befriended some British pilots (MORE ENGLISH!!) who were flying out to Bucharest the next day. We had a great time dancing with them. Fun and crazy guys, like us! And before you know it, it was 5:30am to bed at the hostel....it's never the intention. These things just happen!

The next day we headed back to the mall. We were useless. We ate subway, and just laughed and laughed about the previous night's events. We took an afternoon train back to Radom, where we saw P - correction, he HEARD us and came over. P doesn't work for English College anymore (we drove to Kozienice together on Mondays) so we filled him in on what was going on. And that was that! Monday at the gym Heather and I felt like zombies, still half asleep!

As for my school week, not many stories to share. Review classes, like I mentioned before. The power was out in the Radom school yesterday, but it came back on before my classes started. Irene, however, taught one of her classes by candlelight!

I can't believe it's almost the weekend again already! Sending love and Christmas cheer...!

Oh, and we totally brought Stanley the third (the ones my students made) to Warsaw with us. Haha

My life is awesome

Eating clementines, gingersnaps, and drinking peppermint tea are my methods for willing the snow. So far, no such luck. However, the days have been cooler - around5 degrees - and almost freezing at night. And it's been sunny and dry!! So just give me some of that white fluffy stuff and I'll be set.

The town centre is a winter wonderland (sans snow). There are lights everywhere, lining the cobble-stoned streets. There is a huge tree in the core, right by the school. There are wooden cabins/shacks being set up, selling festive wares. I LOVE IT!!! It looks like Waterloo Park, walking through town.

So with all this talk about the holidays, I should probably mention that WE HAVE SOME HOSTELS BOOKED!!! I'll be in Vienna over Christmas and Budapest for New Years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (With Heather and her sister, Cathy.)

And speaking of booking trips - HEATHER AND I BOOKED FLIGHTS TO SPAIN IN FEBRUARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a tad excited, to say the least.

Heading to Warsaw this weekend. Gosia, the Polish teacher we hung out with on the weekend/had Chinese food with, got us hooked up at her brother's hostel for less than half the price. Woo! First overnight trip to Warsaw! We'll meet up with Mariusz again. It was Heather's birthday on Wednesday so it's time to celebrate! On Wednesday we met at the gym (as usual), but I got there early to set up the changeroom, as I had made a big poster with pictures and quotes for the occasion. She burst out laughing when she saw it, hanging up. Best reaction I could have asked for!

Hmm...it's been a crazy week. Planning revision lessons and exams for my students. AND there are now four Native speakers working for the school, instead of the original five. One of the gals had a change of heart and decided to take off. It had us all very worried. She's fine. Radom just isn't her scene. That's all I'll say on that. Rumour is that one of the teacher's from last year will come back to fill in the classes.

Okey dokey. Time for my (favourite) Friday classes! TGIF!

Oh. I should get some more pictures up on here!

(Pictures - at the gym! haha The sign, the building, and the changeroom. What you see is the extent of it!)

Stanley, or something like him

Some more anecdotes to (hopefully) amuse you. I know sharing them amuses me!

On Friday with my power plant men class in Kozienice (elementary-level speakers), they were practicing using adjectives. So I gave them different categories of things to describe. One was a piece of clothing they were wearing. (Sidenote - a lot of the English we teach is British - lift versus elevator for example. So to my students, trousers are pants, and pants are underwear. I digress.) ANYWAYS, one of the men says, "I'm wearing red pants". Everyone burst out laughing, including me. (Cheeky bugger...haha.) I was laughing so much though, in one of those moments where you can't stop and it's so embarrassing and every time you think you can pull yourself together you just start up all over again. The reason? All I could think about was the purple underwear I saw at the gym earlier in the week. I explained this to my students, and they got a kick out of it. I also wanted them to describe something in the classroom. When it was the last man's turn, the other students were whispering rather loudly and obviously to him, "say: pretty teacher!" Aww. I turned bright red. And then of course we were listening to Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" as the next activity. Haha

This weekend was low-key, and spent in Radom. Heather and I went hard at the gym Saturday morning. We did some errands at M1 - the shopping center. We even had CHINESE food for dinner, with one of the Polish teachers, Gosia. Who knew Radom had Polish food? It was pretty yummy! Turns out there is a joke about Radom Chinese food, done by a well-known Polish comedy group, with the butt of the joke implying that Chinese food from Radom is no good. But hey, at least this town is known enough to have a joke about it! Eh?

Despite popular belief, Heather and I are not actually attached at the hip. We are, however, planning a party!

Back to Kozienice, today I asked my 15/16 year old boys if they found Stanley in Warsaw. They said they did. So sarcastically, I asked them to hand him over. One of my students says, "Just a sec", and roots through his bag. HE PULLED OUT STANLEY!! Well, a rather beat-up and bruised Stanley, roughed up from the Portuguese tourists. My boys made me a new Stanley, to fit the story. HOW AMAZING ARE THEY?!?!?! Such good sports. So the Stanley I made is en route back to Canada, and now I have my own Stanley.

Marvelous Monday, indeed.