Reason #237

Why I love my students.

On Tuesday, while I was teaching my 11-12 year olds, my adults - whom I teach in the following period - slid a note under the door. The paper was folded in half. The outside read, "Message for Leah" (with a hand-drawn flower). The inside said, "Dear Leah, We are at Casablanca [a restaurant near the school]. We are waiting for you there. Don't forget we love you. Group 22".

The class I was teaching got all excited and thought it was a love-letter. I suppose it was in a way. I read the note to them. They approved.

Half-chickens, indie rock, and Ampelmann; or Damsels in distress: parts 2 and 3

Let's start with Friday night and work backwards. (That's what she said?)

Remember the time that Ewa, Gosia, and I had a spontaneous flat tire on the way to Kozienice a couple months ago in the ever-reliable company car (that I broke the ignition key to back in the fall)? The old clunker officially died this Friday night, on our way home from Kozienice, on the outskirts of the forest in the middle of nowhere. THANK GOODNESS we had cell reception, because at least 50% of the car ride we don't. The car smelled like burning rubber...we think the clutch burned. There was smoke fuming from the front hood. There was a bus stop at the side of the road that we hung out in. It was a lovely image - three women in their work attire (dresses and skirts) at the side of the road. We looked like the ladies of the forest. Most passersby didn't even glance our way (note to self - being a lady of the forest would NOT be a successful profession). Our boss' husband couldn't come pick us up, because he had been drinking. Our boss was at the time, drinking. So, Gosia's boyfriend came to the rescue. We did have to wait for our other boss though, to give him the keys, for them to later deal with the car, today, or whenever. It was a comical situation, but at the same time it's not funny at all. The problems with the car are never taken care of. They say they'll get a new car for next year, but why not now? We obviously need it! We're lucky that it wasn't a worse situation. Only in Radom...Damsels in distress part 2?

The adult class I teach on Thursday usually consists of about 2 or 3 of my 10 students showing up. Ewelina ALWAYS comes. On Thursday, she was the only one. So I said, screw the lesson, let's go out for coffee. It was really lovely. We're around the same age (she's a couple years older) so we totally get along. We were chatting about dating and relationships and travel and work. I almost started crying at one point...I got a little misty-eyed. Ewelina was saying that she doesn't understand why no one else comes to class because it's such an excellent opportunity to talk with a native English speaker. Then she told me that she thinks I'm really smart and a wonderful teacher. I was so touched. It's been hitting me lately how much I will miss my students here, and that just made it even more clear.

Last Friday, with my men in Kozienice, we were practicing the use of "will" for making predictions. There was a fortune telling activity in their textbooks. There were 10 tarrot cards, and they had to randomly number them. Then, their partner would choose 5 numbers, and the other would predict their future. At the end of class, I chose one number from each student (only 4 of 5 were present) and had them predict my future. The first one told me I will get a surprise next week. Looking back, I definitely had a couple surprises. The next TWO men told me I will get married next year. They were laughing and got a kick out of this, very amused that I chose the same thing twice. (They were further amused when the last number I chose - 8 - was a prediction about marriage with the first gent's set of cards.) I was told I will move house...well, and I will! It was a fun activity - good for some laughs as always.

Berlin! Heather and I went last weekend, as we had Monday off. Getting there is a story and a half. Friday night, after classes, Gosia and Ewa drove us directly to the train station, and we made the 9pm train with a couple minutes to spare. Thank goodness, because the next train, at 9:24pm takes THREE HOURS to get to Warsaw, instead of the usual two. We weren't to leave for Berlin until early Saturday morning, and we had our hostel booked. We get to Warsaw, planning to buy our Berlin train tickets at that time, rather than waiting for the morning. SOLD OUT. WHAT??????????????????????????? NO. Normally, this wouldn't be a HUGE problem because we could just take a later train. However, we had very important appointments in Berlin on Saturday and HAD to be on the 6:35am train to Berlin. We did try to avoid this by buying our tickets two weeks ago when we were in Warsaw. But with the volcano, the international train ticket line was GIANT and we waited for about 45 minutes and moved about a metre. We had to give up and get back to Radom. Anyways, we headed to our hostel to try and figure something out - bus? car rental? Things were not looking good. We decided our best bet was to just get on the train, and try and buy a ticket on it (as we have done before), and play the "we didn't know it was sold out" card. They can't just kick us off in the middle of nowhere. I figure as long as we get to Poznan, then Poznan to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Berlin, we could totally do it in pieces and catch buses once in Germany, if need be. So after a very fitful night's sleep, we get up, and get on the 6:35am train. We went to the buffet car, to have a tea and calm our nerves. We saw the ticket man, and decided to approach him rather than avoid him. Buy a ticket? No problem! Cash only. Oh. We were planning to pay with card. 125 PLN. *Phew!* We have cash...let me just see here. Shit. We are both 5PLN short (which is like, $1.50). That was the price of the tea we just drank. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. THEN HEATHER SAVES THE DAY! She has Euros. The ticket man can't accept them - but the buffet car can change them! BIGGEST SIGH OF RELIEF EVER! Ok. So with tickets in hand, we wander to find seats. Success! In the last car, there are two free seats at the very back, calling our name. And to sleep we went.

In Poznan, more people with reserved seats boarded, so we had to relocate. We found a compartment in another car and settled in. We ended up chatting with the two men - Daniel and Mariusz - for most of the time. Very helpful guys to have around - as they both spoke English, Polish, and German! The Frankfurt to Berlin stretch requires the purchase of another train ticket. The men were able to talk our ticket price down (thanks guys!). We pass over our cards. They don't work. WHAT? NO. Daniel was so trusting and kind as to pay for our tickets and let us pay him back once we reached a cash machine in Berlin. SAVED AGAIN! (Damsels in distress part 3?)

We arrived in Berlin on time, paid Daniel, and headed to our hostel. We then set off for our appointments, with plenty of time. We arrived half an hour early, to find the place closed. Odd...but perhaps they were having a slow day and would open for us at 4pm. I found a payphone and called a few times. No answer. Another girl showed up, as she too had an appointment. That made us feel better. However, she said that the owner was absent-minded and forgot about appointments sometimes, as this was her second or third reschedule. She gave up. We waited until 4:45pm. Nothing. Knowing they were closed Sunday and Monday morning (when we had to leave) we emailed anyways, letting them know we expect them to fit us in. We heard from them Monday evening, apologising about their not showing, explaining that a staff member had a bad accident and they couldn't be there. Excuse or not, we don't know. So it's almost all settled...except for the deposit transfer back to Heather's account. We'll continue to harass them about that.

After our epic heartbreak, we soaked up as much Berlin-ness as we could. Half-chickens and fries from our fave food vendor, good beer, espresso, the Wall, dancing and rocking out until almost 5am (and still feeling sore four days after) filled the rest of our Saturday. Sunday we wandered around the Hackescher Markt and Friedrichstrasse neighbourhoods. We had an amazing gnocchi lunch, and then walked to Check Point Charlie. We had coffee and just sat for a while (we were so very sore from dancing). It was so relaxing. We had a little nap back at the hostel, then went to our staple vendor for dinner. We went to check out a bar called Magnet, as we heard there would be live music. It was closed though, as someone had died. We found another cosy bar that was playing jazz, and then had some freaky live music. By freaky I mean they improvised so much that it sounded like three solo artists trying to drown each other out. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fabulous. It was just background noise for us anyways. We had great conversations all weekend. Heather got us writing discussion topics on strips of paper, for us to pull out from time to time. It's great fun!

Monday morning we headed out for coffee before our noon train. I forgot my sunglasses at the hostel and decided to go back for them. Then we loaded up on Millie's cookies (a baker's dozen each...the most amazing cookies you will ever eat) and had a little lunch. The train ride back was smooth sailing, as we had bought our tickets online a few weeks prior (something you can't do from the Polish rail website). Mariusz found us on the train and sat with us. It was so nice to see him again! We had enough time in Warsaw to grab food before our train back to Radom.

That reminds me...a couple weeks ago I taught my gents in Koz the terms "dozen" and "baker's dozen". One of them said "Polish dozen...11!" I burst out laughing. Poles all talk about how everyone in this country cheats and steals. Those men always crack me up!

Oh! Heath and I baked 76 peanut butter cookies yesterday. I think that's enough out of me. Less than 6 weeks until Italy!!!

Terrific Tuesdays

I may or may not be slightly buzzed right now.

Last Tuesday, with my adult class, we were chatting about travel, and both India and Tokyo came up - places that my students are interested in going to, as am I. This prompted me to ask if they have tried the sushi and Indian restaurants in town. Because class was finishing, we decided we should all go out for Indian food, right then! Unfortunately the restaurant was closed (and I fear it may be closed for good, the way it appeared to be shut down), so we went elsewhere. We had a lovely dinner at Teatralna - me and the two (of three) students present that day. One woman is about my age, and the other in her late 40s. It was a really nice treat, and we decided that next week (so today) we should go out DURING class, as it's a much more natural setting for conversation. Besides, we have finished the textbook for the year.

So here I am now, arriving home three hours after class has commenced. The lone male of the class was called up to join us, and the Polish teacher that teaches them in the period before mine joined us too. It was a lively evening of beer and pizza, enjoyed by all. The student about my age - her fiance - came and picked us all up and drove us home. I feel so spoiled!

Does this fall under the category of why I'm the best/worst teacher ever? Haha. We plan to continue this little ritual.

More on why I am the worst teacher ever: last Monday, I full out LAUGHED at one of my teenage students. The point of the activity we were doing was to find the preposition to follow the verb in the reading. So I called on a student for the first answer, to which he said "tuna sandwich". I lost it, as did the entire class. I apologised profusely, and felt REALLY REALLY awful. I blame my four hours of sleep on that one. Oh man. It was just one of those days. Another student in that class had a very noisy stomach that had everyone in stitches. Poor guy. I tried distracting the class with embarrassing stories about myself, but it didn't seem to work too well.

Let's see...on Friday, the man I called out for having his shirt on inside out the previous week made a point to show me that he was wearing his shirt properly this time. Hahah Oh!! The word "dozen" also came up in class, so I also taught them what a "baker's dozen" is. Then one of the students said that a Polish dozen is eleven. I busted a gut laughing, because Poles are known for stealing. Clever.

Heath and I had another fabulous weekend. We did our grocery shopping thing, and then we went to the cinema. It was a lovely day for a walk. En route to the theatre, a huge band of motorcycles rode by. Walking through downtown we met up with them again. There was some sort of charity motorcycle convention going on...? And there was even an outdoor stage set up. Big news for Radom! There were some cute men, indeed. We opted for objectifying Gerard Butler on the big screen though, rather than hanging around. However, we did enjoy a beer outside in the (setting) sun after! And we had another delicious meal at the Sushi Room. We have reason to believe we are keeping them in business. After sushi, Film 101 continued, but of course.

This upcoming weekend is a long weekend with Monday off! We are heading to Berlin - goodness I love that city. Realllllllllllly looking forward to it!!

Only 7 more weeks...it's so hard to believe! Until next time...! xo

Feeling groovy

I apologise that I have not blogged since Riga. So much has happened here in the last week and a bit. The heaviness is starting fade however, and the sun seems to be shining through.

I'm feeling extra alert today, despite having been awake until nearly four in the morning...we'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow. Heather and I went to Warsaw this weekend. Between the explosion of tourists who can't get flights anywhere, the week of mourning and the casket procession for the President on Saturday, it was quite the experience to be in the capital city, to say the least. The train station was an absolute zoo on Sunday. On our train ride Saturday, Heath and I busted a gut recapping funny moments from the year thus far. I will definitely have to post some of those moments closer to the end (which is coming up sooooooooooooon)! We joined the masses of people near the Presidential Palace to try and catch a glimpse of the procession. Melancholy was in the air. Our usual night-out fave had yet another new vibe for us to experience - no DJ, and barely any music. There were tables set up for sitting. It was still busy though, and Heath and I found ourselves some good seating on the stage, at a low table, sitting on cushions. It was a fine night out. The weather could not have been better. We soaked up all the sun we could on Sunday before taking the train back to Radom.

A couple highlights from my classes last week include my power plant men requesting me to sing a song that I was trying to remember the name of (because they know how much I love to sing), and me also calling one of them out on having his shirt on inside out. I felt bad afterwards, but I knew he could handle it. He was a good sport, and the other guys chirped him the rest of the class.

Still working on South Korea stuff. It's a bit of a waiting game at this point, as my applications have been submitted. Fingers crossed...!

Rave on Riga

Here I am, Friday night in Radom, and so ready for sleep. Still on a high from the Riga getaway, but also lacking proper slumber. However, I'm excited to share my stories, and as much as I love discussing grammar with Heather via Skype, I figure I might as well write now too.

I'm feeling the play-by-play style this time...we'll see how it goes!

Friday - we woke up (as opposed to waked up) early early early. You see, although our flight from Warsaw was at 1:30pm, we had to take into consideration time enough to enjoy a comfortable sit down at Coffee Heaven in Warsaw. We don't have the coffee shop luxury here. Remember our gas station situation? Anyways, we caught our 7am train out of Radom and set off to leave the country. It was a beautifully mild and sunshine-y day. Coffee Heaven and its patrons were a lovely start to the day. We were all giggles. The Warsaw airport was a fail in terms of food, but we survived. When we were boarding, they had to take our passes from us. Why? Because the seats we were assigned in row 15 apparently did not exist. We were on the TINIEST plane. It had 12 rows. And it definitely wasn't full. Despite the rocky take off, it was pretty smooth sailing. We got into Riga around 4pm (we lost an hour). We decided to pack super light so we didn't have any checked baggage. So we headed for the bus to get us into the old town. It was cooler than Warsaw, grey, and drizzling, but it didn't take away from anything. We found our hostel (THE NAUGHTY SQUIRREL...ONE OF THE BEST HOSTELS!), dumped our stuff, and went for food at Dada, a place one of the hostel guys recommended. It was SO yummy. It was Mongolian grill style - pick a sauce and fill your bowl. We also had our first Latvian beer (Alderis). All day we had been looking forward to an early night, so we headed back to our hostel. We sat in the common room and started playing Connect Four. Then we got the cards out. (Heather was on fire. I don't think I won a single game or hand...!) We chatted with some people then it got really crowded. Turns out that the pub crawls the hostel runs only goes on Fridays. Hmmm...to sleep or to take advantage of the great social situation and hang out with cool people from all over the world? I'll take the latter, no matter how exhausted I am. Come ON, Heath and I stuck it out in Radom for SIX WEEKS! Needless to say, it was a fantastic night out at some great venues...which resulted in me being awake almost 24 hours from our Radom departure. The guys on the pub crawl seemed quite concerned for Heather and me that we were the only females on the pub crawl, compared to the 30 or so guys. Actually, that's what the tourist ratio looks like too, mostly men. Fine by me! We still don't know why we're automatically dubbed "the crazy Canadians" even BEFORE people know us. Hahaha

Saturday - Heath and I were quiet going back to our hostel room, not wanting to wake anyone else. Turns out 4:30am is an early night in Riga, as we were the first ones back. Our roomies all came in between 6 and 7am. We were then disturbed out of sleep by the screamer in our room - this guy made noises that I didn't know were humanly possible. And we were both on bottom bunks, our heads facing each other. I blame him for not getting any real sleep the entire weekend. Anyways, Saturday morning we went back to Dada for breakfast. It was very delicious. Then we walked around old town to hit some highlights. Coincidentally, my grandpa's old address was about 200 metres from our hostel! We went to St Peter's church, and the Dome Cathedral (where my grandpa was baptized), and then we found a most delightful cafe. Napolean and espresso please! It was another drizzly day, but fabulous still. Our walk also included happening upon a caged bunny outside a restaurant - I named him Butterscotch. We made our way back to the hostel for a bit of a nap, and got to chatting with one of our roomies (Zach). We later went out for dinner to Lido, a cafeteria-style restaurant that serves traditional Latvian food. IT WAS SO SO SO SO SO TASTY. I will have to go back to Riga if only to eat here again. Another of our roomies was there so he joined us to eat and for a walk after. Then we went for a night stroll with Zach, to take some night pictures. We went to the Riga Castle, and walked along the river and saw the Vansu bridge. Heath and I then returned to one of the bars from the previous night. It had a completely different vibe - more relaxed and filled with locals. There was an awesome live band, so once again it turned into a bit of a later night than intended, but it was much more low-key. We sang, danced, and felt the music.

Sunday - We had sunshine!! Zach took us to a flea market of sorts...it sold Soviet Union and Nazi paraphenalia, among just about any piece of junk you could imagine. This was in Little Moscow, outside the old town. We also saw the Jewish memorial at the Great Choral Synagogue (which is really just ruins) and the central market. We then went back to our little cafe that we came to love. We parted ways with Zach and carried on. We rocked out and did our own freedom dance in front of the Freedom Monument (which we're sure the guards loved) and went to the Orthodox Cathedral. The colours of the interior were so vibrant and happy. We went at the right time because we got blessed with the Holy water by the priest. After that I found my Grandpa's old school. It's a very beautiful building. We ventured to a tea place we had read about, but it was closed. It was Easter Sunday, after all. So where did we end up? Back at our cafe for round three. (The first two times we went we saw the same trio of guys there...we're not the only ones!) We stopped at Dada for a late lunch, with plans to return to Lido for dinner. Are we creatures of habit or what? We got back to the hostel to relax for a little, only to meet a boisterous group of Irish guys in the common room. Before we know it, we're at an Irish bar with them, and Lido is a distant memory. We somehow ended up at a bar called Mad House, where we witnessed what we can only think is a pimp in a gold suit, kicking out a hooker who was dancing around with a chicken wing. What a scene!

Monday - we organised ourselves and made our way to the airport via bus, along with about half the hostel's population. It was a fun time at the airport - we were the cool people that knew everyone there. Haha. We made it back to Warsaw, and returned to Coffee Heaven before the final jaunt to Radom. Obviously I slept the whole train ride back.

As I said in my previous post, I would totally live in Riga. The people are so friendly and helpful and accomodating and lovely. We didn't have big ambitions for this trip - we just wanted to be somewhere new; hang out and eat and meet people and check out my grandpa's old stomping ground. I really do need to go back and see more. We met some fantastic friends, ones that we can be in touch with and hopefully reunite with in the future!

As a side note, I sang The Kinks "You Really got Me" for my power plant men students tonight. Yes.

Ok. Night night!!

Teaser

Orthodox Cathedral Riga Castle

Dome Cathedral

Grandpa's school!

Back to work today. It gets harder every time, after travelling about and being on such a high, only to return to the less-than-desirable Radom.

I will give Riga the full blog entry it deserves when I have some more time, but for now I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am adding it to my list of places I would live (alongside Budapest, Bristol, Berlin, and San Sebastian). SERIOUSLY a very cool city - a most excellent vibe. I can't wait to share my stories with you! I'll report back in a few days! In the mean time, here are some pictures to tide you over!

Let's get out of this country

Exhibit A.

As of late, Heath and I have been slightly more crazy and insane than usual (see Exhibit A)...laughing at things that we wouldn't normally laugh at. We realised that it has been six weeks since we left Radom. That's a new record by a landslide, our previous stretch for sticking around this less-than-thrilling town being a mere two weeks. That would explain our extreme excitement for Riga this weekend, well, and also the fact that we are genuinely pumped to go. I have my map all marked with my Grandpa's old address and church and school. Yey!

Have a wonderfully HOPPY Easter all. I'm outtie 5000! xo