Polish Adventures

The Great Escape...

2006-11-17T21:24:00.000+01:00

Well we are not in Poland anymore... we packed up early sunday morning and did a moonit flit.

Can you tell where we are?

Answers on a postcard please

10th Nov

2006-11-10T17:34:00.000+01:00

Nothing much has happened this week. Work is just work. I havent been very well. We have been spending alot of time thinking about what we do next....

Here's some pictures of Rory being silly in Krakow to keep u amused...

8th Nov Rocky's Clothes

2006-11-08T17:51:00.000+01:00

4th Nov Krakow

2006-11-06T08:29:00.000+01:00

Had a wicked weekend in Krakow. Just mooched around the old town. It was pretty cold and poor rocks is suffering without his coat. The apartment was good if a little small.

This is a picture of the Wavel, looking pretty wintery. A dragon used to live in cave under it.

Had a great evening on Sat night drinking the beloved Strongbow and being able to speak English without feeling like we are REALLY standing out. Sunday cruised back to Rybnik feeling a little hungover and Lucinia had made us lunch so ate that and then lay around feeling a little achy headed.

3rd Nov THE BIGGEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN!!

2006-11-06T02:33:00.000+01:00

This HUGE monster was in our apartment. I dont mind spiders but this one made me jump!

Then the disgusting Rockster killed it, half swallowed it then burped it up onto my lap.....I was not impressed. He then threw around the room playing with it. Who does he think he is a cat???

2nd Nov Śnieg!

2006-11-02T09:18:00.000+01:00

For once the forecasters where right! and as expected Rocky just tried to eat it!

1st Nov ... All Saints Day

2006-11-02T09:09:00.000+01:00

A Polish holiday. Everyone in Poland goes to the cemetary and leaves candles and flowers on their graves. It is taken very seriously.

THE SNOW IS COMING...

2006-10-28T23:37:00.000+02:00

Just checked the long range weather forecast apparently the snow is coming NEXT WEEK. On Thu to be precise I am not ready for the snow!!! Next week..next week!!!

Last week we had an electricity cut for a couple of hours, which isnt too bad as we just watched a DVD on the laptop and used our camping candles and lantern. But today we have a gas cut, OUR CENTRAL HEATING IS GAS.. no-one knows when it will come back on ..

Have started looking for jobs in Spain ;-)

28th Oct Wisla

2006-10-28T18:04:00.000+02:00

We finally went to the Mountains today. Notice the capital M, everyone says you must go to the Mountains. So we went to Wisla about 60km from here, which is supposed to be the nearest ski resort. We found a ski hire shop but no runs...eventually found a couple of lifts up a dirt tract. I suppose it will all become clear when the snow comes!

Other highlights of the day I had some very nice grilled salmon from a litle hut place and Rocky fell in a stagnant pond and Rory had to pull him out (that makes 2 haulings out in a week..not a good record!)

28th Oct How time flies!

2006-10-28T10:53:00.000+02:00

I cant believe its been so long since I last updated. We have been busy. Rory's parents have been over bringing us loads of lovely presents. Cider.. not just any cider but strongbow :-) I am rationing myself.. to a can or so a week. Marmite, cheddar cheese, veggie stock all very exciting, AND we finally have warm clothes. It was like xmas opening all these suitcases and remembering clothes we had forgotton we had. They drove over from England for 2 days or something crazy stopping with Rory's uncle in Germany. They were with us from Sat til Wed.

Lucina our landlady of course pulled out all the stops and we had food coming out of our ears. We even got invited upstairs to her dining room where she lit a big fire.

The weather has been milder .. no more minus figures. Although we must get winter tires on the car next week. Its defo coming to the end of autumn though. Everywhere you go people are sweeping up mountains of leaves into duvet covers (!) and bin bags.

Work has been fine, just teaching people about the wonders of hallowe'en and learning quite a
bit myself. They celebrate 1st Nov All Saints' Day which is a very serious religious day where you must go and visit all your dead relatives in the various cemerataries. Apparently there will be gridlock on the roads.

Photo time...

Walking down town from the house.
One of the many Butchers

A sign for where we work (yes it really does have a man with a bowler hat on it!)

The Market Square, called a 'Rynek' in Polish, just about all towns have them and its not actually where the market is!

The Cathedral or Basillica with a huge statue of the ex-Pope. On Sundays you see people standing outside cos they can't all fit inside

Rory's parents' visit part 2

2006-10-28T01:41:00.000+02:00

18th October - Road to Gliwice

2006-10-19T09:34:00.000+02:00

The ice age is coming...

2006-10-17T08:38:00.000+02:00

At 6am it was -2! minusbloodytwo...! it's 8:30 and we have made it to -1... Kate had to scrape ice off her windscreen with a yoghurt pot. When I got to the power plant I apologised to my student, Bolek, for being late due to ice on the windscreen. He heard this as "Sorry i'm late I had ice cream for breakfast and i'm ill"... maybe I should speak slower ...

Polish cars

2006-10-12T11:17:00.000+02:00

Again its hard cos I am too embarrassed to take pictures near where I live but I have to show you pictures of Polish cars. They love an old Fiat Uno I think is.. they call it the Maluch.

Then I got more scared I googled it to see what I could find and this is what I found

WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT???

12th Oct Kate Horne International Spy!

2006-10-12T11:05:00.000+02:00

Another early Elektrownia morning but this time I was armed with my camera so after my lesson armed with my camera I prowled the car park feeling like a spy worried that at any moment the v scary security guards were going to come running ...

Views of the lake from the car park. And some views of the powerplant.

I would have taken more but a) I was too scared and b) Rory wanted to go home as he has a busy day

10th Oct Another day another zloty

2006-10-10T19:41:00.000+02:00

Today was the first dreaded tuesday where I have to teach 8 hours! Had a very early start a 6am lesson down at the powerplant Elektrownia. Rory had 3 individual lessons while I only had 2 so we drove down in tandem. Me in the new company car and him in the Kangoo, such a gent!

Its only 10mins away but a very eerie drive. I haven't managed to take any photos yet. We drive down past the reservoir. The water in the lake is about 18 degrees because it used as a coolant in the power plant. So in the mornings it steams slightly as the air temp as about 12/13 degrees. I don't know if you have ever been next to cooling tower THEY ARE MASSIVE. So you drive down past this steaming lake with the huge towers and out of the darkness you see this enormous building with elektrownia written on it in blue neon. I feel like I am in Tom Clancey book or something. Quite surreal. And as usual the security guards where really scary luckily someone who spoke English explained us to them. We had to show id to be allowed in.

I have googled it. Check this out!

That is where we work! There are usually lots of people fishing there, because of the warm water the fish grow to be MASSIVE. I ain't dangling so much as a toe in there!

My lessons were fine, I got coffee which is always a bonus. I think the highlight of Rory's morning was meeting a man called Boleslaw who shortens his name to Bolek. Childish I know but this is the type of humour we are reduced to!

I then had to drive to another company Tenneco on the other side of town. Get past the security guards (urgh I have just squashed a mosquito .. dont they know its oct??) First lesson was fine, then my second class didnt turn up so I waited 30mins and left in a bit of a cream puff. But this was the company I got out of bed for last week and they knew nothing about the lessons. So home and walked the dog in the forest with Rory.

After a snooze it was off to school for both of us. Once again we didnt really know what the set up was etc. It didnt help that we got stuck behind farm traffic and coal trucks so were late. These were the kids we tested last week.

Bless their socks they where waiting outside their classrooms even tho we were 15mins late. No teachers to be seen anywhere. The kids were very excited. I did my usual bodged kids lesson plan...My dog rocky went into the garden and found a ......., Simon says..., and ended with Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes. I swear Rory will be singing nursary rhymes by the end of the month. Although he swears not!Anyone care for a bet?

After the school back to Rybnik for a couple of 45min lessons, half my classes were off with flu, which is not a good omen. I have been home for about an hour, put the dog out to dig holes.

Now I am v tired have eaten 2 bowls of soup and have that horrid wishy washy feeling so will lie v still until Rory comes in. Then drink some apple lager STILL NO CIDER :-( and another early night before another early start.

5th Oct Another Early Start for Rory

2006-10-05T15:40:00.000+02:00

Hey, It's been a bit of a mental week. Work is v chaotic they still haven't fixed our plans and they keep changing.

In general we have lessons in companies in the mornings (with some v early starts .. 6am lessons WHY?) Then home for a couple of hours, walk the dog, try to sleep etc. After that a company lesson about 3pm then off to the school for lessons with kids, teenagers or adults.

The classes range from individual lessons to groups of 6. Its pretty easy work. The people in the companies just want to chat about stuff. Getting paid to talk - nice one! And they are all either Intermediate or Advanced speakers so speak pretty well and just want to expand their vocab.The ones in the school usually have a Polish teacher for half the time. They do the grammar stuff and we just chat to them and get them to talk. And of course they actually WANT to learn. Again most of them are a pretty high standard.

I have one class of 3 12 year olds and we just play games. I also have one group in a company who makes electrodes and so yesterday I took them some GCSE Chemistry sheets and we spent 90 mins talking about the Blast furnace. They loved it! Next week they want to talk about electricity.. why?!?!

We also have 3 hours a week in a local school. They have got some EU money to get in Native Speakers until xmas. I dont know what we are supposed to do with them, on Tue we went and assessed them. Doing 60 oral tests in 60mins was interesting. They are all v giggly 12/13 year olds and it really smells like a school!

Another early start for Rory this morning either 6 or 7 I have no idea! I had a much needed lie in. Then just as I was about to leave my 3pm lesson was also cancelled. Which was good cos the bloody hot water is on the blink again and I was having trouble showering AGAIN. So eventually found the dog hiding out with the ladylady, apparantly he was asleep on her son's bed and took him for a long walk in the forest at the bottom of the road. thought I should take some pictures before it is all covered in snow.

The spires you can see are the Basilica which is either a cathedral or big church in the centre of town either way it is v impressive. I am just too embarrassed to take photos in town!

4th Oct 7am start in Gliwice grrr

2006-10-05T11:16:00.000+02:00

Today was my first really early start and it was flipping raining. So unimpressed! It reminded me of the week before I started at Medina and we had to go for NQT training. It rained then. It was boring training and I felt like crying cos the summer was over and I was going to have no more fun :-(

Drove nearly an hr to the place in the lovely skoda (i am growing to like it) Get there and we introduce ourselves in our best Polish and they whisk Rory away to his lesson. They appear to have no idea what to do with me. I am thinking here we go again. I have got out of bed for nothing. Then they start "telling me" bearing in mind I speak v little polish and the reception people's English isn't any better. That another teacher is already teaching my class. I get annoyed and get on the phone to Kasia. I was v grumpy by this point. To cut a very long story short Rory had stolen my class and should have been teaching some swanky exec. So we swapped and I grumped through yet another lesson on first impressions with 3 middle aged men. Grrrrrr

Luckily my SGL carbon group were lovely as always.

3rd Oct .. the company car...

2006-10-03T11:10:00.000+02:00

So we a have a company car to enable us to get to and from the companies etc. (The school is about 15mins walk away). Its great. Rory started it up for the first time and nearly had us all in the river. You see you have to leave it in gear as the hand brake doesnt work.
As my dad said "Why do Skoda's have rear window heaters?" "To keep your hands warm while you push it." I must remember to take the jump leads out of the Kangoo and put them in the Skoda. You have to drive with ur lights on from 1st Oct and of course they is no handy alarm to remind you to turn them off.

2nd Oct WE ARE BACK

2006-10-02T20:03:00.000+02:00

Whhhooo hoooo we have finally got the internet at home. I rushed home especially as it was supposed to be installed at 4 and I was working til 7.

Got home to find Lycina our ladylady hovering our front room while playing with Rocky. We had asked her to watch him while the man came to do the internet so i think she has been with "her baby" all afternoon. On the plus side she has cleaned the bathroom, the kitchen floor, and the living room. I was soo happy.

School has been choas again. Got to remember to factor in the kasia factor, poor Rory had to be at work for 7.00am this morning. Her husband drove him there and they got there at 6.05 cos she had insisted they leave so early.

My classes were find except I went into my second class in the school and started teaching and 5mins later, someone came in laughing their socks of I WAS TEACHING THE WRONG CLASS... how embarressed was I.

Luckly classes with one company dont start til next week so I dont start until 9 instead of 7AM. Urgh why are we doing this again?? Cos the actual classes are a piece of piss, turn up and chat to 2 maybe 3 people for 60-90mins.

Right I must go drink some beer and generally relax.. photos to follow:-)

Thu 28th Sept Training in Katowice

2006-09-28T20:40:00.000+02:00

Thursday 28th September
Just had the most longest most boring day of training I have had in my life. Crawled out of bed at 6 to go to stupid Katowice (about an hour away... the best place to fly into to get here.) for the training. I felt a lot better than Rory who had staggered in at some ungodly hour with rather more than a skin full of Polish beer inside him.
Training was to become an Oral examiner for this new range of assessment blah blah blah and was so badly run. Boring boring boring, spent the day laughing at the state of Rory and playing on my phone. Didn't get home until nearly 7pm! On the plus side Rocks has had a fab day, being pampered by the landlady and she actually let Merlin out to play with him. I sent Rory over to collect him, she took one look at him and has postponed dinner with her and her family until tomorrow so he can rest cos he has been (cough) working so hard.
Just waiting for Kasia to come round with some criteria that she wants to assess some people on 2moro morning. I cant wait til we get our timetables 2moro and there will be less of this last minute malarky and we should finally know whether we are coming or going!

wed 27th sept A drunken evening

2006-09-27T20:35:00.000+02:00

Wed 27th September
A day off! The last 2 days have been so manic, we were both looking forward to a day off. No one to meet, nothing to sort out. So what do we decide to do .. visit our old sparring grounds TESCO. Its a whole different board game when you have no idea what you are buying. I am so sick of pasta sauces with crème fresh instead of cream for example.
By the time we finished I was so tired all I wanted to do was go home and relax I didn't even want to go to town and email. So I watched some crappy Cameron Ditz movie - thank god for a) tescos cheap dvds 10zolty which is less than £2 and b) the fact that you can change the language! Rory went into town to email etc.
I woke up around 5 decided I must take the poor dog for a walk, I get a text from Rory saying he is drinking in the square with some Polish and an English man so I wander down and ended up getting caught up in another round of Polish hospitality beers a-go-go take out salads (with cans of diet coke for some reason) from McDonald's delivered to our table. Chicken salads I must add.. I think in Poland I am becoming a closet vegetarian... and the dog under the table is getting abit fat! But what can you do.. these people are desperate to give you food and drink I would feel so rude saying sorry I don't like your lager and I wont eat your food!!!! It got to half nine, the dog had chewed through his lead ( I think I am still on camping time .. sleep when dark) so I took him home for dinner and left Rory talking to a Polish Andrew. I think we are meeting him and his wife on Monday.
Tomorrow we have examiner training all day in Katowice, we have to meet downtown at 7AM then dinner with the landlady and her son at 7pm. She is looking after Rocky for us for the day, He is going to be sooooo fat ;-)

23rd OctOooor House!

2006-09-23T19:49:00.000+02:00

Bedroom
Bedroom from sitting room
View from front room into bedroom with sliding door closed(ish)

Front room
View from front room to balcony

Views of the garden from our balcony.

22nd Oct Going to Rybnik

2006-09-22T20:17:00.000+02:00

Left the aparthotel in a bit of a flap this morning (OK yes with a bit of grumpiness on my part) as usual the loading of the car and general sorting off stuff took far longer than expected. Didnt want to be late to Rybnik to meet the guy. Wondering about where we would be sleeping that night etc etc. So many thoughts....

Drove to Rybnik with eyes like saucers wondering how far it would be what it would be like etc. The journey was quite green, mixed with industrial if that makes sense. Lots of big old stylie factories mixed with big green spaces in between. Its very flat with lots of cycle paths (on the pavement bizarrely!) The Polish roads are quite ricketty, you sort of drive down 2 grooves in the road. There are also lots of large scraps in the road. Will try and get some photos to explain.

We had arranged to meet Arek at the train station, which we eventually found after getting lost in variuos one way systems. Then waited and waited still really not knowing what to expect. Did not expect this little round man with glasses and his trousers pulled up to armpits. Tee hee I know I am being cruel ;-) He said he had found us 2 places to look at one was an bedsit in the centre of town, and one was rooms in a house one the outskirts with a big garden.

We couldnt look at the bedsit til 4pm. So we followed him to the house. Its so hard to explain our first impression of the place. The garden is the first thing you notice because it is huge and really established lots of random fruit trees, rose bushes, a veg patch, a pond. The plot itself has 3 houses on it. We have since found out that the house we are in is the orginal house and the garden used to reach down to the forest but under communism the family where gradually told to sell the land until they only had what is left. They built the other houses to put the rest of the family.

We were shown 2 rooms on the first floor. They are joined by an old stylie wooden concertina door. So one room is the front room and the other the bedroom. They are both decent sizes with sofa beds in each. There is a balcony off the front room with a swing seat and somewhere to dry ur washing. The walls are really thick and old style but the windows are v new looking double glazed. There is loads of random stuff on the walls. Certificates from 1967 and stuff! Also on the first floor there are 2 other rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom with seperate toilet and a big landing area. The other two rooms are rented to students who go home at weekends.

Downstairs I havent actually since properly apparently the guy who lives there works all hours and is never there.

Bizarrely as I never thought I would live in shared accomdation again, we took one look at the amount of space we have and the secure garden for the dog and said yes. It is 1100zl a month for both of us which is about £190 or 280 Euros.but as long as we work 80 hours each we get 800zl towards our rent leaving us with 75 euro or £50 to pay between us!

The landlady is a mother with grown up children speaks almost no english and luckily loves Rocky. We where then invited into her house for food. I was a little scared I must admit! First we had tomato soup with spagetti

MORE TO FOLLOW

19th Sept .... Slovakia to Krakow, Poland

2006-09-19T16:29:00.000+02:00