...

so chris and me spent the last week teaching in a city near here called konin.. it was pretty good, being able to explore another place, and meet some interesting people. the students were really excited to have some canadians, so that sure makes our jobs a lot more fun.

we were able to walk around quite a bit, the pic on the left is chris in the old town. its kind of funny cause people in this area think that konin is very ugly, and has nothing much to offer, but to us it was very cool, the old streets, yeah, stuff is run down, but the history is pretty impressive. we met some interesting people, this one man in particular, who we met at a cultural centre, anyways, when he found out we were from canada he started giving us all of these books, brochures and pamphlets on konin, very friendly..

what else... the hotel we were staying at was a bit shady. but they did have a free breakfast, we were a little surprised when it was boiled kielbasa, cottage cheese, tomatoes, pickles and cheese!!

the other thing here we like to laugh at is that all of the student drivers have to drive around with a big "L" on the top of their cars (looooossseeerr). chris was a little embarrassed of me when i was taking this picture, cause the people in the car were all watching me and wondering what i was doing, but i thought you would appreciate it dad.



here's a nice polish bike, maybe not as classy as the one's in holland, or yours greg, but still worthy of a picture. we find not too many people ride bikes here, mainly because the drivers are nuts, and there are not real bike paths so for the most part its pretty dangerous




one of the highlights so far!! all of the tiny fiats.. except that most mornings we're woken up by either squealling fan belts or squealling tires... i'm pretty sure that there can't be any sort of safety regulations on cars cause we've seen some scary ones..





yesterday one of our students took us on a tour of this massive cathedral near konin. it was pretty interesting... i guess at this spot there was suppposed to have been a miracle a long time ago, hence the reason for this church, which is basically in the middle of the countryside. it sure makes you think about priorities, not only of the church, but of everyone. this cathedral cost millions, and in a such a poor part of the world?

anyways, hope you enjoy the pictures. chris is actually teaching a private lesson right now so i guess she'll have to update you all later.

hope all is well

another confession...

so here we are again on a nice lazy sunday evening... it's quite a hike to get to this internet cafe, and trying to keep up with chris kinda tires me out... i guess that's what naps are for. our old internet hangout, which was much closer, kind of dissapeared on us.. i'm not exactly sure what happened, but one day we showed up and all was well, lots of smoke and old men playing vids, and then the next day the whole place was cleaned out.. nothing??? but then we were thinking that maybe there were notices hung up, but the fact we dont know any polish might have contributed to our surprise.

what else... i started coaching some young polish goalies this last week. it was lots of fun, hard, not knowing the language, but fun... and teaching is going good... i was able to teach a lesson this last week on "dining out" english style.. so it was lots of fun, we played a bunch of games and i think we might all try to go out to eat sometime and have all of students only speak english.. they liked this idea, and i tried getting some $$$ from the school for it, but i dont think that'll happen...

oh yeah, i almost forgot about my latest confession.. well, i'm kind of embarrassed to say, but it's true... i have a scarf, and i like wearing it... there, much better

Okay, it's Chris now. My exciting news for the week is that I bought a pair of boots. It took me a while to decide on what kind, brown or black, pointed or squared toe, with fur or feathers....no really you should see some of the footwear here. They are also many shoe stores in Poland...so it took me a while to try them all on. I was about to give up, until I went into the last store and there they were....beautiful and they fit perfect. I have only walked into a couple of things because I have been so busy looking down at my boots....and don't worry my boots are not in the picture below....I am much more pracitcal than that!
We have also put up a Christmas tree in our appartment...we had to put it up early because we are going to Vienna for Christmas and wanted to enjoy it....our appartment is also quite bear so it takes up space. I have already opened my Christmas present from KC, he was just too excited, it is a beautiful wall hanging made in India. If you look closely at our tree, it is decorated with tree ornaments made out of straw....I really like them. We also had to leave the appartment this afternoon because we kept on getting carrollers...well they were boys that were trying to make some cash for candy and firecrackers, so they would knock on the door and sing a song and expect some money. I am not sure if is a tradition in Poland...I think we might have to ask around. So, this week we are heading to Konin, a city that is about an hour away. We get to stay in a hotel...and teach at another Perfekt school. So, it will be fun to explore another place, and I am sure that we will have some good stories and pictures for the next blog....okay thanks for reading.

i have a confession to make...

hi, my name is kc, and i'm addicted to "minesweeper"... i've been dealing with this for a few weeks now, and i want to finally get it out in the open... now dont pretend like you dont know what "minesweeper" is... you know, that game thats always on your computer, that you wonder why in the world the computer guys put it on? well, i guess its for people that move to eastern europe and dont know the language or have any other sort of entertainment... well, we did have some seinfeld and gretzky dvds but i think chris had enough of those pretty quick... but i'm thinking about trying to find a minesweeper league that i could compete in.. ok, enough blabbing..but things are going good, teaching, adjusting, living.... oh yeah, i had a pretty cool "polish" experience the other night.. i was out playing some old-mans hockey the other night.. yep, it was pretty intense.. but the highlight was definitely the post game... but i guess it was one of the guys birthdays so after a big sing-a-long they pulled in this big bbq right into the dressing room and started cooking some kielbasa.. yep, ithink us canadians might have to borrow this idea.. anyways, i think its chris' turnHello, I have been working more hours then KC, so I don't have as much time as he does to write. (actually that is not true) So, the picture above is our school where we teach. It is a building located downtown, and only about a 10 minute walk from our appartment. We teach about 20-25 hours a week, averaging about 4 hours a day Monday-Saturday. So, we do have free time in the mornings...to explore. The school uses the Callan Method to teach English. It was written about 50 years ago and was used to teach soldiers English in WWII. The method is very textbook and teacher based. The teacher asks questions from the textbook to the students and the students answer in complete sentences, with the teacher's prompting and correcting their grammar. There are also dictations and readings that the students do. This method is good for Polish people because they all take English in school, but they are afraid to speak it in public. This way all the students have to speak. So, we don't have much prep time at all....but I think that after a while the method may get to be a little repetitive. The staff at the school is great, and sometimes there are extra classes for the students to take that are not the Callan Method, actually KC gets to teach a lesson on "Eating Out", he is wondering what his food budget is. We are also heading to a nearby city to teach at another Perfekt school for a week, they don't have any Native English Teachers so we were asked to go. (we are in hot demand!) The school is paying for a hotel for us...so it will be good to explore another city.
Above is the Old Market Square in Torun, it is snowing. Things are getting to look alot like Christmas! The snow doesn't stick around for long, but the wind sure feels cold. I am knitting KC a scarf right now to keep him warm.

This is one of my favorite restaurants. (I don't know if KC enjoys it as much as me) I am sure that all of you can guess judging by the colors that it only serves vegetation dishes. It has all kinds of soups, curries, periogi's, and gofries... It is actually pretty surprising to find a place like this in Poland, seeing as most of the meals consist of meat. It is very cheap too!
And this is our appartment building, we feel quite lucky to have it painted blue and yellow on the outside, as it is easy to see from all the other grey buildings. We have meet some of our neighbours, mostly older people and the conversation hasn't really gotten further then a hello! (language barriers) Our appartment is getting to be home.
Okay, I hope that you all enjoy the pictures...We have just firmed up travel plans for Christmas, we are heading to Vienna and then to Krakow...