Welcome to my Poland section. I made this section to show my friends and my church the things I learned, observed, and thought during the preparation and process of my trip to Poland to teach English for a year.
Julia brought me a plate this morning. She said, "This is Easter breakfast." It was some sort of potato salad, some slices of hame, and two hard boiled egg-halves on a piece of lettuce, with a little catsup on each egg-half.
We had our church service at the regular time, and then I returned to my room to relax a little. Speaking of church, the Catholic church here in town was ringing its bells all day, beginning at or before 6:15 (I happened to be up). The bells would ring for five or ten minutes, and they would begin ringing again a half hour or an hour or two later.
In the afternoon, Kris brought me a plate of food: a piece of chicken, some mushrooms wrapped in some kind of soft shell, and some /bigos/. I had been wondering if I would get to try this dish, but I have been eating it, from time to time, without knowing that it was the dish mentioned in my lousy phrasebook (which sits on my shelf and I never use).
Lunch was delicious. A few hours later, he appeared with another (small) dish of a hollow chocolate egg and some squares of cake and some slices of another cake.
So, that was my Easter Sunday (*pats stomach*).
After all that eating, Kris and Zofia went to someone's wedding. They returned Monday morning (late in the morning), and Kris said that the people at the wedding had danced from 19:00 to 5:00. I think that might have been interesting to peek in on.
Anyway, the days seem to be getting longer. One thing I really hate about DST is that at this part of the year, the sun is still up at 20:00! The sun should go down at 19:00 or 19:30, if you ask me. I've finished grading the stray essay here and there and all the vocabulary tests for semester V and IV.
I still need to write the vocabulary test for semester VI. I plan to do that today. The results from my semester IV tests were interesting, but I think they would only interest other teachers, so I won't mention them here.
Time is flying swiftly on. If you intend to send me anything, time is so short that you must send it by the fastest method available, or it may not reach me in time. I do enjoy the cards and letters people have sent me. Thank you.
That's the news (or lack thereof) from Lake Jeziorak. The time is currently 10:47, and the temperature outside my window, where my thermometer is bathed in sunshine, is 33°C/91.4°F, but the air temperature is probably about 55-60F. Have a great day in the Lord!
It has been almost a week since I wrote, so I'll take a few minutes to review what has been happening here. I wrote that vocabulary test in less than fifteen minutes, which really surprised me. I didn't think it would go that quickly. I will grade those tomorrow.
On the food front, two things happened this week. First, Kris brought me a plate one day this past week, and on it was a piece of Polish pizza, which is somewhat different from Italian/American style pizza. It was very good, and I was sorry I only had one piece to eat. Second, I've been dying for some Italian food, and some of my students told me a place called "Nil" had Italian food, so I got Kris to take me out there (It's a long way from the parsonage), and I got some tortellini with meat. We had to wait a while (and it was a bit pricey by the standards I've gotten used to here, though still reasonable), but it was very good.
A lady in Kris's church had a birthday party today after the service (which looked close to the average as far as attendance, though this is "low Sunday" back at home, isn't it?). It was a quiet affair. The people at the party didn't even sing "sto lat" (100 years), which is the Polish birthday song. Meals were brought in from somewhere, and we sat in the classroom eating and talking (I mostly ate, as I had little idea what was being said). I'm still not entirely sure whose birthday we were celebrating. One lady stood and recited poetry, which I appreciated even though I don't know what it meant. There was a pot of flowers on the table that reminded me of azaleas, which made me miss home.
Kris and I are expecting some people to come to Poland in the next few weeks, but not teams. A fellow from (I think) the North Central Jurisdiction UMVIM will be travelling in Poland, and he plans to visit here. The other person who is coming is Nancy Eubanks, who will be attending the annual conference or something of this area. I may only see a little of her here, because I leave before that conference finishes, but that's okay, because I'll see her again at the UMVIM rally. If any of you are interested in coming to Poland to teach English, pray about it, and see my mother for more information. We don't know who will take my place in the fall, but we're looking to God and hoping someone turns up soon.
It has been raining off and on today. That's the news from Lake Jeziorak. The time is now 22:30, and the temperature outside my window is 11°C/51.8°F.
It's been mostly regular around here. I've been keeping busy. Classes are proceeding at an acceptable rate, such that I expect to finish the allotted units in the books in all but one of my classes.
There hasn't been much to write about. I've been to see two movie in the past three weeks, and I enjoyed both of them, one immensely. On my last trip to the theater, however, I had to rush to the nearest stores to get change because the ticket seller didn't have enough to make change for me. It was worth it, though.
Kris took me into town today, and I bought a new carry-on. I'll have less luggage returning than I had coming, so I needed to get this to be able to fill my luggage allowance, since I'm sure I will have need of the space. Anyway, it's a small black bag that can expand to the size of a two-week suitcase, and it even has wheels on the bottom. I'm pleased with it, and I will use it instead of my tiny carry-on bag when I visit Kraków.
I haven't made it to the church, yet, but we dropped my film for processing today, so I'll soon have pictures of other things to put on the Web site. My kite is still unfinished. I need to find some strong glue for the foils. The wind is, from time to time, as strong as ever.
That's the news from Lake Jeziorak. The time is 22:20, and the temperature outside my window is 13°C/55.4°F. God bless you, and thank you all.
I got my pictures back, and many of them are beautiful. I'll post them when I get around to scanning them.
There was a fair of some sort in Iława on Sunday. I walked down and looked at it, but I didn't go in. There were hundreds of people there. A singer from Warsaw gave a concert that night, and I could hear the music from my room, which means I wouldn't have been happy to be near the stage, heh.
The weather now is beautiful, though a bit chilly. Last night, we had a terrible storm, and I saw lightning. It has been eight months since I last saw lightning. It's also the first time I've seen very heavy rain here.
The number of sailboats in and near the water has increased dramatically. The city workers have planted many many flowers. They've also replaced some of the stones in the path through the square.
That's the news from Lake Jeziorak. It's 17:50.