Celta Celta Celta, can I help ya, help ya, help ya!

I just had my almost halfway review in the CELTA (Certificate for English Language Training for Adults-backed by Cambridge U.) course here at International House-Krakow!

I've given 5 lessons, totalling 160 minutes. Not surprisingly, my pace is still a bit slow, my instructions aren't always clear, but I have a great rapport with the students and they love my varied and unique stories and examples (No one here seems to even know a climber personally).We're basically at the halfway point in regards to teaching, and now we switch tutors. My first one was Magda, a strong Polish woman who I had my phone interview with while in the states (at my expense!). She is incredibly sharp and educationally witty. Everyone is in awe of her speed and abilities when processing linguistics. Next up is Deklan, from the UK. He's an intense chap, also fast with words and phrases, and has a good, dry sense of humor. We can't tell if he hates us or loves us. My vote is the former. It'll be interesting to see how different of a tutor he is.

So, who's taking the course with me? I was hoping to get to this earlier... but've been a wee bit busy! There's 10 of us. 5 Americans, 1 Brit, 1 Irish, 3 Polish. Ages range from 23 to around 40-ish. Most of the Americans already live here, in fact, they all do or are about to (including me!).Next to me right now is Ryan. He's from LA but has lived and taught in some other smaller city in Poland. Next to him is Aaron, originally from Normal, Illinois. He's kinda weird, and really, really loves attention. I think Deklan wants to kill him, and Magda will agree when she gets him next week. Oh, we are split in half-5 of us teach 'Pre-Intermediate' students for 2 weeks, the other 5 teach 'Upper-Intermediate.' I'm about to wrap up teaching the pre-int. gang.
My group includes Andrew, my roommate from England, Kelly, an almost dike from Texas/Seattle, Maria from Krakow and Dariusz (Derek) from Gdansk.

We're an ecclectic mix, and I'm the only one with no teaching experience. Kelly taught ESL at the Seattle Public Library. She doesn't recommend teaching Samoans. She's a cool girl who hated Seattle but loves Toys in Babeland, if you know what I mean. She has several tattoos and piercings and all the Poles stare at her. She doesn't quite dress like the local girls do...
Andrew is a good kid, 23, and kind of a classical music singer. He's already travelled to the USA, Central and South America, North Africa, lived in Czech Republic for 5 months and travelled India for 2. As much as he travels, he doesn't seem to attempt to pick up the local language-though I think he tries to use Czech to eek by on occasion around here.

Another student who's in the other group is Ralph McGaw, from Guam (USA, in case you didn't know). I was the first person he'd met in a year who knew where Guam was. He lives in a smaller town due east of Krakow, halfway between here and the Ukranian border. He teaches English at a university and they pay him 3000 zloty/month ($750 US +/-). His place sounds nice, in the hear of the village, and rent is cheap. His teaching schedule is pretty light-a 2 hour afternoon class M and W, and a few night classes a week. All that and he gets a Visa, plus they're going to reimburse him for this course! We're pretty like-minded, and Andrew, he and I have all gone out for beers (and then some discos!?!Josh?!). I think he's a bit starved for American talk-i.e. Bush sucks and this country's got this problem and that problem and no one cares enough to do about it blah blah blah. All true. I think he just needs to vent a bit.

For those interested, Ralph's offered some insight to Polish women. Yes, they're beautiful and they dress well. But all they want is to be pampered and rich. But who doesn't want that?! It's rare to find one with drive and a need to improve things on the whole. The country, of course, is on the rebound and this whole Capitalism takes some getting used to. It's not always easy to know what to do with your freedom when you get it so late in life. Oh, they're also very inactive. Same goes for the men. Walking is Poland's #2 sport, after drinking shots of vodka, of course.

Anyhoo, I have a class and a real teacher to observe. More later!

Milo mi!