Hunting for the elusive trout

It's late Monday night and we just had a tasty fajita-style soft-tortilla fest, with Dawn Malarvie one of Jill's new co-teachers at ASW. Dawn's a recent transplant from Yarnell, Arizona. I suspect only 1-2 people reading this have a remote clue as to where in the hell that is. And she would describe it that way, too. Dawn taught at a small public school, in a town where the median income is $10,000! Apparently, her school kid (and their parents) were fond attempters of similar stunts that they saw the night before on the distasteful and physically harmful show, Jackass.
Anyhoo, it was a good dinner, with mostly Ameri-fixins that we picked up at the commissary, in downtown, which, unlike the Krakow American embassy, is armed by at least 4 soldiers, all with machine guns on the exterior. It took me some time and finessing to get in with the girls, who have a 'membership' to the commissary. They took my Passport and digital camera, and they finally escorted me in through the dungeons to the little, over-priced American convenience store. It was a slice of heaven, for they even had a few varieties of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!

Afterwards, with full bags and packs, we headed south to a rovery, which is the generic name of 'bike shop.' Dawn had had her eye on a certain bike that she wanted my opinion on. The bike was a 'cross' bike, a jack of all bikes that can do a little of everything, but isn't supreme at any. It's a Czech company, with tubing made by Columbus (Italy?) and Shimano LX componentry. Good all-around, and they now had the bike for 300 less zloty-2,699 down from 2,999. So we all liked it and gave it a thumbs-up. Dawn likes people, and people like Dawn. She's a total talker and a crack-up. She batted her eyes at the sole guy who speaks English at the shop and said, "So what else are going to give me for that price?"

She got: a spare inner tube, a new, cushy woman's specific saddle, a big cable lock, a rear flashing light, front and rear fenders, a kick stand and two water bottle holders and 2 water bottles. They also ordered her a HUGE taxi to deliver it and her to her flat. She was a bit shocked when the upper-medium sized U-Haul showed up and proceeded to beep-beep-beep backing up onto the curb for her and her little bike and bags of groceries!

Anyhoohoo, on with the trout...

I completed another interview today, and set up 3 more for tomorrow! Today's was with English First-at a branch that is about a 10-15 minute walk from our house! It's a school set in a 'villa' which has only been running for one year (but the company is about 50 years old.) Joanna was the Director of Studies (DoS)who interviewed me. She's a tiny bit of a basket-case and an animated talker, but I liked her and got a good feeling from her. While at IH Krakow-other students and teachers warned about the variety of DoSs, and how much their personality can shape, build up and/or destroy a school. I think Joanna would be a good mentor for my first immersion in teaching English. The interview went great...and long! We talked for 1.5 hours and she gave me the full tour. Wilanow (Vee-LAH-noof) is the uppity neighborhood between Sadyba (where Jill 'n I are) and Konstancin, the 'burb to the south where ASW is now. Wilanow is famous for it's Palace and gardens-an area I have yet to really explore. It sounds like I've got the job if all the Visa stuff pulls through. They're going to do their best to get me one while I'm still here-and I'm doing my best to not have to foot the bill for a round trip flight back to the states to get the Visa from the Polish Embassy in either NYC or Chicago. Some schools will pay for part of the flight, but usually only the leg from Warsaw to London. And those flights go for about 99 zloty or less sometimes ($28!) Woo hoo-thanks for covering that leg!

If I take this job, I'll be teaching kids and adults, and will likely have semi-normal daytime hours. The pay is ok, better than another school's, but still not ideal. The attendees aren't all Polish, so that would be interesting. Wilanow is the setting for numerous ambassadors' homes-I passed Macedonia's today. Many wives and children (those who aren't already going to Jill's school) go to English First during the day to work on their English, so it's a pretty diverse bunch-but the changeover all sounds high.

Tomorrow I interview with another English First branch-much closer to downtown, in the same Politechnika Uniwersite district as International House(previous post). It'll be interesting to see how different they run things...and if the pay is different. My first interview tomorrow is with the Orange School, and their location is pretty sweet! They're located a few blocks west of the completely rebuilt Old Town (mentioned in previous post). This is an area I totally dig! Wilanow is nice, but to work in an area that actually feels, looks and smells a helluva lot different than America sounds pretty appealing to me. The school is much more privatized, i.e. student lessons are often 1 on 1, or the group lessons never exceed 5 students. They either charge a shit load, or they hire a ton of teachers. I'll know soon.

The third interview is with Jack at, get this: Saxon Court/Target/Shane school. Lots of mergers going on here in Warsaw lately, I guess! This is another of the multitude of schools in the Politechnika U area. The whole area has a nice beat to it, though is lacking cheap dining (as far as I've seen in my limited self-touring), but if there's students, there must be cheap eats.

All 3 of these schools run world-wide, but, as far as I know, International House and English First are some of the biggest. In case Jill and I should ship out of here someday, I'm trying to keep the bigger schools in focus to make it easier to travel and work in our next spot abroad. Oh, and English First has almost a dozen schools in the US, too!

I'll keep you posted.
Oh, Jill just got her Bose speakers fixed and we now have WAY BETTER SOUNDING MUSIC! from our little computers. Thanks, Jill! How she got them fixed is a 2 page (amusing) story in itself. Maybe she can write the next post?

Anyhoohoohoo, hi to everyone out there and don't forget to drop us a line on occasion, too. We like email and snail mail.

jeronimo