Warszawa!

Greetings from Warsaw!

I completed the CELTA course, Jill came to Krakow(finally!), and we toured the hell out of the city before our feet fell off. On Sunday, we boarded the express Inter City train with my massive duffles and made the uneventful jaunt north to the the capital city.

We caught a taxi for 50 zloty directly to our new doorstep, in the semi-suburban 'hood of Sadyba, southeast of Warsaw proper. It's a neighborhood loaded with big houses and big flats (I have yet to see a small house or a small flat in Poland-Poles like their space as much if not more than Americans!). The apartment Jill found is pretty impressive-high ceilings, lots of light, dual-paine windows, brand new appliances, internet cable, hardwoods, our own washing machine, dishwasher and lots of nice furnishings-that she convinced the landlord to buy recently--all from a neighboring IKEA. Oh, but here it's pronounced "e-KAY-uh." We also have a nifty space saving clothes line in the bath, which hauls clothes up close to the ceiling, conveniently next to a window that opens 2 totally different ways. We have no views, except for an interesting pink flat across the street, and a car with a 24 hour security guard in it, who's on duty watching some local politician's pad another door north of pinky's place. It's a nice place, and the landlord's sister lives above us with her son.

So I've begun looking for work, and we also let the cat out of the bag...I met with Jill's Principal, Karen and with Rick Nelson, who's the activities coordinator. He wants my help to teach the kids how to ROCK CLIMB!

We're going on a trip to a huge area called the 'Eagle's Nest' (I have no idea what the Polish version is yet). It's a series of limestone crags which link Krakow to Chestochowa and Wroclaw. Not only is there rock climbing, there's also castles dotting the higher vantage points. So one day we'll teach rock climbing and do a little caving, then the next day we'll hike 10km along the cliffs checking out 1 or 2 castles. A lot of these kids are pretty uppity. This will be their first experience camping for about 99% of them! We camp next to the Search and Rescue village (I think it's a bunch of Polish climbing bums living in tents). The kids will learn how to set camp, divy up kitchen duties, and godforbid, make everyone dinner. The SnR group has a ropes course set up, which we'll run the students through-challenging them individually-and they'll have a little bit of group work to do to complete the course.

Needless to say, I'm extremely happy to be going climbing soon! I also have never climbed on limestone before. It should be a bit like Smith Rocks in Oregon, pockets of varying sizes, yet slicker surfaces. Unfortunately, no real crack climbing is purportedly available. :-(

Anyway, the pics are from various walks around Warsaw. There'll be many more to come. Enjoy!