Tick, Tick, Tick

The clock is counting down to our departure for central America. Jill and I are anxiously awaiting seeing our families again, and me to get all this paperwork cleared! All my communication with the con-sulate has been smooth and flawless (knock on wood!)-when in doubt, work in America-that's the moral of this story!

So, THE CAR:
Well, the little Fiesta/Festiva (I never remember which) didn't get the best review from our mechanic. Head gasket leads, something about 'pillows' (shocks AND CV joints, I think) and then he was knocking on the underside while the car was raised-hitting the area beneath the driver's seat. He was speaking in Polish, but it was obvious he was concerned about something. Jill had a perplexed look on her face and he looked at her and pointed to the bit of rust and said 'Yabba Dabba-Doo!'

Yes, even here in Poland they know our famed Fred Flintstone-and that he uses his own feet to move and stop his car-guess we better invest in some good shoes!

So, for now we're passing on this one, and now checking out a Citroen...more later.

Next post likely from Chicagoland! See you in the land where they say 'See you!' instead of 'Pa pa!', 'Czesc!', or 'Dowidzenia!'

Woah!

Plan to Attack US Embassy Uncovered

Polish and US secret services together with local police spent the last months of 2004 chasing down a potential suicide bomb attack on the United States embassy in Warsaw, the Zycie Warszawy daily reported this week.

According to police sources for the capital’s main local paper, first details of the attack – threatened by Philippines citizen Joseph E. – were passed on to the Polish authorities by the embassy in October. Joseph E. had been recorded meeting with high-ranking members of Abu Sayyafa and Jemaah Islamiya, both classified as terrorist groups by the US government. The paper said only that the search for Joseph E. and members of the groups coming into Poland lasted several weeks, giving no indication of the final outcome. The embassy and Polish secret service representatives had no official comment.
STEVEN MULLER-New Warsaw Express

The US Embassy is on a major, historic street (Nowy Swiat, which leads to the beautifully rebuilt Old Town). It is a rather ugly building, or series of buildings, surrounded by guards 24-7. It also houses the commissary, where a ton of expats go to get their American fix on foods and products we can't find anywhere else-like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, real salsa and tomato sauce and other sundries. In fact, there are some families who will ONLY shop at this store?! Crazy! (and $$$!)-Glad the feds saved us all.

Behind the Wheel

Well, last night, both Jill and I took our turns driving! Neither of us have been behind the wheel of a car, truck, mini-van, SUV, or even on a skateboard since July 2004. We chose a bitter cold and icy night to meet with Pawel, Jill's best and favorite aide at school, and his friend Michal (Michael) who's selling his spiffy little Ford Festiva. We're on the prowl for a used car-as the dollar is weakening over here, and we'll need more money to do far away expeditions this summer.

Saturday (Sobota) we all meet again and take it in for a diagnostic check. This would be my 3rd Ford, after a beautiful and dangerously fast Mustang GT and a frequently-cross-country-travelled and mostly reliable Escort GT. Funny how I keep digressing in models, speed and size?! (Is that a reflection of my income, tastes, or how I feel about my manhood ;-)

I don't think Jill's ever had a Ford. There's always lots to love and hate about them. I will say I miss my last car, a '90 VW Golf, Wolfsburg edition, compliments of Pierce. I could park it anywhere, drive in the snow with little problem, and it was fast enough to evade impending doom on the highway. I don't think this little 'piss-ant' (as my Dad would say) Ford has that kind of pick up.

Unfortunately, used car values are much higher here than in the states, and all new car sales have been decreasing substantially in Poland over the last year-thanks to being adopted into the EU, everyone's going west to buy their cars-both used and new...but we don't want to have to travel so far for a budget-mobile.

Coming from the states, it's interesting to talk to other Europeans about cars. At my work, out of a staff of 13, only 3 have cars (one being an expat). Of my students who are of age, only 6 out of 18 have a car, and two of them have company cars. Most Poles don't even have drivers' licenses. In the past, it took a lot of bribery and re-tests to get your license-that's supposedly changing. One of my students hasn't driven in 10 years, and is going to 're-learn' this spring and give it a go. Oddly, her husband works with Citroen as a car dealer-and he doesn't even get a deal on new or used cars-weird, what's the incentive? Though in these hard times, a job is a job-unemployment is still very high in Poland.
So, in my lifetime, I've owned a '71 Buick Century, a Plymouth Horizon, the Mustang, the Escort, my famed VW '72 Bus, then the Golf-6 cars! In Europe, you just don't need a car (but it will be nice to run errands on our four wheels instead of waiting for the buses out in the freezing cold!)

Oh, happy Chinese New Year!
Betty Chang, one of the ASW teachers is hosting a New Year's party this weekend. Friday we're helping prepare the food...and Saturday we get to eat it all! Bring out the red!

Oh, and if you didn't hear, the Pope's feeling better

j-mo

When the levee breaks...

A walk on the levee. Back on January 2nd (yes, I've been to busy/lazy/forgetful to put these up earlier!), Marjorie, another ASW teacher took us out to this little oddity, south of Warsaw on the Wisla river. It was built closer to the turn of the century to help with flooding and farming and was partially blown apart in WWII. Since then the wall has helped build a large beach of sand upstream, where we enjoyed absolute sunshine for the first weekend of the new year!

Jill, the sundial, worshiping and soaking up the distant light

Me, Dawn, Jill and Margorie's long, winter shadows stretching 60'

A place to come back to in the summer, we had no idea we had a beach so close to us!

The Wisla (Vistula) River, Poland's largest river, bisecting the country in half

Waverly trees

Headin' back to civilization...

Homeward Bound!

Yep, I've had enough of this place. Too flat, too difficult a language, and I'm really sick of pierogies.

Just Kidding!

Well, my work and another company have pulled through to get me the proper paper work to be here without fear of persecution...except that I need to go back to the states to make it all happen.

So, the end of this month, BOTH JILL AND I are going to Chicago and Milwaukee! It's her winter break, and a pseudo break for me. Locally, the Polish kids have 'Ferie,' they're winter break-of which they get 2 weeks off from public school. Pretty sweet, given how Xmas wasn't that long ago. It's a pseudo break for me since I only have one class on holiday...the others I'm just pushing back a week while I'm gone-I guess it's a good sign when all my students said they preferred postponing classes for a week rather than continue classes with a substitute!

January ended my 'toughest' month of teaching-averaging 17 teaching hours per week. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I have 6 different 'preps', 6 totally different classes to prepare for-each meeting 1-2 times per week. Jill and most of the other teachers at ASW have 3 to 5 preps...and they've been doing this for years (and it's still not easy for them!). What makes it uglier is only 2 of my classes follow any sort of text book or format...the others I have to pull together-and as I mention in an earlier post, that's where the net is helping me a lot. Here's one of my favorite links-even to just keep me up on the latest news:

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/pages/esl_plans.html

It's written by a British expat now living in Japan. Great idea and it dispenses with any classic 'format' that texts and institutions follow...plus he can tackle 'uncomfortable' or lewd subjects without upsetting anyone, as it's up to the lesson users (teachers) to decide if and how they want to use his free, downloadable lessons. Not that any of you care since you're not teaching English, but still a quality site.

So, where's Jillio?
Yesterday she flew off to Sofia, Bulgaria for the weekend. She's down there with her 'Math Counts' kids for a competition with kids from all over Europe. Sofia is the highest altitude capital of Europe at 566 meters. Despite it being so far south, they're temps now are colder and snowier than Warsaw. It's another ex-Soviet country, nestled between Romania, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, a small part of Turkey and it's eastern border is the heavily polluted Black Sea. So after the Communist collapse in '89 the Soviets pulled out of office, renamed their party the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)...The BSP won the first round of parliamentary elections in 1990-so Bulgaria had the dubious honor of being the first country from the former Soviet Bloc to elect the commies back into power...they've stuck around ever since!
(but we'll see how the Ukrainian elections affect their future)

So, if you're in Chicago/Milwaukee land the last week of February, let us know-we'd love to catch up with anyone and everyone.

Jeronimo