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