Julie (PA)about indulge in one of Dawn's amazingly rich Urban S'mores! THEY WERE DANGEROUSLY ADDICTING, TOO!
Acadia National Park 2018
8 years ago
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Art Bazaar in an old industrial part of town, featuring work by a dozen or more artists, and this excellent Jazz Fusion band which entertained and deafened us. My favoritie piece was a 40' long 'book' of a sketch and thoughts surrounding one major street in Warsaw. It folded up to the size of a dictionary. We also bought some are for 10 zloty (under $3)
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Biggus Doggus
Can I just say that we really miss home...
Compliments of Scott Steffens on the almost epic Mango Tatoosh Traverse a few weeks ago.
Updates-work, play, vacations
Howdy, sorry for no posts for awhile...I've actually been working (some).
Today, 12 October, we woke up to an amazingly cold, crisp morning. We have officially dropped below freezing here in Warsaw, and we chose this morning to be the one to ride to Jill's school 6 miles and get some exercise in her school's impressive weight room. We've been too soft too long, and we have some trips this winter we want to be ready for. So with frozen faces and numb fingers (it looks like my fingers still haven't fully recovered from Denali :-( we rode through the slow and beautfiul fog and sunrise.
Jill's working as hard as always, and comes home fairly exhausted. After the trip that I helped out with at Eagle's Nest, I can see why. Babysitting, along with teaching, kids all day is tough, "it's tough work being President," oops, I mean being a teacher! She's teaching 6-8th graders. There not the age for me, right now...
I'm still working with English First, and continue to turn down other job offers from the numerous schools in Warsaw (there's 147 English language schools, I think). My schedule is light, but slowly building up each week, along with my confidence and teaching techniques. Some of my students are great, some I want to throw out our top window at school. Such is life. Ah, diversity. I have a few cocky teenagers fully in the know-it-all stage.
At my CELTA course, Ralph had warned me, 'Don't teach kids, no matter what their age." A) They're a pain, B) they don't carry the respect that most other Poles do for teachers, C) you can't really go have a drink with them after class, D) they don't do their homework (since they're already in 'real school.'
But, they're not that bad...and I need to work.
I'm also teaching 2 general english classes-one of which is in-company at Sacel, a Nokia cell phone repair facility. The big boss is French (and speaks English). The Poles don't want to learn French, so he's paying for 5 of them to learn English so they can all communicate more easily. It's a pain to get to this industrial facility, and more of a pain that, Danuta, the owner of my school picks me up and races at 140+km/h to get me back to school for my next lesson. Fortunately she has seatbelts (and is the first Pole I've seen use them!) She passes semis, drives along the shoulder, cuts off everyone, and seems to try to mow over pedestrians...reminds me of my first Russian Taxi ride when I got here! She also barely speaks any English, so our conversations are pretty minimal. I did find out yesterday that she's been smoking for 8 years.
Next week, I'm starting another class, this one is a conversational/some business stuff-class. Danuta's older son will be in the class. He's an avid outdoor sports fanatic, and is into rock climbing and skiing. I hear he's broken several bones. Can't wait to meet him! And he wants to meet me.
Speaking of climbing, tonight I am having another interview of sorts, with Piotr (Peter) of Stork Adventures. Did I mention them before? They're an adventure travel company, that was planning on marketing to western Europeans, but instead it's been the Americans who have been shelling out the zlotys for his trips.
Go to:
www.storkadventures.com
If all goes well, I'll be helping Piotr with marketing further in North America, and will help with guiding down the road. All their trips feature some amount of activity: hiking, bike riding, horseback riding, kayaking, canoeing, scrambling and rafting. Real technical climbing isn't in the mix (yet) but could be in the future.
Wish me luck!
Also, future trips:
The end of October, my tourist visa ends. As I figure out how to get a real work visa, it seems I can renew my tourist visa...so I'm joining Jill and 3 other ASW teachers on the start of their Autumn break. October 23-26 we'll be going to Prague (Praha), which will be an 11 hour overnight/sleeper train. Mikael Christensen passed on one of his good friend's email, Jakub, and he's willing to show us around one night, too! Thanks, Mikael! Looking forward to Prague, and stumbling through another language.
The Big Trip-AUSTRIA!
That's right, this winter break we're going skiing, snowboarding, and hopefully waterfall ice climbing in Austria! George Benson, another ASW teacher, who lives 3 doors away, has either skied, worked, or lived in the Austrian Alps for the last 15 years! He knows the terrain and the towns, and will be our personal tour guide for the first few days before he flies to the states to visit his family. We're hitting Vienna, then the big resorts in Solden, near Innsbruck, before xmas, than the smaller, less popular ones after xmas, when the Alps are truly run over by the Germans on holiday.
If you want to join us-
LET US KNOW ASAP SINCE WE'RE MAKING RESERVATIONS SOON and SPACE WILL BE LIMITED!!
Should be sweet, and that's why we need to get back in shape! Ahh, skiing in the Alps at over 10,000'. sweet.
ciao!
jr
Today, 12 October, we woke up to an amazingly cold, crisp morning. We have officially dropped below freezing here in Warsaw, and we chose this morning to be the one to ride to Jill's school 6 miles and get some exercise in her school's impressive weight room. We've been too soft too long, and we have some trips this winter we want to be ready for. So with frozen faces and numb fingers (it looks like my fingers still haven't fully recovered from Denali :-( we rode through the slow and beautfiul fog and sunrise.
Jill's working as hard as always, and comes home fairly exhausted. After the trip that I helped out with at Eagle's Nest, I can see why. Babysitting, along with teaching, kids all day is tough, "it's tough work being President," oops, I mean being a teacher! She's teaching 6-8th graders. There not the age for me, right now...
I'm still working with English First, and continue to turn down other job offers from the numerous schools in Warsaw (there's 147 English language schools, I think). My schedule is light, but slowly building up each week, along with my confidence and teaching techniques. Some of my students are great, some I want to throw out our top window at school. Such is life. Ah, diversity. I have a few cocky teenagers fully in the know-it-all stage.
At my CELTA course, Ralph had warned me, 'Don't teach kids, no matter what their age." A) They're a pain, B) they don't carry the respect that most other Poles do for teachers, C) you can't really go have a drink with them after class, D) they don't do their homework (since they're already in 'real school.'
But, they're not that bad...and I need to work.
I'm also teaching 2 general english classes-one of which is in-company at Sacel, a Nokia cell phone repair facility. The big boss is French (and speaks English). The Poles don't want to learn French, so he's paying for 5 of them to learn English so they can all communicate more easily. It's a pain to get to this industrial facility, and more of a pain that, Danuta, the owner of my school picks me up and races at 140+km/h to get me back to school for my next lesson. Fortunately she has seatbelts (and is the first Pole I've seen use them!) She passes semis, drives along the shoulder, cuts off everyone, and seems to try to mow over pedestrians...reminds me of my first Russian Taxi ride when I got here! She also barely speaks any English, so our conversations are pretty minimal. I did find out yesterday that she's been smoking for 8 years.
Next week, I'm starting another class, this one is a conversational/some business stuff-class. Danuta's older son will be in the class. He's an avid outdoor sports fanatic, and is into rock climbing and skiing. I hear he's broken several bones. Can't wait to meet him! And he wants to meet me.
Speaking of climbing, tonight I am having another interview of sorts, with Piotr (Peter) of Stork Adventures. Did I mention them before? They're an adventure travel company, that was planning on marketing to western Europeans, but instead it's been the Americans who have been shelling out the zlotys for his trips.
Go to:
www.storkadventures.com
If all goes well, I'll be helping Piotr with marketing further in North America, and will help with guiding down the road. All their trips feature some amount of activity: hiking, bike riding, horseback riding, kayaking, canoeing, scrambling and rafting. Real technical climbing isn't in the mix (yet) but could be in the future.
Wish me luck!
Also, future trips:
The end of October, my tourist visa ends. As I figure out how to get a real work visa, it seems I can renew my tourist visa...so I'm joining Jill and 3 other ASW teachers on the start of their Autumn break. October 23-26 we'll be going to Prague (Praha), which will be an 11 hour overnight/sleeper train. Mikael Christensen passed on one of his good friend's email, Jakub, and he's willing to show us around one night, too! Thanks, Mikael! Looking forward to Prague, and stumbling through another language.
The Big Trip-AUSTRIA!
That's right, this winter break we're going skiing, snowboarding, and hopefully waterfall ice climbing in Austria! George Benson, another ASW teacher, who lives 3 doors away, has either skied, worked, or lived in the Austrian Alps for the last 15 years! He knows the terrain and the towns, and will be our personal tour guide for the first few days before he flies to the states to visit his family. We're hitting Vienna, then the big resorts in Solden, near Innsbruck, before xmas, than the smaller, less popular ones after xmas, when the Alps are truly run over by the Germans on holiday.
If you want to join us-
LET US KNOW ASAP SINCE WE'RE MAKING RESERVATIONS SOON and SPACE WILL BE LIMITED!!
Should be sweet, and that's why we need to get back in shape! Ahh, skiing in the Alps at over 10,000'. sweet.
ciao!
jr
God was missing for six days. Eventually Michael, the archangel, found him resting on the seventh day.
He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled and asked, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."
"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth.
"For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while Southern Europe is going to be poor. Over there I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all good things."
God continued pointing to different countries, "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and asked, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God, "that's Washington State, the most glorious place on Earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and coulees. The people of Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intellegent and humorous, and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance."
God smiled, "There is another Washington.
Wait until you see the idiots I put there."
He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."
Archangel Michael looked puzzled and asked, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."
"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth.
"For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while Southern Europe is going to be poor. Over there I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all good things."
God continued pointing to different countries, "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and asked, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God, "that's Washington State, the most glorious place on Earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and coulees. The people of Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intellegent and humorous, and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance."
God smiled, "There is another Washington.
Wait until you see the idiots I put there."
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