Kinda cool, kinda creepy. Not sure about the history for this massive monument over in Praga, the un-bombed city across the river from Warsaw

Jill gettin' deep with Simon about life in Japan (one of Jill's previous overseas (otherseas?!) adventures) (Her haircut's still lookin' great :)

Simon and Julie at the Cork Irish pub. Julie met Simon, who's from the UK, at a school conference (in Italy?) last Fall. They've been going strong ever since, and she's making the big move to England next year to teach French and Spanish there instead of here. We'll miss you Julie, but we'll surely visit! :)

Riding 'round Warsaw! Warsaw's amazingly (and sadly) flat, and they are slowly building more and more bike trails. One sunny weekend in early April we got out to enjoy an urban ride. Hopefully they'll keep adding new bike paths, as the drivers aren't the nicest when you're out on the road!

George and Agnieszka, our former neighbors...George just moved to a much nicer flat at a much better cost, with much help from his Polish speaking girlfriend!

Pan Adam, his baby and Ralph, all out enjoying a pint at Klub Lolek, a Flintstone's-esque bar in the middle of a large park in the city

not your average war memorial...on the north side of the city. The 'bars' on the ground are the names of numerous Poles from this part of the city who died in WWII

Moi Boze!

Good grief, time has been flying!

Hmm, well I'm teaching over 27 hours a week now (up from 16) and have my first private student, named Hanna. Work and life has been insane, but good.

Let's see, well, the Pope died, and that was interesting to be here in the thick of things. My time is too short now to write about it, but I've recorded many of my students comments and hope to post them here.

We spent Easter in the unpronouncable mountain town called Szczyrk. We got one run on skis in the rain, a nice long hike over rolling, snowy hills and ate some more quintessential inauthentic Mexican food! Smacznego!

OK, what else...oh, Jill, Dawn and I are training for the Krakow half marathon! (13.1 miles/21 kilometers). In high school I once ran over 16 miles...but that was half my life ago...
So, we're slowly but surely getting in better shape, and just in time for another trip:

WE'RE GOING TO THE DOLOMITES IN ITALY!!!!

He he he. Much more up my alley than skiing in Austria (which was still cool, of course!). It's Italy's 2nd rainiest month of the year, so who knows what we'll accomplish, but we hope to do different types of rock climbing at lower elevations, do some crazy/cheating via ferrat (iron way) routes, and if all goes well, 1-3 alpine routes. They've had a late winter, and got dumped on recently, so who knows.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to say hi as it's been a super long time since last post.

Oh, I'm legal now!!!!

Ciao!

j n j

:)