Catch up time ~ Summer 2006

The summer has come and gone. I feel, though, like it should just be
starting. I've worked for the past 6 weeks at 3 different children's
English camps here in Poland. And I'm pooped.

The first camp started the beginning of July and was by far the best.
The kids were kids - sometimes good, sometimes bad, but bearable; and
the other teachers and our team leader were superb.

The second camp not such a fairytale. The kids were amazing! No
complaints about them. They were kind and friendly. The other teachers
were really nice. One was a fellow Canadian, Vickie, and she and I
soon became good friends. But, our camp leader was a psycho!!! K- she was
rude, defensive, tempermental, argumentative and lazy. If you asked
what time the bus was picking us up for stg, you got your head bitten off.
When we stayed at a survival camp for a weekend and I
asked her if we could get sheets to cover the filthy matresses, she
said she wouldn't ask because the organisers would say no and 'What
are you? A French dog?!' (I later asked and had no problems getting
sheets.) So, yeah, I guess she'd been off her meds for a while.
Luckily I never (please, please, please) have to see her again.

The 3rd camp the teachers and camp leader were great, but the kids
were terrible. We have video they took of themselves pulling back the
mattress on a bed and jumping on the frame TRYING to break it. 2 beds
were destroyed, 2 windows, a large feather pillow, a toilet... There
were 4 older boys who thought it was fun to go into little boys rooms
at night dressed in ski masks and attack them - hit them, wrap them in
sheets and lock them in a wardrobe. The last day one boy's expensive
phone was stolen. His father finally insisted we call the police. We
did and they searched the bad kids' room first. They found it. Well,
you get the picture. Bad kids.

Now, I'm beginning my vacation. I have a little work to do on an EU
project for my school, but not much. Basically I have a month and a
half to recover.

I have a good contract for the coming year. Making good money, good
hours. No more travelling by train to a different city once a week!!!!
This is probably the most exciting part of it all. I'll be teaching my
Cultural Cooking Class. A Seatilite, Wendy, and I are in charge of
setting up a blog for our school to advertise school events and
promote student-school communication. I have a few private students as
well, which I've never had before - we'll see how that goes. I may be
doing a regular movie night as well. So, as far as work goes, I'm
quite content.

Plans outside of work...well, I was looking into buying land and
possibly buildng a house. I'm not sure how that will go, but I'd
definitely like to buy an apartment here as an investment. So, I think
I'll do that first and see about the house after. I'm most certainly
buying a dog, which will be really nice cause I love walking, but
really hate going alone. Need someone to talk to ;+) . Oh, and I'm
moving again. Changing apartments - seems to happen every new school
year. :) I really hate moving though, so I intend to do it very
gradually. A good friend of mine just bought a newly built apt close
to the centre and I'll share it with her. It'll be nice, cause now I'm
sharing with 4 students and I hate it. I saved a lot of money, but,
ugh! So, by staying with Agata I'll still save money, but I'll only be
living with one other person and she's NOT A STUDENT! :)

Well, that's Becky's life in a nutshell. I'll let you know what I plan
to do for holidays besides move. I'd like to go somewhere, but I'd
prefer to go WITH someone, ya know?

PA