Becky's Plan Backfires. Doh!

This morning (Saturday!) I had a class at 9am. Difficult, I know, but do-able and a really great student, so worth the trouble. (I've begun tutoring a 10 year old hearing impaired girl, helping her adjust to suddenly being in an all-English school.)
I set the alarm on my phone good and early. I woke up before the alarm! Cool, I had lots of time. My lesson was ready.
**Now, to be sure that Becky is never late, Becky also has a fail safe plan by which she scares herself into being on time by making herself think she is late. The clock in Becky's room is 1 hour behind. Unfortunately, Becky is also easily confused. :(
Still wonderfully relaxed and thinking I was on time, it wasn't until I reached the tram stop and saw 9:09am flashing at me that I grew concerned. I actually didn't believe the clock at first, but my phone said the same.
So, today, I was late FOR THE FIRST TIME and ended up rescheduling my lesson.

At 11am I have a teacher's meeting and I FINALLY get my schedule!!! for MONDAY!!!!!!

In case any of you are wondering what kind of dog I want, here it is, the Norwich Terrier. The pictures are courtesy of Monika, who is just as excited about me getting a dog as I am. I'm sure my puppy and her Yorkie, Pavarotti :) will be buddies.

My back is fantastic!

I don't remember the last time I felt so good!!! I told you I went to get a massage. Well, immediately after, I felt great, but by evening my neck hurt again and yesterday morning I felt awful. So... I went to a yoga class. Had no idea what to expect, but I was desperate. We just did some stretches, a lot of back exercises. The instructor, whose english was great, said that these stretches really help people who work a lot on computers. When I left I was walking on air! Even today I feel fantastic. I'm going to go again tomorrow. I hope I'll be able to fit it into my schedule once I'm working.

This afternoon I'm going to visit a lady who wants someone to tutor her daughter. Her daughter is not deaf - but practically. I came into contact with her through Ania, my boss. According to Ania, this woman is very intense. She is convinced her daughter doesn't have much of a future in Poland, because of her disability, so she is sending her to an American school in the hopes that she will later study and live in North America. But, the girl is 10 years old and finding it diffiult to adjust and understand since all of her classes are in English.
I'm really excited about helping this girl, the only problem is that it is on the complete opposite end of the city as me and the girl gets out of school just when I start work. We'll see.

That's all for now, pa

House hunting once again...

The crazy apartment lady basically told me she didn't want to meet me or hear from me again. Good riddance. I was disappointed at first, but I really believe, God must have something better waiting for me. I looked at a place today. An old historic building that a company is completely renovating. Really nice quiet atmosphere and the fun part is that, because they are basically gutting the place, I can choose the area of the building I want and, aside from structural walls, I can move things around and arrange walls, bathroom, whatever, anywhere I want. They are redoing all the pipes, putting in an elevator, etc. Alot of the best places are gone, but there was one space I loved on the 4th floor. There is a large terrace that, in the plans, goes with another large apartment, but I asked the guys if it could possibly be divided and I could have a small bit of it. The view was really nice. On one side of the apartment the roof slopes just a little and they are putting lots of skylights in. There are some nice wooden columns and beams naturally there, too.
Anyway, I'm not getting my hopes up yet. They have to get back to me on exactly how many square metres it will be. I've highlited some places in the newspaper that sound promising, I'll check them out tomorrow.

This afternoon I'm going to get a massage. I've been having problems with my back and neck - I think from the donkey project. I've had it for a while, but it's been getting much worse lately. AND, apparently, Tim (the Brit) says, there are only 2 chiropractors in Poznan and I wouldn't trust them! So, ok. I'll get a massage and wait til I come home before I let someone start cracking my spine!

Hungarian food night was great! Spicy goulash, cabbage rolls and lacha - a strange but tastey mix of tomato, potato and egg? Sounds crazy, but it was really good!

I haven't started teaching yet, not til October. I'd like to know my schedule! But, I probably won't get it til Friday. Unfortunately. The first week of teaching, though, is the easiest. Getting to know everybody, playing games. :) Yeah, I have a tough life. I love my job. BUT, I'm getting a little tired of Poland. Living with Agata is really nice, though. We get along really well!

I don't have internet yet... maybe today...

Continued...

So, this week was training at school and I was asked to be a trainer.
Ok, I'm not thrilled at the idea, I tend to get very nervous with people watching me, but, hey, it'll look good on my resume. Always the deciding factor. And it's a good personal challenge.
I was asked to do a workshop on multimedia and IT in the classroom. Even better - something I really enjoy and feel comfortable doing. So, I planned everything out - the internet ideas and sites I would introduce, the dvd's and related activities I could present... yesterday (Thursday) afternnon was the scheduled time.
As usual, when working with multimedia, I arrived early to test and set up.
DO YOU THINK THERE WAS A DVD PLAYER??? A SINGLE COMPUTER THAT PLAYED DVD'S??? MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER WITH INTERNET IN THE COMPUTER ROOM???!!!
I spent 2 hours trying to find a computer with a dvd drive, or one with enough memory to download a dvd player program, asking my bosses about their laptops (none of which play dvd's apparently!), bla, bla, bla. Finally the third boss said hers would work. Great. Now, --, where's the projector? I'd like to set everything up. WHAT?!?!? IT'S AT YOUR HOUSE?!?! ?
Enough said. In the end the workshop was ok. My lesson later was haggard. I don't care. I survived.

On a lighter note, tomorrow evening is Hungarian food night with my Bible study group. Rich is annoyed because he's working at a business camp and won't get goulash. Hee, hee.
And, on Sunday, I may be giong to look at terriers. Maybe I'll get pictures. But, I don't think there will be puppies until the spring.

Also, on Wednesday, I looked at some apartments. (The crazy lady has basically made it clear she doesn't like me and doesn't want to ever hear from me again.)
These apartments are actually a little nicer and across the street from a large park. It's an old historic building that is being completely renovated. Just goes to show, God knows best.

Plodding Along...

This week was Young Learners Training Week at my school.

No news is good news :)
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Been busy.

Last week I went with Rich to Krakow to visit our friends, Jim and Ewa. They just had a baby. Their first. She's about a month old and all she did the first 2 days we were there was scream! Luckily, the first 2 days we stayed with Ewa's mother in her house just outside of Krakow. WE slept peacefully :) The 3rd night we stayed with them and I guess Sofia was so exhausted from the previous rampage that she slept all night long. Ahhh. Lucky us.

We went to the famous salt mines. It was interesting, but not cheap. 60 zloty for the English tour! As I said, the tour through the mines is nice, but, just before you step into the highlite, the one place you've been waiting for - the Cathedral - you are told you need to pay another 10 z's if you want to take pictures. Rich and I decided to buy a postcard. However, as we entered the cathedral, carved entirely out of salt, we noticed that almost everyone in our large group was snapping pictures. Only about 5 people had actually paid to. So, we joined in. I'm really glad we didn't pay! As you can see, it was so dark down there none of the pictures really turned out!

On our way out of the mine we met a really nice American girl. We think she was a little lonely because she was backpacking around Poland with a friend who had completely different interests, so she was being dragged to museum after museum. While her friend had gone on to see the mining machinery museum, she had decided (as Rich and I) to skip it and go get lunch. We took her to a very traditional Polish restaurant and just chatted. That's one thing I love about traveling and being an expat - you meet so many people!

We also visited Wawel Castle. Really nice, especially because you don't have to take a tour! You can choose the parts of the castle you're interested in and take as much or as little time as you want. Only one bit of caution: The Garden Tour. Yes, this was one tour, and it was MY decision to try it. I thought it would be a real treat to see some royal gardens. There was one garden. I don't know if I got a pic, but it was small. Our tour guide made a good point though - gardens of that time were more for practical purposes than decorative, because there was so little green area inside of a castle. Castles are built for fortification, no beautification. :) Unfortunately, that was the ONLY GARDEN ON THE TOUR! After that we were told about the gardens that were once situated here or there, but since the Austrians came, they bricked over them. There are no plans to reconstruct these gardens. So, there you go.

Over all, it was a great trip. We had great weather and I love Krakow. The only thing I regret is that we didn't stay until Sunday. A lady on the train home told us that on Sunday would be the annual "sausage dog parade"!!! Imagine hundreds of little wiener dogs trotting down the streets in costumes, their masters matching!!!

Oh well, next year for sure!

http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m154/pigeonspikes/Krakow%202006/?start=0
More pics of Wawel: http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/wawel&page=all

Coming Home!!!

I just bought my ticket!
Early for once and the best price I've ever paid.
I'll get to Toronto December 15 at 8:20pm, flying LOT
and I leave from Toronto January 3 at 6:25pm, LOT again.

See you soon,
Becky!

PS. Moving is done and went surprising well.
I'll save unpacking for tomorrow... or the day after... :)

Moving Day.

I got up early and went to the market. It wasn't easy to get up - Agata, Rich and I had a Mel Gibson film marathon last night. It was my choice, I was told to rent movies. I hate choosing for other people - they always complain about my taste. :) Anywho, I got Signs, Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon. Got to bed late! We didn't even watch the last one, we were too tired. Boy, I'm getting old. Sad.

I like going to the market in the early morning. There's a special smell and feel. It's a surprisingly good smell if your wandering around the fresh fruit and vegetable stands. It's fun looking and choosing something nice for breakfast and then going into the bakery for fresh bread or buns. Well, I think that will have been the best part of the day.

The worst part will begin about 1pm-ish. Arek and Rich are coming over to help me load up a truck and take my stuff to Agata's. I don't have too much stuff, but enough. I still have to throw some papers in bags. I hate sorting papers, so, it's the one thing left to do and probably won't get done. :) Then off to my new home!

No news re the OTHER apt. I'm meeting with the buyer on Monday. Also have a teacher's meeting on Monday. Fun. I've been working lately on a blog for my school and flyers for the cooking and film classes I'll be teaching.

That's all folks!