Zory is an old Polish town. Nice old streets. The people are very friendly. I found a really nice pub called Spinoza and it is perfect. Abstract murals on the walls. All brick inside with arches. Underground in the cellar. A really good feel. Just need to make a few friends to drink with.
Still don't have internet but I found a nice non-smelly internet cafe in the Rynik (town square). Everything is clean. Love the old cobblestones. The job is good so far. A lot more prep time, but at least I can design some interesting classes for English conversation. No more Callan. Although I may do a bit of Callan (5-10 hours) at a nearby school to get enough teaching hours, but that's ok. I can handle that.
I am going to Ostrava in the Czech Republic this weekend for a friend's birthday. It feels good to have a few friends again in the nearby town of Rybnik. The beer is much cheaper in this small town as well. 4.50 for the Czech Pilsner (which is about $1.54). Still my salary is in the local wages not U.S. dollars so I gotta stop doing the currency conversion. However, if any of you want to visit me in Poland, it would be very cheap when you change your U.S. dollars or U.K. Sterling!
I am also making some good headway with Godzeenie. I am taking more chances with my writing again. Really I lost my sense of audience in Korea and for a while in Poland. These travels abroad made me realise I do have a sense of audience when I write. Since I am in a foreign country, I oversimplified my English a bit. I imposed an artificial "clarity" on the sentences. Of course clear declarative sentences can be complex and interesting. But I imposed a sense of the "poetic" onto my writing. Maybe because I wanted non-native English speakers to "understand" some of my writing. But I found a sympathetic reader. Even if she doesn't understand everything (I don't understand everything either), she really reads my writing. So nice!
It is interesting to look back and examine my various obsessions and concerns in my writing and see how they were squelched or repressed due to the scaling back of my vocabulary. Certainly saying "what's this" all day long has an effect.
So, now I am going to pick up some textbooks from my new boss and look through them for some ideas. Yesterday, I had a class of 11 year old children, a class of 10 year olds, a class of 13 year olds, a class of 16-17 year olds, and a class of college students. It is a nice challenge to try and design conversation classes for these different age groups and English speaking abilities.
I have a nice clean room. My landlord is very friendly. All is well. I expect some not so great days. But everything in my life works by comparison. I am enjoying Poland more than Korea and I am enjoying Zory more than Katowice.
Keeping it real!!!