Blogs from Wroclaw, Lower Silesian, Poland, Europe - page 9

CELTA 2007 International House Wroclaw I did the CELTA course so I have the opportunity to travel and teach around the globe. Also, so I did something constructive with my summer. I always loathed doing speeches at school/uni and am generally not comfortable speaking in front of many people. So this was a bit a challenge to me, and normally with strangers I’m pretty introverted personality wise. Week 1 I arrived on the Sunday and the course was due to start on the Monday. I got picked up from the airport by a really friendly woman who works at IH, she helped my buy some tram tickets for the week ahead, and showed me where I live. My accommodation was a high rise apartment block, but inside was really nice and was obviously owned by a ... read more

Sometimes you can spend ages psyching yourself up to do something. Then just as you're about to bite the bullet, Fate shows up, says "Scratch that, i've got a better idea" and you find yourself on a completely different path. I had big plans, a grand Slavic loop that would take me through southern Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, and back to Prague in time for New Year - I'd decided to ignore the minimal daylight and even more minimal temperatures and make the most of my freedom. First stop Wroclaw (pronounced Rock-slav), 70% destroyed during WWII and "one of Poland's most attractive cities", then on to Krakow, 4.5h southeast, with the horror of Auschwitz and amazing underground salt mines... I'm on the train to Krakow now (making this a loco-log? - sorry, bad pun), the only ... read more

So, it’s been some time since I have posted anything. And that is because I’ve been in the middle of the woods in Poland for 7 days. Brzezinka was built in the mid 70’s I believe for the Theatre Laboratory’s use in it’s work. It is one building (and a broken water mill) that houses enough space (and more) for the 35 people who are here now, two large work spaces, a kitchen, two dining halls several storage spaces and of course, a three stall, two shower bathroom and washing machine. Oh, and mosquitos the size of my hand. Our schedule has been (loosely) as follows: 8:30 Warm-up session This typically consists of a run through the woods, lots of stretching and yoga like excercises. Also, weight sharing with partners and acrobatic partner work. Lots of ... read more

Ok so I'm not really in Wroclaw anymore, but since I had two failed attempts at updating yesterday, we're gonna pretend i am.. so our last night in Warsaw we ended going to Galeria (club) along with Kasia's cousins. Kasia was quite the dancing queen if I do say so myself. Jarek and I left to check out Utopia, one of Warsaw's best clubs, while Kasia stayed and got her groove on. Once back (4:30am) we hit up some Kebabs....always delicious.... the next morning I went to meet up with Jarek at 2:00 and we headed to the train station so he could help me buy tickets. Well all the workers there were huge bitches and were of no help whatsoever, so we ended up going to an internet cafe to look up train times. The ... read more

I am sitting at my desk falling in and out of consciousness, as paper airplanes and spitballs whiz past my head. I stare absent-mindedly at the back wall where "MR DUEK IS GAY" is crudely written in bright blue letters with permanent marker. I squint to see the letters more closely and notice that someone has scribbled "I NOW" with a black pen beside the original statement. Underneath the two messages is a badly drawn penis. There are a lot of badly drawn penises in my classroom; three of them occupy spots on the seats of random classroom chairs, others live between the worn pages of various Shakespeare texts, accompanied by the occasional message, "turn to page 42!" Incidentally, on pg. 42 is yet another badly drawn penis, underneath the heading, "Ur MuM". I debate taking ... read more