I am now pleased to announce that I can say that without pausing for breath or, indeed, without tying my tongue into so many knots that it takes a doctor to unravel it. I think I've cracked the pronunciation and spent the summer cramming as many nouns and verbs into my head as I could. I still lack some of the subtleties, such as speaking correctly, but I can at least string a sentence together now. I can say things such as 'I'm hungry.' (I use that quite a lot) and 'The cat is on the table.' (I don't use that one too often).
In September, we had a visit from the British Ambassasor. He had been invited by Romek, who owns IH Torun, to mark the 'International Day of Languages'. The event was held at one of the cafes in the square; we greeted the Ambassasor in turn, chatted a bit, listened to one of the staff singing a few songs (he's rather good!) and then we each read a bit of a classic book to the audience... A sort of celebration of English language and culture.
One of my colleagues took a photo and posted it on Facebook. I've added the link at the bottom (you don't need to be a member of Facebook to view it). The Ambassador is the chap in the tie of course.
You can't be English and not talk about the weather. About a month ago the temperature dropped dramatically and we had a load of snow. I resorted to wearing two jumpers and two coats - and that was just to go to bed! You can imagine my surprise when I looked at the UK weather and it made Poland look vaguely tropical. It has since warmed up - the snow's still here and the pavements are sheets of ice but I get by with just one coat again and have put my plan to buy a down jacket on hold.
This is the view from my balcony.
My latest idea has been to learn to Salsa dance. I found a class on Thursday evenings at a secondary school on the outskirts of town and signed up for eight lessons with Ruth, one of my colleagues. My style could be described as a cross between Mr. Bean and Anne Widecombe but I'm making progress. Some of the moves nearly put my back out. As all the instructions are in Polish it adds a further challenge. I eventually asked the teacher (Agni) for a translation. She asked me which one. 'All of them' I replied...
I don't appear in the photos - I'm not that daft.
I've now found a climbing partner. I put an advert up at the wall: 'Climbing partner wanted - must speak some English'. It worked - Łukasz got in touch soon after and we climb together every weekend.
I don't want to get back to the UK to find that all my climbing and walking buddies are fitter that me so I've started walking to all the local towns. The last walk took me to Bydgoszcz - about 30 miles away. It was worth the effort as I came across a group of about 20 wild boar in the forest. They were about 50m away - I heard some grunting and turned around to see them running away (I have this effect on wild boar). I would have liked a closer look but was glad they didn't run my way as it saved me from having to climb a tree in a hurry. You can walk for years in the forests around here and never see a boar so I count myself lucky.
I also entered the Ricochet tournament again. I got knocked out but put up a better fight this time.
I have a good range of classes this year - four adult classes, a teenage class and one class of ten year olds. The adults range from (almost) complete beginner up to an exam class preparing for the Certificate of Advanced English. Three of my classes are held at a Sanatorium in Ciechocinek, which is a nearby spa town. It's a hotel/health resort and I teach the staff. They're a very jolly bunch and we have a lot of laughs. The children's class reminds me a lot of the kids I taught in Manchester. The teenagers are, well, teenagers...
I went home for Christmas and was lucky enough to be able to land as Gatwick & Heathrow were closed that day but I flew into Stansted. It was a little disconcerting watching the wings being sprayed prior to takeoff, but all went well.
I spent the holiday travelling around the south seeing folk that I had missed in the summer, then to Stokenchurch for the best Christmas dinner on the planet.
After a couple of days with my family I headed north to the Lakes for the climbing club's new year event. A few stomps in the hills were just what I'd been missing.
The views were amazing (well, some of them anyway) ...
I was talked, no, forced, into wearing silly Pirate clothes for the new year party.
Now I'm back 'home' and have settled into the teaching routine again. However, today (Thursday 6th) is a National Holiday ('The Three Kings') so here I am tapping out my blog. We have the Winter Break at the beginning of February, and I'm planning a trip around Ukraine, so more will follow after that.
As ever, I'd love to hear what you're up to, so please drop me a line ...
Ambassador photo:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=153236061377652&set=a.153235891377669.23050.147282718639653
As well as that, there's a short video about life at the school if you fancy having a look ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW8LX6knsxI
