In the bigger picture, not all that exciting or important, but we all live in the little picture...well, anyway, I do...so just a couple comments...

Yesterday I had a student come into class (we're rotating 10 groups) named Anna Matejka. After introducing myself to the class I pointed out the similarity between her name & mine, and even more importantly, between her name and that of Jan Matejko, probably Poland's most famous painter. Her name is Matejka because that's the feminine version of Matejko. Female Piotrowskis in Poland are Piotrowskas.

So anyway she points out that Jan Matejko was her great, great, great grandfather. Cool.

Tomorrow I have a student from another group coming in named Katarczyna Ostrowska. Who do (some of us) know of that name? Aunt Catherine Ostrowski. Also cool.

Classes are great. Tremendous students, engaged, knowledgeable, fun. I miss teaching. A few, of course, are none of those good things, but they are very few.

I've been reading them a Ted Kooser poem (A Room in the Past), talking about Shakespeare, blahblahblah. Today in homeroom, just for the fun of it we played Black Magic. Also cool.

This afternoon we had pickup softball out on the huge blacktop area between buildings, where Prussian officers then Polish officers trained for more than a century, sometimes on horseback. Most of the Polish students had never picked up a bat or glove before, but it was great fun. One of these afternoons we're going to do some American football.

At noon & 9 p.m. a trumpet sounds from the tower of the garrison church, Swiata Katarcyna...maybe a recording...but it's also cool.

The weather hasn't been very cool. Mostly warm to hot, though it cools off at night. Nice that I can leave the windows to my room open & not be bothered with pesky insects.

After two days of teaching I'm feeling almost a pro...and still really having a good time.

The night we got here two of the young female teachers were coming back from a Club in the wee hours and were accosted by bad guys. They had their purses snatched. One, a petite young thing, ran after her thief, and as she said, I'd almost caught up with him when he dropped my purse. I'm thinking -- probably good for him he did. The other one got away, but they found her purse a day later, after much police involvement, sans her cell phone & camera. Credit cards were still in it.

A retired cop from St. Paul who's become my best buddy here, and I, just got back from a short shopping trip in town. Looking for costumes in a resale shop, for our Halloween night next week. We may go in drag. Jim has a great story about setting a vase full of marijuana leaves on the Chief's desk one day, the Chief coming in & asking who was nice enough to bring him a bouquet, and his secretary asking...Chief, do you know what those are?

We stopped for a short one. We're exploring the diversity of malted beverages. We've found a really nice one with a bison on the label, called Zubr, made up by Bialystok. We have only begun to plumb the possibilities...

Hope everyone is ok. I miss you all, miss the woods & fields & tennis, but no regrets at all about my choice to do this.

Here's part of our lunch yesterday, a delicious cold beet soup with a side of cabbage salad. Next course was potatoes & a pork cutlet...

The dormitory I'm staying in, once a military academy. Built in 1875 by the Prussians, eventually taken over by the Poles. From here in September 1939 the 63rd Polish infantry(?) after training headed out to slow down the Germans. I'd like to learn more about the military history of the academy.

It's now (since 1991) a kind of math/science magnet school.

This is the post office in the Old Square in torun. It was built during the German (Prussian) presence....Note the Tyskie sign, a really good Polish beer, available here at $1.50 per half-liter.

Most of us at lunch. At the end of the table is Andrzej, who helped start this school and continues as director.

Hi all...still struggling with old computers to get some pictures up for you.

My first day of classes this morning, went well. We are assigned homeroom groups. Mine are all girls! They're really good kids, and all my classes went well. We talked literature, Shakespeare, I read a Ted Kooser poem to them, a lovely poem about his grandmother (babca)...As you'd expect, there are engaged kids & those who hang around the margins picking up the pieces.

Food continues to be remarkable. Last night for supper, the first we had with the kids (110 overall) the cooks did up these great crepes slathered with chocolate, plenty of fresh strawberries, golden raisins & stuffed with some kind of cheese. A little Polish ham and the ubiquitous tomatoes & sliced cucumbers on the side completed the picture. Their potatoes are creamy yellow; they say it's because they only fertilize them with manure, no irrigation, no synthetic fertilizers

For those who've been to Folklore Village, the experience resembles a festival. We have committees who agree to organize sports, music, craft, drama, etc activities. Tomorrow I'm going to help do American football. Tonight there's a scavenger hunt for all the students, with homeroom groups competing.

I'm still jetlagged, most of the time exhausted, but getting by with it.

Pictures coming soon -- though because of the speed of the internet, not many!

Hello all! Dzien dobry (good day) from Poland.

After a couple good Zywiec pivos (pivo is beer, pierogi are fried & stuffed with mushrooms, cabbage, cheese, etc., pierniki are gingerbread desserts which are local specialties here in Torun) last night, sleep came easily. But my body is still adjusting; I woke up at about 3:30, near dawn, and really didn't go back to sleep. It's amazing how we can function on almost no sleep, though my IQ takes a serious dip...

At Mass this morning in Swiata Katarczyni (Saint Catherine) church, the church assigned to the military academy we're at and right next door. 9:00 Mass and 10:30 Mass were standing room only; the sermon which I understood about 3 words of was a good 15 minutes long; Mass was nearly an hour. The man who sang sang beautifully. The Polish language is a beautiful language, I think most lovely in its liturgy.

Students are arriving this afternoon. We have something over a hundred. Ten of us teachers, with several American high school students as assistants. I've arranged my classroom and have my first lesson ready for tomorrow. Enjoying the relative relaxation of Sunday afternoon.

I'll post some pictures soon as we figure out how to...these computers in the teacher's lounge are not cutting-edge..

Dowidzenia!

Ken

Hello!

After 33 hours continual travel (mechanical problems on our MSP plane that made us miss our Amsterdam-Warsaw connection) finally arrived at the school this morning at 3 a.m. That 33 hours included 30 hours inside a plane or terminal -- not one breath of fresh air or a quantum of sunlight unfiltered by glass or plastic.

We flew from Amersterdam on what must have been the flight path the big bombers took from bases north of London on their way to Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden & Berlin. The sun was setting behind us, and lit some incredibly complex clouds with a lovely pink on their TOPS. I almost imagined the roar of the props and engines, the cold air, and the little black specks that grew so rapidly into Messerschmidt 109s...How brave they were, on both sides, and how fortunate we were we won!

Along that line, my room is a former officer's room in the military academy which the buildings here once were (we have a big parade ground in the middle of the quadrant of buildings, which include old stables...) From our rooms Polish officers trained, in the late 30s, to go off and die fighting enemies from east and west. I hope to learn more about the history of the buildings...

After a nice breakfast (fresh tomatoes, Polish ham, eggs, and fresh milk), meetings & getting the classroom ready for Monday morning.

Facilities here are fairly primitive, a little moreso than Dalkeith, for those who were there. We have shared unisex bathrooms, including the showers, which we'll share with students of both types...not acceptable in the US, I'm sure.

So off to supper & some pivo tonight. More, later.