Week 9: Work abounding!

After responding to a few advertisements (which my love found, thankyou dear) on the local gumtree, from a few schools. I was contacted by one school for a substitution position for a contract that expires at the end of January. It was very short notice and I was called for preliminary interview one day prior to lesson, and went for said interview 5 hours before said lesson.. The shortness, my lack of teaching experience, my lack of knowing where anything is in this city, and the lack of information anywhere, made it extremely stressful and challenging. But my first lesson went well, students were happy and enthusiastic, and everything went according to plan (even though I didn't have one). The end result? I will have a work contract written up by next week and I'm technically working with a school now :)

Still continuing private lessons, even though I have only one client at the moment.. I was also contacted for interview on the 22nd December by another language school interested in cooperation, and so it looks my prospects are high and things will start to improve. Hopefully this will start eating my time more, so I will spend more time focussed and earning money, than being depressed and lonely :) Hoozah

P.S: -11c, wet, windy, in just a jacket, shirt + tie. for 2 1/2 hours = so incredibly cold I could feel my soul floating away towards the light.

10/12 Update

So a few things...

Scratch the final note in the previous note about slipping, it happened to be that we had freezing rain followed by every spot of Poznań being immensely slippery. Resulting in not one, but two slips, a bruised ego and sore wrist ensued.. That being said, it was quite humerous watching people have fun on the ice, moonwalking, sliding down hills, finding creative ways to not move on the ice, etc.

Also trying to get my regisitration of residence sorted here. I'm officially registered on the flat, however we're finding it difficult to get myself a residence permit because there is hardly any information anywhere about how to do this.. Hopefully we will get this sorted on monday with a little more research and patience (and providing we go to the correct office dear!)

/end

Week 8: Two months from home

Week 8 has begun, and so marks the two-month point I left ground in my homeland to come to this strange and seemingly distant [albeit relatively close] place. I would like to say it's all rosepetals and rainbows, and while I am happy here, and proud of the things I've done, that I followed my dreams and my heart to get to where I am, I can't deny the extreme hardships and costs (not just monetarily!) that come with living a dream.

So what is positive thus far? What inspires me to keep going, to work at it?:

* I've currently conducted 5 private lessons and will be doing another tonight (and so earned 155 pln.. which in the grand scheme things isn't alot but who wouldn't object to an extra 30 quid a month?)

* I have someone I love, close with me, someone I can confide in, share feelings and thoughts with, and live dreams with

* I'm acquiring new skills - my 3rd language, teaching styles / methodologies

* I'm becoming more mature, responsible, individual. While a monetary dependent still until permanent work setles, I'm responsible for keeping house relatively tidy, for keeping cat fed and watered, keeping myself, our home, our cat, and my love safe.

* I'm seeing things that I've not seen before, and experiencing things I've not experienced before.


What's not so great?:

* It's indescribably lonely. There are English expatriate groups here, and ocassional meetings but finding time or morivation to go to them is difficult. When I am not teaching a student, and my love is working 10 or 12 hours and getting home at 10pm, and the cat still hates me that I can't cuddle her or pick her up. And the only times I speak are to myself, it gets very, very, incredibly lonely and moody.

* I've had 3 different students: First one never contacted me back after our first lesson, the second came to first lesson and showed enthusiasm to continue but then wrote saying they'd have to suspend it for now but might continue. But thankfully my third is a regular with sometimes 2 lessons per week, but this does not change the fact it's not enough money to help cover bills, only minor expenses.

* Time: I have a great deal of it, but with the loneliness and lack of progress with work making me quite moody, it's hard to find motivation to prioritise and organise my time. I should be making plans, sticking to it and being productive since I have so many things I must do:  Study for uni, study polish language, study English grammar so I can explain it to students more easily (and correctly), prepare lesson plans, spend time with my love, clean flat, take care of cat, and time for myself... but instead of doing this, I spend most of my days withering away in self-pity that I never have the motivation to get much done even with all the time in the world resting in my hands.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enough of that, so how am I dealing with other things?

Well, we had a little bit of a november coldsnap, with temperatures averaging a daytime high of -9c and evenings getting to between -12c and -16c.  Oddly, I was ok with these temperatures, I seem to be colder when the temperatures are averaging -3c / -5c.

I've slipped countless times on the ice, two were very close to actually falling, but thankfully I've never gone the whole way down. (The two very close ones were spectacular saves.. one involved running across the road as the light was changing and jumping over a mound of snow, landing on ice and making a marvelous comeback to not slip... the second, was the result of moisture being turned to ice by outside airconditioning at McDonalds, my love was conviniently there for me to grab to prevent faceplant)

The snow makes bouts of being very low and slushy, to quite deep and white/fluffy. I havn't seen it snow for about 3-4 days (though it snowed last night) alas the snow isn't going down.  Here are a few photos of the winter thus far:

and remember, wrap up warm when it's cold! And cuddle a cat if you have one...

 

So I guess I don't really have much else to share for now... so, tata

Weeks 6 and 7

It's been a little while (I admit, I have been slacking!)

Weeks 6 and 7 have now passed, and the past few weeks have been quite eventful.
I have been contacted by around 5 different people interested in private English lessons, and I have conducted one conversation class which went quite successfully and pocketed me my first earnings. I was contacted today by another person interested in lessons and will conduct my second teaching this coming friday, quite excited!

Well, we've done a few things around the flat! A trip to ikea and a few bookshelves later, we've gave ourselves space for our .. ach em, reasonable movie game and music collection. with more space to store the books upon. Avast!

I finally bit the bullet and went to the doctors (which was a comical event in itself given the delicate nature of language. Suffice to say, an "errection of the throat' and a hasty "take off your shirt" made for an interestingand somewhat entertaining visit, for both me and my girlfriend)

Language is coming along slowly still, I've not found much time nor motivation (given illness among other things) to put a lot of thought into study. I've been working for the last few days on my assignment for university which, when finished, will give me free time until january (although I'm looking forward to my third assignment about the Arctic and a musem exhibit I must design which seems very interesting)

The weather has been changing alot. It's very depressing in the mornings when it's cold and miserable and dark. The temperatures dropping a lot now with most days bordering on freezing point. Fortunately I've got a nice new (elegant :P thankyou dear) winter jacket to keep myself warm.  Today is the first day of snow in the new season :) apparently it's a mixed blessing but time will see.

 Perhaps a few minor additions will be added later when i have a little more time ;) but until then, these are the most noteworthy of things to report :)

~Jay

1 month mark

So a month has passed now since I departed the UK to live in Poland with my love. It's been fun, it's been exciting, it's been a new experience but it's also been stressful, lonely, encapsulating and challenging.

Rather than write up more events and happenings (of which there are few) I'll make a list of everything positive and negative I have learned as a lesson since my short time here. I'll start off with the list of positives!

POSITIVES:

* Cost of living is significantly cheaper / routine expenses are smaller

* There are systems in place to handle most forms of inquery without the hassle of a thousand departments

* Public transport (though a mixed blessing; see later) is efficient and handled well

* Cuisine, while simple, is exciting as it shows new ways of doing things with the same goods we are used to

* People in the streets, while inquisitive, often don't care about what you are doing (see; smoking, photography, drinking, shouting) they keep themselves to themselves usually

* Architechturally and scenically, it's a beautiful city with history and lots of places to go / things to see(/do)


NEGATIVES:

* Polish - as a slavic language with a case-system and completely devoid of articles (a, the, an) with only 3 tenses and a context-based understanding - is not only difficult to learn and understand, but also to speak. For an english speaker to see a word like 'szczęśliwi' (happy) is disconcerting, to pronounce it is even more so ;)

* Lack of personal space; there is no such thing in poland. At traffic lights waiting to cross the road people will stand up your arse, on public transport rather than wait for the next tram, much like london underground, people just stuff themselves like sardines into it, even if it means you are being groped and frolicked in ways you didnt know were possible. Also, if people wish to get past you on the street, its completely normal to just touch your ribs, hips or arm and move you out the way. (In england, this would get you a broken nose)

* Queuing is a nightmare! People have very little respect for other peoples time and energy. Unless your genitalia are pushed up against the person in front of you, people will take every opportunity to squeeze in front of you in a 5mm gap without a care, apology or explanation,

* Change and money in stores is odd. for such a supposedly open culture where people have no taboo's about touching strangers' hips and ribs, or just cutting your queue, or rubbing themselves pervertedly up you in a packed tram... it's so forbidden for a cashier to give you change in your hand, instead they insist on putting it on some little silly tray and then you spend the next 5 minutes trying to scoop the coins up while the people behind you get increasingly impatient.

* Football hooligans here are even worse ;)



~~

And so concludes one month in passing since I arrived here, with new experiences, new knowledge, new stresses and new enemies. I look forward eagerly to what the next month and the month after and so forth brings for me.

 At Lake Malta ;) loves x

Week 3: A positive(ish) transition!

So week 3 has passed, things have started to look up a bit! On the road to recovery, with just a minor sore throat in the mornings, occasional cough and only slight loss of hearing at night time. Still no luck on the job frontier yet but keeping an eye open and my contact lines open, and remain optimistic!

I submitted my first assignment for my new uni course and I'm optimistic about this one, so hope I get a good mark and useful feedback. My lovely partner is helping me out when I have questions about the language, and she got for me a piece of language-learning software and a dictionary :D so that in combination with my other books, my uni resources and my unbelievable amount of free time should help me progress quicker. I'm still learning but it's coming along, I can have basic (written) conversations, ask simple questions, describe things slightly, etc etc. Learning about cases now, tackling the accusative and know about the nominative and dative! Difficult but rewarding :)

The cat still hates me, and everyday I have new, and more impressive and painful reminders of just how much she hates me :D I miss my beloved tigga back home terribly, terribly much :( And when I next return to the UK, whenever that is, I will give the little guy a great big cuddle and kiss. Apparently the demolition of my room back home has already gone underway :P My mother stole my monitor, my chair, my speakers, my drawers and even my mattress! Bed has gone, and a lot of my stuff boxed up.. I can't even imagine how it looks now, but suffice to say I'll be sleeping on the floor or the sofa when I visit :)

I've found a few people online who I can write / converse with in Polish so this should also help me to speed up my progress in the language and give me something to do on occassion while I'm still waiting on the job frontier. Did I mention I love my dear terribly, terribly, incredibly much? :) Hope she knows this.

Not much else to report, so ta-ta, aurevoir, do widzenia!

Week 2: Tragic!

I'm into the second week now of my move.
Do not misunderstand, I am incredibly happy to have finally made it, to be here, to be with the person I love and want to spend the rest of my life with. But if an international move with work, language, cultural and financial barriers wasn't enough, 2 weeks of illness has really made this substantially more difficult than I wished it to be. I have one of the worst sinus infections I've ever had, if at least the most excrutiating one. My ears are both infected and feel like they are stuffed with cotton, my throat feels tight and burns everytime I swallow, and I feel like a druggy knocking back painkillers like they were tictacs, eardrops like they are going out of fashion, strepsils like they were mints and lemsips like lemonade. Despite all of this, I'm still awake at 12:15am in terrible pain writing this!

I've found a reasonable amount of time over the past few days to get on with some studying of Polish language, and it's coming along ok! I understand genders within the language now, understand a little better possessives, and my vocabulary is increasing. In an effort for mutual benefit, my girlfriend and I plan on making a list of all the items within each room of the house (with the list being divided by room) with the english name followed by its polish name. Most movies are being watched with polish subs and I'm being exposed to the language most of the day through TV, stores, listening to phonecalls, people outside etc. So I hope that I will pick it up quickly! I feel like I am, I'm reading a few things now, looking at sentences and able to pick some apart and make a guestimate of what it means based on some particles, adjectives and nouns. 

I've sent a C.V / Covering letter to 4-5 schools now or so, hope to send more and hope to hear back from some of them! It felt great to finally get some off after a slow start due to both my loves and my illnesses. I also have a profile up at info-praca, though I've no idea how to use it, or what any of it means (Thanks dear for setting it up though!)

My love is going back to work tommorow(today now?) and so again I will be back to having long days of cleaning, studying, looking for work, and sitting around like a lemon - pity I will be doing all of this while I'm completely ill. it's rather unfortunate I am 90% dependent on someone due to language, knowledge and finance, but to not have that dependent person when I'm the most vulnerable (new transition, terrible illness, etc) So not looking forward to surviving the next few days in pain, alone.

Not much else to report! Oh, all attempts at peaceful negotiation and initiation of mutual friendship with the not-so-domesticated moggy I share my home with has so far failed and resulted in my hands appearing reminiscent of one afflicted with leprosy. Hail!

13/10 Update

So not much has changed, still havn't got round to sending any more C.V's off which is disappointing as it lowers my chances of finding work and means I'm stuck in the home as a dependent for that much longer. I feel incredibly exhausted and weak - resultant of almost a week of very poor and frequently interrupted sleep.

So thought I'd write a few things about what I've learned so far:

1.) British social ettiquette is insufficient - one must learn to be rude to survive the lack of any sense of structure or order in terms of public services such as transport or queues.

2.) Polish people are absurdly tall, it makes for quite the emasculation when you need stilts to look into the eyes of 90% of the population

3.) Older people hate it when you speak English but appreciate trying Polish. Younger people hate it when you try and speak Polish and appreciate conversing in English.

4.) 99% of those who die under medical care, die en route;












5.) If you use public transportation, you will get groped in places you didn't even know you had!

Week 1: The move and settling

My name is Jamie (Jay) Scott. I am 20 years old and I originate from Leicester, England. For the last 13 years I have been living on the South East coast in the iconic city of Brighton & Hove. Two months ago I made a joint decision to leave the UK behind and move to Poznań, Poland to be with my beautiful girlfriend. I had been to Poland twice before this; in May and August of this year, and these two visits certainly solidified my decision.

On October 5th, 2010. I departed the UK - train from Brighton to London, tube and overground to Stansted Airport, and then a plane to my new home!

The move itself was not very stressful. At home in Brighton I spent some time going through old boxes, and boxes, and ... boxes, however all that I brought with me was a 13.2kg suitcase containing clothes and a few books. My backpack with my precious EOS400D camera, and of course important documents - passport/birth certificate etc. So as you can imagine, unpacking in my new home took an astonishing 30 minutes (even then that's possibly an exaggeration)

So how goes it so far? I'm getting used to public transportation here in Poznan, I use only tram, and I am confident in finding my way to the major areas of the town - Stary Browar, Stary Rynek, Plaza + Pestka, Malta Lake, and I am becoming familiar with street names, tram station names etc. Language is a bit of a barrier - Mówie i rozumiem troche po polsku, ale niezbyt dobrze! I know enough to communicate basic things - costs, directions, introductions, asking what things are, asking to speak more slowly or to speak in english, etc etc, but I am not confident buying things and I feel very nervous everytime I am forced to utter a Polish word!

So am I missing any comforts? Banking is a challenge with an international account and only a visa debit but I am finding ways to overcome this. I do miss my cats back home, and I miss the freedom of being able to put on my headphones, get on my bike and cycle around my city - something that would probably get me killed, seriously injured, or fined if I attempted here :) To some extent I feel a little isolated and trapped, confined to only a few places. I know nobody here, and so when my girlfriend is working I feel quite lonely - hopefully this will change soon. I've made posts on the popular polishforums.com to see if anybody is interested in meeting up, and I've sent off C.V's to a few language schools in the hope of obtaining a position for a native-speaking English teacher.


Well, that's all I can think of for now! I will continue to make new posts as I progress with my transition of culture, lifestyle and language from that of the UK to Poland. With a major update once a week and possibly smaller minor posts inbetween if anything is of noteworthiness :)

Pozdrawiam!