CELTA training

So, here I am in beautiful Krakow. Every time I walk into the center and see the Sukiennica, my breath is taken away. I highly recommend that everyone come here at least once in their lifetime.

Anyway, the reason I am here is to finally get my CELTA certification. Despite being an English teacher for the past 8 1/2 years, I know I need this cert in order to get a decent job when we finally move to Australia.

Monday morning we all arrived at the school (International House) which would be our working home for the next month. It turned out that there are 18 of us, which is a pretty big group. There are 3 trainers: Magda (the head), Basia and Aeddan. I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that nearly half of us were Polish. There are 5 Americans, 1 Australian, 2 Brits, 1 Irishman, 1 Russian (married to an American), 1 mixed (Polish/Swedish/Australian) and 7 Poles. There are 6 guys, which is a surprise too.

So, I won't bore you with the details really, except that we all had to teach on the first night! And I have to teach 4 times the first week (along with Ryan and Ania tho'). Tuesday was literally hell. I told you it was hot, right? Well, it was in the mid 30s and unfortunately, our water was out on Tueday morning, so I was so disgustingly dirty that eveinng for class. Oh well! What can you do?

I have the most teaching experience of all the native English-speaking teachers here, so I hope this isn't a problem with the trainers. It doesn't seem like it, but you never know!

Ok, time to get going. I have to teach again tomorrow. ARGH! But it'll be a good one, I'm sure of it!

Got Roomies again!

FYI, because I don't have much access to the internet, I'm writing these offline and posting them later.

Already in Poland right now. The day after the balloon ride I left for my 5 weeks in Krakow.

I can't believe how ungodly HOT it is here! The heat we had in Germany is continuing here. I hope to God it doesn't last very long.

So, let me tell you about things here. On Saturday, I flew from Stuttgart to Krakow where my friend Renata picked me up. We spent the night at her place in Sosnowiec and on Sunday, we drove back to Krakow to see my new flat.

When we got there, one of my roommates had just gotten there too. Jen from the US, most recently from Maryland. Much to my surprise, there were going to be 4 of us in the same flat! Well, the place was really big, but I honestly didn't realize we would have 4 people. Anyway, by the end of Sunday eve, all of us were at our "home" for the next month.

Jen, as I said, is from the US. She had already lived in Krakow as an exchange student a couple of years before. Then there is Anna from England, Blackpool to be exact, a place I had been to briefly when I was visiting an old friend in Lostock, near Bolton, England. Last but not least is Basia, from Debica, Poland. My first Polish job interview happened to be with Debica Tires, which had just been bought by Goodyear, but didn't get it. Oh well! Maybe I would have met Basia before!

All of them are really great! And I'm really looking forward to getting to know them.

I'll write more later about the CELTA and the HEAT!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!!

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU JOE!

I know you don't read this, but I don't care. :)

I remembered...

Your sis, CHRIS

Up up and away!

We finally took our balloon ride!

For those of you who didn't know about this, Wolf had given me a hot air balloon ride for my 33rd birthday on September 23, 2005. We tried to go on the ride 3 times before we had good enough weather to actually go 9 months later on June 23rd, 2006.

Initially, we had tried to go on November 1, 2005 because Wolf had planned on proposing to me up in the air, but unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. (He still did propose to me on that day, but at our favorite Japanese restaurant in Karlsruhe).

So anyway, on the left is our balloon at the "almost up in the air" state. I was told that I had to RUN so the balloon didn't just take off without me. About 30 seconds after I got in the basket, it "took off"--very gently, I might add.

Below is our "partner" balloon. I almost got sick just watching them because they kept on going up and down so quickly, we thought they were going to crash! But they were ok.


The day was absolutely gorgeous--temps in the 70s, a slight breeze and a mostly sunny sky. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

The ride took off just north of the city of Ulm--a city on the border of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemburg. You can see (below) the huge church in the city. This church has the tallest bell tower in Europe or the world--I forget which. Wolf and I climbed up the entire spire in 2004 and believe me, it was quite a hike--literally! I could barely walk for the next couple of days.

Anyway, it was great to see the countryside just slowly pass us by below. I can't remember what the pilot told us about how high we were, but we were high enough. There were 3 other couples in our basket, and we found out that there were 5 countries represented out of the 8. Amazing if you ask me!

Made it to Ludwigsburg

We have finally made it to our new place in Ludwigsburg.

And we have internet again!

It’s a really nice place, but the weather is so hot now! We were able to get all of our stuff moved from Karlsruhe to Ludwigsburg on Friday and then our stuff out of the storage unit on Saturday.

A great big thanks goes out to Joerg and Satomi, Jens, Sven, and the other Joerg. Without your help, we would never have made it!

Now I’ve gotta try to unpack as much stuff as possible so I can pack for Poland again. Hmm.. Sometimes I wonder how my life got so hectic!

Have a look at some of the pictures of our old place in Karlsruhe. It's so sad to see it so empty!

Honeymoon and moving.. Nice combo, eh?

Hi all,

This will be a rather short one.

First of all, Santorini was absolutely FABULOUS! It was really one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. Wolf and I really did a lot. And let me tell you, if you ever do the stairmaster at the gym, this place is a million times nicer to do it in! We had to hike up and down stairs, cliffs and whatnot throughout our 5 days there. Oh, and Athens was pretty cool too, but definitely was a bit of a downer after Santorini.

Click here to see pictures.

The second part is that today is our last full day in Karlsruhe. :( I'll actually be sad to be leaving Karlsruhe, but it's time for us to move on. We're moving to Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart and Wolf's work. I'll be going to Poland soon, so it makes sense to be closer to where Wolf is.

I don't know when I'll be able to post again, probably next Monday when we are *hopefully* hooked up again to another internet provider.

Ok, back to packing now.

Love,
Chris

We're in Santorini

Greetings from Santorini, Greece! It is absolutely fantastic here. Can't write much, but will write more soon..

Love you all!


Chris and Wolf

Honeymoon!

We're about to leave for out honeymoon in Greece. I just can't wait to get away from it all with Wolf and spend some quality time with him. Our lives have been so hectic these past few months that we just didn't have much "us" time. So here it is!

Check back after June 11th for a report and pics!

Packing up is NOT fun

Hi all,

Well, all week I've been trying to pack up my things here but I'm just having the hardest time. I just have too much stuff! But then again, who doesn't, right?

Nine years in Europe, all packed up into boxes. Wow! I never thought this day would come. I'm full of many different emotions: happy to be starting my life with Wolf, scared to be moving to the other side of the world, sad to be leaving Europe for good.

Moving to another city is one thing, even moving to another country on the same continent (like I did from Poland to Germany in 2004), but moving to the complete other side of the world. It's freaky!

But I've got Wolf by my side, so I know everything will work out.