Have Tefl will Travel

 I haven't realty seen much of Bydgoszcz since my arrival so met up with a colleague Alex on Saturday to have a look around the old town and island in the centre of town. we started at the very lovely coffee shop Sowa which originated in Bydgoszcz but can also be found in London. The coffee here is FANTASTIC!! Mill island The opera house Gadanska Street Marian Rejewski who cracked the Enigma code

  This had me in stitches this week. Its my fist set of marking for this group, they had to write a blog for a website about themselves, grammar and vocab rules were issued, and also suggested that they could be creative to make up the 5-6 topics required. 

Autumn has arrived in Bydgoszcz.  In previous  weeks it felt as if we had missed autumn gone straight to winter and then reversed back to summer. But the leaves are changing now; on the cusp of November it feels later than in the UK.  I am really enjoying my commute to work and this in partly due to cracking what to wear.  I realise this is pretty standard for most of the world but it feels like a revelation!!  in the morning I have a thin jumper or shirt, my big coat - open and a scarf/ hat combo in my bag/pocket. It’s usually a bit foggy but fresh and with a brisk walk, about warp factor 4/5, my clothing is about right. You have to layer up just before leaving  and delayer  as soon as you get indoors as the buildings are really warm. For the revers journey; coat fastened, hat and scarf on and warp factor 6/7 reducing to  5/4 and then 3 as you warm up and finally start up the hill home. De-robe asap and open windows!! Yesterday I w...

  A flat warming party Saturday night English Mass at St Andrew Boboa's  Kind Neighbours; a woman named Ella (who may or may not be my landlord) knocked on my door with a key to my letterbox. I had careful copied out  a sign    in Polish and stuck on  my letter box saying please put mail on the shelf as I didn't have a key. Google translate A new sweet called Wawel- lime or orange jelly with dark chocolate around it, other flavours also available in Lidl but not as nice. ( new to me - it claims to be over 100 years old) A mattress for my bed -  phew!! Catching the No 5 tram. A Bolt electric scooter for  late night  Monday  treat trips home. Watching crotchet while crocheting 🤣😂     Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar   is a legend 🥰 🥰 Zoom socials and prayer times  🥰 🥰 A card and package from a good friend 🍫 Making new friends. 

 Getting in the swing of life at International House Bydgoszcz   I have now been in Poland for 3 weeks, I still have to pinch myself sometimes that I am here but my week is settling into a pattern. I have 4 lessons on Monday, the first is an early start(!!) at 10.30 tutoring a lovely Spanish lady for a CAE English exam – something like a GCSE. I also have a level meeting with colleagues to plan one of my teenage groups. There is some time to prepare the next day’s lessons, then  a quick check  everything is ready for the evening before starting with one of my two teen groups from 4 - 7.30pm. after that a zoom business language lesson with a student studying at the local university. It’s a late night and I don’t get home until 9.30pm but the next morning is a later start at 2.30pm with my company lesson at the PESA headquarters in town. Going by car has become a novelty, so its a great treat to be driven to and from PESA, the train and tram manufactures in Bydgo...

  Part of our Grand Day Out in Torun was to visit the museum of Nicholas Copernicus. As we arrived at the door of what I though was the local art gallery/museum, I’m afraid I had to come clean and ask who he was.   Later I’m sure I made up for my ignorance by helpfully explaining what patterns were and why you wore them on your feet!!   Nicholas Copernicus was the person who discovered that the earth and other planets and the sun rotate around each other, along the way he was involved with navigation and the armillary sphere, he was also a physician and herbalist and made time to become a priest, a Canon of the church and help his uncle, a bishop, negotiate peace between warring towns.   What a man, what a brain! The museum was as it not only describes his life and achievements but vividly portrays life in a medieval town in a merchant family. Dressing up was a feature of Polish museums that day and we had great fun dressing up in costumes of the day. The bus dep...

At the weekend I went on a jolly to a nearby city with my new work colleagues. Torun is a lovely medieval town on the banks of the Vistula river.  I had been looking forward to visiting Tourn's gingerbread museum. Torun is famous for gingerbread, not ginger biscuits or ginger cake but rather the kind you get from Aldi or Lidl at Christmas covered in chocolate. They were traditionally baked in beautifully carved moulds (until mechanisation and industrial cutters came into use) then decorated them with icing and were often used as home decorations.   I think the moulds are a highlight of the museum. A whole industry grew up in the town to support the gingerbread production including wood carvers making moulds for families and special occasions.  The museum is really well done, ranging over 4 floors and telling the story of the family which brought gingerbread to prominence in the city ( it reminded me a little of Cadbury World).  In a...