Post four, in which I make myself at home

Since Monday I’ve been fed well, taken around town (memorably to a faux-western restaurant that gave the boy at the next table a fake rifle, and his mother a set of handcuffs, to better amuse themselves while waiting for their food), leapt through various bureaucratic hoops, met my fellow English instructor (Nick Lawton, from Pomona. See, small world), went grocery shopping (there’s even a Lidl down the block), and met the previous American instructor, Caitlyn—went over to the apartment she shares with her Polish boyfriend and drank vodka and cherry juice.

I’ll be teaching 7 classes a week, each 1 ½ hours long. Luckily, they’re concentrated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which means that I get a 4-day weekend every week. Those of you who are thinking of coming to visit, or want to meet up somewhere, here is the list of places I want to go:
1. Ukraine, as far east as Odessa and Yalta, ideally,
2. Lithuania, to the Baltic coast (this and the above should happen in the spring),
3. Zakopane, in the Tatra mountains in S. Poland,
4. Krakow, at least once,
5. Hungary!!!!!!
6. Slovenia, Czech republic, hell—even Belarus. There are tours to Chernobyl, if you’re into that kind of thing.

I get a longer break in April, and then I’m finished teaching June 6th, but will probably stay around Europe until mid July, at least. Might go down to Istanbul, or try to get to Spain again. If you have any ideas, or opportunities, let me know.

It’s snowing again, hard. I’m glad one of the Polish instructors, Dorota, convinced me to buy an umbrella. It’s aggressively drab; kind of Polish Prada. I’m off to school, to consult with someone who might know about my lesson plan (I don’t), then to use the glorious internet in my office, and finally lunch with Nick.

Should I survive my first week of classes, you’ll be the first to know.

I've been working on my long-awaited project of photographing everything I own; here are a few excerpts: