Polska Dot: Post one, in which I move to Poland

I’ve accepted a job as an English instructor at a very small teacher’s college in Chełm, Poland.

The “ch” is pronounced as the ch in Loch, “ł” pronounced as a w. So: “Cheowm”. The town is small—the highest estimated population (and the estimates varied wildly) is 60,000. The college itself is surprisingly large: 2,500 students spread over three or four disciplines. I expect to have around 15 students in each of my classes, but I’ll know more on Tuesday, when I teach my first class.

I took a circuitous route to reach Chełm, from Eugene, OR, that took a total of 18 days.

Snow in Oregon

I left Eugene in the middle of a freak snowstorm, a day early. Unfortunately, this meant missing Stephen Malkmus at the WOW hall, which would have been amazing. Flew from Portland to Frankfurt, Germany, and took the train to my aunt and uncle’s in Mannheim, just in time to batten down the hatches for an “Orkan,” (a delicate and less destructive European variation on the Hurricane). Visited my other aunt and two not-to-be-underestimated cousins at my grandparent’s house in Bubenorbis.

Two charmingly wily cousins, in Germany

Took a train up to Berlin, to visit Nick, my friend from high school, and his roommate Joanna, coincidentally a friend from Pomona (re: world being too small: I agree). Visited all my old haunts, helped Nick in his quest to drink good wine, and saw some great art at the Hamburger Bahnhof. Keine Frage, as soon as I’m finished in Poland, I’m moving to Berlin.