21 April 2002
15 April – 6h05 –
Cloudy and gray again. Yuck.
I started taking class photos today by taking a
photo of Group D. My other classes had people missing, so I didn’t take photos
of them.
According to the CBS Evening News:
8h16 – Hooray, it’s sunny now! There’s a big
different between 15°C and cloudy as there is with 15°C and sunny.
I have three boxes to mail of my belongings to mail
back to the USA. I have to go to the post office on Grundwaldskie to pick up a
registered letter, so I’ll take them when I go. Lord knows how much it’ll cost!
I’ll walk down to the taxi rank and take a taxi to the post office. I don’t
mind walking to it, however with my daypack full of books I need for work today
and three boxes, I don’t feel like walking up the steep hill. A taxi anywhere
in town costs 4 – 6 zl.
They’ve been doing work on the grassy area between
my flat and the one behind it for a couple of weeks now. I think they’re going
to pave it over and make more parking, which is badly needed here.
9h20 – It’s back to being cloudy again. *sigh*
20h48 – I’m home. I went to the post office and
mailed the packages, which cost 229.60 zl. Here are the details:
Box 2 – 1.59 kg – 65.20 zl
Box 3 – 6.43 kg – 94.20 zl
Box 4 – 2.65 kg – 70.20 zl
20h44 – There’s a movie called Tidal Wave on.
22h15 – It was a good movie, but a bit far fetched.
22h16 – I’m now watching the Empire Strikes Back on Polsat.
It started about an hour ago, but I’ve seen it many times, so I can just jump
in wherever.
23h35 – “Luke, I am your father.”
23h55 – It’s been a very long time since I’ve been
up this late!
17 April – 0h06 –
Okay, I’m beat..time for bed.
7h50 – Cloudy and gray again. Doesn’t it ever end?
9h28 – Boston Public is on. This is episode 3. One
of the teachers just stood up in front of the school board and told the
audience that they should be parenting their children better because a lot of
the work that teachers do in school is parenting, not teaching. Go girl! I
totally agree. This is a great show!
21h – We had some sun this afternoon and I ended up taking my coat off half way to work today.
I took my second class photo today. It was Group F. I haven’t had a full class in any of my other classes since I started taking photos.
22h27 – Boston Public episode 4 is on.
19 April – 6h32 – According to the CBS Evening News:
· There was a train derailment in Florida on Thursday.
· A light aircraft was flown into a building in Milan Italy. They’re calling it an accident, however I have a difference of opinion for a couple of reasons. First of all, over Easter Milan was on a high alert for Americans. Secondly, the building had government offices on the top five floors, but they were being renovated, so no one was in them.
· W’s bill about drilling in a wildlife area in Alaska was defeated by the Senate yesterday. HOORAY!
· Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of Oklahoma City bombing. The government has started building a new building just across the street from where the old building was. The employees aren’t happy about the thought of having to work in a building at that location. I wouldn’t be either.
7h01 – I turned to CNN to find out more about the Amtrak crash, but CNN seems to think that the Middle East situation is more important.
7h09 – Still no mention of it on CNN. I guess it’s not important.
7h25 – The plane that crashed in Italy was piloted by a 68-year-old Swiss man who had been a pilot for 30 years. Now I believe it was an accident.
I walked by the currency exchange today and saw that they’ve lowered the rate for the US dollar to 4.06 and raised the rate for the Euro to 3.61, even though the Euro hasn’t gone up.
Daylight report- Sunrise 4h31, sunset 18h40. The sunset time is a bit misleading, as it’s just about daylight when I get out of work at 20h. Twilight lasts for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
20 April – 5h30 – CAE Practise exam day. It’s very cloudy and gray today.
6h – I’ve hung the laundry out to dry. It’ll be dry by the time I get home, if it doesn’t rain.
6h30 – According to the CBS Evening News:
· The FBI issued a new terror warning for banks in the northeast part of the USA.
· A worker at an army base in Maryland has been exposed to anthrax.
· The Amtrak investigation is focusing on a rail misalignment. Since 1998, there have been almost 250 Amtrak derailments.
· Jet Blue, an airline in the USA, has started installing security cameras on its airplanes and 19 other USA airlines are planning on doing the same. I completely agree with that. It’s a great idea. However, privacy advocates are against it. How can they be against something that logical? Another note…I think this is the first I’ve heard of Jet Blue.
· There was a ceremony for the Oklahoma City bombing victims yesterday at the site of the tragedy. There was 168 seconds of silence, one second for each of the victims.
7h – Time to get dressed and go.
16h40 – I’m home. It’s been a good, but strange, day.
The exam went well.
After that, I went to the supermarket in the centre of town, as I usually do on Saturdays, as they have a few things I can’t get at my local one (sliced ham and peanuts). As the cashier was ringing my groceries up, a derelict came up to me and started pestering me for money, or to buy him cigarettes. I spoke English to him, but that didn’t deter him. Also, all three of the ladies in the shop were watching him annoy me and didn’t do a thing about it! That really annoyed me! Why didn’t they chase him out of the shop? Idiots.
Then, as I was walking up the main street, I saw that my favourite ice cream shop had finally opened. I went up and ordered a double scoop of chocolate and raspberry (they didn’t have strawberry), and, after hearing my accent when I ordered, the guy quoted me the price in German. I had no idea what he said, so I asked him how much (in Polish). He said it again in German, so I relied on the sign saying that each scoop was 1zl, and handed him 2 zl. He then said thank you and good-bye to me in German. I guess that since I have an accent when I speak Polish, he assumed that I was German.
After that, I went to the supermarket. After the supermarket, I went to a small shop near it to pick up a few other things. The woman who usually works there wasn’t working, and it was a woman with a bad attitude. She took about 2 minutes to offer to help me, and then it was in a very bad tome of voice. She reluctantly got what I had asked for and rang it up. It cost 10.64 zl, and then she said (in Polish) “see if you have 64 groszy.” It’s common for cashiers to ask if you have change, but usually they do it in the form of a question, and phrase it, “Perhaps you have 64 groszy?” instead of an order, like this lady did. I told her that I didn’t and she gave me my change. Then, I had to ask for a bag. After she served me, she served two teenage girls who wanted ice cream (in a packet). I felt better as she slammed the packets down on the counter after she got them the flavours they wanted.
Finally, I returned home. I looked out on the balcony to saw that a bird had crapped on my blue shirt that was hanging out to dry. Great.
19h05 – The sunset time from the national newspaper is incorrect for my town, as the sun is setting right now. Perhaps it’s correct for Warsaw, but not up here.
20h01 – %^&&^%$)*&$%..excuse my language, but the power just went off. I only noticed because the TV shut off. My laptop is fully powered up and should last for a while. It’s really not too much of an inconvenience when the power goes off, as my heat, water and stove are all gas powered. Also, I have a good flashlight.
20h06 – The power is back on.
20h33 – According to PULS, the weather it’ll be 10C tonight, 18 tomorrow, 17 Monday with intermittent sun and clouds, 18 Tuesday (no clouds in sight), and 13 on Wednesday intermittent sun and clouds.
21 April – 6h50 – WOW, what a wonderfully sunny day!
8h30 – From the religious show today:
How to know
if you’re saved
1. Have a change of heart
2. Have a new love – 1 John 3:10, 14
3. Witness of the spirit – 1 John 3:24, 4:13, 5:10
4. Witness of the Scriptures – 1 John 5:13
9h15 – I’ve decided that I’m going to use the internet today, because I missed my internet time yesterday due to the practise exam. Unfortunately, I’ll have to go to the one above the cinema, with lots of kids playing computer games and screaming across the room to eachother, as it’s the only one open today. I’ll put a load of laundry in so it’ll be done when I get home (my washer takes 2 hours per load), as it’s a great sunny day to hang it out to dry.
14h – It’s cloudy now.
On Inside Africa this week:
· The retreat of aid workers in Somalia, due to the lawlessness.
· The recent land ruling between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
· The football awards ceremony for the Confederation of African Football.
· Speculation about the African connection with the USA held prisoners in Cuba. Some are said to be from Egypt, Uganda, Algeria and Morocco.
· Eco-tourism in southern Kenya.
· A recipe from Ghana, prepared by a West African restaurant in Georgia.
18h58 – A random thought...I should have organised a school newspaper/newsletter this year. I just came up with the idea right now, and it’s too late in the year.
19h24 – I downloaded several things when I used the internet today, one of which really impressed me. It was a profile of a teacher who went all out for her students. She’s my new hero! Click here to read the story.
20h – There’s a movie on TVN siedem called “With Savage Intent.” It’s from 1992 and has Elizabeth Montgomery in it. As usual, I’ve never heard of it.
20h51 – The power went off. I’d love to know why this happens all the time. In my old flat, the power went off once or twice a week. Here it’s once or twice a month, and sometimes once or twice a week! It probably won’t be back on in time for Jay Leno, or for me to see the end of the movie.
21h07 - %$R^%$&^%^%..,.No power, no movie, no Jay Leno. I’m going to bed.
