One Foot Out the Door

... packing.

I fly for Paris for a few days tomorrow. I'm getting the 5:30am bus *pulls a face* to Warsaw and then my flight is at 3:45pm. I'll let you all know about my trip when I get back.

Oh, and I'm sick again. I've been sniffling and sneezing for a couple of days. I'm hoping it holds off until after the holidays.

Later!

*goes back to packing*

very, very accomplished right now.

Why? I'll tell you why! *grins*

Growing up I learnt how to use a vacuum cleaner once I was big enough to actually drag the bloody thing around (and I actually swing a mean vacuum cleaner), but there's one thing that no-one ever taught me: How to change/empty the dust bag. Someone else (usually Mum, or, when I was working at Muffin Break, one of the other girls) would always empty it.

Well, today that all changed. Mum's not here, none of my old workmates are here, and I'm sure Agnes or my boss would absolutely love me if I called them up to ask them how to empty the dust bag on a vacuum cleaner. They'd probably wonder what the heck I was on!

So, I'm cleaning the flat (well, part of it. The living room mainly, which also doubles as my bedroom, the kitchen and a couple of other things), picking up all the rubbish that's accumulated over the semester (during term I just don't get the time to clean. It's work, eat sleep, rinse and repeat). Oh, it's not messy messy, it's just I don't get time to do a serious cleaning so it looks kinda... messy... yeah. I'll just stop that statement ri~ight there and say nothing more. Add on top of that the fact that I've been sick for the last few weeks with little to no energy and you get the idea.

So, all the rubbish was either in the bins or in the recycling and I went and grabbed the vacuum. After tripping the fuses four freaking times! and plunging myself into darkness I finally figured out what I needed to turn off/unplug so that I could use the vacuum (good news is it only took me four minutes of flicking random switches in the fuse box thingy up near my door to work out how to get my electricity back). Laptop, stereo, external hardrive, all of those were unplugged and I cautiously turned the vacuum on for the fifth time to find it working and myself not suddenly thrust back into the dark ages.

About two minutes into vacuuming I realised that there just wasn't any suction happening. There wasn't anything stuck in the pipes so I figured the bag had to be full.

Cue much swearing as I tried to figure exactly where the bag was placed in the vacuum and where the opening was. I found it eventually and got it opened.

I seriously don't think that bag had been emptied in a couple of years. I'm surpised I had any suction at all to be honest.

Getting the bag out didn't actually turn out to be a problem. A bit of swearing, a bit of wiggling promising bits in the vacuum and out comes the bag. There was this little sliding clip at the bottom of the bag which looked like it was holding it closed, so I pulled it off, put the bag inside a bigger garbage bag (and made sure that there was no way any dust would come flying out, made sure I held onto the top of the dust-bag and shook the ever living crap out of if to empty it.

One empty dust-bag was the result... and a crap load of dust/hair/I don't even want to think about it was in the garbage bag. Of course I didn't actually succeed in keeping all the dust out and I'm still sniffling and sneezing from it, but I did it! And I managed to get it back into the vacuum cleaner without any problems at all!

So, I'm feeling very accomplished right now!

I also got out of the house again today. I went out for lunch with Agnes. She finally cashed in her "I owe you a meal of your choice" thing I gave her for her birthday and we had a really nice lunch at Bar Magnus and then wandered around the town for a while. I then came home and did a crap load of cleaning. I'm feeling a little shaky and tired right now, but, hey! The important part of the flat is clean. I still have to do the study/bedroom (not that I actually sleep in there, but it's still a bedroom), but no visitors go in there. I also have to do the bathroom, but that won't take me too long.

Also *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* Full length Transformers 2 trailer has been leaked to Youtube!

( Trailer!!!! )

Hey all!

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated *grins (I've always wanted to say that). It may've felt like I was dead/dying for a while there but I'm feeling much better now.

So, what've I been up to? Absolutely nothing. That cold that Bartosz #2 (now named the Little Shite-Head, or, He-Who-Must-Be-Killed!) gave me when he sneezed/coughed all over me (again. He's two for two right now) mutated. Little bugger gave me Bronchitis.

I was starting to feel better on Thursday and then came the weekend. I woke up very early Saturday morning (I'd slept pretty much straight through Friday O.o ) shivering like you wouldn't believe and aching everywhere. By the time Sunday rolled around I'd been visited by my old friends nausea and vomiting (which is nuts! Before this year I pretty much never threw up. I'd get the occasional bout of nausea, but never really threw up. This year *shakes head* The two times I've got sick, thank you, Bartosz, I've been visited by it. Can I go back to Australia now, please?). I also had pretty much no appetite at all (I think I ate maybe a bowl of ceral and a peice of toast all weekend).

I don't really remember much of Monday at all. I do remember walking home though. Every five steps had me coughing uncontrollably. I seriously expected to see my lungs go flopping across the footpath.

Tuesday rolled around and Agnes called me up and asked if I wanted her to take me to the doctor (I'd been coughing and looking like crap for a week. My cough was... not very nice sounding). I felt fine at the time (it was 9am, I hadn't even got out of bed yet) so told her no. A couple of hours later when I actually went to get out of bed I got a bit of a nasty shock. I had absolutely no energy at all. It takes about ten steps to get from my bed (read: fold out couch in the living room) to the bathroom.

I barely made it.

I managed to drag together enough energy to get myself across to the shops to buy a couple of bottles of Powerade, a bottle of water for the evening, and a packet of rice crackers to try and force down to get some sort of food in my stomach (It took me 45 minutes to eat one). The Powerade was to help give me enough energy to get through the night. I spent the rest of the day just flopped on the bed wondering how I was going to get through my classes and thankful that I only have two classes on a Tuesday night.

First words out of Lucja's (my boss) mouth were "What the hell are you doing here?!". First words out of Agnes' mouth were "You look like shit!" followed by "I'm taking you to the doctor tomorrow!". For once I didn't argue.

Group I thought I was sad when I first walked in. Unfortunately they decided that it was going to be one of their difficult days where they just don't stop talking and misbehave. Normally I can handle that. That day... er... well, the good news is I learnt that just glaring and quietly letting them know that I'm not happy with them works rather well. I taught the class from the teacher's desk 'cause I couldn't really stand for very long at all.

Halfway through teaching group I I started shivering uncontrollably. I was absolutely freezing!. I had to go and get my jacket! I didn't really stop shivering for the rest of the night. Please keep in mind that this is the jacket that I wear when it's 0C to -5Cish or so outside.

Group J took one look at me and pointed at the door with a "Sheena, go home!". They were great. Then again they're always pretty good. I taught from the desk again. Thankfully it was a listening lesson so all I really had to do was ask questions and push the button on the cd player. The last 20 minutes they had a speaking exercise so I just put my head on the desk for that excercise. I didn't sleep, I was actually listening to them talk and I'd butt in occasionally with either a correction or a suggestion. At one point Jarek told me to put my head back on the desk and go back to dying *laughs*

So, Agnes draged me to the doctors on Wednesday morning. First place we went to was full (there's a bit of a flu epidemic happening here right now). Second place we went to wasn't. We only had to wait for about half an hour to see a doctor (it was kinda weird to just walk in and sit down without an appointment). Agnes did the translating and I got diagnosed with Bronchitis.

Joy.

One trip to the pharmicist later (and copious amounts of different anti-biotics) I'm back at home. I didn't go to work that night, or the next night. Lucja took my classes (I kinda pity my classes). I started feeling much better about three days after I visited the doctor. I slept a lot and my appetite finally came back, too! I've gone from not really wanting to eat anything to being a bottomless pit *laughs*. Though, that's probably a good thing 'cause I've lost a noticible amount of weight. My hip bones are starting to stick out and the bones in my chest are kinda visiable at the moment (little to no appetite for a couple of weeks will do that to a person) O.o So... yeah, I need to see about getting some of that weight back on.

Thankfully our winter break started on the Monday so I only missed two days of classes. Unfortunatly I had to cancel my trip to Krakow *pouts*. Two weeks off and I'm staying in Mragowo. I could probably go somewhere now, but I think I'd be safer to just stay at home and make sure I'm fully recovered before heading back to work on the 15th.

There's just one downside: I'm really, really bo~ored!!!! There's nothing to do in Mragowo. I'm planning to go on a day trip to Olsztyn tomorrow just to get me out of here for a while.

And that's what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks. Not much at all.

...from a bloody freezing Amsterdam ^____^

I've spent the last few days (including Christmas) at my Uncle's place outside the city. Incidentaly, I think I'm allergic to something there. Every time I go there I end up with itchy eyes, a runny nose, and sneezing like you wouldn't believe. I've got quite a few pictures so far.

Anyway, I'm not sure how much more time I've got, but I thought I'd let you all know that I'm alive ^____^. Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!

I'm going to run around the city tomorrow (there's a free three hour walking tour at 10am that I'm thinking of taking) and take lots of pictures. I'll try to get them posted up (or at least the good ones posted) when I get back to Poland.

Later!

... I went to Green Island today. Beautiful weather, lovely and sunny, but there was just one small problem...

... lots of wind. Which meant that the seas were up at the 3-4m swell range, which means that the catamaran that I was on was rocking like you wouldn't believe. I nearly fell down a couple of flights of stairs coming down from the top deck. Thank god I've got fast reflexes and caught myself on the handrails. It wouldn't've been pretty otherwise. Broken bones at the least.

...and I think we might've had a 'Man Overboard' at one point. I heard some of the crewmembers talking. I hope not, 'cause that ocean was nasty today.

I also got a bit seasick, which I never get. I was fine until I had to go up and scream at a couple of my study tour kids. They were running around, up and down the stairs not holding on to anything and they were playing up the "I can't speak any English" card for all they could. I know they understand "Sit Down!!!" (and myself and Bev, the other teacher, were screaming it at them in Japanese as well). I had to go up to the top deck to find them and got really, really woozy/dizzy. I felt really, really awful by the time I got back down to my seat. Add in that people were throwing up left, right, and centre as well and you get seasick Sheena.

The actual island part was fun *grins*. The kids went swimming (I didn't. The water was like ice and it was too windy for me) and Bev and I went for a wander around the entire island... it's not actually that big. I saw a shark in the good snorkelling area again, too (that's three times for three visits, now...only the first time the bloody thing was following me while I was snorkelling!).

On the trip back I took one of the seasickness pills Bev bought with her and was fine! The kids wanted to get up and run around again (even after the talking to we'd given them when we got to the island), but death glares and very loud "NO!"s seemed to work quite well...that and Bev and I sat on the outer edges of the seats, the kids couldn't get out *evil grin*. So, they all talked amongst themselves, arm-wrestled o.O (and yes, I joined in *laughs* ) and then curled up into uncomfortable positions that only small children can pull off and went to sleep.

...meanwhile the boat was still rocking like crazy! Thanks the the seasickness tablet I was able to enjoy it and giggled like a loony thing most of the trip home. Bev kept trying to take videos of the trip, 'cause her family wouldn't believe how rough the seas were, only she had the worst timing. Every time she put her camera down the boat would rock like crazy. By the time she got her camera up the rocking had smoothed out.

Right now I feel like I'm physically still on the boat. Going to bed tonight is going to be interesting.

Days 1 to 3.

Dealing with Kansai International High School. I've got a group of 12 15-16 year olds. Thankfully I'm not getting too much in the way of attitude...yet.

I've put it behind the cut as you all know my propensity for babble ^____^.

And that's what I've been up to since Thursday. Tomorrow is a quiet day (shopping in Cairns Central with the kids) and Wednesday is going to be INSANE!!

Oh, conversation of the day: 

Students: Are you French?
Me: ....no. I'm Australian.
Students: No, are you French- Australian?
Me:....... um... no. I'm Irish/Dutch-Australian
Students: Oh.... you look like Marie Antoinette.
Me: I should hope not. She got her head cut off! I like my head where it is, thank you. Not... *mimes head being chopped off and then pretends to kick it out the window*
Students: Well, you do. She was French.

..yeah.

I've had to go over all of my exams (all 7 classes of them) to see how many of the fails I could drag up to a pass. It took me most of yesterday to mark them (not counting the couple of hours I was at my bosses for my farewell bbq) and I had to go back over every single bloody one. (to give you an idea, the pile of tests is about 4 inches thick!)

Gah!

Just Gah!

So, four hours and one bottle of white wine later (Aussie wine...gooooooood!) I've managed to drag most of them up to a borderline pass. Don't ask me how I did it, but I did it (I think the 15 minute talk from my boss on how "We've never had such a bad result before, you must do something about this. You must pass as many as you can. We want most of these students to come back!" helped. Unfortunately she wouldn't listen to me when I tried to explain how "This one is lazy, this one doesn't try, this one prefers to talk all lesson, this one just doesn't seem to get it. This one is in the wrong level"). 

So, this is my last week before summer holidays. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

I head for Australia for the holidays on Saturday ^_________________^. I need a holiday. I need to sleep on a real bed! (did I mention that my 'bed' is a fold out couch?)

So much to do between now and then. I've got a crapload of mail to post off, I've got an apartment to clean...or at least tidy and get all the textbooks/tests/paper off the floor, a fridge to clean out (umm.... how do you defrost a freezer? I have no idea how) and I haven't even started packing yet.

I finish work on Friday night at 8:30. Then I have to go home and run about like a demented chicken packing. I probably won't get much sleep on Friday night. I'll get up on Saturday and either get a bus to Olsztyn and then get a train to Warsaw, or get a bus to Warsaw...I'm not sure yet. The bus has the advantage that I don't have to lug all my stuff around quite as much (I have a hard enough time lugging my stuff up the train steps when I've just got a small bag.... a 20kg port, back pack, and laptop...yeah, that'll be fun!)...but it's cramped and small and....well, cramped. I have long legs that disagree with bus seats.

I still might do the bus though, less port lugging.

So, I've got Saturday night in Warsaw. Then I head to Frankfurt by plane at about 11:30am. I've got 11 hours on the ground in Frankfurt, a 13ish hour flight to Singapore. 4 hours on the ground in Singapore, 8 hours to Cairns (with 1 hour stopover in Darwin).

Why does Australia have to be so bloody far away from everything?

I've got a job lined up for when I'm home. Study tours. Same thing I was doing in Australia before I came to Poland.

One of my students bought me a box of Chocolates today *grins* EXPENSIVE chocolates at that! (I know the brand). They were to say thank you for the year. I've never got Chocolates from a student before ^_____^ (one of my students tried to bribe me with chocolate milk if she passed the test...she passed one the second try...hmm....I wonder...*grins*)...I've got flowers before (you remember my post about Teachers day and getting chased down the hallway by students carrying roses).

Oh, Polish updates. I can now go to the movies and buy myself a ticket, popcorn and a drink on my own *looks proud*. I've been to see Ironman, and Indiana Jones twice...AND I can now ask "Is this film in English?" (unfortunately the new Narnia film is dubbed into Polish so I have to wait until I get home to see it)

The sun. WTF is up with it?!?!?! I'm used to a Winter 6am sunrise, 6am sunset. Summer 5am sunrise, 7pm sunset. 

Here:

Winter: 9-10am sunrise, 3:30pm sunset ( o.O )
Summer (which is right now) 3:00am sunrise (or it starts to rise), 11:00pm sunset.

WTF?!?!?!

....er....yeah. I'm going to go now. It's 2am, I kinda want to be in bed while it's still kinda dark *grins* That and I have to get up early and work out what the heck I'm going to give some of my students as another 'Final Test' so that they can pass *headdesk*

 

... I just realised that I haven't told you anything of what I did on my holiday. BAD Sheena! LOL!

So, I'll start with my first day and post one a day ('cause I'm seriously running around like a demented headless chicken on crack at the moment at work. Two new students and only a few months to finish text books that should take 4 semesters, not TWO!! Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!! STRESS!!!)

I am Holland bound next week. I'll let you know more later, but I just booked my flights (it only took me 4 HOURS!!! *scowl*)for my winter break. I'm going to go exploring the country my father's family came from. 

Let you know more later!

*EDIT*

Melting snow is slushy/icky!!! I fell over in it this afternoon *is embarrased*