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August 15, 2000
I'll soon be leaving Stockholm for Krakow, Poland to go to school. Ever since I started
traveling this past January, I knew that at some point I'd want to, and need to, get certification to teach English
as a foreign language. There're many people around the world who've created in their lives the flexibility to
travel and live abroad by doing just this while fulfilling the enormous need that exists today in several areas
of the world for people to learn English. This is especially true in both Asia and the former Eastern Bloc countries.
The training that most teachers receive is referred to as TEFL, which stands for Teaching English as a Foreign
Language. The specific certificate that is most widely recognized and demanded now is called the Cambridge RSA/CELTA,
and I'll be the proud owner of just that upon completing my training in Krakow. I was recently accepted into a
program run by the well-respected International House out of London which has numerous schools in many countries.
I'd originally planned to go to Spain to do this, Seville in particular, but I had such a problem getting the
necessary information from them that I concluded that Spain was not where I should be going. And besides, Eastern
Europe is so much closer to Stockholm and to go to school and work there immediately afterwards really makes sense,
and really appeals to me.
The more I find out about Central and Eastern Europe, the more fascinated I am by that part of the world. From
the Baltic States in the north to Bulgaria in the south, and eastward into Russia and the Ukraine, it all deeply
intrigues me. Those countries are going through a challenging transformation and there's so much natural beauty.
Many of these areas are still relatively un-impacted by tourism, especially outside the bigger cities, and as
a general rule they're much less expensive than Western Europe. For instance, instead of paying five dollars for
a glass of beer in Stockholm, I'm told that in St. Petersburg it's just $.75. That works for me.
While preparing for school I've also made a lot of inquiries into employment, as it would be nice to have my job
lined up before I start school. I've already had several schools express an interest in me. I'll keep sending
out C.V.s (the Euro equivalent of a resume) and who knows where I might end up? I think, for instance, it'd be
interesting to teach in Russia, especially since both my daughter Nicole and son-in-law Stuart are fluent in Russian
and he worked there for over a year. But if I end up in the Czech Republic, I could take some time there to explore
my roots since my maternal grandparents emigrated to the U.S in 1888 and 1890 from the area known as Bohemia.
Just think... my grandparents (who I never met by the way) were Bohemians! Do you suppose they wore berets, recited
poetry and played bongos in the coffee houses? No wonder I like Jack Kerouac and jazz so much!
The course is a four-week intensive and I'm told it will be quite intense! The standing joke is that they lock
all the students in a room and they don't open the doors until the screaming stops! (Right Julie?) So I plan
on getting there a few days early to look around and get oriented before the screaming starts. In truth, the process
of applying and getting accepted was more complicated that I expected (even had a phone interview), and I've needed
to purchase some books and will spend many hours in preparation before I actually arrive and start my class.
I'm hoping my background facilitating workshops and seminars and doing training programs of various kinds will
help me. I love being in front of a group, experiencing that interaction, and having the satisfaction of knowing
that I've somehow contributed to someone else's learning process. You might say that teaching is in my blood,
as my mom taught elementary school for 35 years and my sister currently teaches both high school English and drama.
I've been doing my reading up on Poland and Krakow. This is a country with both a rich history of culture and
a painful legacy of destruction and notorious slaughter...a stark contrast of vitality and darkness. Crippled
by its neighbors from 1795 to 1918, virtually destroyed in WW2, and oppressed under the Soviet thumb, Poland has
in recent years been in the forefront of emerging democracy with its heroic Solidarity movement. It was the first
country behind the former Iron Curtain to break free from the grip of Soviet domination in 1989.
But it was in WW2 that Poland suffered the most. It lost 20% of its prewar population, 40% of its national wealth,
and its Jewish population was absolutely decimated! In 1800 Poland was home to three-quarters of the world's Jews,
but for Jews and others around the world today, it's images of Auschwitz and Birkenau that are burned into our
consciousness. Over five million (three million Jews) died there (figures vary depending on sources), and thousands
more suffered unspeakable horrors. In Krakow alone, a prewar population of over 70,000 Jews is now less than 150!
I do not expect that going to Auschwitz will be much fun for me, but I feel I have a social responsibility to see
it... and to share what I've seen and how I feel about it with others. People who think that history cannot repeat
itself are naive and fools. It's astonishing that there are some people out there who actually believe that the
holocaust never happened! And only 60 years later!
Currently Krakow is Poland's best-educated city and its major center of culture. Miraculously, it emerged from
the war virtually unscathed, whereas in Warsaw and Gdansk only 15% of the buildings survived. It's worth repeating
from my last On the Road that The Association of European Cities of Culture 2000 nominated it as one of the nine
European Cities of Culture. There're over 2.5 million works of art there and many leading figures of contemporary
arts and culture are associated with Krakow, including two Nobel Prize winners in literature. I also understand
that Krakow is the jazz capital of Poland. We'll further explore this gem of Central Europe first hand, "up
close and personal", as they say. Stay tuned.
By the way, I finally got back my daypack. I picked it up at the post office today after a 13-day disappearing
act. It'd vanished off the belt of the x-ray machine on the cruise ship on a Friday, and two days later I received
a phone call telling me it would be shipped overnight from Helsinki that coming Tuesday. What really happened
was that it was snail mailed from Visby, Sweden on the Friday after that. Anyway, what's the old saying, "All's
well that ends well!" and I guess I feel a lot like that woman in the bible who found her lost drachma...
damn relieved! Aren't those her exact words?
And after trashing the weather here in my last post, I should report that the last two weeks have been absolutely
divine, and when the sun shines in Stockholm, this is one great city to be in. It really comes alive and sparkles!
"Always do what you are afraid to do."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Peace
and love
