My Polish Alter-Ego...

...is rather introverted. Mostly due to her minimal vocabulary. I like to joke that she is fluent in Polish pleasantries. However after three weeks, the muteness is getting rather annoying...so I am making a real attempt to expand my speaking abilities. I went and took the language course placement exam with all the Erasmus (the European exchange student program) students. I'm hoping to take 10 hours of language a week. I got through the first three sections of the exam before I had to start making things up (and then I turned in my paper--guessing is not the point of a placement exam). Steve the Fulbrighter from Michigan State actually finished the whole thing. Show off...

The language classes during orientation made my inner geek really happy. Not only did we get a refresher/intense overview of the language (Seriously, there was one day where Mike, Elizabeth, and I were the only ones in class and we literally--well, not literally--left with our heads spinning after Pani Ewa reviewed six cases in under 90 minutes.), but I was in a class with people who are genuinely interested in learning Polish. It's just a huge change from being an Erasmus student in Wrocław where everyone just went through the motions and hoped the instructor didn't freak out that day. During dinner, Mike would have questions for the native speakers that usually began with something like "when you're using the accusative case and there's a direct object..."

In other news, I met with my mentor, Marcin Lewandowski (yes Loup City Lewandowskis, there are even more of you in Poznań), in the Institute of Linguistics. Another professor who is originally from Florida also joined us. The two decided that I should sit in on thier classes next week, to get an idea of how the department works, their teaching styles, observe the classroom dynamic, etc. Then, they will start to integrate me into actually teaching over the next weeks, so by November I should get to do a few lessons on my own. I won't actually have my own classes until next semester. Florida Mike teaches English writing, and as one of my biggest responsibilities, I will be helping him with those classes. He said that he has found it impossible to teach writing in the classroom--it has to be done in one-on-one meetings. Basically, it will be like working in the Cooper Center...just in Poland...at my desk in the Collegium Novum.

In other news, Mike from Kansas, Ela from Madison, Steve from Michigan, and I went to a classical piano concert of Wednesday night. We saw a very dramatic little Polish man play The Moonlight Sanata and some Gershwin. I also have a flatmate. She's an Italian woman--I'm guessing in her early 50s--and from the little I've talked with her, she's very sweet. She teaches here on Thursdays and Fridays and then goes home to Berlin. So, I'm going to have to share my flat two nights a week. I can handle that.

Another "life in Poland moment" that deserves mentioning: I now completely understand why we're not supposed to drink the tap water in this country. They were doing something with the pipes in my building, so the water was off for a little while this morning. When I went to turn on the shower, the water ran out in a rust-red stream. Icky....

My responsibilities officially begin on Monday; I'm really excited. I joined Marcin for the faculty meeting this afternoon (and understood next to nothing) where I met a few more professors in my institute. Plus, before the meeting I went to scope out the library--because Marcin got me full library access and therefore I can be there anytime I want. I can even take books out. Anway, it's really nice and English books are in good supply (Side note [which you may choose to skip if you don't really care about library cataloging systems]: the cataloging system in the library is rather strange. At Wesleyan, everything is shelved with the Library of Congress system--which ironically puts all religion books under "BS." In the Collegium Novum the books were classified into genres such as "American Lit," "British Lit," "Australian Lit," "English Grammer," etc. Everything within each category was then put into alphabetical order by the author's last name. It's fascinating!) The library has roughly 12 copies of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple on the second floor, which means that somewhere, someone may be teaching that play. I am going to find them...and ask if they require assistance. Assisting people is in my job description--hell, it's in my job title.

Despite the muteness, my Polish alter-ego has a pretty good life (and thanks to her lack of commitments this week, she also has a well-stocked refrigerator). I heard from Leanne the ETA in Kielce today, and am now counting my blessings even more than before. According to Leanne's Facebook status she is "the redheaded step-child of Jan Kochanowski University." They've assigned her eight classes to teach and given her no real adviser. She doesn't even have a roster or a schedule for these classes. Marcin is concerned that I don't have enough questions...and at this point I really have none. But I do know that he (as well as the other professors he intorduced me to) will help me find answers when I am sufficiently confused. So in conclusion, I am well taken care of...and I have peaches.