Feats of My First Apartment

Never before in my life have I moved somewhere without my parents. Never. Each time I went to camp or to college, my parents were there. Needless to say moving across the world without them was a feat in and of itself. However, if you have ever met my mother, you know how much she likes to nest. She will not leave Chris or I until we are totally set-every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed-period. Again, so moving into my first apartment without this help and love was hard. Really hard. But I did it. Sarah and I did it. And I just want to share some of our experiences in getting settled.

Big Successes:
-Roller shades in Sarah's bedroom- Sarah was greeted each morning by the sun. Lovely, right? Not at 5am. So one day we went to Castorama (Polish Home Depot) to get curtains. We were sad because we thought that you needed power tools (which I ADORE but don't have any) to install all of the roller shades, so we spent at least 20 minutes taking curtains out of their packages and holding them up to the light to see how much light they blocked. They don't have 99.9% light blocking curtains in Poland. So we pick some out that we think will workish. On the way out I am distracted by a display. This display shows roller curtains that you install sans power tools. BIG SUCCESS. After at least twenty more minutes we find the right color, with the right light blocking ability, and the right size. She pays for them AND we manage to install them without breaking anything, including ourselves. She know wakes up on her own.

-Unclogging the shower drain- We do not know if a man has ever lived in this apartment. I mean, one probably has, but we don't know when. Therefore years of female hair has built up in the drain. This means that when you have the water on for more than 30 seconds it, it starts to pool around your feet. Fine-until it is over your ankles and then it is GROSS. (I will admit Chris' shower in Chicago was way way way worse, but I didn't have to use that one everyday.) So I have had enough of this business, so Sarah and I decided to do something about this. If you have met my father, you know that him and drains do not get along. Once he blew up the clog in the drain so that it permanently stained the white bathtub brown. I still remember the smell, him sitting on the deck with his head in his hands, and my mother yelling. . . a lot. This event has caused me to be afraid of unclogging drains. Very afraid. So together Sarah and I used the unclogging stuff with hot water and picked at the clog, and now, it drains!!! Okay, so it pools, but not even an inch. BIG SUCCESS.

Still to Conquer:
-Thermostats- There is a very long instruction manual to my thermostat. It is more complicated than any thermostat I have ever seen before. I am afraid that I will be cold because I will not be able to figure out how to use my thermostat. Hopefully, we can figure this one out as well.

-Karoake machine- I don't know why we have one, but we do. We haven't tried it yet. We should.

School is going well. I am finally beginning to feel more comfortable with what is expected of me and with being a teacher in general. Some of the Polish teachers have started to talk to me, so that's very nice. They all are so busy, so we are hesitant to interrupt when they are working. So whenever one talks to us, we do our best to be extra friendly and respond. I think I may have mentioned how rooms are locked in between classes and how we have to find the keys. Well, there are older locks with older keys. They are very tricky. Today was the first day that I managed to unlock and lock one of these doors on my own! I was very excited. The students are starting to come around to me as well. They're starting to realize that I mean business and will have them behave and work. It's really going okay.

Only two more days to make it through this week! One (maybe two) of the teachers from Slovakia that went through training with me is coming to visit this weekend! We found out that is only a 4 hour train ride between our two towns. She (and maybe her roommate) will be here Friday late afternoon. I am really looking for to seeing her/them and giving my first tour of Cieszyn.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. :)

Blessings,
Colleen