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L/eba -- Session II, July 2002

Tomek (The Botanist) approaches the wydma -- dunes. Tomek was one of my best teachers: on walks to the plaza (beach) or to town (miasto) he would point out pine trees, cones, animals...and name them. Then he'd describe an animal and act out its movements so I could understand his Polish, which was mostly beyond me, as was my English for him.

He had no end of knowledge of plants, their names and parts. He frequently peeled the end of some sort of pod growing in the Pension garden and stuck the sticky parts on the bridge of his nose...making him a sort of unicorn.

On the last day of camp we realized that we live on the same block in Sosnowiec! So we'll have good times in the park when I return.

It's that steep.

Sand, pine forest, sea and sky. It was a lovely day.

View from the Latarnia (lighthouse) in Stilo, standing 33 meters high. I love the forest-surrounded field -- "pole." "Poland" refers to the "people of the open fields."

Shadow of the Latarnia. Sosna, incidently, means "pine trees," though folks a long time ago cleared the sosna from Sosnowiec.

Emma during the "Sports" category of the Fashion Show. Hardly her personality, but much fun.

i Ania...

i Marek, who broke his arm falling off his top bunk during the first week.

Kasia...Nightwear.

i Emma. Her name is Emilia, or Emilka, or Em, as I called her.

Artur...The Courageous?

i Em again. She and Kamila attend a Jewish school in L/o'dz, only there's only one Jewish teacher and one Jewish student. It's funded by Estee Lauder, and the idea of a curriculum with an emphasis on Jewish history, culture and religion is intended to promote tolerance and understanding. But both girls find it to be too much, but they like the general education they're getting, and they're terrific English speakers -- especially for their age.

i Justyna, the most talkative and productive in my upper level class.

And two pictures of the finale: Amadeus, Emma, Ania, i Justyna,

i Daria in yellow & Ewa. Ewa I Daria were my students and spoke almost no English, making it difficult to design an inclusive lesson. But we played together and learned some basics in and out of class.

A typical side-street in L/eba. You are looking at two pensonjaty -- a pensonjat is literally a boarding house, and they are numerous in L/eba for summer beach-goers. This includes normal summer camps, language camps like ours, as well as vacationing Poles, Germans, and others.

Ania i Oliwia were often embracing. They met for the first time at the train station in Katowice, and became fast friends. It is very common for girls -- of all ages -- to walk arm-in-arm, but this pair were forever like Siamese twins. They were in my class, and once it was so cold (my classroom was outside) that these string beans both wore my jacket...zipped up to the collar.

Przymek & Martin at the lake, both in my class. Przymek was very quiet, but would gently speak under his breath. His English was quite good...while Martin was fun to talk with, but it was mostly Polish and pantomime we spoke. Both were eager learners and great fun.

Artur...our lifeguard and counselor for my older class. He was reviewing his Kantian metaphysics.

At the jezioro -- lake. Dominka has her back to us, Justyna, Emma, Daria, Kasia and Natalia. All save Emma were my students.

Aldona -- a young counselor, Adam, Natalia The Savior, Michal/, ?? and Ola(?). Natalia joined us as a counselor about the 3rd day of the first session. She saved us because the men running the show didn't know a thing about summer camp and kids. Natalia was full of games, activities and plenty of rainy-day things to do.

...sailboat...

Marta on flute, Pawel/ on keys and vocals. Bar Mis' ("bear" or "teddy bear") was around the corner from our pensonjat, and I became good friends with these young musicians, especially Pawel/ and his girlfriend Asia (no picture of her).

I was singing "House of the Rising Sun" and "Dear Mr. Fantasy."

Robert (Nike shirt) was the owner -- his brother is at the bar.

What can I say about Claudia's voice but that it was deep, rich, soulful and had a range that was amazing.

They played mostly tradition and pop Polish music, but also some English standards and Gypsy tunes.

Jill Finnessy is from Cincinatti, teaches in Katowice, and was a great teaching partner. Under her left arm is Ania, her student. Ania came to talk to me the first day -- very good English -- and we had a talk every day thereafter. She's a super girl.

We,gierska Go'rka -- Session III, July 22 - August 3, 2002.

Aneta & Marta. Aneta is reading Tecumseh and another friend, Kasia, is reading a German children's classic (in Polish), Winnetou, a fictional work about an Apache chief who battles the Comanche. One day Kasia's parents visited and brought her a book with 300 biographies of Native Americans...I was quite impressed. Aneta's English is coming along -- she's in my class; Marta i Kasia -- in Jenn's class -- are very proficient. Kasia wants to work for NASA.... (Pix soon of Jenn, Kasia & more.)