Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Export) Leaving Poland was surreal and it remains surreal in my memory. Once we returned from Turkey on October 20, we had but a week remaining to finalize our departure. The Bolesławiec had been shipped before we left for Turkey. After investigating all options for transport, I elected to…
Export
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Perspective) Returning to Canada also involved the assumed complication of setting up an export/import business. That is to say, we needed to figure out how we would get Benjamin back to Canada. To this day, when I introduce Ben or even the picture of Ben to anyone and they…
Perspective
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Decisions) Choosing to return required almost more preparation than it took to leave Canada four years earlier. When we left, we were new grads with little in the way of reasonability and what possessions we owned were mostly boxed and stored away in Andrea’s parents’ basement. In preparing to…
Decisions
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Super-Dog) The decision to return to Canada was in many ways obvious and necessary. That didn’t make the decision any easier, however. By the time we made the decision, we’d been gone more than three years and by the time we’d return, it would be over four years that…
Super-Dog
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Mikołajki) The next morning we sheepishly awoke, had Polish coffee (which is a fine coffee you place in the cup and cover with hot water then stir and wait till the grounds settle, and then drink between pursed lips), along with bread, cold cuts, and cheese … a…
Mikołajki
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Camping) We arrived in Mikołajki around mid-afternoon after a beautiful and scenic drive north. It was a rather unique experience, actually, because apart from the occasional lift around town offered by Magda and a few other friends, and other than the trip to to Łosice at New Years, we…
Camping
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Intermezzo) One of our last adventures in Poland proper would be a camping trip that summer in Masuria (pronounced much like the American state) which is the Polish equivalent of Britain’s “Lake District” because of the 2000 lakes the wind and connect through this northern part of Poland….
Intermezzo
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Separation) A trip to Greece confirmed one decision: this would be our last year in Poland. It was time for a change. Over the course of the fall, we seriously considered a number of options, including relocating to another part of Europe to continue our teaching. Belgium was…
Separation
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Jacek) When Jacek came over a few days later, Ben bounded at the door before it even opened. Jacek wasn’t even past the threshold when Ben was on him like a jackal on rotting meat (no offence to Jacek intended – but in fairness to Ben, Jacek was…
Jacek
Chapter 2: A Polish Year (continued from Pennies from Heaven) It wasn’t long after Ben’s run-in with the corrective citrus that Andrea and started planning our winter vacation to correspond with the University’s own winter break. The destination we chose was one that had long captured my imagination: Greece. The question would be what to…