Job Discussion Forums

[simon_porter00]

If you're going to live in a block, you'll have to pay "czynsz" which is a monthly charge to the building administrators for upkeep of the building. This may include all utilities, it may include none your school will know.

If your gas is powered by electricity expect to pay a whole lot more than a gas heated apartment. Mind you, seeing as you'll have no basis for comparison I don't know how useful this info will be.

[dynow]

i see no reason to be concerned about utility costs. i still think the offer you have is plenty to live comfortably. by the way, what is your paperwork arrangement? does the school want you to work as a freelancer (own business) or will you be on a work permit/contract?

California. haha. forgive me, but i got a little chuckle from that.....

uhmm....well.....i understand you liking the cold weather, happiest in the mountains as you say, but as you know, vacation is always fun, especially when you're skiing, and you always have in the back of your mind that at the end of the week, you're coming back to sunny San Francisco. Also, we, or at least I, rolled an eye (ever so slightly ) because it's not so much a "long miserable winter" because of the weather in particular (in northern NJ where I'm from, our winters were far more harsh than the three winters I've experienced thus far in Wroclaw), it's a 6-7 month long winter in a country where you can't speak to the locals when you stumble into a pub at night, you're alone with nothing to do, you can't get in a car and drive to a mall to pass the time, there is nothing in English on the television besides CNN..........you'll see.

[scottie1113]

Ain't that the truth! Dynow, have you ever been to San Francisco? It isn't sunny. San Diego is. And surely you know the famous Mark Twain saying "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". No matter.

BTW, czynsz is included in my monthly rent so I suppose I pay a little more in summer and a little less in winter, but the amount never changes. Since I'm in a great location it seems fair enough to me. That's a common practice here in Gdansk. I don't know what it's like in other parts of Poland.

[Gowump]

Brigette

There are plenty of English channels on digital cable (Discovery, National Geographic, to name a few), if you are into watching tv. It is provided by the local cable company and it is all inclusive-home phone, internet, and tv. So there is something to do on the long winter nights. Another thing, the winters aren't that cold here, IMO (I come from the seventh coldest national capital some argue the second, Canada), so for me the winters are a hell of a lot better.

[scottie1113]

I usually spend the long cold winter nights in Absinthe. What's TV?

[justflyingin]

Bridgette,

Assuming you don't have an expensive alcohol problem, you'll do fine on your salary. I just checked out where you town is. It's not so bad! We also have Cyfra and have several English channels. Lots more than we watch for sure.

My suspicion is that you will end up teaching most evenings, anyway, at least til 8 or 9 pm.

[brigittestardust]

Yep, my scheduled hours are between 3:30 and 8:30 pm.. this suits me just fine, I don't like waking up early and I'll appreciate having the daylight hours to myself rather than the evening ones where theres not much for me to do anyway.. but I wonder if it will present a problem in finding private lessons to supplement my income. My guess is that most people will want to book lessons in the afternoon/evening.
I sent a volley of questions to the DOS in response to his offering me a job and sending me the employment contract, and now I haven't received any response for a couple days. I hope this is normal, and that he isn't just insulted at my probing questions regarding gas vs electric heating and Polish national holidays. This EFL market is a strange one.
(Now that I'm sure I want to take it, I will be very sad if the offer is withdrawn..)
Thank you all for your input and encouragement/warnings/challenges! It seems like you all are there for good reason and I look forward to learning/teaching/growing in that lovely country of contradictions.

[justflyingin]