Warszawa

History blights this city which is a mixture of old and new - the old having been reconstructed after World War II. This concrete sprawl conjures up happy feelings and others of the frustration of being lost and unprepared. On this particular trip, I also got lost and had to take the easy way out by taking a cab to the place I needed to be but I also enjoyed the city which is so different from Krakow.
Many people say that Warsaw is just a city for those who want to make money and while this is a general statement which of course cannot be allowed to include everyone, I definitely got a sense of the openness and dynamism which exists in the Polish capital and it was refreshing. It is more multicultural than where I live and is also much bigger and higher than my adopted home city with signs that the construction of skyscrapers will continue, with Złota 44, the unusually shaped structure to the right of the Palace of Culture, planned to be finished next year.
Previously I felt that it would be a shame to dominate the skyline with modern buildings that seem to try to hide the Palace of Culture but now I have changed my opinion and I often found myself feeling rather surprisingly impressed by the height of the city. It shows the new face of the city and the optimism and hope for the present and the future.
On the other hand, the Uprising Museum is a stark reminder of the past and how much devastation was caused in the city. Just like in Krakow, this sombre period of history is not allowed to be forgotten. The Old Town is strange and it is often dismissed because, unlike Krakow's Old Town, Warsaw's is not the heart of the city and it is not original despite it being very attractive.
My heart is still in Krakow but I will much more easily persuaded to visit Warsaw in the future.

Native Confusion

The term 'Native Speaker' is one that has worked in my favour since my arrival into Poland approximately four years ago. At first I thought it sounded like the name of a someone in a cult or something else quite suspicious and being addressed by this title was often the source of amusement and discomfort, I was never able to decide what feelings it produced.
On the one hand, it meant being able to teach English with a qualification given to me courtesy of my upbringing but on the other hand, it often led to school management expecting me to be the ideal candidate to work with students on their speaking skills. This is often more difficult than teacher grammar, a area which I have grown to enjoy teaching and it is a bit insulting as it is not really teaching in my opinion but practicing speaking. For me a teacher should be able to practice all the skills and not just specialise in one.
Having been here for some time and having come to grips with the Polish language relatively well, it is now hard to be a 'Native Speaker' who is expected not to use or understand for that matter any Polish in the classroom. I should not translate or react to Polish even if there are sly comments aimed at me by students who think they have the upper hand with which to impress the others in the class.
It is a pickle and I had a big test yesterday with a new group of teenagers. I pretended to be a 'Native Speaker' in the true sense of the word but at times I really wanted to shout out that 'I can help you!', 'I understand!' - but I could not. Thankfully, there were no insults hurled at me to defend myself against and to betray my progression from being a 'Native Speaker' to being whatever it is I now am.

Fighting it on my own

Due to my stubborness or perhaps due to a continuing lifestyle flaw, I have been feeling less than perfect for the last few days. My girlfriend insists that it is the former while I am convinced it is the latter and that my body will work with me and not against me once I give it the encouragement and the ingredients necessary to do so.
Put simply, I have a common cold (Acute viral rhinopharyngitis, or acute coryza) which I have read is commonly caused by lack of sleep, lack of vitamin D and exposure to cold weather. From the same Internet source (Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold) I have also read that it is the most common disease suffered by humans of which there is no cure but thankfully, it is rarely fatal.
The fact that there is no cure is interesting. Of course, Wikipedia is not a scientific journal but it seems to support my argument and suggests that medication helps but only alleviates suffering while the body must do the bulk of the work by itself. According to the same site, in the US more 'than one-third of patients who saw a doctor received an antibiotic prescription, which has implications for antibiotic resistance from overuse of such drugs'.
The recovery process usually takes between 7 - 10 days but can take longer. I am on day 7 so I am feeling optimistic.