Boxing Day 2001 — Zakopane
Month: December 2001
Christmas Carolers
My third Christmas in Poland. That last year, of course, C and I were in Berlin — not a bad Christmas, but somehow not quite as full as this one. Yesterday I helped a little with the decorating, the cooking (very little: I basically cut some pickles and grated some carrots). Otherwise, I’ve done almost nothing. I’ve been watching a lot of television. And of course I’ve been working on Kamil’s Christmas web page.
I got an interesting email Friday, though I didn’t read it until last night:
Hi Gary. Are you the same Gary Scott who runs the web site http://glscott.net/? If so, this is just to let you know that I'm giving it a mention on the Update page of The Missing Dimension in a couple of days (probably uploading Dec. 24). The draft so far reads:
Great Scott! Gary Scott's site has been around for a while, but seems to have had a recent makeover. Gary has a major section devoted to the WCG, including his personal reflections as he worked his way through the claims of the PCG, along with essays and links.
The strangest thing about the Worldwide Church of God is its tendency to be something of an obsession for ex-members. Whether they quit because the WCG administration had abandoned Herbert Armstrong's teachings or they left because the administration had not gone far enough in its sweeping changes, ex-members tend to have put a lot of thought into their WCG experience -- and a lot of it ends up on the worldwide web. Such is the case with my own musings.
We can certainly identify with that.
Somewhat flattering, I must say. Strange to realize I’ve been noticed — I’ve made an impression. My reply to him included this bit:
So here I sit, writing a note to a complete stranger about my site critical of all things HWA while smoking a pipe after having one of the most wonderful Christmas Eves in memory. And I'm even planning on going to the village church's midnight Mass. Wouldn't Herbie be proud?
Wigilia 2001
Sunday before Christmas
Decorating the Christmas tree with K, my landlady's daughter.
NT Cemetery in the Snow
School Opłatek 2001
Wintery Fields
Krakow Rynek at Christmas Time
LW Centrum Christmas Lights
Classroom Recovery
After an excruciating class with 4a, though, and a less-than-stellar class with 4c, I had class 3b/b — undoubtedly my favorite group in the whole school. I wrote on the board “respectful,” “hard-working,” and “polite” and had three students look these up. I told them, “There are some students and some classes who are not respectful, hard-working, or polite.” Some of them started to get big-eyed, like Ela and Dorota, but I continued, “But you are not one of them,” and they started to smile. “I would like to thank you for being such respectful, hard-working, and polite students.” I didn’t say it, but I wish I’d added something like, “You make me really love my job, and it’s because of classes like yours that I came back to Lipnica.”