Don’t you think that the act of looking forward to something is better than the act itself? Okay, so I admit it, I’m feeling a bit doom & gloom today. With this being the last day of the school summer holidays, my mind has been hijacked by thoughts of the fickle nature of Time. There [...]
It all happened one Halloween night, when the silver steeples and pinnacles of Kraków gleamed in the light of the full moon, and the stars shivered from on high. In the midst of this chilly world sat my Uncle Dariusz, huddled in the twelfth-century tower atop St Mary’s church, getting ready to open the window [...]
Here in Poland, tomorrow is the beginning of a new school year. That's a brutal landing back on earth for all us summer-addicts who work in education. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we hate our jobs or don’t want to go back to work; it just means we don’t want summer to end. The word paradise comes [...]
My guess is that there are quite a number of people out there who have secretly been enjoying lockdown. And who are now feeling a little saddened that things are gradually getting back to normal as restrictions ease and country after country slowly but surely prepares to return to normal life. Of course there are [...]
A year and a half ago I came back from an international school reunion in Vienna and felt so deeply affected, I wrote a blog post about it. Now, eighteen months on, I’ve just come back from a smaller but equally moving reunion (same school, different location) and ... well, here I am again, writing [...]
One difficult aspect about living in Kraków as a half-Pole, yet often feeling like an expatriate even after 20-plus years in this place, is that it’s hard to link up with other English-speaking book lovers such as myself. If I were back in Britain it would be easy. I’d probably be a member of two [...]
CHRISTMAS EVE 1992 Kraków, Poland “We’re closed.” That’s what I said to the woman as the chimes by the front door announced her entrance. I didn’t even bother preceding it with a ‘sorry’. It was quarter to two on Christmas Eve and I was just about to lock up shop and go home. Who can [...]
Wendy Skorupski 