In Krakow I started teaching maths. I wanted to study maths, because I thought that it would be easy for me and I won’t have to do much work. Actually
Together with my future husband I opened a private language school and we moved out of Krakow, and we moved down to a small town. At the beginning I didn’t like that place at all. When I had children, I actually didn’t have anyone to talk to, because I didn’t have any friends there. I always felt like, ‘I’m from outside, I’m not one of them.’ They just think, ‘You’re not from this area,’ or, ‘You’re not born here,’ so it was just, ‘You’re not one of us.’ I couldn’t find anyone to be my friend, so I felt quite alone, so it was difficult for me to live there and for some time, for four or five years, I just didn’t talk to anyone.
So after some time I decided that I have to do something with my life, because I can’t imagine myself in another 10 years to be in the same position and the same place and you have to think about your future, you have to think about your retirement, so I decided I had to move. And I wanted to teach maths and because I could speak English I said, ‘OK, I have to be a maths teacher somewhere else and it will be more challenging, so I decided to come here. The first time I came here it was 1991, I came to London for a course, and the course was organised by a Polish lady, I had a very good contact with her at a personal level and she said, ‘Why don’t you come here and teach maths, because actually there aren’t that many maths teachers here.’ So I had to wait for a long time, but
My son is 14 and my daughter’s 10. I came alone. I came alone, because I wanted to move out and I don’t think that my husband wanted to move out, I did not expect to live in a small town for such a long time. I came here also, because my cousin lives here. It was easy for me to come and stay with him at the beginning. I just can’t see that I can find a job in Poland which is better than here, because all the places are taken, usually by relatives in my small town.
