Threat Level Midnight

Yesterday was much more "wintry" than it has been lately; it was snowy and cold. I can't wait for some warmer weather, which will make going outside a lot easier. Today looks to be about the same.

Yesterday I had two classes and then went to a really good play ("Nasze Klasy"). I learned a lot about history and different relationships (Jew-Pole, Pole-Soviet, etc.) in Poland from the 1930s to 1990s. It was an incredibly strong and moving play. I found out I was the only one in my group who does not use glasses or contacts; I like that my eyes worked from almost the last row as we read English super-titles (I also picked out some actual Polish that I could understand). There was a lot of great acting and memorization by the actors. Some of the scenes were really surprising. Everyone in my program who went seemed to be glad to have gone, even if the subject matter was more sombre and thought-provoking rather than funny and cheerful. Gosia mentioned that one of her other jobs is doing Polish subtitles for movies; we talked about differences between the Polish and English and how sub- or super-titles are made. She is different from my Mom, who complains about discrepancies when she understands the Polish spoken text and it does not match the English sub-titles, because Gosia prefers less text so that reading is easier and the general sense is there (she said that there is a saying of translation being either faithful or beautiful). I said I tried to use what I did not know to learn new words, but it is not as easy when the wording is not as faithful or in a different order and she said that she does the same when trying to learn more German from film. One girl in the group did not understand a lot of the humorous times when she heard the audience laugh (some I picked up on and grinned myself); I wondered why she would even bother trying to understand such a foreign humor to her own... how did she expect Gosia to explain Eastern European/Polish humor in a short, simple answer? She did her best though. I am not sure I would have tried as much if I were asked, but I can be mean. :-P

Not sure what I will do today since the weather is not so great and I have no classes. I do have to pick up some reading from Gosia eventually. Other than that, I am pretty much free until Polish on Monday morning. I have some reading and other homework to do, but not too much luckily. I have just started catching up on more American TV, which I will continue to do ["The Office" was pretty funny and silly.]