The End Has No End

Quick note since I have sunshine outside I need to enjoy and some packing, so I just wanted to jot down some quick points of the last day or so. I took the Polish exam and then went out for a bit. I checked out the Warsaw University Library (garden and rooftop). Not only gorgeous, but amazing views. After that, I went to the cytadel area before heading back to the dorm for a few minutes. A little after 5PM, I went to Old Town, where we all met for dinner at POLKA [http://www.restauracjapolka.pl/en]. I had some broth soup with noodles (rosol) and a salad with neat tomato sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and the famous Zakopane OSCYPEK (smoked cheese), which was grilled on some small pieces of bread. This was my first time having the cheese since I was a bit nervous based on the testimonials of others. :-P It was not terrible, but WAY too salty and the smokiness was not too bad; I had the main issue that our director has with it: the salt. We gave our program directors flowers and cards. In exchange, we were given tote bags with gifts inside (krowki - Polish butter caramel candies - in a tin and SGH pin and pen and yo-yo), in addition to a whole several course dinner with champagne toast. After a long dinner, the whole group when to the SGH student club, PARK. (Terrible beer comes with the entry free... the beer was worse than I remember when I had a few sips a couple of months ago...) Today I am about the head out for lunch and I receive guests very soon! :-D

Some photos added to Photobucket. :)

Time

Some quick info about what my program did on May 2, Polish Flag Day. Yesterday was a neat tour of Krakow. I was especially happy to visit places I had never visited including parts of Jagiellionian University and a couple of really nice churches. After the touring, most of us went to an English-language bookstore. I was very tempted to pick up a couple of books in English by Polish authors... but decided against it to save money and because of future issues with packing. It was after this shop that I headed to Cupcake Corner [http://cupcakecorner.pl/en/] with a few others and I had a carrot cake cupcake. I followed this with some snacks at the room, where I relaxed, did yoga, and went on the Internet for a bit before we all met up to go to dinner at Wesele [http://www.weselerestauracja.pl/]. I had some borscht soup with meat "little ear" dumplings in it, a little of the table bread (not horrible, but not the best of breads), a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, orange slices, duck, pistachios, and dressing, and a bit of two sorbets (lemon and raspberry) with hot tea on the side. After dinner, I hung around with the other students in a room two of them share (we all stayed in the living room area to be together and celebrate "America," as some of them announced, upon hearing news of Osama's demise... even listening to patriotic music, which include "America, F*** Yeah!" that had already been somewhat in my head from the other students talking about the news and their excitement) and then we went to a few clubs. Right now I am preparing for breakfast and then we are off to tour Wieliczka Salt Mine before free time and then dinner (at Miod Malina: http://www.miodmalina.pl/) in the evening. Tomorrow we will be back to touring Krakow when we see different parts of Wawel Castle. (Thursday includes Auschwitz and a performance of classical string music at a church near our hotel; Friday is touring a historically Jewish part of the city before departing).

Lublin Tour has been updated to Friday-Saturday May 13-14. We all visit the Presidential Palace that Monday (May 16).

Photos soon.

Kim i Kraków

Enjoying being back in Kraków. :) Forgot how much I really like it here. Yesterday, we had a train ride that was about 3 hours, so it went by very quickly. We checked in to our hotel (it is very close to the Wawel castle; I am sharing a pretty big room with a sitting area, TV, desk, two double beds, and balcony with view of adjacent walkway. Unfortunately I now smell a weird smell... so my only issue may be my bed. :-P There is also a very awkward "maze" to make it to the rooms and there is construction going on inside the hotel.) Yesterday, we had an Italian dinner at Da Pietro: http://www.dapietro.pl/ I had fish soup, a salad with capers, smoked salmon, hard-boiled eggs, olives, lettuce, and tomatoes, and a dessert of ice cream, strawberry sauce, fruit, and whipped cream (that I tried to skip around :-/ ).

After dinner, I walked around the rynek here (including taking photos or looking at stages, and several other displays and decorations for Constitution day on May 3 and for Pope Jan Pawel's II beatification; a lot of people and celebration here in the city for the long weekend and Pope): some streets, the Sukiennice, and area between the Old Town and the hotel. I went back to my room when the sun went down and hung around my room and other people's rooms before we went out for a bit (dancing and such). Now I am resting before going to breakfast and our first tour session of Collegium Maius (never been), back to the Sukiennice and Main Square (LOVE), and a couple of churches (also never been inside). Later on we have dinner at (I believe) a Polish restaurant named Wesele: http://www.weselerestauracja.pl/

Tomorrow is Wieliczka salt mine. I also started taking pictures yesterday and will take more today, to be added soon to probably Photobucket. :-D Weather is much cooler than what I experienced last week... but still not bad as we welcome MAY. We have a map and a guide to the city, plus free time to go with the scheduled tours. I also have some homework to do: readings for literature class, a couple of final papers to begin (since those are the two with set topics and due dates; any others I lack enough information to work on), possibly watching a movie for a class, and some Polish book and workbook exercises. I know that I have been doing at least some practice and studying of the Polish language in the last week, in preparation for the exam the final week of classes. :-P

HollyŁódź

My day in Łódź was a lot of fun, especially when the weather would agree with me. :-P Before my trip, my program's assistant director gave me a great map to the city: http://www.use-it-lodz.pl/ [comes from this website, which has other places: http://www.use-it.be/europe/ since we also have a great Warsaw one: http://www.use-it-warsaw.pl/] that was very helpful. Łódź is a nice place for a shorter trip (or even longer if you have the time) since the train ride is a little over two hours there (so under five hours total travel since the trains tend to be late arriving when I board or disembark) and a lot of the main places for food, shopping, visiting, etc. are along one main street or not too far from it; this street is Piotrkowska [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piotrkowska_Street]. There is more than one train station in the Łódź area and the one I arrived at and departed from (Łódź Kaliska) was not bad at all (better than Torun, but not as nice as the main or central ones in Wroclaw and Warszawa, but those have more construction; it also had small kiosks, stores, vending machines: food, HOT DRINKS - I love these (for me, they're more for soup and tea) and the US needs more of them, and cold drinks). I walked along this main street and I went to a fantastic commercial spot called Manufaktura: http://www.manufaktura.com/ It was created from a former factory and became multi-purpose: a mall, bowling alley, museums - such as about the factory's history, galleries, restaurants, a movie theatre, and more. It was probably one of the nicest malls I have ever seen and it is so cool how the exterior factory-look was maintained. It was there that I had lunch at my go-to food chain (everyone else on my program tends to go to McDonalds wherever they go, but I like the Polish vegetarian food chain Green Way: greenway.pl and I just tend to select different menu items when I go - this time Krupnik soup: http://www.kwestiasmaku.com/kuchnia_wloska/krupnik/krupnik.html, a croquette filled with cabbage and covered in a mushroom sauce:http://greenway.pl/pl/katalog/dania_glowne/krokiet_z_kapusta_i_grzybami, with salads on the side: shredded carrots, shredded beets, a coleslaw-like other one); I am in a very Catholic country and it must be the leniency - authorized by the Pope - on meatless Fridays during most of Lent (mainly Good Friday as the one to be meat-free) that allows more Poles to be lenient themselves. I am one of the main people I have seen who stick to every Friday being meatless when I can, so many a Pole can be seen at KFC, kebab stands, McDonalds... Later, I walked around the mall and a few stores, such as grabbing some drinks, gum, and snacks at a real: http://www.real.de/real-startseite.html - a European supermarket and then went to a small market called Alma: http://www.almamarket.pl/ because it began to rain while I was inside the main part of the mall and I wanted to stall for time... but ended up walking in some rain anyway. The tough parts about rain are the loss of peripheral vision with a hood and the fear of being poked by umbrellas. Plus, it was very windy, so I saw some difficulty with using umbrellas when they would fold the wrong way. It was cloudy when I left Warsaw, sunny from the train window, and then cloudy, windy, and cool when I left the train until it began to rain when I was inside the mall (stopping sometime later before starting again). I walked along Piotrkowska Street (it stopped raining for a bit and began again shortly before heading to the train station as it began to darken earlier from the lack of sun and abundance of clouds) and I even stopped inside of some neat stores: a Polish folk store - full of Krakowiaka dresses and painted eggs and Polish stoneware - and this interesting market with one floor a grocery (with a candy/alcohol counter ;) ) and the upstairs a weird market considered a "Chinese Market." It simply had a weird hodgepodge of items and made me have that "where am I?" feeling. There are even some "stars" along Piotrkowska (http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleja_Gwiazd_w_%C5%81odzi), a la Hollywood's Walk of Fame, but this one is smaller (only a few - not many - blocks on both sides of the street) and for Poles.

Not my picture ;)

I really liked this city a lot and I was glad to go, although it would have been cool to see the Corning, Inc. establishment there (since then my parents could tell their coworkers that their daughter had seen/visited an international location :-P). It would have been fun to stay longer since there were some sites left to see, but it was a pleasant trip. :) I did not see any of the museums or some places (ghetto, cemeteries, forests, some parks, some monuments, some important buildings/sites) farther from my train station, Manufaktura, or Piotrkowska Street. There also was an IKEA at a mall nearby. :-P ;) So, a longer time there could have been spent.

Pictures on Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kab1221

Since the weather is not-so-great (a bit windy, cool, cloudy, and drizzling on-and-off), I will not go out too much. I may wait and see how the weather is tomorrow before making definite plans (also because of it being the Smolensk anniversary), other than going to the classical performance at 6pm. I have been interested in seeing a movie, so there is a chance I will do that tonight or tomorrow. I also have a little homework to finish up before Monday or Tuesday. There is also an episode of "Castle" I have yet to watch and a new show called "The Borgias" that might fill the void left by "The Pillars of the Earth" (which I still might read one day).

:)

My Babcia is coming to Poland again! This makes me SO happy. :) Especially since I have felt a bit weird, tired, and sad sometimes.

Last night was a celebration for a belated birthday of one of the people in my group. It included cake (the one eaten by some of us was a small, pretty one that the Polish buddies brought - I saw chocolate and cherries, thought I smelled rum, but one girl on the program brought one that was saved for later since the buddy cake looked more "birthday" and the buddies had proper birthday candles) and alcholol (different beers - one being a hemp beer - and vodka and tequila) sometimes with juice (apple or grapefruit). We began in one of the common kitchens in the dorm and afterwards most of the group (not me) went to the student club PARK. Today the sun is shining and I may head out soon and see what I can accomplish before class at 3:20.

Weekend begins soon. :)

In A World A Pure Imagination

Recent peculiar sightings include an icicle almost the entire length of a building roof-to-ground; might be the longest one I have ever seen and it was quite pointy-looking. I also saw some people who started a fire in what I think was a garbarge can by a Metro stop. I am also a terrible abuser of the express self-checkout at groceries. The DIY registers are more for people with 15 items or fewer, but I quite enjoy scanning my items. I do this in the US, too, but I have only been stopped once when I went shopping last weekend, haha. :-P Lucikly, I was not stopped yesterday. ;)

Last night was a special celebration for someone on the program celebrating her big 21st. It began with a trip to an E. Wedel chocolate lounge (http://www.wedelpijalnie.pl/english/home/204). Some girls bought leis and those ribbon-things you blow at birthday parties; the birthday girl wore a tiara and a bead necklace with a plastic cup on it that said "birthday girl." There also was a wand that was abused (lost at least one plastic gem) - used for "magic," blessing, and spanking. A bit S&M. :-P I had Willy Wonka songs and visions on my way to the lounge, even though we didn't go near the factory (it's on the other side of the river and, like Wonka, does not have tours, just a factory store I have been recommended to go to. This has led me to make numerous "golden ticket" jokes. When that day comes, my Mom will be gifted several Ptasie Mleczko and I may try Pawelek and other Wedel treats. :-P)
This won't embed: :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-uV72pQKI

This one does embed: :-D

I learned that I may be the only person on the program who likes water "gazowana" (carbonated) - but I didn't really drink it last time I was in Poland. There were a lot of interesting selections from the menu chosen by the group. Most people ordered the hot drinking chocolates of various varieties and flavors, while others ordered chocolate fondues with dippers; a kid dessert with a cup and spoon made of chocolate while the cup is filled with whipped cream, raspberries, and raspberry syrup; sundaes; turkey sandwiches; fruit-filled chocolate crepes; and I had a scoop of raspberry sorbet with fruit (kiwi, cherries, melon balls), whipped cream, chocolate shavings, a waffle cookie, and a square of chocolate.

My dessert and water, gazowana

"Proof of Love" or "In Evidence of Love"

Vintage! Notice the Ptasie Mleczko and the fact that I turned on my flash. ;)

A bigger shot, for my Mamo :-D

The specific lounge we went to was very cute. It was big and the waiting staff wore Victorian outfits; the girls looked similar to English maids. There were portraits and chandeliers; it was as if we were in a candy shop mixed with a parlor. It has been super cold outside, but nice and warm in there. ;)

We hung out at the lounge for a while and then headed to SGH's student club, PARK: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klub_Park
On the way there, I was nearly eaten by tram doors and could potentially have tumbled down to unknown demise and pain, but landed on my feet with the only harm being my foot was grabbed (not painfully) as the doors were prematurely shut (they were open all of ten seconds... so I was exiting and people with me were trying to exit as well, so it must have been the trams fault). I was so glad that there was no harm done, I crossed myself and was so shocked. The club had free beer (Krolewskie - basically dirty faucet water with no flavor and then not a great one once it does taste of something; it is very watery and people drink it only since it is free and they want to be drunk; people spend money on others drinks or to add raspberry syrup to it). I had some sips of beer since I was pushed to do so and I had one shot of a round someone bought since I didn't have to pay for it (it was actually a pretty color blue, had a light and decent scent, and a pretty good taste). I don't think I have had much alcohol nor have I paid for any really (unless you count the entrance fee to this club). There were a ton of people and a lot of smoking, so I smelled GREAT when I left. :-P It was fun being with some program people and buddies and other students. It was slightly too loud to do too much conversing, which is one of my issues with talking at clubs; if music is loud, dance and drink. Want to chat? I'd rather be elsewhere, thanks. I guess I am not too much of a club person, but it could also be other factors - people, place, music, etc. It is especially tough going out when it is so cold. :-/ I always end up with "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths in my head... if you know the lyrics, then you can figure it out if so desired. It is also fun going back to the dorm after the front door is locked and you have to call in and I asked the woman answerer to please open the door in Polish. By that time my nose was running and my extremities were stinging, which means they were shortly before the point of loss of feeling. :-/

This morning some of the group went on a tour of the library - it is really nice and extensive content-wise. Now I am doing... laundry. :-/ Just one class later then WEEKEND. ;)