Cultural little me, look at me go

This weekend has been fabulously great so far. Yesterday, my flatmate, our friend Hannes and I went to the archaeological museum in town, which was really brilliant. It has beautiful gardens and is in what used to be at various times a palace, a prison, and an administration building. It's a beautiful place. And the inside is really cool. There is a huge Egyptian exhibit, which is awesome. Complete with real mummies! There is also a very large exhibition on the settlement of the Malopolskie region (which is where I live), including this gorgeous pagan statue from pre-Christian Poland. One of the few remnants that has survived, seeing as how most things were destroyed on sight by the incoming missionaries. As a historian, that fact offends me. Anyway. The point is, it is really awesome to hear about something in class and then be able to go look at it and be close enough to touch it (can't touch it always though, sometimes alarms would go off...hee hee).
We also went to Jama Michalika, which is a rather famous little cafe in town that was frequented by some great Polish authors such as Wislawa Szymborska and Czeslaw Milosz, etc. However, the service was absolutely terrible and it's ridiculously overpriced. Kind of a funny experience.
After that we went to a tiny little gallery on Florianska and looked at some Polish art by Igor Przybylski...check it out here. There are a great deal of amazing Polish modern artists...Marcin Maciejowski, Dorota Nieznalska, Natalia LL, Alicja Zebrowska, Wladyslaw Malecki, etc. They're brilliant. Finished the night at a drum and bass concert at a club, which was absolutely fantastic. If you like drum and bass...if you don't, you'd have hated it. :) Seriously though...what a fun weekend start. And tomorrow, Martina, Jan, and I are going to Ojcow National Park, which is a really great national park with castles and caves and pretty meadows and lots of places to walk to. It's pretty exciting. I'm so thrilled. I will try to post some pictures for you when we get back.
And the week after next, we're going up the Mazurian Lake district in northeastern Poland, because we have several days off school for All Saint's Day. Yep, here in Poland, you actually get Halloween off from school because of the day that comes after it. I'm quite excited. I'm either going to do that or go to Poznan to visit Pawel, but I'm not quite sure yet.
Oh! Also, next week, we're going to a Myslovitz concert, which should be exciting. Polish rock-y music. Pretty good. AND in a few weeks, the Moscow City Ballet is performing Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet here in Krakow, and I think I will die from happiness on the spot, just to warn you.
So many things planned: JULIA is coming in a couple weeks (one of my best friends), and we're going to go to Romania for a few days, which is SO exciting. I'm also hoping to go to Italy sometime within the next month or so to see Marco (a really close friend from last semester) and my friend Taylor from waaaaay back.
In short, life is good. My French class started on Wednesday, and my Polish class has officially started as well. It's all very exciting. I love all my classes. I'm taking all sorts of interesting things, and I adore my Polish Literature class, because I can actually read the stuff in Polish most of the time. I have to reference my dictionary often, but it's so much better reading things in their original languages. So happy about that. Just generally doing well. My pneumonia is gone, although I do have a bit of a persisting cough. Lots of things planned for the upcoming weeks, and I'm pretty happy about all of it.

Ouchie.

So, can I just say that I hate the war in Iraq?
I have two friends over there. Today Isaac logged in on msn, and he said, "Guess where I am?" And then he told me he was in Kuwait, and that in a few days they are heading into Iraq. I asked him if they would be near fighting.
He told me their squad leader was taking them "right into the thick of it."
To be very honest, I quite literally burst into tears. I told him I was scared for him. He said I shouldn't be...but oh god, am I. If anything happened to Isaac (or Keith)...I...god.
Isaac has been the closest guy friend of my life. We went to high school together in Darby after meeting a few months before at some random event, and I remember my first day at Darby; he remembered my name. He's the only guy who has ever really made me feel like I was someone special and beautiful and precious. He tells me without fear that he loves me and that he thinks I'm beautiful. I adore him. We haven't even seen each other in four years now--way too long. He'll be there for a year, and I am so scared for him. He is so sweet, so kind, so just...good, even if he doesn't think so himself. And I'm so very scared. Not just for his physical safety, but emotionally as well. What if he has to kill someone? What would that do to him? I wish he wasn't there. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him.
Maybe I shouldn't worry, but I can't help the tears that fall, and I feel so helpless.
War is scary. I don't know what else to say. I don't even have an address I can write to him at.
And Keith...he's always been kind to me.
Isaac, Keith...stay safe, please.
I hate this feeling...this scared rabbit-feeling like there is absolutely nothing I can do and I just wish Isaac was HERE.

History is close enough to touch. I mean it.

I was sitting in my early morning class today pondering. Professor Basista was discussing how Krakow was built and showed us some maps of what the city probably looked like 1200 years ago, 800 years ago, 500 years ago, etc. It was really interesting. For instance, where I currently live used to be in the Wisla river before they channeled it into one big river. This whole area used to be marshland. Anyway. As early as the 13th century, the Rynek was there. The rynek is the main square in the city; it's where the market used to be. It's been there for 800 years, and I walk across it every day. He showed us some 15th century paintings of tradesmen and guilds and stuff, and in lots of them, through windows or simply in the background, you could see the towers of St. Mary's or the Florianska gate, easily recognizable. I've said it before, but this city is old.
It's amazing to me how if I want to see any of this stuff, I basically just have to...walk out my front door. (And around a corner, but still.) I live about three blocks away from a castle that is about 1000 years old. If I want to go see something that pagan Slavs worshipped 1500 years ago, I just have to walk around the block to the museum. Jeeeeeeeeez. May I not take this for granted and actually walk around the block to go see that this week...
I have hundreds/thousands of years of history at my very literal fingertips. I may owe my soul in loans to the US government, but I'm pretty sure living in this city is priceless.
Okay, I'm off to my next enlightening class of the day: History of Polish Literature. Seriously, I am just like a little kitten in a...I was actually going to say candy store, but that's a mixed metaphor, so I'll say in a pasmantaria, which is a yarn store. Look at me go. I hope my brain doesn't explode or implode or anything. All my classes meld together very well this semester, and I'm getting a right kick out of it.

I'm too sexy for my rower, too sexy for my rower...

Okay, so first off, pronounce "rower" like this: ROW-vehr, with rolled r's. It's Polish for (yay!) bicycle!!! And I spent four hours today on said bicycle with six other friends (they had their own) and we drove all over the place. It's amazing that you can get on a bike and be out of the city in about 20 minutes. In an hour and a half, you can be in the middle of nowhere basically in a tiny village with a beautiful medieval church and the world's cutest kitten.
I went with Martina, Indre, Donatas, Marc, Hannes, and Marion, and it was really brilliant. The trees in the Polish countryside are starting to turn, and the ivy is blazing this blood-red color. We rode along the Wisla for about an hour till we got to the church, which was really beautiful. everything inside was white and gold and soft colors. Everyone was very quiet and respectful, which was cool. And when we came out...KITTY!!!
Marc found a tiny tabby kitten wandering around, and this kitty was the sweetest thing ever--he let us all hold him and just purred and purred and slept and pounced my scarf. Marion liked him so much that she stayed with him while we found food. :) I have missed being around cats so much. They're such a comfort, really. We had lunch by the river and met another cat...this one had a mission though. Martina looked away for one second and the cat took off with her entire sandwich, lol.
Anyway. We took a different route back, got kinda lost, went off-roading, and altogether only paid 20 zloty each for this adventure.
I think I have friends. That's kinda cool.

Antibiotics and Non-Summer Strolling

Sorry for the recent lack of postage: it is on account of the fact that I have been pretty sick lately. Pneumonia, actually. Seems to be a yearly tradition with me. Anyway. I finally got to the doctor after a great deal of hassle the other day, and now I am on antibiotics, which is nice because I feel a lot better finally. Only coughing a little.
Classes are in all sorts of swing, and so far I like them. I am in History of Krakow, which turned out to be kind of an on-going walking tour of the city. It's kind of an interesting way to learn history. I like it. I am also taking Anthropology of Social Pluralism, History of Polish Culture, History of Pre-20th Century Poland, and History of Polish Literature. They're all good so far. Only complaint is that the lit prof has this quiet, apologetic sort of voice that is very soothing and relaxing and kind of makes me want to snuggle up to whoever is next to me and sleep. Which wouldn't go over too well most likely.
So classes are good. I've even met some people, which is exciting. There is one guy I have almost every class with that I finally met today. I asked him if he was in my anthro class, and he said, "Yeah, and I think every other class with you too," so that was funny. Also there are a couple of French girls in my classes that I like a lot. Amelie and Lauren, and they're sweet. So things are good. Especially with the feeling better.
Also, my friend Paul was in town with a couple of his friends this weekend, which was really cool. It was so great to see him again. AND Marco was here again for a night, so I got to see him, too. What a sweetheart. I am so glad he's a flight attendent, it means I get to see him fairly often. So yay for him. Can I just say I love having friends visit?
Okay, I'm going to be boring and go have lunch before anthro. Peace.

Zakopane...hoo-de-HOO!

So guess what? I finally met some people from my very own university! It was exciting. We went to Zakopane for the weekend, which was crazy, but fun. Lots of walking around, hiking around, going up and down chair lifts, and eating Polish food. (Can I get a collective SO GOOD!!! Thanks.) It was all sorts of fun. We also had parties (in true Erasmus fashion) with traditional Zakopane stuff. Let me tell you, it's kind of funny to be at a university sponsered party where they purposely serve you alcohol. At least for me coming from CCU-dom. They gave us traditional Zakopane highlander tea...which is basically tea-flavored vodka. It's interesting, lemme tell you. Following that (someone's idea of good timing), they taught us highland dances and we cooked kielbasa over a fire. The next night was the traditional (Erasmus traditional this time, not Zakopane, lol) club party, complete with very bad DJ and very big spider.
Overall, good weekend.
Today, I must say, is off to a right smashing start. I got up bright and early for my Polish placement exam at 9, which, due to circumstances beyond my meager understanding, went swimmingly well. It was followed by an oral exam, and the nice lady put me in C1...again. So...for those of you who don't know, that is the class I was in last year that was waaaaaaaaay over my head, because I'm pretty sure they put me in it by mistake then. I toughed it out and even passed, but still felt fuzzy and not-so-confident. Well, not sure how, but something happened this summer. Or maybe it was arriving back in Poland that did it. But something snapped, now I'm just not afraid anymore. Last year I was so terrified to speak Polish...and now, that's gone. I can tell people directions, talk to anyone I want, and I was even joking with the lady who gave me my exam. I told her that the class last year had been too difficult, but she looked kind of stumped and said that something must have changed, because she really thinks I belong in C1. In fact, she wanted to put me in the next level up, which is C1.2. Imagine that. So I realized something on the walk home.
I speak Polish.
Isn't that weird?
Oh, and guess what else? I made a friend!!! That's my second bit of exciting news. I talked to the guy a few times in Zakopane, and he was standing behind me today in line to take our oral exams, and we got to chatting. He's from Flanders (the Flemish bit of Belgium for those of you who don't know...and further, Belgium is north of France, between France and Holland), and he studies Slavistics. Which is pretty darn cool. We chatted quite a bit, cos he speaks Russian, and he's learning Bulgarian and Polish. He also wants to learn Ukranian, which is pretty sweet. Pardon my excitement, I'm just tickled pink to meet another linguo-phile and slavophile like myself. He speaks Dutch, Flemish, English, and Russian so far. Heh. I love Europeans. I'm happy to find that I'm not the only weird person interested in rather obscure languages. It's pretty exciting. Okay. I'll shut up about Jan now, I was just happy to make a friend in my university. :)
Okay....that's about all for today. Over and out.

Banks, tanks, and money transfers

So, now that I have my money, I've been faced with the interesting problem of trying to pay my university here. Obstacle the First: they are charging me in euros, and the national currency of Poland is the zloty. Obstacle the Second: my bank does not DO international money transfers. Obstacle the Third: I have a spending limit on my bank account for each day. Grr.
However, it might all get worked out thanks to the nice people at my parent's bank.
Next news, I have been all flu-y this week, and that is the reason for the lack of writage. Thursday night I kind of crashed and spent the weekend fevered and generally miserable. Now it's moved into my lungs/sinuses, which we all know is the FUN stage of being sick. Blechh.
Am getting slowly better and following advice from everyone in the world. Drink water, take shots of lemon juice, mix garlic with lemon and slam it, take more vitamin C, stand on your head and do a one-handed push-up while spinning a cat by his tail with the other hand, you know. The usual.
Just kidding--you know I wouldn't take shots of lemon and garlic. *wink*
Other than that though, things are very good. My orientation week has officially started, which is exciting. I even met a new person. Yay! And I get to spend this weekend in the lovely city of Zakopane, which as of today I found out that the name of that town means quite literally "buried." In winter they sure are, so that's no surprise. Also, random sidenote about the Polish language, because of the fact that it is a declining language (not decreasing, but every noun and adjective, etc., has about 14 different forms based upon where it is found in the sentence and the role it plays), when you say you are going to a place or that you are in a place, the word changes. And Zakopane happens to be an adjective, so it uses the adjectival forms of the declensions. Krakow is a noun, so I am going TO Krakowa, am IN Krakowie, etc. Fairly normal. Zakopane follows a different rule though...I am going TO Zakopanego, and I am IN Zakopanem. Interesting, that. So if you are in Zakopane, you are buried very deeply. :)
That is about all the news I have for today. Tomorrow I am going to go talk to the nice people at the Lingualand language school and see what they say about lil ole me taking classes from them. I was proud of myself at the bank; in spite of stuffiness and not knowing an excessive amount of banky terms, I managed to make myself understood and understand in return, whcih was exciting. I even managed to speak rather fluidly without too many halts. Good on me. Anyway.
Peace out.