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.