Nie mówię po polsku, ale mówię po angulsku.

Yo-ski! I skipped the Polish lesson and ignored my blog for a few days. I apologize for the delay, but frankly I was busy. Last Wednesday I made a long trek to IKEA. It was my first time and I was disappointed to be honest. I got things for my kitchen at an affordable price. Then I had to carry it all back to my dorm. All together it was a four-hour trip by tram, bus, and foot. Then, stuff happened, I posted the pictures on Facebook. There was the zoo trip on Thursday, and then we make party on Friday and Saturday. Sunday we went to the other city Świdnica. It was a cute city, but I didn't do my research and therefore missed out on a couple of old churches as well as a castle. Then, I came down with swine flu while I was there. So upon our return I went immediately to sleep from 6-9. I got up made some dinner and then got the worst nights sleep of my life. It was so loud on the city street I could hear people breathing. I spent the whole night crying while pulling my hair out. Luckily, in a mad-dash all the students at "the D-building" got to move to "the pencil" (which means nothing to my sleepless nights). After that nightmare we could all begin to relax in our new flats with flat mates of our own choice.

Xuane, my previous roommate, and I decided to stay together in a room. We share the flat with Teresa, the kiwi, and a girl from Russia that is very nice. It feels like a good group because we can balance work with play. For instance, last night everyone went out to celebrate our new homes, but all of us were out of the flat by 9:20 this morning. None of us felt very good, but we all at least felt it was important to take care of our business. Anyway, the flat is small, but much bigger than the last place. We have a fridge the size of one you would find in a regular dorm room, and 2 burners for all four people. That is our kitchen, plus a sink and a small table fit for 7 year-olds. There are an absurd amount of cabinets in this place. That's good I guess. The bathroom is normal, and we have an entryway, which is nice with a place to hang our winter coats. We have Internet, broadband, no Wi-Fi. It will take only two days to connect hopefully, but no less then two. Then we can all Skype like I'm right there in the room with you.

Today, Teresa and I went exploring to find the things we needed around the building. We found 2 washing machines for all 16 floors (each floor has 8 flats, each with 2 rooms, each room with 2 people). There are no dryers. Apparently, Poland doesn't like dryers. You have two hours to use the washing machine and then you have to let someone else have it. We also found the TV Room. I'm going to have to post a picture to show you how hilarious this room was. More important, there are like 7 channels of which maybe 2 are actually in Polish. The other 5 are other languages, some of which are English, but they are all dubbed over by the same guy. Just to be clear, you can still hear faintly what the people are saying, but there is one guy talking in Polish for every character, and it is the same guy on every channel. It is terrible. After these two disappointments we returned to the room to try to figure out something else to do. Apparently there is a ping-pong table and a foose-ball table up on the 12th floor too. By day, I will hone my skills in these games so that I may return and slay all those that claim to be victors of them (you know who you are). By night, I will teach the international community our fine American traditions of beer-pong and flip-cup. It's going to be a good 5 months.

Speaking of me, I'm doing very well. We started the process of trying to sign-up for classes. I don't think I will be able to finish the anthropology minor. I'm not sure yet, but I think that is where it is heading. It's ok, I'm thinking about taking courses in economics. There is also a large community of Global Studies students here so maybe I'll look into that as well. I'm getting around just fine now. I'm even taking on the city alone. I find that when people start speaking to me in Polish if I just look terrified they will just leave me alone. If it is important they can use hand gestures. I can say something’s like good afternoon, how are you, how I am, can you repeat that, I'm listening, I don't understand, can you write that down, please, thank you, excuse me, yes, no, and good bye. I'm also very good with poultry so I've been eating a lot of chicken because I can't recognize what anything else is on the menu or at the store. I'm still trying to figure out what the deal with brewed coffee is. I think these people only drink espresso and instant coffee. I can't find coffee filters anywhere. I'm going to need someone to send me some of those, and some American coffee because it's week sauce here.

Well, I could go on and on, but I won't to spare us time so I can watch my American television shows while I wait for the rain to stop here. Winter is blowing into town. Keep watch for more posts! My new and now permanent address is:

Uniwersytet Wrocławski

Dom Studencki Ołowek

Pl. Grundwaldzki 30

50-363 Wrocław

Is this gonna be forever?

Unfortunately, and yet fortunately, nothing happened today. I was supposed to go to a tree climbing thing, but no one was at the meeting place when the sign said to be there. Luckily, I went back to my room to lay down for a bit and ended up getting sick from the brilliant suggestion to eat KFC for lunch. The good news is I learned my lesson. The bad news is that I don't have anything cool to show you all. So, I'm just going to post some links to keep your interest. Tomorrow, look forward to a lesson in the Polish language. That was your original replacement blog, but I'm tired and don't feel like it.

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html

http://www.babyanimalz.com/

http://www.veegle.com/

The Orange Alternative

The Orange Alternative was an underground protest movement started in the 1980s by the students of Wroclaw (pronounced vra-swauv) University. At first it seems the students began to spray paint the dwarves on the sides of street corners as a symbol in opposition of the communist regime. They offered a peaceful form of protest to a wider group of people by way of nonsensical elements. This was to prevent the police from arresting anyone for opposing the regime without the authorities looking foolish. The dwarves were painted on paint spots that covered up anti-regime slogans. The campeign continued through the 80s and is said to have been a big support of the solidarity movement. The statue of the poo man standing on his mound of poo, on Facebook, was the first statue erected (I believe) in 2001. The rest of the statues are located all over the city. They have become a representation of the people in this city. They have books here that compare the dwarves to the people of Poland so really they have become a mascot.

Today, I took a trip to the post office after class and took pictures of the ones I came across. I'll post them on facebook as I find them. I also found another famous statue or group of statues that entertain me. These friends are located in the area of the main square that was previously a meat market. The artist designed them to pay homage to the animals that were killed and sold in the market. Today, however, they serve as an obstacle course for the drunk people exiting the pubs that surround it. I wanted to point out the careful eye for detail the artist had.

Dear Diary, You are a journal that I will log my activities in.

Hello everyone! One week into the trip and so far it has been wonderful. You've seen the pictures I've been posting. If everyone likes them I'll keep posting them. We have one more week of language classes. Then the students at Dwudziestoltka (20 year old girl) will transfer to Kredka (crayon). Quick language lesson, when a d is next to a z it makes a j sound. So, the pronunciation of my dorm is dah-vu-jee-stow-latka. Weeee! Back to the point, after class we eat lunch, take a break and then go on an adventure at 3 pm. There is a Japonese garden (pronounced yaponese) here and I'm going to try to make it the next one, but I don't know yet. Once we move, our classes will start and there won't be as much time to do things. Most of the other students are here working on their Master's degrees and are on scholarships. It is important that they work hard. There are two other girls from America and they are both from N.C. They will be my partners in crime because it isn't as important for us to get good grades.

All the international students are working on breaking through cultural barriers to make friends. It was a little lonely at first, but everyone is coming out of their shells now. One week feels like a really long time here. I've been trying to make friends with the locals, but they really want to talk to me about why I came here. I've grown weary of explaining it to them. Polish people can't believe that anyone would want to come here. Honestly, it's incredible and inexpensive.

Today I'm feeling the sting of being abroad. I miss the comfort of my possessions and the familiarity of friends/family. There are no televisions, you have to listen to music you don't like, you're never really alone, but it's totally worth it. I think that it's because we stayed out until 5 in the morning two nights in a row. Everyone gets ready and meets in front of the dorm. We all ride the tram together to the city square and then find a club to dance in. The dancing is new for me. The laser lights make me feel disoriented, and people take themselves so seriously on the dance floor I can't help but laugh at them.

We went to this famous club called "No Name" last night. There were three dance floors. One was outside with sand and a strange mix of American music. The two downstairs were super dance parties. It was alright, but not my scene so Teresa and I left. We found a beautiful club that was decorated like the 1920s and we met some Polish guy there. He was cool and ran some events around town and invited us to them. Hopefully that will work out so I can stop talking about why I'm in Poland and move on to more indepth conversation. I hate all the small talk I'm subjecting myself to here.

Anyway, I could talk forever about the mundane details of what I'm doing, but I won't. It's no mystery that I love to talk about the details. I'll try to keep future posts brief. Speaking of typical Marlowe behavior, please forgive the bad grammar. I'm going to go lay down and watch Flight of the Conchords and nurse my hang-over. Stay tuned for further intelligence.