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
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