You know what this means.

North Carolina, I'm coming back to you. Are you ready for this hot mess? I'll tell you what I'm ready for. I'm ready for ovens, dryers, timeliness, and all things efficient. I'm ready for grown up friends with jobs and dreams. I'm ready for a good sleep in a good bed. I'm ready for barbecue, chili, and anything I want because I will have all my shit. I will say goodbye to this siren city in 3 days. This trip has been one gigantic party and I am ready to set down the Polish piwo in exchange for a PBR.

I wanted to take a minute and write a little about some life lessons I have learned while on this trip. My family, you dear people, have supported me generously and I can not fully express my appreciation any other way. As most of you know when I left high school I stayed close to home because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to take care of myself without you close by. I was young, and I had made a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, I knew that I had many more mistakes to go before I would be ready to take on the world alone. Those mistakes became habits and dreams faded as realities set in. Pretty soon I found myself in a static life that I had built. But, I still wanted something more. I was bored and I needed a great adventure. With the encouragement of my friends and the support of my university I was able to find one.

Being here I've learned that without risk there is no fun (was,was, Maria?!). From here on out I will try to venture into paths that are risky. I know that I can handle this because when I came here I was so scared of making more mistakes. However, I've realized that the things I was fearing were not important, and when I it came time to face them they were not as bad as I had thought.

I learned that I shouldn't complain so much about my life because I've got it a lot better than some people. I'm sure that I will still be a baby about things, but I at least have this trip to remind myself that I've got a good life. So, lesson #2: It's funny because it's not funny. Just laugh at it.

I talked many times earlier in this blog about how I was trying to teach myself that less is more. Well, that is a fine motto, but truth be told, more is more. Sometimes it's perfectly ok to go over the top. It creates the comedy that life needs to support lesson #1: No risk, no fun.

Lesson #4: There are worse things than being alone. For example, sitting on a bus next to a Polish girl who wants to talk to you for the full 7 hours that it takes to get to its destination, which leads me to lesson #5.

You should choose your words wisely. I can honestly say that 70% of my frustrations stemmed from confused conversations that were absurdly lost in translation. Even when I return to my mother tongue in its finest form, I will never forget that people don't read minds. Therefore, you should say what you mean and say it nicely.

Everything else can be chalked up to history made into reality. You can read all you want to about a country, but it makes so much more sense when you are standing in a newly remodeled building looking at a picture from 50 years before when it was entirely destroyed. It just really makes you think, "What the fuck?" I still can't possibly wrap my mind around what these people have been through, and I won't try anymore. They have all my respect because they have had a difficult road to get to where they are, which is no where. But hey, at least they are trying in a stupid, backward, "never gonna happen if you do it like this" kind of way. They've got spirit, and the picture below shows it.

This is a statue that is by the bus station here. It represent the people after Martial law was implemented in Poland. Martial law was used in Poland in an attempt stifle the solidarity movement, which eventually led to Poland's freedom. If you remember one of my first blogs was about the Orange Alternative movement. This movement stemmed from Solidarity. However, after martial law, life became chaotic here, and standing in lines to buy goods with rations became a normal way of life. In short, that's what this statue is a reminder of. I can not begin to explain to you how strange it is to sit in the city center and imagine that all of these corporate stores, that stand brightly painted, at one point in time were just totally empty, dull, grey, stood with long lines of miserable people coming out of them. So, refer to lesson #2.

Finally, the trip to Budapest was wonderful. It's an amazing city. I'll post pictures on Facebook as soon as it lets me.

History in the making...

I was watching some shows on how fucked up this world is, and I stumbled upon this video about where vodka originally came from. Even though it is about vodka, I think that it does a great job of giving the viewer a good perspective of what Poland has been through. It's about 35 minutes long, but I really recommend this one. Maybe it's my culture shock kicking in, but I sort of felt like crying at the end of it.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/wodka-wars

I am so tired...

...of living in Poland. It is 9 am and they are doing some serious construction in this building. Perhaps it would have been better to come 2 years from now when this place is top notch. Meanwhile, my roommate currently has wrapped her pillow around her face in an attempt to block out all the noise. I don't know what I'm going to do. What happens when I go home and there are no more sirens and construction noise? Will you promise to drill and bang like the best of the Polish people?

Seriously, I should be exhausted. I know you're thinking, "boo-hoo," but this lifestyle is no easy task. I have to party everyday. My friends need me. Is it fun? No, not really, but I am funny, and every party needs a funny woman. -Actually, it is kind of fun. I get a superfluous amount of attention seeing as no one has anything better to do. Plus, everyone is exceedingly nice.

I finished my paper, and by finished I mean I didn't write it. That's how easy it is. I thought, "GOD! I just want to be done." I checked my credits and it's ok. I am done. I have 6 credits more then I need even without the paper. It's amazing.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Budapest for one last trip before I board that beautiful plane. This is what your wonderful money has afforded me. I'm pretty sure that in the future I would never think, "You know, we should save our money and go to Budapest this year." So, thank you for this opportunity. I will continue to work toward a better blogging community. Oh! If you have a blog please don't hide it from me. I want to see it.

You look like a little poop animal!

This is your cute moment for the day.

It is your birthday.

And, by yours I mean mine. You can see by this image above that I am having a great time. That image is from my birthday party. The theme was "Everyone wants to be Marlowe." It was meant to be a physical roast of sorts. You know when everyone makes fun of you, but only because they love you. It went really well. My roommate was hilarious in her drunken antics, and by the end of the night I had "happy birthday" sung to me in 10 different languages. I don't know if you guys saw the video that was posted on facebook, but you can see everyone singing to me and that I'm not there. I actually left because they would not stop singing "happy birthday." Then the singing moved on to "In the Jungle." Luckily, the band moved on to the rest of the dormitory, and I could escape the sing along that never ends. I love those guys in all seriousness. For my birthday, my friend Stefano wrote me a letter. He worked on it for days getting the English right and the hand writing neat. That is worth more to me than anything one can buy.

Anyway, I'm still writing these last two essays. I want them to be good because they will be the last ones of my college career. I've already gotten a few grades. They are A's and B's, but that really means nothing. It just means I completed my one assignment. Besides that, the grades don't transfer back so I could have done nothing and it would have the same outcome. I have a serious guilt complex so I do the work, and the work is decent.

Today, we're going to make crepes, bacon, eggs, and mimosa's. Then we're going to watch "I Heart Huckabee's." I think I'll work on these papers for a while and leave up my different pages so anyone who wants to contact me can. Teresa is having a dinner at her and Xuane's new flat. Then the good-bye party for the students is tonight. So, I'll go to that and contemplate how temporary life is. On that note, I have breakfast to make and you all have life to live. Live it well. Adieu.

All I can say is, God bless 2010.

I don't know about you, but I have a lot of anxiety. This article (and I say article loosely) is dedicated to all the women. Men, this is just a bit of the historical aspect of what women have gone through because of you. Perhaps, not so much you, and mainly your predecessors. I would like to consider myself to be a mild mannered feminist. The type that respects what women have fought for in the past. This is just one of the many examples as to why we have to keep paying attention to the role we take as a sex simply because it's stories like this that scare the shit out of me.

http://www.viceland.com/wp/2010/01/the-a-to-z-of-sexual-history-h-hysteria-and-teh-monster-in-your-womb/

Isn't it weird?

I am trying to do work. There's not much left just 4 papers. I'm sorry I'm too busy to post blogs. I'll try to come up with a plan for this weekend.