Wycinanki

unintentionally stumbled across a website the other day, and i’m glad I did!  It was about my Polish paper cuttings I didn’t copy the article itself the other day, it was pretty boring—essentially it was just about a Polish Papercutting exhibit at some museum in London. But it did have some lovely pictures, so I decided to do a quick post about it—if nothing else, just so I can remember how to spell “wycinanki.” if I had to take a guess, that is pronounced vee-chi-nanki. not exactly how it looks in English, but not too bad for a polish word, either

here’s a few other examples to show the variety of subjects and styles:

by the way, that last paper cuttin, the round flower one, is for sale for $35. I got a deal.

type Wycinanki into google and you can find out a lot more

anyway, all I have to say, xoxo!

why, hello again!

so, I arrived home from Poland two months ago, and I’m sorry I haven’t written anything on my final thoughts. Overall, of course, I had a wonderful experience, and cheesy as it sounds, in the past two months my appreciation and affection toward the country has only grown. after all, absence really does make the heart grow fonder. In fact, I’m quite homesick for Krakow now, especially since the reality that my long vacation is over has set in, and I have to return  my “real life” as a student in Chapel Hill. It’s harder than I anticipated to return. Harder than it was to leave…I suppose because when I went to Poland I went with the knowledge that it wasn’t going to last forever, and after four months I would come back to North Carolina, and chances are things would be just how I left them. However, with Poland…..I don’t know when I’ll be back. but I do know that whenever it is, the people I was with won’t be there, I wont have my daily routine of going to class, going to my favorite Piekarna for strawberry cake and a cup of tea, or walking aimlessly around the Ryneck for hours on end.  and I wont be going back to my little room in Nawojka, with my shaky little table and my rock-hard mattress and short square sheets and lumpy feather pillow. Funny the things that turn out to be pleasant memories—despite the fact that while I had them I would have traded everything I owned for a night in a decent bed.

I’m horrified at the amount of Polish I’ve already forgotten—even though I never really learned it in the first place, I did collect enough vocabulary to get around fairly well. Now I find myself struggling to remember even simple words. I even considered signing up for beginning Polish again this semester, even though I know that taking it again it will probably make me miserable.

Found out where the Polish Restaurant in Raleigh is, as well. If all goes as planned, I’m thinking about dragging a friend there next weekend Speaking of food, I should post a picture of the polish meal I tried to make over the summer:

Don’t know why I couldn’t have straightened the silverware before taking that picture…oh well. Doesn’t look too bad, though, eh? I was pretty proud of myself. It took me all day to make those pierogi….8 hours or so. Polish grandmas must have more energy than I do, to be making these things all the time. So here we have pierogi (which frankly I wasn’t too impressed with. they look adorable, but didn’t taste polish at all) golumpki (cabbage with a meat/rice filling and tomato sauce) and then a carrot salad and sliced cucumbers (in lieu of pickles, I suppose).

Come to find out, there’s also actually a Polish Deli on Atlantic Avenue. I can’t wait to go. It looks like fun, and I can go there and get all excited about polish cookies or something,  http://www.polonezdeli.com/

what else…….I don’t know. just feeling especially nostalgic this week, I think. Got a message from my friend Eduardo (the mexican guy who was there with me, and who is staying through the fall semester as well. He has a scholarship and doesn’t get to go back to Mexico until January). He’s spent the summer writing articles for the Krakow Post, which is an english newspaper….so I’ve still kept up with Krakow by reading that regularly, and looking out for Eddie’s articles. He also says that the new Fall semester kids arrived this past week, and they all seem cool. not as cool as my group was, though, I’m sure!

anyway. I guess thats enough ranting and rambling for now. I suppose I may still write now and then, when I’m feeling especially nostalgic. I don’t really know where else to pour out to, as no one else around here shared my experiences, and probably don’t care about them as much as I do. Sometimes I think about things I wish I did differently, or things I had done that I didn’t do, or what I might want to do in the future…things I wish I’d savored a little more while I had the chance. oh well. only one thing to do I suppose, and thats to go back!!

xoxo

oh yeah, I forgot

I was going to tell you about my bathroom drama! hah. I’m sure you need to know…

so, last Tuesday was the fateful day I actually failed a test. I told you about it the other day—it was the one-question oral exam that i didn’t know the answer to. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty upset after that…….well, actually I think upset is an understatement. I’d been up all night studying and trying to prepare for the exam (and finish up the paper I needed to write), and I was tired, and all I wanted was to come home and take a shower and collapse in my bed. However, God apparently decided that was not to be.

I walk down the hall and I immediately sensed something funny going on. Why is there a pile of wood outside my door? anyway, i get to my suite,  unlock the door, walk in, switch on the light and—–

 

to my horror, I find this:

Building maintenence apparently decided that this would be a good week to remodel our bathroom—-without telling us

I might have cried. too much for one day.

so, now we have no shower, no toilet, no running water…plus the maintenence guys like to do all their hammering in there bright and early at 6am. they actually knocked a hole all the way through the floor, for a day or two we could look down into the room under us. They also like to tell really crude jokes (according to my roommate, I dunno I can’t understand them but I take her word for it) and then they all laugh like hyenas, as loud as they possibly can. it’s been kind of miserable, actually. I think seeing that little fiasco was the first time I really felt like “ man, I wish I could go back to north carolina…this kind of thing doesn’t happen at home.” And it made me even more glad to be going to Sweden. If I had to stay in Krakow this weekend I wouldn’t have made it, i would have had to check into a hotel for the last few days.

Well, whatever. 2 more days, grin and bear it…makes for an interesting memory, yeah?

I think there was another story I was going to tack on to this one, but I don’t really remember now…so I’ll leave you with that.

XOXOXO

Sverige

thats Sweden….in Swedish

so, I’m coming toward the end of my stay in Europe, but I just had to take one last trip before I board my flight to America on Wednesday.  It didn’t take me long to figure out where I wanted to go……..I have a little bit of a Sweden obsession, even though I’ve never been there before now. Its kind of funny, but when I think of Scandinavia, I think of things like fairy tales with trolls, Pippi Longstocking, and my Swedish American Girl doll, Kirsten. its a child-like place, a happy place.

yeah, so Sweden might be a little out of the way for most travellers, but I just had to check it out and see what it is about.

Even though I know better, I’m still a little disappointed in the lack of trolls and Vikings and rockstars  I’ve seen on the street (ok, so maybe I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up about running  into ABBA or Crashdiet or Europe or whoever while here…), but overall this has been a nice trip. Stockholm probably isn’t a place for everyone though, and I can imagine that for some tourists, it seems a little boring. Although to be fair, its also a holiday weekend so a lot of things were closed, and apparently all the Swedes went to denmark because the drinking is cheaper there.  But regardless, I’m pretty low-key and quiet myself, so it is an alright place for me

Yesterday I went to 3 museums and took a boat tour around the island. My favorite was the Vasa museum. It was absolutely incredible. A must-see world wonder for anyone. So, basically, all the Vasa is is a boat…but its a special boat. It was built some 330 years ago or something, but was sunk in the harbor of stockholm on its maiden voyage. Somehow, due to the brackish water not being suitable for whatever waterworms that eat wooden boats to live in, the ship was preserved until today. It was discovered again about 50 years ago, they were able to bring it to the surface, and it was made watertight enough to float to the drydock. Kind of amazing, huh, that a ship that spent 300 years on the bottom of the ocean could still be able to sail. They brought it into the harbor and built a state-of-the-art museum around it….All I have to say is that it was really, really, really cool. they’ve managed to piece it all together again, its got over 90% of its original parts, lots of statues of mermaids and things on it, they’ve even got the original sails…plus its ENORMOUS…probably 4 stories tall from the bottom up to the deck…and they’ve built these viewing platforms all around so you can walk up and see it up close, from top to bottom.

I wish I had some pictures of it, but they keep the museum very dark and cool to help preserve the boat, so my camera wasn’t able to pick up enough light to take a pic. And besides, I forgot to bring my camera cable so i can’t upload anyway…argh, I meant to do that!! But anyway, if you’re interested, here is a link that tells about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)

Today not much happened, I went to the old part of town and piddled around until lunch. Its very nice…quiet, shady, lots of cobblestone streets…it kind of reminded me of Savannah, actually. Stockholm is actually built across a series of islands, so there is water everywhere, everyone in town has a sailboat that they’re riding around in, people fishing or laying out by the water, even swimming in the water, its apparently really clean…I liked it. Swedes are a very chilled-out, relaxed, close-to-nature kind of people, I think. After lunch I went to the Nobel museum, which is about the Nobel Prize (Alfred Nobel was a Swede) and it had displays on people who had won it, etc etc…it was more interesting than anticipated. After that I didn’t really know what to do, so I decided to get on a tour boat and see where it took me…ended up going to some little island a ways out of town, not much there, but it was kind of relaxing…I got some icecream and sat on a rock and watched sailboats until my boat came back to pick us up. It was nice.

thats about it. I really haven’t done anything at all, but I enjoyed Sweden. I don’t really feel like I’ve gotten to know it though, there wasn’t enough time. I really want to take a week or two and cover all of scandinavia…from norway to sweden to finland, take the viking tour, see the countryside, buy some of those painted wooden horses…One day I will. This was a nice taste though

oh, and I ate swedish meatballs, for real. SO much better than the Stouffer’s variety

 

Will be home soon!!! XOXOXO

egzamin(s)…haven’t learned plural yet…

Just finished my exams today. Well, that was an experience.

so, I have to say something about polish exams. Polish exams are horrific, come to find out. let me give you the example of my EU class. first of all,  it was an oral test. I think oral exams are some sort of holdover from the communist system; I don’t know how common it is these days but it obviously still happens. For an oral exam, you walk into the room, sit down, he asks you one question, and it could be absolutely anything, spanning the entire course….4 months of material….could be something that he talked about 5 times a day all semester or could be something he mentioned once in passing the first week of class. It was really kind of unfair because not everyone had the same question, some people got really easy questions, some people got really hard questions. Regardless, whatever we got, we had to be able to answer it and discuss it.

so, one question…………………………………40% of my final grade for the class.

I show up (feeling pretty nervous) at 8am for this, right…I walk in, sit down, and he immediately poses some question about naming in order the countries that became democratic after 1989, and their capitals…what?? really?? capitals too? no….I about had a panic attack. its only lucky I didn’t pass out. I was expecting him to ask me something about negotiation processes or future EU enlargements or the institutions of the EU and their roles…I could have even discussed EU agricultural policies if he wanted, and in great depth. merely listing off countries and capitals? didn’t see that one coming. maybe that should have been an easy question, I’m not sure. Or maybe it was because i was so nervous I couldnt think…but somehow my mind went blank on that. Needless to say, I forgot half of them and he failed me. that was a fun feeling.

I guess I can’t deny that I wasn’t prepared for that one question so maybe I did deserve to fail, but I did study, really…and I think even if I had studied more I wouldn’t have focused on memorizing countries and capitals, I would have tried to gain a better grasp on the process of transforming a socialist state into a democratic, market economy or something like that…oh well, sometimes you just can’t predict things. Luckily, Poland also has a policy where people are kind of expected to fail, i think, so you’re allowed to retake the test until you pass. The system is kind of dumb, actually…but whatever, works for them I guess. I went back today (along with the other kids who failed) and he asked me another question, this time about something I know, and I was able to talk about it and he passed me this time. yay!

still, what a nightmare!!! I hope I never have to do that again.

The other funny thing about Poland is that they almost expect students to cheat. It’s really very strange. I guess because in America it’s treated as if the worst thing a student could possibly do is cheat on a test, and everyone knows the consequences are going to be enormous (kicked out of University, perhaps?) so really, with the exception of plagiarism perhaps, I don’t think cheating is all that common. In Poland, the teachers expect it, everyone knows it happens…I even saw it happen. it’s still pretty unsettling, though….

what else? I don’t know. I’m hoping i passed my language class…Polish is pretty impossible. Its not even something you can kind of fudge if you’re on the right track, but not completely sure…you can’t guess at endings. French is the same way, really, only difference is I can formulate sentences in french and I know what it is supposed to sound like so i can kind of hear if it sounds funny and try to come up with something better, whereas in Polish even I don’t know what I’m saying sometimes, its all the same to me…and even if I do know what word I’m trying to say, I can’t pronounce it or spell it…oh well. There was an oral component to that as well. I had to introduce myself to her in polish, read some story out loud with proper pronounciation and answer questions about it, and then “act out” a scenario with my teacher, where she was the waitress and i was a customer…so I had to ask for a menu, order imaginary food, give her imaginary money….went alright until the end when I forgot how to ask for the check…and she about hit me upside the head “JEENYYFURR how you been in my class and not know that?! whyyy??!”

whoops??

well, we’ll see how it goes.

Off to sweden tommorrow! can’t wait! its one of those places I have really been wanting to go so I’m glad I get to go.  Got a little itenerary ready to go, theres some sort of Viking ship there I want to see, and a huge market…I’m excited about going by myself actually, got a little more freedom to do the things I really want to do rather than feel like I need to stick with my group…it seems like I tend to wander off by myself regardless of where I am anyway so it’ll probably be the same difference…

alright, I’m out…gotta start packing and getting things in order I suppose… love y’all!! ttyl will be at home in raleigh this time next week…I can’t believe it….