They're here!

So that you know.
And off I go to the forest :)

How it was not meant to be

I think it was about three weeks ago that an add, printed in black&white, caught my eye somewhere in the streets of Katowice. I tend to be even nerdier when in a strange environment (and Katowice three weeks ago was still pretty strange), so I write everything down. I'd even write my own name, just to be on the safe side.
So i wrote this in my little red notebook: "Koncert / punk / Bielsko-Biala, 31-10-2008 / 18:00".
Now Bielsko-Biala is not New York, so how tough can it be to find some punk concert, in the evening, without having the slightest clue where it is? That was the only detail missing from my notebook, and I still can't figure out why I didn't consider that to be important when I took notes in the first place.
Yesterday, I finally decided I should at least know if the concert is in some pub, out in the open air, just to have an idea. It was nowhere to be found, after two hours I gave up and turned to Maxi, if she couldn't find it, then it's probably not real.
But she did. When I came home from the office, the link was waiting. So this is the concert:

Yesterday, after work, before we said goodnite, Pan Janek told me I start work today at 8 (p.m.). I'm sure this should teach me a lesson. At least in terms of taking notes.

Me & my forest

This is where I live & work.
On a day like this, the forest is particularly inspiring. The perfect excuse for a long walk in the autumn sun, eating ice-cream (I hate eating ice-cream in summer, it usually melts all the way down the new skirt, but autumn & winter are the best seasons for it), taking pictures, soundtrack powered by Rancid.
Also, the forest is a very good setting for poi spinning, which will probably become part of my daily routine starting next week. Placed the order last night, can't wait to receive the pack :) It almost feels like Christmas.

Courtesy of my Mom

Who knows when to remind me of the really important things in life :) You rock, dude!

Esperanto

My brain is very close to saying "no more". And I'm not the only one. In school we speak Polish but make fun of everything and anything in English, I go to work and speak Polish but I sometimes mistake the szklanka for the kufel and require additional information in English, and since the Silesian dialect has so many German words, I need to reactivate the very basics and try to remember what I've been doing during those German classes in the past year, and then of course I go out with Maxi who is my friend-psychologist-computer doctor and it may happen that she starts speaking German with me, and let's not forget French wich is also highly popular, or Russian for that matter, spoken during class by those people who seem to take Polish for granted just because they were born speaking Russian. Oh, I gave up the idea of taking Spanish courses here, but only because the Spanish Philology Department is in Sosnowiec, not in Katowice, and I'm too lazy now and will probably be too cold in winter to take the trip.
I'm afraid there will come a point when I won't find my words anymore, or make a mixture of my own - I have this theory, that we all have an individual language, in which we know all the words, we don't lack any name for any action or object, and this subjective language is a mixture of all the languages we've learnt. Obviously, for full understanding we can only speak it in front of the mirror, because we won't find a perfect match in somebody else's individual language, so I'm beginning to think Esperanto wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Bookies-cookies

Couldn't possibly miss the 12th edition of the Krakow Book Fair, could I? Books, shoes and earrings are, by far, top of my permanent shopping list, so this Saturday smelled like freshly-printed books. One step closer to polishing my Polish :)
Also, set the grounds for a meeting in Warsaw with the edtior-in-chief of Czarne publishing house, so there's plenty of exciting stuff yet to come. And since tonight I'm not working, I'll be on the wagon, writing and reading about writing in Polish.

Homesick. Sort of :)

I never thought I'd say that, but I do miss Bucharest. I miss B52 - the music, the people, Ceci's car and out late night drives ("are you not drinking tonight?" / "of course I am, we'll pick the car up tomorrow morning, when we wake up"), our late night talks about well, what else, boys... No need to mention Expirat, with the strangest happenings in the world :) I miss going out to lunch with Vero, who happens to be in Bucharest, so why not have another Cuba Libre and try to make some sense of our hectic lives, I miss Pupi coming home and telling me there's some exhibition opening and we just have to be there. I miss Ana & Gruia, who always know what's cool & hip & worth seeing / doing in the city, our talks about the things we write and the things we are planning to write. I miss going on tour with the boys (it's been a while since I last did that, but nevertheless), I miss the concerts, the parties, Beck's beer, the seaside, to some extent I miss the University and to a bigger extent I miss my classmates and our after-classes beers. I miss Jela and her mysterious ways of understanding how my life goes, her priceless pieces of advice. I miss Mom & Dad, the shopping sprees back in Brasov, Saturday afternoons, family friends, I miss the little ones who will not be that little anymore by the time I go back home, my Granny and her calm voice asking me the same questions over and over again, the two pubs in Brasov with the best bartenders in the world (except for us of course, that is the team in the tent, WE are the best bartenders in the world, there should be a prize for us).
So this is what I don't have anymore, at least not in the way I used to. But I'll be back, sharing the cool things that I do have here, and that I already know I'll miss when this year is over.

I'd be perfect

if I understood at least 10% of the male brain.

The city, the morning sun, the present

So it's not Krakow (which by the way I visited and I wasn't as impresed as people were telling me I'd be), but it's still nice and cozy and already feels like home. OK, so it's mostly about the people, not about the places, I admit, but the places are also cool, not in the tres chic way of being cool, but nevertheless cool. Right?

My mornings. All mine. Due to the stupid terms of my scholarship agreement, I can do whatever I want. And all I wanted was to enjoy my mornings. To the fullest.

Oh, the joy! Isn't this sweet? Happy happy me :)

I love my job

I love it so much, that I might actually reconsider my academic career. Today I asked the big question about the program, how we work, if we have shifts or days to be in the office and days out of the office. And Jacek told me we have no system, and as confusing as it was on the spot, I felt really happy deep down inside. This is the opportunity of a lifetime - you never know what tomorrow may bring. So my future employers will have to work really hard to be as cool as my current employers.
And then late at night I sat down and had a beer with the guys and made plans for Saturday.
Fieldtrip, fieldtrip, fieldtrip fairy princess :)

Let's pick it up from here

So I'm in Poland, for almost one month now. Having surpassed the crappy parts that any major change involves (confusion, moving in and out and in and out, fixing the internet connection), having discovered by now the really cool parts that any major change involves (the beautiful people, the sweet satisfaction when things start going the way they should), I say we pick up the pieces from here:

• I go to school. Almost on a daily basis, Fridays are off because... well, Fridays are somewhat of a weekend, right? Oh, and also Tuesdays, they bring bad luck, so I'd rather focus on indoor activities. For the rest of it, I take Polish language classes, Theory of Literatue and a Linguistics course, which is my totally favourite, since it deals with the tendencies in contemporary language, most common mistakes, trends and rules.
• I go to work. This is my parallel universe. Firstly, I've seen my dream come true. Yaay, I work in a bar. Actually, I work in a tent. Which is one of the coolest bars I've ever seen - and by now I do have some experience. It's in the forest. Everybody knows everybody. By now, everybody knows me and I know everybody. I've learnt how to prepare hot beer with honey, parpika and cinnamon.
• I've (somewhat) lost my sense of fashion, didn't lose interest - hope this doesn't really happen. The main reason, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. It's f***ing cold. So I wear about half of my wardrobe, daily. I pretty much look like Yeti's offspring, dressed up as a cabbage. And it's only October.
  
• I've been writing. A lot. More than ever in the past few years. And I'm pretty content with the result. Although it's a long way to the final result, but I can see it coming.
  
• I have some other projects. Again, I probably took a bite bigger than I can chew. But luckily there's enough energy to keep me on track.

I'll be back shortly. Now off I go to do some studying and get ready for another day at the office :)