Dzien Dobry. I know that this title is not the best alliteration I could have thought of, but you try coming up with an alliterating title every week (discounting the 2 months of hiatus).
Well I had one final smash group reunion in Warsaw a few days ago and it got a bit hectic, which meant about eight hours sleep over the whole weekend and a lot of Vodka. Don't get me wrong, we did meaningful stuff too, like we all went out for dinner, and stuff.
But let's start at the beginning, like the horrible horrible HORRIBLE! train ride from Poznan to Warszawa. Ugh, horrible. First of all Scott (my Poznanian Placement Partner) and I were at the station very late and the next train wasn't for many an hour, and the queues were very long, so we thought 'screw it' and decided to just get on the train and buy a ticket from the inspector...
The population of China was on that train.
I managed to find a window in the isle to stick my head out of while I was crushed on all sides by masses of equally unhappy people, so I didn't completely die of claustrophobia, and had to stand almost the entire time, although a couple of times I took advantage of the luxurious floor-space and sat down, and after three hours of my hair being battered by the wind (causing several annoying split-ends) and leg cramp, I was able to get off that hell, and could finally laugh about it all.
I ate Thai food, drank 2 cokes and sat for about 3 hours at the empik cafe in the mall by the train station, and waited for some other volunteers to come. Then I checked into the weird hostel I found online, where they're environmentally friendly, and there's a shower in every dorm and it smells like weed (I'm not kidding), but it was just a bed to sleep in, as I came back late and checked out early.
So it was great, we hung out on some abandoned train tracks for a while (I don't really know why), then met some American-Lithuanian guys, and a volunteer and I managed to convince another volunteer that one of the guys played in the NBA. I'm not naming names here, but you all know who you are. The highlight was when we told Gullible One to 'touch his face'.
Saturday night, included dinner where I ignored my money troubles for one night and got a steak. It came with a free wine if that makes me look any less irresponsible, and we had some meaningful speeches, gift giving to our Lattitude representative, then another night out.
Then we trained home on Sunday on something significantly less crowded (although we were still sitting in the corridor), and 2 days of school and hey, tomorrow's my last and I leave for Berlin on Thursday. Yes folks, my placement is over, but don't worry, I'll keep blogging about my travels over the next 2 months.
So I'm coming to the end of this post, but I want to tell you all something very important: If you haven't already read 'the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', for God's sake people READ IT! I'm almost finished and it may be one of the best damn pieces of modern literature I've ever picked up. I haven't seen the movies yet but now I'm desperate to and I've already decided to boycott the American remakes (Damn America, just watch the Swedish version you idiots). Steig Larsson has just joined lonely Joss Whedon on my list of 'feminist idols who are men'. Tell me if there are any more who deserve to be on that list by the way. I'm sure there are many wonderful male feminists out there. I guess my dad counts...
Oh well, READ IT! THAT'S AN ORDER!
Do Widzenia, bye bye. I may or may not update some time soon.
Kate :)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Gdanskian Grandeurs
Czesc, my fellow friends. I seem to be getting quite good at thinking up alliterating titles. Are you impressed? I know I'm rather proud of myself.
Yes, so I was in Gdansk, which is I guess regarded by the Polish as the second-best city in Polska, but I think it's just as nice is Krakow. The thing about Gdansk is that it's completely different from any other Polish city. I suppose that might be because it was independent for a few centuries, and German occupied for a while, when it was caused Danzig. Sound familiar? It's significant to a couple of World Wars.
So I did a bit of random exploring, went into a couple of cathedrals, met with some other volunteers who also came up and one who has a placement there, and we took a train to Sopot, which is another mini-city about 20 minutes away from Gdansk, and we took a dip in the Baltic sea. However, I didn't go swimming. I didn't bring my togs. Even if I had brought my togs I probably wouldn't have gone swimming because it was icy freezing cold in that water. However, I paddled, and got some photos as evidence that I have stood in Baltic waters.
At the hostel, I met some interesting people, a girl from Mexico. We watched 'Gok's Fashion Fix' (Polish dubbed) together and laughed at how stupid it was. There were some girls who shared our room on the Saturday night who were from all over the place, one from Poland, one from Lithuania and someone from Bulgaria I remember. They were all talking in English and I found them quite entertaining to eavesdrop on. Later that night, we were tired, heat-struck and covered in salt (or at least my legs were), so Alana (another volunteer) and I got some yogurt and sat in the kitchen area. There we had an great conversation with a man. I don't really know what nationality to call him because he currently lives in Perth in Australia, but he was born in Dunedin and has lived intervals of his life in both Oz and NZ, so I'll just say he's Australasian. Our topics spread over Britney Spears, his travels (he's there to pick up a Polish Passport), what a great movie 'Inglourious Basterds' is, which then involved in a long discussion about World War Two, which covered just about everything that happened and why it happened, including modern day Neo-Nazis, and what would have happened if Japan had been smart enough to just leave Pearl Harbour alone.
Unfortunately, I had one less day in Gdansk than I'd hoped because I had to spend the Friday at school helping out for 'English Speaking Day', which was rather fun anyways. However, I may have the chance to go back later with my parents. I hope so. So I left today and now I'm back in Poznan. My train ride back was exhilarating. I was filled with passion and excitement and a love of life, just overwhelming happiness really, and I don't really know what I was happy about, but I can bet I was feeling that way because I'm currently reading this really amazing book called 'Into the Wild'. It's a real-life story about this guy called Chris McCandless who hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness because he was sick of the mediocrity of human society. Unfortunately, he died out there, but it's still a brilliant story, and it got me thinking that the world is beautiful, and life is beautiful, and while there's no way in hell you'd see me contently starving to death in the Alaskan wilderness, I still love the world. So anyway, I just couldn't stop smiling on the train-ride back, and everyone was looking at me. I think most of them were puzzled, some caught the bug and also became incurably happy, and some I suspect found it annoying, but they're just fun-sponges who are too mediocre for my way of life.
I have noticed that being here, on my own, doing this independent thing has made me less self-conscious. I used to care so much about what random people thought of me, but I think I've finally started to realise that it doesn't matter because I'm never going to see them again. I know that in my mid-teens, I had something of an inferiority complex that I think most teenagers have at some point, but a year or so ago, I actually realised that I'm a wonderful, beautiful person and I started to love myself a bit more. Now it really irritates me when people think they aren't good enough.
So eventually, my incurable, explosive happiness mellowed down to a nice contentment, and I just stood in the isle for the whole five hours back to Poznan with my head out the window, wind in my hair, feeling the freedom and enjoying the beauty.
Don't you just love being happy?
Well, Do Widzenia my friends.
I may or may not write soon, but there'll always be a link to whatever ramblings I decide to write down on trusty Facebook.
Yes, so I was in Gdansk, which is I guess regarded by the Polish as the second-best city in Polska, but I think it's just as nice is Krakow. The thing about Gdansk is that it's completely different from any other Polish city. I suppose that might be because it was independent for a few centuries, and German occupied for a while, when it was caused Danzig. Sound familiar? It's significant to a couple of World Wars.
So I did a bit of random exploring, went into a couple of cathedrals, met with some other volunteers who also came up and one who has a placement there, and we took a train to Sopot, which is another mini-city about 20 minutes away from Gdansk, and we took a dip in the Baltic sea. However, I didn't go swimming. I didn't bring my togs. Even if I had brought my togs I probably wouldn't have gone swimming because it was icy freezing cold in that water. However, I paddled, and got some photos as evidence that I have stood in Baltic waters.
At the hostel, I met some interesting people, a girl from Mexico. We watched 'Gok's Fashion Fix' (Polish dubbed) together and laughed at how stupid it was. There were some girls who shared our room on the Saturday night who were from all over the place, one from Poland, one from Lithuania and someone from Bulgaria I remember. They were all talking in English and I found them quite entertaining to eavesdrop on. Later that night, we were tired, heat-struck and covered in salt (or at least my legs were), so Alana (another volunteer) and I got some yogurt and sat in the kitchen area. There we had an great conversation with a man. I don't really know what nationality to call him because he currently lives in Perth in Australia, but he was born in Dunedin and has lived intervals of his life in both Oz and NZ, so I'll just say he's Australasian. Our topics spread over Britney Spears, his travels (he's there to pick up a Polish Passport), what a great movie 'Inglourious Basterds' is, which then involved in a long discussion about World War Two, which covered just about everything that happened and why it happened, including modern day Neo-Nazis, and what would have happened if Japan had been smart enough to just leave Pearl Harbour alone.
Unfortunately, I had one less day in Gdansk than I'd hoped because I had to spend the Friday at school helping out for 'English Speaking Day', which was rather fun anyways. However, I may have the chance to go back later with my parents. I hope so. So I left today and now I'm back in Poznan. My train ride back was exhilarating. I was filled with passion and excitement and a love of life, just overwhelming happiness really, and I don't really know what I was happy about, but I can bet I was feeling that way because I'm currently reading this really amazing book called 'Into the Wild'. It's a real-life story about this guy called Chris McCandless who hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness because he was sick of the mediocrity of human society. Unfortunately, he died out there, but it's still a brilliant story, and it got me thinking that the world is beautiful, and life is beautiful, and while there's no way in hell you'd see me contently starving to death in the Alaskan wilderness, I still love the world. So anyway, I just couldn't stop smiling on the train-ride back, and everyone was looking at me. I think most of them were puzzled, some caught the bug and also became incurably happy, and some I suspect found it annoying, but they're just fun-sponges who are too mediocre for my way of life.
I have noticed that being here, on my own, doing this independent thing has made me less self-conscious. I used to care so much about what random people thought of me, but I think I've finally started to realise that it doesn't matter because I'm never going to see them again. I know that in my mid-teens, I had something of an inferiority complex that I think most teenagers have at some point, but a year or so ago, I actually realised that I'm a wonderful, beautiful person and I started to love myself a bit more. Now it really irritates me when people think they aren't good enough.
So eventually, my incurable, explosive happiness mellowed down to a nice contentment, and I just stood in the isle for the whole five hours back to Poznan with my head out the window, wind in my hair, feeling the freedom and enjoying the beauty.
Don't you just love being happy?
Well, Do Widzenia my friends.
I may or may not write soon, but there'll always be a link to whatever ramblings I decide to write down on trusty Facebook.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
An Ample Apology
Well, not so ample. Yes I am aware that I haven't updated my blog in nearly two months, but as I recall, I made no promises to write every day or week etc. Actually, I went back onto blogger.com to delete this blog. I don't really know why I didn't go through with it, but if you enjoy reading my words which are so inferior to those of my heroes, such as Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Plath and Leonard Cohen, then be happy.
So yes. I left Budapest feeling Hungary for more, but alas, my Easter break was over, and back to school I had to go. However, in the month-and-a-half since, I have travelled more. I have been back to Krakow and Wrocław (that's pronounced Vrroh-tswaav by the way. My parents seem to be having particular trouble refraining from saying Roh-claw no matter how many times I write it phonetically for them), and this weekend, I am going to Gdansk. Yes my New Zealand sisters, brothers and any other random Joe who reads this blog, you have to come to Polska.
I know one thing, a few weeks ago, I learnt the meaning of suffering. I saw Auschwitz, and I'm sure that whatever you imagined it would be like, it's worse. No one talked, no one said a single word, and I glared at this one man who took a sneaky photo where they asked him not to, and caused a look of shame to show on his face. I myself didn't take a single photo. Major suffering happened there, so much that hearing about it made me want to be sick, and also made me want to kill Hitler. I still would, just give me a time machine. So anyway, after spending money to feel miserable, I bought a couple of pictures from the store nearby, where a very cute old woman was absolutely ecstatic that I spoke in Polski to her.
So although the only thing worse than going there as a tourist would be to go there as a prisoner back in the 40s, I think everyone should go to Auschwitz. I've been told by a couple of the English teachers at my school that Polish children today still have nightmares about Nazis, even though it's sixty-five years later. That's how affected the Polish were by this. The worst nightmare I ever had was when Errol Flynn forced me to dye my hair orange. I don't think it really compares.
So yes, this has been a bit of a melancholy blog, now to listen to some Nick Cave and watch a Chernobyl documentary to really make me want to kill myself.
Love you all,
Do Widzenia, Kate :)
So yes. I left Budapest feeling Hungary for more, but alas, my Easter break was over, and back to school I had to go. However, in the month-and-a-half since, I have travelled more. I have been back to Krakow and Wrocław (that's pronounced Vrroh-tswaav by the way. My parents seem to be having particular trouble refraining from saying Roh-claw no matter how many times I write it phonetically for them), and this weekend, I am going to Gdansk. Yes my New Zealand sisters, brothers and any other random Joe who reads this blog, you have to come to Polska.
I know one thing, a few weeks ago, I learnt the meaning of suffering. I saw Auschwitz, and I'm sure that whatever you imagined it would be like, it's worse. No one talked, no one said a single word, and I glared at this one man who took a sneaky photo where they asked him not to, and caused a look of shame to show on his face. I myself didn't take a single photo. Major suffering happened there, so much that hearing about it made me want to be sick, and also made me want to kill Hitler. I still would, just give me a time machine. So anyway, after spending money to feel miserable, I bought a couple of pictures from the store nearby, where a very cute old woman was absolutely ecstatic that I spoke in Polski to her.
So although the only thing worse than going there as a tourist would be to go there as a prisoner back in the 40s, I think everyone should go to Auschwitz. I've been told by a couple of the English teachers at my school that Polish children today still have nightmares about Nazis, even though it's sixty-five years later. That's how affected the Polish were by this. The worst nightmare I ever had was when Errol Flynn forced me to dye my hair orange. I don't think it really compares.
So yes, this has been a bit of a melancholy blog, now to listen to some Nick Cave and watch a Chernobyl documentary to really make me want to kill myself.
Love you all,
Do Widzenia, Kate :)
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