Sorry I wrote this far back……The Sabinki party last weekend was crazy. Setting: a extremely packed hallway of drunk int’l students. One of the Holland boys was just chugging a vodka bottle. Man, was he wasted! We left a little after midnight to head over to club Vinyl. Along the way we introduced ourselves because no one knew where the American group was. I realized there is quite a difference in personal space (it might also have to do w/ alcohol) between cultures. When this slick German dude was talking, he was extremely close and in my ear. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to Vinyl. The music sucked! It was so so so slow of a beat that you couldn’t dance. I just sat down. If I can’t dance- I won’t. A girl next to the dj was singing to the extremely slow beat. It didn’t pick up slightly in speed until later. While David went to buy himself a beer, I was amused. This one dude from across the room slowly made his way over after eye contact and placed his beer on the ottoman table thing in front of me and just kind stood there leaning against the wall. I thought he made an attempt to sit down next to me and thought, “crap now I have to talk to this kid that I don’t find attractive”. Thank goodness for David again. He had come back with his beer and sat next to me as he completely oblivious to the situation. Haha….great! After he was done his beer, David asked if I wanted to get up and get on the dance floor except I refused as the music still sucked. I told him that he could go meet girls if he wanted to. I didn’t want girls not to come up to him since they see I’m with him and vice versa. Eventually, I decided to stop being a party-pooper and get on the dance floor. I went to a Spanish dude that I had met along the way and tried to join him in dancing. However, I wanted to dance in a group, and I don’t think he was a group. It wasn’t fun so I danced away to find Iza who resides on our “Hermes” floor. She’s Polish, but hangs out with Erasmus kids. I think I may have offended Spanish dude because before we left, he walked passed on the dance floor with his hands up (cop-like). I felt bad.


Yeah…it has been a while since my last post and I’m starting to forget what happened 2.5 weeks ago……Sorry! Now you won’t have all my wacky experiences.


You should definitely youtube little Hitler and watch the video. The appropriate one will have a kid and desks. It makes a direct correlation with Hitler and acquiring territory. It’s hilarious! Laura & Kayla discovered it when I was in their room the one day.


I don’t know if I mentioned it, but two of our professors were in prison during Communism. I forget why Jadwiga Staniszkis was in prison. She’s like a freakin’ sponge…so much info in her brain! Bogdan has to keep reminding her to dumb it down for us since we don’t have any prerequisites in Dynamics in Breakthrough of Communism. The other Bogdan, our Politics & Society prof., was interrogated in prison because they thought he was a spy against the Soviets. He said they would force feed answers and use tactics such as not giving him family mail until he confirmed some false statement (which he refused to do).


Unusual for my parents but times have changed….During Lent kids here throw dance parties. There was the first entire building dance party of the semester on a Friday. First our US group taught people the alcohol game of kings. It seemed that once we got into the lobby that the only people dancing were girls. Yes, Polish people do grind. At the very end of the night once people have had more than enough alcohol since there were a couple open room parties, the Poles dance like Americans.


We saw Lord of the Dance in the Palace of Culture in Centrum. Basketball gym class was a joke as there wasn’t any girls and we felt out of place. Never doing that again.


Our tradition of FunDay Monday continues. We had a Spanish themed one. Tortillas, Nachos, and Tequila were purchased. It was a cover charged party since foreign food is super expensive here. It was 15zloty for food and then 15zloty for alcohol. I just wanted to try the berry smoothie drink, but wow it was strong. One entire bottle for the whole smoothie amt. The cheese quesadillas and nachos with cheese, and guacamole looked appetizing and seemed to go fast.


I had my first class presentation. In Media Economics, I wanted to get part of my grade over with and not have to worry about it later on in the semester. I presented about Lifestyle Advertising. Incorporated into it was the Dove Beauty Campaign. I would youtube it if I were you since you see that real models aren’t as they seem. It’s a short, informative video.


My entire group left for Ukraine Thursday. Vira lived in Lviev, the capital, so took them over. I really wanted to go, however, I was had to babysit for an American family on Saturday in addition to flying out on Sunday for Paris. Just not worth it to travel all those hours to be there for a little under a day. Instead that night, two people on the floor stopped by since I intentionally left my door open, and they entertained me. Plus I got invited to join kids across the hall in playing Mafia. It was hilarious because it took forever for the first round to start. There were about 14 people in a circle playing in that one dorm.


Last Friday night=memorable. I am glad that I was left alone without any Americans. It allowed me to be more free and meeting up with girls from the hall that you don’t know all too well forces you to get more guts just dancing with strangers. I figured that after my day trip to Lodz and getting back at 9pm-ish, I would not go out with Iza and her friends to the Russian Dyskoteka. However, Iza is a good persuader, and I felt bad trying to make excuses for “I’m tired.” I told her to give me her number, so I could call and meet up with them there. I needed time to get things done and they were leaving earlier than anticipated. I found my way to Klub Extravaganza. The line was out the door, so I called Iza to tell her I was outside. She attempted to get me in faster except the only reason for the line was I think safety standards & crowdedness (because they weren’t being selective). While in line, the two older guys were speaking in accented English so I asked where they were from. One was from Tel Aviv and the other was local & audited for the former’s company. Then the guy next to me, Michal, was a Russian/Polish translator. He was a pretty boy, not someone I found to be attractive but I marveled at his face proportionality. The three of us chatted while waiting to enter. Once in Russian translator boy told me he could take my coat under his coat check.  free coat check for me! He told me now we had to stick together, so I took him to introduce my Polish friends that I was meeting in the club. I danced with Iza and Iwona in addition to staying not far away from Michal just cuz then I would be coatless. He danced with his hands all over his face kinda reminding me of Michael Jackson. He actually understood the Russian lyrics. We went to take a seat for a break and sat with Iza’s two other girlfriends + 3 guys. One of the guys was cute when dancing, however, when we sat down I ended up next to one of the other guys. It was dark, but at first I didn’t find him cute until we got into conversation. Adorable dimples + he said he played basketball. Then the group got up to go dancing, so we resumed dancing. It was funny because I looked over to the bar and noticed him downing alcohol. I guess he needed alcohol to be courageous enough to hit the dance floor. Iza didn’t feel well so she and Iwona left. I wanted to stay, and they told me their girlfriends would take the night bus with me. I bounced in between the 3 parties I knew, and Dimples and I got beer accidentally splashed on us. Yuck. IT WAS A GOOD TIME! The night slowly winded down and the girls were leaving, so I asked if Michal for the coat check button. However, he was ready to leave likewise and offered me a ride. I thought about it sensible, and he even said he didn’t drink which I knew/could see he didn’t so I took the offer. On our ride back, I found out that his mom was an English teacher (but he didn’t pick up on it too much), that he was 29 (dude he looked our age!), asked me who I was voting for in America, etc. I got a goodbye kiss on the cheek, and I felt bad that I could only offer my dorm phone (w/o answering machine) since I had by mistake taken my cell off and didn’t know the pin to unlock it. He really was eager to meet my American group, and hey I don’t mind a gorgeous looking friend. I regret forgetting to say goodbye to the cute, dimple boy and not having any contact info. All I know is he works as an Air Traffic Controller at the airport.


The next day, Iza & Iwona invited me to eat nalesniki with them. Like I mentioned earlier, I loved being able to interact more with the Polish students. That night I babysat for two American kids. The father works for the U.S. embassy here. However, it took me forever to get back from Sadyba (the region that they live in) and didn’t make it back until midnight then had to pack for Paris. I overslept and didn’t wake up until 8:50am, grabbed a 2 minute shower and called a cab because I was freaking out. My mom had lectured me on not being late. My flight wasn’t until 11:05 with the airport being super close, but still. I arrived with plenty of time.


….I promise more blog entry is yet to come & more frequently. I feel bad for leaving out some stuff because I forget the details.