just to clarify

I really am having a fantastic time, I get frustrated of course, but there are things about Poland and Europe in general that I absolutely love and will be sad not to have in America, or maybe I'll bring back in some form. 

Comradery through food: Making a meal can be a several hour experience here, and one that you can enjoy with friends.  The rationality of this is infinite: make a healthy satisfying meal, learn a useful trade, save money as opposed to going to a restaurant, money spent on going to another place (bar, cinema, mall, etc) is spent on food (which is more gratifying I think, connect and find entertainment within people.  Plus, food is cheap here, which is why going to the market is one of my favorite activities.

Public transportation: very cheap, very convenient, and you don't have to feel guilty about driving a gas guzzler by yourself.  Chicago has good public trans, but in my opinion its rather expensive.

Quality of life: It is statistically worse in Central Europe in comparison to America, but I would argue that the wrong aspects of life are being measured.  Fridays are a holiday here, many things are closed.  On sundays virtually everything is closed.  Breaks from school are much longer and more often.  There is more value placed on free time, reflection, family, one could argue the things that actually matter.   As Poland descends or arguably ascends into its own brand of capitalism this may change, but I doubt ever to the extent that it is in America.  Hyper-focus on success.  That's not to say that Poles have bad work ethic necessarily, although there are countless jokes about lazy Poles.

People are more focused on quality opposed to quantity here.  An example that may be disputed is the correlation between the "quality" of life and life expectancy.  Life expectancy is shorter is Europe, they smoke a lot more and at least in Poland, drink a lot more.  They're of course aware of the detriment of these two factors, but are more concerned about enjoying their time here opposed to prolonging it.

That being said, I have met quite a few nihilistic Poles, although it is a Catholic country, the "new" generation seems to be starting to refute these traditions fervently, the same can certainly not be said for the majority of their parents though.

abba has invaded berlin!

I went to berlin this weekend, and like most young visitors I'm sure, have delusions of grandeur about one day living there, in a squatter artist colony, sufficing off doner kebab and cheap *delicious* beer.  It could happen...

The immediate difference I could see from even the train ride to berlin was the organization, which is present because of the bureaucracy, while in poland somehow this didn't translate. 

THE THIRD REICH

I went with my french friend Marine, an American girl Danielle, and a Mexican, Avelino.  It was a good size for this trip, and thank god Marine happens to have a built in GPS system in her brain or navigating the city would have been hell and a half, it is SO HUGE, and there's just so much to do, I'd like to go back but don't know it it's possible, the train ticket was about 50 euros. :0

We met up with Nick Nader on the first night, after getting off at the wrong train station, sitting for an hour and a half waiting, wasting minutes on my phone, scarfing my first doner kebab, and watching my first drunken german punk rocker fight. The hostel seemed nice, but we all couldn't help but be irked by the fact that a 50 something German man was sharing a room with us.... which is fine in theory, until Marine and I came back up the room to lock our stuff and he was in his tighty whities, insistent on

 speaking to us as such.... creeper.

That evening we visited Nick's favorite gay bars, I wasn't planning on drinking too much that night, but upon entrance to the dance floor and a 60 year old les bumpin up on me I decided I needed a few more drinks.  There was a performance of every Abba song you can imagine, including the entire Mamma Mia medley, which would not leave my head 

for the reast of the weekend.  Not to mention that Mamma Mia posters were virtually everywhere for the musical, just opening in Berlin.  Again, it's hard for me to get over this 10-20 year lull in pop culture.

Somehow we woke up early to take a 3.5 hour walking tour of Berlin, which turned out to be really amazing, a ton to learn, a ton to see, years of WWII history classes coming into tangible existence essentially.  I also had my first german brockwurst, it was pretty yummy, look how damn excited I am... exactly.  Holocaust memorial, burning of the books memorial, hitlers resting spot (now a parking lot), the berlin wall ofcourse, social propaganda, the works!

That evening we went off the tourist trail to a hole in the wall pub that was holding a ska show for this band called :the offenders: "Italian style meets british 2 tone"  We got lost, I chipped my left front tooth in the pit, it was a jolly good time!  The next day we went to the german film museum and kissed Berlin goodbye.  I will go back though, I have to go back. 

Polish Laundry

Don't even get me started.

sometimes I wear my headphones even when I'm not listening to music.

One would think that hyper-bureaucracy would induce order, but apparently in Poland in just aids to the chaos.  I had my first day of "classes" today.  I barely know where to begin...

I rode the bus with several olowek students to the social sciences building, far off main campus.  We reach the alloted room and building, which equals class right? no.  "Institute of Philology? but that's on main campus, but the address they gave us is here, the building is not."  We wait for half an hour, there's a different class entirely, go to the international office to whine, "you were late, so the teacher left!"  "No, you gave us the wrong address..." 

Institute of Philosophy, institute of philology...hmmm, little bit of a difference, apparently no one is proofreading the english documents, maybe we should just pick our classes by drawing out of a hat, that would have a bit more organization I think.  One doesn't actually sign up for classes either, like most all schools online, in fact, the classes aren't even posted online.

You show up the first to weeks and write your name on a piece of paper, how could anything go wrong with this foolproof system, I hope it took them a lot of time to figure that one...

Not that I'm complaining, just conforming to the culture... in uncomfortable positions.