Are There Any Vowels In That Word?

It, literally, seems like weeks since I left Pittsburgh. Here's a quick rundown of what's happened since then:

A Palestinian med student flirted with me on the flight to JFK. He's 30 and told me to call him when I'm in Israel.
I ran in to Ben Droz at the international terminal of JFK airport. Ben Effing Droz, of course I would run into him.
The woman next to me on the flight to Warsaw took a sleeping pill and totally passed out, but when she woke up, she helped me with some Polish pronunciation.
I arrived in Wroclaw, which I finally, finally know how to pronounce. Something like . . . Ratswav. Who would have thought?

AIESEC here isn't extremely organized. Our guides dropped us off in our room without helping us change money or showing us where anything was. My roommate and I had to borrow a few zloty and we went to a convenience store to buy bread, cheese, juice, water, and chocolate. Dinner for two - 9 zloty, about $3. Nice. Today we started our internship, where nobody speaks English and they don't really have any work for us to do. But it is exciting working in this progressive, pro-choice, woman-identified Eastern European organization. It will get better, I'm sure. They did take us out for lunch today, where I ordered a salad. Unfortunately, it was actually a mayonaise-based potato salad with apples and pickles. Good thing I'm not a picky eater.

It's strange here. Everything is just slightly different. Not enough to be exotic, really, but just unnerving. If I could choose one word to describe it, I would have to say: jankie. Nothing seems like it was built to last. It's as if after WWII, they decided to stop trying so hard. All of the linens in my dorm room seem like they're salvaged from an estate sale and the furniture all looks hand built. And it's extremely strange fitting in but not fitting in. It's the opposite of Mexico, where I looked out of place and surprised people by speaking Spanish. Here, I don't break the visual continuity and I surprise people by not speaking Polish. It's strange not speaking to anybody casually, having to choose your words carefully so that non-native English speakers can understand you. Man. Isolation.

So my roommate and I are off to salvage dinner and study Polish. Wish us luck.

Polish Phrases of the Day

Pracuje dla Democratyczna Unia Kobiet. - I work for the Democratic Union of Women.
Jestem studantka. - I am a student.
Chcialwbym chleb. - I'd like bread.
Prosze piwo. - A beer, please.
Prosze dwa piwa. - Two beers, please.