English?

This week has been tame. Monday night was so tame, in fact, that it almost reminded me of home. Aydan, Jackie and I spent the evening avoiding this Polish boy who always wants to hang out with us. Then we bought beer and giggled all night. Tuesday was a welcome party for the new interns at this place called Chill Out Club. I guided the new interns there myself. I looked at a guide book, then a map, and we made it there withou any uneccessary detours. I am the queen of this city. So I took the kids to their party and just wasn't feeling it so I went home to eat ramen and check my e-mail. So life goes. It's amazing isn't it?

While at the party, the other interns signed up for a camping trip to Slovakia this weekend. I missed out on the sign-up session, but I've decided to go to Krakow this weekend without them. So there. I'm going to get a train after work tomorrow.


Speaking of work, we're finally going to start teaching English on Monday. Finally. But . . . who am I to teach English, I just speak the the stupid language. So last night I conceded to a dinner date with our awkward Polish friend and his English teacher. His English teacher, Bill, is from Harrisburg and works in Wroclaw 5 months out of the year. During his time in the US he works on a lot of non-profit projects that sponser Pennsylvania teachers who want to come to Poland to teach English. He's taking two Polish university presidents to Pennsylvania next week and he was asking me for advice about where to take them in Pittsburgh. So here I am, in the middle of a Pizza Hut (Pizza Hut, again!) in Poland giving Bill directions from the PA Turnpike to the Day's Inn on Banksville Rd. How absurd.

After the dinner date, we went for a late night walk through Wroclaw. We accidentally happened upon a free reggae concert. It was happenin' and we danced all night. Reggae is crazy big here. Who would have thought. Reggae and Drum & Bass. Then we walked home in the freezing cold. Freezing cold. It's just been raining and cold here. Gloomy European. I love it.

Finally, today at work, they took us to this conference called "The Economics of Leisure." The mayor of Wroclaw was there, and lots of ambassadors and professors from other countries. The conference (which continues into tomorrow) is about the economic and developmental benefits of leisure activities, specifically the consequences of the World Expo 2012 which will take place in Wroclaw. It was held in the University of Wroclaw, which is a crazy baroque building. We were invited to a catered cocktail reception afterwards and mingled with the US Ambassador to Turkey other important people. Crazy, no?

So that's my world here. This next month is going to fly by. Krakow, English classes, gender studies conference, crazy crazy crazy. And then what? Then Israel? How is this my life?

St. John's Night

In this part of the world, the summer Solstice occurs a little later. This past Saturday was the longest day of the year. This is followed by the shortest night, of which I witnessed both ends.

After bowling with the Aiesecers on Saturday afternoon (I'm bowling . . . in Poland), Jackie and I met our friends Rafel and Domenika in the town square. They picked us up there and drove us to Rafel's house in the suburbs. Rafel's parents were out of town this weekend. You can imagine where this story is going.

It wasn't a crazy party, just Rafel and Domenika, Jackie and me, and three friends of Rafels; Pawel, Darek, and of course, Kostek. We started barbequing and drinking beers around 6 pm. We watched the sun go down over the field behind Rafel's place. Two liters of vodka, maybe 20 liters of beer, and a liter of wine later, Kostek and I were the only ones still awake, and we watched the sun rise over the field in front of Rafel's place. My personal consumption of the crazy amount of alcohol we went through that night was pretty modest compared to these Polish boys. Nothing extraordinary happened, which is what made the night so good. We just talked and laughed and listened to Polish underground hip hop and ate keilbasa and bread around the campfire all night. Most memorable highlights:

1.) Around midnight, Rafel and Domenika decided we needed more vodka, so we went to a 24-hr gas station. They were closed and in the middle of inventory when we arrived, so we had to wait ten minutes before we could go in. We walked around the building, which was, more or less, in the middle of nowhere. And we found a hedgehog. It got scared and rolled into a ball, and we were able to pet it. Maybe that wouldn't be a highlight for anybody else, but it was awesome.

2.) Jackie and I had told Rafel and Domenika that we tried to bring marshmellows for the campfire, but couldn't find any. On the way to Rafel's, we stopped at a grocery store and they helped us find them. They were, yes, basically marshmellows, but also fruit-flavored. So we showed the Poles how to roast strawberry marshmellows on the fire. They were impressed. I think.

3.) Around dawn, when we realized we had lost everybody else, I requested that Kostek give me one dreadlock. Totally my favorite souveneir. As he gave it to me, he cursed and said it was too difficult because my hair was so clean. He also (totally platonically) told me that when we first met at Strefa 0, he was really happy because my English is so easy to understand, but he doesn't feel like I dumb it down and that, generally, I'm very easy to talk to. It gives me hope for teaching English.

The whole evening was very chill and very fun. These kids are so cool, but so friendly and inviting. It's a refreshing change from all of the gaurded, intimidating, hip, hip kids I'm so used to. I'm already thinking about how I can make it back to Wroclaw some day.

Bhangra & Borscht?

So who would have imagined that I'd ever be surrounded by Polish girls dressed in full saris pretending to dance bhangra at an underground (literally, under the earth) club in this strange city called Wroclaw. Not me.

Last night we went to a Bollywood themed dance party at a club in downtown Wroclaw. Everybody was really into it. I've never, ever pretended to dance Bhangra without feeling guilty before. We drank beers and took Mad Dog shots. Vodka with a sweet black currant syrup and tabasco sauce. And we wore stick-on bindis. It was crazy.

Last night, before the Bollywood party, Jackie and I went to Carrefour to look for S'More supplies to take to this bonfire party tomorrow. We thought it would be something cute and American to offer our hosts. And we found out that marshmellows and graham crackers don't really exist in Poland, at least not in an incarnation that facilitates s'more-making.

But more importantly, here's the biggest news in my little world right now. The DUK invited me to create a presentation about equal opportunity employment and women's studies programs in the US . . . as if I'm an expert. We're taking this presentation to a conference near Gdansk on the other side of Poland. From July 7 - 11th, we're going to this conference about equal opportunity employment in Poland and the EU. The DUK will provide for everything. I'm not sure how, exactly, that will work when our classes are supposed to begin on July 2nd (as far as we know). All next week we have appointments with women who are signing up for the classes. We have to speak with them to assess their language levels. So things are picking up, but there's still not enough work to necessitate two interns. I don't really get it.

One more thing to add to this totally non-sequiter composition: My new friend Jackie has been talking to me about WWOOFing. WWOOF stands for World-Wide Opportunity to Organic Farm and it's an organization that connects organic farms with volunteers all over the world. Basically, you travel a country going from farm to farm exchanging manual labor for food and accomodations. I added the link to the sidebar, check it out. I'm not sure if it's legit, but it's worth looking into.

Okay, really, that's it.

All In A Day's Work

So I'm at work, again, sort of. Monday and Tuesday, Aydan and I showed up for work and nobody here had anything for us to do. So Monday we left for lunch and didn't come back and Tuesday we left about half an hour after we got here. Today, Aydan decided not to wake up for work at all. So here I am, again, with nothing to do but check my e-mail. Had we known that we'd basically have the week off, we could have gone to Krakow or Berlin or we could have even hitchhiked to Greece by now. But, hey, that's the way it goes. I almost feel guilty. But I guess that's why I showed up today knowing full well that I'd just sit around and check my e-mail for an hour before going back to the dormitories.

The last few days I've been almost bored. But the good kind of bored, the kind of bored you feel after you're comfortable in a new place and don't feel anxious or pressured to constantly explore.

Last night I made dinner with Jackie, Aydan, and Wajih. Just pasta, but it was the first time we made anything more than sandwiches in the dorm. Jackie and I stood in the hallway with our bottle of cheap wine until some shirtless Polish boy came and opened it for us. So we ate our pasta and drank our wine and Wajih brought some traditional Tunisian wedding cookies. Jackie and I keep joking about what we'll do if our organization decides to have a global village event where everybody brings food and decor from their home country. Jackie and I will probably just stop at McDonalds.

One of the interns who went home already left his bike here as sort of communal Aiesec property. Jackie has been riding it occasionally, but I took it to work this morning. It was 100% faster than the tram that pretty much circles the city before it gets here. Jackie and I looked at it and laughed at first. It's a cheap Carrefour (think European Walmart) mountain bike with an incredibly unconventional frame and ridiculous shock absorbers. Yes, I chuckled, but after riding on cobblestone sidewalks and jumping curbs (because everybody bikes on the sidewalks here) I was thankful for the crazy shocks.

So I guess that's it. I'm almost finished with this John Irving book I've been reading in my spare time (Europe and wresting and child molestation, oh my) so I might try to find an English bookstore today. That's it for my crazy adventures.


Polish Phrases of the Day

Czy film yes z napisami? - Is the film subtitled?
Czy wymagany jest stroj formalny? - Is formal dress required?
Jestem samotna. - I'm single.
Mamy przyjecie. - We're having a party.

We're in Poland!

First, some shout outs. I would like to thank Josh for deftly pointing out to me that my new friend Kostek is probably studying Capoeira dance fighting, not Capabera dance fighting. Capybera are South American rodents. I would also like to thank the Building JJ Collective for their gracious link and rave review. Right now, the Building JJ Collective has contributors from many corners of the globe (Ben in Germany, Josh in Hawaii, and Pat in our nation's capitol) commenting on culture, music, sports, and politics. It's worth a click.

But now back to me . . . I had the kind of weekend that makes me want to stay in Wroclaw and not attempt to travel the eastern Baltic while I'm in this part of the world. I think I might be falling in love with this city.

Friday night we had a barbeque with the Aiesecers. We ended up buying beer at a minimart and going to drink under a bridge. Sound familiar?

And Saturday was a very full day. We went to the market to buy cherries, cheese, bread, tomatoes, krakowska, and yogurt. Aside from pierogies, cafeteria food, and beer, these have been the staples of my diet. After the market, we took the tram across town to the Polish National Museum. I was desperately searching for recurring themes or styles that would characterize all the art there as Polish Art. Basically, the Renaissance-era paintings weren't as good as the Italian Masters, the impressionist paintings weren't as good as the French, and a lot of the contemporary art looked like hard rock album covers. In any case, it was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Afterwards, Jackie and I met up with our friends from Couchsurfing. They were hosting another Couchsurfer from Perth, Australia and they brought a few more of their friends. We sat around drinking beer and sharing travel stories, like the one Daniel from Perth told us about taking the trans-Siberia train across Russia. Daniel has been traveling Europe and Asia for something like 14 months. He's not the only hardcore traveler we've met so far. Another one of the Couchsurfers we met that night was about to leave for a two-month trek across Australia. It almost makes me feel like my dinky two-month work stay is a little too tame. But I'll leave my amazing backpacking adventure for another time.

After our meeting with those friends, Jackie and I went to meet some other Couchsurfers at the University of Technology for yet another barbeque. Five guys we didn't know met us at the tram station and took us to a dark park. It would have been sketchy, but these boys were impossibly awkward. It's nice to see some things (like IT guys with ponytails and black t-shirts) transcend international boarders. We drank some beers and chatted in the park for a few hours. They were perfect gentlemen and walked us back to the town square so we could get a night bus home.

Sunday, one of the Aiesecers who took a training course to be a city tour guide took us on a three-hour walking tour of Wroclaw. Everybody's favorite tidbit of the tour was the joke about the nude male statue on the University campus. If ever a girl graduates from the University a virgin, the statue will get an erection. The statue's been there 103 years and it hasn't happened yet.

Wroclaw really is an absolutely beautiful city. It's large, but manageable -- it's a city I'm looking forward to really getting to know.


Polish Phrases of the Day

Masz ochote na ciastko? - Would you like some cake?
Nie wiem. - I don't know.
To pasjonujace. - That's fascinating.
Prosze isc w prawo i prosto. - You should turn right, then go straight.

The Polish Underground

I thought that The Pierogi Diaries would be a cute, witty name for a blog about Poland. Little did I know that I would be eating Pierogies almost daily and that the name would quickly become a too-literal-for-comfort title.

Other than my constant pierogi overdose, this week as been a good one. After my terrible, hot, hateful Monday, it really picked up. Tuesday, the other international students and I went out for Kebabs and beers. Wednesday was our official welcome party, where we met all of the local Aiesecers. Last night we met with some people we found on Couchsurfing. And tonight there's a picnic behind our dorm building.

The Aiesec party was at a club called No Name, where we just drank beers and talked about traveling. Not only was I meeting all of these Polish students, I also met Samuel from Nigeria, Monika from Romania, Whiter from New Zealand, Katia and Anton from Russia, and Antonio from Mexico. Jarek, a Polish Aiesecer, has his sailing lisence and offered to organize a weekend Yacht trip on the Baltic . Tomasz, another Polish student, offered to take Jackie and me to the flea market on Sunday to try and find bicycles.

The kids we met last night, however, the ones Jackie found through Couchsurfing, were considerably more . . . I don't know, alternative. They took us out for pizza and to this bar called Strefa Zero. The regulars at this bar sarcastically call it P-Zero, because there's an ultra-trendy techno club on the other side of town called P-One. P-One is where somebody tried to buy us. But this bar, Strefa Zero, was dark and dank and covered in graffiti. The music was a mix of Polish rock, Polish metal, and some English stuff . . . Beck, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers. We drank cheap beer and passed around sniffing tobacco. It's tobacco, but it's a fine powder that you snort. Very strange. Our guides, Rafel and Domenika ran into some other friends, including this guy named Kostek who I ended up talking to for the rest of the night. He has dreads and he's studying engineering. He's also a fire-spinner, capabera dance-fighter, and talked to me in great detail about his pet spiders. Aydan and I were going to go to Prague next weekend, but these kids invited us to a bonfire party outside of the city. I think that might win.

As much as I'd like to collect stamps on my passport, maybe this trip isn't for that.

Polish Song of the Day

Szla dziweczka do laseczka, do zielonego
do zielonego, do zielonego.
Napotkala mysliweczka bardzo szwarnego,
bardzo szwarnego, bardzo szwarnego.

This is a song our Polish teacher taught us in our last lesson before she goes to her country house for the summer. It's about a girl going into the woods and meeting a very handsome hunter. Very handsome, very handsome, very handsome.

Fatale!

This was not a good day in Wroclaw. Nothing in particular, I was just hot and cranky and my roommate and I had a really late lunch break. Let me explain our meal plan. The organization we're working for paid in advance for three weeks of meals at the University dining hall. This means that for our lunch break, we have to commute back to the university to eat. Half an hour. Each way. On a crowded train. For pretty standard cafeteria food. Everyday for breakfast they give us turkey sandwiches. Turkey sandwiches? And for lunch, we have our choice of breaded fried chicken or breaded fried pork, rice or potatoes, and pickles or sauerkraut. I don't have a problem with any of these food individually, but that's all I've been eating for a week. Luckily, the dining hall closes for the summer in a three weeks, so they'll have to arrange something else for July.

This weekend, two of the other interns and I spent most of our time exploring Wroclaw by foot. Sunday, we woke up, left the dorm, and walked west. We came back to the dorm, took naps, and then walked east. Last night, my roommate Aydan suggested we go to a Pub for a drink after our walk. We couldn't decide on one, so we just bought some beer at the 24-hr market. Luckily, I know the words for "please", "four", "beer", and "small". And the brand of the beer was easy enough to pronounce, Tyskie. So I told the woman at the market: Please. Four. Beer. Tyskie. Small. And it actually worked.

The language barrier is not so difficult as I imagined it would be. Most people here at least understand English, if not speak it fairly well. And even those who don't are so impressed by my effort to say "Do you speak English?" in their native tongue, that they respond very helpfully to gestures and pointing even if they don't speak English. Today I had my second Polish lesson, and my instructor keeps asking me if I'm sure I actually want to learn Polish. She keeps reminding me how difficult it is and saying that only native speakers ever actually understand it. Not very encouraging. But I'm struggling through the workbook she gave me and I'm using my semi-functional Polish whenever possible. Like, for instance, to buy beer at the market. There's also something very different about speaking English when I'm with Aydan, whose native language is Turkish, than when I'm with Jackie, who is from Texas. I think that Jackie and I are ever-fearful of being labeled ignorant Americans, and we're far more reluctant to ask for help in English. Aydan, on the other hand, isn't afraid of approaching anybody. For her, I don't think that the locals are upset she's speaking English rather than Polish, when English is an obviously more useful language for her to learn. Most Polish-speakers are aware that only 40-million people in the world speak Polish and that it really is not the easiest or most useful language. The older people who we've encountered who don't speak any English are usually more helpful than the younger ones. Most people under 30 speak some English here, and those that don't, I think, seems almost resentful or embarrassed that they don't -- which usually results in sneers or hostility. But, I mean, I'm surviving here. And that's what matters.

Polish Phrases of the Day

Nazyvam sie . . . = My name is . . .
Pracuje na . . . = I work in . . .
Moja mama jest . . . = My mother is . . .
Jestem na . . . = I am from . . .

Ameriki - Pssht

We found our new favorite restaurant in Wroclaw. It's called Ladlo Stacja, which more or less means "Chow Station." It's a hip little hole in the wall with Elvis posters. It specializes in vegetarian panini and the staff speaks broken English. They were very helpful and knew the words "big" and "small" to offer us the two sizes of panini. Very good.

Last night, my roommate and one of the other interns, Jackie, and I met some of the other international students in our dorm. There are four other boys from Turkey who spoke with my roommate. After we left, she asked me how to say, in English, boys that just want to drink and dance and call to girls on the street. I said "sleazy". She told me that the Turkish boys we met were sleazy. Nevertheless, we went out with them last night. They took us around to a few clubs, all of which were virtually empty. Apparently all of the universities in Wroclaw are in the middle of exams. Outside of one of the clubs, the three of us girls were standing with on of the Turkish boys, and this middle-aged Polish man came up and asked Omar for a light. He was obviously drunk and then continued to ask Omar what his prices were like. He thought we were for sale and that Omar was our negotiator. You know.

Today, back to work. The one woman who speaks English was off today, so we just hung around and helped correct some of the promotional materials in English, then we were introduced to the woman who will be giving us Polish lessons for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, she's going to her vacation home for two months starting on June 15th, though she did invite us to visit her there for a weekend. We met her at a bar where she was giving a group of 8 senior women English lessons. They were all drinking beer and were very pleased to hear me enunciate some basic English phrases. They all looked like my grandmother. It was pretty satisfying.

So far, satisfying is a good word to describe my time here. Satisfying and jankie.

Cute Boys and Wide-Footed Women

It's strange how quickly a routine can develop, even when you're so incredibly far away from everything familiar.

Last night, we salvaged dinner from the convenience store again. It's easier than a restaurant because all the prices are clearly marked and you don't actually have to talk to anybody. So we had some bread and apples for dinner, then for the rest of the evening, my roommate chated with her boyfriend on the internet (she brought her laptop) while I studied Polish. All of our hosts are busy for exams, which they keep appologizing for and promising to be more hospitable when their term ends.

I think I'm finally over my jet lag. Tonight I'll try to convince the other American girl to do something exciting with us and then maybe I'll have something worth writing about.

Polish Phrases of the Day

Ile to kosztuje? - How much does that cost?
Jest pochmurno. - It's cloudy.
Czy chcialby pan pojsc na spacer. - Would you like to go for a walk?

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.

T-Minus 23 Hours

Let's imagine that this isn't a Blog. Let's say it's, I don't know, an internet space where I post observations and comments about my daily life for others to read and respond to. If you're reading this right now, you probably already know that I'm headed to Poland for the summer. I'll be using this "internet space" as a way to transatlantically update those whom it concerns.

So this is where we start: My flight from the Pittsburgh International Airport leaves in approximately 23 hours, and I'm 100% terrified. See ya'll on the other side.

Polish Phrases of the Day

Nie mowie po polsku. = I don't speak Polish.
Czy mowi pan po polsku? = Do you speak English?
Nie rozumiem. = I don't understand.
Zgubitem sie. = I've lost my way.
Gdzie sa toalety? = Where are the bathrooms?