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First of all I just want to say sorry to the worldddd for being the worst blogger ever! It's been absolutely weeks now since I last posted and I have no excuse other than being totally lazy.
Classes
Classes are going really good! But the workload is starting to pile up now. Being on exchange makes it really easy to forget that you actually need to study and keep with class work. I thought I was totally up to date with everything until a few weeks ago when I wrote a list of what I needed to do and completely freaked out at the presentation tests and papers I need to hand in before Christmas! But it's ok, I'll be fine. The structure of courses here are really good. My course at Otago is good in the sense that it prepares us for a career in academia (I reckon I can write amazing essays now), but when it comes to actually talking and real life stuff I feel totally useless and inexperienced. So here it is cool because a lot of my classes are based on participation, so you actually have to think fast and join in with group discussions rather than sit in the back of a class on Facebook (I KNOW for a fact I'm not the only one who does this in lectures back home). Also doing presentations will be an interesting challenge because I've never had to do one throughout my whole time at university! The three presentations I have are about 1) the changes in the annual EU budget, 2) American culture and 3) whether or not the Smolensk plane crash a few years ago is a foreign policy issue or not!
Events
A few weeks ago a few of us headed to watch the Independence Day marches here in Warsaw (11th of November). It was a pretty interesting experience for me because so many of my classes have been about the history of Poland and how hard it has had to fight for independence through the past few hundred years - and I thought the whole point of this march was to celebrate this!
How wrong was I! Whilst I'm sure that was the original point of it all, now he seems to have been taken over by total hooligans who only show up with the intention of causing trouble. There were so many people there, I can't even put a figure on it. But amongst them were guys wearing balaclavas throwing fire crackers, smoke bombs and stones everywhere, people fighting, shouting, waving banners around that said "One Poland, one race". It was absolutely insane. We would never have gone deep in to the march, but we watched from the outside and it was a pretty scary thing. We were warned not to go but I thought it would be interesting so I managed to convince a polish friend to guide us! Eventually we left when we reached a blockade as lots of big men linked arms and were starting an attempt to form a blockade (which always gets messy!)
And it was obviously a good time to leave as shortly after a huge rainbow in one of the squares was set on fire (it was supposed to be a symbol of tolerance towards sexuality), and some idiots attacked the Russian embassy. On the way home we saw hundreds of Polish police lined up in the darkness on a street near to where the march was heading, and they all had riot shields, rubber bullet guns and helmets!
So, now for the less extreme things we've been involved with…
We went on a cute trip to the zoo. The weather sucked so a lot of animals were hiding but the zoo is always fun anyway! It was cute how excited everyone got to see penguins and seals even though we see them all the time in New Zealand :) For me it was amazing to see hippopotamus' and gorillas. They are absolute beasts. Oh and also admission was just 7zl (about $2.75). It's ridiculously cheap!
Alsooooooooo we went on a communist Warsaw talk. If anyone ever heads here there is a company called free walking tours Warsaw which do three different types of tours! - One to learn about communism, one to learn about Jews in Warsaw and one to learn about the Old Town! Our one was ok but a lot of it I had already learnt in class, so now I am trying to find some free time to try out the other two tours!
Trips
Last weekend I went on a road trip! My polish friend has a car so she offered to take me, Matt, a Peruvian and a French Canadian to the seaside! And it was so much fun! We visited multiple cities. First we headed to Torun. This is a very small city about 3.5 hours' drive away but it's absolutely stunning! It's all very old looking and you can buy the best gingerbread EVER from there. I bought a big packet of mixed gingerbread to try with Matt but it was gone within minutes because it was so tasty!
Our next stop was Sopot which is on the coast. This city remind me of Queenstown, New Zealand in the sense that it is really pretty, obviously a rich area to live, and is apparently where lots of people go for their summer holidays! We chose to stay in this city because the two other cities we planned to visit just fifteen minutes' drive either side of it! The area is known in Poland as ''Tricity" because the three cities are all super close. It was so nice to stay at the seaside because all my life I have lived within minutes of the sea, I get to see it multiple times every day and so on. So since we are living inland it means I haven't seen the sea since we left Iceland which is super weird! (It was nearly three months ago now!).
We also visited a town called Gdynia on the same weekend. There was a really nice port with super big fancy boats and a nice beach! We went for a long walk on the beach which was riddled with killer swans I swear. Some crazy people came with bread to feed them, but I don't know why because the swans just kept biting them D: D: demons. By the way Agata, I told you I wasn't lying about how dangerous swans are!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_(swan)
We also went to Gdansk which was sooooooooooo, sooooooooo nice seriousy. We spent most of our time in the old town which of course was absolutely stunning. There was so many old beautiful buildings everywhere. Also there are so many stands which people trying to sell amber! I would have been keen to buy some but it was so expensive :'(
Another place we visited is called Hel. Whilst Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot are on the coast, there is a peninsula that means they don't really get big waves or anything. So we drove down to the end of this peninsula where the beaches were even nicer, the wind was even stronger and the waves were crazy! The village called Hel was beautiful and reminded Matt and I of Iceland because the buildings were all very little (I guess to protect them from the wind and cold weather). We went for lunch in a little traditional polish restaurant and it was cuuuuuuuute. I didn't eat because a few hours earlier I had a HUGE vegetarian burger in Sopot (It was the 3rd best burger in my life - after the one I had in times square and after the one I had from Grill'd in Australia). But the others ordered things like chicken soup and schnitzel. Agata got the guys to try the most disgusting and weird thing ever but appartently its traditional and they seemed to actually like it! It's where you get little slices of bread and then spread lard (like actual animal fat) on and sprinkle a bit of salt over the top of it. As a vegetarian, that's the most foulest thing I've ever heard but I can't really judge unless I've tried it :P
On the way home we stopped at Malbork castle. It was HUUUGE I couldn't believe it! I've seen quite a few castles in my life but this one was absolutely mind blowing. When we were walking around it me and Matt were just pointing at all the different things like the moat, the bridges, the watch towers etc etc. It's insane. After we had seen it I looked it up on Wikipedia and read all about the battles that had been fought there and how it is the biggest castle in the world by land surface :O
I'm not going to lie, but one of the funniest parts of the trip was the drive home hahaha. We played as many weird 80s/90s songs as we could think of! Including Pokémon, Uptown Girl, Hit Me Baby One More Time, etc. Hahahaha.
Observations
Obviously we are learning heaps from this exchange! Every day we realise cool things or learn new stuuuuuuuuuuuuff. Even just the simplest things ever
For example!! One of the cutest things ever is the enjoyment people get from things that remind them of home. Such as a few weeks ago Matt managed to find some real Canadian maple syrup in a store near here and the Canadians went crazy. It was literally being passed around and poured on to a spoon to drink haha. The following morning we made pancakes with it too.
We also saw it when an international dinner was organised about two weeks ago. Everyone had to prepare a dish and bring it to the university and get everyone to try. It was SO hard for us to think of what to prepare seriously. Because really, what is a traditional New Zealand dish? I would say it would be lamb and mint sauce, but that's too much of a hassle and expensive to prepare for heaps of people. Then some would say its fish and chips, but really that's a British dish. Of course there are New Zealand made products like pineapple lumps, bluebird chips, jaffas and so on but we can't get them here! So in the end we settled for something pretty lame and made marmite and cheese toasties as well as fairy bread! Other food that we saw there included sushi, egg pancakes, pierogi and so on! I was so full after but it was so tasty trying so many different things!
After we headed out for karaoke which was also crazy fun and we sung to weird songs like boom boom boom hahahaha.
Future plans
Matt and I have got some AWESOMEEEE trips lined up! It's going to be AMAZING! For example this week we are travelling through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Our first stop in Vilnius which was be awesome because I've learnt so much about it in my Polish Foreign Policy class as it used to be a part of Poland! Our next stop in Riga in Latvia. Here we will also be watching an ice hockey game :D Finally we will go to Tallinn and I'm not really sure what we will do here but I have a sneaky suspicion it will be my favourite one of the three. I don't even have a good reason why, just my gut instinct! Although looking at the forecast it is going to be bloody freezing. Like beyond anything I've experienced so far! I still haven't bought a good winter coat yet which is becoming an issue. Almost every single coat here is like those puffer jacket kind of ones but they are longer usually. And whilst they are definitely warmmmmmmmmm I like pretty woollen ones! I have found a nice beige woollen one with a super warm fleecey lining but it's pretty expensive and never in my size! Plus it isn't waterproof. But given that Tallinn will almost definitely be absolutely freezing I'm going to need to buy something before Friday :D
Next weekend a group of us are going to Rome. Rome will also be amazing because I always see it in movies and read about it and I did classical studies in high school! I think we are there for about four days so hopefully we will get to see quite a bit :D Also because it is December hopefully there will eb barely any tourists which will help us get to see lots since we won't have to deal with such ridiculous queues.
Andddd after two days of being in Warsaw after coming back from Rome Matt and I will head to the UK! It's going to be so strange but I'm looking forward to see the fam <3 We are there until the start of January!
Also another future plan we have (although we still haven't agreed on a date) is to have our own cute Christmas dinner before everyone leaves for the break! Polish people celebrate christmasy differently to the UK/NZ. Even the dishes are different. Like for me a traditional Christmas dinner is roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, vegetables, gravy and maybe a cheeky glass of wine (unless you live in NZ of course where its barbeques and beer). But in Poland it seems like it's about soup and pierogi etc! Nomnomnomnononomnom. So we are trying to find an evening where we are all free so we can dress up in knitted jumpers and tinsel and eat a traditional Polish Christmas dinner!
It's so weird how fast time is going! I'm now over half way through my travelling time! It's been nearly four months since I left New Zealand, and it just seems to be going faster and faster. I'll be soooo sad when it's time to go because I've made so many amazing friends here!
So once again I'm super sorry for being an absolute slacker with my updates. But now you know I'm alive and still having a great time!!!
P.s. thank you to my amazing beautiful friends in New Zealand for posting me my favourite chocolate EVER! Three blocks of Whittakers - peanut butter, berry and biscuit, and dark Ghana :') You have no idea how happy it makes me! Especially since my favourite is dark Ghana, and no one here likes dark chocolate so I don't have to share it!
P.p.s. also went ice skating the other week which was fun! Usually I'm such a baby and scared to let go of the sides because imagine if you fell and someone skated over your fingers!??!?!?! But I was a big girl and held Matt's hand and (kind of) zoomed around, with only two accidents! Woohoo go me. And it was also my first time ice skating outdoors!
P.p.s. I had a friend from New Zealand in Warsaw for a few weeks and I introduced her to squirrel feeding and she brought some NZ chocolate with her for me! Yay Saskia!
- comments
Nan Lard on bread yummy, I used to have that as a child but it was called bread and dripping over here. Glad you are still enjoying it can't wait for you to arrive here. No Whittakers over here :( you will have to make do with Cadbury's lol. Getting some Hula Hoops in though xxx
Aunty Claire Glad you did a blog. I was just thinking yesterday that one hadn't popped up for a while. Sounds like the experiences you have had are unforgettable hun. It's awesome. Love you millions and see you in 2 weeks......woohoo xxxxxx
Gail Thank you for filling in the blanks Steph! Love your snippets of life all rolled up into food anecdotes nom nom. Xx
Mum You'll have to ask nanny and granddad about ice-skating in Bournemouth - they have their own stories about that! It's good to finally read an update, although we've been following all of your pictures. The wee ones say it isn't fair that there is snow here at Christmas - they want to come there now! Miss you baby xxx