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It's been AGES since I uploaded my blog and I apologise for that! As I'm sure you can imagine, it's been absolutely insane since we first arrived in Warsaw. I don't even know where to start with this blog entry because we've done so much and met so many people since we arrived here this time last week.
I mean to sum it up, our week mostly consisted of getting drunk and going out for meals. No judging please - it was orientation week and therefore somewhat acceptable to consume such large amounts of alcohol and waste so much money buying meals rather than making them. Although in my defence, this place is so cheap that actually eating at a restaurant probably only costs a tiny fraction more than buying the ingredients and making it myself (and of course it's more socialable and time efficient so that's always a good thing).
We ate at a variety of restaurants - my favourite being a pizza place around the corner where we get 50% discount for being students, a crazy polish food place one metro stop away because they do MASSSSSSSSSSSIVE servings, and of course hard rock café (I love burgers and fries). It's honestly so cheap to eat out here - You can get a post-town kebab for like $4, or eat out at hard rock café with burger and fries for like $10. It's AMAZING. Although I hope all of you are proud of me back home because I actually did a food shop yesterday (MAM THERE'S A TESCO HERE) and bought lots of veggies - made my own dinner last night AND breakfast this morning… I'm moving up in the world. Oh yeah I also bought like two weeks of food for myself and it only cost me about NZ$25, woo!
The parties here have been pretty mental. We've been drinking every single night - usually starting in our dorm (Sabinki) and then catching the metro to a different club each night. I think Tuesday was my favourite night - we could buy four shots for about 10zl (about NZ$4) so everyone was shouting each other shots and being crazy! Wednesday was also pretty cool. We went to a flash club and each paid a bit of money to get a table, a bottle of vodka and a bottle of coke. When the vodka was brought to our table it had frickin fire crackers with it in the bucket. There were like also fireworks going off in the club. It was mental! They drink differently here than back in Otago. You can't really buy mixed drinks in the same way - for example, in NZ I would usually by a 12 pack of mixed vodka drinks. Here you usually have to mix yourself - although apparently it's more 'normal' to do shots of spirits and then have a chaser after doing the shot.
During the day times… Hmm… We're usually still pretty busy - we've had quite a bit to sort out to get started up here. Just things like buying Sim cards, internet sticks and so on. The "free wi-fi" in our dorm sucks so we had to buy our own. Thankfully it's not TOO cold yet so we haven't had to start stocking up on things like winter coats and boots - but I mean for late September it already feels pretty chilly so I can imagine mid-Winter is going to be insane.
Polish culture so far has really impressed us. Honestly guys, everyone has the wrong view of Poland. I always got the impression that it would be a backwards country and that the people would be hard to get along with and so on. But it's so vibrant here and the people are so amazing and fun! One thing I have noticed is that so many of the buildings here are really ugly - like built of super dirty concrete slabs. BUT that is actually one of the many things I love about this city because it makes it different from other places we've been to and is evidence of their crazy communist history. Warsaw is such an interesting place because it's had so many dramas the past few centuries. I love history and politics and all that kind of stuff so for meeeeee it's really, really cool. Another thing is the food here is really yum. We obviously have been to Polish restaurants but also the university hosted a "polish food lunch" - lots of dumplings filled with things like spinach and feta, mushrooms and cabbage (cabbage is a big deal). Beer is big too - I had beer with some cranberry juice and it was beautiful! My salad had pomegranate on it - I don't know if that's "polish" but that was suuuuper yum. Oh and we have been drinking vodka that tastes like grass. I know that sounds weird, but it goes really well with apple juice!
My dorm is pretty awesome. It's a giant pink building with like 6 floors and a few hundred dorm rooms. I feel like it may have been a hospital before it was a dormitory. Exchange students share with one other person, polish students stay with like three others. The rooms are fully furnished including fridges, computer desk etc so that's super handy. And there are showers, free use of washing machineeee, a little shop with lots of food, vending machines, gyms, etc, etc. BUT the lame thing is you have to buy all your own cooking utensils which is a real hassle, especially when you have to start buying things like saucepans, kettles and so on just for a few months! But it's ok because it's so cheap to live in the dorm - it's like NZ$35 for the rent and power per week.
The one lame thing about here is central heating is mental. I'm sure I'll appreciate it more during the mid-winter months when it'll be about -20c, but at the moment the heating is totally cranked up and it's still like 10c outside so it's soooo hot all the time. I know it'll make me pretty sick going from freezing temperatures to mid-20s all the time :/ But I guess it's a lot better than freezing to death in my own bedroom :)
Polish language is crazy. This place is definitely the least English speaking out of everywhere we've been to, but that's mostly amongst older people. The majority of younger people speak English, or at least the ones who we've met/are at university. So that's useful - if we have any difficulty we just have to look for the nearest young person and get them to translate. It's been really interesting though finding ways to communicate without being able to speak a common language - it involves a lot of pointing, weird gestures and so on haha. But it's really good - I like that we're going to have to make an effort with the language because isn't that half the point of going to a foreign speaking country for a semester?
Something I've noticed about my school is that everyone dresses so nicely all the time! I'm so used to how it is in Otago seeing everyone just in track pants and jandals - but here everyone is like wearing blouses and suits. It's so weird because usually I feel like I make more effort to look nice for class in Dunedin, but here I feel like I'm looking so drabby! It's really funny wearing jandals in Europe - people find it so strange. ESPECIALLY here in Warsaw. Everyone stares at laughs because Matt always wears his jandals. They say it's because it's not summer anymore, but we keep saying in New Zealand people still wear their jandals in the winter time!
There's lots of trips lined up for our time here in Warsaw! We just paid for a trip to Krakow on Oct 25th which includes tram parties, trip to Auschwitz and checking out the salt mines! That's going to be a really cool experience and I promise lots of photos will make their way on to Facebook.
Sorry that this entry is so scattery! I just really wanted to update everyone and make sure my lovely friends and family back home know that I'm safe and happy! Matt and I settled in well very quickly and have made heaps of amazing friends from all corners of the world! I miss you all like crazy and I promise Dunedin is still my number one xx
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Mum Good to hear from you!!!! And great that you are enjoying it so much. Still missing you like nuts though - although living in a different city means we are going to have to suck it up and get used to it. Love you baby - stay safe xxxx