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Another week has already passed. It's going by SUPER quickly now. Warsaw continues to amaze me! I love it! Such an awesome place. I have got a habit now of taking notes on my iPhone whenever I think of things I want to mention in my blog, so if this entry looks a bit listy, that's why!
Classes are going well. Last week half of mine were cancelled (without notice), but apparently that's pretty normal for our school. On one hand it's great, because WOO more free time, but then it's also lame because you make the effort to turn up, wait around for twenty minutes, and then you realise the teacher didn't even have the courtesy of giving you a heads up that they were never going to make an appearance. But whatever! That's as bad as it gets really :P Actually I lie - THEY USE CHALK BOARDS STILL! Yuckk.
We've been pretty cheeky recently - booked a ridicuuulous amount of trips! The thing is when you leave New Zealand, everything is so far away that you may as well cover it all in one trip haha! If we stopped booking trips now and just went on the already booked ones, we would have been to twenty countries by the time we get home. That's pretty insane for less than one year. So far we have booked to go Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Italy, Sweden and the U.K. (that doesn't include our trips on the way home! We are also wanting to check out the Baltic countries such as Lithuania and Estonia, as well as Czech Republic (will do that on the way to Munich when we leave Europe), Ukraine and HOPEFULLY at least one of the former Yugoslavian countries! We have found some super cheap flights. Ryanair seems to have a lot of sales so we managed to pick up a flight to Stockholm for 1zl (about 40c), Rome for about 20pln (roughly $8) and Budapest for 19pln (again roughly $8). It is absolutely insannnnnnnnnnne but I LOVE IT! By the time I get back to beautiful New Zealand I think it's very reasonable to say that I will be "well-travelled".
We have tried to be a bit more touristy this week which has been so nice! My favourite place EVER is called Łazienki Park. I love feeding animals and the squirrels are so awesome I would go there every single day if it was closer. It's sad because soon winter will be here and they will all be hibernating! We also have a park really close by that we visited and I got to feed ducks. But apparently they drain the water in the winter because if it freezes over people try to play on it and it would be a bit awkward if someone fell in. I shared my bread with a little girl so that was a cute event. Darren (Australian friend) made me ask her in Polish if she wanted some, and then they both helped me practice counting to ten hahaha.
We also visited the Old Town one evening and it was stunning. So many old walls and buildings and a castle etc! I love history stuff so it made me feel warm and fuzzy. We spent the weekend showing round Darren's friends from Australia so it was a good chance for me and Matt to be touristy too. The guys got some hot wine (I can't wait to do this in the snow!) and everything was lit in such a pretty way!
We are still partying quite a lot. Last Thursday we had a big night because we invited heaaaaaaaaaps of people to Sabinki and then headed to an ESN party! I wish I could tell you more but I really don't know. I just remember Matt bought me a beautiful rose, I ate an awesome kebab and the night was just crazy! Saturday night was even crazier thouughhh because two of my lovely, lovely Polish friends won tickets to an insane party in an old factory! There were beer pong competitions, a concert, pool party, heaps of beer, laser mazes, and people dancing in cages and so on! I have a new love for flavoured beer. I'm too much of a loser to like normal beer so I keep getting yummy ones with shots of raspberry/cranberry cordial. Don't judge until you've tried it - it tastes beautiful. I feel cool when I have it because technically I'm still drinking beer.
Still eating out a lot, whoops! I promise I will start cooking my own meals more soon. It's just so much effort - plus restaurant food is beautiful and cheap. We usually keep it pretty traditional though, so that's how I've been justifying it to myself. Lots of dumplings and cabbage etc!
So yes I'm still alive everyone! And still having heaps of fun! I'm honestly having the time of my life and never stop being grateful to be doing this trip. I shared an awesome article on my Facebook the other day about what you learn from travelling - so you guys should definitely check that out. People think travelling is the most expensive thing and impossible to do but it really isn't.
Oh I also have some exciting news! I was accepted in to the kiwihost program a few months ago and now I have been allocated a flat, yay! I'm on the same street as Matt except I'm in the flat that's like closest to the university. I literally can get to the lecture theatre in probably fifteen seconds. I submitted my masters application today (EVERYONE WISH ME LUCK) so now I am super excited for next year alsooooo because it's going to be awesome!
I will finish this entry with a few observations I have made of Warsaw this week!
- There's been quite a few road accidents. We saw a young girl get hit by a motorbike (he just drove straight through the red light, hit her, and then the bike went skidding, she went flying etc!) and also saw two cars hit each other, resulting in one flipping! It's madness.
- The most annoying thing about our dormitory is that they don't have toilet paper in the toilets. I always hang out in other people's room so it's so stressful when I want to pop to the toilet but have to go all the way to my room and get toilet paper, erghh!!!!!!
- I have noticed here that when you buy stuff, everything has the same 'digit' as New Zealand, but because it is a different currency it's super cheap. Sooo for example, I may buy a carton of milk here which is 1.50zl. In New Zealand it would probably cost me about $1.50 - so they are the same digits - BUT $1 = 2.60zl. Does that make sense?
- People here talk about time with a 24 hour clock. So for example, if I was supposed to meet a friend at 8pm, they would say "meet you at 20" or something.
- Lots of the exchange students here have polish parents! Seriously there's people on exchange here from like America, Germany, Australia etc and they speak fluent polish because their parents are polish!
Love you alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll and will update you again next week!
Steph-Mai xx
- comments
Mum Lesson to learn - carry loo roll in your handbag?? lol .... Love you!!
Anna K Nice review that you wrote:) however, it's dormitories, so what do you expect? And I've never seen a road accident here once - you must be very (un)lucky - stay safe and keep partying! ;-)* Ps. See You soon??!!! I love sightseeing, too:)