I know it's been awhile, I apologize...although I feel like I start every post with that same sentence. Oh well!
So, I am all moved in to my flat in Warsaw with Agata now :) It's a really cute place, and it is in an amazing location...we are within walking distance to one street called Nowy Swiat which is filled with restaurants/cafes/bars, and we can also walk to the part of town called Centrum...which is pretty self-explanatory. The mall which houses our grocery store is only 5 tram stops away, so all-in-all, we really couldn't have asked for a better location. Our apartment is 5 rooms in total: 2 bedrooms, a kitchen (TINY, but fully functional minus an oven), a bathroom, and a pretty sizeable (in terms of flats in Warsaw) living room. Here are some pictures:
Those are pictures (pretty obviously) of my bedroom and the living room...I forgot to take one of the kitchen, and I figured you could all imagine the bathroom well enough...the only thing about the bathroom is our tub...it is an old-fashioned (and fairly typical) tub which forces you to kind of take a bath every time you want to shower. There is a shower head, but it isn't up on the wall, it's just attached to the tub's faucet and you can't take a shower/bath without getting water everywhere in the bathroom unless you sit down in the tub, thus you pretty much take a bath every time you want to shower. Luckily, however, my gym has very nice showers, so I just shower there most days.
OK, enough on that subject. So far, I'm really loving Warsaw...the weather hasn't been too bad lately, it is chilly at night, but it's 45-50 during the day, which I don't mind too much. I've been told that November is miserable, though...so I'm just waiting for the snow/rain/cold to come. Luckily, I'm going to Cairo to see Ty for a week in November! I'm really excited for that, and I owe him a trip since he already came to visit me! He was here over a long weekend, and we had a blast...we explored Warsaw like true tourists, ate approximately every hour, and tried to fend off the cold. Ty wasn't quite prepared for the weather, as he is used to 95 and sunny everyday in Cairo...He left a couple days ago, so I am eagerly anticipating my journey to Cairo...he has told me to be prepared for culture-shock, so I'm sure I'll have a couple amusing "American trying to survive in Cairo" stories when I get back.
As Ty and I discovered by eating every hour...the food here is GREAT! There is every type of food you could imagine...I was picturing eating pierogi every day(and I do some days), but just next to my house there is a Mexican place, pizza delivery, chinese food, Mongolian food, and there is a bakery with verrrryyy tempting pastries and cakes on pretty much every block. There is one on the bottom floor of my apartment building...so I walk by it everyday...hard not to stop in multiple times a day. On the healthier side, there is also a fruit/veggie stand that sets up outside my building everyday. I imagine that will disappear once the snow sets in, so I'm enjoying it while I can. All in all, it's a good thing I joined a gym because I am indulging in all this delicious food on a regular basis!
I also started classes this week, and so far, so good. Polish is a difficult language, so I'm glad to be taking classes, even though I still sound like a kindergartner when I talk, I'm making slow but sure progress. So far, I can ask for coffee, a train ticket, order from a menu, ask where someone is from, tell you my name...and a couple other basic phrases. I'm determined to master this language, so I'm working hard! My pronunciation is really the biggest barrier, some of the letter combination are hard to wrap my head around, and once I think I've mastered them, I'll try out my newly acquired word and completely butcher it...my Polish always sounds so much better in my head...
I'm also taking 3 other classes...I might end up just taking 3 in total, but we shall see. I had one of them the other day, and the other two haven't started yet. Classes here don't work quite the same way as they do in universities in the states...there is a little less rigidity and less coordination between all the departments, so some classes start well into the term, and you have until a month into the term to sign up/drop classes!
So I already told you about Polish, and the other class I've been to is "Poland's Integration into the EU" the title is actually much longer, but my summary of the title describes the class pretty well. The class is in English...phew, and taught by a very nice, very opinionated older professor. It's a small class, but it is lecture-style, we mostly just listen to him animatedly talk about Poland, the EU, and the underlying importance of maintaining peace within the EU. I've only had that class once, it's only once a week, but I enjoyed the first class. My friend, Nicolette is also in the class, so it's nice to have a familiar face in class (she is here on a Fulbright, and plans to get her masters in International Relations at the University of Warsaw).
My other two classes are: "Politics and Culture in Poland," and "Introduction to Polish Culture." See a theme in my classes? I'm trying to get a basic understanding from a Polish perspective (rather than an outsider's perspective, which is what I feel I have at the moment)on what Polish politics and culture are like before I start my research more intensively. So far, my research has been reading and translating (because they are in Polish) newspaper articles on Politics in Poland and asking the few people I know here who are Polish and speak English what their opinions on politics are. However, I don't know very many Polish students yet, so I need to work on that. As I mentioned, however, I feel I need a more solid understanding of Polish politics before I proceed.
Phew...that was quite a long post! I will spare your eyes and write again soon!
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