Luck of the Irish? Not.

Edit:  I’m no longer a prisoner in this residence 🙂

 

My Dad and I always joke that we have horrible luck, despite our very Irish surname.  So far, it seems to hold true more than ever in Poland.  Last night I arrived home at 8:30pm from work, and found that the front door was wide open and the lights were on.  My immediate thought was “Oh God, someone broke in.  I forgot to lock the door.”  But no, apparently my host family didn’t inform me before they left for their 3 week trip to the U.S. that the brother-in-law of the husband was going to stay here for two nights.   Ok, so that was a bit of a surprise, but I guess it’s not so out of the ordinary.

This morning I heard him leave the house.  An hour later I need to leave for work, at around 12pm.  I try to unlock the door.  It doesn’t budge.  Basically there is a super intense security lock that can actually lock someone IN the house.  In the case of a burglary, if a burglar comes through the window, he can’t escape through the entrance, he has to go back out the window…so it makes it more difficult for him.   Anyway, we NEVER use this lock because it’s too easy to get locked in.  I have the key as well, but I can’t open it from the inside of the house!   I had to call the teachers at the school and cancel my four classes for today.  Very irritating.   There was no way I could open this door unless the guy came back from work to unlock it.  Also, I don’t have his number.  Currently I’m still waiting for him to come home.  Thank God is is staying one more night, so he will be returning to free me.  I feel like I’m being held prisoner! haha

Updates to come…I hope freedom is near!

Couchsurfing Escapades

Time for another weekend recap!

This weekend was an interesting one.  I  joined the Couchsurfing community about 9 months ago, but hadn’t really utilized it until lately.  Basia (my host) is now working for Couchsurfing, which has prompted me to develop my profile a little more.   She also suggested that I meet up with locals in Krakow via this website.  About 3 weeks ago, I contacted a 22 year-old student named Bartek because he had a lot of references and received rave reviews by those whom he hosted.   He responded very promptly to my message and we decided that we should try to meet up soon.    I gave him my Polish cell number, but I later found out he had entered in one of the numbers incorrectly, and so three weeks went by before I heard anything from him.  I got a text this past Friday that he was having a small party at his place with a few friends and clubbing afterwards, and that he wanted to me to join them.   I was feeling a little hesitant because I’m still a little scared to navigate the city at night (since I’m horrible with directions), but I agreed to go.

The walk through Kazimierz

Fortunately, the bus route wasn’t at all complicated, and we met up just fine.  Bartek and his two friends picked me up at the bus stop, and we walked together to their house (which they share with a few other students) near the Vistula river.  All three were incredibly friendly, outgoing, charming, and had perfect English. It was so great to hang out with such fun-loving people, although I have to admit it felt a bit like I was a university student again because they are still in that “party hard” mindset 🙂  Regardless, we talked about a huge range of topics, listened to music, played some pretty intense drinking games involving of course, plenty of vodka.  Pre-partying was an awesome time in and of itself.  After we were all sufficiently “warmed-up”, we walked through Kazimierz and eventually ended up at the main square.

This is when a series of hilarious events ensued.   Bartek, at some point along the rather long journey to the square, fell and landed on his face and was bleeding at his mouth a bit.  The rest of the walk he was embarrassed because he was convinced he was bleeding everywhere and looked horrible, at which point I assured him he still looked fine.  Regardless, he didn’t believe me and still refused to uncover his hands from his mouth and nose for a good 30 minutes.

What happened next came as a complete shock to all of us.  At some point walking along the main square, Bartek reached the pinnacle of this drunkenness.  Now, thank God I’m a very tolerant person in general, and never an “angry drunk”, but I have to say even I was pretty irritated.   Bartek decided it would be funny, or I-don’t-know-what…to pour some of his coke/vodka mixture onto my head. WHAT THE F#$*?!  At that moment, I thought “he is officially the WORST Couchsurfing host EVER and I am going to give him terrible reviews”.   It took him a minute to realize what he had just done, and his friends went off on him for what he had done.  I’m glad they were on my side 🙂   He apologized profusely for his stupidity and proceeded to get down on his hands and knees and kiss my hand as an “apology”.  And the rest of the night he kept apologizing.  I kept giving him angry glances and muttered a couple of “I hate you’s”.  He actually took me literally and started to walk the opposite direction home.   We all yelled at him to come back and stop being so sensitive, which eventually worked. Anyway, the issue that concerned me most was how my hair looked since it felt sticky and totally disgusting, although the guys tried to convince me I was just sporting the “hot, wet hair look”…right.   When we entered the club, I fixed my hair in the bathroom and all was good in the world.  In fact, I got over that whole incident pretty quickly.  For some reason, Bartek is one of those people whom you can’t stay mad at for very long.

The club itself was AWESOME, but I don’t remember the name of it.  Bartek and I had this debate about Polish guys being unable to dance, and I told him I observed that 90% of the guys I saw dancing had no sense of rhythm whatsoever.   He set out to prove me wrong.  His other friend Artur, also wanted to prove me wrong.   So, there I was, switching off between these two dance partners.  The club played a lot of Latin music, so they were both trying to impress me with their “salsa skills”.   Admittedly, Bartek was pretty decent, and was a good dance partner.  Artur on the other hand, tried to get a little fancy, and dip me….but unfortunately we were near a wall, and on my way back up he caused me to bump my head pretty hard on the wall.   I was actually bleeding a little and woke up with a bump on my forehead the next morning.  Note to self–do not allow a very drunk Polish guy to try any fancy salsa moves again!

At about 3am we were all exhausted from just prepartying way too early, and sustaining one too many injuries.  I actually wanted to take a cab home that night, but ended up taking one the next morning.  I had left a bag at their place, so Bartek offered his bed and slept on the floor.  What a gentleman. Needless to say, we were all either hungover or hurting, but after recounting the events of Saturday night, all we could do was laugh.  Despite their foolishness, somehow these guys were endearing and I would really like to hang out in the near future with Bartek & his crew.

Halloween Weekend Recap

Good morning everyone!  I’m a bit past due for an update, so I wanted to write a post before I leave for work today

Typical work day attire. Cardigans always seem so “teacher-like”

This past weekend was a four day holiday for me, which was awesome! Here is a little background on the significance of Halloween (All Saints’ Day) in Poland:

All Saints’ Day is a national holiday in Poland.  Given the widespread Catholic tradition that characterizes the country, it’s a particularly special day for Poles.  People visit the graves of loved ones and place candles & flowers on the graves that look barren, or as if no one has visited them for a long time. The candles, which can burn for many hours, are placed there so that departed souls can find their way through the darkness. Cemeteries are lit by many hundreds of these candles and at night the cemeteries can often be seen glowing from long distances.

(Click to enlarge) This is an example of what a cemetery looks like on All Saints’ Day. Pretty awesome!

Unfortunately, I didn’t go with family I live with to the cemetery to witness first hand this cultural experience because they went to Wolbrom.  Since I’m there most of the week teaching, I didn’t really want to stay there any longer during my time off.   However, on my bus ride to Krakow that day, I could see the lights from a cemetery close to the highway, and it was teeming with people!  I think it’s unfortunate that in the United States our holidays have become so incredibly commercialized, and have lost their original meaning and significance as a cultural or religious day.

Needless to say, I was a bit bored on Wednesday evening after work as well as on Thursday.  Most people were with their families and out of town, plus everything is closed on Thursday.  I admit, I was feeling a bit home sick and nostalgic about my own family gatherings.  However on Friday, I hung out at my friends’ house and watched some movies (i.e. two Hannibal movies). I had never seen the Hannibal movies before…they are freaky!  Perfect for the Halloween vibe though!

This past Saturday, I went with Magda and Michał to a couple of clubs.  Our first attempt  to go to a club called Frantic was a fail because we didn’t know we had to sign up on some online guest list.  Actually, first we accidentally went to the club directly next to it, thinking it was club Frantic.  This club was called Shakers, and it wasn’t very impressive that night.   Since we paid a cover charge, we decided to order one drink and then leave.   Magda suggested we go to U Louisa, a popular club on the rynek (square), which was pretty fun, although after some combinations of various types of vodka my stomach started to bother me and we left at around 3am (which is actually “early” here).  However, we decided that Cien (the club I mentioned in a previous post), was the best in terms of the crowd, so we’ll probably go there this Saturday.

Now, fast-forward to Tuesday, November 7th.  Yesterday was my day off!  I was so thrilled to sleep in.  I had to go to the Galeria Krakowska to take another passport picture for my work permit.  Apparently, I needed 5 photos, but they only give you 4 in a package.   Whatever, Polish guidelines…I must comply!   I also did a little shopping at H&M and picked up a few items (there goes my paycheck, ha!) After shopping for a couple of hours, I met up with a new friend named Piotr (a really cool guy I met while I was out) at the mall, and he offered to give me a short tour around the city.   The first stop was Wawel, an impressive castle nestled along the Vistula river.  There’s also a famous dragon sculpture that sits outside of the castle, which happens to spout fire from the mouth every so often.  Piotr did not warn me of this fact, so when it breathed fire right after I snapped a picture, I jumped about three feet into the air, and was subsequently teased for it.  He also took me to Pope John Paul II’s old residence, which was really cool.  His portrait now hangs from the window from which he spoke to towns people–pretty awesome!  Overall, it was a really pleasant walk with great company!

View of the Vistula river from Wawel.

Oh, hello Pope.