I'm staying with Santiago's wife's sister and her family here in Kaunas. Renata and her father, Sigmund (sp) were so nice and they picked me up from the bus station last night, at 4am. 4 AM! I felt so guilty... but I couldn't help it, that was the only bus that was available. I'm going to be making them dinner in a little bit. Oh the pressure! They fed me this morning a yummy beet soup with kefir and eggs. And tea and bread. I gave them the contraband mushrooms from Taiwan and they asked me to cook it. So here [View Full Entry]

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That's it, I'm never coming back to this town again!! I have been invited by a friend to Easter weekend at her place in Kaunas, Lithuania. So last night I bought a train ticket from Krakow to Warsaw (while I was in Krakow still), departing Krakow at 8.00, arriving Warsaw around 10.45. The bus leg time I found online was departing Warsaw at 1.40 and arriving at Kaunas 9.00 next day (Saturday). Following so far? After buying the train ticket, I walked over to the bus ticket place to try and buy the bus ticket from Warsaw to Kaunas. Well, turned [View Full Entry]

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I was up until 2 am last night studying. I only had enough time to cover the nouns and some adjectives but I didn't get around to doing any of the verbs. Which are pretty important, if you think about it b/c without them, you can't really construct any sentences. :-/ Oh why didn't I start earlier!! I woke up early, if you count 7.30 as early, and did some more flashcards, had breakfast, and then went to class. The test was handed out and Marek left us alone in the room to do it. I guess they go by the [View Full Entry]

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Marek, our instructor (who I keep saying is cute, in a mean looking polish way...) played a game with us the other day. He wrote the names of famous persons and taped one to each of our foreheads. Then we had to ask questions in Polish that can be anwered with tak/nie, and try to figure out who is taped to our foreheads. Funny, the night before this was the first time when I played this game, with Vala, Ben, and Bryce. So anyway, I really suck at this game. I was Boris Becker. :-/ [View Full Entry]

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This happened 2 days ago? A bit of background... Wieliczka salt mine has been in operation for over 700 years and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Basically, if you're in the neighborhood, you should go for a visit. Last week the school had organized a trip for everyone to go but I was too tired (I went to Tesco that day instead) and I figured since I have a whole month, I can go anytime. My classmate Vala had wanted to go last week but she somehow missed the bus, so we decided to go together. We were told that [View Full Entry]

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Imagine the way Bill Murry (sp) says it in City Slickers. I'm on vacation, but tomorrow is testing day. 90 minutes of listening comprehension, writing, and an oral part. I was so tired today after class (and as a procrastination move) that I went home and took a 2 hour nap. mmmmm... I guess part of it is my own fault for not studying as hard as I should and going out practically every afternoon to have fun. :-p I am having a lot of fun here. Here are some pix to get you going while I go and study for [View Full Entry]

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I went to the national museum and visited 4 synagogues today. I've done my touristic duty! Well, not really, because there is so much more to see. I haven't gone into any of the churches yet, nor have I visited the place where John Paul II (the Pope) used to live. I don't have that many photos because inside of the museum today because I don't think I was allowed to shot, and inside the synagogues it seemed inappropriate... So here's a rundown of the photos. Attached to the Synagoga Remuh is the old cemetary; they are both open to the [View Full Entry]

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Here are some pictures from the past few days, beginning from the bus ride into Poland. The themes are: 1. Weird stuff I see in the streets. Did you know that Krakowians (?) can park on the sidewalk? Yup, they drive the cars right up the sidewalk and leave a bit of room for the pedestrians. These two street signs, from what I can gather, say a. park all the way onto the sidewalk and b. park half in the street, half on the sidewalk. And then that light tree with 9 lights, that's just crazy. How do you know which [View Full Entry]

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I just finished my first week of language classes. It's really intense, though, 4.5 hours per day of instruction and by the end I'm totally beat. Most of the students in the school are from Germany, a tiny sprinkle from the UK/Ireland/Scotland/Wales and 3 from the US. The first day when I was here, I was told there were two other Americans and then when I met one of them, it was like,"oh, so you're the 'other American'". And then when I met the 'other' other American, it was like, ah, that's all there is! I have no big complaints about [View Full Entry]

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I shall write about some of the nice Poles that I have met since arriving in Poland to balance out the negativity from my previous post. 1. When I wanted to get my monthly tram pass, I had to first get a passport sized photo taken. One of my fellow classmates had a flier that was for a photo place that had a special deal going on, 8 pix for 9 zlotys. That's about a quarter a pix. So I went to that shop. The man was very nice. He took care of the other customers and then when it was [View Full Entry]

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