Hey everyone,

So I’m sitting at the airport (Charlotte, NC) chillin with my Sam Adams (yeah its 10am) right now and I have decided to continue my travel blog that I began last summer since I am on the go once again, this time to Asia.  So a brief itinerary on my travel plans.  I am going to Hong Kong, then to Jakarta, Indonesia for around 2 weeks, then to Beijing, and lastly to Shenzhen to begin my internship in July.  Its a bit overwhelming once I lay it all out since I am not returning to the States until September…I wonder how many mixtapes BasedGod will have out by then??? And I’m sure I’ll be returning just when the Obama/Frat Romney situation will be at its all time peak.  Anyways, I’m glad to escape this American culture for a bit and give myself a chance to experience the Orient from a more cultivated and aged perspective, which is precisely why I suited up for this flight to HK.  Obviously it worked because I did not get carded and the guy sitting next to me at the bar right now did (and he’s 24, I asked!). 

Regardless, there will be things that I will miss from the US. Like Taco Bell, Cookout, complimentary water, sales tax haha, and most of all, English! I am about to come back prime on my Engrish though, ESL son!

By the way, I love the culture at airports.  Its like half the people don’t give a shit and the rest are too overcautious.  If you arrive at the airport 3 hours before your flight, and its domestic too…you need to chill out on that anxiety. On the other hand, sweatpants, hair tied, chillin with no make up on…you don’t give a shit about anything.  And the airport is a perfect congregation for all sorts of people to gather in this eclectic manner. 

Anyways, I am excited about this trip and I will be sure to update this blog about my 16 hour flight once I land in HK. I’ve saved up enough money for like ten airplane bottles so I’m sure this flight’s going to be real entertaining and interesting. And lastly, if anyone is in the HK, China, or Indonesia this summer, lets meet up! I’m sure my cantonese will serve as a valuable asset to your company!

O.N.I.F.C, keep it classy people

Wallace

before i begin this blog, i would like to apologize for any offenses i may pose with my language or attitude thats soon to be displayed by this blog entry, but given the weekend i’d experienced, you guys might understand my reaction/anger, and perhaps even provoke a stronger sense of fury, rage, irritation, and resentment that i am feeling right now.

so if you guys have been keeping up, remember how i told you i was going to krakow this past weekend??? ok let me explain my whole journey starting from friday, and the treacherous hell that christian, ruben, and I had to go through, all because of the lack of intelligence/organization/competency of LC krakow.

ok so friday night was my fault, i take all the blame for it so maybe you guys will find some humor in my actions friday night.  so this past friday night was another juwenalia party, which was held for the technical students here in lodz.  i went out with some of my aiesec lodz friends (which now i appreciate more than ever) and we had a fabulous time. there was a ton of people, live bands on a huge concert stage, and delicious alcohols everywhere haha. so of course i stayed out way past my bedtime, and before i knew it, it was already 4am in the morning. keep in mind that i had to go to krakow the next day for this aiesec diversity weekend (if you can call it that) and my train to krakow leaves at 615am.  at this point, im tired, tipsying, and in a hurry. so i got on the bus to head back to my dorm right hoping that i could just get back, pack up real quick, and sleep on the train ride to krakow.  ok so i got on the right bus, but on the wrong side of the street!!! ANDDD i fell asleep on the bus so but the time i woke up, it was 445am.  i didnt know where i was, i look outside the window and im in a small village in the middle of nowhere. i got off the bus and realized i was at least an hour away from society, and the train station i had to be at.  ruben, the other intern, was supposed to travel with me to krakow and i had his ticket in my pocket actually, so he couldnt leave unless i made it to the train station.  i called him freaking out and i told him i will try to make it to the train at 615am but he had to go up to my dorm room and pack all my stuff up for me.  so after a bus ride, and two tram switches, i made it to the train station at 610am, right before the train left. whew!

ok so im sitting on the train, and its overcrowded…babies crying, im hungover and sleep deprived, and of course i couldnt get any rest with all the commotion on the train. i was only hoping it would get better when i got to krakow.  sadly, this was the last ounce of positive hope i had for a while.  when we got to krakow at 1130am, no one from aiesec krakow came to pick us up, despite me emailing them our arrival time two days earlier.  lets start keeping a tally on how aiesec krakow fucked up this weekend. so this is MISTAKE NUMBER 1.  it wasnt that me and ruben couldnt find the hostel we were staying at, its the principle of the gesture we were mad about. so luckily christian, the german intern, arrived a day earlier and came to meet us at the train station in krakow. so he took us to the hostel which was about 10 minutes away. we walk outside and its pouring rain. IT RAINED THE WHOLE DAY SATURDAY IN KRAKOW AND I HAD NO UMBRELLA. so us three got to the hostel at noon and the aiesec krakow was still nowhere to be found. we were scheduled to have a city tour, led by aiesec krakow, and it was supposed to start at noon.  they did not arrive until an hour later, no phone call, nothing, to tell us they were gonna be late. MISTAKE NUMBER 2. finally they came and we were supposed to meet all of the interns at the city square, we were already behind on schedule.  we got there around 130pm, keep in mind its STILL POURING RAIN and we were meeting outside. when we got there, literally for half an hour, we just stood around waiting for the “leaders” of aiesec krakow to make a decision on what to do next.  so disorganized! at this point, im drenched already. MISTAKE NUMBER 3. finally we decided to split into two groups, one group decided to continue the city tour in the rain, which was idiotic and stupid, because you couldnt see shit anyhow from all the rain.  the other group, not that much smarter, decided to go hide out at a coffee shop somewhere to evade the rain. me and christian went with the coffee group, while ruben went with the city tour group.  just when you think it couldnt get worse, it does…bare with me people

so me and christian are with the coffee group and we are following this so called “leader” as she takes us for coffee right??? so we start walking and walking and walking, all this time still in the rain, and we pass by at least 10 coffee shops.  me and christian asked why are we not stopping at any of these shops instead? the leader’s excuse was that the coffee shop we were going to was close to the restaurant that we had reservations for at 3pm. at this time, it was a tad before 2pm at this time.  so we were like fine, damn it. so after 20 minutes of walking we finally got to the coffee shop. guess where it was? back at the train station that me and ruben arrived in this morning. what the fuck??? at this point me and christian were so soaked and tired we didnt care to yell, we just wanted to sit down. so we sat down at a coffee shop called coffee heaven, which is the european version of the overpriced, shitty coffee we americans know as starbucks.  whats even more frustrating is that we literally passed by 4 coffee heavens on our way to this particular one at the train station, but at this point, we were too tired to point out the stupidity of this aiesec “leader” guide person.  so the coffee group consisted of about 8 of us, the leader and 7 interns. we sit down in a lounge area in coffee heaven and me and christian told our group that to stay where they are, and we will be back in 3 minutes, we are just walking a couple of shops down to get coffee at mcdonalds instead. so we got our coffees from mickey ds and when we went back to the lounge area, the group was gone. you got to be kidding me?! MISTAKE NUMBER 4. we caught up with the group and they were walking towards mcdonalds, we asked them why did you leave??? we told you to stay! their response was, “yeah you guys were right, coffee heavens too expensive so we are going to mcdonalds too” MISTAKE NUMBER 5. ughhh. so of course the mcdonalds is located in the food court, where its super crowded and we couldnt find a place to sit, where we did earlier at coffee heaven if this stupid group had just stayed where they were sitting.  they didnt even wind up buying anything from mcdonalds and we ended up sitting at ANOTHER coffee shop, which turned out to be even more expensive than coffee heaven. MISTAKE NUMBER 6. we told the group, you guys are not moving anymore! we are staying here and thats it. so the rest of the group was reading the menu and deciding on choices and this one ridiculous (let me tell you, i hate this kid, and ive only met him for 2 days) guy from singapore gets up and says, “maybe we should move to a bigger table.” at this point, christian had enough and yelled at him NO! sit your ass down, we are not moving.  everyone knew we were angry and we were rightfully so, so this singapore clown didnt say anything back. idiot.  anyways we still had the restaurant reservations at 3pm so we asked this aiesec krakow “leader” two questions. 1. how far is the restaurant from where we are? she says 7 minutes. ok. question 2. do we have to pay for our own food? she says yes. ok. so christian, after hearing that, got food from mcdonalds so he would only get something light at the restaurant later and not spend so much money.  so we get up after coffee and head towards the restaurant.  it gets worse….

KEEP IN MIND, ITS STILL POURING RAIN AND I HAVE NO UMBRELLA JAY Z!!! so we walk out of the train station and start walking towards the restaurant right??? somehow, we start walking the same way we came…i thought the restaurant was 7 minutes away??? so after 20 minutes of walking with this clueless “leader” guide, we finally got to the restaurant.  guess where the restaurant was located??? literally right next to the hostel we were staying at. WHAT THE FUCK?!?! you got to be kidding me, i was at a point beyond sanity.  we literally walked in a circle (twice) around krakow, in the pouring rain, because this “leader” guide did not know what she was doing??? we asked “do you even live here?” MISTAKE NUMBER 7. me and christian were so pissed when we walked in the restaurant, we did not greet anyone and just sat down.  and guess what??? the food was paid for!!! MISTAKE NUMBER 8. christian was even more mad because he wasted money at mcdonalds for food, and if he had known it was paid for, he wouldnt have bought anything from mcdonalds. it gets worse. so if we had a reservation at 3pm, shouldnt they have the food ready??? we didnt get served until 415pm, and it was this polish soup which was ok, followed by pierogi (polish dumpling).  honestly, the worst pierogi ive ever had.  MISTAKE NUMBER 9. it was not fresh, tasted deep frozen, and the dough was soggy and mushy.  i like to credit myself as a food connoisseur, and if any of you ever had my cooking, you know that i know good food when i see it. this, my friends, was ghastly terrible. i was so pissed, angry, and tired at this point i just got up, left the restaurant and went back to the hostel to sleep…given i havent slept at that point for about 30+ hours

ok so that night, they had a party which i went to, of course haha, which was better because i was with some people i met in warsaw a couple of weeks again. PEOPLE I ACTUALLY LIKE. however, we had to buy our own drinks, which really made me question where exactly did my 110 zlotys go to??? i stayed in the hostel for one night, which was only a 55 zloty rate, and none of the tours on sunday (the next day) were paid for so we had to pay on our own, and they even cancelled the barbecue that was supposed to take place the next day for lunch. aiesec krakow stole my money, which is how i felt.  MISTAKE NUMBER 10. it can only get better right????

the next day, because me and christian were so fed up with aiesec krakow, we decided to leave them and tour on our own. we felt like we would get way more done, and see more sights, which we did. of course it was sunny too so that definitely helped. however ruben wanted to go to auschwitz, which was being led by aiesec krakow.  we warned him of the disorganization of aiesec krakow, and our train back to lodz left at 330pm sunday afternoon.  ruben really wanted to go and he figured he would make it back by the time our train left, which me and christian highly doubted.  the auschwitz tour takes about 5-6 hours because its an hour busride there from krakow and the tour itself was 3-4 hours long.  so me and christian and our warsaw friends left aiesec krakow (best decision ever) and saw krakow.  let me tell you, this city is beautiful and gorgeous!!! please check out my pics on fb but everyone should come here at least once in their lifetime. and in the 4 hours of sightseeing we had before our train departure, we saw more than we ever could if we stayed with aiesec krakow.  we even had time for lunch!

ok so come 330pm, me and christian are on our way back to lodz and rubens nowhere to be found.  ruben left for auschwitz at 10am that morning.  ok some and christian get a phone call from ruben at 730pm and he tells us that he just finished his tour from auschwitz.  oh my goodness?! we tried to warn him about how lackluster the “leaders” were for aiesec krakow but i guess he had to deal. and at this point, he still had to take the bus from auschwitz to krakow, then the train from krakow back to lodz.  ruben didnt arrive home until 530am monday morning.  ruben might be one of the calmest people i know, because not once did he complain or yell at the disorganization of the imbeciles that ran this aiesec weekend trip. i told him i dont know how he does it, because if i was him, i wouldve gone banana apeshit/wayne brady on all those people. 

so i woke up this morning with flulike symptoms, my throat is coarse, im losing my voice, and a slight fever…all because of aiesec krakow making me walk in the rain all saturday.  these people dont even see the indecency that they exposed us to…no apologies, nothing. i felt abused, misused, uncared for, cheated, and robbed all in the same weekend, and im not even sure that the 4 hours of sightseeing the beautiful city of krakow (on our own of course, screw aiesec krakow) was worth the tradeoff.

this weekend was ridiculous, beyond words and expressions, and it makes me wonder how some of these people even made it to this point in their lives??? i would never be able to function with such inefficiency, and it just brings into the light that we are all different, from different backgrounds, and lastly, of different intellectual levels. im so appreciative of the life lessons my mom taught me, and how to actually be an ample and self reliant individual. to depend anything on anyone else is a flawed action, one that would just lead to misery and dependance (especially this weekend, trying to “depend” on aiesec krakow to be good hosts MISTAKE NUMBER 11). grab life by the horns people! 

so i hope tomorrow i feel better and this slight fever doesnt get any worse

on the brink of abberation,

wallace

looked down my window to the world below…

these past couple of days have been quite eventful, and tiring as a matter of fact. a little schedule update for you guys, friday night was juwenalia, which was an awesome student party festival they threw for the university of lodz students here.  its kinda like speed street, polish style, for all my charlotte natives.  crazy long night filled with music, dancing, chinese food (yeah its basically the same msg filled schizzz as in america), clubbing, bar hopping…etc. rad anthem yall!!! i even saw the sun rise up saturday morning, homeward boundlike.  sooo tired but such a good experience. learned so many new names and met new people, and then forgot all the names…all in the same night.  oh and btw, you know those guilty pleasure dance classic songs that no one wants to claim they like??? im proud to say dancing to “believe” at the clubs is one of the best times ive had haha, t pain aint got nuthin on the originator of the autotune, cher.  now im just waiting for some taylor gang to come up through them speakers

so the next day, after 2 hours of sleep, i finally did a little sightseeing and window shopping at manufaktura, lodz’s biggest shopping mall.  its really like a village in itself, with a town square, plenty of fabulous restaurants, and little booths set up all over selling items ranging from bavarian beer to handcrafted souvenirs to professional culinary presentations of indigenous wild mushrooms.  its a ravishing mall nonetheless, with exquisite architecture…i probably wouldve enjoyed it more if i wasnt so energy deprived from the night before.  so i finally got home around 7pm on saturday and just slept for about 18 hours, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

so ive had a lot of alone time for the past two days also, a lot of city wandering which is great.  sometimes in our fast lives, its difficult to just stop and look around…and appreciate ya know?  but my pessimism always gets the best of me, and it seems no matter how hard i try, my past seems to catch up to me.  even when im 4000 miles away, i cant seem to avoid information i dont care about, things people tell me that i dont want to know, but i have to.  this trip to poland has been such a good diversion, and its disappointing when this concept gets tainted.  i guess its a good reminder that im going to have to face all my problems once i get home regardless.  

human nature is delicate, yet versatile…and it always makes me wonder how many people hide behind their smiles…

and how so many of us, my once closest relationships…we all use to travel the same path but the fragility of time caused our paths to divert.  i love the independency of my life’s journey but a little part of me always hope that i can see those people again that once shared my path…can i mend these bridges???

being solitary in a foreign land gives you a lot of time for reflection…but character building, im going to embrace it because it is healthy for me.  harder, better, faster, stronger

anyways, they are throwing another party this weekend at a different part of campus at the university of lodz.  ill probably go friday night because come on, i gotta be social haha.  however, since im going to krakow this weekend, i have to wake up to leave on the train by 6am…still havent decided if i am going to call friday a short night or do the sunrise thing again haha

oh and krakow! so excited, ive heard great things about the city, and its wondrous and alluring landscape.  and of course new friends, new experiences, and i welcome all of that.  and lastly auschwitz, guaranteed to be a live history lesson/wake up call

until then,

wallace

A couple days no talking, i seen my baby!

so i hope everyone is doing well, just wanted to drop a little update sobre mi vida en poland haha (props to ruben and the UNC spanish department). my english classes are going quite well, im really getting to know my students and i think (i hope) my lesson plans are really helping them.  i always try to incorporate some type of common entertaining theme (for example, we talked about favorite movies yesterday) to stimulate english conversation and application, which usually keeps their attentions and draws the eagerness out of them to be involved in speaking out loud.  again my respect for teachers grows each and every day i am here, and to simply put it, teachers dont get paid nearly enough for the amount of work and dedication they put into their occupations.

anyhow, i feel that a lot of my blogging has been selfishly about myself, so maybe today is a good chance to share a bit about general Polish culture, which im still foreign to haha.  so first things first, the most important thing to know in a foreign country is….where’s the bathroom???  in poland, male toilets are represented by a triangle, while female toilets are circles.  so of course, 4-5 beers in, im like i need to triangle real bad right now! also european kisses, fabulous way of greeting, screw shaking hands and just saying hello…a little lovin is always nice.  and to cater to my college audiences, im telling you, the nightlife is fantastic.  so much better than the kiddie shit in the US.  im tired of playing games so lets just dance and no is not in my vocabulary.  combined with my “im single” weezy mentality, it all equates to a recipe for success every night we go out.  and the people here (ya ladies) are stunning.  ive been told that the polish are very proud of their women haha.  but of course, chivalry’s not dead, and im a firm believer that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  all the people i have met here have beautiful souls in general, and its so apparent that they appreciate the times i have invested in them and vice versa.  even new friends come packaged full of love and care, and its rare to see that.  deep down im thinking that wow many of my “friends” that i have known for long times would not even care sometimes, or even about how their actions affect those around them.  but people here that i have met for not even 2 weeks…it seems like we have known each other all our lives. its taught me such a great lesson though, and when i go back to the US, i am truly going to invest in the people most important to me.   

so anyways, one more thing haha was last night woooo!!! Gosia organized a little dinner party with a bunch of AIESECers (of course), the interns, and our students.  im so glad many of my students showed up, despite having class early the morning the next day.  also tried my first kielbasa last night, which is a polish smoked sausage.  delicious! good food, great people, not much to complain about.  so after dinner, since gosia booked the whole restaurant just for us for the night, we all did a little karaoke.  a little liquid courage and by the end of the night, i wounded up singing (and butchering every song) in about 6 different languages.  it was also great to see my students break out of their shells, and sing in english, which i kinda made them do haha.  my compensation was me singing in polish so all was fair.  fun night needless to say, and i cant wait to do it again!

anyways, so this weekend, theres gonna be some crazy parties and bands playing because its exam week here for the technical students, so we all need a little stress relief right???

ill try to do another entry at the end of the week, if i survive this weekend haha

peace, love, and the little lemon in your life

wallace

sup everyone, wallace here to drop some info on yall regarding my trip to warszawa! or warsaw to my americano amigos haha

before we start, if anyone wants to see the beautiful city of warsaw, please check my album pictures on facebook, trust me, the city is opulent in scenery

so this weekend me, ruben (intern from mexico), christian (zzz german haha), and gosia! went to the AIESEC diversity weekend in warsaw.  oh man so gosia, her friend ola, and i went clubbing (yeah watch me do me) the night before and we didnt get back until like 3am.  we had to wake up at 630 in the morning on saturday morning because the train to warsaw was leaving at 8am. so no sleep, and craving some up, up, and away, but its ok…im a trooper.  needless to say, we arrived in warsaw around 10am and were greeted instantly by the warm aiesec family of warsaw.  oh my, first impressions of the city while the tour began…simply amazing!  the architecture, the dedication to history, the atmosphere, you can really see the appreciation the poles have for their own country, and one must respect the unification and exertion of patriotism evoked by the people here.  and of course, the aiesec lc did a fabulous job in their tour guiding!

so we stayed at a botel which is a hostel on a boat, never thought id be on a boat, its just a big blue watery road right? and it was diversity weekend, so new friends! from all over the world…we had interns from latin america, asia, and various countries of europe.  so many different nationalities in one event…it was almost like a bad joke (so a mexican, an asian, and a german walked on a boat…hahaha).  so we all dropped our stuff off at the botel, and the lc here had a city scavenger hunt planned to help us tour the city.  it was awesome, such a creative way for us to experience the city, which was so diverse in scenery and environment.  a clash of modern architecture, natural vegetation, and historical culture made this city truly unique in comparison of other cities in europe.  im so glad i chose to come to poland, as supposed to the more commercialized, touristy countries (like france and england, where everyone goes).  

so we split up into teams for the scavenger hunt and luckily gosia was on my team, my crutch haha. and yep you guys probably guessed it, i didnt contribute much to actually helping out with the to do list for the scavenger hunt.  a very thin line between apathy and lethargy.  however, my time was not wasted.  the scavenger hunt gave me such a special tour of the city, and it also allowed for some heart to heart talk with gosia as well, developing friendships :)

my walks around the city gave me a chance to reflect, weezy paid me with a reality check.  contemplation is often the best medicine.  and for hours around the city, so many thoughts raced around my head.  i thought of my life’s journey, from hk to ny to nc to unc and now im in poland?!?!  i thought of the people in my journey, my friends, my old friends, my new friends, the friends ive lost…the friends ive gained in returned.  i thought of my mom, the struggles she went through for me to be here in this moment…i love her for that, and my appreciation for her overtook my emotions.  she’s my hero and my inspiration, and its sad because she doesnt hear that enough and i feel bad that it took me going away to poland to realize how amazing my mom really is.  i thought of my father, and what he would think about where my life is now.  sometimes, for me, its difficult for me to assess my future, especially without some paternal guidance and direction, which many of my friends do have.  im not complaining, as i have been on my own for some time.  going to college, going to poland, my studies, my occupations, my emotional and physical growth, have all been things i have done on my own, and i hope that he would have respected that.  treasure the times and memories you do have, people! and do not take anything for granted…material things come and go, friends often come and go, but love is forever.

anyhow, after the scavenger hunt, which took all day thanks to our tour guide and future physicist konrad haha (hes in aiesec warsaw here), we got some food and headed back to the botel to rest up and primp for the party tonight (yep parties and aiesec go together like kanye and his ego).  i wanted to nap but me on my grown simba swag, i decided to just start partying.  so pregame son, and all of the foreign interns decided to play bitches, bitches, which is a lot like signs if you guys ever played that drinking game.  the only difference is instead of signs, we use nicknames instead.  it was hilarious playing this game because of everyones’ accented english. a little lost in translation, and a lot lost in pronunciation, resulted in a lot gained in alcohol haha.  oh and btw if you guys ever get the chance, you need to try ciechan, which is a honey flavored beer indigenous to warsaw…one of the best tasting beers i have ever had. and at 5.7% alcohol, i dont know if ill ever be able to drink the watered down cat piss they serve in the US ever again.

so yep after an hour of this game, we decided to head to the party! so awesome, and a lot of us decided to toast our new found friendships with a couple rounds of shots, yahhh my address is AK47.  party details will remain discrete hahaha but we all finally winded up back at the botel around 3, every nights a long night, every days a holiday.  however, me my new friend cristiano also from mexico, and ruben decided to go back out into the city for some more fun.  again discretion will be abided but just to let you guys know, ruben had himself a good ass time.  we got back to the botel at 5 in the morning, but the botel was locked ahhhh! and no one came to answer the door, so ruben and i resolved to climbing the boat from the side in order to get back on.  yeah it looked as ridiculous as it sounds, two guys coming back from bars climbing the side of a boat haha, but im pretty sure ruben has no recollection of his actions anyhow.

so this morning, we woke up at 9 (4 hours of sleep) not too bad, and we went to a science museum dedicated to the copernicus (of course, he’s polish).  it was like the discovery place, pretty great and definitely awesome if i was 11 and not 21.  it was still very interesting and a perfect vice of relaxation, especially following a night such as last night.  so after the museum, we ate some lunch at the cafeteria there, and it was time to say our goodbyes…oh my how time passed by so quickly when you are having fun.  good thing is, everyone here is staying in poland for their internships and thanks to social networking and the wonders of interpersonal media, we will all be staying in contact.  besides, they are having another “diversity weekend” in krakow in two weeks, which everyone will probably show up at, so ill just see all these new friends soon anyways.  so excited about krakow! the city, the architecture, auschwitz, man its gonna be a treat.

so here i am, exhausted from an incredible weekend, and getting my lesson plans ready for class tomorrow.  yep im still doin work, like i always do.  work then play, its the aiesec way.  i apologize for the long blog post but its analogous to the long eventful weekend.  so maybe ill holler at yall in a couple of days with this bloggin mess.  

keep it classy people

what up people!

so a little update on this week…class has been going smoothly, (i think and i hope) and im really getting to know my students. of course some of them are a bit shy and afraid to speak out but i try to put them on the spot, and i found that confrontation is the best way to develop their english conversation skills.  while im lovin teaching the class, a part of me always doubt my teaching method, if i even have enough legitimacy to successfully help these students in english.  although i do find solace in their smiles and thanks, so maybe im doing something right haha

on another note, gosia introduced me to one of her friends that is studying film here so guess what??? i got to go on a movie set earlier this week (lets make a movie yeahhhh, starring you and me yeahhh!).  we went to the airport here in lodz, which is a very small local airport.  however, it triples as a military hangar base and a plane restorage facility, it has a lot of old war planes that they keep for sentimental values.  i know right??? poland and war planes dont exactly match hahaha.  anyways, we spent a couple of hours on the movie set, and i talked to a lot of film students about their studies and filming of course.  i was most impressed. many of these students are studying or going to study at the renown film institute here in lodz, the birth school of famous directors such as roman polanski and andrzej wajda.  and the movie they were shooting today, they plan on sending to sundance and cannes film festivals.  since i am a communications major, being on this set really helped me with my performance studies.  but it also put things into perspective, like they are doing some ballin shit and im just sitting in a classroom at unc.  gave me a bigger reason to perhaps do grad school here in europe instead of the united states.

anyways, they also threw a little party last night for the interns, so of course we was gettin poured up!!! it was a thursday though and many people had work and school obligations in the morning, but the real troopers lasted all night with us so props! and all that practice we do at school (josh griffin, postman, d money, g baby skittles) helped me really keep up with these avid drinkers here haha.  we also tried to sing karaoke but the dj was being a dick, so raincheck ahh!!! 

while we are on the music subject, just to mention, there are a lot of street musician kids (like kids my age) here in lodz.  but man im sorry, they suck ass.  not saying that i am a particular good guitarist or piano player or singer, but come on man, i was like you guys are butchering some classics.  just two nights ago, i heard some guy playing guitar (attempting to play) while singing mad world and i was like if gary jules could hear you now, he would smack you in the face with that guitar.  at least it wasnt wonderwall, otherwise i would have to do it myself

so plans for the weekend, im going to warsaw for an aiesec party/conference/retreat thing.  im sure some crazy shit will go down, its aiesec haha.  ill keep you guys posted.

one love

ok so these past couple of days have been quite eventful.  first things first, the sun is ridiculous here.  it literally rises before 5 am. and i woke up with the sun 3/4 way to the middle of the sky, thinking that i was late for everything, only to look at my clock and have it say 7:15 am…gotta get used to that.  and that damn rooster near my dorm doesnt help either.  anyways, check out the pics on facebook, im not a very good photographer so its blurry in some pics, probably because its hard taking pictures with a beer in your hand.  ok enough about me and more about my adventures.  so we went to visit gosia’s parents in a village 30 mins outside of Lodz and it was awesome.  gosia’s parents were such hospitable people, i mean, who can complain when the first thing you get presented when you walk in the house is a shot of homemade lemon vodka.  and man, her parents are on some brewing game, they got like ten different kinds of homemade vodkas, palinkas, and some other stuff i cant pronounce.  and i have to say that music is no longer the universal language.  gosia’s dad did not speak one lick of angielski (english) but he knows how to say cheers, and thats all you need really.  so after about ten shots, some delicious homemade pastries, and some polish kawa, they gave us a tour of the farm.  tipsy cow milking is always fun!!! although gosia’s village was small, it was cozy, homely, and authentic.  its rare to be able to find places that are not contaminated by technology and commercialism, where people can be people.  seeing her village made me appreciate the simpler things in life, a wake up call almost.  my trip back to the city from the village consisted of some much needed self evaluation.  its a pity, the things i think are important in life seem so trivial compared to theirs…i need to value what i have more. needless to say, it was a wonderful trip to the polish countryside, an image i will be sure to keep in my memory bank.

so saturday night i met the aiesec lc here in lodz.  so the difference between aiesec here and aiesec in the us is…nothing.  same crazy ass people, having a great time with one another, and roll calls! aiesec chapel hill will probably get mad at me since i never do the aiesec dances when i am in the us haha but then again, we never hold committee meetings at a pub either.  the lc here is incredibly friendly, warm, and welcoming.  i guess it is just part of the aiesec family bond, which i respect now more than ever.  it was also initiation that night for new members to replace old members, and i could really see how closely knitted the aiesec family here is in Lodz.  it was great meeting all of them and i am looking forward to the party on thursday, where ill see everyone again!

third on the agenda, today was the first day of class! so big ups to teachers that have to create their own teaching curriculum cuz that ish is hard! and time consuming! while i only had to teach one advanced and one basic english class today, the class planning still took about 4 hours.  so on with the classes.  i was supposed to have about ten to twelve students in each class today but many didnt show up because of work, exams, etc…so i winded up teaching classes with only 4 students in each class.  all female students haha so what up…ladies! (demetri martin).  all jokes aside, they were all great and respectful students, although I was younger than them.  and combined with their willingness to learn english and patience with my lack of polish, class was only successful because of the students’ themselves.  and even the basic english class, who could only speak in fragments, were willing to push themselves to communicate, something i respect so much.  I, on the other hand, can’t even push myself to answer a question in spanish when i am at school, another self evaluation moment.  and my biggest fear was not being able to teach for 2 hours straight per class, but everything went so smoothly and we had so much interesting conversations that i couldnt even finish my lesson plans!  much respect to the students here, and i cant wait to do class again with them later in the week.

so tomorrow and wednesday i got two more classes, with some intermediate english students.  hopefully everything will go as well as it has been.  ill keep ya’ll posted. dobranoc!

Ok so just in case everyone was worrying, I made it to Poland! Arrived in Warsaw this morning.  Needless to say, it was not at all an easy journey.  Air Italy, ahhh, I wouldn’t recommend it.  Food boo, and half the tv screens were broken.  the only thing they had were leather seats (that leather so soft!).  Man but my main complaint was during that 9 1/2 hour plane ride, i didnt get one ounce of sleep.  Two babies in the row behind me and two babies in the row in front of me sandwiched me with their cries the whole flight, and while part of me couldnt blame them because i was the same way 18 years ago, another part of me wanted to punt one of those little shits out the window.  Anyways, i did have some nice conversation with two elderly ladies from Lodz, Poland.  They knew very little English, but nothing a smile and some friendly gestures cant do to break that barrier.  And airplane bottles at 2 dollars a pop helped out the convo too, along with withstanding those kids crying.  So i got off the plane, and I expected customs to be a hassle, but to my luck, the lady just glanced at my passport and let me go.  No questions, no nothing.  You know what i do where i do and how i do it.  To continue the story, customs and baggage went through smoothly, but I had to wait for another interner to arrive from Singapore after I left the terminal.  The wait wasnt so bad and once we met up, we started our journey towards Lodz.  Man this was tough.  Shi Yuan, the girl from Singapore, knew no Polish, so I was obligated with the task of being the initiator.  Ive come to realize that so many people in Poland don’t speak English, which I found very surprising.  However, it made me realize how important it is to be efficient in my teaching method for this internship. And it didn’t help our situation either that Shi Yuan got robbed on the bus ride to the train station from the airport.  800 Euros, thats 1000 US, gone just like that. Thats like 4 Xboxs! Fortunately, all she got stolen was money and her student ID, her passport and debit cards were still secured.  That pickpocketer was so subtle, we didnt even notice and she had her purse right in front of her.  I couldnt help but feel responsible because I should have been more aware and cautious for her, but ironically, before we boarded the bus, i told her to keep important stuff by her side in case of pickpocketers.  The train ride to Lodz was relaxing and beautiful.  It was like I walked into a Land O Lakes commercial, the scenery was just how i imagined the European countryside, but the most intriguing thing I saw were the cemetaries.  They were beautiful! Every grave in every cemetary I saw were filled with flowers, the whole place looked like a botanical garden. While this is aesthetically pleasing, it provided me with a deeper sense of Polish culture and human relations.  Even through death, they hold family bonds close, and the vivacious scenery of these graves represent that.  Even when I was at the airport waiting for Shi Yuan, I saw so many families come together at the arrival gates.  The feel good sensation I experienced from seeing their joys of being with family was heart touching. 

so yep this is it so far, as I am getting settled in, perhaps going out tonight (party in da club 50’)

talk about first impressions right???  Ill keep you guys updated

So it still hasnt really set in that I am about to go to Poland, even though I am a couple of hours from boarding on this plane (yaahhh wiz).  Three weeks ago I didnt even know where I was going, and Poland was far from my mind, maybe I am to attribute my good fortune to some higher power.  Its weird because I dont know what to expect, and a small instance of fear can always be drawn from the unknown.  And of course, I am nervous about how to approach my teaching internship, nervous about how to overcome this language barrier with my insufficiency in Polish.  On the other hand, the thought of experiencing this culture is enticing, and I am anxious to see Poland first hand.  The beautiful landscape, the people, the food, equals EYEGASM!  Well anyways, first things first, this flight is gonna be long and ridiculous.  And I have come to realize, based on the copious amount of US airports I have been to, airport employees (sorry time to vent right now) hate their jobs.  Attitude problems man, like travelers are supposed to know every minute detail in regards to flight regulations, which I guess can derive from boastful, independent nature of Americans.  I aint hatin tho, i do the same shit, keepin it real.  But yeah ill post another blog entry if I get bored at O’Hare in Chicago, or if they are stingy on free WiFi,  next entry will be when I arrive in Poland! 

4th grade son!