THEY COME AND THEY DON'T GO

We make friends.

1. Usually you just meet someone, become acquaintances with them and over time the tie tightens and one day you realise you've become friends. 

That is not the case here. I have a friend. I met her exactly 354 days, 23 hours, 56 minutes ago (and no - I'm not obsessed, why would you think that...) and approximately  354 days, 18 hours, 56 minutes ago I decided that we are going to be friends. I'm very ambitious and goal oriented. (At least that's what I like to say to myself. Please feel free not to convince me otherwise.) As I decided, it happened. No one knows the exact date but somewhere between the  autumn gloom and the annual resolution making Marysia and I became friends. 

2. Sometimes, when you've already acquired a friend you meet their friends, their partners, dogs, cousins. Then you try to make friends with them too, because that's what you think society wants you to do. 

That is not the case here. Thankfully, when I met Kris he turned out to be a decent, likeable guy for which I'm very thankful (thanks, Kris) because it made things nice and easy, just the way I like things to be.

I was also blessed with an opportunity to meet Roman, which I must admit is the most crucial part of this story. Ironically, its indescribable- just look at the gent in the bow tie on the poster above. You will understand.

Here we go, we make friends. They come, they grow and change and go to do awesome things, sometimes a bit further from home than usual. 

Dear Mary and Kris, Bon Voyage! You are going to have the time of your life (please play this in the background before continuing to read), especially when we come to visit you. Remember to pack wellies and raincoats. Send us postcards and snacks.

ALL (F)OR NOTHING

I fall in love. Constantly. Too quickly. Too easily. Too much. I fall in love with ideas.       

          

Crocheting. Discovered it on Friday. On Monday I have all the tools, I’m crocheting passionate, genius, maniac. Until the end of the ‘scarf and hat’ season.

Climbing. One day I know nothing about it, next week I start going to the climbing gym twice a week. I have beautiful, professional shoes, I read about it, I watch documentaries, I’m becoming a pro. For half a year.

I also do not fall in love with some other ideas and things. Then, I am perfect at ignoring their existence. At school I loathed Geography. I locked up my geography course book. During a class I would do my math homework or just sit and doodle. I still don’t know how I even passed from grade to grade. Survival skills, I suppose.

So it goes with everything. It’s all or nothing. When I clean my flat I do it for a week obsessively eliminating every inch of dust from the highest shelves, but before I do that, I usually wait with said cleaning until the omnipresent mess prevents me from finding anything.

When I party, I party hard. And I don’t go home. I am the queen of the dance floor, the last one standing, the survivor. Unless, I am having a bad day and I will complain as long as all my friends want to tie me up, throw me into the river and never ever see me again.

This is how I am. A friend of mine once told me-it’s fascinating, every time we meet you have a new passion, it’s so inspiring. Well, yes. It is also a quick road to the infamous burnout. It happened to me before. Big time, about two years ago with all my NGO life. It left me knocked out, beaten, on the floor. Begging for something new and exciting to happen, for a pinch of inspiration. It passed. Or I thought it did. Then it caught me again. I guess it’s still here, but it looks like I have had enough of it and I am pretty sure good days are coming.

It’s not a nice feeling and I bet many of you know what I am talking about.  The most important question is: how do I get rid of that flippin’ parasite that keeps me away from all new adventures?

What do I know. I’m no specialist. But I’ll tell you what I did. (Because we live in the internet era where everyone can talk about things they don’t really know anything about. Deal with it.) I went out of my comfort zone. Jumped out of my comfy PJ’s packed a hell of a suitcase and flew to Spain. For half a year. Don’t be naïve. It didn’t work as a miraculous remedy to everything. I came back 5 months ago and am still trying to figure out some things and put it all together. It’s a process. Get it? I know you do. 

So stop reading this and go out. Eat a sandwich you would usually refuse to eat. Talk to a stranger. Wear two different socks.

Or don’t. I don’t know.

TTYL brains

PS:Contrary to how it may seem, this ,in fact, is a happy post. Smile.

INTERNATIONAL DINNER

What we do here, is eating. I am an eater. Do you know this theory that people can be divided into those who eat to live and those who live to eat? I'm definitely in the latter group.What I've also noticed is that here, in Toledo, I'm twice as hungry as anywhere else, and it is not just me. Ask anyone. We are hungry. So we eat. We eat Spanish food most of the time. Erasmus students in Toledo are an international group tough. Why not take advantage of that and throw an international dinner?

I really wanted to take notes and write down the names of all dishes, but as soon as everything was set up...I started to eat, and food was so delicious that I completely forgot what I was supposed to do. I'm sorry, but I've already told you: I'm an eater.

From what I remember, in no particular order, we had:  Buffalo Chicken Dip (US), Pizza (IT), Pasta (IT), Apfelkuchen (DE), Nutellapfannkuchen (DE), El Guacamole con Totopos (MX), Brigadeiro (BR), Peixinhos de Horta and Rabanadas (PT),Pomodori Gratinati Ripieni (IT), Jumeokbap (Rice-ball of tuna)  (KR)

The Polish dish was PIEROGI. We spent about 5 hours in the kitchen and made 115 of them. 82 with meat and 33 with spinach. They turned out pretty well. We ate most of them the night before the official dinner...Sorry guys, but those small miracles are very hard to resist.

NOTE : You don't want to spend 5h in the kitchen without air conditioning with 32 degrees outside.Hangover.
You just don't.
(But at the end of the day...it was worth it!).

One more thing before I go and enjoy my siesta: believe it or not, we had the first rainy day today in Toledo. Well... at least at the beginning 'cause now in the afternoon the sun starts to shine again.

WHEN IN SPAIN-SPEAK SPANISH...

...and if you can't speak Spanish, be prepared for troubles. Most Spanish people don't speak English. This means that if you want to survive you have to adapt. So I'm adapting. I had my first language exchange meeting with other international students and a couple of local people who are amazingly kind and offered to share their knowledge.For know, I mostly learn language chunks and it's still difficult for me to create my own sentences. I can order food, drinks, ask for the way and introduce myself, so I think I can survive. If you find yourself in Spain without any knowledge of the language, then probably the best thing you can do is miming. Just mime everything.

One question I get asked a lot: Why Toledo?
Toledo because it is in Spain. At my University back in Warsaw, we only had two possible destinations in Spain: Toledo and Grenada. There were a lot of people applying for Grenada so I applied for Toledo and I got in. Why I wanted to go to Spain? Because I am determined to learn Spanish. And to get to know Spanish culture. Why? Because of my roots. My grandfather, the dad of my dad, was half Bask and half Spanish. I never met him, and for what I know he never spoke to his children in Spanish. I have Bask last name. And having a Bask last name while not speaking Spanish is no paradise. But you've been warned, in two months I will write my first post in Spanish. Pinky promise!

(The view from our balcony. Convento de Capucinas.)

Our landlady promised us WiFi on Monday. It's Friday and I still visit this lovely cafe near my place to check email. The cafe is called 'Legendario'. Interior design here is breathtaking and coffee is good and cheap. Have I mentioned they have free WiFi? The place is heaven. Anyway, here in Spain, everything is tomorrow. Manana, siempre manana. Someone very wise, I don't remember who, wrote once:  If you don't like something-change it. If you can't change it-embrace it. I decided to follow this advice and thanks to that I feel even more local. Do I have something to do today? Nah...manana! Procrastination feels so good but I'm also aware that the day will come when all the deadlines were yesterday, and then it will be trouble trouble trouble. Note to myself: be Spanish but keep a bit of responsible me alive.

(Cafe Club Legendario)

One day I will travel with class...

...for now, it's more vagabond style, and I like it. This gives you a sense of adventure, all those people you meet, places you visit, problems you have to solve. I flied with Ryanair. Warsaw-Brussels and after eight hours of waiting at the Charleroi airport, Brussels-Madrid.

Brussels.There's a lady next to me, waiting for the Lost and Found office, she's Polish,speaking on the phone. The story is: she's traveling with a little guy in a trolley and a man. They checked in their luggage and went for a dinner. They were passing their time so nicely that they forgot to get on the plane, which took off without them. They're flying on Saturday. It turns out if you're not on the plane,your bags are not there either. That's a good thing. A pity that it does not work both ways .It would be quite adventurous if every time they lose your luggage you have to actually travel to collect it, but the airlines should cover all your expenses. So many people would get to see places they will otherwise never visit.

When I got out from the plane in Brussels, and picked up my suitcase, I had to pass  the security check (the one where you choose if you have something do declare or not).They had dogs. Those 'I'll-find-all-your-drugs-and-put-you-in-jail-for-a-lifetime' dogs. Even tough I knew I did not have any illegal substances on me( except for the deadly dose of charm and smartness) I suddenly became anxious. What if those dogs don't like me for some reason and decide to ruin my life, or worse- my adventure? Of course they didn't even notice me. In Madrid tough, a guy in the same security check asked me to stop, of course he didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Spanish, so I had no idea what was going on. He just removed a sticker form my suitcase and let me go. I still don't know what it was all about.

My first night I spent in Madrid, at my friend's place. I met Cybil once back in Poland.She and her family were very hospitable. Not only did I get my own bed, but also had marvelous breakfast with them and even was given food to have my lunch on the bus to Toledo. Inspired by one of my favorites movies, 'Unmade Beds',  I decided to take a picture of every bed I will be sleeping in during my travel. Here it goes. Bed Number One.