an epic in poland part ii
I slept from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. on Sunday night and then woke up pretty homesick and sad and didn’t fall asleep again until close to 2 probably. I woke up tired at 8 for an 8:30 breakfast and went to bed at 9 because we weren’t needed until 4. At 1, the British boys woke me up and I went to lunch. Then, the three of us (Peter and George) sat outside an talked until about 4:30 when we finally were asked to talk with the kids. George taught me to play backgammon which is a pretty fucking fun game, it turns out. I think Joe’s chess set is a two-in-one with Backgammon so maybe I can teach him to love it, too.
The lesson was very intimidating. We had decided with Sigrite, who I usually refer to as only “the Austrian” or “Sigfried” an Josee from Canada that we should split them into two groups and then have them introduce themselves in English. By the introductions it would have seemed that they all spoke English pretty well. But later we learned that they are all pretty shy especially the girls. They’ve started to come around though which is good. They also decided on some topics to discuss later in the week.
I felt pretty unnecessary and depressed during dinner but it was good to finally get to know Pete and George. They had a live band called Zenon play a few songs on Monday night. Somehow, the Brits and I missed the set and showed up when they were signing autographs. We still got invited to the afterparty though. This was at probably 9 p.m. and the party was predicted to begin at 11:30. I read some of the Mayor of Casterbridge until 10 when they got me from my room to party.
This afterparty was out on the front lawn by a treehouse type thing with a bunch of picinic tables under a shelterhouse. I chatted about music with Tom who is Zenon’s bassist. It was rad. We talkeda bout good covers and all the boys got wasted on Tyskie (pronounced Tiss-ski but affectionately called Tit-ski). I eventually invited Tom up to y room to show him the joy that is Death Cab for Cutie, ANi Difranco, and The Shins.
Peter and George joined those of us who were outside when Tom and I got back. Zenon (lead singer) started doing impressions of the guy from Kajikstan on Ali g. We all made lots of jokes and had really kick ass talks. People started to file inside around 2:30 so Just James (pianist), Tom and I reminaed. James and I yelled about the IRaq war which is my least favorite part of being abroad: haing to defend actions of my country that I disagree with. James, apparently satisfied with my opinion said he was glad to finally meet an intelligent American. The night of chilling with native English speakers cheered me up greatly and I even woke up in a good mood on Tuesday.
Lessons were immediately following breakfast and lasted until 10 so at 11 the volunteers caught a bush to Kielce. I spent most of the time in Kielce with Josie. We found a place to use some internet at a cell phone store with a computer that had some Polish words on it. The fact is that we may have stolen this internet, but there was no english speaker to tell us how much we needed to pay. Oi. I bgouth a sweater because mine got left at home and then I bought this really pretty dress for 30 dollars. I plan on wearing it home to KCMo from Newark if not Krakow. The bus system in Kielce is beyond fucked up so we had to get another goddamned taxi from Kielce to Jodlowy Dwor. This one was divided among five so I only had to pay 10 dollars. Still though, it really breaks yr wallet when you pay 10x what you expected to pay.