Zakopane

Having decided that I was going to rest, I left my computer at home, which means that my only internet access in this God forsaken yet beautiful place is my dad's laptop, which I don't get to use very often. Besides, to be honest, I did not come here to spend my time sitting inside and surfing on the internet, I came here to conquer high peaks, brave the snow and the cold and drink a lot of mulled wine (mental note to self - I haven't had any yet, time to make up for that).
That to explain my hitherto silence and the silence to come, as well as the fact that this post will be hectic and generally rubbish, but I need to hurry cause there's a dad out there wanting his computer back and there's a world out there wanting me back.
Having said that, I don't know what to say - I mean, I have loads to say, plenty of little funny or absurd things happening on the way, in Warsaw and here, but I don't really know where to start. I'll try to keep a note of them and retrospect a bit once back in Brum. For now, there are mountains out there...

German Christmas Market

I was standing by the pretzel stand enjoying a pretzel, when I suddenly heard:
‘Miss, Miss, did you speak German to her to buy that pretzel?’ and without waiting for my answer, to the pretzel-lady: ‘Did she speak German to you?’
‘No’ the pretzel lady answered politely, which only encouraged the little buggers.
‘Are you German?’
‘No, I’m not’.
‘Oh, cause she’s our German teacher. Where are you from then?’
‘I’m Polish.’
‘Oh my God! She’s Polish too! Miss, Miss, speak Polish to her! Go on then Miss!’
At which point I smiled apologetically at the pretzel lady and satisfied their request: ‘Sorry’ I said ‘School trip…’.

On Wednesdays

If you want my opinion, Wednesday is the worst day of the week. The energy you had after a restful weekend is gone, and when your weekend wasn’t restful – as it was the case for me, sleepless in Brum for three nights in a row without a reason really – it is even worse. And there’s still more time to crawl through until next weekend than has elapsed since the last one. So on Wednesday mornings the world is not a friendly place, and all I want is to stay in bed and feel sorry for myself. Which usually means I do stay in bed longer than I should, and then I have to rush my way out, which only adds to the horrible Wednesday feeling, cause I hate rushing, especially in the morning.
But Wednesday is also the day when my Year 7 group has their Citizenship lesson in the classroom opposite mine. And once the bell goes, they spill out into the corridor and peek into my room saying: ‘Hi German teacher!’, ‘Safe Miss!’ and ‘I can’t wait till tomorrow’s lesson Miss!’ and my heart grows and I realise that actually it is after lunch so the next weekend is closer than the previous one already and I can’t wait till tomorrow’s lesson either, cause we always have loads of fun. And there goes the Wednesday feeling, cause suddenly it is almost Friday and there are cool things ahead.

Straight or bent

In the school I work at I have to deliver citizenship lessons to a year 8 group. And last homework I gave them yielded a couple of beauties, my favourite being an answer to the following question:
Homosexual couples are not allowed to get married. Why is that wrong?
Well, apparently because you should be allowed to marry who you want whether you are straight or bent.

The Nutcracker

was brilliant. We loved the Snowflakes, although we were rather disappointed by the Sugar Plum Fairy. In my humble opinion she should have had some more power and all she did was execute a number of highly skilful and admirable but still – poses. Oh well. It still was great.
What was not so great was the way out of there – it took us almost an hour just to get out of the car park! And there was this bastard who went through the ‘no exit’ lane and pushed his way into the queue right in front of us! Seriously, just because you have a landrover, it doesn’t mean you’re exempt from queuing like everybody else! And the British are supposed to be the masters of the art of queuing! And Naomi didn’t even use the horn on him, I suppose cause we were still in the car park. But she did use it on some other bastards trying to force their way through on Broad Street, which was fun. As was singing along to Tina while queuing. It could have been a fairly entertaining queuing if it hadn’t been for the bastard in the landrover (who gave a whole new meaning to ‘nutcracker’ I guess). Oh well. Sleep now!

Everybody happy

You can’t make everyone happy. It’s a sweet thing to try, but it just doesn’t work. Usually you make yourself unhappy in the process and most of the time someone else ends up upset or pissed off as well. I’ve learnt it the hard way, but I have. Now it looks that I’m going to have to deal with the problem from the other side.
There are a few really good Polish expressions that would sum up the situation perfectly, unfortunately none of them translate properly to English. Like ‘masz babo placek’. Or, even better, ‘widziały gały co brały’.
Oh well. I suppose I’ll just have to live with it.
Unfortunately living with it at this particular moment is not the easiest thing as high doses of antibiotics mess up my system, making me feel tired and sick all the time (as if dealing with the lack of sunlight wasn’t enough on its own).
Enough moaning though, am going to see the Nutcracker with Naomi tonight. Should take my mind off things.

Dream Number 3

As the days get shorter, I tend to get gloomy and grumpy and life seems generally blah. I suppose I could continue on that note, but there’s really no point – it’s all light depravation, nothing more, nothing less. So instead – here’s dream number 3.

I’m at my high school reunion. I see my schoolmates and, inevitably, the guy I was hopelessly in love with while at school. He has grown a beard and looks seriously silly, cause the beard is really just irregular tuffs of hair here and there. I go to the loo that the organisers’ have given me the key to. Then there is a break and we go back to the hotel before the evening conference. I realise that I need to go to the loo again, this time to change a tampon (sorry if this is too much information, but it’s just a dream). I go to hotel loos on different floors but they are all filthy. The conference centre is too far. I want to do what I have to do in my room, but I’m sharing it and there are other people there. I keep trying to find a clean toilet, but they are all horrid.

Again, this is not my first dream of filthy stalls. The difference is that until now I always needed them for a simple wee and ended up resolving to using the least filthy one. And it all took place back in high school.

Here’s what Dream Moods has to say on the subject:
“To see an overflowing or flooded toilet in your dream, denotes your desires to fully express your emotions.”
“dreams of needing to go to the bathroom, suggest [the] need to let go of some relationship that has ran its course” – but I manage that, so that’s done. I presume my subconscious is giving me a clap for killing prince charming by letting me wee in a clean loo. Finally: “To dream of menstruation, indicates that you are releasing your pent-up tension and worry. It signals an end to your difficult times and the beginning of relaxation. It may mean that some creative energy is being released or recognised.” - I certainly hope so!