Doublin' in Dublin

Hello dear friends! Tis already the end of my school week (hooray!). I had a paper due today and have another due tomorrow at 2pm. Amazingly, I managed to finish them both relatively early, so I am both relieved to have that over with and well rested. A truly unique experience for me around this time of year. I am only a paper away from being done with this semester! That being said, two of my classes don't have finals until the end of the school year so... the British educational system will probably bite me in the ass at a later date.

Backtracking to last Thursday—Hannah and I were about to embark on our journey to Dublin. Being that I am both neurotic and forgetful, I was constantly checking my bags and pockets to make sure I had everything (or hadn't lost it since I last checked). Wallet, check. Tickets, check. Passport, check. Made the train on time—check.
At long last we made it into the airport, belongings still in tow. Size checked our carry on—success. Then we handed the woman behind the counter our boarding passes, and after a while she said, "Do you realize you're leaving from Gatwick?"
Gatwick being an airport. Luton being the airport we were currently standing in, on the opposite side of of London.
No, no we did not realize that.

The airline representative there said our options included taking the next flight out of Luton–£200 each, or taking a cab to the other airport and paying a flight change fee of £100 each to catch the next flight from there. Neither of these options sounded particularly appealing, especially given that we had only paid £10 for each round trip ticket. It seemed like Dublin might not be in the plans for the weekend after all.

After some research we discovered that we could get there by a combination of train and ferry for £29 the next morning. So that's what we did. We decided to take the earliest train out which required waking up at 5am. The voyage there was nice though. I hadn't been outside of London, the British countryside seemed lovely from what I could see of it.

Sheep!

Whilst switching trains, I saw this sign on the platform

Dublin itself was pretty great all around. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews from friends who had been—some loved it, some absolutely hated it. The city was a lot prettier than I had imagined (though, granted, I can't even recall having seen a photo of Dublin before, all that comes to mind is generic Irish hills and greenness).

Hannah and I were lucky enough to be staying with my godmother and her family. They are living in a beautiful home in Dublin for the year. This meant that each evening we feasted like kings, ah, those were the days. My god-sisters (who I have mentioned before, age 5 and 9), were very cute and quite entertaining.

We spent most of our days in Dublin just walking around, exploring the city and taking in the feel of the place. At times it felt a lot like Who-ville. It was very quaint, full of decorations and brimming with cheer. Moreover, it was the weekend so all of these families (often with 3+ kids) were out and about.

It was quite foggy and rainy like they say...

We went on a tour of the old Jameson Distillery where Hannah and my cousin Martyna's boyfriend Nacho took part in a Whiskey tasting

Martyna

Miranda, Hannah and I decided to go on the Ferris Wheel at night. I thought Martyna and Nacho would come along too, but it turns out they are afraid of heights, and my powers of persuasion proved useless.

Waiting to get on the Ferris Wheel

At first it was a little scarier than we had anticipated, but we got the hang of it eventually.

The view from above

In the evenings we went back to the homebase to unwind, and so that Sonya and Olga would brush Hannah's hair.

One night we planned to go to a club called The Button Factory, but it didn't seem like there was much going on from our outdoor analysis, so Hannah and I ended up going into a pretty crowded pub called The Temple Bar, where we met a bunch of really drunk British lads on a business trip. Needless to say, we have a lot of incriminating evidence, if the NHS is interested.

I want to take a moment to mention that people are constantly farting in the pubs in Dublin (it's pretty gross, actually). It should seriously renamed Fart City, it's that bad. I hear it's the Guinness.

On another note, we had a really cliché moment where a Brit and this Irish dude started singing some old folk tune. That I have not uploaded yet. I have, however, compiled some clips from the evening, which includes Hannah Mo' Riffs and Jay-B freestyling poorly. We somehow found inspiration for our rap personas on the long, long walk home. Enjoy.

On our last full day in Dublin, the sky was clear, which is always a lovely note to end on.

We had planned to take advantage of the city's public bike-sharing program. Unfortunately, our credit cards were incompatible with the machine. This was a pretty big bummer. The program itself is great though—it's awesome that so many cities are doing this. Hopefully next time we travel to a city with a bike-sharing program we'll actually get to utilize it!

Instead, we walked... a lot. It was death to our feet, but well worth it. It was a pretty perfect last day. Bye, Dublin!

P.S. I am expecting "parcels," or at least letters. Bonus points if you send them by carrier pigeon/owl.

Joanna Bak
Langton Close
Wren Street
London, WC1X 0HD

Oops.

It appears it has been 21 days since my last post. My, how the time flies!

The most notable "event" in the past three weeks of my life has been my trip to Poland. During my cab ride on the way to my grandparents' house my cab driver (an older dude with three teeth) asked me if I had a fiancé. I said "no" and "I'm young, I think I've still got some time," to which he responded "what are you, nineteen? twenty?" Yes. Yes I am. I know that these kind of expectations vary based on different generations and whereabouts in Poland people are from, but still. I am glad I don't face those kind of expectations and judgements on a regular basis.

Otherwise, I spent quality time with my family which was great—made me wish we didn't have to limit our time spent together to such occasional, planned visits. I was in Słupsk visiting my dad and his parents, in Okonek visiting my mom's sister and grandparents on that side of the family, and I went to Gdańsk for a day with my dad which was lovely.

Słupsk

I got to see some of my dad's new art

Grandparent's house in Okonek

Okonek Scenery

Deliciousness I stuffed my face on

Grandparents in Okonek

With my aunt and Grom

Gdańsk

Me in Gdańsk

Dad photographing Gdańsk

That's about all from my Poland trip!

Not too much going on in London, I've been back for a week, and since I turned in my last paper on Wednesday I have been extremely lazy, but I'll have to get it together soon. My dorm room seems to be a black hole where productivity comes to die.
This past Saturday I went to the Pop Life exhibit at the Tate Modern. Which I thought was £5 but was actually £11. YIKES. My favorite part of it was the Keith Haring room which was made to look pretty much exactly like his Pop Shop in NYC in the 80s.

(A photo of the actual Pop Shop)

There was also a lot of "explicit" content in the exhibit, aka porn. The exhibit was 18+, and I got stopped pretty much every time I was going into an "explicit" room with questions like, "You're not eighteen, are you?" and "HOW OLD ARE YOU?," which got on my nerves. Mainly because a) I am TWENTY dag  nabbit and b) because if I really wanted to look at some porn, do you think I would be paying ELEVEN POUNDS for the privilege of seeing it in this museum when I could easily see it for free on the internet? But enough about that...

What else? I have finally learned to forge my own signature without drawing suspicions from cashiers. That's about all I can think of. I'll be home in less than a month now, and in Dublin even sooner! I'm listening to Christmas music as I write this and getting into the spirit!

In the words of Tigger, TTFN, Ta ta for now!

Hip hip, hooray!

At long last, I am no longer homeless! I've finally got a decent-sized room that I can call my very own. I have already started making my nest (which I am sure comes as a surprise to absolutely no one). I'm not done, but it's looking a lot more like home already. The rest of the hall itself is pretty drab, and the hallway outside my door smells like the home of a 75 year old chain smoker, but hey, I think this is as close to heaven as it gets for a student in London. I do have one small complaint. I have no kitchen/glass/silver/dinnerware of any sort, which means all meals for now will have to be prepared using only my hands and a cheese grater. I am not quite creative enough for that challenge so hopefully I will manage to find some cheap kitchenware stat.

My lair with abnormally high ceilings:

During the day you can see my lovely view of a brick wall, with some trees above it.

I should probably keep that food in the kitchen...

I needed to have at least one vase, alright? Let it go.

This year I did diddlysquat for Halloween (translation: worked on a paper and watched desperate housewives). A drastic improvement from the past two years so I'm not disappointed. During the day I went to the brick lane area for the first time with Hannah and Austin. There was supposed to be a "day of the dead" parade of sorts but it was kind of a flop, so we just walked around a bit.

Hannah

Ever since I was on the tube yesterday and a subway performer was playing a kenny G-esque version of this song, it's been stuck in my head. I've been wanting to stop in the middle of the street and just belt it out and start dancing, but I have thus far resisted.

What else? Steffani was back in London for a couple of days before heading off to Rwanda.

We finally went to Harrods

Where we rode the egyptian escalator

saw the pet kingdom

and I tried on shoes I cannot afford.

The following day we went out with Hannah and my friend Miranda from middle school, the night is best summed up by the comic which Steffani created:

My first paper is due this Thursday and I am heavily procrastinating... but now I shall try and focus. Wish me luck.

Short Update

So my godmother, Kyriaki, and her two daughters, Sonia (9) and Olga (4), were here for the weekend! They are so adorable. It made me realize how rarely I am in the company of children. Sonia asked me what I was going to be when I grow up, apparently interior design doesn't really spark much interest in children. She told me that she is going to be "three things:" a teacher of 1st or 2nd year students "because she likes kids," a writer (she is currently working on a halloween story), and the third profession is a secret, which will be revealed on Friday. Olga is going to own a beauty salon. On Sunday I went on a walk with Kyriaki and Sonia. I like that walks around the neighborhood have become a part of my Sunday routine here in London.

Kyriaki and Olga, looking a bit serious, but beautiful no less.

I love these next three. They're not the greatest photos, but I feel like they are so representative of the life and mind of a four year old. They kind of remind me of three Calvin and Hobbes cartoon frames.

This is a photo of Sonia and Olga this morning before they left for Euro Disneyland!

I am going to go visit them in Dublin in December!

P.S. The other day I found out that under the kid-proof plastic tablecloth on the coffee table, there is an extensive teacup collection! Awesome.

That's all for now.

Oh goodness.

I have just gotten home from another long, long day. Since I have been home, I have eaten half of the can of mini cheddars you see to your left. That's right, that is a "Fun Party Size" container.

The day ended with my viewing yet another room I might possibly rent. It's one of the situations where the tenants choose the roommate (not the landlord), thus it's kind of like an interview. I can't say I am particularly good at those, nor do I imagine myself to be particularly memorable upon first meeting someone (after a long exhausting day), but I tried to put my happy face on and at least commit myself to their memory. Fingers crossed for the millionth time.

So, classes. I have already had two and a half of ten weeks of classes this semester. More than 20% done, woah. It just so happens that none of my professors are British. They are from Germany, New Zealand, and Russia. The kids in my politics classes are nearly all Americans, and the kids in my slavic studies classes are at least half slavs. So believe it or not, I haven't been hearing all that many British accents, bummer! On the bright side, a major pro of having a professor from New Zealand is that if I ever get bored, I just imagine her as Murray from Flight of the Conchords (because really, that is exactly what she sounds like). This is the first time in my life where I am only taking classes that I actually want to take. I am finding it to be a nice change.

This past weekend was fun, though highly unproductive academia-wise. This makes sense since level of fun and academic productivity are inversely related. Friday night I hung out with Sarah, a fellow Beaconite/Tulanian who was in town for a week. Saturday I wandered to London native Ben Lovell's neighborhood pub and later his abode where I proceeded to eat his family's entire supply of food. I also met his cat, Christopher. He is no Tytus, though, for in Ben's own words, Tytus is "a prince amongst cats." On Sunday I strolled through my neighborhood and went to the "Polish Deli," bought kabanosy and then went to the organic food store which was having a "spend £5 get a free gift bag" offer. Well, obviously I am the target audience for such organic food gimmicks. This one was quite worthwhile, though. I got a chocolate bar, soda, a bunch of tea, hot chocolate, and some sample bath products out of it. All the makings of a pretty good weekend.

Pretty view from the living room window. I love those trees.

Photos from Sunday's walk. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Play this in the background.

Trendy food packaging.

Fun fact, the other day I was denied the right to buy groceries at Tesco because my "signatures didn't match" on my card and on the receipt, even though I kept being like "I have ID" and showing it to them they were like no... sorry, the signatures need to match. UGH! I was so tired and hungry I almost cried.

Oh, last but not least. Yesterday on the tube I had a particularly uncourteous experience. A girl was PAINTING HER NAILS IN THE TRAIN CAR. As most of you probably already know, nothing makes me want to go homocidal on someone's ass more than nail polish-smell in confined spaces. What kind of evil, evil person does that? I wanted to swipe her nails with a brillo pad on the way out, unfortunately I don't usually carry one around with me. Since I am not much a fan of confronting strangers I resorted to dirty looks which were either ignored or went unnoticed.