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.