Summertime

A short update on my life (for I like to read my older posts and remember of all the reasons not to whine):

1. It's summer already! 30°C, lots of sun, short shorts, summer holidays... There isn't much more one can need to be happy, except...

2. ...a trip! Even just for a weekend a trip to Masurian Lakes District is one of the most relaxing experiences I can imagine. Although the district is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Poland, you can still find there plenty of wild or idyllic places. Great thanks to our friend who invited us to his country house!
(Please forgive the horrible quality of the photos taken with my cell phone)

 

3. It's World Cup time! I really hope Spain will manage to kick Germany from the final. Not that I'm particulary prejudiced (some people in my country joke that we should actually support the Germans because Podolski and Klose are the only Poles playing in this year's World Cup), I just don't really like the boringly effective, monotonous, well... German football they're playing. It kills all the joy of watching the game.
Since Mexico and Argentina are already and Spain is too superstar-ish I'm counting on Holland.

Keep up the good work Mr. van Marwijk! I've always known you're the right person for the job.

4. I've been asked to kitty-sit for my sister's friend. I've accepted the 'job' enthusiastically, because deep down I'm a crazy cat lady, even though my parents would never let me have a cat. Everyone, meet Floyd:

Have a great day! :)

My dreams fulfilled

Saturday, March 20th, 2010 was officially the most amazing day of my life. And all that thanks to my absolutely-wonderful-husband-to-be and the incredible magic of Walt Disney's imagination.

The Disneyland was exactly as amazing as I've always imagined it - the joyful, colorful world of wonders. I actually cried during the parade.

And I don't even care about my family laughing at me that I'm childish (it's my dream, get your nose out of it!).

As for Paris itself it wasn't quite as enchanting as I remembered it from my previous trips. That's what happens when you finally go and live in the actual city (this time we chose Saint Denis) instead of moving between nice, green suburbs and the very center of it. Nevertheless - I was still thrilled to take a walk down the Champs Elysees. Big cities always enchant me with their lights at night, I'm a city junkie and I could spend my life wandering throught the streets just breathing the atmosphere, eating an ocasional croissant/pizza/bagel/hot dog...

Yes, we've arrived to the most important point of the trip (and, to be honest, my whole life): the food.
No. We didn't go to any French restaurant, nor did we sit and sip coffee. The very first day we simply went to the market nearby - a wonderful, magical place, full of colors, flavors and fragrances and did our best not to spend all our money there. Eventually we left the place with a bag full of cheese, chorizo and fruit. Then we visited the first boulangerie we encountered and headed for a walk down the streets of Saint Denis. After just about an hour our baguette and four croissants were gone.

There is absolutely no place in the whole world where bread is as good as in France. Take it from a person who could survive just by eating (or devouring) baguettes and croissants with an occasional sip of freshly squeezed orange juice.

Luckilly my own country greeted me with a long awaited Spring. It's been over 6 months since I've been constrained to hide my bike and start moving by bus. But not any more! When I saw the sun beaming through my window yesterday I instantly decided to ditch the public transport. I'm feeling so happy!

Sadly this fabulous photo is not mine: [click]

What a wonderful life!

I take everything back. My life is not boring. My life is absolutely wonderful!

Wonderful things that happened to me since I wrote the last post, a.k.a. the dreams fulfilled:

1. I got engaged!

2. I finally graduated and I'm an official, proud possessor of Bachelor's degree! Apart from that I'm one step (semester) closer to become an engineer.

3. I just got back from an amazing, romantic trip to Tunisia - a week spent lying by the swimming pool in a beautiful hotel, all inclusive. I've always wanted to escape the cruel Polish winter and spend some of it lying under a palm tree.

 Dear sun, blue sea and palm trees, please come to Poland!

I've also always dreamed of meeting one of those cute gentlemen:

How YOU doin'?

Apart from sun hunting and getting a lift from the lovely Mr Camel, we've also visited the nearby cities

Monastir, Habib Bourguiba's Mausoleum

and experienced the doubtful, sadistic pleasure of standing on a back of the fakir (who also happened to be responsible for animation in our hotel - it's quite creepy to see a guy you already know (and like) doing it to himself) lying on a pile of shattered glass.

 Ouch!

4. It took me only 2 days to get a classy, snobby job at an art gallery. Despite the fact I had to resign after another 2 days (due to some university duties) I'm still quite proud of myself. 

And last but not least...

5. My amazing fiance announced to me just a few days ago that next week he's taking me to the place I've always wanted to visit (but my parents never thought it was really necessary even though we've been in the neighbourhood twice). Helloooo Disneyland! And hello our trip to Paris!

 Next step to fulfilling my dreams: Disneyland!

Considering all things above I solemnly swear not to whine about my life ever again!

London, here I come!

Just two days. In two days I set off to see the famous red phone booths and double-deckers, the Quinn waving from the stamps and coins and drink such an awful lot of tea that it pours out of my ears. God, I'm excited!

jeffhahnparsons.deviantart.com

Well, OK, actually those things do not excite me at all. I'm excited to feel the one-of-a-kind-atmosphere of the famous city, to wander round the Soho, to visit Camden, hopefully, to shop a little ;) and to take tones of pictures!

complejo.deviantart.com

London, here I come!

Keep me busy

Five days spent in bed with fever and suddenly I'm full of energy! Everything seems to be better than staying at home for even one more hour.

Thankfully, I had a lot going on this week. First of all I spent the whole weekend at school, partecipating in courses called "Entrepreneurship training". It was just fabulous! Sure, 8 hours of team-work a day, from 8 to 16, can be pretty exhausting. But still, I've never felt so self-assured and success-oriented before. I actually learned the way to think creative (which, I thought before, was something rather inborn than acquired) and noticed the amazing effects of teamwork.

I also learned that if I ever am in a plane crash in desert, the most important thing to have with me is a mirror.

This thing can actually save your life!

Today I went on a interview in the Ministry of Environment and it's highly possible that I'll get an internship there, in the department of promotion of a EU-fund based environmental project... hurray for the public sector!

And for the perfect ending of a perfectly busy week tommorow I have a wedding to attend. I hope my family won't scare my poor boyfriend.

Have a great weekend!

Bonsai livin'

Well, my cute little juniper bonsai (or pre-bonsai, as it's not yet in an obligatory flat pot) is now growing on the balcony. Suprisingly the bonsai class occured to be fun, even though I'm usually terrible with plants. Nevertheless I'm afraid that the poor thing is not going to survive for a long time - it's been 3 days since I got it and I already forgot to water it yesterday.

Although it's not likely that cutting and wrapping a juniper with a wire is going to become my passion, there are several things I learnt while doing it.

1. You should never cut a branch untill you know what are you doing it for. The first step to any conscious change is always planning and imagining the final effect.

2. It takes a lot of cutting out and moving away to get to the soul of a tree. And when you finally find it it's nothing like you imagined it would be.

3. No matter how beautiful the tree looks, there is always a spider waiting to jump out at you (I did my best not to scream, I really did!)

4. A real master never ceases to study. When your master has nothing left to teach you go to his master.

5. You can shape the tree in any way you like. It only takes a lot of wire.

6. If you get something wrong there is always a way to make it look as if you did it on purpose.


OK, enough with the dendrology, time to move to the kitchen and start the Easter baking!

Happy Easter everyone!

Wanted: new, offbeat hobby

They tell that to get a really good job you have to stand out. They say that it's better to be complete nuts rather than appear plain. The world is all about originality these days and it's driving me crazy. Because I'm plain.

Yes, I DID just say that.. I am plain: I have no extravagant sense of style and not enough nonchalance or courage to pull one off anyway, no incredible interest in anything particular and I don't even know where I'm going with my life, apart from the fact that it will probably be boring and nothing like I want it to be...

...
...

OK, enough with that crap. I've been thinking like this for few weeks now and finally I decided it's just about time to do something about it.
I'm only 22 for goodness' sake, I'm getting my higher education in one of the best schools in this country, I'm not stupid, nor specially ugly, I can more or less speak three foreign languages, I've got a family that's just a little bit twisted and I'm planning my future with the most wonderful boyfriend I could ever imagine. Why the hell am I complaining?

The reason for that is probably boredom. There are very few things I do in my life. The "interests" section in my resume includes the usual: traveling, photography, books, blah, blah, blah... Well.. I could write that I play cello, but that's not true since I stoped about 7 years ago, after living the music school.

When I'm not with friends (which is quite often recently, because many of them started working, or, even worse - went to work and live abroad) I read books, browse through different fashion weblogs, watch US tv series (including mainly Friends, How I Met Your Mother and Gossip Girl) and think about how dull is my life and how different it could be if my mother (who otherwise is the most wonderful person in the whole world) didn't always tell me that ice skating trainings/capoeira/singing classes/musical theater/medical school/whatever concept for my free time or my future I had was such a terrible and useless idea.

Well, not any more. From now on I'm going to live my life, taking whatever chance for doing something offbeat or anyhow amusing I get.

Starting next week with the 5 hour bonsai-tree-care class*.

image: home-and-gardening.info
__________________
*No worries, that's an one time thing. But that's something I would never think of doing, which actually is the perfect reason to participate.