Wiecie co. Jak jestem z mojim rodziną, to odrazu więcej po polsku myślę, i niestety, ten blog jest po angielsku, to powinam po angielsku dalej pisać. I probably made a ton of mistakes in that opening sentence, but the gist of it is: I think in Polish far more often when I'm with my family. But! I will keep this blog (mostly) English, no worries! So, let's see! Let's turn back time to Friday! I woke up super early and finished packing to go to the train station early so that I would certainly have room on the train. Honestly, I still got there too early, but I was reassured that I would not miss my train. (: I slept most of the way on the train ride. And in fact, I was fortunate enough to have the seat before me to myself. Aka, I could stretch my legs out and get a decent nap in. (Yes, my legs were not too short to reach the chair... ... once I leaned back.)
Honestly, nothing special on the train but napping and listening to a lecture; and worrying about whether I would get out at the right stop or not. No worries! People told me the route and the last few stops, so I got out and met up with my uncle and aunt. (: I really am super happy to be back in the Wrocław area... It really does feel like home. I could live here forever, near my family, have a job as a professor at Wrocław University, and send my kids to one of the better schools in the country, even! Anyways, back to today and now... we drove back to Strzelin, caught up, decided my train out would be easier to take from Oława (it's on the way to Kraków as it is; the stop right before Wrocław, actually), and when we got to Strzelin, we went straight to a pierogi place to eat obiad! Yummy pierogi, per usual. Soup at home, and then we took a walk to the cementary. It was my grandfather's name day: Tadeusz. We cleaned off his grave, my aunt bought him some flowers, and we started taking count of candles needed for Day of the Dead. I talked a lot with my uncle about our family from my grandmother's side and how many siblings she had. It was really interesting. It makes me want to go to Lwów more than ever, but I think I might actually save it for another time at this point. A time that I can dedicate to looking up family information in archives. We also walked by my mom's mom's side's grave, where I wiped it off a bit. We'll be visiting the graves Tuesday morning, as that will be All Saint's Day, and really the day when you decorate everything the most. Supposedly, it's absolutely gorgeous at night, to see all of the cemetary lit up in hundreds of candles... It makes me grateful I chose to come to Poland this semester, because I'm here for so many important holidays and events... I really am getting to see a side of Poland I never had the opportunity to see before. ^^
After that, we just relaxed at home for the rest of the evening. Had a lot of interesting discussions. Oh, I also found out some wonderful news! My adviser emailed me, informing me that because I am abroad, my adviser did not even have to take me off hold, and that I can register from the first day on. ... Bwahahahahahaha. I am on the same level as the seniors. All of my friends my year have to wait until November 7th, and here I am, registering tomorrow (the 31st). Hoorah for no worries about whether I'll get my classes or not! I win! After soooo many times being left at the end of the registration list, I now have absolutely nothing to worry about. Bwahaha! Really, I should not feel as powerful as I do, but... I do! It makes me feel wonderful. I always worry about classes, so this just made my life so much easier. Heck yes for being the odd sophomore who hops away the very first semester I can.
But onto the evening with my family! My uncle taught me so many things about my new voice recorder... You see, he helps this man with his recorder, because he's blind, so my uncle helps him work with the recorders so that he can write books. Therefore, when my uncle found out I had a recorder, he went all out to tell me what I can do and everything. Now I know there is voice activation! As in, I'm going to record myself sleeping to see what in the world I sleep talk about! (My roommate has told me I sleeptalk quite often, actually... So this is going to be an interesting test.) Along with that, I found out that long ago, my uncle and aunt determined that they would leave one of the two old Polish books they have from my great grandfather to me, while the other would be left to their children. And I get to choose from one of two books: one about the history of Poland, and the other about Grunwald, from the battle to that year. Both of these books are over 100 years old. One printed in 1908, and the other in 1910... Absolutely phenomenal history, and I'm very privileged to even have access to either book. Both are absolutely fascinating from what I flipped through as well. Each also have an old Polish map in the back; my uncle and aunt had to refurbish both, but wow... History... Such history! <3 It was really cool to skim through the first one about Poland in general, as well, because I recognized a lot of the kings and general history, thanks to my class on ethnic history of Poland. It's amazing how much I already know from a short month in class.
Besides that, my aunt told me that my little nephew, Tymek, still remembers me... ... Oh dear lord, I died of happiness when I found that out. It's been a full month since I last saw him. Apparently, whenever my uncle and aunt pick him up, he points to the front seat, where I sat the one time I was also there to pick up, and he repeats my name. So they have to explain that I'm elsewhere. Not only that, but on occasion, when he needs something, or is going to sleep (if I remember that correctly), he goes through everyone's names: Mama, Tata, Babo (grandma), Dziadzio (grandpa), Agata (his mom's name), Adam (his dad's name), Nell. He includes me in that list! I hung out with him a grand total of three, maybe four days, one of which was minimal, yet he still remembers me, and he hasn't even turned two. Do you know how amazing that feels?
So let's talk about yesterday, now. Because it will include more adorable anecdotes about Tymon. Woke up. Relaxed through the morning. Honestly, I can't remember anything significant through the morning except for... a really good obiad... ... Yeah, that sounds about right. But my late afternoon and evening! Oh, so full of amazingness. You see, at around 16.00, we left the house for Oława, because my aunt's work place was closing, so they were having a final little get together party, thing. Therefore, I hung out at Agata's for the evening! :) We got there when Tymek had just woke up, so the entire, groggy, why are you here, don't look at me, thing was going on. Then all was well! Tymek took me by my hand and guided me to his room, where he would jump up and down, saying, "Hop, hop hop!" all excitedly, because kids have to learn how to jump. (It's little things like that that you forget a kid has to learn how to do, simply because it seems so normal and basic to us.) He also ended up handing me one of his large puppy plushes, and he would put puzzles together, and it was just a wonderful evening. At one point, he had me sit down with him and originally looking through books. Then, he wanted me to read. Agata was all, "Oh no... no, don't tire your poor aunt out by having to read those books," because ya know, they're in Polish. But then I was like, No, it's ok! And I started reading to him, with some words I had never seen tripping me up. Afterwards, Agata was actually a bit impressed. She admitted, without trying to offend me, that she didn't realize I could read so well. Of course, a few months ago, I couldn't have read that so smoothly, but yeah, I certainly don't blame her! There was one or two times when I tripped up that Tymek looked at me in confusion. Ya know. Being an adult. Who supposedly can't read completely. He doesn't quite understand that Polish isn't my first language, I'm sure, but what, he's a kid! So that's ok. (:
It was funny, though, because Tymon would hide behind a curtain, so we'd ask where he went, and then say "Akuku!" when he came out. Amongst all of this, we would try to have some sort of conversation, but it would get broken up from time to time, understandably so, with Tymek grabbing our attention. He scribbled around for a bit as well, and he handed the booklet with the page he wanted to give me. My uncle and aunt brought him some more difficult, 15-piece puzzles for him to put together, and the first time he had a lot of help with both, but when he put together the one with the train on it the second time, I was the only one helping him out. At the beginning, I really had to help him out, but for the middle four or so pieces, he put them together on his own! I just kept saying, "Bravo!" and giving him mini applause, because that's really impressive. The last few he needed help again with, but... he is such a smart kid. Oh! I helped him with his little sticker book as well, and managed to help him realize where to put the stickers over the little yellow indicators that had the same picture in it. At least for a few of them. But best of all! He's been learning a lot of words. Every day, he repeats something new. So while hanging out with him, I tried to get him to say "duża" (big), "słońca" (sun), and "żółta" (yellow) instead of just saying, "gleegleeglee" for the first one, and moving his hand in a small wave thing to indicate sun, or to indicate yellow like the sun. Had no luck with those. However. Instead, when I was playing with the little finger animal puppets he has, I would put them on and go through their names. At one point, I was trying to get him to say "ogon" (tail) for me, because I know he can say it. I was pointing at the mouse's tail and asking him what it was, and he wasn't saying it, but then I realized he was saying "mika," which was his childized version of "myszka" (mouse)! I actually taught him a word. When his mom came in, I asked her if he knew how to say mouse, so I pointed at the mouse, and he said it again.
As I have said many times, wonderful evening. Agata and I had many awesome conversations about life, Tymek was precious as ever, and yeah. Eventually, Tymek had a bath and was put to bed, and after a while, my uncle and aunt came back. The party went really well, as they stayed later than they intended. I didn't mind, really, but I know they also didn't want to stay too late for the sake of Agata and Adam. We stayed and talked at their place for a bit before returning home, where I Skyped with mis padres briefly, and went to sleep.
I supposedly had one extra hour of time to sleep tonight. Why? Daylight Savings Time was observed in Poland today, so the clocks were pushed one hour back! That means, for one whole week, I am closer to everyone by one whole hour! Bwahahah. Today, though, was your stereotypical lazy Sunday. Woke up, ate breakfast, relaxed, sat and talked together, had tea and stuff, and oh what else. Listened to music. We eventually watched "Mam Talent." Which I am super glad I got to watch. Unfortunately, the girl with a very unclean voice got first place, and two truly talented, non-singing individuals, were sent home, when at least one of them should've gone on to the finals. lD' Stupid people voting on a popular song. She did not sing it well! It was an Adele piece, and she did not have a powerful voice enough for it. However, the boy singer who got through did sing his piece by Bruno Mars quite excellently! I was very impressed. Even with his voice cracking, he persevered through. We played Scrabble before that, in Polish, obviously. I'd say I did rather well for this being my second language. Plus, my uncle and aunt really helped me out, and I knew most of the words on the board, and learned quite a few new ones! Scrabble is a wonderful language exercise, to be honest. Let's see, I learned how you say stern in Polish, as well as another term for joke, and a few other things. It was a tough game, composition wise, and by the end of it, I unfortunately had only consonants... And while in Polish, you can throw a ton of consonants together in a row and still make a word... I had the wrong consonants.
Ah well! And yeah, that was all there is to say about my day. (: I really should've done a lot more school work than I did, but at least I had a good opportunity to catch up with friends and family as well. Tomorrow should be a good day for work, and interesting later on. So we'll see! I don't understand why I'm tired right now, but I am. And it's still early! Well, I hope you guys are all doing well, too! I think that's all the important things that happened to me these last few days. <3
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