"Życie jest tak dobre, jak dobrym pozwalasz mu być."-Charles Bukowski

After four snow days (FOUR SNOW DAYS. FOUR DAYS OF NOT GOING TO SCHOOL, BECAUSE OF 5 CENTIMETERS OF SNOW. It’s almost like mid-winter break. It was awesome) on Saturday (25.01) I had a chance to participate in Maryland State Thespian Festival, which is speaking humanly a festival of high school theatre from entire state. Because of enormous amount of snow and ice we weren’t able to go there on Friday and we missed first day (and a one act performed by a private school who, rumor has it, hires a director to direct their plays, when all the public school have to deal with theatre teachers and student-directors), but I’m glad we at least did in on the weekend (even if I enjoy snow days, sitting at home isn’t the best thing for my mental health).

We saw few one acts, and took part in two sessions of workshops. On the way back from festival I had a really interesting conversation with one of the Nicest Girls I’ve met here so far (below as NG). She was asking me a lot of questions about Poland for whole evening, some smart ones, some not that much. Finally she decided to ask about something that apparently has been bothering her for a while.

NG: So… Do you have any prisons in Poland?

Me: WUT?... I mean, uhm, yeah, we do have prisons in Poland.

Off-stage voice: NG, of course they do. Prisons and cemeteries is something that every country needs!

NG: Oh, well, I didn’t know that! Everyone from Poland seems to be sooo nice!

Me: NG, how many people from Poland do you actually know?

NG: Well, uhm, you?

I feel good about representing my country so well :)

Sunday (26.01) was the day I moved to my third (and last) host family. I’ll probably stay with them for the rest of my exchange and I predict that a huge part of my blog is going to be about my new best friend:

"What's that polish sweater all about?"

Monday (27.01) was a first day of school after almost 2 week break, but I was lucky enough not to suffer during classes, but take part in field trip to Capitol. I wanted to see it very badly, however it wasn’t as interesting as I thought it will be. However I’m glad I was informed that Pocahontas didn’t marry John Smith, as the Disney movie would indicate, but some other dude (“the redhead from Pocahontas 2”, according from tour guide. I dunno, I don’t believe in sequels).

Pod kopułą Kapitolu zmieściłaby się Statua Wolności.

Statue of Justice

After Capitol we had a chance to talk to people who work for one of the congressmen (on “the hill”). It could’ve been interesting if I didn’t dislike politics as much as I do. 

We also had a chance to see the House of Representatives, which is much smaller than it looks in TV. Ceiling was really pretty, security was very strict, and that’s why I don’t have any pictures from there.

Tuesday (28.01), the day I had to come back to school, wasn’t as painful as I expected it to be.

In my English class we were going over a midterm, which was basically a huge text from early XX century about right to vote for women. I don’t know if you ever tried to read a speech from nineteen hundreds, but let me tell you that it’s not that easy, especially in foreign language.

One question contained a sentence from a text with bolded one of the words (one of those scary, fifteen-letter ones) and question, what does this word means, and four possible answers. Before explaining particular parts of a word and its roots teacher smiled at me, and said that it’s extremely hard to get this right and see connections like that if you don’t speak English as a first language. So I was sitting on my sit looking at a question waiting to mark it incorrect with my bright green marker and feeling blue. I was trying to figure out which one of a following is the right one, and how I’m even able to exist in English-speaking country if I can’t get the right answer out of context when I’m really focused. I probably shouldn’t have been so harsh with myself, as I knew that almost everybody else in a classroom had the same problem, and I’m the only non-American there, but sometimes you just have a bad day.
When after teacher’s speech someone finally asked “so, what’s the correct answer?” and response was that it’s “D”, I couldn’t believe it. All the gloomy thoughts disappeared and I almost yelled: “AND A FOREIGNER GOT IT RIGHT”. Teacher minced to my desk and with visible gladness gave me a high-five. I need to admit, I was really proud of myself. :)

After school I had to come back home with a new bus. While in a morning my bus stop is almost the last one before final destination, but on the way back it’s one of the last ones. I didn’t know that, so after first twenty minutes I managed to convince myself, that I missed my bus stop and that I have no idea where I am. I was happily stressing out, when I finally saw a familiar neighborhood. I got ready to leave the vehicle, and then this strange voice on a back of my head made me realize that something is wrong- I’m not supposed to leave with ten other kids, my stop has only two students assigned. I decided to do the smartest (and most ridiculous) thing I could do- I faced a driver and asked him ‘excuse me, sir, but is it my bus stop?’. He had to think for a second, got confused himself (those two stops are VERY similar), and finally told me that mine is the next one. And then asked, if I’m from Scotland, which was really nice.

Wednesday (29.01) was another snow day, and I had a chance to visit my host sibling’s school and help with preparation of homecoming decorations (their school does not have a football team, so they organize homecoming during basketball season).

Thursday (30.01) was a day of homecoming game in my brother’s school. My mom picked me up and we hung out in school until the game started. I definitely prefer basketball over football ;)

Connor, Me, Edward and Nate (my brothers)

On Friday (31.01) was a day of celebrating a Chinese New Year. For two (2) lessons my Chinese class were working on the traditional Chinese Fan dance (girls) and Kung Fu demonstration (boys). After school we stayed to help set everything up, and at 6 people started arriving. I decided to invite my Korean host brother, and we were hanging out together. We had so much fun, and even got matching butterflies painted on our faces!

with Charlotte

Saturday (1.02), first day of February, I was taken by my host brother (the American one, this time) and his best friend to Washington. We visited the art museum (Van Gogh’s self-portrait was definitely the painting I enjoyed the most, it was great to see it after years of seeing it in books), hung out and had a lot of fun. 

Take a look on the sweetest candles in the entire world!:

"Ooooh, COWS!"

Sunday (2.02) was a Super Bowl night. Basically a lot of football and even more commercials than usually (and here commercials take about 1/3 time of an entire show). I have heard a lot about how ingenious are commercials during this game, and I need to admit that a few of them were really good, but there's one I'd like to share and encourage you to talk over it.