The Beginning

I know all of you have been checking my blog numerous times the past few days trying to figure out if I even made it to Poland or got side tracked organizing someone's life or house or something (cough Mrs Mac cough). I would love to get right into how things are in Poznan, but I have to give you a quick briefing of the actual traveling portion of my trip. I spent my last night in Chicago with my favorite people (you know who you are) having an absolute blast...that is until someone named Gill decided to bust out the waterworks. Unfortunately the sob fest did not end until we were calmed down by a sidetracked trip to good ol' Taco Bell. Needless to say, after an eventful night in the city, I made my way to the airport the next day hoping that the tears would not start forming when I said bye to my parents. Of course, that was not the case. A few of our tears spilled on the busy international terminal at O'Hare. The flight to Warsaw was a long 8.5 hour trip (but was shortened by the effects of the wine that was provided) and the flight from Warsaw to Poznan was barely an hour. After 13 long hours of traveling, I finally made it to Poznan!

On my way to Poznan, I kept having all these expectations. Mostly expectations about the weather. I was picturing myself stepping off of the plane with the sun beaming off of my brand new sunglasses wearing shorts and a tank top. That was more of a dream. A veryyyyyyyy far stretched dream. As I stepped off of the plane, the first thing that hit my face was the flood of raindrops and a wave of solid cold. Needless to say, my first day here was 30 degrees colder than Chicago and more rain that I would have wanted, but the excitement of being in a new city was far more admirable than the weather. After a short cab ride from the airport, I arrived at my new yellow and blue dorm. Long story short, I unpacked all my bags and was sitting on my bed skyping two hours after I arrived- surprised huh? My room has a ton of storage space and has a bathroom inside...sort of similar to a mixture of a Mertz room and Regis (that's for you Loyola kids) so it's actually not bad at all (pictures at the bottom of the post).

The one thing I completely forgot about coming to Poland the night before my classes started was jet lag. Ohhhhhhh jet lag. The first night I slept three hours and last night I slept five hours so I think I'm slowly getting there.

And now the first day of school. I was thinking of packing a backpack, but thought I would look a bit cooler with a tote (not a Storage Solutions tote). I wore a scarf because it's Europe and everyone wears scarves. And off I went to my class which is conveniently right around the corner from my dorm. When I walked into the auditorium, I realized that a) I was waaaayyyy underdressed compared to the girls with heels and loads of makeup and b) I was a foreigner in this country. I'm pretty sure I am one of about five people that are from the United States and everyone else is either from Taiwan or Canada or Norway (I never knew that all Norwegians looked the same...I mean the blondest hair in the world and the lightest skin and eyes I have ever seen). My school day goes from 8am until 6:45pm with a few 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break and includes topics such as biophysics, organic chemistry and biology (all of these combined makes me want to hurl at the end of the day). All my professors speak really good English except for my orgo professor. I mean she's okay with her English, but when she kept saying "groping" instead of "grouping" I definitely could not focus.

I haven't been able to venture out too into the city, so I'm not really sure what the town is like, but I will definitely be doing some sightseeing on Saturday so stay tuned! Everyone here is very nice and I'm getting along with my roommate who happens to be in my program so slowly, but surely I'm going to get used to this whole idea of grad school and living in Poland. Also, the food that I have eaten these past two days include the following: granola bar, pretzels, piece of cheese and seafood pasta from an Italian restaurant (Donatello's). So if anyone would like to send me food, that would be absolutely terrific.

I will include a few pictures of my room so check it out! Oh and miss everyone mucho. I mean it. A LOT!

The obnoxiously yellow door is the entrance and the bathroom is on the left. These are two of four closets- they go all the way to the top too which is nice. 

Here is the room. The desks stretch further to the left and there are cabinets along the left side of the room. My comforter is on it's way, so stay tuned for a new and improved room! 

There's part of my desk! It's slowly coming together :)

P.S. I have not proofread this blog because my jet lag is not allowing me to do that, but enjoy!

The one thing I'm worried about is how I will decorate my room.

Hello my fellow blog readers! I thought I would post a quick little something-something as a preview of how I'm going to use this blog. First of all, thank you all for all your support in my decision to go to graduate school in Poland. I would be freaking out a lot more than I am if it wasn't for all of your kind words (even you Nico). Also, a run-down of how I will be managing my blog...mostly I will be posting something once a week, probably more often at the beginning when everything is still new. I will try to post pictures as well so get excited!

So back to some details about the beginning of my adventures. I will be celebrating my "deportation" with some of my favorite people and of course "the girls" aka Jill, Katie, Kayla and Theresa (Lauren, you will be greatly missed, but there in spirit). I will be leaving this Saturday the 28th and will be arriving in Poznan at 5:35pm on Sunday and starting my three week long pre-study course on that Monday. I'm pretty excited except for the fact that one of the courses is physics (you know how I feel about physics!). I also received my schedule for the pre-study course and all I have to say is the following, "OH MY GOD." I wish I was kidding when I said that my classes start at 8am and ended at 7pm everyday for the next three weeks. Good news though, there are three 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break! Yes! So excited! (sarcasm)

After reading my travel guide book (definitely bought one of those) I've been more and more excited to leave for Europe. I'm actually really excited to get my room put together and organized. Surprise. Surprise. For those of you who know me pretty well, you've gotten the idea that I'm a tad bit organized. Okay, maybe tad bit isn't exactly the way to describe it so me wanting to decorate my room shouldn't come as a surprise. Other than that, I am doing pretty well in terms of "freaking out" so hopefully that will be the case when I step onto the plane on Saturday. To be announced.

This is all for now. I'm excited to have a blog and even more excited to have someone read it! Yay! Next time I write to you I will be thousands of miles away in a land called Poland chowing down on pierogi and paczki.