I'M BACK!

Let me start off by saying the following- I’M BACK!!!

I would like to start off my saying that I would like to apologize for falling off the face of the earth since my last blog post in June. It goes without saying that I got caught up in a million other things. Between school and work (I shall explain) and trying to figure out internships and practicals and my social life (of course) things got a bit out of hand in terms of my infamous blog writing. So I hope everyone is ready for today’s blog post which is essentially the mother of all blog posts or the captain of the Titanic or the Einstein of physics…basically it’s gonna be a big one.

I will definitely write everything in good old bullet points and include a few pictures to make it easier to follow because let’s be honest, there is no way anyone is getting through 10,000 words even if you are procrastinating at work.

School. I know I decided to start off with the boring part of my life in Poland, but I mean that is why I’m here so it’s probably the appropriate topic to start with. The semester this year started fairly slow, but then took off full force to say the least. For almost two months we were literally in class from 8am until 7pm which proved to be fairly difficult especially with studying and being attentive with our patients during practicals. Speaking of practicals, we are now at the point in our schooling where we are given a patient and told to think of exercises for their particular disease or disability and work with the patient one-on-one. Sounds pretty “okkk and your point is?”, but it is SO cool (best word to describe it). Well think about it, you’re a student and you have your own patient to take care of and you’re wearing white scrubs and people think you’re important. Like I said, COOL! I was fortunate enough to get a few pretty good patients with diverse conditions which allowed me to think of original exercises and refresh my memory in terms of symptoms and treatment plans. However, I also had one patient who proved to be fairly difficult to work with. The only reason being that he just didn’t want to do the exercises. Let me just say the following- I have never had to be that creative in my life and for those of you who know me, creativity isn’t exactly my strong point so it took a lot out of me. This was a patient who basically made my life a living hell, but as many of you know, I don’t really deal well with people like that. I’m not going to say that I made his life a living hell because I didn’t, but with a few threats that included making him do his least favorite exercises since they were extremely painful allowed me to make progress with the patient. It’s funny because it was with this patient that I realized that I will REALLLLY like my future job because of the challenges that came with it. June 2013- can’t wait! 

My first time paintballing and only had two welts!

It's all about the look.

This is what I wear to class. Just kidding, Halloween! I was a nerd- typical.

Wilhelm, me, Adrian and Michal. This is what they usually look like.

Ania and I getting ready for Thanksgiving!

Valerie, me, Michal and Tim at Thanksgiving dinner!

Gosia's surprise birthday party!

Zosia came to visit :)

Robert, Dorota and Zosia at Malta!

We were trying on new outfits of course.

Krakow and the Wedding. Although I already told many of you about my wedding experience, I would like to make sure I have a written documentation of how much fun I actually had at this thing. I stand corrected- it wasn’t “my wedding experience” so nobody freak out. I am not married. The so-called “husband hunt” is definitely still in full force (I will get to that later on haha). So anyways, going back to the wedding. I used to always make fun of my friend (she shall remain nameless, but you all know who I’m talking about) who would always say something along the lines of, “I love, love.” And naturally, I would always make fun of her, but at this wedding I found myself saying the same thing, “I love, love.” I guess it’s not until you’re at big events that represent such an important union of two people that are in love that you realize how beautiful and touching this sanction really is. Even though I only knew the groom (and hadn’t seen him in probably 7 years), I felt like being at this wedding I was witnessing the true unification of a couple that has finally found the so called “true love.” Anyways, enough of the sappiness and me spilling out my feelings about love. The wedding. Yes. The wedding. It was so elegant and so relaxed that I forgot that I was wearing uncomfortable high heels and a dress that required me to stand up straight. Even though I only knew five people at this wedding, towards the end of the night, I was friends with most guests. To tell you the truth I have continued a few of the friendships that I made at the wedding. One of my new friends even came and visited me in Poznan! The networking I tell you! I don’t have many pictures from the wedding, but I hope these will work. Enjoy!

Don't worry the sweet table was right next to my table. Coincidence, I swear.

Amaaaazing cake!

My only picture from the wedding!

Family. I apologize for the choppiness of this section, but it was very difficult to express myself in a smooth manner where it all made sense, but I think you’ll get the jist of it. As many of you know, my grandma passed away in November. The whole family came in from around Poland and the States to say their final goodbyes. Even though it was a very difficult time, it helped to have the whole family there reminiscing together. My family and I really appreciate all the wonderful prayers and thoughts coming from everyone. I believe Mrs. Nancy Jones said it best, “You will miss her everyday, with every beat of your heart and she will always be alive as long as you remember her.” But enough of the sadness because Babcia Wanda wasn’t too good at that. She was all about the dancing and cracking jokes (even though I sometimes had no idea what she was talking about) and being a real babcia making you eat more than is humanly possible. So whenever you get a second, say a little prayer for her and I’m sure she’ll send you a potato pierogi or two from up there in heaven! 

The family!

Me and Babcia Wanda <3

Angelica and Wroclaw. For the past few years, I have been trying to get my friend Angelica to come to Poland when I am visiting and now that I am living in Poland, I have been trying to persuade her to come visit me in Poland. After some planning and figuring out of schedules and finances, we finally figured it out! Angelica came and visited me in Poznan for a few days before Thanksgiving and then I went to Wroclaw, the city that her family is from, for the day. I absolutely loved having Angelica in Poznan with me. She was able to meet my friends and see what my life in Poznan is like. When I went and visited her in Wroclaw for the day, we did a very fast complete tour of Wroclaw while getting some light shopping done and visiting the Christmas village, of course. I had an absolute blast. Since Poznan is only three hours away from Wroclaw, it wasn’t a hassle in terms of traveling which is nice. On the other hand, Polish railways are slightly turned upside down nowadays so delays are a different story, but all-in-all the traveling went pretty smoothly. And talk about a quick getaway to a new city! Once again, here are a few pictures. Oh and did I mention that Angelica was randomly interviewed and was on TV?! She’s so famous!

Angelica and I in Poznan

Love Locks in Wroclaw

At the Christmas village in Wroclaw!

She's famous!

Husband Hunt. I know most of you probably skipped all the other points in my blog post and went straight to point numero cinco because who doesn’t want to read about my so-called “love life”? I won’t get into too many details, but I will say the following- I love going on dates and apparently I love drinking a lot of tea because that’s what boys here in Poland do. I have never drunk so much tea in my life! I feel like I am officially an expert in that department- the tea one, not the husband one. Basically, I am still living the single life, but enjoying meeting new people. I will keep you posted if anything changes, but until then, keep looking for me :)

Natalia’s Surprise Birthday Party. A little background about my friend Natalia. I’m pretty sure I mentioned her before, but if I didn’t, here is the quick description: She is dating one of my classmates Nathan and she is my main workout buddy who happens to be from Canada which is why you may or may not hear me say “eh?” every once in a while. Thanks a lot Canada! Anyways, her birthday is December 23rd, but she never gets to celebrate because it’s so close to Christmas that barely anyone ever gets to hang out with her on her big day. As a result, Nathan decided that we should throw her a surprise birthday party. And who else to help in that department of surprises and parties? Who else, but the queen of surprise parties- ME (reminder: Katie Brennan’s 21st birthday extravaganza back in 2008…success to say the least)! About twenty of us are surprising her at a Greek restaurant she’s wanted to go to for quite some time now with balloons and gifts and most importantly, cake! I am very excited because when I say that she has no idea, I really mean- clueless! Unless of course she reads this blog post and well there went that. And after dinner and the big surprise we plan on celebrating out on the town. That leads me to my next point…

Home Sweet Home. Since my flight isn’t at 1pm, I will definitely make it on time! Believe me. A repeat of last year is NOT in the plans. I mean the flight is at one in the afternoon. I can make it. Right? Well we shall see. I am beyond excited to go home. I can’t wait to see my family and friends and the crazy new child in our home- Bobby. And when I say child, I mean puppy. He is apparently “driving everyone crazy” so I am very thrilled to experience this as well. It will be his first Christmas with us, so let’s hope we don’t lose all our ornaments this year. In all honesty, I really don’t have too many plans for the break, but that’s sort of how I “planned” it. I’m trying this new thing where I don’t do too much planning and just wait for things to fall into place because they eventually have to.