Uhh, autumn storms

Today was one of those days when you really don´t want to get up. Well, it was partly my fault because I had gone to bed late yesterday (we went out to show our visitors from Częnstochowa what a great party town Łódź is) but it was mainly the weather's fault. Today autumn really began. It was raining thus dark throughout the whole day and becasue of daylight saving time pitch dark at 5.30 pm. Horrible. Very unpleasant. As the Pole would say, okropnie.Well, Tobi, Simone, Anja and Flor wanted to see the jewish cementary anyways. So we went there despite the fact that it was very very clowded...and of course it started to rain once we arrived. But well, we are not made out of suggar (hmm, this is a German saying, so I am not quiet sure if I can translate it like that)...anyway, so we went to see it. The only minor problem was that I had wet feet afterwards and I had to go to the museum of construction right away, to perfrom my duty as a volunteer there. And (as I have I think already mentioned before) it is very cold there. Youc an imagine how glad I was when I got home. My plan had been to cook rice wiht brokkoly and tofu , but I was so frozen and hungry that I heated up "Pierrogi" hmm, jammy Polish food.
I added a picture of Zachodnia street, I basicalyy take trams down that street daily. It just to help you visualize what it looks like here right now...of course there are also prettier parts of the city (-:

Yesterday I bought my first biological food in Poland. Tofu and whole grain noodles...I am looking forwar dto eating it. You must know that the chain with the famous carrot cake (Greenway) has as well shops where they sell (mostly German) biological food. Afterwards I had a meeting with a reporter, so i should be in the paper today (-: in the afternoon it was once again time for Biennale, but I ma pretty good at keeping myself busy sitting in a freezing old factory room for 4 hours. I eihter read (English) books or study POlish. So yesterday I memorized different weather conditions. "Dzisiaj jest piękna pogoda" (the weather is good today) "Będzie padać deszcz" (It will rain)...for me some of the nicest sounding Polish words are "Morela" (apricot), "kolano" (knee), "niedziela" (sunday) ...to be continued because I hardly know any words. It is verz nice at the Art center , becasue thez organize movei evenings for all the volunterrs, so yesterday I saw "Brother where are thou". Although it was in English with Polish subtitles I had troubles understanding it because of the strong southern accent...mumble muffle... and you don't undertsand anything. For me the day wasn't finished, I went to a raggae concert, very nice. If you ever see a poster of the POLISH Joint Venture soundsystem anywhere, go and enjoy yourself. Fortunately they didn't check ID's becasue Julie (my flatmate) had lent me her student ID (I don't have one unfortunately) and we don't look that much alike. (The concert was supposed to be for students only).
Today we (meaning the Austrian girls and I) get visitors from Czestochowa, four other EVS's who will stay at Camilla nd Lisaąs place till Sunday (they have a living room where the four can sleep).
Now I got to go, I have to go the library (bibliotheka in Polish, not everything is difficult here to understand)...
PS: I met a German boy from Berlin who does his civil service here in Lodz...so more people added to my "social network" (-:

Want to know where you can find the best carrot cake?

Hmm...if you've ever eaten carrot cake or not, it doesn't matter. The best one in Lodz or elsewhere in Poland can be found at "Greenway". It's so good that you really have to try it if you ever come to Poland (for only 3 PLN).
I had a piece again when meeting with my mentor Agata to gossip a little before performing my duty of asking further people. Ah, and on this beautiful picture you can see the Faculty of Managment and Marketing of Lodz, where I've spent some time conducting my interviews. Current status of survey: 153 people asked he he, I am proud (-; !
By the way: This is as far as I know the only modern building, the rest is a lot older, but also very nice.

Yes , I do some culture stuff

It´s not like I wouldn´t take part in cultural events (today I´ll be in the "Muzeum Konstrukcji w Procesie" that was opened for "Biennale" where I am volunteer, so I´ll be watching the rooms for three hours)...
Last Wednesday was Rector´s Day at university so it was closed...I didn´t realize that there wouldn´t be students to interview neither...so I went to the faculty of managment and found 4 students. Well since I had a day off, I went to the jewish cementary. It is so huge! If you ´ll ever visit Łódź, you have to see it.Unfortunatelz thez donąt have enough money to keep it in a good condition. Close to the Cementarz is "Radegast Station" a former nazi train stop where the inhabitants of the "Litzmanstadt Ghetto", the ghetto of Łódź, were dported to concentration camps. You can still see Deutsche Bahn wagons at the station.

Talking to MANY Poles

It´s high time for my first "real" survey. So I´ve been talking to 85 Polish students so far....and it´s going to be more.And 85% of the people I ask are very open and interested and friendly. I think Germans could learn a lot about that from Poles. I´ve met a couple of times with my lovely mentor, she really is a darling.(I doubt that she´ll read this, I should show her though how I praise her in public). Today we worked out our first "Session" for the CCC (Creative Converstaional club, as I believe). And since my also lovely twin sister complaint about the entries being too long, I´ll stop right here.
PS: I bought half a kilo of apples today for 15 Euro Cent.....I don´t know how farmers make a living here.

Partying and working

On thurstaday was my "powerday"! I rose early and went grocery shopping for the German cookies that I made today. For the Multicultural evening I also prepared some quizquestions.Then I went to University to xerox papers for my class (oh, I like how that sounds like a University student´s life). Afterwards I went to the faculty of Managment and Administration to mett with my mentor who was supposed to help me with getting an official permission from the faculty to conduct the survey there. Well, it was quiet funny how we got it. First Agata (my mentor) told this guy that I wanted to do the survey during lectures and he said I could start in 2 or 3 weeks. When translating to me, it became clear that I just wanted to ask people during their breaks so she went back to ask him again for permission. hmm, he had a very important meeting in 30 minutes and we would need an official paper of request, so he said. So we went to the copy shop, got white paper and she just wrote a piece and tryed to make it look as officilal as possible, but we really didn´t have time. And well, we got his signature and he didn´t even want to have a copy or anything else official to keep for himself.Two minutes later, he left for his meeting. Lucky us!!

After some kanteen food I went out to get "them". I managed to interview 32 people and then I was fedd up.Since I still had some time before dinner, I went to buy a mixer and speakers for my PC. I am very proud to a) posses my first kitchen tool and b) having elevated my level of comfort by 2 points, because of the music that I now can listen to.

At night Julie, Agata and I went to Bagdad cafe (very good club) and we stayed until 3 something. When I finally came home, I wanted to check my mail, so I actually went to bed at 4.20 am. I suppose you can imagine how tired I ´ve been today.
That´s also the reason why I don´t really have to report anything on today, because I simply didn´t do anything. Except for baking "Amerikaner" (Americans). Today at 6 pm we had our fist multy cultural evening in the office of my organisation, and that´s what I had prepared the food for. So all the volunteers presented their countries and it was fun. (There´ll be a report on kobiety.lodz.pl, that I still have to write this weekend).
Tonight I actually went out again. With Camilla and Lisa (the Austrians) and a Polish guy. We met a couple of Portouguese Erasmus and later a huge group of them came as well to the pub "Lizard King" on Ulica Piotrkowska.

The picture is not mine..I don´t have a digital camera, but this is what Piotrkowska looks like at night.
Well, as you can guess, I just got home and now I am going to sleep, I really need it.

reading writing and giving out balloons

The last weekend I was busy with volunteering for the art center (Biennalle Lodz). I gave balloons and leaflets to children and people at the new shopping mal "Manufaktura". On Saturday night I went to have dinner with my Austrian girls Camilla and Lisa at their appartment that I hadn´t seen so far. Afterwards we went to Ul. Piotrkowska, the famous shopping street in Lodz that also has many clubs, pubs and restaurants. We must have been blind though that evening because we couldn´t find a simple pub. The only establishments were you could sit down and drink where either those bear garden things on the street (meaning being very cold at that point of time), or normal restaurants. We finaly found some restaurant to sit in...
Unfortunately our Polish teacher has quit. An hour before lessons wersupposeded to start today, Marian(from the Netherlands) texted me to say that we didn´t have Polish lessons anymore. I wasn´t aware of the fact that we were that bad. Hopefully the teacher had other reasons for quitting AND I hope that we get a new teacher soon because I really want to continue studying Polish. Tonight the Austrians came over again to use my Computer since they don´t have internet at their flat. Yeah right, I am only being used by others...uaahh, well I got some nice chocolate pudding in exchange from them when I had dinner at their house last Saturday.
Then I also have to admit that I didn´t finish one paper that was due today, so I got an extension until tomorrow..embarrassing...my small survey on german Stereotypes can be looked at online on the homepage of my hostorgaization (beware: the site is in Polish but my article is of course not). You can find the link to the website on the right column under my profile.
So I should be going to bed now in order to rise and shine early tomorrow morning and finish my response paper...well...should. I´ll probabaly a)watch some Polish TV, if not to say American TV with a male Polish voice translating b)read my English bool "The Ultras" (by the way, I finished "Lolita"a book that I can only recommand)

A good day

Ah, what a surprise, I rose early this morning and really felt like jogging. So I actually went jogging at 8 am ...those who know me should be surprised! Later it started to rain and I had to go on the street to find people to interview. And I don´t own a raincoat or an umbrella so I got pretty wet. I´m in a very good mood because I got to know some nice people today. First I asked to guys my standart sentences "Przepraszam, do you speak English..?" (you have to know that usually the people say "no" or "a little" and then start talking to me in fluent English), anyway, those guys said that yes, they spoke English. That was definitely unusual and it tourned out that they were German Erasmus students. So that´s how I met Lukas and Sven. In the afternoon I went to University after having had Polish lessons. I´m not sure if I told you that I might have the opportunity to be a "guest lissener" (I know, bad translation from German..). So I went there to attend the "Gender, class and race on American TV" class. It was very nice, rather a fun class, watching American News and Sequels and then disscussing it. Of course there are tests and articles to be read, but it´s only once a week. Well the best thing is of course, that I have a chance to meet actually POLISH people and not always Erasmus students or other volunteers. After class we went to a copy shop to get copies for class and I talked to three of my new classmates, very nice. SO I hope to get to know them better.
Now I have to make some dinner, probabaly potatoes and salad

Visual entertainment

This was during the second weekend, when we had some outside game organized by our organisation to get to know the city. The girl that I am so proudly shacking hands with is Rikke (yeah, what a coincidence) from Danmark.
ON the other picture , you can see Marian and Merel (Netherlands)me and Rikke eating some soft ice

Regained health

hello
This afternoon it started raining for the second time this months...very grey and wet here right now. Except for today, it was very very warm, around 25 C .
Since this afternoon we have a new roommate, a Polish student who will live in my former room.I am currently sharing the room with Merel, because she will leave tomorrow to go home and I´ll get her room. It´s a pitty that Merel wasn´t feeling well enough to stay, because now we lost a nice roommate and I am the only personm in the project. That means for me that I´ll work a lot more on my own and cooperate more with the volunteers from the FERSO organisation, who are the only other volunteers in Lodz.
We invited them over yesterady, to have a "Farewell dinner" for Merel and went afterwards to a club called "Luka", a very nice cozy and ´just-have-to-love it` establishment. There we could again experience how friendly Poles are, but also that the language barrier is a big problem because not everyone speeks English.
And I can again praise the public transportation system of Lodz that gets you home every half an hour until 4 am...
Tomorrow I´ll have my weekly meeting with my coordinator and we will discuss my WORK that I haven´t really started yet. Especially because of Merel´s dropping out, we´ll have to change my tasks a little. Then I´ll have language classe (oh I still need to do my homework) and I´ll meet with my Mentor in the afternoon to enjoy some Carrot cake at greenway. See, I am really taken care of and by the way: Greenway is the best place to eat at: Vegetarian slow food...hmmm
Oh, and then I´ll have to find a winterjacket this week. I assume that it´ll take some time since I am picky person concerning jackets............
But now I´ll be sensible and not picky and prepare some nice hot dinner. Maybe potatoes, I have to check what groceries are left.