It's all in the getting there

The wonders of public transporation in a foreign country--if nothing else, it makes for some entertaining stories.

Yesterday, I wanted to attend two classes in the Social Science and Philosophy Departments. In order to get to these buildings, one has to take a city bus to the booneys on the other side of town. The classes started at 9:00, so my friend Nina from Germany and I met up at 8:00 (a few other German girls, a girl from Austria, and Wilhelm from Denmark went with us) to try and catch the bus. Well, we missed the 8:04 bus, and had to wait for the 8:27, which would have worked out fine. Except, in the early morning traffic, the bus didn't come until 8:50. To make a rather long and mundane story short, we were late for class because the city bus is evil. My affection belongs to the trams.

In other news, classes this week were really enjoyable. Here's what I'm planning for my academic life for the next four months:

Monday:

12:15 - 1:45 History of Poland since 1945 (I think I may just attend this lecture without an exam, since my NWU history requirement is satisfied.)

3:00 - 4:30 Contemporary Polish Literature

5:00 - 6:30 Polish Language (They tell me that this class may be shuffled to another time)

Tuesday:

Nothing!

Wednesday:

10:00 - 11:30 Anthropology of Theatre and Performance

5:00 - 6:00 Polish Language

Thursday:

9:00 - 10:30 Contemporary Polish Society in Transistion

10:30 - 11:30 Coffee with Nina in the Social Science Cafeteria, conventiently located on the moon

11:30 - 1:00 Ethical Problematic in Contemporary Polish Film, Theatre, and Poetry

Friday:

Trip day.

It also merits mentioning that I have met Jay Chipman's Polish equivalent in Anthropology of Theatre Professor--though, I don't think anyone will every fall off a stage as gracefully as Jay, so he's going to remanin my favorite for ever and ever. Anyway, the Polish Jay Double had us watch a DVD of a Kenyan dance performance, and at the end, several spectators were in interviewed about what they had just seen. One woman came to the microphone, and declared that "It was spectacular!" Polish Jay started laughing and pointed to the TV as he giggled, "She's American!" Well...not really; this woman had a very clear Britich accent. The six Americans in the room just looked at one another awkwardly as the Europeans laughed. Louise finally pointed out that the woman was British, at which point the Jay-double shrugged and said, "Well, she acts American." Now, any time I am asked my opinion in that class, I'm going to use the word "spectacular." I just want to see how Polish Jay will react.

Yesterday, I finished with classes and rode the bus back to Olowek with Nina. I had discussed buying tickets to a show at the repatory theatre here in town for this Friday night, and serval people want to go with me. So, I got on the theatre's website and found it was located just outside the Town Square. I marked it's location on my map of the university, and decided that I was going to find it all by myself with no Lance to help me (honestly, withouth him, I don't think I ever would have made it back to Olowek that first week here--I still have no sense of direction in this city). It was a gorgeous day, so I decided to walk along the river and take my sweet time. I took some pictures, talked to a nice old man, and found I few shops I had never seen before. It was about this point that I realized I didn't know exactly where I was, so I pulled out my map and tried to find the street I was on. I was walking and reading my map at the same time--not a good idea. I either tripped over the curb or a cobble stone; I'm not really sure. The whole thing felt as though it was in slow motion: first my map went flying, then my knee hit the stone, and finally my face was on the ground. As this happend, a random Polish man, was standing just a few yards away--he looked horrified. I just started laughing, afterall, it was pretty ridiculous. Random Polish man helped me up and was trying to ask if I was alright, and I just kept laughing. Now, I have a really pretty bruise on my knee. Oh, and I did find the theatre all by myself, but they were sold out for Friday night. So, we're going on Sunday.

The pretty, pretty sunset from yesterday: