Golden Thread Competition

My first fashion show was fabulous.

Does that say McFlurry? Really?? They have McFlurries!

On our jaunt to the Galleria a couple of days ago, Courtney mentioned the little-known certainty that no overseas trip is an actual overseas trip unless you visit a foreign McDonalds.

Persons of the world be proud: mission accomplished.

The above picture is a shot of the food court at the "Galleria." It's a huge store that resembles a mall, except it has the Polish equivalent to CVS, a supermarket the size of Publix, and no Gap. Oh yes, and in addition to escalators, it also has moving sidewalks.

The munchkin who always craves cow. Seriously, she's asked Damian "Do you even have COWS in this country?" No matter how many butchers we see (and take my word for it, we see a lot)... there has still never been a single string of ground beef amongst all the pork. Which is silly, really, because about half the population is Lodz are Jews.

Hello Vanna White.

Everyone else was excited about the french fries... I was excited about a soda that was larger than 0.2 L, came with a straw, tasted like actual Diet Coke.... and was accompanied by the wonderful symphony of clinking ice.

Journey to America (Almost)

I'm going to be adding a lot of pictures in the next couple of posts to my blog.
I forgot my camera in Kristin and Sonda's room one day last week, and was too lazy to retrieve before this evening, so I've effectively been image-less for the better part of five or six days. But I'm fixing that situation this evening! I'll try my best to put these in chronological order and give an explanation underneath... but if I don't do the photographs justice, then just use your imagination to dream up the wonderful adventures I surely had in each. Knowing how Courtney and I get when we are together, anything wacky you imagine probably won't be too far from the truth.

Otherwise, enjoy.

We finally got somebody at the University to explain to us where we could buy cookware and utensils - something about Polish food just makes my stomach upset, so our mission over the past week was to find chicken and vegetables and actually cook them OURSELVES. Me, in a kitchen, is not normally a good thing. I tend to catch dish towels on fire or cement glue an egg to the pan... but cooking is a must, as was a skillet... so Courtney and I walked the two miles to the "Real." It was glorious; almost like being right back in America with bright, shiny, organized aisles that offered every item from ten different brands, and cashiers who actually accepted credit cards.

We tried chocolate cake again, but still no luck. AND I titled this post "almost" in America because some of the stores were just a little bit... ahem... odd.

Because I don't know about you, but buying shoes from a store that is named after a fungal infection kind of sounds ominous. =)

.... and this is completely out of order but I wanted to upload this picture to torture Courtney. We frequent the second-hand stores because they're enormous.....

... and because it allows me to see one of my best friends in 1980's finest fashions.

Nothing says "elegant" more than a dress that helps you blend into the fake wood wall!

I must go avert a crisis but I will post and write more later. Good evening to all! (and tonight was fabulous, but I will tell about it soonnnnn...)

♥

I need a boy named Julien to parle le francais

There is gorgeous piano music floating in my open window from a music festival that is going on five stories below, and I am on my way out to enjoy this city on the one night a week that it comes alive.

Ahhhh and I found out today that my grandma can read and send email. How exciting is that!? Now if only my french were better... 

Amaryl

I woke up and got dressed this morning and walked out the door with the intention of going to the lab, and then felt the combined breeze and sunshine on my face and decided that I wasn't quite ready yet. I'm finally to the point where I feel comfortable in this city - it's not wonderful and there isn't a lot to do in the way of entertainment, but it's beginning to feel like my overseas home. I know where to buy cookware, the cheapest Diet Pepsi, and apricot face scrub. We ask a lot of questions, usually which don't get answered, but we did finally discover where the supermarket called the "Real" is, and it has become our Walmart away from home. I'm at ease with the surprising fact that nobody who works in the stores speaks english. At the meat counter two days ago, Courtney wanted chicken and so she clucked and flapped her arms in a... quite accurate... impersonation of a hen. I, as the mommy, was so very proud.

ANYWAY... back to this morning. I ventured up Piotrowska Street and discovered a cute little second-hand store. I read somewhere, though I don't recall quite where exactly, that if you want to find cute and non-expensive clothes in Poland, you have to frequent the thrift stores. You can find all sorts of brands that aren't actually available in stores, but that travels have brought here over the seasons: Gap, American Eagle, Polo, Citizen Jeans, and even designers like Armani. Not that I particularly want to buy American brands across the Atlantic, but considering that I packed about four hours before I caught my flight here, I did forget to bring enough white shirts and cute tops. Plus, the stuff is awfully cheap... and I won't feel bad about leaving it here if I happen to run out of room when repacking to come home (and considering the number of pots/pans/towels/blankets/sweaters/jackets I've had to purchase). Soooo... I'm sorry I'm really distracted today, but the point of all of this is that I bought two really cute skirts, a fun dress, and about seven tops for $80 bucks this morning, and then smiled the entire way to work. I expected everyone to be here, working away, but since Damian is gone it seems like nobody shows up for work anymore, so there wasn't a single person here to witness my transgression or have suspicions about my large and bulky shopping bag. Score!

I have a lot of work to do today but I've recently become very addicted to an online game that I found one night when Courtney and I were bored. Our nights tend to have long periods of free time, and when we aren't making friends in the kitchen (so far we've met Elodie from France, Lyon from Nigeria, Cedric from France, and Robert from Poland) we hang out on my twin bed. It's what all the cool kids are doing. =) After exhausting every internet site I could think of, I remembered playing a strange game called "The Impossible Quiz" one time in Birmingham with my darling Ashlie Leirer. Thinking it might be kind of entertaining, I googled it... and came back with the treasure I lovingly nicknamed "Burger Joint." It's really called Burger Restaurant, and I don't think that anyone else on planet earth has ever played it, but it's a really simple game based on making hamburgers and filling customers' orders in a timely manner. AND IT'S WONDERFUL. Hahah I'm including the link, just in case you are super bored one day and want to usurp my high score on the playing board.

http://www.notdoppler.com/burgerrestaurant.php

Okay I really MUST go. I'm really behind on my presentation and everyone is here now and wants to talk about our activities for Monday. Oh yes... and we're going to a Polish fashion show this evening! 

Scary Return

Creepy old roommate showed up this morning at 7 a.m. The loud knocking on my door woke me up from my sleep to be confronted about a spoon that I had unknowingly stolen from his kitchen drawer. I guess I do feel bad for swiping a utensil that wasn't actually mine, but seriously, after all of our troubles with him... why did the people at the front desk give him my room number?

"Sweet dreams american girl..."

Yesterday and today have been days of discovery. We were walking to school yesterday morning and saw an obscure hole in an apartment building wall that said "Pizzeria." It looked fairly clean, so Courtney and I made a pact to try it for lunch, instead of the normal chemistry building canteen that we regularly visit. Maybe too regularly, since there are a man and a woman working there, the former speaks english and the latter does not, and whenever the woman sees us she abruptly spins on her heels and beckons the guy. He knows us now and has started smiling when we ask, once again, if they are serving anything without pork. And he knows that we always order one Coke regular and one Coka Light. But YESTERDAY we made a new friend at the pizzeria... which has an awesome atmosphere with paintings and sailboats everywhere, wooden log walls, and a comforting smoky wood-burning stove smell. He kind of a squirrely guy who spikes his hair into a faux hawk and doesn't speak enough english to know the word 'pork,' but he put ICE in my drink yesterday when I asked for it, so all other faults (fashion, language, and otherwise) are forgiven. Plus, the cheese pizza with peppers is amazing. And as Damian would say, the white sauce isn't so bad either.

But yesterday I also discovered that "wettability" is indeed a real, english word, and that I should be published by the end of this summer ordeal! I had to translate Polish/English into understandable english... a feat which took almost three hours for a 10 page article... but the end result was gratifying. I realize that I'm being used for my skills in my native tongue, but actually finishing something (a paper, no less) felt accomplished. Task #1, completed. Oh yeah, and just in case you were wondering, wettability is the ability of an object to be wet, usually with a polar solvent, like water. Why is has two "t"s".. I have no idea.

And finally, yesterday my mother lead me to discover skyscanner.net, the world's most amazing European trip planner website. They help you get from point A to B as quickly or cheaply as possible, even if you have to book with two different airlines to get there. Which means that Courtney and I, plus Michael, David, and Markie as traveling buddies, will be in Amsterdam on June 19th, Paris on the 21st, Milan on the 23rd, Switzerland skydiving sometime around the 24th, and Rome somewhere in there. And we don't have a return ticket yet so we may just have to drive back through Austria and the Czech Republic, but who cares because the adventure is worth it. I'm expecting to have a blast.

Which leads us to today. I definitely used my dear friend skyscanner.net (I'm started to sound like a commerical for this place) to book tickets to Barcelona. Or rather, Courtney found and booked these tickets - and a hostel in this cute little town - to go to the RUNNING OF THE BULLS!! I'm really, really excited. First because I've never been to Spain, but secondly... because it's supposed to be an amazing ordeal where you stay up all night, sleep on a park bench if you get tired, wash your hair in a public sick if you feel that it's more important to get clean than to keep yourself from contracting tetanus, and generally meet a bunch of really interesting people... oh yes, and see six bulls chase down a crazy mob of even crazier men. Courtney and I would run, of course, if she hadn't just had knee surgery in December.

But today was also about sad discoveries. Both Damian and Dr. Stanishevsky are gone; Stan for the duration of our trip, and Damian for two entire weeks. It was incredibly quiet at the office today. Usually we're all jumping around, hyped up on the incredible amount of coffee that Polish people drink, and playing fake karate combat every chance we get. But Kristin was sick today, Sonda was diligently researching, and both V-Tech and Silent Bob where out of the office for most of the day. Court and I knocked on Dr. Mitura's door just go get some human contact (and maybe to discuss our projects just a little bit.) Seriously, today we discovered loneliness.

The silence became so tangible at one point that I opened iTunes, cranked my MacBook speakers up to maximum, and started blaring ABBA's "Mamma Mia" in honor of my dear friend Jozey Kovach... the music was infectious... and Courtney and I both sprang out of our chairs and started jump-dancing around the room in quite a ridiculous manner, using our pens as microphones. We just needed a little bit of crazy.

We did learn something really cool today when we were talking to Mitura, that we would have usually been otherwise too distracted to have listened to: finals are over this week and the Polytechnika (our University) spends a million dollars to have a giant open air discotheque in the arena. Every year, about 10,000 people show up to listen to Poland's greatest bands, drink a lot of beer, and dance the night away under the stars. Mitura urged us to go, with a least one boy who will make sure we are safe, and to skip the beer but go big on the dancing. I'm not a fan of beer anyway, it's disgusting, but I do think it would be really amazing to be part of a crowd of 10,000 under the night sky. Where else would I have the chance to do that... on a night that cost Poland one million dollars? The energy alone will be palpable.

I think I'll be lame and go to bed now. It's only 9:30 p.m., and in the words of the Sound of Music, "the sun has gone to bed and so must I." I meet with my research professor tomorrow to finalized plans about the hospital and I want to be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when she arrives. A smile always tips the scale in your favor.

Oh... and just for fun. Could you leave a comment if you read my blog? I'd like to see how many people keep up with this thing.

My quote to live this summer by:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed

 by the things you didn't do than by the ones you 

did do. 

So throw off the bowlines. 

Sail away from the safe harbor. 

Catch the trade winds in your sails. 

Explore. Dream. Discover.

-Mark Twain

(I quoted Mr. Twain because my adorable father called me his Mark Twain in an email to me this evening.)

Polish Bible Bookstores

First let me apologize for taking so long to actually update on my life. I didn't mean to make everyone wait so long for news...

These past couple of days have been really busy, which believe me, is a good thing. 

We went to a bar just to see what all the rage was about here, since all the tourist information sites said "You have to go." It was really fun! We each only had one cocktail, but in the process we met some really nice people who either live or work here. My favorite of the evening was a guy from Australia who was born in Poland and lived in Florida. Strange combination, adorable accent.

The four of us girls had a sleep over party in my little bedroom on Friday night. I think we get lonely, all being separated all the time - especially me and Courtney - so everyone grabbed their comforters and we camped out on the floor eating cheetos and watching Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. It was definitely a throwback to my Jessica Crawford days in middle school, and to this day... nothing makes me quite as happy as hearing the black knight say "It's nothing but a flesh wound!"

Damian also blessed us with the gift of physical labor. Courtney and I go to take apart (ahem) and clean a car engine. Damian's project centers around coating automotive parts with thick carbon layers to reduce friction, increase hardness, and prolong the lifetime of the valves and such in the belly of the engine. He has the chemical and vapor deposition techniques down, but no body is sure if they'll actually hold up in reality, so he went to a junkyard the other day to buy a super old car and disassemble it in our lab.

It was actually kind of fun... getting completely dirty and having these balls of dirt and oil I lovingly named "dirt boogers" everywhere. My appointed task was to clean the transmission with a flat screwdriver, so I was in dirt booger heaven. (Isn't it comforting, the confidence they have in me? Hahah Audrey, please rid this hunk of metal of all of its dirt boogers.)

No I really did have an awesome time... at one point I put on a doctor's mask and pretended I was in surgery, Damian decided it would be hilarious to rub oil and grease all over my face (... maybe I kind of begged him to, just for the hardcore effect it would lend to my outfit), and Court and I ended up doing Jazzercise in the office to some random Polish band named Vadar.

We were definitely hyper by the end of the engine extravaganza.

Courtney scrubbing the grease off.

I think I have a new favorite quote for the trip.

Stanishevksy, Courtney, and I cooked lunch (pasta and vegetables) about two days ago. As we were patiently waiting for the pasta to boil in our makeshift cooking pans (I swear, we really need to buy actual pots sometime soon!)... Stan started talking to us about mushrooms. I'm not sure how many people know this, but I have a strong aversion to mushrooms. I call them basidiomycota and I loathe them. My fond description of their texture is "squeeky" and it doesn't matter how finely they are chopped up into my food, I can still taste them. Me and mushroom - we just don't have a good relationship. When Stan found this out... he tried to sway my opinion on the whole matter. He was going on about how we don't really have 'real' mushrooms in the United States because they're all grown in 3 days (have you seen that How It's Made episode?); I wasn't really paying attention until suddenly I heard "I'm a really good mushroom-hunter." They phrase humored so I turned around to catch more of the dialogue, and discovered that mushroom-hunting is a real thing, he once found a knife while mushroom-hunting that he keeps with him at all times now, and that "the best mushrooms must be picked before 5 a.m. because if you wait longer than that, all the other mushroom-hunters will pick them." It was all very ridiculous, very amusing, and very adorable.

Yesterday was our thrift shop adventure. There hasn't been sun in almost a week so the general mood in our troops is somber and somewhat depressed. It's not that we hate our living situation or our work, we just really miss the sunshine. SOooo.. I decided that a shopping trip might be the best thing to cure our blues... and since we're poor and it's always a little bit more intriguing, second-hand stores became our objective.

It's fun to be lost in piles of old, musty clothes, and we found the Polish person who spoke the best english in one of our random stores. Not that I don't enjoy performing an entire purchase transaction in silence and then seeing the salesperson light up when I say "Thank you" in Polish, because that IS quite gratifying, but it's lovely to hear actual english coming out of a stranger for the first time in two weeks. And we came away happy. I bought this really fun brown coat with fur on it for the chilly weather that has been pervading our lives, and Courtney bought an amazing blanket that looks like someone took all of your grandpa's cardigans, cut them into substantial sized squares, and sewed everything randomly together. It's heavy and smells old... and is wonderful. She'll have that blanket hanging off the side of her couch for the rest of her life... and every time someone asks about it, she'll have the added perk of being able to relate the story of the summer we went to Poland... I'm really jealous, actually.

Stanishevsky leaves for good tomorrow, and the part of our journey where we are completely alone shall commence. Yikes! But no need to be depressed right now... after all I'm off to go mushroom-hunting.

The group.

The Surprise

I know that it's been a while since I've updated with any substantial information, but you'll have to wait one more post to here about what is going on lately. Instead, enjoy my creation below!

The Morning Alarm

It's a national holiday (Catholic, I do believe) and the singing of the monks is finding its way into my room through a cracked window.

It's very pretty. 

Harrison Ford is my Heartthrob

Indiana Jones comes out, here, today.. in english with Polish subtitles. But it's raining and freezing outside, and my stomach has been killing me all day long. I think maybe the constant diet of bread and potatoes has eaten away at my gastric lining...

We kind of haven't had a lot to do around the lab lately because all of the professors are off adventuring around Europe and making contacts until tomorrow. Except Damian, of course, who was left here to babysit us.

And I didn't take any pictures today, because it's gross outside, so I'll post one of my favorites from yesterday.

My dad and mom called me this evening on Skype. I'm so proud of my daddy for figuring out this internet thing, and he was full of enthusiasm about his recent Ebay purchases and his attempt at building a car online. He even told me a joke... "How do you tell which one is the polish woman at the wedding? She's the one with the braided armpits!"

And then I spoke with my momma. She sounded happy to talk to us (me and Court)... and when we told her we had moved rooms and that they had to separate us in the process, she said "Well how far apart are you? 10 doors?" To which we replied "Noooo TWELVE! And there are two elevators and a stairwell in between. AND the kitchen. It's lonely!" She just laughed. I'm glad she understands me so well at times.

My parents are so cute.

Anyone and everyone who has a computer needs to embark on an adventure with me. Go to www.skype.com and download the free software. Then make up a username and sign on. Go to contacts and "search for skype users." Type in Audrey Paulzak, and add me! You can talk to anyone all over the world for free, as long as your computer is equipped with a microphone. It's pretty amazing actually.

 

This is a picture of my new favorite candy bar. I discovered it one day at the vending machine at school (gasp, they actually have one very old one here)... and Courtney and I have been buying them at the Central and ANDRE and the canteen, and everywhere else we can find them. I'm bringing everyone I know (and like) from back home the present of a 3Bit when I return.

Dr Stanishevsky returned to the dorm this evening. I didn't think I would, but as soon as I heard his voice from outside the door, I realized how much I'd missed my surrogate family. He really came through for us and got very protective when creepy roommate was causing problems, and I jumped up to give him a hug when he walked into my room. AND we're all having lunch tomorrow before he leaves us indefinitely.

Speaking of the creepy roommate, I now have my own room. It's AMAZING! They did separate Courtney and I, as I mentioned earlier, and it's lonely to fall asleep at night without her across the 8x10 foot space, but I can't complain about my living quarters at all. I have my own fridge, shower, AND built-in closet, which is rare.. and Marius got my internet working today, so I'm in heaven. I even have a window sill to sit and journal on, and ponder deep, profound things. Hahaha...

So I leave you again. Sorry about the super choppy "blob" update, as my adorable daddy calls it. I'm talking to my best friend, Ash, on Skype and we're planning a European journey together. And when I say "we" I mean her. I'm too lazy to read train schedules and figure out the best way from Amsterdam to Berlin right now... it's 3:15 in the morning and I can't read Dutch anyway. Good night all... and just think, all the legal drugs I want await me in three weeks time... kidding, smoking weed would be a sure fire way to kill Courtney through a massive asthma attack.

To leave you with some of the fun we got to experience in lab this afternoon: 

Courtney goes "Do you think I should save the "Tribological properties of duplex big MAO/DLC coatings on Magnesium alloy using combined microarc oxidation and filtered cathodic arc deposition" article?" 

Come again? You know I don't speak Polish. =)

It's a Giant Tim Horton's Tidbit.

Novelties that Poland has to offer.... 

I've been having a bad couple of days. We have a creepy roommate who is 50 years old, so I woke up really early to shower and be gone before his alarm clock went off. The sun hadn't been up long on my walk to school, and I used to brisk and cold morning walk to clear my head, and the photography as catharsis. 

Courtney and I in the car yesterday - the first morning that our creepy, old-guy roommate showed up. We were miserable, it was early, Damian took us on a wild goose chase, and it was freeze raining outside. That's why we look so weird... and pale.

The evidence of a guy. Shaving cream brush and after shave.

And now to the more exciting part of my morning... we talked to Damian last night - our first actual phone call from our POLISH CELLPHONE - and he didn't sound convinced that we were freaked out. But we wrote an email to Stanishevksy telling him everything that went awry, and he called Damian, who spoke to our landlord and took care of things today. Apparently there is no room for us to move, but Damian saved us and told the lady she had four hours to figure it out. Thank goodness.

So I like Poland again, after crying my frustrations out in a hallway today. And I'm ready to get out of this lab and experience the streets. Yesterday Courtney and I went on a mission for towels, but ended up walking into a random thrift store. I was sifting through the piles of horrendously outdated clothes when I found a man's cardigan with a cool Harry Potter-esque crest on the pocket... and "Fort Lauderdale, Florida" written in old script beneath it. There was no way I was going to pass that gem up, so I bought it for four dollars... I think some more thrift store shopping, and an immersion into weird European fashion sense from ten years ago might lift my spirits to a comfortable contentness. Ha that is my therapy for everything - when in emotional turmoil, spend money.

Anyway, I must get back to reading about TNT additives, but before I do.... Lodz in all its splendor.

My walk to school.

Cool writing... but what does it mean? I still can't figure anything out.

Although I do now know that the word for chicken is "Kurczak."

Shadow. And that's an IKEA reusable canvas bag on my shoulder. =)

I do believe I have this exact house in an early post, but this is the President's house.

And this picture is cooler than the first one because I took this one myself. Dr. Mitura used to actually live there!

"Look guys, a climbing tree."

Every road looks like this... and car rides give an incredibly accurate roller coaster impersonation.

Or you could be cool like Courtney and me and try to navigate these pavers in heels.

Graffiti happens.

These have to be my favorite traffic signs in this country, or any country.

Our university map... the Politechnika Lodzka.

Busking.... to Elton John

This picture is from a couple of months ago, but I just managed to snag it off of Courtney's camera and I couldn't resist posting it. We were walking down Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina during our Habitat for Humanity adventure when I heard one of my favorite songs in the whole world being warbled through a tiny speaker. It turns out this nice black man was playing "Your Song" for gas money, so I gave him two bucks to listen to him play, and to give him cash to get home. 

I love the unexpected surprises. And this song, not only because of the love and the lyrics, but also because it reminds me of that time I met Ewan McGregor. Hahah so much happiness wrapped up in three minutes of melody.

I know it's not much but it's the best I can do

My gift is my song and this one's for you

And you can tell everybody this is your song

It may be quite simple but now that it's done

I hope you don't mind

I hope you don't mind that I put down in words

How wonderful life is while you're in the world

I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss

Well a few of the verses well they've got me quite cross

But the sun's been quite kind while I wrote this song

It's for people like you that keep it turned on

So excuse me forgetting but these things I do

You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue

Anyway the thing is what I really mean

Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen...

City Stages, Lodz Poland 2008

On Saturday afternoon, Courtney, Kristin, and I decided that it was time we bought Q-tips and towels and conditioner and razors, so we went wandering down the main street in Lodz, named Pitrowska Street. It's a main avenue that runs for about 3 miles straight through the heart of the city, and at one point it even closes off into a pedestrian zone. We were headed downtown toward a "Central"... a store analogous to a WalMart before the Super was involved. They have everything you'd need, but not 12 choices of each product. Sadly for us, it turns out that the Central closes at 3pm on Saturdays... so we didn't get anything that we needed. BUT we did notice a large crowd gathering across the intersection and decided it would be worthwhile to go check it out.

What we discovered what aptly named by Miss Styres as City Stages Poland 2008. They were doing some sort of open-air festival, and I'm not sure whether they do it every Saturday or we happened to come at the just the right weekend, but there were people everywhere milling about, and a giant stage with different bands playing. The music was in Polish, the cotten candy tasted a little bit wanky, and there was a booth that sold only socks, but we still had a marvelous time people watching and being astounded by the sheer volume of beer that each individual consumes in this country.

We also, quite unexpectedly, discovered Lodz's defining characteristic. About two days ago, Courtney and I were discussing the fact that Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Rome has the coliseum, and Dublin has it's Irish pubs, but that Poland does not have any ONE THING special that we could think of, besides sausage (which is lame if you ask me)... and that Lodz certainly does not possess one defining characteristic. If you'll study the picture below, you'll notice that the lady is carrying bread on a string.... and THIS is what mental image now comes to mind when I think of Lodz. The bagel necklace. It's genius.

Just a view of the street with all of the people. There was even a stage where Polish dancers were performing to Grease Lightening. Oh la la...

A man selling the bagel necklace in not one, but TWO, sizes. =)

Of all the silly things that we encountered during the day, I think the Native American indians playing Simon and Garfunkel on gigantic reed flutes was the most surprising. This picture begs way too many questions. Why are there Native Americans in Poland? And since when have reed flutes been a part of the Native American culture? And why Simon and Garfunkel? 

We ended the day with a showing of Ironman IN ENGLISH, complete with popcorn and fountain drinks. The bathrooms were super clean, and shiny, and the theater was brand new. It was amazing... and Robert Downey Jr is not terrible to gaze at either.

We had to walk home super fast because the sun had set and dusk was turning to night, and with all the money being poured into Poland by the European Union, there has been a huge influx of construction workers, so we've been told to stay off of the streets at night. It may all by in my head, but I do get rather jumpy at night here. It's like when you convince yourself that there is a man lurking in your bushes to kidnap you and sell your organs to rich Americans... you can freak ourself out if you think about it too much, even if no danger is actually present.

We made friends with our next door neighbor, Raul, a man from Mexico who is here to paint and give Spanish lessons. His trademark is the flying cow and I've begged him to make me a painting within the next two months so I'll never forget our stay here in Lodz. Flying cow = research on diamond powders. Hahah I can see how they correlate.

It's Monday now and I'm happy to be hanging out in the lab. I have a desk set up with a fast internet connection, my iPod plugged in, and a stack of scientific articles to read. Courtney is somewhere outside blowing up a car engine, and Sonda is in another office learning about meteorites. Damian made Kristin stay at home because she had a runny nose - he said if she came she'd infect everybody, but quite frankly, I'm happy to be here and have human contact again. I missed everyone over the weekend. I need a new surrogate family!

OH! And the most exciting part of last night's evening, Courtney set up Skype and I got to talk to my parents on a telephone for the better part of an hour. It was lovely to hear their voices again... it's been almost a week since I had. And both my mother and father sounded so excited to talk to me... it definitely made me feel loved. ♥

I hope that everything is going well for all of you in America. Hahah I just keep saying to myself... "I'm in freaking Poland." Seriously, how did I get here?

Heartache

I miss my Thing 1 and Thing 2. =(

Manufactura.

It is far too late to string together an intelligent jumble of words, so I'm going to relate my day through photographs.

We started the day at 10:47 am in lab. Stanishevsky wanted us to take lots of pictures, but of course I chose to be artsy and make carbon coatings look good. The picture below is a result of my attempt at breaking up the monotony of the lab equipment photo shoot.

I saw a skeleton in the corner and decided that Courtney needed to pose with it.

Damian's lab equipment. I believe that he designed and build it himself. He's trying to prolong the lifetime of automobile engine parts by coating them in frictionless carbon layers.

Our babysitter, Damian. And the "beast."

The beast in all it's glory. Today was its first day out on the streets of Lodz.

Josh. Mitura's grandson. He taught me the Polish word for belly button. =)

Nathalie. Mitura's granddaughter. We bonded over coloring at his daughter's house.

Polish beer. Yum.... lol we're supposed to drink it with every meal, but since beer isn't on my list of favorite drinks, Dr. Mitura taught me to mix it with regular Coke. It's actually quite good that way. I wanted the mug just for the effect.

Cute spit bubbles, little one.

Our adventure to the Polish symphony/orchestra. White wine was on the menu, along with a 45 minute, memorized violin solo. They were actually quite good... I enjoyed it.

The research crew, Sonda, me, and Kristin. Courtney was actually not allowed to come because we have the entire Polish university thinking that she's about to die from a lack of bananas. I kid. But she was sick in bed.

My personal research professor is the lady on the far left, Dr Mitura's wife. She set it up with the Chief of the hospital so that I'm going to be able to venture to the hospital every Wednesday to run actual clinical trials on patients. I get an outfit and everything! Wonderful lady. Also in this photograph are Mitura's daughter, Ana, granddaughter, Nathalie, son-in-law, Ana herself, and Sonda, Erin, and I.

It was a really long day in heels, but I ended it well. AB and I went downstairs to meet a lot of the foreign boys who are living in the dorm with us, and I got to practice my french!

We're cute. =)

The End.