howdy y'all

i switched to wordpress. it's shinier and i like it more.
all of you readers [ALL FIVE OF YOU!1!!!@!@!!!] should follow me over there instead :)

alyseinpolska.wordpress.com

pierniczki!

today i helped my mamo cook an obscenely large amount of polish gingerbread. she decided to give me some homework and have me translate the recipe into english :)

keep in mind, this was a super shady recipe to begin with; the amount of shade only increases when you take into account my horrible polish and the measurement conversions. good luck!

100 grams margarine
250 g honey [the super thick kind]
150 g sugar
1 very small spoon cloves
1 small spoon ginger
1 small spoon cinnamon
2 spoons cocoa
600 g flour
15 g baking powder
a little tiny bit of salt
2 eggs

mix margarine, honey,  sugar, spices, and cocoa powder in a pot on low heat. keep stirring until it's well mixed and warm throughout.
add the eggs, then slowly mix in the flour and salt. take the dough out of pot and knead it! [KNEAD WELL, my mom was very adamant about making sure i made note of that :)]
wrap tightly in foil and leave for half a day [make it in the morning, continue in the evening. make it in the evening, wait til the morning!]
start rolling and cutting. make the dough pretty thin, 4mm or so. coat the outside with flower when rolling because it will stick!
place on a cooking tray lined with paper [i have no idea what kind of paper this is. it's not waxed, just really weird cookable paper. super effective and awesome though] and cook on the bottom shelf. t
 he oven should be at 300 F, and cook for 10-20 minutes until they look crunchy [shady, i know. just keep an eye on them!]
no need for them to cool, you can just dump them into the communal gingerbread bowl, throw away the paper, and reline the sheet for the next batch!
when they're cool, feel free to decorate them with icing and sprinkles :)

 my partner in crime!

our work space

decoratin' :D

here i sit in my school's 'library'. i have two free periods, some drzozdzowka, and potentially the most uncomfortable chair i have ever sat in.sounds like blogging inspiration to me!

as i look around the room i'm in, i can't help but wonder, is this what poland considers a library? what would pani librarian think if she were to be dropped into my old high school's library? or god forbid one even bigger than that? i can't help but compare and contrast the two countries i've lived in so far and sadly i've yet to find something that trumps home. as much as i hate admitting it, i'm really in no position to deny it.

is this thinking due to the country i've exchanged from/to or is it just a part of all exchanges? from what i've gathered from pretty much every exchanger i've ever talked to, regardless of countries involved you will always side with your home country. it seems like going on exchange evokes a sense of patriotism in those who didn't have it before leaving, i.e. people like me.

HUH.

przepraszam pánstwo nie mogą rozumieć mnie.

recently, the other students and i were asked to present to our rotary club in a mixture of english and polish. the bilingual proposition quickly revealed a more unilingual sentiment; it was blatantly apparent that, while they couldn't demand we present entirely in polish after two months, that's what they actually wanted us to do. so, with a mere week and a half of time, we were given the goal of coming up with a polish presentation about ourselves, homes, cities and families... that could be presented in five minutes or less. that week i spent my nose buried in a dictionary, wasting sheet after sheet of paper in an attempt to perfect my presentation in a language i am far from knowing. thankfully i had two native friends willing to humor me and attempt to correct my horrible attempt at speaking their even more horribly difficult language; after nearly a million drafts, i finally came to the conclusion that i might just be ready for this presentation.

wednesday finally arrived and suddenly my cute attempt at speaking polish looked like a horrible horrible mess. i could barely read what was written let alone pronounce all of the words that had 5 consonants per vowel. oh well! i tried my hardest and that will have to suffice.

here my presentation is, in all of it's unpronounceable glory.

dźien dobry państwo! nazywam się alyse conn-powers, mam osiemnaście lat. jestem z ameryki i mieszkam w bloomington, indiana. bloomington sunrise rotary club jest moim poręczycielem.
to są stany zjednoczone i to jest mój stan, indiana. mieszka tu prawie sześć i poł miliona ludzi. indiana ma dziewięc dziesiąt cztery tysiące kilometrów kwadratowy. głowne miasto jest indianapolis. naszym gubernatorem jest pan mitch daniels. jest tu dużo soi i plantacje kukurydzy.
to jest moje miasto, bloomington. mieszka tu siedemdziesiąt dwa tysiące ludzi. czterdzieści tysięcy ludzi studiuje na uniwersytecie indiana w bloomington. naszym burmistrzem jest pan mark kruzan. najwięcej ludzi z mojego miasto pracuje w firmach "otis elevators" oraz na uniwersytecie indiana. raz w roku odby wa się tu "little 500". słynny film "breaking away" opowieda o tych wyścigach. w roku 2008 pan barack obama przyjechał na "little 500". odbywa się tu także festiwal "lotus festival" dużo ludzi przyjeżda na lotus festival oglądać występy słynnych grup z różnych krajów. jest dużo regionalnego jedzenia, sztuki i muzyki.
ci złynni ludzi są z indiany. to jest david lee roth, on był członkiem muzycznej grupy "van halen". to jest james dean, on był aktorem. to jest david lettermen, on jest prezenterem telewizyjny. to jest michael jackson, on był słynnym królem popu. to jest rex grossman, on gra w footbal americanski. to jest kurt vonnegut, on był autorem.
to jest moja rodzina. to jest mój ojciec michael, moja matka cathy, moja siostra mackenzie, moja siostrzenica kara, i nasza trzy psy. mój tato pracuje na uniwersytecie indiana i jest profesorem. moja matka jest nauczycielka.

i'll have the usual.

as of late i've found myself falling into the dark abyss that is more commonly known as a day to day routine. i've always been a fan of organization but have never supported daily schedules... that is, until i came here. i have no idea what it is about this place, but i feel like routine isn't just a good thing but a necessity. perhaps it's something in the water that i'm repeatedly told not to drink.

yet as i'm sitting here i can't help but wonder; is a daily routine beneficial or detrimental to my experience abroad? i understand that studying abroad is all about trying new things and having experiences you wouldn't normally have, and having an every day plan can definitely effect your ability to do those things. try something new between 5 and 7 pm? no thank you.

alas, there's also the argument that maintaining at least somewhat of a daily routine is one of the best things you can do when in a situation such as the one i'm in now. the stability of having at least an outline of your day to day already planed can be a huge rock to lean on, especially when being totally displaced from the norms of your own country and society.

i haven't quite decided which is applicable to this situation yet.  all i know is that i've eaten toast with cheese for breakfast every day for the past two months.

jebać toruń, jebać!

Well oops.

So much for my aspirations of being a blogger; apparently I lack the initiative and patience to sit down and type about the past twenty four hours. Oh well. I'm going to relive the past several weeks in stages.

Let's see! What has happened.

I endured two weeks of a mandatory Polish language course. Oi vey. That was interesting to say the least. Our teacher for the course was my counselor while here in Bydgoszcz; him and his father own a language school and hosted the course for all the inbounds to Bydgoszcz and a few surrounding clubs. The results of the course were less than desirable; my English deteriorated substantially and I'm pretty convinced the only language that improved was my Spanish. I might not be able to speak to any Poles but at least I can talk with the Mexicans.

During the course, we all decided to take a day trip to the neighboring city of Toruń. My first train ride EVER. It was much more fun than I thought it would be. A group of us had a compartment to ourselves, with the exception of the silent woman sitting against the window reading her magazine. The entire experience was vaguely reminiscent of Harry Potter, sans the prepubescent wizards.

After getting off our train, we hopped onto a bus to be taken across the Wisła river and into Toruń's centrum. There we proceeded to wander aimlessly around for a bit as we slowly organized. We visited the leaning tower of Toruń [it was just a crooked building.] and Copernicus' house! That was surprisingly fun and interesting. Afterwards we proceeded to a pierogarnia and ate some delicious pierogies. We were served bread, pickles, and an unidentified white substance as an entree; such was our first smalec experience. After trying it and not really liking it, we discovered that what we were eating was essentially pure lard. I had felt something odd while eating it and it was at that moment I was able to pinpoint it... it was the feeling of my arteries clogging.

Shortly following our smalec encounter, we finally began the venture home by train. And such was our first venture to Toruń.

Location: Summer house.

uh, we have a summer house. Nifty! Laying out and eating all weekend. We're having a barbeque tomorrow!

It’s surprising how nice grass feels on your feet when you’ve been in the city for a few days.