Archives for February 2014

11/22/13

Today is my real mom’s birthday. I feel weird not bring home to celebrate it. Last year it was just me, my mom, and my dad at home. We had come home from Thanksgiving dinner and I was tired. Grant had quickly fallen asleep in his bed and Gina was out at John’s house. It was just me and my parents who were home. My dad pulled the beautiful white and pink cake out of the box and places candles on the top. Sure it definitely wasn’t loud or crazy but it was nice hearing me and my dad sing together. I knew that day I wouldn’t be home for the next celebration. Even though it wasn’t the whole family singing, my mom seemed very happy.

Last year we celebrated her birthday together, but this year we celebrated it in different countries.

Over the past year when my mom was busy growing older, I had a never ending love-hate relationship with her. We fought a lot and rarely saw eye to eye but exchange has shown me to appreciate the life I have with the people around me. We will fight, cry, scream at each other but I love my mom. As years keep moving by and we all grow old…I am running out of time to be with the ones I love. If I don’t love what I have now, it will be too late when I finally realize how lucky I am.

Also on exchange my relationship with my mom has changed. She transformed from my strict mother into my best friend. I love my mom. I wish I could be home to celebrate her day with her. I hope she can feel my love from Poland.

Stephanie Raquel

11/2/13

The lack of sleeping I have been obtaining is finally catching up to me. I didn’t wake up until 1pm and didn’t hear a noise while I was sleeping. It was a peaceful night.

Today a piece of America followed me to Poland though. For Agata’s birthday, Ula bought her 2 tickets to see Nickelback in concert. Unfortunately none of Agata’s friends were available to go, but fortunately for me that means I got to attend the concert. My dad drove us 3 hours to Warsaw to see the band live. I slept on the ride to and from the concert.

There was a soccer game (football) also playing across from the concert. The traffic was ridiculously crazy! We had to be dropped off on the main highway and walk to the front door. While waiting out front of the building, I told Agata all about my Halloween night before I was in the club with her.

Inside the concert, Agata invited me to visit her in Krakow anytime. We sat on the steps just talking about everything while the band before Nickelback played inside the stadium. We agreed I need to practice my Polish so it can get back for next time we go out.

Once the concert finally started, we stood in the back of the crowd and listened to the songs. Nickelback could only say “thank you” and cheers” in Polish which is just about as much as I can say as well. It was nice listening to the music because it sounded like my Lite Rock 96.9 FM station at home. We swayed in the back and sang along to some of the songs. In Poland they have a Facebook group for each concert. In the group people put up announcements to make sure everyone brings a lighter or sign for during the show. During our show, everyone held up their lighters to one song and also passed a long banner from the front of the stage to the back row. It read, “We Will Always Be Here for You.” This showed me unity in Poland because total strangers worked together as a team. This is a different feelings then the concerts in America. A concert in any country is nice though.

After the lovely concert, the soccer game also finished at the same time so the streets were packed. There were police officers on horses in the middle of the crowds. At bus stops there were SWAT teams making sure there were no riots. Thankfully the soccer team won their match so there were only happy chants.

We were all hungry heading home so we stopped by McDonalds but that was closed. Next we went to KFC but apparently all of Warsaw had the same idea. We ate drive-through KFC on the drive home and told mom and dad about the concert.

It was a relaxing day after our jam packed weekend.

Stephanie Raquel

11/1/13

Today is officially Agata’s 21^st birthday and All Saints Day. It was a jam packed day.

After sleeping for four hours, I had to take a warm shower to wash away the remains of last night. I slept from 5:30 am to 9:30 am. I must not have hit REM sleep because I wasn’t that tired when I woke up.

I dressed up on black stockings, a black skirt, and a floral purple sweater. It felt nice to dress up. At the breakfast table, Agata confessed to still being drunk from last night. My host dad kissed my hand and thanked me for staying with Agata.

We then drove to the church for the special Sunday mass. Agata wore sunglasses in church to block out the light. Everyone wore their best Sunday clothes for this spiritual holiday. A little girl wore pink boots, white stockings with pink flowers, a pink dress, a Hello Kitty pocket book, and a pink hat on her two braided pig tails. There were two little boys wearing sweater vests and bottom down shirts tucked into their pants. I wonder what everyone wears for Christmas.

When church ended at 2 pm, we went home to set up the table for when our family comes over. Our whole family came over to eat dinner around 2:30. I was stuffed after eating pasta, meat, and salads. I love feeling stuffed because during the week I never feel full.

While the adults were chatting at the dinner table; Monika, Ania, Agata, and I watched a movie. The movie was an American movie so under the polish commentator, I could hear the English. It takes a lot of effort to zone in only on the English words.

Ania and Monika left for the church around 4pm and that’s when we left for the commentaries. We walked through 4 commentaries to light candles on the graves of loved friends and family. My family would tell me about each person we honored then pray silently before leaving the grave. One lady was my host mother’s nanny but she was more like an aunt to my mama. One man was killed in a car accident in Italy and used to have close relations with my host parents. This man sent a basket of roses to my parents for their wedding but then shortly died after. Another man was in the process of being a priest but decided to get married to his fiancé instead. The day before his wedding, he passed away. My parents say that people believe that God was not happy with his decision not to be priest so that explains the man’s sudden death. The fiancé wore her wedding dress to the funeral.

In Poland, they honor these people (friends or family) by visiting their graves on this special day every year. People light candles, pray for the souls, and sometimes eat dinner next to the graves in a way to include the dead. It is an emotional day because it brings back memories of each person.

We also visited Majdanek Concentration Camp Memorial to honor the people who died in the concentration damp and in Lublin during World War II. We lit a candle and left it under the Majdanek structure.

After walking for hours looking for graves in the cold weather, our family came back over our house for supper. Agata’s friends came over as well to celebrate her birthday. One guy kept forgetting that Agata’s room is now my room so he walked into the room a couple times and took pictures with my things. I didn’t mind because it technically isn’t my room.

Even though we have this day in America, it was interesting to see how the Polish people honor the soul and saints. It was a day to remember my passed family members and friends. Though they aren’t physically with us every day, they are carried in our hearts. Today just reminded their souls that we never forgot about them.

Stephanie Raquel

10/31/13

Happy Halloween!

I walked into school today wearing my All American Girl outfit again and even brought my flag to school. This is the first year in Poland that kids of all ages are celebrating Halloween. I am pretty lucky to be here this year to witness all the excitement.

At school, most of the kids were dressed up themselves. I saw zombies, pajama girls, Wednesday from the Addams Family, an axe murderer, bloody pirate, and multiple animals. For this being the first year of celebrating Halloween, all the kids looked like experts. The high school resembled an American High School on Halloween.

The student council brought in a fog machine to fill the halls with smoke. It was very eerie and creative. Students also brought in their carved pumpkins to be judged by teachers. I even entered the pumpkin contest with my pumpkins that I carved with my two friends, Alice and Inga. The night before we walked to the store, carried home 2 large pumpkins, and carved them in Alice’s house. It was so much fun hanging out with the girls, doing an American tradition. It almost felt like I was home in America again.

After class I walked with Danny, my best friend from Canada, to the near-by supermarket. Danny is an absolutely great guy and was determined to buy a pumpkin for his girlfriend so she could enjoy an American tradition as well. He is extremely thoughtful and considerate when it comes to his girlfriend. (I hope to find someone who is crazy about me like Danny is for Ada.) It’s all about spreading cultural traditions throughout the world. The only problem with bringing this tradition to Poland is the pumpkins…in Poland the pumpkins that are sold in stores are brown with lots of bruises. The bright orange pumpkins are found in specialty stores for high prices. But we managed to find a pumpkin that only had bruises on one side of the pumpkin.

Back at school I finished reading the book “Summer and the City” and took a picture with Sunny and our flags. A few hours of sitting around with Danny, Antonio, Bohdon, and Sunny was really nice. We talked about Halloween in their countries, what their plans are for tonight, and what their favorite candy is to eat. They are my best friends at school and I’m really close to them.

At home I took a shower and dressed up for my big night on the town with Ania. I wore a cobalt blue top with lace and skinny jeans. I matched my outfit with blue smoky eye make-up and rep lipstick. My outfit made me feel truly sexy. I am single and ready to mingle.

My host father drove me over to Ania’s house and walked me inside. He told Ania to make sure to get me home by 2 am. Inside the house Ania and George (Ania’s boyfriend) were making grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. I straightened my hair in Ania’s bathroom while George grilled the sandwiches and Ania gave me a fashion show. She wasn’t sure which outfit she should wear so I was the judge. We decided on black pants and a maroon V-neck top. Monika sat in the bathroom with us just watching.

After filling our stomachs with sandwiches, we finally left for the night to begin. First we took the bus to a neighborhood were George’s grandmother lives. He ran to the flat to get the key while Ania and I sat on the bus bench talking about accidents. There were ambulances flying through the streets all night tonight. On the bus ride over, we witnessed a collision on the road. When George came back we took the bus to KFC where we met up with Justine. There were so many boys waiting outside of KFC for girls. We walked over to the near-by bar to grab a beer before the club.

At the pub I met a guy named Daniel. He was tall, dark, and handsome. I honestly couldn’t remember his name no matter how many times he told me. While we talked in the hallway, he kept playing with his thick brown hair. I could tell he was nervous by the way he was rambling. We talked about America…well rather he couldn’t stop talking about America and himself. He told me he wants to live in Alaska, become an architect, and hitch hike to England from Poland. I think I learned his entire life story within that hour and the only thing he knows about me is that I am an exchange student from America living in Poland for the year. It was definitely an interesting conversation.

When we left the pub to go to the club, Centrala, Daniel was trying to persuade me not to go with Ania. He kept saying I could go out with him, but I just wanted to have a good time with Ania and her friends. Outside the club there was a long line of people waiting to go inside. At the back of the line, I talked to Ola and Justine. They were at Ania’s Halloween party and they are extremely nice girls. I found out that I have a lot of things in common with Ola and that they are really easy-going girls. George walked to the front of the line to his buddy, the security guard, and got us inside immediately.

Once inside the club, I ran down the stairs and straight to the bathroom. I really had to use the toilet. Ola, Justine, and I fixed our hair in the mirror while 15 year old girls passed a bottle of alcohol around. The girls were falling all over each other and being obnoxiously loud.

On the dance floor the music was techno and electronic so it was hard to dance along. People were bumping into each other and it was a cramped dance floor. After “dancing” for five minutes, we decided to buy a drink. When we finished our 10 zł drink, we hopped right back on the floor to dance. They, thankfully, changed the DJ so better songs were playing. I had so much fun dancing with the girls. Some 16 year old boys came up to Ola and I to dance with us, but when he heard us speaking English he got extremely nervous. We danced with the boys for two minutes when I gracefully announced I would rather just dance with Ola. Ola and I need men instead of boys going through puberty.

While dancing I saw Adam, Ola (my host sister’s best friend), and Andrzej. They came up and hugged me hello. They asked if American clubs are better than Polish clubs and laughed when I confirmed. It was nice to feel like I have real friends that say hello to me even if they aren’t forced.

The club was a dud place so we decided to leave. George took us to the Kebab place because it was good food and the only place open. While eating our sandwiches, Andrzej ended up falling asleep on the table with Kebab in hand. Ania kept screaming throughout the restaurant for him to wake up and go home. This was hilarious for the rest of us watching Andrzej.

It was a good night until my host father called for me to go home and then I realized I didn’t bring my house key. My host parents were now sleeping and I wouldn’t be able to get into the house. So we walked to Shine, the other club for 21 years and up, and met up with Agata and Aga. Agata called our mama to see if I was allowed to stay with her at the club. Mama said it was fine and I walked right into the club without paying a dime. We acted like I was already inside since it was now 2 am and they didn’t care.

I danced the whole night away with Aga and Agata. It was much better then dancing with 16 year old boys and instead 21 year old men. I hope to go to clubs with Agata again because she knows how to have fun. We didn’t arrive home until 5:30am and I was truly exhausted from dancing.

It will be a night that I never forget.

Stephanie Raquel