Confessions of an Aspiring Ex-Pat

Summer Plans '08

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Well after almost 8 months of NO posts I'm happy to finally have something interesting to write about! I've found two internships in New York City and will be there from the end of May to the beginning of August.

The companies I'm working for are both in the Fashion PR industry and this summer will be a sort of test-drive to see if I like this kind of job enough to turn it into a career (so let's hope it's not very Devil Wears Prada-esque). I'll be reporting on my day-to-day activities, and also very likely be venting about the diva-like behavior I'm anticipating from my bosses/co-workers.

Fingers crossed that I take a bite out of this city (and not the other way around)!

It seems like just yesterday...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:42:00 +0000

Wow I can't believe it's been over two months since I left Poland. I'd kept meaning to write this last entry to wrap everything up and reflect on my time there, but I guess I just got wrapped up in everything here with school, and RA stuff...

It seems like it was forever ago that I was living in Kapelanka flat with luke and maria, but i still miss it like i just left. I'm wondering when I'm going to stop missing everything, and hoping that it doesn't require me to forget everything in order for that to happen.

It's so strange being back in school. I thought once I got back into the swing of things, it would begin to feel normal again, but I'm not so convinced anymore... I think at this point, I'm just going to have to stick it out for the next 2 years, and then head back to Europe as quickly as possible. I guess time doesn't always bring distance.

I don't want to give the wrong idea, I'm by no means miserable here - it's just kind of hard to compare something so basic and normal, with something extraordinary. We'll see how it goes for my final half of my college years. For now my blogging career is at an end, but I'll definitely resurrect this when something interesting starts happening, or the next time i get out of the US (whichever happens first!) ;]

until the next time, biziaki!

Synchronicity

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:25:00 +0000

Today I was walking around Krakow trying to buy all my last-minute souvenirs and just enjoy the city for a bit when I was astonished to see what was ahead of me... a boy wearing a Charlotte Hornets jersey!! in KRAKOW! it's a sign. it's time to go home :[ I discreetly took a picture to quell any disbelievers... it doesn't show the name on the jersey from this angle, but any true Charlotteans will recognize those colors!

I'm flying to Frankfurt tomorrow, spending one night there, and then heading back to the Queen City. Looking forward to a quick visit with the fam before heading back to school :]

My Last Weekend in Poland :(

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:31:00 +0000

I can't believe I'm leaving already, it literally feels like I just arrived! This was my last weekend here and I can't think of a better way to have finished my time here. Friday night was Marie's birthday, and one crazy-fun party, and saturday, of course was MY party :) Ten of my closest friends in krakow came to our flat and we started the night out right with champagne, singing, and cake! I've made a video that can describe the night better than any number of adjectives so check it out below.

This week I'm going to try and do all the touristy things I had put off, thinking i had PLENTY of time to get them done! And i've still got to go souvenir shopping for everyone back home... any idea where i can find a 3*5 polish flag??

Party on the Amber Coast

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:33:00 +0000

This weekend was fantastic as I finally was able to see the north of Poland and swim (really just wade) in the Baltic Sea! Luke and I planned the trip to Gdansk and then invited pretty much everyone we know in Krakow, and we ended up with a group of 9 coming with us. Me and Luke left early Friday morning (the 4am wake up call was pretty rough), and we rode the morning train to Gdansk, arriving around 1pm. Then we tried to catch a boat to Hel (an incredibly thin, but long peninsula near Gdansk that is supposed to have a really nice beach), but unfortunately it seems to be a pretty popular destination and all the boats were full – I'm pretty sure it's popular more for the name than anything actually that great in the city ;)

So anyway we really wanted to ride a boat while we were in Gdansk so we bought tickets on this pirate ship that was in the harbor and decided to go to Westerplatte, which is where the first fighting of WWII took place in Poland. The Galleon Lew dropped us off in Westerplatte and we found this really nice beach where we killed an hour playing Frisbee and attempting to get in the freezing cold water.

After our pirate cruise we decided to meet up with Pamela (a trainee from Gdansk), in Gdynia. The area of Gdansk is actually comprised of three cities called the tri-city. They are Gdansk (the most scenic of the cities), Sopot (more like a beach resort), and Gdynia (kind of the industrial area of the tri-city).

We went to a beach on Gdynia and caught up with Pamela over a piwo. Then after we had relaxed a bit and gone to her apartment to change, we caught the train back to Gdansk and met up with all the rest of the trainees from Gdansk. We went to a bunch of different clubs in Gdansk, and soon realized that everyone wasn't kidding when they said that the only good nightlife in the tri-city is in Sopot! But we had a pretty late night in Gdansk and then headed back for some sleep before the rest of our group joined us Saturday.

Saturday we met up with the other 7 who had taken the night train Friday night and we toured Gdansk for a bit, and then decided to go to Sopot for some fun in the sun J We played on the beach, a brave few decided to swim, and then we went for some polish cuisine before checking out the nightlife we'd heard so much about.

Sopot definitely was the place to be on a Saturday night. The clubs are all actually ON the beach and the one we went to, CocoCabana, was mostly fun latin music. Everyone was pretty exhausted from all the traveling so we headed back early and got some sleep before our last day in Gdansk.

For our last day, the good weather deserted us and we had deal with some pretty cold, rainy nastiness. Since we couldn't spend much time outdoors, we went to the amber museum, and were pleasantly surprised. I can easily say that it is one of my favorite museums ever… I had no idea you could make such beautiful things from amber! Check out this picture below, it was my favorite piece.

At the end of the day, we fought our way back on the night train, managed to scrounge some seats, and tried to sleep as much as possible before we pulled into Krakow at 4am, most of us having to catch just a few hours of sleep before going to work that morning!

This week we have THREE birthday parties as well as Frisbee and soccer AND a trip to Ocjow to fill the time… if anyone's in Krakow on the 28^th, give me a call, my bday's going to be CrAzY!

Ultimate Frisbee Champs :)

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:20:00 +0000

We have a weekly tradition (now that the weather's nice) and it is some pretty intense ultimate frisbee!! We try and meet once a week on Blonia (this massive field in the middle of the city), and get some exercise, followed by a well earned piwo. This week almost 20 people showed up to play and we made new friends, laughed, and sweat A LOT ;)

The above pic is only one side of our big table... (there were definitely more boys there than this pic suggests)

Tomorrow Luke and I will be up at 5am to catch the train to Gdansk, and then 8 more trainees/friends from krakow will be meeting us saturday. Party on the Baltic!!

Aww, it's nice to know you're missed!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:31:00 +0000

Here's a picture my family sent from my brother's graduation party... i'm not gonna lie, i got a little misty eyed =)

Possibly the best weekend EVER!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:37:00 +0000

Wow i feel like this is the first chance i've had to just sit down and relax since thursday! This weekend was jam packed with awesomeness and I've got some pretty sweet pics to prove it =)

Friday, I finally made it to Auschwitz. There's something incredibly creepy about that place. Over 1 million people were murdered there and I swear you could almost feel it in the energy of the place. A perpetual cloud just hangs there. Literally as soon as i walked into the compound, i wanted to leave. I stuck it out for the better part of four hours out of an obligation brought about by guilt and the belief that, as one of the exhibits said, "those who ignore history, are doomed to repeat it." But after what i felt was a respectable period, i hopped the next bus back to Krakow and looked forward to the festival of street theater as some welcome distraction from the horrors i had just witnessed.

Knowing that we had a full day planned Saturday, we left the festival relatively early friday night and headed home to get a full night's sleep. This turned out to be a very good thing because catching the morning bus to Zakopane (the mountains in the south of Poland), was exhausting, and we still had a 6km hike ahead of us! We checked out the town of Zakopane (really just one street of stores), and then took the rail car to the top of one mountain to get some sweet pics of the Tatras. We enjoyed our Zywiecs with an amazing view of the mountain before heading out on our 3 hour hike to a nearby town. Along the way there were beautiful views of the countryside and lots of cows and farmers to keep us entertained... which unfortunately distracted us enough that we lost our way, and ended up a few kilometers from our original destination. It all ended up working out well though because we got to cross the border into Slovakia and even crashed a wedding :)

We eventually found our way back to Zakopane, via a bus, and made it safely back to Krakow... just in time to pass out and get recharged for another long day on sunday.

Sunday was the first really good, hot weather we've had in weeks, so naturally we had to check out one of the lakes around Krakow. We decided to not go to Kapelanka Lake, which is right behind our apartment, and instead we wanted to rent bikes and ride to one of the more developed lakes outside the city. 6 of us trainees headed out of the center, ready for an adventurous 10 km ride to lake kipowlen. We finally made it after 3 hours and one accident (mine of course). But it was totally worth it.

So today i'm a bit tired, DEFINITELY sore, and i can't wait for next weekend!! Gdansk will be awesome, it's a resort town in the north of Poland on the baltic sea. Also if you want to see more of my pictures, you can see them all here.

It feels like it's all starting to wind down...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:56:00 +0000

So i had one of my last weekends in krakow last weekend. The next few weeks will be spent doing a lot of last minute traveling, trying to see the best of Poland :) And then my last weekend in krakow will be my BIRTHDAY, and i can't think of a better way to spend it!

Sooo this weekend i finally made it to check out the Wieliczka Salt Mines. They're 700 years old and definitely not what you think of when you think of mines. Everything was very polished and there was an AMAZING chapel where people pay big money to get married (150 meters below ground)! And you could even lick the walls of the mines and taste the salt, it was pretty cool...

We celebrated Alina and Carlos' going away parties friday and saturday, and welcomed two new trainees, one from the czech republic and one from Romania.

Then we had a nice lazy sunday with the first good weather we'd had in awhile and played frisbee by the river. We got our usual dinner at Babci and then listened to the jazz festival for awhile followed by some stand-up comedy of an ex-trainee. It was my first time seeing a stand-up show live, and the comedians 2nd show, so you can imagine it was a little disappointing, but i'm sure he'll improve with practice! (tip to aspiring comedians: it's probably not a good idea to keep saying how much you suck on stage, it won't take long for the crowd to believe you)

So this weekend i'm going to Auschwitz, as well as Zakopane (the gorgeous mountains about 2 hrs from krakow), and maybe a castle in some national park outside of krakow too... we'll see how it goes ;)

happy 4th of july!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 11:15:00 +0000

This is my first, truly homesick day, that i've had since i've arrived in Poland. Sure there were a few things i missed from home (drying machines, air conditioning, microwaves), but all those things weren't that big a loss. Today though, is independence day. The ultimate American holiday... and i'm really sad to miss it. My family is all together at the beach right now, and i really wish i could be there with them. So in honor of this great holiday, here's a little video that reminds me of home right now :)

check this out!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 21:42:00 +0000

Kanye West "Stronger" -- I've got this song on repeat in my head!

The Jewish Festival and more...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:32:00 +0000

This weekend was filled with lots of visitors and random cultural experiences :) We had two slovakians visiting from bratislava, jenny (another trainee) visiting from kielce, and lots of festivals to attend celebrating the end of the jewish festival.

Friday night we greeted the slovakians and had a low key night, seeing as they had just driven to krakow all the way from bratislava! we headed home pretty early since we knew we had a long day of sightseeing ahead of us saturday.

Saturday we did the typical tourist stuff, showing our guests a lot of the sites of the city. The town square was full of a bunch of classic/antique cars for some event so we got some cool pics with those, and then we headed to babci for a classic polish dinner and caught some concerts in Kazimierz. The concerts were really cool because it was all jewish music and a bunch of the locals were doing typical jewish dances that you see in movies at weddings, you know where they're all in a circle holding hands and doing weird kicks, it was VERY entertaining!

We were all exhausted after touring the city all day so we went home early and got some sleep. Sunday was a nice lazy day that turned into a spanish cultural presentation when Maria and Carlos decided to cook up all the food they'd brought back from spain and made a power point with a bunch of info on their hometowns and everything. The food was delicious!! Then we had to walk off our feast on a leisurely stroll to the lake where we chilled out for a bit before all our guests headed home.

All in all it was another great weekend in krakow...

next weekend i'm gonna try and make it to auschwitz and the wieliecka salt mines, hopefully i'll actually make it this weekend!

Sadness...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:19:00 +0000

So i did the math today, and i'm exactly half-way through my traineeship =(

August 3rd, i'm shipping outta here and i'm already sad about it!!

*sigh*

Prague - where beer is cheaper than water!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:58:00 +0000

If i had to sum Prague up in one word, it would have to be... TOURISTS.

i have never seen sooo many tourists clustered in one location before, and i have to say, it really took away from the city. Don't get me wrong, Prague is a beautiful city, but the sense of undiscovered beauty that everyone describes when speaking of Prague, has most definitely been lost.

I've heard Krakow referred to as the "mini prague", but i think krakow is the BEST of prague. It is similar architecturally, but it's much smaller, easier to get around, and it actually IS undiscovered. While i can see and appreciate what most people find so attractive about prague, 2 days in the city was enough for me and i was ready to be back home in Poland :)

So here's a little run-down of my time in prague...

I was traveling with Marie (a czech trainee) and we took the night train on friday from krakow, which takes about 8 hours and deposits you in Prague at around 7am on saturday. We were pretty tired from our long train ride and the MANY times the controller has to check your ticket (ie. wake you up) during the journey.

When we arrived in Prague, we rested for a bit, then had breakfast and set out on a whirlwind tour of the city. We saw all the major sights including the prague castle, charles bridge, the old town square, and charles square. It was pretty tiring but we saw everything and then headed to the flat (we were staying in marie and lubor's flat in prague) for a nap before going out on saturday night.

That night we went to an 80s and 90s party at a club in downtown prague. It was quite an interesting experience, with some truly awful dancing (Kelsey's 'molly ringwald' would've put these women to shame!). I also learned that there's a pretty big difference in 80s music from europe and the 80s music we listen to in the states. Here the dominant music was Aba and some scandinavian rock groups.

We were up early again on sunday to leave the city for a day trip to a castle about 30 minutes away. The castle was really nice and then on our way back we stopped in a town that's a brewery of a major czech beer and had a traditional czech meal of fried cheese (it's delish).

Once we got back to the city i had to rush to meet Jan (a czech exchange student from UNC who was back in prague after studying last semester at chapel hill). We went for a beer and caught up about his big trip to the west coast before he left the states, and after talking for awhile, we realized that he had seen more of my country than i had, and i had seen more of his continent that he had. It's interesting how people take forgranted that they have all the time in the world to see their own country...

After meeting Jan i had dinner with Marie's family and we headed out to catch our train back to Krakow... Special thanks to Marie and Lubor for putting me up and showing me all over the city, you guys are AWESOME!!

oh and sadly, there were no brangelina sightings =(

my life rocks...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:54:00 +0000

so due to a lack of actual work that my company has for me, my hours have been reduced, and yet my pay has not...

new working hours:
10-3 Monday-Thursday

and that's it =)

prague this weekend, i'll let you know if i see brangelina!

ps. check out my article - http://www.charlotte.com/448/story/161813.html

This weekend will be summed up in a few words...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:03:00 +0000

LAKE
CONCERTS
AWARIA - a really fun pub

KRAKOW

Small World...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:28:00 +0000

"don't worry, we can facebook stalk him we when get back to the hostel"...

a facebook reference, in poland, nice. the guy was from california and like every guy that's in poland, he was there for a girl. it's funny because almost every guy i know, now living in krakow, came here originally for a girl and they're usually no longer with that girl... interesting.

so this weekend was great, it started thursday for corpus christi, which is a bank holiday in poland. pretty much everybody had the day off, but the one's who didn't were really pissed about it so they went on strike. but not the usual kind of strike. they all went to work, but they just worked REALLY slowly, so the lines were all backed up and everybody had to suffer with them. it was so passive aggressive, i love polish people =)

anyway there were a bunch of concerts and festivals that were happening for the city's bday and we spent most of our time in Rynek (the market square) and at random clubs and restaurants, and at the lake. it was a pretty typical krakovian weekend...

oh and we made some friends from warsaw so now we've got a place to stay when we visit in a few weeks.

prague in 2 weeks, super excited!

oh and if you're ever in Krakow or maybe London you should check out the Fox Gang, great band and a really fun group of guys!

Polish BBQs are the Best!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:02:00 +0000

So this weekend was pretty uneventful other than the festivals going on and I suggested to my co-worker Aga that we should go over to the university again and hang out with Magda... just for a change of pace.

We decided to try and barbeque some kielbasa and get a big group together at the campus, so naturally by the time we got there it was poring. But we were undeterred and decided to go ahead with our party anyway. We scoped out a location for the bbq that's a walkway under a building and set up the grill there, got some music, people, beer and kielbasa and had an amazing polish-style party.

After much dancing, polish lessons, and being dubbed the honorary "polakian" by Zeus (the dorm they live in is called Olympia) i headed back to my flat and passed out...

i can't wait to try out some of the polish phrases i learned last night, my favorite being, "Boss, how about a raise?"

polish skills: 2

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:44:00 +0000

It started raining in krakow about a week ago, and it has yet to stop...

They should re-name the city Seattle.

This weekend was the Great Dragon Festival, an annual event that was done even bigger this year because its Krakow's 750th B-day this summer! I've got a ton of videos that i need to edit and post, but so far there's been this crazy lasar show (which reminded me of some kind of brainwashing thing i've seen from a movie, with everyone just staring in awe), a fireworks show with dragon floats, and a parade where all the kids had made dragons, and the boys would dress up as dragon slayers, it was REALLY cute :]

This weekend we're planning a trip somewhere tbd, and later this month is PRAGUE!! can't wait...

irony

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 29 May 2007 10:05:00 +0000

"Leo: Has anyone told you your hair looks fab lately? Even if you don't feel like it does, you've been looking great lately. Seriously! Bask in your hotness." - my horoscope according to facebook

What's funny about this is that, since arriving in Poland, i've killed my Chi by using the wrong adaptor (the best flat iron in the WORLD!) and worn my hair up in messy buns because of the stifling heat, and pretty much looked like fashion roadkill.

Just needed to share that with everyone :]

Oh and the weekend was pretty great... friday we had the farewell to kapelanka flat party, saturday we went to kapelanka lake (documented via youtube) followed by a bbq in nowa huta (which is practically in the czech rep!) and then sunday we had a relaxing day of doing nothing and watching pirates 3 (which really sucked btw).

yesterday we were so scarred from our pirates experience we had to watch an old classic to recover - lock, stock and two smoking barrels (i highly recommend it!)

tonight is anya's going away party and i'm really bummed to see my favorite russian leaving...

polish language skills: 1.5

TGIF!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:45:00 +0000

So the trip to warsaw has been cancelled... thank god! i can't wait to sleep in tomorrow and i've got a full weekend planned here in krakow.

tonight we have our farewell to kapelanka flat party. one of our aiesec flats is being sold so we're having a party to commemorate all the good times that happened there, it should be pretty funny =)

then tomorrow i'm going to find this lake/quarry i've heard about that's supposed to be pretty close to my apartment. apparently it's a quarry that's been filled with really clear blue water and you have to jump from the cliffs to get into the water... i'm pretty psyched about it! (no worries it's apparently 30 meters deep so it's perfectly safe!)

then tomorrow night we have a bbq in nowa huta, which is this area of krakow that was designed to be the ideal socialist town (this means it's going to be REALLY ugly, look forward to pictures).

just 5 more hours and it's the weekend =)

Gripes...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Wed, 23 May 2007 08:34:00 +0000

I love krakow so far and almost everything about it. ALMOST.

When i read that the climate here is cooler than at home, i was delighted. the 95+ degree summers of NC aren't that much fun, so an average of 75 degrees here seemed great.

unfortunately there is one BIG difference between the summers here and in char-town... it's called AIR CONDITIONING.

I'm in quite a quandary because when i try to sleep at night, i need to keep the window open to keep the room cool. but my apartment is right next to a highway, so i can't sleep with all the noise.

hmmm... any suggestions?

Interesting things to know about Poland...

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:46:00 +0000

Men and women wear their wedding rings on the right hand. This wasn't discovered in any embarrassing way i just thought everyone should know in case they're ever here :)

Men and Women's bathrooms are usually separated, and the signs are not that big. Be careful before rushing into any bathroom.

The president of poland and the prime minister of poland are twin brothers, weird.

Looking forward to the tram party tonight - @Krakow has rented out a tram (a train kind of thing) and they'll have a dj and a big party on it all night long while the tram goes around the city... should be pretty cool.

Me and justin have our welcome party tomorrow and thursday night is our "integration night" at work (it takes place at a pub so you can imagine the bonding that will take place), followed by a whirlwind trip to Warsaw this weekend for a workshop with a bunch of american corporations. I'll update sometime next week with some good stories :)

polish language skills: 1.2

So much to do!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Sat, 19 May 2007 14:29:00 +0000

Wow it has already been four days since i've arrived in Poland and i literally haven't had a moment's rest! So far everything has been amazing and i want to fill everyone in on what's been going on so far...

I arrived in Krakow wednesday afternoon and was picked up from the airport by my AIESEC buddy, Chris, my boss, Piotr, and co-worker, Kasia. My baggage was lost by the airline so Chris and i headed to the galleria to shop, and then met up with some of the other trainees at Kitch to go dancing.

So far I've met people from probably 15 different countries and my roommates are Elena (from Romania), Olenka (from Ukraine), and Anya (from Russia).

Kitch was a pretty interesting experience.... they said that it used to be a gay club, but it wasn't anymore, but i don't think that the word has gotten out yet. The average male in Kitch wears more makeup than i do :)

We left pretty early that night because i was exhausted and then next day i went in for my first day of work at Visit.pl. Piotr is possibly the coolest boss ever! i set my own hours and can even work at home if i want to! I put in about a half a days work on thursday and then i met up with Viktoria, my traineeship manager, in downtown Krakow to get my city transit card and tour around a little. That night i had my first polish dinner (which was delish) and then headed home after a short time at a posh nightclub called Ceil.

Friday was EXHAUSTING! I was on the way to meet Piotr for a meeting but i had a little problem with the buses and ended up on the opposite side of Krakow! Well i finally made it there and after my meeting i went to Tesco for the first time.Tesco is like a super wal-mart, but everything's in polish so it's super confusing... also you have to take the bus back to the apartment and walking with a bunch of groceries is a pretty funny sight!

Last night was really cool... every year Krakow has one night where all the museums in the city will stay open until 2am and they let everyone in for free! We went to about 6 museums and my feet were killing me by the end of the night. (my fave was probably the modern museum. they were showing this movie where these people chased down this guy, put an ET mask on him, and stripped him down and started chasing after him with golf clubs... seriously, i couldn't make this shit up!) Then we went to Kazimiersk (the old jewish part of the city) where i had my first Zapieneki, this polish sandwhich thing that's about a foot long and amazing!

We ended up staying out really late which was a bad idea because this morning i had to wake up early and meet my boss and agniezki (another co-worker) to head to Wroclaw, a city near krakow. Wroclaw is a beautiful old city that used to be owned by Germany, so it has a lot of influence architectually from there. We'll be here until tomorrow afternoon and then i'll be back in Krakow!

Sorry if this post was incredibly long and rambling... i'll try and keep them shorter in the future :)

random thought: if my life were a movie, my theme song as i walk through krakow would be "american woman"

Polish Language Skills (scale 1-10): 1

*i don't have internet in my apartment so i haven't been able to upload photos, but i'll put them up some time next week!

Leeeaavin on a Jet Plane!

noreply@blogger.com (meg) — Tue, 15 May 2007 03:56:00 +0000

I'm flying out today for an internship in Krakow, Poland.

TODAY.

Crap.

I should probably start packing....

Well this is my first (er, second) post and as anyone who knows me will tell you, i'm obsessed with blogs (Perez is my friend). So naturally, i feel a need to measure up to these great blogs i've been reading... we'll see how it goes.

I've been wanting to go on a traineeship since I heard some pretty amazing stories at WSC 2007 and I'm so excited to go on my first one this summer. I've been hired to work in the marketing and PR department of Visit.pl, a tourism company in Poland.

I'm trying to learn polish, it's not going too well. The only things i definitely remember how to say are, "Do you speak English" and "I want a drink now"... i think they will both come in handy (j/k Dad!)

Well I'm going to try and check out Frankfurt during my 7 hour layover tomorrow, hopefully i won't miss my connecting flight like my mom predicts (she says i'm not taking the conservative/smart attitude and staying in the airport, i say i'm experiencing EVERYTHING).

Ok well i'm going to get some sleep and I guess my next post will be from Krakow. I hope everyone has some awesome summer plans :)

random thought: am i going to look back on this blog like i do my old diary and think i was totally ridiculous??