I learnt a Polish word in class. Lampa.
It means lamp.
What were you thinking?
One of my "fans" asked me why i haven't updated the blog, so here i am. Lemme recall what i did for the past few days.
On Sunday afternoon i doodled.
Then in the evening, Peishi and I went to the movies with our Austrian friends, Christian, Michael and Gregor. The show was Ja, Ty i On which was what we know as You, me and Dupree except that Ja, Ty i On literally meant "I, You and Him" in polish. Anyway, the American films here are screened its original language with polish subtitles. A ticket on Sunday with student discount (or "bilet" in polish) costs 16 zlotys. The Austrians told us that an average movie ticket in Vienna cost 19 Euros! That’s 38 SGD for one ticket! Imagine if the movie turned out to be lousy.
Monday was my first day of school. It was alright, although the first lesson at 8am (which i had to drag myself out of bed for) was cancelled when i got there. It will only start next week, so everyone could leave. Thank god my dorm was only 3 mins away! As for Financial engineering, i dozed off even though i was sitting in the front row! I really can't help it man, the conditions in class were way too conducive for sleeping. It seems the profs here don't really have a habit of turning on the lights in the day or even evening until it really gets dark. Just when i tried to psych myself up for the next consecutive finance, thinking it can't possibly get any worse, only to realise the same archaic prof was taking the class too.
We also cooked in the afternoon. See my masterpiece in the foreground!
After TWO unbearable classes, i had to EAT. Went to meet Peishi, Jin and the Americans for dinner. It was a pretty cool restaurant where the waitering staff wear traditional clothes, and mondays are when you'd get food and beer at discounted prices. We had Sznycel, their house specialty, it's basically breaded pork chop; but its huge! probably the size of a face towel or bigger, and will put the Shihlin XXXL Ji1 Pa2 to shame. If you try this, you have to share it with someone else. Jin almost died trying to eat the whole thing, plus they served him the largest slab.
Sznycel. Not a very justifiable pic of it's. But heres what it looks like.
Jin, me, Peishi, Katrina, Elizabeth (Jipo and Kang, her appetite is wayyy bigger than you two - combined)
Yesterday, we did a typical homecooked Singaporean meal for Jin, and he cooked his Korean ramen for us. It's DAMN nice. It's basically just korean instant noodles, but he added egg and those really spicy green chilli in and it was so shiok. During dinner, Jin told us about his army days in Korea, like how they were given only one roll of toilet paper to use for 4 months. So everytime when they need to go use the toilet, they can only tear two pieces. And one piece after meals to wipe the mouth. Whatttt, like that where got enough?
Stay tuned for pictures of the homecooked meal..
At night, there was a boat party by the Wisla river. Basically the party was held in the open air deck inside the boat by the dock. Kind of refreshing compared to going to a typical club. The students here really have all sorts of ideas, I heard they are organising a tram party too. On the boat, it was beer for most people, conversation here and there and super classic music like YMCA. Everybody did the Macarena, which was quite hilarious. When it came to limbo rock, this korean bloke, Kim (or "old man", he's 29) just shoved me across to the other side, implying with my height I didn't need to bend backward at all to get through.
There was a foosball table on the boat too, and I couldn't resist a game. Peishi and I had a showdown with two guys at foosball. Guess who won? The team with the "star defender" or course! Peishi ain't too shabby either, except she resorted to the underhanded “bbq chicken wing” method, like SOME of my juniors. Haha. Did I mention it was one Italian, one French we were up against, what an irony ;)
Meanwhile, Im amazed by how many European people are picking up Mandarin, and they are doing really well at it. That night alone, two polish natives managed to carry a decent conversation with me in mandarin. Both have travelled to China and one is going back again, while I have to sheepishly admit I haven't even laid a foot there before. All the Singaporean Chinese beware, these guys are gonna kick our ass anytime in the future at our mother tongue.
Didn’t stay there too long, when it's late, people get sloshed and things sometimes get out of hand. To save money instead of taking the cab, we tried to locate the night bus back to our dorm because we already bought the student concession for 3 month’s worth of public transport, be it via metro, tram or bus at 83 PLN. I think Kim was a little drunk, apparently he only had one glass, yet already he was slurring in a overly chirpy manner. Very amusing. I must also mention that we met this drunk Australian outside the boat, he asked Kim if he was from Korea and how he was getting home. Then he claimed it was a good idea for Kim to take the bus because "you Koreans are cheap". His racist remark didn’t really bother me though. For every bastard like him, there's at least ten others who had more sense to embrace diversity and people of varied ethnicity. The walk to the central bus terminal was a long one, but it was well worth it. We met a couple of Polish people who were going back from the party, so they mostly led the way. The night was cool and the city was serene. Plus we were within the vicinity of Old Town - my favourite place in Warsaw so far, so I got a chance to pass by it and observed how the place appeared at night.
Showering in the wee hours of the morning was really no joke. Was freezing my ass off walking along the corridors back to my room after the bath. Maybe I can forget about bathing when winter comes.
Finally, to end off this post, I’d like to mention that with new found friends, places and perspectives, I must say i still do fondly think of my good ol' pals and my family back home. Miss you all folks!
After that, we headed back to school for an organised tour around Warsaw. Although it lasted merely 3 hours, it was pretty good as it gave us a glimpse of Warsaw, and a glimmer of hope that this seemingly dreary looking place can be quite a gem.
Day 2
This morning, we had an information session at Warsaw School of Economics or SGH in short (pronounced as As-Geh-Har). Instead of staying on after the break for some lecture, my Singaporean friend and I joined the Koreans for lunch at Oriental Bar, a Vietnamese eatery just around the corner from the school. Had curry chicken rice, cost 10 PLN (around 5 SGD), not exactly that cheap, but check out the serving portion and you’ll see it’s well worth it.
That was my lunch and dinner
The moment we walked past the row of tall bushes, we found ourselves right at the entrance of Park Lazienkowski, staring at the ponderous Sculpture of Frederic Chopin. It was a marvellous sight since it caught most of us by surprise.
Exactly what plants do they grow in the park, it got us all high.
Me and those green headed mallard ducks you see in story books.
Saw this along the way on the bus, it's quite a mouthful.
Stare Miasto, also known as Old Town, my favourite part of the tour
Notice how the person can make the picture look even better
Sir Stamford Raffles in Old Town? Or Statue of Liberty in Esther's case.
Ice cream. 1.50 zloty for one scoop, that’s only 75cents SGD!
Taste of Poland. Literally.
Wow wow wow, I have my own blog now. Just one of the many blogs floating around on the www, nothing special. But at least now I can take you along with me on my exchange journey. No need to spend a grand sum on a plane ticket, only to be assigned a seat right next to the lavatory =p I hope to update this as much as I can, not sure how consistent I can be though. I am going to try my best, but on your part can you also motivate me, ie. tell me how much you like my posts, that my photos are awesome and how cool I look in them. Haha enough crap, lets bring on the pictures for day 1.
My groovy buddy Agata and her other half. Don’t you think her hair looks like mine, only nicer
Beet soup with small dumplings. Don’t worry, tastes better than it looks.
My buddy’s dish. Dumplings with assorted fillings - Cabbage, meat or mushroom.
My dish. Veal with mushrooms and young potatoes. Tis the season for mushrooms, hence guaranteed to be fresh and good, which was indeed the case.
As for my take on Polish food after this gastronomic affair? Very promising so far.
