Closing Weeks

After break is all down hill and everything seems to be quickly coming to a close. The following Thursday was the Yamato Drummers of Japan performance. I ended up going with Kylie one of the other group members. The outstanding performance was made up of a group of ten Japanese drummers. The drummers had precise rhythm but also a never-ending amount of energy; dancing, shouting, singing, and even performing subtle jokes throughout the performance. It was one of the top best live performances I've seen so far. The next day I was invited by Kasper to go an improv comedy performance. The improv was done by a group of Poles and a group of Germans, all in their mid twenties and study theater. It was very amateur and you could tell that many of them had never done anything like it before but nevertheless the quirky awkwardness still made it funny. Afterwards we ended up befriending the German group of performers, who then invited us to eat at their banquet, and come to the after party. Both that Thursday and Friday were comparably the best nights I've had in Krakow. What this means is that I haven't had many amazing times here in Poland. There is nothing in particular to blame for this reason, but I will explain a little bit on why my time in Poland wasn't as desirable as one would wish when going into this sort of program. I will start with what is not the reason, that is, the location. Krakow is an amazing city to be in, it is beautiful, has plenty of shopping, lots of bars and clubs for nightlife activities, loads of museums, and overall there are almost always events going on. So what could go wrong in a place that gives you everything? For me the answer to this lies in three factors. The first being simply the weather, once the weather starts to get cold and the days start to get shorter I pick up the case of the winter blues and unfortunately only the warmth of the sun can fix this. The next reason is the people I meet. In Germany I was lucky to have met a group of people who all connected well and ended up making my time there better than I could have imagined, and of course just meeting and developing a relationship with Elli was something that I never thought would happen. It’s not that I don't like the people here, but I just haven't clicked with them like I did with the people I met back in Marburg. The Krakow group is only made up of seven people, who ended up sort of splitting into two smaller groups due to just social differences. With this program we aren’t mixed into a classroom with international students, but instead we have classes that are just us; some with just three of us. The opportunities to meet new people are rare, unless you are a smoker. Plus the program is so short that if you do meet someone, things end before they even get started. The last reason why I haven't clicked with Krakow is because of the overall energy here. Maybe it’s the combination of what I previously mentioned, but maybe it’s something completely separate. It is a feeling I get from the polish people, workers mainly, along with the elderly, who rarely smiles and seems to be angry or annoyed that I am even there and not being able to communicate concisely makes things even more difficult. I guess this makes me truly understand the importance of customer service- with a smile. Overall there just seems to be this negative feeling that I get from the people and atmosphere here. Maybe it has something to do with the dark past of the country still lurking in the air. All in all, I have had both positive negative experiences here and Europe has been nice to me, but I am ready to go home.  

Breaking Goodbyes

Well as I expected the semester is moving at as swift pace. It is unbelievable that I we've already just completed our weeklong mid-semester break that is placed closer to the end half of our study semester than to the beginning. For this break period I originally planned to visit Prague or Budapest or even Istanbul if it was possible, but those ideas changed to something more, calming. Before Elli came to visit me a few weeks before the break, I had already decided that seeing even more new places wasn't so important to me anymore. Instead I chose to visit my new family and friends back in Hessen. I wasn’t prepared to accept my move to Poland as a final goodbye, not yet. As the rest of the study group did the whole “travel Europe in seven days” bit, I hopped on a RyanAir 737 to Dortmund. With perfect timing, my plane arrived in the middle of Deutchebahn’s largest train strikes in history. The entire workers union of Deutschebahn was going on strike for an originally planned four days (later the striked lifted due to a lawsuit by DB). This strike left me without a train to Frankfurt. Luckily I have the best girlfriend ever and was picked up from the airport by car; Dortmund is located about three hours northwest of Frankfurt. The moment I landed in Germany I was hit by a wave of relief and happiness. Over the past few months in Poland I have built up some sort of negative energy, but all of that was left behind; it really is like Germany's become a new home. Once I arrived and saw Elli, I felt happier than I had I weeks.

The next day Elli and I took a bus to the city of Saarbrucken, which is situated very close to the border of France. This is where two of my close friends I met in Marburg are now living and doing their Studiumkollege. We spent the weekend having an excellent time and catching up on each other’s lives. That Sunday we bid farewells and I knew that this time was the last time in a long time that I will be able to meet up with them again. It was bitter sweet, but I left knowing that we will indeed see each other again, and I was very glad that I made the trip down. The remainder of the week was spent mostly back in Marburg at Elli's WG. One evening Elli planned to hold a Feuerzangebowle party. A Feuerzangebowle is a traditional hot wine drink done around the holiday season in Germany. It is very sweet and strong, making for quite a night with Elli’s friends from University. Rounding the end of my stay, we made our way back to Elli’s parents house in Frankfurt. Our last two days together was spent slow and simple. One day we went on a date to a science museum and grabbed dinner at a nice African restaurant and the next day was spent just staying at home, laying in bed, and spending time with her parents. It was those last 24 hours that were the hardest for Elli and I. We knew that this goodbye was coming but neither one of us were ready for it. All we could do was hold each other as tight as we could and not wanting to let go. Elli and I are going to continue to have a long distance relationship, and we look forward to this time next year when she comes to the United States.

How to Entertain Yourself

The last two weeks have been rather eventful because, well, I learned how to entertain myself properly. Now that I am settled and less overwhelmed with newness, I found more time to explore Krakow on my own. I promised myself before I came here that I would try to get involved in city events. I did this because I love going to live shows, art galleries, and music performance, also, I wanted to take advantage of being in a real big city; I thought Krakow would be a great place to experience all of that. I began by paying attention to posters and flyers, these show you that there is in fact always something interesting going on, especially in a big city like Krakow. Doing this I noticed a particular set of posters all around Krakow with very eye catching graphic design, underneath wrote “Unsound Festival”. Next step was to do a quick Google search, there I discovered that this was actually an international festival that goes to different cities in Europe. Once the theme of the event is known the next step one should take is to look up the dates, for this event I discover that the duration of the festival lasted over the course of a week, from Sunday to Sunday. The festival is based around experimental techno music. Unsound consisted of multiple music events, as well as presentations, talks with people in the music industry, films, and art. Although I wasn't able to see everything, but I did attend all the events that I could- when there is a long lasting festival it is good to try and go to a ray of programs that are held. I started by going to the opening ceremony, which was held on the Sunday leading the week. In the middle of the week I saw a presentation done by a man from the ancient Sámi tribe based in northern Norway. The man performed traditional Sámi folk songs that are sung in long non-ending loops; each song carried a representation of the nature observed by the Sámi people- he closed his presentation with a bone chilling performance represents the Wolf. I also attended a talk that was with a handful of people from the music industry who discussed the music industry and its' connection with the culture of sex and drugs. Each person played a very different role in the music industry, therefore very different perspectives. I closed the week by attending the big “The Tickets that Explode Part II” event, which held at a venue set up with multiple rooms set for performance, perfect for this multi-act event. There were three rooms, and in each room there was a different performer every hour starting at 9pm and going until 4am. The performers were all semi-famous underground techno artists, who were paired with a psychedelic light show. I am so glad that I put the effort in to looking up the event and attending what I could. It showed me putting effort to see events is a great gift for yourself, and full of surprises. I just bought tickets to see Yakoma: The Drummers of Japan performance in November, it should be a real treat!