colorowa czarownica

czarna czarownica

Obviously, this year I had a WITCH costume for halloween (that maybe fits to me anyway LOL :P)
Enjoy the pictures from our stormy pre-party at Peter's :)

Peti always has to makes a stupid face...

with Pippi

Iwonka stole my hat

flying. and Orsi is victim :D

with Iwonka

Mikolaj wearing my hat :P

fancy ;)

Timmo's visit in Kraków...

..was awesome:)
Briefly, we...
...made a trip to the fort of Kosciuszki
...had a party at Peter's 
...explored the Wawel
...climbed the Tower on the Main Square
...entered a synagogue where Timmo had to wear a Jewish hat (kipa)
...acrossed the dragon's tunnel
...admired the beautiful inside of the St. Maria Bazilika
...listened a classical music concert
...visited Schindler's factory in Podgorze
...cooked
...also, we tried many special places to eat
In sum, these were eventful and exciting 6 days just for us. Next time at Christmas and New Year Eve in Hungary, cannot wait:)

Kosciuszki

Kosciuszki

Zikkurat :P

together :)

Kazimierz

Valentina & Cory

Today we had a "Study Abroad" workshop at the university; all the foreign countries who have contracts with Kraków, were represented. Hungary had a common table with Bulgaria and Romania, and surprisingly, the label said something like that: "come and study on the Balkans".... Balkans??? How long has been Hungary part of the Balkans??? Nevertheless, I met a girl who could speak some words in Hungarian, but I guess she understands more cause she had a Hungarian boyfriend and also, she was working in Hungary this summer (preparing lángos!!!)

the wall made by broken tombstones

inside the Ramuh synagogue

On Monday Cory, Valentina and me decided to explore a little bit more Kazimierz. The district is famous of the Jewish memories and monuments; according to my guidebook 7 synagogues are situated here. We even entered in 1 of them (Remuh Synagogue); I've never been inside any of them. Also, next to that, there is a Jewish cemetery from the 18th century. I have to mention that my guidebook is really cool I find every important information about Kraków so I was just translating everything for the others from that:)

Cory & me

entering a Jewish place, the guys have to cover their head

I really like Kazimierz, it's the best place in Krakow, I love the small shops with different handmade stuffs or other kind of products. Also, every each restaurant, bar or pub is so unique; I cannot find any other word to describe them :) I'm looking forward to guid my friends over here (who are actually comming in 2 weeks!!!! :)

Salt Mines

as it looks, it was really deep!

This Saturday ESN organized a trip to the Salt Mines in Wieliczka. I think it was great, I've never been so deep like there. It's amazing to see how the people and also horses were living there, under the earth.. Another surprising thing is that the guide mentioned some legends about Kinga, daughter of the Hungarian king, IV. Béla!! She married a Polish "guy" (I guess Prince or King haha :D) and she got Hungarian salt as wedding present from his father... whatever, the story is better but I'm too lazy to write it down, the main thing is that the Polish-Hungarian famous friendship started in the 14s century :D

The Salt Mine from outside

We tried to lick the wall and yes, surprisingly it was salty :P Also, because the whole mine is not used anymore just for visitors, they created a lot of salt statue. Of course, one of them is devoted for John Paul II. :) But some others were dwarfs or figures from the Polish history.
The whole trip was awesome besides that everything (and everybody) is sooo slow :P But it's natural with such a big group...


The party on Saturday night was unforgettable again, starting in Peter's apt and continuing in the S14... however, now I promised to myself to concentrate more on my final thesis. I have to say, I'm doing good with that, but we'll see... since today we have an official thesis meeting every Monday :) And Timmo is coming (hopefully) on Friday staying until next Wednesday… :):):)

we went down by foot and came up by elevator

still from Tuesday - Hungarians

Być

We had some funny moments yesterday when our Polish teacher introduced us the Polish "to be" verb: "być", that is pronounced like the English "bitch". Nicee... Even our half Australian-half Polish friend told us that it was embarrassing when she was shopping at home with her mom talking all the time in Polish of course using the verb "być", and of course, everybody was shocked how she could tell it to her mom... Such a nice language, no? :P


Concerning how the progresses towards 'being fluent in Polish' are going, I found an appropriate video:

Also, I posted some pictures from Tuesday when we had an amazing Spanish party in Diva Club, but the main reason because I went there was Orsi's birthday:) Entering the club we let the organizers to paint Spanish flag on our face and instead, we got a free welcome Sangria.

Yesterday Iwona, Kasia, Peter and me had a nice evening, drinking hot beer in a pub on the main square and talking about old times:) I like these evenings, all together from GVSU...
Tomorrow: Salt Mines!!

Last changes in my schedule...

with Orsi

Following some debates about credits, today finally Kraków agreed to give me some credits for my Final Thesis. As a consequence, I don't need to take Sociology (and I have to admit I was happy to drop that class :P). However, I had to realize how boring would be my life with only 3 normal classes so...
I take Microeconomics :D

Hungarians

If you think I'm not normal I might agree. Nevertheless, now that I have a chance to get a better grade than in Debrecen (that was really JUST enough to pass) I gonna do it! This subjects is one of those 6 that counts for my diploma grade so if I make it this time better, my final grade can be even 5 :D Sounds good, eh? :D

memories from Saturday evening

Also, today my teacher for Int'l Trade contacted me so to accomplish his subjects I have to write a not more than 20 page long research paper about financial crises in Hungary...  I guess I cannot finish this year again without at least 100 written pages...

Tomorrow basketball, that gonna be more exciting than running on the river side (even if the siteseeing is amazing over here:) Sometimes I really miss DC because of the perfect weather for running and the forest with full of squirrels :)

Oh, and some words concerning the pictures... we had a crazy (but really crazy :P) weekend with 2 crazy parties, and I guess, the rest of the semester gonna be like this :D

Cheerful moments from the integration camp:)

representing Hungary with Orsi

winners of the city game:)

I wanna ride your horse

and yes, I was the one who was wearing it :P

Oscar - the ice cream

Co to znacy po polsku?

Yes, today I had my first, official Polish class and it's soooo...no, I don't use the word hard, but maybe UNPRONOUNCABLE?? I was really surprised that in Polish "Hungary=Węgry". Italian was soo different from this, but I'll handle it somehow, for sure:)
The week also is the first so we still have the chance to change our courses. Of course, it's not my case cause my subjects are obbligatory. However, I dropped my Int'l. Ec. class and instead, I take "Sociology of Int'l. Rel's", sounds pretty easy, no?:)

Valentina and me

Okkay so my schedule so far is the following:

MONDAY - FREE
TUESDAY - Basketball (so basically free:P)
WEDNESDAY - Int'l. Transactions (lecture+ seminar)
THURSDAY - Polish, Sociology of Int'l. Rel's, Basketball
FRIDAY - Polish, Basic Law

Of course, in addition I have to take exams in "Int'l. Management", "Int'l Trade" and "Int'l Civil and Commercial Law". Oh and my FINAL THESIS, uuh...

I have to say the school system in Poland is a big disaster... Online system? It doesn't make sense at all and most of the people don't even use it. Of course, cause there is no any information about the courses besides their names. I wish they could have Neptun or something like that... Debrecen seems the most organized place ever comparing to Kraków :P

Integration week - it's done

After the 3 day long integration camp I really have to say that I integrated - at least in part of the people. 100 erasmus students participated the camp that seems really a huge number of people, and yes, it was. I couldn't get to know everybody, but I'm fine with those who I talked (partied:P) with. The whole weekend was just soo crazy... Of course, the main thing is always connected to drinking, but besides that, we had to accomplish a lot of tasks. I guess the biggest challange was to represent our country, but Orsi and me handled it with the Pálinka dal and some folk-break-dance :D Theres are some pictures still from last week when 5 of us showed up at the city game and accomplished more than 22 tasks in order to know the city more.

showing love for the queen (?)

break dance on the main square

hugging a stranger...a very stranger :P

running down from the castle

YMCA

ice cream...it wasn't any of the tasks haha:D

hugging the head from inside

ESN - the best Erasmus organization ever:)

pretending that we play trumpet