It's summer!

Nadeszlo lato! Strasznie sie ciesze! Szczegolnie, ze tego lata mam nadzieje miec wiecej czasu dla siebie (juz sporzadzam w glowie liste rzeczy, ktore chcialabym zrobic i zdobycie pieknej opalenizny bedzie na pewno na jej szczycie!). Bawcie sie dobrze!

It's summer! I'm so happy and excited! especially that I hope to have some more time for myself (I'm already making a list in my head of all the things I'd like to do during this warm season and getting a nice suntan is definitely on top of it!). Enjoy!

Do tego, dzis ujawniono, ktore z polskich miast otrzyma prestizowy tytul Europejskiego Miasta Kultury w 2016 roku. Bedzie to Wroclaw i ta wiadomosc bardzo mnie ucieszyla, bo odwiedzialm to miasto po raz pierwszy pod koniec zeszlego roku i strasznie mi sie podobalo. Uwazam, ze zasluzylo na tak piekne wyroznienie.

Plus, today we have found out that thew new European Capital of Culture in 2016 will be Wroclaw (Poland) together with another Spanish city (the name of which I don't remember right now). I'm happy as I visited Wroclaw last year and I beleive it truly deserves it! :)

Chce zwrocic Wasz uwage tez na jedna z polskich artystek, ktorych do tej pory nie docenialam. Pati Yang i jej nowa plyta "Wires and Sparks" jest rewelacyjna (na pewno kupie, kiedy bede w Polsce). Poza tym wysluchalam dzis dwoch z nia wywiadow i zrobila na mnie niesamowite wrazenie. Oto najnowszy teledysk "Near to God".

I'd like to draw your attention to one of Polish "underground" musicians who I never particularly went crazy about. She's called Pati Yang and her newest CD is a jewel (I'll surely get it when I'm in Poland next month). Besides, today I've listened to two intervews with her and I was greatly imppressed!. Here's the latest clip called "Close to God".

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What is a tragedy for you?

Is it when you forget to pay your bills on time? Is it when your dog eats your favourite shoe? Is it when you are 2 mins late for the last train? Is it when you lose your job? Or maybe when you break up with your bf/gf? All these things could be considered tragedies. Everything depends on the perspective and your personal attitude. To me, this day today is a tragedy. Polish President dies in a plane crash. Together with his wife and scores of other senior Polish figures. Let's be honest, I'm not interested in politics. I'm not here, in Italy, I wasn't back there in Poland. But it doesn't matter today.

I just finished my morning class and went out with Artù for a walk in Piazza Santa Lucia when I received a text message from my Mum informing me about the tragedy. Since that moment I have been crying and grieving continously when listening to the Polish radio on the Internet in seek for news and more information... Everyone died. "Crème de la crème" as the French would say. All the most important politicians, historians, representatives of Poland. I realised it cannot be fully understood by someone who is not Polish. My bf is trying to convince me that "things like that happen...", that it could be an opportunity for the country, than one should be sad but should aslo be able to look at this objectively. Well, I can't. At least not today. Maybe my reaction is exaggerated because I cannot be there? Or maybe I'm simply oversensitive... I called my Mum who started to cry together with me and I must say it was very comforting... Unfortunately my Dad wasn't home but after a few mins he called me on my mobile and tried to console me. This was very touching.

Only once have I felt the way I'm feeling now and it was when the Pope died, exactly 5 years ago. But I was in Poland and it was a bit easier. All the cars were "decorated" with a piece of black material/clothing attached to the radio aerial. I did that too.These tragedies change and unite people. Even if for a brief moment but suddenly you see they become kinder to each other, less aggressive, suddenly you don't hear about rapes, murderers or burglaries on radio or TV, people try to help each other, they become nicer. What's more I don't care about politics. Polish politics sucks, it's famous for outrageous scandals, continous quarrels and disorder and (of course) corruption. But it doesn't matter today. I feel as if sth has finished and my country will never be the same. Don't pity me. Just let me be sad. I know it'll pass.

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What the heck??!!!

Sometimes you just want to leave and never come back. Sometimes you're sick of everything, you're fed up and angry with the entire world. This is one of these days... and I feel hopeless and helpless and lonely, though so many people are around. I don't know, maybe I feel homesick.. afer all it's Christmas and I'm Here, not There. But maybe it's just an excuse. Or maybe not... Anyway, I feel so grateful that I can just put a picture here so you know how I feel today...

I'm sure I'll be much better tomorrow...

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Smile! Or cry!

A little part of the time I spent in Poland, I dedicated to watching tv. You cannot imagine how good and nice it is to finally watch programmes produced by your native tv stations. I loved to listen to Polish language, I cherished watching some fragments of Polish soap operas that I hated back in the past when I lived there.

One thing that I am always interested in and enjoy the most wherever I am are the tv spots and ads. And I saw one spot for an important language school in Poland that I absolutely need to share with you today here.

Of course it made me think. In Poland we were always a bit... hmm.. lazy about learning foreign languages. I must admit happily it starts to change (please note that I'm stressing the word "starts" here). I can see that more and more shop assistants at least try to communicate (and don't run away pretending there's a very urgent phone call they need to make at that very minute) when a foreigner comes in asking about the availibillity of colours of the T-Shirt he has just spotted on the display window, people don't turn around acting as if they didn't hear if a tourist asks them about direction to the nearest bank or post office. I'm not referring only to the English lg. I really hope that in a few years Poland we'll be more like Sweden (when children start learning languages in the kindergarten and sth like 70% of population speak English at an intermediate or higher level) or rather than Italy, France or Spain...

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Knock Knock! May I come in? : )

My Dearest Blog-Friends!

It's been soo long since I put a post on my blog! You know I was on a 2 week holiday in Poland and before that, my Polish friend, Ania came to visit me for a week and we left for Poland together. Of course, I'm not going to lie to you-I had wonderful time! Let's look at some pics, I'll be glad to comment on them for you.

Let's start with Ania's stay in Sicily. Unfortunately I couldn't dedicate much time to her, I was at work until 4.00pm everyday so I tried to organize her days the best I could to make her feel comfortable and to let her visit as much as she could during this short holiday.

During weekend, though, we found time to go to the beach:



I was elated when my Italian friends offered some help (they took her to Catania for example) and together we had wonderful evenings and "Italian style" dinners.

Ania, who loves frutti di mare (seafood), took pictures of almost every dish we had these days!

...then she also prepared some typical summer Polish plum cake for us:


... and OF COURSE we went for a pizza with her!




Ania OF COURSE was astonished about how the Italians park their cars... Well, I got used to it.

Then we went to Poland together. Of course I couldn't miss the Manufaktura complex, which I find absolutely amazing! You can do absolutely everything in there- there's a big commercial centre when you can indulge yourself with shopping, you can go to SPA, go bowling, watch a movie in the cinema, go clubbing in the evening, eat delicious meals in more than 40 various pubs and restaurants, I love it!





Of course I was meeting my friends for some... Italian coffees... in fancy new cafés : )

and I was walking a lot in the park close to my house:


...and then one day I decided to have my hair cut:


... I visited some of the furniture shops with my Mum since she's considering buying a new coach to the living room... Sometimes I saw really strange things like this....



or that....



... but in my opinion the beauty of simple things always wins...

During the second week of my holiday, I mostly... worked... yeah, I worked as a translator/interpreter during the International Nature Film Festival that is held every other year in my city. It's a great honour and pleasure for me to be invited to work there.

And that's all for me. I'm back. I'm happy, relaxed and ready to move on. But now I need to catch up with all your blogs!!! : )))

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