And this morning was particularly humiliating. Everyone knew where to eat breakfast except for me. Two or three times I looked, tried to open doors, waited... two or three times, I saw people come back or come down and I didnt know where they went. Or I asked them where they went and they described a completely different set of doors. So for fourty five minutes I had more trouble being lost just trying to find breakfast which I thought was in the same fucking building.
I was walking around outside when my RD came back from the building next door and saw me upset and crying. I HATE being seen crying. ESPECIALLY when it's because I don't get something everyone else has obviously gotten without difficulty. So there I am, I see him, throw my hand up, and cover my face as I walk towards him (I had guessed/neen told that it was a next door thing by that time, but I didnt know which next door, and I was about to head the wrong way. Again.) And he asks "what's wrong? Julia?" And I can't answer, because if I do, i'll start crying all over again, and so as I come up rather than answering his concerned "are you okay?" politely, I hold up a finger and wait a second.
And then I look up and grin like I wasn't just bawling for being some fucking special case and say "Apparently I am really REALLY bad at directions." And, bless him, he grinned back and chuckled. He made no big deal about it and when I asked if there was even still time for me to eat he was like "oh yeah. Go ahead. Please." So at least I got breakfast. In which I splurged on a jam-filled bread slice and some motherfucking nutella as my first sweets here in Poland.
When we went to leave the hotel, we were allowed to stash our stuff. And I was so out of it by that point that I decided that I didnt need my cell phone and left my bag.
But that meant my camera was left, too. And the camera on the cell I didnt need. So the cablecar ride up was basically standing room only (more ow) and the views, (which were amazing) I missed out on photographing.
That is, until on the way down, when a couple of my API group lent me their cell phones to take some pics.
While on the peak, the wind was howling and it was both snowing and whipping the powder around. Violently. Like. Hard core violently. And it was probably about 10degrees without the windchill, so we huddled our way to the top of a short trail and took some pictures while apparently standing in slovakia.
I spent 2 hours in the lobby reading The Phantom Tollbooth. Which is an amazing book. Very clever. I recommend it. There was also a five year old who I played with a little bit. I didn't communicate super well, but I had him teaching me the word for ball (Puka) and balloon. Which was just Balon. And he liked me catching be call so much he ran at me screaming and hugged me, and when he started getting violent, I sort of tackled him a little bit, and he liked being lifted and whatnot. at one point, he was pretending to stab me woth a plastic lego sword, so I was moaning and flailing on the floor pretending to doe, and he stabbed my leg, which I shot up and let fall back down. RIGHT. ON. MY. HEEL. At which point I burst out laughing and moaning for real.
He ordered me to get him a glass of wter in english and I was like "no, go get your own". Apparently he belonged to the owner of the BandB, because an attendant/recpetionist came over and took him to get some water. And I realized again how I am probably not ready for kids, because it occurred to me as he walked away he might not knowbhow to politely ask IN ENGLISH.
I'll post the views from the ride down as soon as I get them from the other guys' cell phones, but in the meantime there were some great views on the way down the mountain.
Now, I sat on the correct side initially to get the best views, but RD was like "no," when I asked if I was correct (because I wasn't sure). Still, I was able to get some really great ones with my SLR. I mean, moving bus, but still.
For the first time, tho, I did miss home. Trying to read the signs and putting to much effort into trying to pronounce aomething as best I could while still not knowing what it mean hit me as pointless and frustrating. And I know that was a lack of sleep and probably some "culture shock", but today was hard.
In the meantime:
random hair. Shiney because neosporin (thanks for the neosporin, mom.)
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