bring out the fluffy chair!
Okay so i didnt mention the solar eclipse because seriously there was only a sliver missing and i could only see it if i looked through my sleeve. It didnt even get dim around here. I was so stoked for the supposed 90% coverage we were going to get that I woke up at 6:30 (two hours early) after going to bed at like 2 (hanging with flatmates) and couldn't go back to sleep. And the best I could do was look at it for a second through my flippin sleeve.
After that, though, I went back to the antique store and got my Gramma her vase. Very specific. And I paid extra for THEM to ship it, so I don't have to worry about it. We also passed back my St. Anny Church, so we stepped inside because they weren't holding mass, and took pictures all inside. (I'll include them at the bottom.) After that, we went to the torture museum.
It was really more of a torture basement. It was one room, and they normally charge more for a guide, so we passed it up. But as there were only three of us and it was ONE ROOM (and i asked if i coudl take photos; was not allowed because 'the space is so small'), we got the tour anyway. We told us the names of all the stuff they had and also what they were used for. and for free!
People is gross. That's what i learned. Also that the idea of people putting women in chastity belts whent hey went away to war is bullshit; women would die if they were in a chastity belt longer than about two weeks. It was much more for knights and monks (idk if they would die. i asked but apparently there aren't a lot of records). Also that it wasn't super common to have people being tortured. the threat of torture was a big enough deterrent to render crime fairly irregular.
Today I worked on homework and planning some trips. Tomorrow i buy tickets to romania with my Flatmate (We're skipping bucharest for now, but i'm tempted to go back-- it's only 6 hours south of Transylvania.) to train and bus to Transylvania over the weekend. I'm also looking at Scotland and Northern England a week after that, during Easter Break to explore some stuff tied to our family.
RyanAir is amazing, guys. seriously.
Tonight there was a fancy dinner with a lot of API people. (I got to meet my RD's wife; she's lovely and is comprising a list of Polish-written books for me to read and also like classical music, so we might go to a few Philharmonic events while I'm here. I'm SO happy.) And they asked us all about what we want to do and why are we here and what are we studying and what is the best thing about the place and what do we do for nightlife and what is the worst thing about API.
I mean I think I fielded the questions pretty well; I had them laughing a few times, so that was good. One lady was from Spain and she told me a little about the political friction between Barcelona and Madrid, and then I learned about the Polish government and some of what is going on with the dried wheat/flowers here (I'll have to purchase some and tell you about them with pictures). One dude was from Miami University in Ohio. Apparently they were founded before the miami in florida? Idk, i find that hard to believe, but he was pretty insistent. He asked if there were many expats here and I wondered aloud why people moving TO america are immigrants, but people moving away from america are expats? And same with britain. is it just rich white people that get to be patriots? And he said "because everyone wants to move TO america!" And I laughed and buried my face in my hands because it's one of the most arrogant things i've ever heard.
One of the appetizers was a brownish cream and so i spread it on a cracker and it tasted creamy and meaty and it wasn't bad. (it was one of those places so fancy that you have a choice of chicken or fish and for dessert you have cobbler or creme brulee) and I said "I don't know how i feel about this. It's good, kind of. I don't know what it is, i don't WANT to know what it is, but it's alright." My RD said "That's paté."
"...As in the liver of a force-fed goose? Dude, I said I DIDN'T want to know. Thanks for that." but seriously it's not that bad.
Other people instragrammed their foods, but I did not. you're just going to have to pretend that there was pretentious beautiful food as part of this blog instead. There was bacon-wrapped chicken ovals, mashed-potato ovals, and an oval of cabbage-type stuff in a small balsamic pool and a border of green pesto. The chicken was stuffed with prunes-and-nuts, and so i excavated that all out. It was one of those places that i placed my silverware with the knife down, in-between the tines of the fork (tho to be fair, i forgot and had it at 8 and 4, so i had to fix it) to signal that you were done to the waiters.
Our waiter looked exactly like a young Jean-Claude Van Damme (who i thought was french-canadian, but apparently he's from Belgium? And i couldn't remember the word 'Belgian' so i thought for a second tonight that it might be "Belgish, but that sounds wrong?").
I got the Creme Brulée and it was perfect (i assume, it was good and i've never had it before) and it had berry sorbet in a perfect sphere on top and on top of THAT was a perfect tiny mint leaf.
I also cleaned a bunch today (taking out the garbage, scrubbing the bathroom, removing the recycling, hiding the empty booze bottles left over from when we've had visitors.) and am about 1/3rd of the way done with my final project. I have to figure out what i'm going to say, but i'm using my powerpoint as note cards (and will have a page of notes) and i'm very excited about it. I told the Spanish lady next to me about what i want to do and told her about my project and she said that it seems very interesting and admirable that i want to change so much about something so wrong and said my project seems very interesting. (I will strategically be working on my homework when they show up tomorrow.) And my room is cluttered, but it's not like i have underwear hanging out, so im probably just going to leave it somewhat as-is.
Anyway, here's the church, instead of my food.
angels positively dripping off
the fuck you lookin' at?
and me!
oooo so pretty (the church too i guess)
ReplyDeleteYou look great, as usual. The church is gorgeous, too.
ReplyDeleteLove reading about your adventures. Through your words and pictures, I can vicariously enjoy these places that are on my (increasingly unrealistic) bucket list.