Each month I am here it keeps getting better and better. People keep asking me if I am starting to miss home, they say that usually around this time is when students start getting home sick, and while I do miss talking face to face to my mom, friends, and everyone else, I’m not home sick. There is endless things to do in this country, thousands of people to meet, plenty of sights to see, and if it were up to me I would stay here well past 10 months, experiencing, meeting, and seeing everything there is to do here.
I’ve heard beautiful music at the filarmónica, gone to more mountains, eaten (a lot) more cheese, turned 17, gone to a Taco Hemingway concert, experienced Wszystkich Swietych (all saints day) and Poland’s 100th anniversary of Independence, gotten closer with my family and friends, and cut more than 7 inches of my hair off (please don’t tell my mom).
The filarmónica concert blew me away, the music was so beautiful and so well done, and me and the other exchange students had a wonderful time, trying, to sing along. I’ve not just gone to a classical music concert but also to a Taco Hemingway concert, he is an amazing Polish rapper. And it was incredible. I don’t understand barely anything he’s saying but the energy in the room was crazy amazing, you can feel how much the other attendees loved him and the words he was saying. I cannot wait until the day I can understand.
The endless mountain trips are some of my favorite things to do. The hikes up the mountain is always super tiring, but me and my friends are all tired together, and at least the view is nice 🙂 .
Speaking of beautiful views, I have never seen anything like the Polish All Saints Day, or Wszystkich Swietych, this is when families visit the graves of loved ones and remember them. We remember them by lighting many lanterns and placing them on their grave along with flowers and sometimes flags. it is absolutely beautiful at night seeing millions of candles lit ( https://www.facebook.com/176585571743/posts/10155609310486744/ ) .
Poland turned 100 this year! Well it’s been alive for much longer than that, but it has been 100 years since it has re-gained its independence. Kraków’s city center was filled with people lined up to hear the trumpeters play the national anthem from the tower, it seemed like the whole city was there to see it. Flags were raised and joy was in the air. Sto lat Polska! Kocham cię!
Mam siedemnaście lat kurczaków!!!
October was the birthday party month for Kraków, four of the six exchange students had birthdays. For my birthday my host sister surprised me by taking me and my friends to a haunted house, it was amazing because I had been talking about how I missed American Halloween activities, so the haunted house actually made me the complete opposite of scared, it made me so so so happy. And when I came home and opened the door the entire kitchen had plates of pierogi on every serface! Pierogi with meet, cheese, fruit- basically all of the best pierogi you’ve ever had all in one place. That night was a good night.
(Me and my sister on Halloween)
Last but not least I cut my hair this month, before I had cut it it was the longest it has ever been, and I was only planning on only cutting an inch or so (3 cm) … nope I ended cutting more than 7 inches (18 + cm). Please don’t tell my mom.
And of course here are some pictures of my wonderful friends
