(Today's blog post contains some strong language. Don't do drugs, kids.)
Today, I ate three-fifths of a candy bar that was 2.1% alcohol. I'm such a bad ass.
Speaking of being drunk, the amount of drunkards here is beginning to scare me just a little. I mean, when they walk by on the street while I'm safe inside, it's okay. But when I pass them with my mom on the street and the turn their blank eyes on me and stare drunkenly into my soul and stumble in what could vaguely be called my direction, it's all, "FUCKFUCKFUCK GET AWAY FROM ME YOU DRUNKEN BASTARD."
This is some serious business.
Being here is a little nicer than Germany in the sense that when I go places, it's just my mom and I, so we speak English. In Germany we went places with my uncle and my aunt and my cousin(s) and so on, so they all spoke Polish to each other. Nicholas would talk to me in English, but everyone else ignored me for the most part when around their Polish-speaking family members. To be fair, my uncle and aunt don't speak English, but.
I can't wait for my sister to get here so I'll have more people to, like, talk to. Granted, she's been practicing her Polish from the second she heard there would be a chance of her coming here. I would've gladly done that, but it's not so easy for me. She was at least born here, and while my family moved to America when she was very little--I think too young to talk, but I don't know much about babies aside from what John Green has told me--they spoke Polish around the house for a bit. I think. So anyway, my mom started to teach me Polish on multiple occasions when I was younger, but then she got busy with work and basically never taught me anything.
That isn't to say I'm totally lost here. The first time I came here, five years ago, I picked up most of what I know. Nothing majorly helpful, but I know like, numbers and colors, some foods, and useful phrases like "I'm hungry" and "But I like the cookie." I had an Over The Hedge obsession during my first trip. Then, when I came here, with my brother, I learned how to ask for a sip of beer and "Gdzie jest ____" (where is ____). I'm pretty good at figuring out what people are saying by picking out a word I know, and sticking it into the likely context. Plus European people dig using helpful hand gestures in stores and things, and all that packaged together means that I often know what's going on without my mom translating.
Trust me, if I'd had the time, I would've taken up the Polish-learning book in the house and studied the hell out of it, but that wasn't an option. You see--
Now I need to tell a story. XD
So, in 7th grade, I signed up for German. I took the class for a year and got straight A+'s and was the favorite of the teacher, like the Mary-Sue Hufflepuff I am, but then budget cuts swooped in and ruined all my fun. German and Russian got lopped off the Program of Studies and I was left to chose a new language to study, because Mary-Sue Hufflepuffs don't take a study hall if there is an academic alternate. I chose French. However, it put me behind my entire grade language-wise, aside from the ten-ish other 8th graders in that class, Mary-Sue Hufflepuffs don't fly well with being academically behind. My options for languages in 9th grade were to 1. Start a new language, which would be stupid as I am fluent in English and know bits and pieces of three other languages already; plus I'd still be behind and am not interested in Spanish or Latin anyway. 2. See if enough people want to take French 1B and then take that course, which would leave me behind. 3. Take French 1/hon, which would mean spending a trimester re-learning everything I learned the past year and still being behind, or 4. Studying the 1B material over the summer. I chose option 4, so...
Back to the main story line.
--I'm studying French over the summer. I also don't have a tutor, because I'm a Mary-Sue Hufflepuff. Luckily, an FFN friend of mine has three years of French under her belt, another possibly more (I forgot), and a third is starting to self-learn the language. So I'm in good hands if I need help, and Google translate can give me a fairly good idea of pronunciations I'm not sure of. See? No room to study Polish.
Okay, so on to what I did today.
After getting up and eating breakfast, I read for a little while before my mom and I set out on an adventure. At first, while we were walking around and ambling into various supermarkets to look for things we would need to buy on our way back, it was windy and cold. When we got on the road that led straight to the beach, it was sprinkle-y and cold. On the beach itself, where I may have committed jellyfish murder*, it was just cold. Then we got off the sand and it became sprinkle-y and cold again. Then we went into a restaurant, where we ordered fantastic food that was only about nine USD per person (25 zloty per person if you divide the bill directly in half, though it wasn't that evem), and it became rainy and cold. It was rainy and cold while we were walking back, it was rainy and cold while we were in the supermarket, and in the post office, and in the other supermarket, and still when we got back. And I'm from New England.
Not to complain, as like, I'm in Europe, but it would be nice if the weather could lighten up. Apparently it was like this for all of July. Buhbuhbuh.
When we got home, I basically hunkered down to play Pokemon. I got up to buy magazines at the little strip of little shops next door, then ate a lovely crossaint that had come out of the oven a few hours before when we were at the Lidl that's a block away, and got back to Pokemon. I also checked the connection with the only non-password-protected network every few minutes, to no avail. I can't figure out why it runs into trouble trying to connect. Currently, my only means of getting internet is the house of my other grandparents, two blocks away, but I can't just go there to use the internet, and I have other people and sites to see as well.
I had a second crossaint for dinner, along with a tomato and a mug of green tea and some blueberries and strawberries and that alcoholic chocolate bar, aw yeah. To be fair, I'm a fourteen-year-old girl who weighs 96 pounds--probably less due to all the walking I've been doing and my boss metabolism--and a handful of those candy bars would probably be enough to get my mind fuzzy. I'm so cool.
That's about it for now. My mom is still stressing over her mother and how...messily she lives. My mom wants to replace some of her things and clean the hell out of this place, but she isn't sure about the money with the outrageous prices here. If you think in dollars, the prices aren't that bad, but if you don't think in dollars (or you think that zloty and dollars are worth the same), it's not pretty.
PoKEMON StATS
Hours played: 20 hours and 18 minutes
Current team:
- Emboar, 53
- Zebstrika, 42
- Ducklett, 30
- Trubbish, 28
- Simisage, 26
- Vanillite, 26
Badges: 7
*I thought the thing was a piece of fancy glass someone had dropped--clear with a design in the center. I asked my mom, "What's that?" and poked it with my toe. It just squished in and dented. We stared at it for a moment before my mom said, "That's a jellyfish!" Those things are supposed to be around in September. THAT'S HOW NICE -cough- THE WEATHER IS. Also, my Hufflepuff skills shone through when I found some sea glass. "Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders!" :D
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