History

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quld5950v6w

I encourage you all to watch this short video on Polish history.

Timek

I found out that my Polish name would most likely be Timek.  Neither Tim nor Timothy are Polish names but my teacher said it would be Timek since Tomek is a common Polish abbreviated name for Thomas.  It has been cold.  My sister just informed me that 30 people have died due to the freezing temperatures here in Polska.  I do have to wear 3 sweatshirts in order to NOT become the 31st person.  The snow has made the city pretty 'cool' looking the last few days.  Here are some random photos.

On our walk to the tram to go to biophysics.

The tram lines where we get on No. 13 to head into town.  

Biophysics

The park in front of biophys

This weekend will consist of studying for embryology, histology, and some chemistry.  Enjoy the warmth Californians.

More Snow

It snowed like crazy last night and into today.  Pretty cool actually.  Lech Poznan played Juventus yesterday and the game was postponed for a while because it was too cold.  According to UEFA, it is unsafe to play in -18 C weather so they waited until it was -16 C to play.  Lech tied Junventus 1-1.  At halftime they had to change the ball they used as the white one was getting lost in the snow.  

Last night's snowfall

The 2nd half soccer ball.  

The beginning of the game

The end of the game 

Walking to class was pretty cool.  We were the first batch of people making their way through the snow. Many places had a single small track to follow.  Other places had footsteps you had to step in to keep the feet/shoes somewhat dry.  

Today I will study quite a bit, again.  

 

Cold

Officially the coldest weather I've ever been in.  My family and I were once in teeth degrees in Mammoth years back, but this is a different story.

A screen shot from my weather.  Tustin.. 70 degrees.  Poznan 10.  Ha!

Weekend and Snow

Did very well on my quiz today.  slept for a few hours then went to the gym, not need to make food and do some more reading then finalize my polish studying for that quiz tomorrow.  

First snow of season

At The Lizard King

food was not very good, but it was fun.  similar to a polish hard rock

cafe that reminded me of something my mom and sister would enjoy

wine with pepsi

it snowed most of the day today

SNOW

woke up to snow everywhere.

pretty cool


how long until i get sick of it?

over/under?

1 month/30 days

Thanksgiving

First of all, I'm thankful of my friends, family, and our health!

Another week done, boy do these fly by.  I did well on biophysics today, they changed the syllabus, again, and didn't tell anyone so my partner and I studied the wrong chapter.  They let us take the quiz for the one we studied for and we did the lab of the other.  They have changed it numerous times, and each week people study the wrong thing.  The next few weeks before I go back to the states we have 3 biophysics quizzes, 2 chemistry quizzes, embryology exam, histology quiz/exam, latin quiz, polish quiz.  I will be busy!

Thanksgiving was cool.  Definitely not nearly as great as hanging with the family like I have done for the last 25 years!  So in that sense it was a bummer being away but our school did have this huge formal dinner so there wasn't a lack of food, but not as good as the homemade stuff.

The weather has been below freezing most of this week.  We have gotten small amounts of snow the last couple days.  Nothing too substantial but definitely some flurries.  It seems like it won't get warmer until March sometime.

Friday has consisted of reading over the next chapter of biophysics and writing down all these chemistry structures I need to study this weekend.  I also watched part of Live Free Die Hard with Dennis and now watched the Ducks add to their losing streak.  I'll hopefully get up early tomorrow and spend most of the day in the library.

Lookin good Dennis and Fil

Thanksgiving dinner

More Thanksgiving

Classy

The weekly photograph of Biophysics.  Some snow not too visible on the roof.  

I also learned that the flowers in front of that tree in the middle of the grass is the remnants of a memorial for The President and the others that went down in the plane.  The entire lawn was previous filled with candles and flowers.  Some still bring flowers here.  

During anatomy, we were learning about the scalp and with the accents of the professors people weren't sure what they were talking about.  To clarify, the professor in lab said, "scalp, like scalping the Indians."  I thought it was very ironic because that was Thursday, Thanksgiving.  

Highlight of the month was talking with my family over skype tonight.  Unfortunately I couldn't be at the Contreras' to join in the festivities but I definitely am there in spirit!

Busy Busy

Its been a busy couple weeks and will be until the time i head back to california.  Some tests are coming up along with the other weekly quizzes so its keeping my blogging and anything other than studying pretty limited.  

Last friday i went bowling.  they have one bowling alley here in Poznan and it is a hybrid between a club, bowling alley, and pool hall.  I watched a ducks game this weekend, nice own goal corey perry.  

Today was the first day of snow!  It has been coming down for a couple hours now.  It was raining for much of the morning and due to the wetness it is isnt really piling up.  I think this is the point where it begins snowing A LOT.  This weekend will be filled with studying.  There is this new school library down the street from me which has been useful.  Unfortunately it closes at 3pm on saturday.  We also lost power in the dorms for a few hours two days ago.  I just got into bed to study biophysics and the power went out.  i waited for a half hour for it to come back on, it didnt so i figured it was a good excuse to just go to bed.  

Histology class awaits

Supporting the local football Team, Lech Poznan

Friends (L-R: Rahul, Gosia, Ola)

We watch football together

Focused

The Group

(Can you find me?)

all these pictures were from Ola, gave her my camera all night, maybe I'll do that more since girls are better at pictures than boys

Dzien Dobry

Good day today.  Lots of class, lots of studying, got a lot done!  Have a histo test in december and an embryology test as well.  mixed in the gym today too.  also got an email saying all students need to present stool samples.  3 cups you need to get from the pharmacy and you need to do 1 sample 3 consecutive weeks.... um what???

how strange.. not sure what they need to look for in ALL students.  that's going to be a shitty job...

maybe ill have a bunch of jalapenos before....

biophysics then much needed sleep!!

ive begun to feel more awake with less hours of sleep each night, maybe good, maybe bad.

Bed

Nothing too much to report.  Did purchase a bed topper from a friend for 40zl.  It's almost like an entire new mattress as it's like 4 inches thick!  It has been a dream sleeping on it.  Today I made some food and I purchased some "Nachos" to put in it.  They were actually jalapenos with a weird name, but I needed some spice.  Dennis has a sweet America shirt that has this huge eagle on it and a ton of R W and B.  A bunch of studying today.  During PE these two guys play table tennis very well also so it has been fun playing against some competition.  The equipment they have is all really great too.

Dennis with a glimpse of his shirt and matching scarf

My life during the week

Nachos aka Jalapenos

Busy Monday

I studied much of the weekend for a chemistry quiz and a first aid final and practical final.  Both tests went very well so the studying paid off.  Now I don't have class later in the day on Mondays.  I will have chemistry at 0800 until 10 and that is it for the day.  My Tuesday starts at 1130 so that is a pretty awesome 2 days now!  Nothing too much to report here.  Pretty excited my return home for a few weeks is coming up.  Here are a couple random pictures I took.

This was a beautiful day.  It was above 60 this day.  At 1630 it was actually 64 degrees F!  I could get used to that, although it will begin to get very cold again, but everyone is saying that this is exactly how spring feels so I can't wait for that. 

The clouds were pinker in real life but I still think the picture is cool.  Right now it is 1621 and it is completely dark.  At 1530 it begins to get dark, weird.  

This is at the tram stop post first aid. 

All else is good.  

Independence Day

Weekend full of studying.  I have a first aid test on Monday and a chemistry quiz also on Monday.  I did manage to have a little fun last night.  We met with some friends in the new dorm Karolek.  It is a really nice place next door.  Rent is twice what it is for my room and you have to pay utilities separately.  We went to the town and walked through this really cool festival for independence day.  After this we saw the movie about the runaway train with Denzel Washington, pretty good.  The movie was in English with Polish subtitles.  Again the movie cost as much as in the states 11zl v $11 but cheaper due to the exchange rate.  Here are a few pictures of yesterday and today.

Festival next to the castle that was originally built for Hitler

Very cool concert

Ola wheeling in the drink cart

Can't forget the Lech beer

Weekend

After a short week and a successful biophysics quiz and lab, I met up with some friends and we to this place called Crime Story.  It was the same place that the Halloween Party was.  Saturday, Fil and I went to an Irish Bar called The Dubliner.  It was very similar to the ones in Ireland.  Of course we got a Guinness.  We also went to Pizza Hut.  Here in Poland, it is a very nice sit down restaurant that is acceptable to go to on dates even.  The food was delicious and cheap.  We also went to this mexican place called The Mexican, how original.  The food was pretty good, considering in Southern California we are spoiled with some of the best mexican food around.  We got some enormous margaritas.  After a sip, we looked at each other and asked, "Is that vodka?"  We asked the waitress if it was vodka in the drink and she relied, "Yes, why?" Ha!  We got a huge mixed drink!  Our picture is now up on the ceiling forever.  They have tables that have a cactus beer tap built in.  Around the room are monitors keeping track of the amount of beer in liters are being poured.  I think that might be another one of our adventures.  Tomorrow I have a presentation on vitamin C.  We don't have school friday so we might go to a nearby town called Conin, about an hour away.

Good night!

I'm going to take a photo each Friday from here on my way to biophysics to see how the seasons change

Another smaller Rynek that has a great farmers market daily

Pizza Hut!!!

Stary Browar Mall, Crazy see horse looking structure that moves

Meal at the cheap, 'homeless' place.  All of this cost 36zl ($12)

Outlaws!!

Relaxing

The rest of the Halloween weekend was pretty relaxing.  Got a lot of studying done.  Monday was All Saint's Day.  The people here goes to the cemeteries and place candles on all the headstones of their loved ones.  At night the view is spectacular.

You can see some of the candles, blurry as it was taken from Tomek's car

Monday night we went to a local bar.  They had this beer that tasted like alcoholic Coca Cola.  I thought it was delicious.  It is customary to serve women beer with straws, also it is common to put flavored syrup in their beers also.  

At the bar

From R to L: Mikoj, Fil, El Professor, Tomek, Ola (holding straw in beer)

In the morning at about 0630 Tomek, Fil and I went to meet some friends at the stadium.  They were waiting to purchase Manchester City v Lech Poznan tickets.  They were waiting there since 0300.  The line was crazy long, we were no more than 200 people from the beginning of the line.  There were 3 other places where the tickets were being sold.  Man City got half of the ~50,000 tickets.  Season ticket holders got first dibs, then the others went on sale on Tuesday.  There was a limit of 10 tickets per person.  To prevent scalping, one was to present the passport number of the person who the ticket was for, thus preventing people from selling the tickets to random people for large amounts of zlotys.  Unfortunately, as we were near the front of the line, they sold out.  We were very sad and surprised.  There is another game in the near future against Juventus we might get tickets to.

The large line

Fil and I have been recently eating at this cheap place right by his house.  They have traditional Polish dishes and the food is very good.  You can get chicken, potatoes, soup, and juice for about 12zl or $4.  We have been making it a daily occurrence.  The place used to be a place where the poor could get healthy food for not too much.  Still, people can buy food with food-stamp type tickets.  It is kind of strange getting food from a place like this while being in medical school and the guy in front of you looks homeless and presents a food ticket but the food is really good.  Often times the crowd there is quite interesting, but that has not deterred us!

Halloween

I think Halloween is my second favorite holiday.  Second to Thanksgiving.  My friend Brandon had a pretty large 'pre' party yesterday before we went to the club.  He spend weeks decorating, and months planning how to get pumpkins delivered, where to get a fog machine, black lights, etc.  It was a blast!  I met a lot of people that I've heard about and it was just generally a great time.  After that, a fleet of taxi cabs took all of us to the Club downtown, Crime Scene.  The place was off the hook!  Costumes there were amazing.  Fil was Elvis.  People went all out for this one.  It was one of the best Halloweens ever.  Buzz Lightyear was a big hit.

Buzz and a lovely Lady Bug

Elvis is alive!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Today I went with Fil and his cousin Tomek to get some Italian food.  Watched Transformers, then went and got sushi.  The sushi was surprisingly good.  I had some eel for the first time and some other new sea creatures.  Time for sleep, long day and not much sleep last night.  Contemplating on waking up at 4am to watch the Ducks and Lakers play.  Speaking of the Ducks, after sushi we walked around the Rynek and I spotted a guy wearing an old school Anaheim Ducks jersey.. represent!!