Dzien Dobry!!

aka: hello in Polish! well, you guessed it, I'm in Poland, officially. After an well crowded flight over here, and a short wait in the airport coffeehouse, I saw Jim, after three years! It was wonderfully exciting and nice. Last night Anka cooked us a traditional polish dinner of something similar to dumplings topped with goulash. It was yummy. Then today, after waking up completely confused as to where I was and what day and time it was(I was tired and delirious) I went on a bus to town centre. I wandered around the huge mall, Galeria Dominikanska, for a bit, then went to the market place where there wasn't much out (it was raining) and I was accosted by a gypsy asking for money. I didn't know what to do and was so confused, and she kept blocking my escape, until I was rescued by an older polish woman who put her hand around my waist and led me away whilst chatting to me in Polish. I love that woman I've decided. After that little excursion, I met Jim for lunch in a milk bar(which doesnt' really have milk) and had some more traditional dumpling food. MMM!

This evening was my favourite so far. It was just a typical family night, I felt like I'd walked in on a movie and was just observing. The parents played helicopter with there kids for a bit, then we all played blocks. Now there's soup on the stove, Jim was on his computer doing work with an infant sleeping on his lap. Aniela was sitting in her chair pretending to read her mulan book whilst Anka entertained us all by playing the piano beautifully. It was so stereotypically beautiful it made me want to shout for joy! I wish you could have seen it, but then it might not have been so special. I was the only guest and I know them, and I STILL felt like I walked in on an old film or scene from a novel. Well, I will update more when I can about the town, Jim's upcoming show, and possibly Krakow. Then it will be York where I see David again, Italy where I see Tina Simone and Elisha again, and, finally, Surrey where I get to see Rossen again! YAY!! I'm thrilled, actually. Couldn't you tell?

Guess where I am?

EDINBURGH! That's right folks, I'm in Scotland right now. I got up at 10 to 5 this morning, got on a coach, then a plane, then two trains, then some walking and now Tina and I are in Edinburgh, mooching off the Library's internet. We have done so much cool stuff today! I was speechless earlier when I discovered that a favourite book of mine, 44 Scotland Street, has actual places in Edinburgh. We went to the coffee shop across the street from the art gallery and had a lovely conversation with a posh couple and the posh coffee shop owner, who knows the author personally as he comes in there all the time! He also knows some people that characters are based on! We then journeyed onward and found Cumberland Bar, Drummond Place, and Scotland Street itself! Although, I was quite disapointed when I found out that 44 doesn't exist, it only goes up to 43, Darn that McCall-Smith! As soon as I finish this post, which will be momentarily, Tina and I will journey to the Elephant House, the place where J.K. Rowling wrote her Harry Potter novels on napkins, I'm so excited! After that we might go on a pub crawl, or we might sleep, we'll see where the night takes us. Look out for pictures of Scotland Street, Elephant House, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Loch Ness and Loch Lomond, they're coming soon!

Planning Makes My Head Hurt

It really does, I've had a constant headache for the past two days straight, and on and off for a few days before that. I've been planning like mad, but the headache has finally mostly gone away. I think that it is due to the fact that I booked my flight and hostel for scotland, my hostel for roma, my flight for poland, my places to stay in London and Surrey and will find out about my place to store luggage and stay for a few days in Berkshire tomorrow at around 1. I'm so excited! All that's left to do is find out about luggage storage and book my flight to Roma! YAY!! I'm so very thrilled. My absence of headache might also be due to the two parasetomal I took earlier...whichever cause floats your boat :)
Travel itinerary update:
Scotland with Tina
Poland with Jim
York with David
Italy with Tina
Surrey, Stonehenge, Kent, Brighton, and Colchester with Rossen
London with Katie and Krista
THEN HOME! I must admit though, I'm really rather sad about coming home, except that I'll get to see my family and friends again! I will miss it so very much here, I am considering moving here later in life. I think that will be good.

On a side note: why is bloody everyone getting married?! Chelsey, Chandra, Jimmy, Rachel, Dan, Julie, Andrew, Aundrea, Lauren (they're all engaged) and Amanda, Ashleigh, Devin, Katie (they're all married). It's craziness! How can you even fathom that at our age!? (They are all my age or younger, apart from Ashleigh, who is one year older than me)