azilE

Me, the MASTER

2010-07-01T09:24:00.006+02:00

Bearing in mind how much I’ve been talking about my thesis lately I guess I should also mention that I’m a graduate since 28.06. :) A shy “hurray” follows. It doesn’t feel very official though. For now the only tangible effect of being a graduate is the loss of student discounts. Pretty painful master’s perk I must say. Next Monday I’m starting my fat corporate career so money won’t be an issue, but still… :]

My diploma will be hanging on the wall no sooner than in September (it takes the deanery 3 months to print them…) so I don’t feel a real graduate. It’s odd, you know. After 18 years of attending classes it’s really a closed chapter now. It will be so awkward in October to have no classes. I’ve been dreaming about this moment for few years and now, when it finally happened, it’s incomprehensible.

If I’m so unhappy I guess I can always enroll a postgraduate program. But probably I won’t :] After studying for free it seems so crazy to pay for having classes on weekends. Especially if employers don’t seem to care about education any more. Higher education is overrated (though it was a good way to postpone the inevitable – working full-time, thinking about mortgage, bills, kids (?!?!) etc). Do you know which in my opinion is the most important i.e. useful diploma we get? The primary school diploma. After learning to read and calculate all other gained knowledge seems worthless to future employers. Truth hurts – none of the university courses come in useful. I could successfully have all the internships I had at university at the age of 15. I would also pass the interviews for them – at the age of 15 I could as well as now say that “I have no practical knowledge but I’m smart and willing to learn.” And I would without doubt get my current job – after all I was hired because of my Bulgarian and my wits, not because of my master of international relations (which by the way I got just now).

₪ my master's thesis ₪

2010-06-17T14:30:00.004+02:00

It's real! The fruit of my year-and-half hard work is printed, bound & smelling of fresh ink. It looks so nice and shiny! I still hate it though :) The most boring, useless 22 752 words I’ve ever written or will write. It feels so great to have it over with!

Well, almost over. If I could only skip the defence of this "worseseller"...

last night thunders

2010-06-13T09:21:00.006+02:00

Me 1:50 my thesis

2010-06-04T09:21:00.014+02:00

My Prayers Have Been Heard! My academic supervisor interpreted my message correctly. Finally, I see a light in the dark tunnel! Hip Hip Hooray! It feels like a culmination of all my academic dreams – my supervisor said my thesis looked “pretty ok” which in her mouth sounded like “it’s a page-turner masterpiece.”

Naturally, even masterpieces need editing, so I still have quite a few cosmetic corrections to do, one subsection to expand and a summary to write (apparently the summary I've written is unusable…). But don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining at all :) My supervisor is the kind of editor who, unfortunately, would be able to say to Dostoevsky or Dickens that they are going in the right direction but a few parts need some serious changes. So these few final touches are minimal compared to the thousands sentences I've already edited. Moreover, for the first time during our year-and-half cooperation I even agree with her. Well, almost agree - I think my summary represents a similar to the chapters level and is at least tolerable ;) But what do I know? I'll just "shut up and drive" with it :P

new bed needed - donate pls :)

2010-06-01T08:41:00.004+02:00

After my first night I have a dilemma – either I'm too fat or the bed shrinks after I turn off the light...

Now it’s all clear where half of my first wage will disappear:)

my 4 walls

2010-05-31T09:54:00.005+02:00

Tonight I'll spend my first night in the new room. I won’t describe what a chore it was to move everything and assemble the furniture. As far as I’m concerned Sunday should be erased, but I have no doubt it’s already registered for decades in my long-term memory box. Shortly speaking it was hell and my back is still aching. However, everything is done - clothes neatly organized in the closet, furniture ready to collect dust, only the walls are crying for some decoration, but I’ll deal with them some other time.

That’s how my 4-walls look:

world record in speedy buying

2010-05-29T09:52:00.005+02:00

Impossible is nothing when you’re under time pressure. Guess how much time it took us to buy a desk, chair, bookshelf, table and boxes? We made it in 15 minutes! We were definitely not burning daylight in Ikea:)

Being a pedant pays off sometimes. Oddly, it can save time. I had all I wanted checked up on the internet catalog and wrote down exactly where in the storehouse the chosen stuff should be find. I only needed to sit on 2 chairs and decide which makes a better match with my bottom :)

The 15 minutes were even enough for a spontaneous decision – I decided on the other shorter bookshelf which on the internet it didn’t look that good. That was an excellent decision, because the higher was 2 meters long and it would be a real pain to transport. It would stick out of the trunk and the only red cloth I have is a bra… I really don’t know how the police and the other drivers would react on a red bra streaming out of our car. Taking the bra (in the handbag of course) I was counting on a laugh and not a ticket, but you can never be sure, right?

On Sunday we plan to start moving my stuff and assembly the furniture. It will be such a fun!

Out of the frying pan into the fire

2010-05-28T13:40:00.001+02:00

I cannot say I’m fully satisfied with the direction my life is heading. The next month and a half will be a turning point in every aspect of my so far peaceful existence. Editing my thesis stress concerning its defence, moving to new flat, end of easy scholarship money, starting a boring stressful job… Every sign in the sky says studenthood is almost over. I’ve anticipated this moment for quite a while now, but I cannot remember my reasons. Maybe it was all about the luring idea of not having bunch of useless classes? Yeah, it must have been that… Though soon new stuff will poison my daily routine - answering endless e-mails and meeting deadlines… Out of the frying pan into the fire.

I just can’t wait to retire ;) There is no other darker side of the coin here, right? Retirement is all about drinking tea, reading and gossiping, right?

me vs my thesis

2010-05-24T10:15:00.004+02:00

I’ve just printed my master’s thesis. No need to congratulate though - it’s not the final version. No idea whether there is going to be a final one any day soon. Me and my academic supervisor have developed a tradition – I bring her a chapter, she says what’s wrong with it, I correct and bring it back, she tells me something that was ok before is unacceptable now, so I correct and bring it back and the cycle repeats since January. Isn’t that awesome?!

This time I printed all – front page, bibliography etc – and hope she will interpret the signal in the right way i.e. that I'm done playing cat and mouse with her. I think the message is not too hard to understand :)

gluttony or how to make your day

2010-05-23T11:53:00.005+02:00

In my humble opinion me and T are the best cooking team ever. Our last work of culinary art: minced meat, paprika, sweet corn, brown beans, tomato sauce, cream and spices served with pasta. Heaven is a place on earth as they say:)

The result: mouth watering mexicano meal:

room hunt

2010-05-20T12:28:00.006+02:00

I know I’m lucky but sometimes even I cannot believe how much! I found a room before I've even started to look for one :)

But let’s start from the beginning. Since I am about to graduate I’m finally moving out from my dorm. It was the easiest and cheapest way through the last years for many reasons, but now it's high time to settle down and have a permanent address for a change.

I was postponing the beginning of the room hunt for a while now and I finally decided to start on Monday 17th. I truly hated the idea that I have to dig into the numerous room offers, analyze them and then call just to find out that the place is no longer available. Or worse – find out that it is is available and to have to pack all my belongings and move. Horrifying, because my stuff increase in geometric progression ... or worse.

'Luck is when opportunity meets preparation'. I was mentally more or less prepared for the uphill mission to find a suitable roof and whether I deserved it or not I got lucky. On Sunday, a day before the hunt, I found out from a friend that a mutual friend of us is looking for a flatmate. So I called, asked about the details and was 99% sure I was going to rent the place even before seeing it. But in order not to sound too desperate I agreed to rent AFTER seeing the room yesterday :) The location is good and the flat is small and comfy – only 2 rooms, I’ll be living with a friend I’ve already lived with so I know our cohabitation will work great. The rent is as always too high, but this goes with the definition.

I’ve already examined thoroughly Ikea’s furniture offer, evaluated the costs and planned where to locate all new stuff. Yup, I’m a pedant… And a gifted architect as you can see from the sketch.

Isn't it lovely?

contract of employment

2010-05-10T19:48:00.004+02:00

And it became official.

Today I signed my contract of employment and have my salary black and white now. Those of you who* thought that the remuneration was per quarter and not per month were wrong. Although your jokes made me doubt it ;)

On the 5th of July I’ll be welcomed to the real world, the world of the cube worker, the kind who works seemingly endless hours in a cubicle, stuck behind a computer, answering endless e-mails and meeting deadline piled upon deadline. Somehow, I cant wait :)

* i.e. my loving full of optimism family

spring break в РУСЕ / in Rousse

2010-04-29T09:07:00.008+02:00

I forgot to mention that I spontaneously decided to go home for 2 weeks. I can sit around doing nothing about my thesis in Cracow as well as in Rousse, so why don’t at least get decent meals from mum?

Yesterday I was seeking inspiration in the city centre. Is it just me or Rousse really has the most beautiful city centre?

love-♥-appeal

2010-04-27T08:47:00.004+02:00

A few days ago, on Saturday to be precise, something weird and amazing happened. Me and T were sitting on a bench in the park, his-arm-around-me-style. While enjoying one of the first sunny spring days an older man approached us. At the first moment I expected something unpleasant to happen and quickly judged him to be a drunk beggar who wants to share his insights about the upcoming elections. (It should become a topic in some other post, but what’s wrong with me? Why do I always expect nasty things?? Am I lacking of positive cells or what?). To my surprise, the man turned out to be a really charming gentleman who told us that our love was big as life and wished us to have hundred years together. I’m girly now, but it was soooooooo cute! The weirdest part is that it has happened before – some time ago another suspicious older man approached us to tell how important it was to keep our beautiful love.

Well, our love appeal looks strong and convincing I guess :) It must be a good sign.

So if you are making a love propaganda poster you know who should appear on it ;)

Yup, we're THAT cute!

₪ life lesson ₪

2010-04-15T10:55:00.004+02:00

I’m slightly pissed off. Imagine a situation – your future employer already told you your wage, but you haven’t signed the contract yet because you start in july. And now imagine him calling you to tell you that a small mistake occurred and you will earn 10% less and asks you whether you’re okay with that. A little digression here – this 10% now stand for the half of my current student monthly budget, so it’s not just a “tiny mistake” that shouldn’t actually make a difference to anyone. Hell no, of course it does! I didn’t decide to work for them because of the breath-taking job that fulfils all my career dreams, but for the high wage and now is a little bit too late to switch plans. I’d love to say proudly “No, I’m no longer interested in working for your lying incompetent company. Bye.” The worse is that though I don’t see it in this way now, the wage is still good. So I chose the easy option, swallowed my pride and accepted the new conditions. What a superb career start for me!

Life lesson № 1 : DON'T TRUST ANYTHING UNTILL YOU HAVE IT IN PAPER SIGNED WITH BLOOD.

RIP

2010-04-11T22:05:00.003+02:00

What Kind of Reader Are You?

2010-04-10T12:58:00.003+02:00

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.
Dedicated Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

What a relief that I'm not "nerdy" :) I really don't get what they mean by a "literate good citizen" though. I read just about all the time - i.e. when I have the time of course:). I thought I'd be more of a didicated reader or a bookworm, but on-line quizes know better.

my 3 reading challenges

2010-03-31T19:04:00.017+02:00

"So many books, so little time." - Frank Zappa

I joined something like an on-line book club or rather social network for people who love books – Shelfari. I’m a dork, I know :) If I have to be honest, reading will always be the one I talk about the most, even if I am not focusing on it as much as I used to. Just like a smoker I used to light one book from another. When adult life began things changed, many new interests came into view, but books are still my best escape-from-reality plan.

After reading few discussions on Shelfari I realized I’m no longer such bookworm as I thought. There is a girl that reads 11 000 pages a month! This gives around 360 pages a day (or more or less a book a day) so if my math is right she reads around 300 books a year! I'm so jealous! If only I had the time... As you might remember last year I’ve read 20 (click here to see which). Obviously, I’m either slow or just more careful - I read most books slowly so I can savor all the descriptions, details and dialog! Hahaha! Yep, making excuses is my thing. Always ready to prove I’m great ;)

However, now I’ll keep track not only of the books I’m reading but also the pages :D

2009:
Books: 20
Pages: 7344
=> 20 pages per day

(awful statistics, getting depressed only when looking At them. I definitely had a lazy year and watched too much tv shows! This year I totally have to triple that score!)

2010
Books: 12 and counting
Pages: 3300 and counting
=> 36.6 pages per day

So this year I'm ahead of my pace. However, I cannot imagine reading EVEN LESS than last year!

These two reading challenges aren’t enough for my ambitious ego so I’ve added a new one. So, MY LIFETIME READING CHALLENGE is to read all Agatha Christie has to offer. For the time being I’m done with 8 of her 103 works (78 criminal books, 19 plays and 6 novels) :)

To sum up. READING CHALLENGE 2010:
BOOKS: 50
PAGES: maybe around 15 000? ;)
AGATHA CHRISTIE'S: 25

Done, it's black and white now.

It's so official that I've posted it also on Shelfari. My FIRST reading challenge is simply bound to succeed now! Even if I have to read 3 books a weekend in December, I will do it because failure is not an option :)

Graduation

2010-03-27T12:23:00.005+01:00

Will it really make a difference?

“The Time Traveler's Wife”

2010-03-23T08:57:00.003+01:00

Last night after some serious crying I’ve finished “The Time Traveler's Wife”. A top 10 of my entire reading career is what this book turned out to be. From start to finish it doesn't let you go. The most dazzling, untraditional and remarkable love story I have ever read.

Almost immediately after finishing the book I watched the movie. I mean immediately after calming myself down and blowing out my nose ;) I always say book versions are better than movies and this time won’t be an exception. But I have to admit The Time Traveller's Wife is a pretty incredible book AND movie. My first argument against the film version is that I missed a lot scenes from the book, while some were for unknown reason changed (needless to say in my imagination they looked a lot better). The second argument is that the ending was somehow Hollywood-sweet-like. Reading the last 60 pages I was shaking with tears, while after watching the movie I felt just a little sad.

Overall, the movie was good but unfortunately it is in a way only a brief summary of the book’s emotional load, drained out of the emotions I felt while reading it. When you read, with a little help from the author your mind creates the scenery. You are given a broad outline and what your crazy head will do about it depends 100% on you. When you watch, someone else tells you how stuff look and there is nothing left for you to do. You are stuck with someone else's choices. You simply park your brain in front of the screen and go with the flow.

I’m such a girl…

2010-03-22T16:16:00.002+01:00

I was sobbing at the bus stop today. I don’t know whether people stared or whether later the woman in the tax office noticed my red eyes. I was totally absorbed by the painful story of Henry. I will leave the remaining 40 pages for the evening when I’m going to be alone and will be able to have a good undisturbed cry. I’m such a girl…

Till then I will read something lighter, like about the revealed comparative advantage of the polish goods on the Bulgarian market and vice versa. Yup, I didn't finish the 3rd chapter during the weekend, but now I'm almost on the finish line. All the calculation is done and now it's time to struggle with the analysis.

dogs in slow motion :)

2010-03-21T15:10:00.001+01:00

The BOX

2010-03-19T20:55:00.004+01:00

Once, back in high school we had a really interesting reading comprehension in English. It was about a man who offered $1 million to the main character for just pressing one button. As easy as that. The catch was that after pressing it, somewhere in the world, some person he doesn’t know will … die. After a long moral struggle our main characker decided to press it (after all there were big chances a bad person would die … hahaha). As promised he got the million, bought a mansion or two, numerous sport cars and had the most luxurious life you can think of. He lived happily ever after … until he died. Because someone somewhere also faced the true nature of his humanity and decided to press the button…

Brilliant story.

I’ve retold it so many times and still think it’s one of the best stories I’ve read.

And imagine my surprise when I saw this trailer:

Why didn’t I write a scenario 8 years ago? As Kate would say, I am a stupid rural woman that could have been rich by now :(

UPDATE: Matheson's original story "Button, button" was a short,sharp piece with a very direct point, while the movie is simply lousy :(

mac ‘n’ cheese weekend

2010-03-19T11:22:00.004+01:00

This weekend is going to be full of freedom. My roomy is visiting her grandparents, while T is going home so I’ll be all alone. Theoretically, it will be a perfect time to focus all my strengths on writing my master’s thesis, but life will probably prove that my plans aren’t bound to happen fully. I promise I’ll try, though I’m well known for my overambitious planning. The best case scenario is to finish the third chapter, the worse – me spending the whole weekend in my hippopotami pajamas watching romantic comedies and overeating with macaroni and cheese. Believe me, it has happened before. Well, both things have, but the second sounds somehow more appealing to me;)

Oh, and the chances of finishing the remaining 350 pages of “The time traveler’s wife” by Audrey Niffenegger are also huge. I’ll write about this book when I finish it, but for now I’m going to say it’s 650 pages of remarkable pleasure. Definitely becoming one of my favourite.

But back on topic. Macaroni and cheese… that’s what I call a treat! Some people (and unfortunately I know quite a few of them) find it disgusting to eat anything for 6 meals in a row. But that’s how I am, when I like something I literally cannot stop eating it before it gets me sick. Then for a few months I avoid cooking it just to get back to the frenzy again some time later. And macaroni and cheese always fills my diet when T visits his parents. He doesn’t like the Bulgarian salty white cheese (bulg. sirene), while I adore it and since we cook&eat together we have to meet half-way – I don’t demand cheese, he doesn’t demand 90% meat in each meal.

Yup, it’s going to be a good weekend. Till I start missing T and it usually happens a lot sooner than I would like. Being in love has its shadows ;)

“Eat, Pray, Love”

2010-03-18T19:07:00.004+01:00

I stumbled across the first trailer for “Eat, Pray, Love” based on Elizabeth Gilbert‘s book. While I usually dislike movies made from books, I must admit that this time the chances I would like the film better than the book look pretty good. Firstly, me and my dad are the worlds’ biggest Julia Roberts fans, and second – two eye-candies in one place doesn’t happen that often (lucky Julia is going to kiss James Franco and Javier Bardem).

And, about the book… I was disappointed with it, especially given all the hype surrounding it. I thought the idea behind it all was fascinating (which is why I picked it up), but the writing style really failed to deliver. The detailed self talk is truly painful and her writing style moves in the slowest possible motion. And all this rambling… I’m not into ego-centric talks, prefer some action and although the book takes place in 3 extremely interesting countries (Italy, India and Indonesia) not much is going on. I know, unbelievable! How did she manage to screw up telling such an adventure?

If that is any consolation for any fans of the book, I did love though her descriptions of the places she visited, the soccer match in Italy, the garden at dusk in India, the hilarious road trip in Bali…

Overall, I think the book is a case of good marketing. But due to that a good movie may come out :) We will see on 13th of August.

India taximeter

2010-03-17T22:38:00.005+01:00

Wow, I've just entered all cities we visited in India on Google maps and guess how many kilometers we’ve covered!!! 2 809 km !!! That’s a real ride!

Still so many left to see...

so many places to tick off...

and so far away from decent earnings...

6.03 – Last day in India

2010-03-16T00:04:00.007+01:00

From Jodhpur we took again a night train to Delhi. This time the ride didn’t impress us much, after all we were already pros when talking about India ;) So we had some vegetarian burgers with a potato-cheese thing between the buns and slept through the whole journey.

Delhi. Again. After seeing a few other Indian towns I can ensure you that Delhi is the dirtiest and most crowded of all. It also proved my theory that there doesn't exist a city capital I like.

We visited only one tourist attraction - the Qutb Minar, a 72.5 meters tower which is the world's tallest brick minaret. The rest of the day we spent wandering around Red Fort and the Main Bazaar.

Oh, do you know what weird thing happened a couple of hours before our flight? It rained! Can you believe it? 3 months before the summer monsoon, in a country where you can predict the exact date and even hour when the rain will come! It was raining not cats and dogs, but rather cows and elephants, trust me!

And thus our last day came to an end. Big part of me was happy I was leaving the messy Delhi, but a bigger one was already missing all the rest. To sum up, beneath the rush and chaos India is really a nice place to visit and spend European salaries. It also helps you put things into perspective and makes you try to stop worrying about trifles. People really do have bigger problems than you. But, as you should have probably guessed, it’s not a country I see myself living in. In the long run such lack of organization, wild crowds everywhere and beeping 24/7 scares me off.

Yep, the trip is officially over, each day was carefully described here and photos will be developed tomorrow. Now, I just have to get back to my boring reality :(

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.
- Elbert Hubbard

4-5.03 – 12th and 13th day in India – Jodhpur

2010-03-15T23:15:00.012+01:00

On our way from Udaipur to Jodhpur we visited a small village Ranakpur, widely known for its marble Jain temple. It was definitely the most stunning and rich one we’ve already seen in India (or anywhere else for that matter). See for yourself:

Our next stop was Jodhpur. The city is known as the Sun City for the bright, sunny weather it enjoys all year. It is also referred to as the Blue City due to the blue tinge of the whitewashed houses around the Mehrangarh Fort.

3.03 – 11th day in India – Udaipur

2010-03-15T22:40:00.004+01:00

Dear true Followers of my big Indian adventure,

We’ve reached a critical point here. Why? Well, I got lazy and stopped making notes of our journey. Luckily this lack of writing motivation came 3 days before the end of the trip so I’ll just put some photos and pretend nothing worth telling happened. Ok? Ok!

So, Udaipur is said to be one of the most romantic places in the state Rajasthan. Beautiful lakes, beautiful palaces and hotels. Interesting fact for all 007 fans is that Indian sections of the James Bond film Octopussy were filmed in the city, the Lake Palace and the Monsoon Palace.

Fantastic views, aren’t they?

1.03 – 9th and 10th day in India – Pushkar

2010-03-14T10:19:00.008+01:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, the 9th day in India happened to be the festival of colors Holi. On the road we were welcomed by a couple of color squads and since I still had green spots all over me we decided not to go out today. Of course, a couple of brave ones joined the paint fight and till the end of our stay had dyed hair :) it was interesting that there was a note in the hotel warning the tourists about the “aggressive color fight” taking place down in the village and that it’s not recommended to go out :)

Meet the fattest Indian. During those 2 days we never saw him move; how he changed the places he was sleeping is a mystery.

So we spend the whole day on the pool, reading and relaxing.

The next day we had a walk in Pushkar. It’s a small village and the interesting is that it’s prohibited to drink alcohol or eat meat. The village has a big charm, while the prices were so low we were ashamed to bargain.

Even the holy cows were attacked...

28.02. – 8th day in India - Jaipur

2010-03-13T17:42:00.011+01:00

Yesterday we arrived in Jaipur and we were staying 2 nights in the most luxurious hotel I’ve been in. The coolest thing is that the wall opposite to the gigantic 4-person bed was a glass one with curtains. And what was hidden behind the curtains? The bathtub :) Cheap porno style :)

Enough about earthly passions, let’s talk about Jaipur. All buildings in the oldest part of town are traditionally painted in pink. That’s why Jaipur is also known under the nickname “Pink City”.

The most popular of the three forts in the town is the Amber Fort, situated on the outskirts of Jaipur. We had a ride up on elephants, which is a really exhausting experience. The elephants shake a lot so it’s hard to keep your balance when taking photos.

Another city attraction is The Wind Palace. It is not a real building but just a facade enclosing several levels of corridors. The idea was that the women, who lived in Purdah (so couldn’t be seen by other man), could look through the windows at the activity on the street without being seen. There are 2 palaces on both sides of the streets and when the windows are open the place gets really draughty, hence the name Wind Palace.

Our next stop was Jantar Mantar, a collection of architectural astronomical instruments. Maybe it was too hot, I was too tired, the guide didn’t do his best or the whole chat about measuring latitudes isn’t my thing. Don’t know. I just didn’t like the place that much. But it was beautiful and definitely made by smart people.

We had a walk just a day before Holi - the Indian festival of colors. The idea of the holiday is to spray colors and have fun. And it probably would be fun for me if the dyes were washable. I was the only lucky form our group to get blue hand-grenade on the face a day before Holi. The more I tried to wipe it with make-up remover tissues the more it smeared on my face. I still have green spots on my legs, but happily the suntan covers the dye on my cheaks :) I was so mad about it that I even didn’t took a photo of my blue-green face! Such a waste! And I still cannot forgive it myself.

the official mascot of India

2010-03-12T18:41:00.003+01:00

When you think of India, what do you see?

• Endless crowds?
• A land full of poverty?
• Mud huts and people collecting water from nearby wells and streams?
• A land of fairy tales and magical palaces like the Taj Mahal?

True. But there is one more special thing about India you should know about. It's Shahrukh Khan. Don’t know him? Then watch this:

He is everywhere! He is like the official mascot of India. He is better recognized that their own flag! He advertises everything – sell phones, TV sets, pepsi, creames etc. He acts, he sings, he produces, he looks good, he does it all. When you surf the channels on every second one you will see him smiling.

Khan is today considered to be the world's most successful movie star with a fan following numbering in the billions and a net worth estimated at over 40 million $. In 2008, Newsweek named him one of the 50 most powerful people in the world.

And knowing all this, I even don’t have a Khan t-shirt … :( It’s like I have brought only irrelevant pseudo-Indian stuff…

27.02 – 7th day in India – Agra

2010-03-12T18:10:00.006+01:00

Today we visited one of the biggest tourist attractions in India – Agra. There are three objects of the World Heritage List of UNSECO here (Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatephur Sikri) and one of which also happens to be one of the Wonders of the World (guess which :P ) Apart from this the city is pretty big, dirty, forever shrouded in smog and famous for the countless ways to trick tourists.

First, we visited Taj Mahal, reportedly the most beautiful proof of love known to humankind. The admission ticket is the most expensive entry ticket in India, it costs 750 rupees, or more than 16 USD. For the Indians, the price differs slightly – 20 rupees…

It was amazing to see Taj Mahal with one’s own eyes. It’s far more impressive in reality than in any picture you’ve seen. But have you noticed that when dreams come true they somehow aren’t satisfying enough? That’s what happened to me today. I’ve dreamt since always to see Taj Mahal and here I was, standing right in front of it. Only me, the one I love ... and around 100 thousand people. Moreover, the Indian "organization" (or rather the lack of it) of visiting ruined almost all the magic. Imagine one entrance, one exit and hundreds of thousands visitors that enter through the exit and vice versa. Pure chaos. I was pushed, smashed, kicked you name it. When the situation became really unbearable gus with big guns came in and forced some order. Suddenly people started reading signs and things went smoother. Nevertheless, sightseeing wasn’t peaceful – the millions were still here.

We managed to take a few photos of us and less than hundred others behind so we could call it a success. We also had a professional photo session and as everything in India it was also an adventure. We were supposed to meet the photographer after 30min but either he didn’t came, or we just couldn’t see him. We looked around but the crowd was smashing. However on leaving we saw him, he was waiting for us on the exit but for some reason he didn’t have the photos with him. Since we couldn’t make the whole group wait till he gets them he offered to deliver them in the next place we were to visit! It’s pure magic how his guy managed to find us in front of Fort Agra!

Agra Fort is one of the most beautiful Indian forts. It looks impressive on the outside, but was nothing special in the inside.

Fatephur Sikri is a magnificent fort located in the deserted town 40km from Agra.

26.02 – 6th day in India– Orchha

2010-03-12T08:46:00.005+01:00

Orchha is a tiny, forgotten little village, lying far beyond the tourist trails full of incredibly beautiful buildings. The Palace and many temples are neglected, left in their natural state, which gives them a lot of charm. Almost complete lack of tourists makes it a very peaceful, non-commercial and affordable place. It's a breath of fresh air after the chaos in Delhi or the insistent salesmen in Khajuraho.

25.02 – 5th day - Khajuraho

2010-03-11T20:06:00.010+01:00

We travelled by bus 160 km for guess how many hours! For 6! No typing mistake – six hours! Which gives us 27km per hour :) Unbelievable for a European…

However, we reached Khajuraho and its worldwide famous temples of love. Today of the original 85 only 22 have survived the ravages of time. In the hotel brochure they say that the erotica of Khajuraho had a specific purpose i.e. “in those days when boys lived in hermitages, following the Hindu law of being brahmacharis until they attained manhood the only way they could prepare for the role of householder was through the study of these sculptures and the earthly passions they depicted.” Nicely said, don’t you think? To sum up – the temples ale like vintage playboy magazines :) See for yourself:

For more visit this page :)

23-24.02 – 3rd and 4th day in India - SAFARI TIME

2010-03-10T12:42:00.018+01:00

We arrived at Katni Station at 6 am and by bus got to Bandhavgarh National Park. At the afternoon the first planned safari took place. Since the density of the tiger population at Bandhavgarh is one of the highest known in India we all expected tigers lying all over the road. But guess what! We saw a tiger from 50m only ones – on the second safari the next day… all in all the 3-hours-tiger-safaris turned out to be deer-monkey-elephant one. And if I have to be honest it was damn boring. 3 hours in a jeep watching trees and deers isn’t my definition of breath-taking experience. Therefore 3 expeditions were a bit too much for me. But in the other hand T enjoyed the safaris a lot and they even were on the top of his list of our trip to India. So it’s a matter of taste I guess.

All about tigers:

So here a few pics of animals and nature:

Beautiful, isn't it?

I haven’t written anything about their cuisine so maybe now is the right time. Well, it’s delicious :) but it seems they are using mainly 4 spices – chili peppers, curry, masala and 1 more I don’t know the name of but I don’t like it either. Thus almost all meals taste pretty much the same. But as I said they taste amazingly and I overeat notoriously.

Second great thing during those 2 days was the hotel swimming pool. Believe me, having a swim in the open in February is a thing everyone should get every winter! I even got sunburned, which is kinda unusual for my Bulgarian skin. I’ve burned only ones in my life when I was 12 and we went to Varna with my dad and my brother. My dad had few things in the embassy to take care of but he handled them pretty fast and we had the whole day for us on the beach. No sun cream, no responsible hiding from the burning sun. Now as well as then it wasn’t fun sleeping with burned back. But who cares about a little pain when you have the chance to sunbath in the winter?:)

22.02 – 2nd day in India

2010-03-10T09:46:00.009+01:00

Slept for 11 hours, had breakfast and slept for another 2 hours :) That’s what we needed after spending all Saturday on the road. We arrived at the Warsaw Airport on Saturday at 9 am, 2 hours flight to Moscow, 6 hours waiting on Sheremetyevo Airport and 6 hours flight to Delhi.

Happily on the second day no attractions were planned and till 5 pm we had time to gain some strength. After having a good after-breakfast-sleep we went alone on a 20 min walk around the hotel. It was SO weird! Everybody was staring at us and it made us really uncomfortable. It’s a lot easier to face curiosity together as a group. The comforting part is that the others felt the same way and minimized their walks to the next corner :)

On 5 pm we took the train to Katni Station (approximately 750km from New Delhi).
A long journey in a sleeping-car – we were to arrive at 6 am! The train looked better than we expected – no gigantic cockroaches or pee odor :) Unfortunately we both had the upper beds and couldn’t enjoy the view much. The offered sheets and pillows looked pretty decent, but we still preferred our sleeping-bags.. So that’s it – a day full of sleeping and boredom :)

The People of India

2010-03-09T17:36:00.015+01:00

The photos of smiling colorful people in the tourist brochures are not just marketing :)

The Streets of India

2010-03-09T17:19:00.014+01:00

21.02 – 1st day in India - Delhi

2010-03-09T14:09:00.011+01:00

We’re back! India was mind-blowing!!! After a solid background check (reading articles, blogs, watching movies, clips on youtube, you name it) the first day we experienced a severe cultural shock. As Kapuściński wrote everything in India is endless – crowds, smells, colours, deities, dirt, street beggars, people sleeping on the street, shops, usage of car horns and of course cows. All. At the end of the day my only thought was to hide deep under the quilt and isolate from the earsplitting hustle on the Indian streets.

We arrived on Sunday morning and as the traffic was lighter than in the rest of the week the plan was to visit as much as possible of Delhi. We did:

Jama Masjid (he principal mosque of Old Delhi),

The Red Fort (a powerful symbol of India's sovereignty: the Prime Minister of India raises the flag of India every year on Independence Day),

Raj Ghat (the last resting place of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi)

India Gate (one of the largest war memorials in India)

and Humayun’s Tomb (the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent). It also served as inspiration for the builders of Taj Mahal.

As you see we visited really impressive places, but I dare say that WE were a bigger attraction for the Indians. We all felt like rockstars because everybody wanted to have a photo with us, to give us five or simply say hi. T was the biggest attraction in our 26-member-group – the Indians haven’t seen such a whitey :)

Other things that “shocked” me:
- all women wear “sari” while men prefer “normal” clothes
- motorcycles carry 4 people without a problem
- men hold hands with other men (showing in this way that they are friends), while cannot parade with a woman holding her or hugging her. For the nation who invented kamasutra and depicted it on many temples they get upset seeing me & T holding hand.
- Indians wait on major crossroads to get hired
- Indians on TV ads and films are far more whiter than those we see on the streets...
- all liquor stores (which a real rareness) are behind bars

Coca Cola* – the official sponsor of my dream

2010-02-19T00:30:00.004+01:00

*Sorry about the advertising thing, but this company really made one of my dreams come true.

Those who know me (few of them may actually read this blog…) know that my whiter half T and I won a trip voucher. You’re probably dying to know how, am I right? Well, you know how it’s done - buy coke, enter the code beneath the cap on the web site and voila! The chances are similar to winning the lottery, but still! By the way, if anyone cares the promotion was called "Zapunktowani". :)

So, one of our caps was the lucky one on 22 June 2009. We won a voucher and we were to decide the destination. Firstly, we narrowed the choices to all non-European countries. We will visit them sooner or later, right? Then we struck off the list countries we still couldn’t afford, even with the generous help of our sponsor. Sadly among them were our top 2 dreamed destinations – Peru and New Zealand. Moreover, we could choose from the offer of only one travel agency, so finally we were left with India, Mexico, Kenya and Thailand.

We didn’t choose Mexico because we had to decide more or less at the same time as the swine flu outbreak was the breaking news there. After reading the description of the excursion to Thailand we both felt that it’s cool, but not breath-taking. T wanted a safari in Kenya, but I don’t see the fun in travelling 10 days and looking at animals and sand. Might be ignorant here, but it’s just not how I imagine fun. Thus we decided on India, the country of 1 milliard people, of thousands of Gods, deities and ethnic groups, numerous temples with all the colors of the world, of cows and monkeys, but most importantly of Taj Mahal and wild elephants:) And in the trip to India, a one-day-safari was included so everybody was satisfied :) That’s how more or less the decision process looked like.

More advertising in the following paragraph:
So, we didn’t have a choice when talking about which tourist agency to pick up because our generous sponsor demanded ITAKA. Simply, who pays makes the rules. For those who want to travel to India from Poland and want to read how our trip went hopefully thanks to the mentioning of the agency Google will show you my posts: Itaka Smaki Indii / Flavours of India. It might be a good way to lead readers straight here ;)

India, here we come!

Back in 16 days! Thinner, poorer & happier.

at the finish line

2010-02-19T00:14:00.001+01:00

That’s the official end of the interviews! I survived the last chat with the Bulgarian manager and wrote a hell of a reply to a customer’s complaint. So now I wait.

UPDATE:

THEY CALLED! I'll be officially a cube worker:)

penultimate interview

2010-02-18T13:27:00.001+01:00

So, I “passed” the interview with the manager, but it turned out to be one more stage. Today a manager from Bulgaria is going to call me and we will have a chat. Great that all is happening so fast, but this numerous interview stages are ridiculous. As if they are hiring a financial director! I think they expect too much from a person who is going to mainly answer phones. Well, it’s an employer’s market now, so I have to put up with it…

Do you know what surprises me? And saddens? That absolutely none of the recruiters asked me about my education! None! Is it that irrelevant? Aren’t I spending these 5 years at the university in order to become a better employee? Obviously no. And the recruiters tend to say “Oh, you’re a student…” as if it was something bad I should be ashamed of! That’s demotivating as hell! Clearly, the right thing to do was to quit school the minute I learned to write and calculate. If I hadn’t wasted my time studying, now I would be a well paid specialist in my field, is that right? Why don’t they put this information in the university leaflets???

The call is in half an hour. I’m going to have a nap till then :)

I feel a fair wind!

2010-02-16T19:09:00.004+01:00

They called!

3 hours after I left the assessment centre they simply called! That’s like the fastest recruitment process I’ve heard of! But not the shortest :) I’ve got an interview with the manager on Thursday which is supposedly the last stage. With a bit of luck I may know my employment status till the end of the week.

Two more days of stress… :) If I am fortunate enough soon I will join the world of the cube worker, the kind who works seemingly endless hours in a cubicle, stuck behind a computer, brainwashed, underpaid, answering endless e-mails and phones... Hurray!

my first "Assessment center" experience

2010-02-16T14:03:00.005+01:00

Today I had the 5-hour job interview, I complained about some time earlier. No weird questions like “what will we find in your fridge today?” or “explain a database in three sentences to your grandma” to share with you. Sorry.

I am pretty much satisfied with how I performed, maybe except the role playing part. Imagine the following: a company ordered more than they received, but were charged for what they ordered. The “injured party” tried to contact with us for 2 months (called and mailed) but we for some reason ignored them. And now was time for me to smooth things. Obviously, I’m not creative enough to come up with a good reason why we ignored them so rudely. Do you? The only thing I thought of were server errors and bad e-mail filter. Genius, I know…

The other tasks were rather simple – type as fast as you can, English language tests, really challenging Bulgarian listening comprehension (hahaha!), business letter writing etc.

But how did it go overall? Do I have a positive hunch? I honestly don’t know. Sorry. After the last two interviews I cannot exactly say I know what people in front of me want and expect.To illustrate my point let me tell you about the 2 most important interviews in my professional experience:

Company X: The interview went perfectly fine for me, except that … they didn’t call me back. I thought I met all the requirements, I was positive, smiling etc but they didn’t like me enough.

Company Y: The interview was a complete disaster. They wanted me to start as soon as possible while I couldn’t; they expected me to be able to stay there permanently, but the internship was in Warsaw and I had one more year of studies in Cracow; they required some programs I didn’t knew. On top of that the manager gave me the impression that he would prefer to unload 5 tons of coal or lift potatoes all day than speak with me. But they called back.

See my point? My judgment system is totally dysfunctional.

***
(A little digression about weird job interview questions ---- during the 2nd interview I was also asked about a unique quality that makes me outstand from the rest of the candidates. I said something about being perfectionist or hard working. And the response was “Do you really think it’s so exceptional?” “No, you moron, but do you REALLY think I know the other candidates in order to compare myself with them?” Needless to say, that was my first thought, which I didn’t share. I said though that I know few people that are really ambitious and hard working, and that I envy him if he is surrounded by so many of them.)
***

So, back on topic. I don’t know whether I want them to call. Graduation is breathing in my neck and thus it would be nice to be hired by a “prestigious” multinational company. Of course, on one hand it would be nice to not worry about one’s employment, but on the other the job is far from catching. I really wanted to be hired by the X Company because I was in a dark place about my self-esteem. After the interview with Company Y I didn’t care much, I expected a “no” and I made exciting plans about a long summer with T in Bulgaria. But they called and I accepted the offer because it stroke my ego that I passed so many job-interview-stages and that they really wanted me on board.

And after this interview … to a certain extent I hope they call. Taking into consideration my almost post-grad status it would be fantastic to put the job hunting behind. Not to mention what an ego-satisfying-experience it would be ;) Oh, and I will have contact with Bulgarians :)

Out of This World Job Interview Questions

2010-02-15T12:33:00.005+01:00

What’s going on with recruitment processes nowadays? Are the job interview questions a fine selection of facebook quizzes?!?!?! Tomorrow is the big-interview-day, so I’m reading about weird questions that might pop up (but with a bit of luck WON'T). To illustrate my point:

“What’s the difference between a can and a police officer?”
Their answer: “The can is closed, while the police officer closes.”

But I like better my friend’s answer. Svetly said that the proposed one is good for a fifth grader. Hers is: “You can buy a can, while in the best possible case an officer cannot be bought.” Hahaha! That’s a good one! But on the other hand will the interviewer be pleased that the first thing that came to her mind is “corruption”?

This question supposedly brings in significant information about the candidate’s creativity, speed of thinking, whether you will be a good fit for the company, as well as how well you can think in spur-of-the-moment scenarios. Really? According to me recruiters ask such stuff only to look smart and professional.

If you want to read more Weird Interview Questions you will find them here. The author has put together quite a list of interesting questions.

However, Monty Python says it best:

I have been very fortunate so far, because in my interviews (yup, in the whole 3 of them - you're reading a pro here) I've had fairly normal questions (knock on wood, unpainted surface, bold head, whatever). Hopefully, tomorrow there won’t be any surprises too.

Upgrade:
A friend’s brother (yes, Marzen it’s you I’m talking about) was asked to describe a lemon without using words like fruit, yellow, bitter etc. It gets even funnier if you know the position he applied for! Waiter in Pizza Hut :)

Is it just me or are they setting the bar a little too high nowadays?

♥Because there is a fine line between showing love and lack of taste♥

2010-02-14T16:03:00.006+01:00

I’ve got great news! Valentine’s Day is almost over! There are big chances that when the next time I go shopping I won’t be attacked by a single heart, red bear or “love” sign anywhere! How cool is that?
♥♥♥
P.S. Why I don’t like this celebration? Click here and you shall be enlightened.
♥♥♥
P.S. 2: Cheers to all Bulgarians! Have a great Vine Day!

...thinking about India...

2010-02-13T16:35:00.002+01:00

Since I have nothing better to do (no thesis to write, no room to clean, no interviews to prepare for etc.) I’m reading about India … like all the time. You might know that India is the land of the best skilled drivers and if you don’t you must watch one of the videos on youtube about the “Indian driving style”:

As you see, every day of driving is an adventure in itself. And it looks pretty safe to me :) Can't wait till I see it with my own eyes!

Today I stumbled across something that explains this unique driving style. The article was written by Peter Hughes and is hilarious:

Travelling in India is an almost hallucinatory potion of sound, spectacle and experience. It is frequently heart-rending, sometimes hilarious, mostly exhilarating, always unforgettable - and, when you are on the roads, extremely dangerous.

To the Westerner, the behaviour of drivers seems to cross Space Invaders with a profound belief in reincarnation. The Ambassador cars, Bombay-built derivatives of the Fifties Morris Oxford, rattle tourists to palaces and temples like time- capsules in a game of virtual unreality. There is an explanation for this behaviour. Most Indian road users observe a version of the Highway Code based on a Sanskrit text. These 12 rules of the Indian road are published for the first time in English.

Article I

The assumption of immortality is required of all road users.

Article II

Indian traffic, like Indian society, is structured on a strict caste system. The following precedence must be accorded at all times. In descending order, give way to: cows, elephants, heavy trucks, buses, official cars, camels, light trucks, buffalo, Jeeps, ox-carts, private cars, motorcycles, scooters, auto-rickshaws, pigs, pedal rickshaws, goats, bicycles (goods carrying), handcarts, bicycles (passenger carrying), dogs, pedestrians.

Article III

All wheeled vehicles shall be driven in accordance with the maxim: to slow is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat. This is the Indian drivers' mantra.

Article IV

Use of horn (also known as the sonic fender or aural amulet):

Cars (IV, 1, a-c): Short blasts (urgent) indicate supremacy, ie in clearing dogs, rickshaws and pedestrians from path. Long blasts (desperate) denote supplication, ie to oncoming truck, 'I am going too fast to stop, so unless you slow down we shall both die.' In extreme cases this may be accompanied by flashing of headlights (frantic). Single blast (casual) means 'I have seen someone out of India's population of 870 million whom I recognise'; 'There is a bird in the road (which at this speed could go through my windscreen)', or 'I have not blown my horn for several minutes.'

Trucks and buses (IV, 2, a): All horn signals have the same meaning, viz, 'I have an all-up weight of approximately 12 1/2 tons and have no intention of stopping, even if I could.' This signal may be em-

phasised by the use of headlamps (insouciant).

Article IV remains subject to the provisions of Order of Precedence in Article II above.

Article V

All manoeuvres, use of horn and evasive action shall be left until the last possible moment.

Article VI

In the absence of seat belts (which there is), car occupants shall wear garlands of marigolds. These should be kept fastened at all times.

Article VII

Rights of way: Traffic entering a road from the left has priority. So does traffic from the right, and also traffic in the middle.

Lane discipline (VII, 1): All Indian traffic at all times and irrespective of direction of travel shall occupy the centre of the road.

Article VIII

Roundabouts: India has no roundabouts. Apparent traffic islands in the middle of crossroads have no traffic management function. Any other impression should be ignored.

Article IX

Overtaking is mandatory. Every moving vehicle is required to overtake every other moving vehicle, irrespective of whether it has just overtaken you.

Overtaking should only be undertaken in suitable locations, such as in the face of oncoming traffic, on blind bends, at junctions and in the middle of villages/city centres. No more than two inches should be allowed between your vehicle and the one you are passing - one inch in the case of bicycles or pedestrians.

Article X

Nirvana may be obtained through the head-on crash.

Article XI

Reversing: no longer applicable since no vehicle in India has reverse gear.

Article XII

The 10th incarnation of God was as an articulated tanker.

Happy Fat Thursday!

2010-02-11T11:10:00.009+01:00

How could I totally forget about it!?!?!?

If you don't live in Poland or the Catholic part of Germany Fat Thursday is the day you are allowed to overeat with donughts:) It is the last thursday before the Lent (a time of fasting) and theoretically the next opportunity to feast would not be until Easter. I underline twice the word "theoretically" :)

If it wasn't for the blizzard outside I would definitely go and grab a few over-sweet and over-fattening donughts... What a pity I won't put on weight today ;)

UPDATE: T brought us donughts! :))))))))))))))
Mission accomplished, tradition fulfilled.
My favourite donught with custard -->

It must be nice to be a man

2010-02-10T12:26:00.010+01:00

“Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes"; They will say, "Women don't have what it takes"”
Clare Boothe Luce (American Diplomat and Playwright, 1903-1987)

Recently it was brought to my attention that most man do not plan (or at least don’t like to discuss it) and definitely do not analyze thoroughly every statement (regardless of whether it was theirs or somebody else’s). Honestly, if I could do so I would halve my problems! Lucky boys…

In my first 10 years of life, I used to hate being a girl. The main reason for me being so hateful about my gender was that absolutely all kids in the neighborhood were boys and playing with them required more strength than a girls has. And nobody made them wear pink skirts… Naturally, at some point I started enjoying girl things and realized there are a lot of perks that come with being a woman, but I still envy men theirs.

I envy the most their freedom – freedom of worries about the future, of what people think of them, of peeing everywhere, etc. I might be jumping to conclusions here but it must be nice to be a man. I’m perfectly aware that this is a totally biased opinion, but men really do have it easier than women. I think walking in their shoes is so easy. Never planning ahead... Never paying attention to details… Never thinking about how will all work out… (Well, I am jealous of the trivial stuff TOO like that men are better paid, pee standing, have 90% shorter bathroom lines, get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness or need 1 outfit for all formal evenings… The list is open. What an injustice! Someone had said that “justice is open to everyone in the same way as the Ritz Hotel”. Dear Someone, you were damn right it is.)

To conclude, there are definitely a few life tips I could pick up from the hairier sex... My February resolution will be "think and analyse less, it's healthier"! Looking for the implied meaning of everything said is a tedious work.

back in cracow

2010-02-07T19:59:00.005+01:00

Back from the country. Wasn’t that freezing after all :) But besides that it was as always – got a little depressed about the fact that my grandma lives all alone and reached the TV bottom since my grandma has only 1 channel – I watched “Bold and the beautiful”, Hannah Montana and a cartoon about talking tools… And now I continue to go down the bad TV path – I’m watching 4th episode of KYLE XY in a roll. Till T comes back I’ll keep on doing so. Weak me…

Oh, and I again had a totally weird dream. I came back from the country and my brand new DELL wasn’t on my desk! It was stolen! But in exchange for it the thief had left a very old 5 kilograms red MSI laptop plus all the drives, loudspeakres etc. Can you imagine that? Thief with conscience! Of course my first thought was “Please, wake up at grandma’s! Please!” And so I happily woke up:)

finally on winter break !!!

2010-02-04T20:04:00.004+01:00

The term-end exams are taken (the whole six of them by the way) and now it’s time to rest! A weekend of kriotherapy is what comes next. But don’t get too jealous about that – it’s nothing like a posh spa procedure. I’m just visiting my grandma in the country :) She has one of those old houses that are impossible to heat to a temperature I feel comfortable in. So the one thing I always take from there is ugly cold and running nose. But cold is good in kriotherapy terms at least :) It supposedly helps with sleep problems, relieves symptoms of tiredness and depression, regenerates and revitalizes the body and such magical stuff :) It seems a slightly severe way of healing the body, but what do I know. I guess that the Bulgarian side of me prefers the +40 C therapy better than the -100C. What likes my Polish half? Don’t know and definitely don’t care. The Bulgarian half has far more acceptable understanding of pleasure!

"Why do you want to work for us?"

2010-01-29T16:21:00.003+01:00

Since I have a job interview in 2 weeks I decided to perform a desk research on how they are conducted – most common questions, how to make good impression etc. There are so many articles about that! According to them the most important question (and my personal favorite) is “Why do you want to work for us and what can you offer our company?” Very important matter, I agree. When you start your job search, the most important thing is to know what you are looking for, i.e. what you want. It is mandatory to determine one’s wishes and expectations and thus choose a company. But asking why we applied to the offer is simply stupid!

“Why did I apply? Because you need a worker while I have the needed qualifications and need the money. End of story.”

or

"Because I'm a type-A high achiever with no idea of what else to do; I would have gone to med school, but blood makes me vomit."

Right? The problem is employers want us to stroke their ego so that they could fell good about the great company they’ve made and thus expect something more of that kind:

"Why do I want to work in your company? Well, because your offer suits me perfectly. Moreover, because your company is unique, wonderful, exceptional, simply the best and since I was 16 I wanted or rather dreamed to work for you. I follow your fate from the beginning and my hobby is reading about your numerous market successes. I promise to work long hours for the minimum wage if only you hire me and allow me to devote myself to you - the most advanced company in the whole wide world."

If you were an employer wouldn’t you hire me after such speech? ;)

After reading too much on the topic I plan to stick to sincerity and see where this leads me. But if the reaction of the interviewer doesn’t turn out as expected I plan on reciting the paragraph above!

1st day of recalling Bulgarian

2010-01-29T11:16:00.003+01:00

REPORT:

READ: 4 articles
TOPICS: 3 business, 1 about self-improvement
LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING: excellent
NEW WORDS: 0 (but there are a lot more borrowings from English than … before I guess)

CONLUSIONS:
1) I still have it in me! Reading is easy!
2) Bulgarian is beautiful

memory fail

2010-01-28T18:18:00.002+01:00

Somebody please hit me! I’m beginning to forget my native language! Well, one of them at least. I’ve got a new possibility for a job on my radar and the biggest requirement is very good Bulgarian. So far so good, because I am Bulgarian, right? This made me think about my actual command of the language. The problem is that I’m not practicing my language skills for almost 6 years. I barely talk ones a week in Bulgarian, not to mention the scarce number of Bulgarian articles I’m reading. I don’t know when did it happen but at some point I even stopped thinking in Bulgarian. Shame on me! I definitely have to do something about it, not only because of the job opportunities ;)

On today’s phone interview a few words slipped my mind… I’m even beginning to speak with an accent - when I worked about the consulting company and was phoning to Bulgarian manufacturers one of the interviewee told me I have a “cute Bulgarian accent”! How dare she! I don’t! I’m a native speaker!

Beyond doubt I at least have to start reading. Let’s say 2 articles a day?

new recipe with cranberries :)

2010-01-22T19:39:00.009+01:00

After reading 2 months ago „Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen” I decided to cook at least one new thing a week. Well, I kind of forgot about it after the first week. But I returned to this idea since the finals are coming and it is a well known truth that nothing motivates you more to cook (or clean) than the prospect of studying. Moreover, few days ago my roomy Moncik bought a cooking magazine which inspired the breaded camembert on Tuesday. Today I cooked the next new thing - pork chop with cranberry-garlic filling. I wasn’t sure whether cranberries and garlic are a good match, but it turned out to be a fantastic combination.

That’s how it looked:

My life before discovering cranberries must have been so empty!

Dreams

2010-01-22T11:50:00.003+01:00

I have a very vivid imagination which results in stunning dreams. Probably as everyone, I put in a kettle everything that happened during the day, my thoughts, hopes, fears and then mix it until weird stuff start coming out. Today for example I was dreaming that I was traveling to India by train with the whole cast of “Na Wspólnej” (polish soap opera…just don’t ask questions because I won’t confess in public that I watch it). Somewhere on the road the cast of “New Moon” joined us. Luckily, Pattinson didn’t honor me with his presence, but you should have guessed it because the title of the post is not nightmares ;) And just when I was about to ask Taylor Lautner for a photo I woke up… Such a cliche…

I don’t know what is it about me dreaming about “famous” people. A couple of weeks ago I was dreaming about endless stages of job interviews and finally when I got the job I was to meet the company’s boss. You would never guess who that was. I still can’t figure out what event during the day caused this guest appearance in my dream but in the chair in front of me was sitting no one but… Putin… Somebody call a psychiatrist ;)

sincerity

2010-01-20T10:09:00.002+01:00

Me: I liked only 2 boys in Bulgaria.
T: You mean ME when I was there the first time and ME when I was there the second time?

That’s what I call true self-confidence!

delicious & sophisticated calorie bomb

2010-01-19T23:56:00.004+01:00

Our supper today: breaded camembert with cranberry jam

Camembert may not be the cheapest cheese on the block but I need to spoil T (oh, and myself BY THE WAY :P ) from time to time, right?

“Marina”

2010-01-19T08:43:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately, I’ve finished “Marina”. After reading Shadow of the Wind and Angel’s Game to a certain extent the plot was predictable - a story of a young boy with Barcelona in the background, lots of twists and riddles and action from the first page until the end. But two things I didn’t expect. The first was the horror element – especially because it was supposedly a book for the younger audience ;) The second was that I wouldn’t be able to read the last pages, because my eyes were blurred with tears. The last time I was so moved that I was shaking with tears was after watching “Seven pounds”. Sensitive fool, what can I say more…

To sum it up – although scary and short (come on Zafon, ONLY 300 pages??? I know you can do better than that!), I loved it! Well, I’m not a critic so my opinion may not be worth that much, but I think that if you are looking for suspense in your next read you should choose Zafon. And there is more to it, not just action as in Dan Brown’s case lets say – there are a lot of beautiful thoughts that will make some of you think. Some of them you can find HERE. Enjoy.

The next book on my list is “The Time traveler’s wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. Just have to buy it first :) Or "The Jewel of Medina" by Sherry Jones – my roomy recommended it :)

“The invention of lying”

2010-01-16T10:59:00.003+01:00

I watched a very interesting film yesterday - “The invention of lying”. It tells about a world where the human race has never evolved the ability to tell a lie. The world as we know it looks the same with a small BUT - everyone tells the absolute truth. There's no such thing as deceit or flattery or fiction. People are superficial and harsh to each other saying for example that your baby looks like a rat or that they are looking forward to not seeing you ever. But they've got no choice in the matter. It's their nature.

The movie is about life in general, about that how we perceive it, how we evaluate ourselves and the others, that we need imagination because the facts can be scary at times. During watching it I couldn’t help but imagine myself in such a world and it scared me. No lies? Even the tiny ones? Imagine how you would be perceived if everything you thought to say but suppressed out of courtesy instead just came out? Who would like you? Who would you like?

Overall the story is loaded with wit and it has a rather serious plot. It is simultaneously extremely clever and amazingly silly. And I won’t summarize you the movie - watch it. You won’t regret it.

P.S. Cool ad in the film -> “Pepsi. When they don’t have coke.” So true!

Account of my first working day

2010-01-13T22:06:00.003+01:00

Well, it went better than expected. The web pages of most of the companies are poor, but the telephone research gave satisfying results. Unfortunately, the market isn’t that big so it won’t take long to analyze it. Consequently it turned out that I won't be needed 2 weeks so I won’t earn as much as I would like :)
Although I’m happy I decided to give this project a try, I feel totally exhausted – after the long holiday at home I’m not used to waking up early and using my brain all day :D Moreover, too many things have to be done these days – some studying, some reading, some writing and not to mention the fact that “Marina” is waiting impatiently on my bed… Saying “no” to Zafon isn’t easy, trust me.

A job found me

2010-01-11T13:41:00.008+01:00

It’s good to know people :) A friend of mine works in a consulting company where a Bulgarian native speaker was needed. So she recommended me and thus I’ve got a 2-week job. I will have to conduct desk and telephone research on the Bulgarian medical equipment market.

The job has its perks. I could use some practical knowledge, while cash inflow is always welcomed. Location and hours look good. Oh, and can you think of a better excuse for not writing my master’s thesis? I’ve used already all the possible ones :)

I’m just worried how much information is available on the web pages and how many companies will be willing to share some thoughts with me. Doesn’t sound very realistic to me... but hope to prove myself wrong.

Tomorrow is the training and I will know more. Good luck to me!

And something funny about the consulting business: the truth about it

How many books do you read a year?

2010-01-10T10:25:00.005+01:00

I was curious how many books I read a year so in 2009 I kept statistics :) I read lots (or try to, because after all reading depends on my spare time), but I really couldn't pin down a number. Now I know. And the result is … 20 … I don’t know how much did I expect actually. It turned out that I’ve read a book and a half a month, which is not that bad. The books were:

1. J'aurais préféré vivre (I prefer to live) – Thierry Cohen
2. Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
3. New moon – Stephenie Meyer
4. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer
5. Breaking dawn – Stephenie Meyer
6. At first sight – Nicolas Sparks
7. Black tide – Caroline Carver
8. This book will save your life – AM Homes
9. 151 ideas to inspire your staff – J.R. Willson
10. The Angel’s Game – Carllos Ruiz Zafon
11. Bikini – Janusz Leon Wiśniewski
12. Zauroczenie (Trollbundet) – Margit Sandemo
13. The Gun Seller – Hugh Laurie
14. The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
15. Marley and Me – John Grogan
16. Ja wam pokaże – Katarzyna Grochoła
17. Stories for Thought – Jorge Bucay
18. Elephants can remember – Agatha Christie
19. Julie and Julua – Julie Powell
20. Eat, pray and love – Elizabeth Gilbert

This year I’ll keep track too and hopefully will beat my “record” (yup, I love to compete with myself). I have a new widget in the right column of the blog where I’ll put the books I’ve read or I’m reading.

My private Reading Competition 2010 will begin with my Christmas gift from T – “Marina” by one of my favorite authors – Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

P.S. I am a curious person so I pasted “How many books do you read a year?” in Google and the first result was THIS: There are people reading 150 – 200 books a year! Impressive! Keep up the good work!

On the other hand, according to a survey of the National Library only 38% of the Poles have read a book in 2008! And the results are getting worse every year...

My last super mega long holiday

2010-01-07T18:26:00.007+01:00

It’s over. Gone forever.

24 days of pure doing nothing at home.

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Cracow. As usual I've got pretty mixed feelings. It’s not that I’m not happy to see T again (BECAUSE I AM!!), but I’m worried when will I have the chance to visit my parents. During these 5 years at the university I was perfectly aware of the fact that I can prolong any holiday I want. It won’t be that easy at work, right? How many days off do you get? 2 weeks a year? Terrifying. Not fun to be a working adult... How this time will be enough for me to travel 3000km and spend a sufficient amount of quality time at home? Guess I have to get used to it. As well as T. I’m going to drag him with me every time :) Beware Dear, I don't accept "no" for an answer :) I’m so evil :D

Bye Rousse, till next we meet!

post of the worn-out blogger

2010-01-05T13:39:00.020+01:00

I’ve been thinking about shutting down this blog for a while now. But every time I decide to, I type the address and read a post or two just to make sure I won’t miss it. Well, I’ll. Even the fact that I’m the only reader, though not exactly regular, doesn’t sound as a good reason for shutting it down. There are so many memories, written on those virtual pages that would have disappeared without a trace in my shaky memory.

So this post is a reminder for me :)

Maybe I'll return in glory... Or maybe I won't so don’t hold your breath :P It depends on how interesting my life is going to be, or rather on how willing will I be to write it down.

This year is going to be generous on topics to write down. Like writing my masters, trip to India, graduation, moving to new room and hopefully finding a job. SO exciting to be me :P

So... a year, eh? What have I been up to, you cry?

• Happily in the same relationship

• Lived 3 months in Warsaw and had the chance to spend more quality time with Janitu and Marzen:) But this has a negative side because now I miss them more than ever. Living a month with Janitu made me regret I didn't choose a university in Warsaw 5 years ago. But on the other hand I probably wouldn't meet T! SO things are perfect as they are and afterall Warsaw is only 3 hours away.

• Had a 3-month internship in Nestle which was an excellent way to learn skills and an amazing culinary experience! I absorbed tons of chocolate bars and ice-creams so I’m surprised I did not double my clothes size! Maybe the stress reduced the chocolate effect :) It cannot be the free gym, mainly because I never got there...

• Played paintball for the first and THE LAST time – it simply hurts! I couldn’t sleep on my back for 5 days!

• Saw the Baltic Sea for the first time. Slightly warmer than I thought up there – I expected morses all around :) And ice...

• Won a trip and take off in February so there will be sth to write about soon

• Had a great road trip from Poland to Bulgaria

and swam in the Black Sea in October! Probably the first Bulgarian to do so :) The water was ONLY 20 degrees celsius! A self-respecting Bulgarian won't swim unless it is at least 25 :))))

• went fishing for the first time. Boring activity. The only good thing that I could read undisturbed:) turned out that me and T have very compatible hobbies – one reads, the other is fishing and everybody is happy spending more time out in the fresh air

• slept for the first time in a tent with trousers on my head (I didn’t have a hat and it was amazingly cold for a night in May)

• my 5-years-old laptop died and now I have an amazing Dell to caress all day long ;)

• and maybe a couple of other stuff lost in my memory because i didn't keep a blog-diary :) My loss.

That’s it I guess. Shortly speaking.

St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków at 7 am

2009-11-20T20:31:00.002+01:00

The view outside my window :)

2008-12-17T23:52:00.004+01:00

He's going to make her feel like she's the only woman in the world. When he looks at her, it'll be just like a kid looks at a Christmas tree all lit up and shiny. For the first time, she'll feel like she's really been seen and really loved.

ADDICTED TO LOVE (1997)

Wishing you one of those under your Christmas tree :)

Conspiracy theory

2008-12-14T23:45:00.005+01:00

Certain things can happen only in certain latitudes. Like the yesterday's call from the manager of the company I was travelling to Bulgaria. So, he called and asked whether I was packed and excited about going home… Yup, that’s what he asked! I had no doubts that the small talk served as a prelude and that he didn’t decide to call all the 50 passengers to wish them safe journey & merry Christmas. After a couple of minutes of sweet chatting he reached the crux of the matter and asked me to count the passengers. Why? Because he suspected that the bus drivers were selling extra tickets without reporting it to the company. As a matter of fact I could tell him in advance that his suspicions are accurate, but why spoiling the fun of feeling an agent for a while? As I said, some things happen only in the Balkans…

From now on you can reach me on my new cell number: 007 and don’t look for me – I’ll find you.

Confessions of a plant killer

2008-12-11T14:17:00.002+01:00

The pangs of conscience are unbearable and excruciating! I’m a horrible person! I killed Hose, my Mexican cactus-friend! I really can’t figure out how did I let it happen. When I bought him a month ago the florist said that I shouldn’t water the cactus and keep it away from humidity. But I am smarter than some florist, I KNOW that plants have to be watered. Right? Right! I watered him once & nothing unusual happened and two weeks later after the second watering again everything seemed fine. Time proved it was too early to triumph over the florist. The third time finished with a catastrophe. Hose got mouldy and started withering away. It has been 2 days that he is lying under my desk lamp and my heart is tearing. Friends say he won’t make it but I hope he will. I really feel guilty because I totally fell in love with this little guy. It’s heartbreaking and unfair that we will never listen again to the Mexican hymn together…

Hasta la vista Hose!

P.S. Do you think I will be a lousy mother since I managed to kill a cactus in a month? I know that my mum is absolutely convinced of this…

cute hamster

2008-12-08T23:05:00.002+01:00

I admire this little guy! What a profound dedication, concentration and earnest attachment to the cause. If I could only achieve one third of his pure commitment I would have straight A’s and become an astronaut or president or both!

I hate Christmas!

2008-12-05T18:49:00.008+01:00

Ok, I don’t, it was just a trick to get your attention ;) I love the idea of spending time with the family around a shining artificial Christmas tree (what’s the point in cutting a tree and throwing it away after 2 weeks???), catching up, overeating, overspending, getting & giving presents, decorating etc. Since, according to all shops` advertising campaigns the holidays are already here I decided to have a nice long walk in the beautifully decorated city center. I am a big fan of handmade glass balls, earrings, necklaces, useless bits and pieces so the Cracow Christmas Market seemed the place for me. Well, crucial mistake, trust me! You really cannot imagine that many people in one place! Year after year, this is the time that absolutely everybody are out, hunting for sales and it will last till the after-season bargains in January. Welcome to the Christmas Psychosis 2008! I was stepped on, pushed, nudged, you name it. And it was even worse – I was forced to do the same things, to elbow my way through to see anything! Total insanity! And although I find pleasure in the simple act of walking and staring at cool gadgets, this time it was hell. Since a second round would be mortal I just bought the first things I came across. Thoughtful, huh?

Oh, if only online shopping provided half the fun of a real one :)

The ultimate battle

2008-12-05T10:18:00.004+01:00

Let's face the facts: more often than not, women hold all the cards :) We just know how to use our charm, sexuality, evil mind, flirtatious behavior or whatever you’re going to call it to get what we want. We just put a smile on our face or give the sad look of an innocent puppy that has just made a poo on your couch and voila. Luckily, men cannot find a vaccine since prehistory.

All owners of the XX chromosomes: Watch and learn:
All owners of the XY chromosomes: Watch and beware:

housewife?!?!? grrr!

2008-11-23T16:21:00.008+01:00

Knock, knock. „Oh, you are here. I thought you would be in the kitchen.” Can you think of a worst greeting a boyfriend could say to his darling after being away for 3 days?
As a matter of fact I saw that coming. What was I thinking to look for new tasty recipes and prepare him fabulous suppers every time he was coming back from a weekend at home?!?!?! It was after my dad told me that I’m spoiling my boyfriend that I realized it was really so. Therefore today I didn’t cook anything with the hope to prove myself wrong. As you see, I didn’t… So meet me - the unmarried living alone housewife*! Any ideas how did I let it happen? Why am I taken for granted?

*on the other hand mistress is totally the position I see myself in :)

P.S. A couple of minutes after I posted the note, he came with homemade chips for us:) This act of kindness pacified slightly my mood :)

loneliness

2008-11-10T12:00:00.003+01:00

That’s never been a scary word for me. I’ve always considered myself as the lonely type, the one that enjoys being alone with his/her thoughts, that doesn’t feel the need of new acquaintances. Don’t get me wrong – but simply as much as I love to be with my family & friends, I love being alone from time to time. Interesting book, huge comfy sweater, woolen socks, aromatic tea, cookies -> that’s one of my favorite ways of spending a Saturday morning.
Last weekend I realized how tough it is when you have nobody to talk to, but not because you’ve chosen to be so. Everybody was gone for the holidays, absolutely nobody to go to, my parents were away, everybody simply out of reach, total family & friends blackout. Horrifying! Somehow I survived this 3 days and I hope I’m not scared for life ;) So, on one hand because I was afraid of lonely-weekend-part II and on the other hand because I didn’t want my living alone grandma to have such I decided to visit her. Tears are coming when I recall our conversation about how scary it is to be unaccompanied, to have nobody to talk to except the dog, how it is to make yourself tea when you are sick, how it is to hear only your footsteps, only your breath. I hope I’ll never learn the true meaning of it.

On Bulgarian soil. Chapter one.

2008-09-10T01:18:00.003+02:00

Jup, I did it, I survived 2 months on the island of fish & chips and I am back on Bulgarian soil :) I knew I was home the minute the plane’s door opened and I felt the warm night breeze. The tiredness from the last couple of busy days and the wayworn feeling were replaced with a pure happiness that I am on the right place. Sounds lame, I know :)

My spirits continued to be high although I knew that because of the plane delay I missed my last bus. 4 hours of waiting at the bus station aren’t by any means the worst thing that has happened in my life, right? So I left the airport at 10 pm and meanwhile somewhere across the city my bus was leaving too. Luckily I chanced on a really ambitious and full of empathy taxi driver, who knew what unpleasant experience it is to spend a night on a station. Consequently, he decided to chase the bus! Thus the pursuit began :D And guess what! The taxi chase was successful and we stopped the bus just when it was leaving the capital. Isn’t Bulgaria full of possibilities? :) Of course such kind of taxi experience even in Eastern Europe isn’t by any means cheap and I ended with no money for the bus ticket. It would be really ironic to manage to stop the bus but be thrown away from it. Luckily the bus driver was very understanding for my situation and agreed to get paid when my parents pick me up. He was so big hearted that during the break he even offered me to lend me money for some coffee and snack!

To sum up:

Adrenaline: +7
Luck: +10
Practicing economy: -7

And thus my new Bulgarian adventure began. Wonder what’s there next for me ;)

Big comeback?

2008-08-25T21:55:00.003+02:00

As far as I remember I started this blog approximately a year ago. Unfortunately, bearing in mind my posting-performance I cannot exactly say that I've been a good blogger. But do I regret my sinful laziness and am I returning with a second season of sharing my breathtaking life? Maybe. Time will show.
Someone may ask why now, why today is the day, what inspired me to write. Actually it's pretty simple - the most common impulse for human actions - egoism :P Sad but true - individuals are always motivated by self-interest. As everybody I simply love compliments and attention. Lately a couple of people asked what's up with my blog and I was pleased that somebody actually cared. That's the impulse :) So let's blog again! :)
Where should I start? I've done a lot of stuff, been here or there, seen some places, met people etc. There were things to describe, things to immortalize, nevertheless, I couldn't manage to put my fingers into typing. Let's get one thing clear - I'm not only egoistical but lazy as well. At times of course! In the other times I'm perfect and radiate with goodness :P
So let's treat this post as a pilot episode of my blogging season two. Only Yahoo!Answers knows what will happen next :P

random thoughts :)

2008-06-11T17:42:00.003+02:00

Well, it has been a while since I last blogged :) I guess I was too busy with my happiness and didn’t want to manifest it. Yup, MODESTY is my second name ;) So I won’t fall into details but if I had to I would kinda sorta use the L word more than it is appropriate:) Happiness, however, isn’t obviously the thing that brought me here today. It`s too much thinking on life, disappointment of my latest exam (how is it possible to study 5 days, be totally prepared, know all the dates and make the stupidest mistakes in the world??!?!?!?), lack of motivation, worrying about the future etc. Well, who said that talking about your problems helps? I feel even more irritated than before ;) Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to blog afterall ;)
To conclude I will only say *^$Q@_)&Q^%_^QR&R{)!@^*(()_+Y*^O(YR!!!!!!!!

monday-thoughts

2008-02-25T16:09:00.001+01:00

I am not a Monday-person. Especially after 2 weeks of intensive doing absolutely nothing at home. I even forgot to write something about my stay in Rousse! Actually it can be summarized in few words: sleeping, eating, relaxation, cooking, reading, watching TV & last but not least chatting with my parents. Nothing more! And believe me – that was the best holiday from a long time. So no surprise that I didn’t expect to be able to get up for classes today. But I did! I even woke at 7 am, an hour before the alarm clock! I classify this as a miracle. I read a chapter, then some news but of course had no time for breakfast… And me being hungry is a community-threat. I was bearable on the first class and at times even paid attention, but on the second everything was getting on my nerves. Happily the mushroom soup afterwards breathed some life into me :) 3 classes, at 2p.m. already at home and I AM TIRED! Another proof that I’m totally out of shape… And I’m going to the park to do something about it!

The day of the attacking hearts

2008-02-14T12:12:00.004+01:00

Here it came again, right on schedule, the beloved and hated, the cause of happiness and depressions, the Valentine's Day. If I write something negative I’ll probably be accused of being a cynic or a bitter singleton or envious that there are actually people in happy relationships. It’s hard to believe in, but such accusations would be far from the truth. Am I lonely? No, although I don’t have a boyfriend now. Do I envy happy couples? Not at all, they ensure me that love exists. So what’s my problem? Why I don’t like this day? Well I probably have the same arguments as all non-fans of the V-Day: firstly it’s too commercialized. On every corner ads temp me to show my love through buying hearts or sweets. And it begins at least 3 weeks before this day! Annoying, isn’t it? The second wide spread against argument is that love should be celebrated each day. All that are now in love will agree with me that they are even more happy when receiving a chocolate heart on 27th of May than on 14th of February. Why is that, since it would be the same person showing the same feelings? Probably because of the element of surprise. Probably because he/she felt he wants show his/her couple some love and wasn’t persuaded by an ad or discount on sweets.

Although my lack of positive feelings to this “love day” I’m always in a festive mood for other reasons:
1) my Dad’s nameday
2) 14th Feb is in Bulgaria a vine-grower’s day when trellised vine are cut. So it’s VINE-DAY (still V-Day by the way) and every traditional Bulgarian family drinks vine to the health of the close one’s.

Cheers! & Have a great V-Day by choosing the right V for you!

best Chuck Norris joke ever!!!

2008-02-09T10:49:00.001+01:00

I know that you have probably enough of the “Almighty Chuck Norris Jokes” like: “When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.” Or “Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.” Or “Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.” :) or "Ghosts are actually caused by Chuck Norris killing people faster than Death can process them." They are funny, some even original. But there is one that beats them all. To see it you have to:
1. go to google.com
2. write “find Chuck Norris”
3. press “I’m feeling lucky”
4. RUN!

All lazy people click here to see the joke:)

... and ads became art

2008-02-02T23:29:00.000+01:00

I’m too tired and totally incapable of creative thinking because for 2 days in a roll I’m desperately trying to memorize a bunch of incredibly useless hieroglyphs (my professor calls them “formulas” so I guess he sees the logic somewhere&somehow) that are supposed to make GREAT SENSE in prognosis and simulation. Therefore I cannot provide you with a witty comment on this ad. It’s simply genius. And has a moral: Let’s shave and fight for kisses! Amen.

The dumbest ever quiz answers

2008-02-01T11:58:00.000+01:00

Gold medalists according to YAHOO! :

Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22,1963?

Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then

Presenter: Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?

Contestant: Forrest Gump

Presenter: In which country is Mount Everest?

Contestant: Er, it's not in Scotland is it?

Presenter: In which European city was the first opera house

opened in 1637?

Contestant: Sydney

Presenter: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and

Israel last?

Contestant: (after long pause) Fourteen days

Presenter: What is the currency in India

Contestant: Ramadan

Well, I'm not the "know-all" type, but are there really that stupid people?? Obviously, there are :) Good for them! At least we (read: the super inteligent audience) can have a great laugh :)
***
Here are some entertaining videos:

Europe is a country and everyone speaks french here

Why we believe Americans are stupid.

Miss Teen USA South Carolina 2007

Enjoy :D

p.s. I'm not anti-American (nor pro-American by the way:P ) The videos are aboout them simply because they are fun-leaders in YouTube. Congrats :)

.:* wiersz pierwszy *:.

2008-01-27T20:51:00.000+01:00

Croppik

Zauroczona,
uśmiechnięta,
pewna siebie,
pod wrażeniem
wywartego wrażenia.
Świadoma jednorazowości,
nicości tego spotkania
lecz nadal uśmiechnięta,
pewna siebie.

Jak wiele daje życzliwość!
Zwłaszcza płci przeciwnej.

"Mars inhabited!" Yeah, sure...

2008-01-25T14:12:00.000+01:00

Over the past 48 hours Youtube-like web sites have overexcitedly featured videos about a “Mars-man”:

That’s what readers suspect:
- coincidence, shadows, optical illusion, etc
- strange pile of rocks
- doctored photo (by NASA?....)
- piece of poop (hahaha, whose btw?)
- BigFoot
- Elvis

However, NASA said the creature is a “feature of the atmosphere, a rock 2 inches high and carved by the Martian winds”, according to a CBS News report Thursday. But as far as I know 1 inch = 2,54 cm, so this creature is 5cm high ???????? I really can’t get what’s all the fuss about :P

na doła

2008-01-21T21:20:00.001+01:00

Jak każdy szukam niezawodnej recepty na doły. Zazwyczaj leczę je nadmiarem endorfiny (ale kurcze, czekolada kaloryczna jest podobno…), dobrym filmem (ale kurcze, piwo i chipsy też podobno kaloryczne), głośną muzyką (ale kurcze, niestety jest coś takiego jak sąsiedzi…), agresją w siłowni (szkoda, że już nie mam w akademiku…). Ale jeśli to nie taki chuchrowaty, wątły dół, ale agresywna 100% K*rwica, to kombinuję wszystko i nie raz da się uniknąć ofiar w ludziach. Nie raz nie… Nom i teraz mam jeszcze jeden składnik do mikstury na przewlekłe niziny nastrojowe: Osiecką :)))))) Skrzezckowską :))))) Lub ogólnie wiersze – tylko ja jeszcze mało polskich znam:)

Nie bądź ! - Osiecka Agnieszka

Nie bądź smutna,
no nie bądź,
ta mgiełka, to tylko pamięć.
Patrz jakie czyste niebo,
a w morzu - łabędź!

Nie bądź smutny, ja nie chcę,
to czarne, to tylko myśli,
dalej jest mała przystań
na brzegu Wisły.

Nie bądź smutna, no nie bądź,
ta chmura jest małą chmurką,
jutro już będzie słońce
i ciastko z dziurką!

***

Jeżeli dziś
zawalił Ci się świat
to jutro
gdy się obudzisz
on znów będzie stał
na swoim miejscu -
więc ucisz serce.

Jola-Nova Skrzeczkowska "Tylko miłość"

***
Wow, pierwszy post po polskiemu… No i widzicie? (To dla wszystkich którzy się tego nie spodziewali ŁĄCZNIE ze mną :P )

lyrical... as never

2008-01-20T00:42:00.000+01:00

Some inspiring lines:

Wiersz ostatni - Władysław Broniewski

Fotografia - Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska Maria

Choroba czwartej rano - Osiecka Agnieszka

Tak czekam - Osiecka Agnieszka

Ira - Londyn 8:15

Колко си хубава - Христо Фотев

Пейо Яворов - Две хубави очи

Пейо Яворов - Стон

Елисавета Багряна - Любов

Димчо Дебелянов - Потокът стене в долината

Любен Каравелов - Хубава си, моя горо

The list is open...

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И нещо кратичко и забавно, но и много логично:

Юмит Озуджан - „ЧАСОВНИК С КАЛЕНДАР”

Господи, ако си нямаш пари,
да ти дадем.
Един часовник си купи.
От най- добрите.
И не бъркай друг път времето.
Не ни убивай по никое време

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Болката да зная, че те има

Отронват се листата. Тишина.
Примесена с очакване за зима.
Разсеяна студена светлина
и мисълта, че някъде те има.
Небе с далечни, диви светове,
звезди, които нямат свое име,
хоризонт от земни цветове...
и щастие, че някъде те има.
Вървя. Край мене плъзват сенки. Две!
За миг на тази улица сме трима:
Учуден поглед. Глухи гласове,
И болката да зная, че те има...

Author: http://burgas.blog.com.mk/

Studying with big S

2008-01-14T23:03:00.000+01:00

studying + cigarettes + wine :)

Good Nataszka! :D

hallucinations, part 2

2008-01-14T20:50:00.000+01:00

I am afflicted with higly developed homesickness virus! Not only am I writing a report about Bulgaria (which means that I'm constantly reading about my beloved :) country) but also I sense bulgarian dishes everywhere! Now the staircase in the dorm smells of sarmi. That's too much! I want sarmi, banitsa, sirene, ljutenica, baklava, shopska salata, kebabcze, tolumbiczki, musaka etc! NOW! :|

.: THE MOST UNHAPPY NATION :.

2008-01-13T23:00:00.000+01:00

That’s sad! Literally! Depressing, heartbreaking and gloomy!

But let me start from the very beginning. So, I’m writing a report about the attractiveness of the Bulgarian market for foreign investors, the easiness of its access, the attitude towards foreigners etc. For that reason for 3 days in a roll I’m digging into various statistical data and I encountered numerous out of the ordinary statistics. One of them, however, upsets me. It is the “Happiness level” which measures the proportion of people who answered the survey question "Taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, quite happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?" by stating that they were "not very" happy or "not at all" happy. And guess which is the MOST UNHAPPY NATION? Yup, it is Bulgaria! 62% of my fellow-countrymen/women are totally miserable! By the way 13% of the Poles feel the same way. Just look:

http://www.nationmaster.com/red/graph/lif_hap_lev_not_ver_or_not_at_all_hap-level-not-very-all-happy&b_map=1

But now I’m getting serious. One of the main reasons for such results in this survey is that Bulgarians simply adore to deplore of their fate and complain about everything. If you ask an Englishman “How are you today?” I bet that the answer will be “Superb, thank you.” (I know ‘cause I’ve checked millions of times). They are answering so even after 5 hours of hard work without a break. On the other hand, a typical Bulgarian would say “Oh, life is getting more and more difficult, prices are rising etc.” That’s how we are. We complain. My Bosses in England had a hard time to get used to our never-ending whining before me and my Pole co-workers learned to limit our exaggerations.

I can’t explain to myself why east nations try to look more miserable than hey really are and why generally the west nations try the opposite. Any ideas? But bearing in mind the poor comments balance of this blog I really do not expect to read an opinion... That's sad by the way... And yes, I AM COMPLAINING (because that is probably encoded in my DNA), but this time I have grounds to feel like that! :p

his Majesty the Sky

2008-01-12T16:12:00.000+01:00

already homesick?

2008-01-11T21:38:00.000+01:00

That's just great! I suffer from hallucinations! I am back in Poland only from a week and I'm already beginning to miss Bulgaria! Isn't it slightly TOO SOON??? So imagine: I`m in the bus, listening my favorite mp3-s, swinging simultaneously to both the rhythm of the music and the turns of the bus and ..... and then BAM! I smell banitsa!!!!!! I am ready to swear by all that is holy, by all I hold sacred, on my conscience and on absolutely everything you can think of, that there was a piece of oily banitsa in this bus! With the eyes of my imagination I was seeing the lardy paper it was in and feeling the salt at the roof of my mouth... Simply heaven.
To top it all, my parents called so I became emotional and admited that I already miss them. And do you know what they said? “So come after the exams. You will have almost 2 weeks break, right?” Horrible people! :) I am totally tempted and overwhelmed by this idea. Actually, why not?

Смешни надписи...

2008-01-06T09:44:00.000+01:00

"Good Luck Chuck"

2008-01-05T21:34:00.000+01:00

Ratings:
IMDB – 5,5/10
RottenTomatoes – 2,6/10

Happily, I saw the ratings after seeing the movie... The logical conclusion is that this film is far from worth watching. But after doing so I can recommend it to everybody who had a bad day and wants to laugh.

Is it an ambitious film? – No, it’s a Hollywood romantic comedy after all!
Is it full with nudity? – At times, but overall it doesn’t cross the porno line:)
Are the jokes immature, shallow, primitive and sexual? – Yup, but in a cute funny way…
Are there scenes that I would prefer not to have seen? – Around 15…

But if we cut this insane amount of smut & too ambitious even for Kamasutra scenes, we will be left with a pretty funny comedy. Well, this film might not be perfect for a evening with your parents but if you want to ease the pain of your ovestudied friend who is cramming for an exam for more than 3 hours without a break (as I did last night) – that’s the film that will drag his/her attention to the world of enormous stupidity and fun.

Watch it if you dare :)

1200 km + 30 hours = back in Krakow

2008-01-04T18:15:00.000+01:00

Einstein had said “I love to travel, but hate to arrive.” Well, I feel exactly the opposite! When I am about to travel 30 hours from Rousse to Krakow via Sofia I fall into deep depression. You will probably say: “So fly!” but it is not as simple as you may think. And I am not talking only about money (which is an issue, because although Bulgaria is a member of the EU there is not much choice of cheap airlines). The main problem with flying to Bulgaria in this part of the year is the Sofia’s airport, because the smallest mist or snowfall shuts it down for hours. It appears that it is opened only during the warm seasons...

So I had to travel by bus. I left on Wednesday at 5 a.m. and I really got lucky, because it was beginning to snow heavily. We drove for about 10min. and a police car stopped us to say that the road is probably impassable. Thankfully the driver decided to ascertain himself the information provided. We travelled around 2,5 hours more than usually and although at times I doubted it we finally reached the capital.

But the snow was still a problem for me. My enormous bag is on wheels which generally facilitates its carrying. GENERALLY! This rule does not apply to situations when the pavement is covered with 20cm of snow. With tears in my eyes, in blood ad sweat I managed to drag it to the international bus station.

I smiled for the first time in the bus - I was over the moon to find out that it was empty! After all, there are not that many crazy people ready to travel on 2 January! Only me and another 16 mad souls. So I had 2 seats in my disposition:) Unfortunately they were the ones opposite to the middle door, which at the breaks was pain in the neck:)

After about 2 hours we arrived at the border, where we spend the following 4 hours. The custom-house officers found it funny to make us take all our belongings out of the bus and open them so that they can check them. Why? Nobody knows… For fun? Probably. Because they didn’t take the bottles of rakija that were over the limit and believe me – there were a few of them :)

Then we waited for about 2 hours on the Serbian side and naturally I fell asleep while waiting. So as I was sleeping and dreaming about something pleasant I felt that somebody pushes me. I opened my surprised dreaming eyes and they met a Serbian custom officer. Smiling he wished me Happy New Year. I focused all my brains to answer him in Serbian and I have to admit that this was a real challenge for me (my Serbian generally relies on the words caught from Ceca`s songs…) Nevertheless, somehow I managed to answer his question about how much money I had, while he was examining with childish undisguised curiosity my glasses etui. I don’t know what he expected to find there – a nuclear weapon, LSD?

The rest of the journey passed well. I really enjoyed the abolished by the Schengen Agreement passport control from Hungary to Poland. Pitily, I cannot imagine Serbia in Schengen… Or a direct flight Rousse - Krakow... Or better a teleportation machine of my own...

My New Year's Resolutions (or rather Hopes)

2007-12-31T17:26:00.000+01:00

At this time of the year people tend to think over their achievements in the passing year. I don’t feel like analyzing my ups & downs, but I will plan a few things for the New Year. So I resolve to:
• Work on my calmness and composure, be able to step back at times, don’t be harsh on myself or self-demanding, focus on the bigger picture and realize that sometimes I can be in its torn corner
• Not waste so much time browsing the internet when I could spend that time for example studying languages or being with my friends
• Exercise more & eat healthier
• Live more eco-friendly
• Improve my Russian and German, although the second one is a lost cause from its very beginning :)
• Visit new places and countries
• Refresh overlooked contacts
• Limit impulse-shopping
• Cook more
• Do not start smoking (well, if I have to be honest I wanted to have at least 1 resolution in my list that I will be 99,99(9)% able to keep)
• And the most important – find satisfaction of knowing that I am doing something right, positive, worth and not fuss over trifles

I hope that from time to time I will think of my resolutions and adopt them in my daily round. I wish it to you too:)

Better New Year to you all!

Аз съм // I am

2007-12-26T17:56:00.000+01:00

That is clip of UNICEF made in Bulgaria with famous Bulgarian people - Dimitar Berbatov , Dido , Rumaneca & Enchev, Rachkov etc.

No comment on the topic is needed. The clip says it all.

"Love and other disasters"

2007-12-25T18:03:00.000+01:00

“Love and other disasters” is an optimistic, humorous dramatic story, centered around the romantic ideal "true love" and its ability to surmount all impediments and misunderstandings in order to create the illusion that "perfect couples" exist :) You think it is a typical romantic comedy? And you are perfectly right! :) I watched it the other day (mainly due to its catching title) and the following dialog appealed to me in a particular kind of way:

- What are you doing with James?

- Nothing.

- You broke up with him a month ago!

- I know, it's just sex. He fills a void.

- Literally. I don't see how you expect to meet someone new if you spend all your time with your ex.

- Good point! Maybe I should get back together with James so I spend less time with him.

- I don't think it's funny.

- Neither do I.

- What's the point of shagging someone if you know you're never going to love them?

- It's not so simple.

- He's in love with you, Jacks. You're not in love with him. It doesn't get more simple than that.

- That's not fair! I happen to care about James. A lot. And I hate the fact that he feels more than me. And I hate the fact that I'm not in love with him. Because I know I should be. Because he's smart and sweet and decent and I don't want to hurt him. So I keep hoping that I'll grow into it. That maybe one day I'll wake up and I'll feel...

- What?

- In love! You know, dizzy and feverish and nauseous...

- That's not love, Jacks. That's the flu.

Friends sometimes may serve as a bucket with cold water, don’t you think? :)

Survivor: Christmas edition

2007-12-22T15:43:00.000+01:00

My family finally found the time to do some shopping for the forthcoming holidays so we all packed ourselves into the car and departed: DESTINATION: HYPERMARKET. On Saturday, 22 December… If we had spent at least a second on pondering over this idea we wouldn’t probably go. No wonder there were practically no parking spaces, people were fighting for the invisible trolleys while the Romanians outnumbered significantly the Bulgarians. For those who don’t know why:

1. My hometown Rousse is a border city
2. The average wage in Romania is around 300 euro, while in Bulgaria 200 euro…
I will leave you with the math.

After a lively debate with a Gipsy I (with a little help from my Dad) we came into possession of a trolley. Don’t worry, I will spare you the abusive language I wanted to use when trying to drive it :) Of course, the next natural obstacle was the outrageously huge queue for the tills. I lost count how much time it took, but it was enough for me to go to the other end of the store, have a close look at the clothes, try on 2 jackets and even decide on one of them. So yeah, it was long! Moreover, we achieved a new family spending record! After all, what are Holidays for if not for overspending and overeating???

The last phase of this beautiful family activity was to get the stuff to the 3rd floor. I will just add that the lift is not working and again spare you the curses - Christmas is coming after all.

International Migrants Day

2007-12-18T13:54:00.000+01:00

All the best to all border workers, foreign students, brain drain population & all other who change their addresses from time to time, from country to country. Today is your day! I hope that, of course if you want it & have the funds to do it, you will return home for the forthcoming holidays as I did.
So, I am already at home enjoying all the pleasures connected with it. For the time being I am focused on my parents and the full fridge, but soon my attention will be probably drawn by other tangible benefits and aspects of Bulgaria.
Wow, it feels great to be home! Will somebody remind me why I left it? Just kidding, each day I bear in mind the reasons :) Moreover, Poland is not such a bad place to live in as I sometimes describe it. Otherwise I wouldn`t be there. Just why it has to be so far from home and why there are still no cheap airlines????