An Afternoon at the Beach

Today, Nathan and I went to the beach! We took the bus, for about half an hour, to a town called Exmouth. The ride there was just fine and we got off near the centre of town. We walked to the river and looked out around there for a little while. After this, we found our way along to the seaside and took a long walk along the river/sea. It was completely freezing but a nice escape from Exeter. I can see why it is such a popular place to visit during the summer. There are some amazing things to see. There are amusement parks, lots of ice cream shops, parks, nice walking routes, and loads of shops to visit. It isn't just a typical seaside town either though - there is a decent shopping area with all the main shops as well.

Right now it is just gone 6pm and we are exhausted. Nathan is taking a nap and I'm going through the photos. Tomorrow, I am not sure what we are doing, perhaps visiting Exeter's castle and gardens. I have to go to the library as well, but hopefully that won't take a long.

Have a good day - I am going to find a movie to watch. Yesterday we went to see the Polar Express. It was well good. A nice Christmas movie to put you in the mood. Perfect. Don't think tonights will be Christmassy though.

Exe River bed where it starts to meet the sea. Nice countryside as well. 

A little cloudy but nice all the same.  

Nathan and the beach! 

This is us in Exmouth. It was really really cold if you can't tell but still really nice :) It is an interesting town - lots of things to look at and shops to browse. 

Around town

Nathan's here!!!!

So today we took a little trip to school so I could give back a couple dissertations I had borrowed. We talked briefly with one of my lecturers, Chris, and then looked at some of campus.

After, we stopped by the Victoria Inn on the way home for lunch. It was nice to just sit and relax for lunch and then come back and do a little more of it! Heh! Anyways, in the evening, as you can see from the pictures, we took a long walk around town. We went down to the quayside which is very nice always, but even prettier at night with all the lights reflecting on the River. We then went up to the cathedral and saw some other areas as well. On the way home we decided to watch a movie - and wanted to go see The Polar Express. It was going to start at 9:30pm and it was only 7:45pm. We went around the corner to the Brook Green for a drink and some doritos. Manchester United were playing Fulham so we watched a little of the game, too.

We went back to the cinema later and bought the tickets and waited in a HUGE queue. As we finally went through the doors, we realised it was for another movie and there was no line for ours. It was ok though because nothing had even started yet. In our movie, there was only two other couples in the theatre! It was great! Heh! But I really enjoyed the movie - not sure what Nathan thinks but it was definitely a good one to see. If you go, tell me what you think!!

On the road to my house actually...

A view of Exeter looking over the River Exe.

WOW! The Cathedral on our evening walk ...gorgeous.

Blurry christmas lights along high street in Exeter

The Last Souk

Tonight was the last Souk (postgrad) party of the year. I went, somewhat reluctantly because I knew many people would not be there. It actually turned out good though! But before, my housemates and I decided to have a really huge dinner together on our last night all together. Matt, Maria, and I went shopping and bought lots and lots of stuff. It was great. Then, we all prepared it together. It was great. Uve manned the bbq and I was his assistant! hah. But it was a really fun night. But it is also 4:30 AM so I need to go to bed.

Nathan will be here in less than 12 hours and I have a lot to do before he gets here! heh!

Good night! Enjoy the pictures!

Matt and Maria at the Souk.  

And with Cyril!  

On the way out to the Souk... 

The usual Souk crowd - minus quite a few. Tonight was the last postgrad party of the year and some people as I mentioned before have already gone home. It was still a fun night but different without everyone there! 

Seyda and I - I'm gonna miss her over Christmas! :( She's my dancing partner! hehe!  

I Did NOT See Today Coming!!!!

What a day - I thought it was going to be pretty normal, perhaps even more relaxing than a usual Thursday because a Politics of Language ended last week. This is what happened!!!

7:oo AM - Woke up - after not sleeping especially well. My housemates came home at about 3am and decided to take out the trash and were just really loud. Very unfortunate.

8:30 AM - Met Tom at the top of the road. We live very close so we walk to class together. Today we had Polish at 8:45 AM. Even though it is pretty early for me, I enjoy Polish so much. It is definitely always the highlight of my week. We did a dialogue today - Tom, Stuart and I. We rocked! hehe! It was so good!

11:30 AM - Shopping for tonight's present (i'll explain later!)

12:00 PM - COPYING.... I had so many books that needed to be copied. I spent TWO hours copying books just for one essay - my economic one about economic transition in Poland and its preparedness for the European Union.

I ate some wonderful lunch! A panini with salad. Nothing spectacular but good because I needed it!!!

Wasted some time....

3:30 PM - Diplomacy - sorta pointless as the essay is turned in but I actually felt I could discuss and engage today because it related a lot to my geography of natural resources class last year. It was good.

5:30 PM - CHRISTMAS PARTY!!! It was so great! There was presents, mulled wine, juice, soda, mince pies, chocolate, sweets, etc. It was so nice! And this is what I was not ready for... I WON'T SEE SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE EVER AGAIN! Those that are leaving tomorrow to go home and will leave for other semesters (like mine in Poland) leave before term starts again. It is so sad. I can't believe that this is sorta ending - it is so strange. I am so sad.

I am going to Angel tonight. It is the last night of live music and a chance to say good bye to some more people forever or just for the break. Things are strange. I can't believe it is happening....

The centre again - in the spring! 

The city centre of Krakow! 

I thought you might like to see some picture of Krakow! This is where I will be! I am so excited! And there will still be snow when I get there too..... :/ 

ONE DOWN!

I did it! I finished the most awful essay I have ever tried to write. And unfortunately there are three more to go. I have a little while before the others are due, but still I should get working on them now so I am not as stressed at the end. But, I did it. I turned in the Diplomacy essay. To celebrate -I am taking tonight sorta off and studying Polish. Well, actually, I took all the diplomacy books back to the library - that was surprisingly good. It was such a relief. No more thinking about the frame of reference for diplomacy and the diplomatic activities of NGOs. It is complete! mmhaaaahaaa.

It is so much fun to try and learn Polish - it definitely beats essay-writing. Today, Stuart and I wrote a dialogue for our class this week. It's one of those generally stupid first year skits but still it seemed to be more fun than any I have written before. We also had to define this huge list of words. So far I have memorised all the fruits....

I just realised that the title of my website will have to change. I can't keep writing about my English life in Poland - don't worry though the address won't change. I guess I'll have to live with it.

Did I tell you I have a rather large burn on my neck. Well if I didn't, it is very horrible. It is in the shape of a C and I'll let you try and figure out what it is from. It hurts.

Tomorrow, will be a long long day. I have all the normal lectures plus an extra meeting stuck in the middle of them - on my lunch break :( . It is for the Student Staff Liason Committee to which I am the representive for my department. Should be alright I suppose - except that I have to bring up some interesting issues that people raised. I hope I don't get embarrassed because some are actually quite strange involving womens toilets and such. Heh!

Well instead of typing aimlessly, I am going to do something. I'll let you know what I decide to do another time!

Thanksgiving Pictures!!!

Yesterday, I received an email from a friend in my department with some photos!! He had taken pictures at our Thanksgiving party so I thought I would put them up here! Sorry there still aren't any of the food that I cooked :) . There were other people from my course at the party, but they missed Bengin's pictures. I know another friend has a couple so hopefully I will be able to scan them somehow and put them here as well. But just so my other friends get mentioned: Stuart - he is Scottish and he will be going to Poznan in Poland, Caroline - she is French and we actually organised everything together because we used her house!, Frederic - he is French as well and will also be going to Poznan, Dominic - he is Polish and actually from Krakow, and Marta - also from Krakow. I think I am still forgetting some people but hopefully I"ll be able to tell if I can see those other pictures! There were many other people actually at the party, but these are the people on my course and my friends.

The guy on the far left is Michael. He is the one true American at the party. The rest you know, again!  

You know all the people - but I like this picture a lot! It shows how good we all get along, too! 

Here's a picture of a lot of people! :) Left to Right: Bengin (He is from Turkey and actually took these pictures - well except this one!), Trevor (English), Marie-Cécile (French), Seyda (Turkish as well - her name is pronounced Sheyda), Elani (Greek), and Kyriakos (Greek too). They are all really great! 

Yup - I'm still talking with Marie-Cécile! The two guys on the sofa at Tom and Ennio. Tom (black shirt) is one of my good friends here. We don't really hang out much but live pretty close to each other so we have good conversations on the way home from lectures! Oh yeah - he's English if you didn't guess. Ennio (red shirt) is German-Italian and speaks like five languages I think. He is really nice as well. Both Tom and Ennio will be in Krakow with me. 

This is Trevor and Ed. Trevor (white sweater) is English and Ed (pink shirt) is half English and half American actually. He and I did a presentation together at the beginning of term. He actually helped me with the dinner a lot - he made really good roast potatoes and the best gravy I have had in a long time! That is me in the corner talking with my friend Marie-Cécile but you obviously can't really see that too well!