W Warszawy - Ost Blog
Chapter VII - Halfways
[February] Klepsydra
Despite being absent one in three days (covering most fridays and weekends), I managed to establish some basic social life. Most of the people I know outside the institute are casual encounters, and they will probably stay to be loose contacts for a while - unless I decide to change my travel policy. The Klepsydra Bar turnt out to be a good melting pot for relaxed people of different kind. Well placed, and excellent for a chill-out. Check Nowy Swiat 22/26, Pawilion No 14 in the second back yard.
[Fri, Mar 14th] Karaoke
There are three basic rules when going for a karaoke evening in a foreign country: First, relax yourself. If you don"t, you might have a hard time. Second, try to sing to every song with your colleagues no matter whether its your turn or not, as loud as you can. Third, when it is finally your turn, choose a song where you know the lyrics by heart. It might happen that there is no text appearing, or may be unreadable. This time, it happened already for the second time to me, so I was prepared this time. Nevertheless, it took me a week to get 'Psolka Maja' out of my ears again.
[Sat, Mar 15th] Canarife
Spent a relaxing week with Nils on Tenerifa. We had a great time climbing on volcanoes, playing billard and Magic, getting splashed by orca whales, and whatever you do in such a place. Lots of that. Fortunately, a friend of his happened to be in the hotel next door, so they occasionally met for playing soccer and TV, while I checked local botanics.
[Tue, Apr 1st] Halfways
Having completed half time of my contract came faster than I had expected. As I feel getting into life in Poland better and better, the "already?" outweighs the wish to finish off quickly by far. I got asked often recently, what I would be doing when coming back to Germany, but I have no answer on that yet. Mainly because the assumption may turn out to be wrong. Sometimes the world seems to have become too small to just go back where I came from. And sometimes it feels that removing Poland from my heart would require more than plastic surgery.
[Tue, Apr 8th] Airport diet
This month, I will spent approximately 10 nights and an insignificant number of days home. Last wednsday, I left for Poznan to work on projects with our ambitious and brillant students. On friday, I continued for Berlin, spending the weekend with my beloved ones. Monday was a working day on the Charite, tuesday I dropped for an invited talk about science-art crossover in Bremen and left right away for D&usseldorf to catch a plane to Newcastle, where the Marie-Curie RTN will meet. It will go on like this for the next couple of weeks.
I will have the next one point five years to think whether this kind of life should go on for longer. There are two reasons that make me reluctant believe: The first is, that I already feel the travel drug kicking less. Yesterday, I took the local train from Friedrichstrasse to Hauptbahnhof without a ticket, and got into a control. Having 10 minutes to reach my train, I showed my train ticket and pretended to be a foreigner. Worked. Also I am placing my connections in decreasing intervals, to optimize my time. At this very moment I am expecting to arrive at an airport still 200km away, half an hour before check in closes. Of course, this is both practical and exciting, but extrapolating it, I might overdose myself with travel in a few years.
The second reason is nutrition. Being on the move constantly leaves little opportunity for an extensive meal. I try to eat salads and other healthy stuff often, but there is still plenty of heavy fuel - carbohydrates and protein.
[Sat, Apr 19th] Stag Nights
Made an appointment in the city with my mom to get the flat keys from her. This brought me on Oranienburger Strasse on a saturday evening after long time. On the (not very long) way I had encounters with: A guy dressed entirely in a canary yellow suit plus hat, two girls' parties on stag night, one of them wearing dozens of tiny bottles of liquor on their body, a guy dressed as a prisoner with feathers on his head and a plastic ass, a guy dressed as a pink giant bunny - both probably on stag night as well - another guy dropping his pants in public, eight boys with cowboy hats, and the occasional prostitute approaching people that look like rich tourists. Got away quickly, for I am just looking for some normal people.