opinions

Will I ever learn how to shut up at certain moments????!!!!
It’s not always important to tell what you think… or is it?

Maybe:
“It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.”

”Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.”

Or maybe:
“Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery.”

“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.”

The truth is probably halfway. Why the halfway is the most difficult to reach?

no more working!

I finished my internship. I'm a carefree student again! I can walk in the street at 2 pm on Friday and not feel guilty!
After thorough analysis, long and tiring thinking process, I have the plan for the next few months. I'm going to benefit from student life:
- study and possibly pass the exams;-)
- have coffee and nice talks in the breaks between classes
- read newspapers not only headlines (columns included;-)
- know what's on in the theatres
- attend interesting meetings somwhere in the city

Some new job can wait!

Basia came last week from Sweden for a coupl days. Big surprise. We missed her, she missed us(see pictures)












Harsh conditins for her - including sleeping on a mate on thr floor, but great fun too!

internship

Let me explain what I'm doing during my internship.

Just to remind, I'm working in the Corporate Centre of Bank BPH - third biggest Polish bank, recently bought by Unicredit group. The centre provides banking services to big companies. I went there because I wanted to see how the corporate banking looks like. It seemed to be a good opportunity.

I'm slightly dissapointed though. Mainly because nobody cares about my learning (and I'm skipping classes to be there). Only by making effort myself I managed to learn a little bit about the practical aspects of granting loans with different collaterals, providing bid bonds, performance bonds. However, most of the time I'm doing plenty of administrative work acting temporarily, (as I was told 3 weeks ago... but somehow it keeps being prolonged) as the director's assistant. Additionaly, around 2 or 3 times a week I'm doing industry analysis to be attached to credit applications (which means nothing more than writing some kind of a short report about the market size, trends and key success factors, the report based on the info I find in the Internet). Plus, on daily basis, I'm filling in the templates of contracts.

Ok, I've never done something like this before, so still there's some learning and I shouldn't have expected much more... It's just that.... if you squeezed all that, I would be able to learn the new things in 3 days and I'm staying there 2 months:-/ What a waste of time. One month left.

The good thing is that the bank is in the process of merging with the second big in Poland, so I'm able to see a little bit of the process from inside. The other good thing is that people are nice:-) and as somebody recently pointed it out they have good coffee there;-)

My mixed feelings probably come from the fact that in AIESEC I used to try really hard to have the best effect possible(the others did the same) and learning was there all the time. In this job it's different, therefore I know I need to check some other options before I decide on my future career path.

shoemaker phenomenon

For more than a week now, I'm wearing winter boots to work. No, it's not soooo cold in Poland yet. It's just that I lost part of the heel of my autumn shoes and I need to go to the shoemaker to have them repaired. The shoemaker's shop is open when I'm at work. That's just a minor thing but there are so many others that I'm not able to do because of the same reason. How do people working from 9 to 6 exist? Do they waste the whole of Saturday running those errands???? It sucks.

autumn weekend

I had really good time this weekend. On Saturday we had the assessment centre as part of the recruitment for new members. Big scale event: 80 people, 30 assessors, 15 facis. Well done "kids":-) I was one of the assessors. My comment: you tend to be much less strict when assessing the first group than when assessing the last one. So take the advice: whenever you have the possibility to choose between hours, the earlier you take part in the assessment, the better. Assessors wouldn't take revenage on you for being tired:-)

Today I went with Radek to Lazienki Park. It was so beautiful: yellow and red leaves on the trees, squirelles, peacocks. I enjoyed my time so much that haven't even noticed crowds of people everywhere;-) Relaxed, I had a nice talk with Bassion to end the day...So good...Why does it have to be Monday tomorrow????





PS. I was offically confirmed as the so-called "Reception Commander" for my LC, really need start doing something right now:-)

Back to Warsaw

I know I should have written something earlier, I'm sorry:-)

First of all thank you all the Beijing people for the series of farewall parties. They were super cool. Have you noticed that last night there were only us on the dancefloor. I didn't realize it until the next day...so you really rocked :-D

I'm back to Warsaw now. As some remeber straight after coming back home I started my internship. To be honest it's a bit dissapointing - I'm repeating the same tasks most of the time, was supposed to do sthg else but still waiting for the access to all the systems - banks and their standards, procedures and superexcessive paperwork:-/It's gradually getting better though, but very slowly. At least the people are nice there and being very very very proactive I learn sthg new from time to time;-) . But anyway it's definately not as special as Beijing adventure... I work there from 9 to 5 almost every day, attending only 3 classes a week and not really feeling like the student.

I need to go for the assesors training right now... I promise to write more regularly from now on:-)

busy busy busy

Ostatnio dużo się dzieje. W poniedziałek odbył się Wieczor Europejski.Wcześniej promocja- nawet się nie przyznajcie, że nie wiecie, że to strój biskupiński (co prawda ja nie wiedziałam do niedawna;-)

Duzo ludzi przyszło, za duzo, nie bylo gdzie zatanczyc poloneza, na 8m2 nie wyszedl specjalnie imponujaco. W miedzynarodowym sklepie udalo mi sie kupic polski chleb, nie bardzo mialam pomysl na to jak go podawac, wiec tradycyjnym jedzeniem z Polski byl polski chleb z dżemem wyglądającym na polski:-) Przyznam sie, ze temat tozsamosci europejskiej studentow chinskich nie porwal...

Tańczyli ze mna studenci Katedry Jezyka Polskiego, którym prowadziłam w piątek konwersacje, dość wymiatają..

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A lot have been happenning recently. First of all, on Mon there was the European night, promotion of course before it (on the picture - I had no clue how the traditional costume from Biskupin region looked like until last Wednesday;-)

A lot of people came, too many, we didn't have space to dance polonez, so it wasn't spectacular at all. I manged to buy Polish bread and served it with jam, pretending that is sthg traditionally Polish (I wasn't laying that much, they don't eat jam here and we do!) I need to say that the theme of European identity didn't seem very interesting for the Chinese..

I danced polonez with polish langage studnets, they're already quite good...

AIESEC

Dawno nie updateowałam, co się tu dzieje aiesecowo, a dzieje sie duzo. Wczoraj bylo spotkanie calego komitetu - dostalam medal za zasługi:












A dzisiaj odbyło się seminarium poświęcone oszczędzaniu energii w ramach tutejszego projektu (dla wtajemniczonych PBOXa;-) o energii o nazwie Superpower.














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I haven't written anything about AIESEC activities for a long time and a lot is happenning now. Yesterday, we had the awards gala - got a medal for the best CEEDEr ever - they haven't had that many of them;-) but still it was really nice...
Today we had the Energy Seminar in the project (for some PBOX) about energy. Success!

Majiang

Graliśmy wczoraj w majiang - taka chińska gra, z mnóstwem klocków, które trzeba poustawiać w odpowiedznie zestawy. Gralismy w wersję mocno okrojoną, która i tka była dośc skomplikowana. Tutaj trochę więcej na jej temat: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong
Zdaje się, że wy nie macie problemów z dostępem do Wikipedii...
Oczywiście przegrałam;-)

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We played majiang yesterday - a Chinese game with a lot of bricks that you need to gather in specific sets - we played just with the basic rules but still it was pretty complicated. A little bit more about the rules and symbols (that I didn't know about) here: http://kjmjm.tky.fi/english/majiang/symbolism.html
Of course I lost...

nowy współlokator/new roommate

Jest chichy, spokojny, uległy, nie bałagani, nie imprezuje. Ideał - prawie -oto on:
He's silent, calm, doesn't make a mess, doesn't party. Ideal - almost - here he comes:

kłótnie/quarrels

Wydawałoby sie, że Chińczycy to spokojni, pokorni ludzie...Właśnie słyszę kłótnię sąsiadów - kobiety i mężczyzny. Podejrzewam, że słyszy ich cały blok. W czasie mojego tutejszego pobytu kilkakrotnie widziałam takie sytuacje w restauracjach, na ulicy... Czy ludzie w Polsce są szczęśliwsi, czy po postu nie robia publicznie scen?
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You'd say Chinese are calm, humble people.... Right at the moment I can hear neighbours' - man and woman quarrel...so can the whole building. I've seen the situations like that very often here - in restaurants, in the streets...Are people in Poland happier or they just don't make scenes in public?

lekcje mandaryńskiego - Mandarin classes

Z racji tego, że wszyscy tutaj już chodzą do szkoły od jakiegoś czasu i wszystkie aiesecowe sprawy i tak sie dzieja wieczorami, postanowilam nie marnowac dni i wykorzystac je na intensywniejsza nauke mandarynskiego.
Udalo sie znalezc tania szkole, bardzo blisko. Zaczynam od pojutrza na pewno. Reszta warunkow bedzie dograna jutro rano, bo pomimo pol godzinnej wizyty w tej szkole, 3 telefonow, nadal mi sie nie udalo do konca dogadac z pania recepcjonistka, ktora zdaje sie jest tam trzymana w charakterze naczelnego motywatora - jak sie z nia chcesz dogadac, to sie chinskiego ucz gamoniu!;-)

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As all the AIESECers have already started to attend classes and most of @stuff is happening in the evenings, I decided not to waste time and enroll for Mandarin classes.
Cheap language school, close to UIBE has been found. I'm starting the day after tomorrow for sure. All the other conditions are still a bit vague as, regardless of half an hour visit and 3 phone calls, I didn't mange to fully understand the receptionist lady, who is probably kept there as the major motivator - if you want to understand her, learn Chinese

Szanghai

Szanghaju dał znać o sobie mój eklektyczny gust. Najpierw odwiedziłam nadbrzeżną ulicę Bund - bardzo europejskie pozostałości kolonialnej przeszłości i bardzo nowoczesna drugą stronę rzeki ze specjalną strefą ekonomiczną, tam właśnie jest słynna wieża telewizyjna, która staął się symbolem Szangahaju.



Następnego dnia odwiedziłam Plac Ludowy i Muzeum Współczesnej Sztuki Chińskiej.Obok "Spotkanie malutkich" i "10 kobiet"














Następnie odwiedziłam miejsce, gdzie odbył się pierwszy kongres komunistycznej Partii Chin, poznając nieco tło jej powstania. Oto to historyczne miejsce:Stare miasto- częśc poza strefą wpływów brytyjskich, francuskich czy jakichkolwiek- wygląda naprawdę imponująco. W świątyni bóstw opiekuńczych miasta króluje Qin.










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In Szangahai I followed my eclectic taste. The first evening I visited Bund, the street on the bank of river Pu with impressive colonial bulidings with nice lights on it. The other side of the river is the special economic zone, growing rapidly Pudong with the TV tower, Oriental Pearl Tower - the symbol of Sznghai.
The next day, I found myself at the People's Square and in People's Park to find finally something interesting - Modern Art Museum with the "Chinese Aesthetivs of Heterogeneity"exhibition. Some pieces on the photos ("The meeting of the little ones" and "10 women"). After, strange combination I visited the site where the first congress of the Communist party of China took place and understood the "backgound" a little bit

The old town part(which was excluded from British, French and any other influence) is really impressive though very very turists oriented. The god Qin is taking care of the city.

Hong Kong

To miasto wywiera podwójnie duże wrażenie.
Z jednej strony bardzo nowoczesne miasto. Architektura zapiera dech w piersiach - chyba najefektywniej wykorzystywana powierzchnia na świecie: szczupłe, wysokie budynki (co tam PKiN, blok Sarity ma ich 28, a widok z 16 jest naprawdę impoujący) drogi nad ziemią, pod ziemią, nad wodą, pod wodą.





Spektatkularne siedziby znanych instytucji. Oto ja w pozycji zarządzającego bankiem HSBC.
Doszłyśmy do wniosku, że w tym mieście dodatkową korzyścią z awansu jest prawdopodobnie lepszy widok za oknem;-) Ubrani na czarno ludzie, którzy się tam kręcą, to zaledwie trybiki w wielkiej maszynie światowych rynków finansowych, ale nie powiem, nawet mnie tam ciągnie...








Druga strona Hong Kongu, to plaże i góry, natura w stanie tylko z lekka zabezpieczonym przed obsuwającymi się zboczami. Byłyśmy na wyspie Lantau (Hong Kong leży na kliku wyspach - wyspa HK to tam, gdzie centrum, w innych miejscach jest troszkę luźniej). Odwiedziłyśmy Wilekiego Budde, oddajac mu czesc z innymi boginiami;-)





















Przeszłyśmy "Ścieżką mądrości" z ustawionymi w kształcie 8 balami z wyrytymi mądrościami. Po dośc intensywnych przemyśleniach- ścieżka aż tak bardzo nam nie pomogła, doszłyśmy do wniosku, że przesłąnie jest następujące: I tak nie ma nic, więc po co czegokolwiek chcieć. W tym miejscu byłam skłonna się z tym zgodzić...















Oprócz tego odwiedziłyśmy plaże w Repulse Bay i zostałysmy gwiazdami w Alei gwiazd.

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English version (picture discrimination in place - if interested in photos look at the Polish version)

Hong Kong is twice more impressive than any other city.

On one hand it's very modern. Its architecture frequently takes breath away. Every square metre is probably used in the most effective way possible. There are thin and tall buildings, roads above and underground, above and under water, spectacular sites of different companies (at the photo I'm trying to replace the chief manager of HSBC as the future statue character;-)
We came to the conclusion that an additional advantage of being promoted in HK is the high probability of having better window view. Is it attractive? Seems so to me, even though people wearing black running around there are just small cogs in the machine of international financial markets...

The other side of Hong Kong is the beautiful wildlife: sea, beaches, mountains. We went to Lantau island to visit big Buddha and pay homage to him together with other goddesses;-) (photo).

We went along the "Wisdom path" which consists of big poles standing to form a big 8 with Chinese characters curved on each. After intensive thinking (the path was no THAT MUCH helpful), we came to the conclusion that the message is: There's nothing, so don't desire anything. In this place I was eager to agree with that...

Apart from that, we went to the beach in Repulse Bay and became stars in the Avenue of stars;-)

Thank you Chan family for putting up with us for so long and for your hospitality:-)

Hong Kong nadchodze/Hong Kong here we come!

Jutro rozpoczynam razem z Regulą ze Szwajcarii eskapadę do Hong Kongu i Szanghaju. Po 24h podróż pociągiem w Hong Kongu odbierze nas Sarita, która nam przysłała szczegółowy plan pobytu. Zapowiada się ciekawie. 6.09 wyruszam sama do Szanghaju - tam liczę na pomoc LC FDU. Z powrotem w Pekinie będę 8. trzymajcie kciuki, żebym się nie zgubiła gdzieś po drodze.
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Tomorrow Regula and me start our journey to Hong Kong and Szanghai. After 24-hour journey, we'll be picked up by Sarita, who prepared a detailed plan of our stay there. It seems really cool -can't wait and really thank you for that:-) On the 6th I go to Szanghai, expecting a little bit of help from LC FDU. Back to Beijing on the 8th, keep your fingers crossed. After all, it would be a pity if I got lost somewhere....

porcja elektrycznosci/electricity quota

Helou,
Post bedzie krótki, bo mi zostało baterii na 1o minut, a jak tytuł wkazuje skonczyl nam sie limit na elektrycznosc. Trzeba zatem wziąć pewna karte i udac sie do odpowiedniej instytucji, aby dokupic pare wiaderek prądu (Internetu nie muszę;-) bo chyba jest to dobro publiczne biorac pod uwage, ze kradnac je w tej chwili od sasiada, nie wylaczam go z jego konsumpcji i o ile mi wiadomo nie popleniam przestepstwa;-). Problem w tym, że chłopak, który ma kartę, jest teraz w Polsce. Pozdrawiam! Udałam się zatem do sklepu, w tym dziwnym kraju, gdzie latarka jest tańsza od świeczki...

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The post is going to be really short, becuase my battery will work for no more than 10 minutes and as the title suggests we've finished up our electricity quota. It is therefore necessary now to grab the card and reach appropriate insitution to buy a few more buckets of electricity;-) (no need for Internet buying cause I've recently realized that Internet is a public good as stealing it right now wirelessly from the neighbour, I'm not excluding anyone from its consumption and as far as I know, it's not a crime;-) The problem with electricity seems to be more serious because the guy who has the card is in Poland right now. Greetings! So eventually I went to a shop in this strange country where a torch is cheaper than a candle...

update

Dawno nic nie pisałam - czy to oznacza, że już się tak do Chin przyzwyczaiłam, że mnie nic nie zaskakuje?
Weekend minął szybko. Studenci-aktorzy amatorzy, nie ważne, że pochodzą z nacji dość zamkniętych w sobie Chińczyków, na scenie zachowuja sie zupełnie po zachodniemu. Impreza w sobotę była najlepszą, na jakiej do tej pory tutaj byłam - zakończona grupowym "Let's get it started" na barze;-) MAc , jeśli się zdecydujesz tu wpaść, obiecuję co najmniej takie atrakcje...Seul nie tak daleko...
W niedzielę miałam nadzieję obejrzeć, podobno najpopularniejszy w Pekinie, kościół katolicki. Tłumy wokół niego to prawda - deskarzy, rolkarzy i spacerujących. Kościół zamknięty na 4 spusty - w niedzielę - ciekawe zjawisko.
Wczoraj odbyła sie impreza pozegnalna Pierre'a, który wrócił do Indii. Smutno...

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I haven't updated the blog for a long time. Does that mean that I've already got used to China so much that nothing surprises me ?
Weekend passed fast. I found out that student actors, no matter that coming from quite closed Chinese nation, express in similar ways to our actors.
Party on Saturday was the best of all I had here so far. Group dancing of "Let's get it started" on the bar included. MAc, if you decide to come here, I promise at least this kind of attractions;-) Seoul is not so far...
On Sunday I hoped to visit the most popular catholic church in Beijing. There were crowds around it, true, but made of skateboarding and walking poeple. The church was closed. On Sunday. Weird.
Yesterday I said goodbye to Pierre who went back to India. Sadness...

o Polsce/about Poland ;-)

Polska nie pojawia się tu w wiadomościach zbyt często...a ostatnio się pojawiła:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/20/content_4984520.htm
Jest to prawdopodobnie jedyna okazja, kiedy tego typu informacja wywołała u mnie taką radość;-)
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Poland is not making headlines very often here... However, the crucial message was delivered recently;-):
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/20/content_4984520.htm
That's probably the only occasion in my life, this kind of info is bringing about sooo positive feelings;-)

Tageshwar

Tagged by
Regula

I am thinking about...
having sthg to eat but it's 2am :-/
I said...
good luck twice today.
I want to...
have more precise desires;-)
I wish...
I was more self-centred at times
I miss...
my family and Radzio...
I hear...
the air con...
I wonder...
whether shower is better than a bath;-)
I regret...
to inform you that I can't think of any things I regret..
I am...
ignorant sometimes
I dance...
beacause I love it
I sing...
only "Happy bithday" and still occasionally
I cry...
during movie's lofty moments
I am not always...
straight-forward
I write...
to keep in touch
I confuse...
„é” and „è”
I need...
Internet for at least an hour a day
I should try...
getting up earlier - more time to be used then...
I finish...
this weekend by talking to my parents

I tag Bassion, MAc, Asia B, Sibulka and Sarita.

chill out(pl) / chill out(eng);-)

Ten weekend był wyjątkowo spokojny. W piątek propagowałam pierogi, co prawda wersję eksperymentalną (z brzoskwiniami i gruszkami;-), które zjadłam w miłym towarzstwie Pierre'a i Reguli. W sobotę wieczorem oglądaliśmy film w opustoszałym ze względu na IC mieszkaniu MC (łóżko zdecydowanie wygodniejsze od mojego:-). W niedzielę udało się trochę poruszać - byłam na basenie. Luzik - relaksik - czasem tak też jest fajnie:-)

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This weekend was exceptionally calm. On Friday I promoted pierogi - version upgraded (with peaches and pears) eating them in the nice company of Regula and Pierre. Sat evening we watched a movie in the empty because of IC flat of the MC (I slept there, the bed being so much more comfortable than mine - thanks:-) We manged to go swimming on Sun. The whole weekend was just chilling out - very needed at times:-)