Dream within a dream

Do you know what false awakening is? It is a phenomenon when you dream that you wake up, you do some common activities like refreshing, getting dressed, preparing and eating breakfast etc. During this dream you are usually convinced that you stay really awake as long as you truly wake up. After getting up you can feel confused and unsure of what you really did and what you dreamt.

I experienced such a dream last night. I woke up, got up from my bed and went to the bathroom. After a few minutes I opened the fridge and took sandwiches which I had prepared the evening before and I put them into my bag. I don’t remember more details but I know that there were more everyday activities in that dream. Then my alarm clock rang and I really woke up. I was convinced that it was Friday and I said to my boyfriend ‘Oh, finally I can rest. I like Friday so much!’ and he made me aware of the fact that it was only Thursday and I had to go on university. I had to admit that he ruined my good mood. During the day some events which happened, people I met etc seemed to me strange. I had a feeling that all that things have already happened to me today. I realized that I had that dream within a dream. That’s why in the morning I thought Thursday has already passed. My dreams are becoming more and more fascinating for me!

Again I want to ask you a question: Have you ever experienced a false awakening? What was it like?

Days of Italian Culture

Last week was very intense and busy but also very joyful time for me and my friends from Italian Philology. The Student Scientific Group, of which I am a member, organized The Days of Italian Culture. This event took place from 18 until 21 May 2015. Within those four days there were some lectures relative to different contexts of Italian culture and language. Some of them were conducted by students who presented their interests regarding Italy and their looks on this country and the others were conducted by professors.

The first day was dedicated to Italian wines. The lecture was very interesting and informative. We could learn how the process of making different types of wine proceeds, how to drink wine and how not to do it ;) Our friend also debunked the most common myths about wine. Afterwards there was a possibility to take part in a wine testing.

The second day was marked by Italian music. The celebration started with the lecture about Italian ‘cantautori’ (singer-songwriters) which was combined with a concert. That was the point of DIC in which I took an active part because I sang a song of one of my favourite Italian artists Gianna Nannini titled ’Meravigliosa Creatura’. You can listen to the original version here:

The continuation of Tuesday events was the lecture about Italian opera and the meeting with a Polish opera artist.

The third day was the day of media and colours. We participated in some lectures relative to those two topics. In a certain way it was also a continuation of the previous day because in the evening there was organized the Italian karaoke in one of pubs in Poznań.

The last day of DIC was very important for students of Italian Philology who would like to know what to do after their studies. During the debate on career we knew very interesting guests who uses Italian language in their work. They shared their experience, the good and the bad aspects of their job and gave us some advices for the future. The last point of the celebration was the projection of Luchino Visconti’s film titled ‘Senso’ with the short lecture in the beginning.

I really liked the initiative to organize the Days of Italian Culture. It was very good occasion to show how students perceive Italy and Italian language, to share our interests associated with our course and also to know each other better. I hope it will become our tradition!

My prophetic dreams

Have you ever experienced that some events you dreamed about during the night repeated in your real life? I had several prophetic dreams. It is so fascinating to dream about your future but sometimes it is also a bit creepy.

One of my prophetic dreams presents an ordinary situation. I dreamt about my friend who I haven’t met for a long time and have had no contact with. In my dream I met her in Cracow near the university I attended that time. During that unexpected meeting I was surprised because she didn’t use to stay in that area of the city as she went to another university. About two days after that dream coming from the university I really met her. I was shocked. What’s more, she just crossed the same street as in my dream!

 Another dream was very funny but when it came true I was no longer laughing. I was angry and embarrassed. I dreamt that I wore my fairly new jeans and I just wanted to go out when they tore and there were two big holes in certain areas. Next day I wanted to leave home to meet with my friends and it was already late so I was hurrying. I wore the same jeans as in the dream and then I wanted to put on shoes in the corridor. I put my right foot on a step and bent down to tie shoelaces. Suddenly I heard a fairly loud sound of tearing material. Such situation happened to me only one time in my life and in addition I dreamt about it the night before…

The third prophetic dream I would like to describe you seems the most improbable because of a lot of details that repeated in my real life. It was the time when I was looking for a work in Cracow and I sent a lot of CVs daily. All of the responses came to me over the phone. One night I head a dream in which I sent my application to a charming coffee shop in which I wanted to work very much. Next day after sending my CV I checked my e-mail about 2 p.m. and I read a message from the manager of the coffee shop: ‘Recruitment meeting will take place the 7^th of April at 12 o’clock. Please confirm your presence.’ When I woke up I thought ‘Oh my God, that looking for a job is making me crazy!’ and I started to do ordinary things as every day after getting up. I turned on the computer only about 2 p.m. and the message which I found in my inbox knocked me flat! It was as follows: ‘Recruitment meeting will take place the 7^th of April at 12 o’clock. Please confirm your presence.’ In the same second I looked at the calendar and the clock. It was April 17^th, 2 p.m.

How about your prophetic dreams? Have you ever had any?

Happy Easter to everyone!

It's almost Easter. In this occasion I would like to wish you good health, a lot of peace and relaxation and serene Easter. May these days be full of family and friendly atmosphere.

In my home Easter is a time when my mother, sister and I can express ourselves by making handmade decorations. The obvious thing is to decorate boiled and coloured eggs. We always prepare for egg painting gathering onion skins some weeks before the Holy Week. Then, they will be useful to make the natural dye. The eggs have to be boiled in water with onion skins, they will become brown. We always choose eggs which have white eggshell because in such situation the results are better. When the dyed eggs are cool and dry me and my sister start to scratch various patterns on them such as flowers, lines, dots etc. It is a bit arduous and difficult work because it is easy to damage the eggshell but I find it worth to devote time and attention.

Besides decorating eggs we have also other Easter decorations. My house is full of my mum's crochet figurines. On Easter holidays my mum makes chicks, lambs and bunnies of knitting wool.

In this picture there is my hand-decorated egg and my mum's crochet chick. The tablecloth and the doily is also made by my mum :)

I'm not very good at decorating Easter eggs but I think my sister is a true artist in this field. In the second picture you can see this year's eggs decorated by my sister and a funny crochet bunny made, of course, by my mum :)

Do you like decorating Easter eggs and make other Easter ornaments?

Which techniques do you use to decorate eggs?

The music I’m crazy about. Part 5: Kantele

Kantele is a Finnish folk instrument. It is plucked string instrument similar to zither. It is made of wood and has strings the number of which varies from 5 to 40. The traditional kantele had horsehair strings but in the modern instrument the strings are metal.

According to the Finnish epic Kalevala the first kantele was built by hero Väinämöinen. He made the body of the instrument from a reindeer bone, the strings were a few hair of demon Hiisi’s horse which were attached to the body with the jawbone of a pike.

Kantele playing consist in plucking the strings with fingers. Nowadays kantele is used not only in folk music but also in other music genres such as heavy metal. When I heard the sound of kantele for the first time I felt in love with it. The two bands I’m listening to which use kantele in their songs are Nest and Kardemimmit. Nest is a finnish band composed by two musicians Aslak Tolonen, who is the kantele player, and Timo Saxell. Their music can be classified as neofolk, ambient and dark ambient.

Kardemimmit is a Finnish quartet composed of female musicians. They play folk music.

Four months passed

In this post I would like to summarize the first semester of this academic year but not only in terms of studying. Since I started writing my blog from the stories of my dreams, in this summary I would also refer to one of my dreams from the past.

In the beginning I should mention that it is my first year in Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Previously I studied in Cracow where I had a lot of friends and where I was close to my hometown. Then I decided to enroll to the University of Poznań and I left Cracow. I moved to the new city where I didn’t know anybody, any places etc. All my friends, my family and my boyfriend left in Cracow and Bielsko. Now I’m living in a room the walls of which are painted grey. I like this colour but in combination with the greyness of this year’s autumn and winter it had a negative impact on my mood. The last four months were very hard for me. I had to acclimatize myself to the new reality, new city, new people and first of all to the new university. New subjects and exams proved to be more difficult than ones I had before. And the worse thing was the loneliness, the feeling of longing for my home, friends and of course for my boyfriend who I saw rarely because of the distance. The image of this time reminds me of one of my dreams I had some years before:

"I was alone in the world. The world was an extremely long and wide empty hall with all the walls painted grey, without doors and windows, furniture, equipment, flora and fauna. It has very overwhelming atmosphere. I was walking in that greyness looking for any sign of life and after long time I saw a slight sun beam coming to my world through the window as small as a notebook. There was an old wooden chair and a book on it. I sat on the chair and opened the book. It was an album with photos of my family and my friends. When I saw them I told: You all were always close to me and now I’m alone in this sad world."

It was very depressing dream. During these four months there were some moments in which I felt just like in that dream and that’s why I remembered about it.

Now the new semester started and I hope it will be better. Every day I see more and more sun through my window pane and I hope the spring will come soon. The thing which now gives me the will to live and makes me feel happy is the fact that my boyfriend moved to Poznań and we can see each other everyday!

The music I’m crazy about. Part 4: Joik

Today I would like to present a very unusual kind of music. It is probably one of the most amazing types of songs I’ve ever heard. This is joik (or yoik) a traditional Sámi music. I came across that way of singing about a year ago in Cracow during the meeting with the authors of the book Vaggi Varri. W tundrze Samów which is dedicated to the culture of Sámi people. Their stories and demonstrations made me fell in love with Lapland and thereby with joik. It isn’t ordinary way of singing. Joik is usually dedicated to a human being, an animal or a landscape. It is very often improvised. In the 1950s it was forbidden and considered sinful because of its association with Sámi shamanism. Joiking has a long tradition which lasts until now. I like to listen to joik because of its magical and peaceful sound which makes me feel nearer to the nature and of course because of the language!

Ulla Pirttijärvi is one of my favorite joik singers. She is from Finnish Lapland.

Adjágas is a group of Norwegian Sámi joikers. The name of the band in Sámi language mean the state between waking and sleeping.

Sofia Jannok is a joik singer from Swedish Lapland.

Vajas is another Sámi-Norwegian band. The name Vajas means echo in North Sámi language.

Other joiking artists and bands are: Mari Boine, Máddji, Orbina, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Wimme Saari.