Halloween feels at home in Poland

The end of October and the beginning of November is the period when people contemplate death. They deal with this subject in many different ways. In some cultures, for example in Poland, it comes down to a religious celebration of the holidays called All Saints’ Day which falls on the 1st of November and All Souls’ Day on the 2^nd of November. It’s the time when Poles visit cemeteries and light candles on the tombs of their deceased loved ones praying for them. In churches the meditation on what is temporal and eternal takes place. It is rather sad and melancholic time.

On the other side, probably the most known worldwide tradition dedicated to the souls of dead is the 31th of October called Halloween. The western practice to dress up as ghosts, vampires, zombies, witches and so on is more and more perceptible also in Poland. It is more playful approach to the topic.

This year I spent that time in my hometown Bielsko-Biała. The last day of October I cleaned the tombs on cemeteries and I prepared them for the next day celebrations. On my way home I saw a group of children dressed up as different creatures who were walking from house to house shouting ‘trick or treat!’ in Polish. I was shocked. In the evening I made an appointment with my friend. On the streets there were more groups of young ghosts and zombies. After sunset Bielsko is usually rather empty but that evening it was full of life, or even better saying full of death! There were a lot of dressed up teenagers who were frightening the passersby. I felt like in a horror movie. I dislike such a entertainments and I don’t support the western tradition of Halloween but I have to say that the atmosphere of that evening was unique. All thanks to the weather which perfectly fit the circumstance. There was such a thick fog that me and my friend couldn’t find each other on the street. It made the city look mysterious and scary. The fog created also some natural Halloween decorations. For example the small mote of water settled on the spider webs on the bridge, which made an amazing effect! The picture doesn’t express it very good and the quality is bad too but you can imagine more or less what it was like ;)

New musical experience

As you know I am fanatic of music. During the holidays I always have more time to explore new bands, albums and tracks. This year it was a good possibility to immerse in the newest Siddharta’s album. It was released 12th of June and it is called Infra. Before Infra two new songs came out which announced the album. They are called Ledena and Dios. Ledena is a slow ballad. The title means ‘icy’ and the lyrics is more or less about reserved and unapproachable woman who is unable to accept someone’s love.

Dios (in English ‘god’) is more vigorous song with clear rock sounds. The lyrics is also more powerful with references to the four elements. I really like these two songs.

The whole album Infra includes 10 tracks:

1. Dios

2. Do Konca

3. Onna

4. Ledena

5. Da Sedere

6. Phat Yuppie

7. Diamanti

8. Love Love

9. Piknik

10. Gianna

When I was listening to Infra for the first time (excluding Ledena and Dios) I was a little embarrassed because every single song seemed to be very different from all the other Siddharta’s pieces of music. My feelings were rather negative. I thought ‘Probably something went bad, it isn’t the old Siddharta’s style any more!’. I didn’t feel like listen to it again. But after a few days I decided to return to Infra. Surprisingly, my opinion on it has completely changed. I found all of the tracks excellent and I couldn’t stop listening to them! I like the whole album but there is one song which recalls to me very positive emotions. In my opinion it is very energetic and pleasing to the ear song. There is something else which makes it so exceptional – the title of this song sounds like the name of one of my favourite Italian singers (Gianna Nannini). It caught my ear even if I don’t know yet what the lyrics is about. This is the last track of the album. It is called Gianna.

Do you have any experience like this? Have you ever had negative opinion about an album or a song which then changed completely?

Holidays without ...

The summer holidays have already passed and the new academic year began. (Un)fortunately this year I can’t boast about long trips, wild adventures or another impressive experience which supposedly most of you have had. Nevertheless, these three months were unusual to me. I spent most of the time in Poznań and in Bielsko. My holidays started with visit of my university friend and her boyfriend in my hometown. We spent in Bielsko a few days visiting the city and walking in the Beskid Mountains. We also went to visit Cieszyn and by the way to buy some Czech sweets and beer on the other side of the boundary ;) When I came back to Poznań I started to give Italian language lessons and meanwhile I was looking for a new flat with my boyfriend. When we finally found it and moved to it the new period began. I had to go again to Bielsko because I wanted to start the teaching practice in my former school before the academic year began. As you can see during this year’s summer I’ve done only common things and you can ask me ‘What’s so unusual in these holidays?’. I can explain it! There are some factors which made my holidays so exceptional:

- Italian lessons and my teaching practice in school lit up my mind and helped me to understand what I really want to do in my future. I discovered that I would like to divide my biggest passion and I can do this teaching Italian!

- Spending one month in my hometown I had a possibility to meet my friends and spend more time with them, with my family and with my dog! I haven't seen them for a long time studying in Poznań.

- I moved to the new flat in which now I live with my boyfriend, without any other flatmates who I had totally enough of!

- And finally: I SPENT THE WHOLE MONTH WITHOUT COMPUTER AND ALMOST WITHOUT INTERNET! That was an amazing feeling! I didn’t plan this before. It was only a strange coincidence because we hadn’t already had the connection to internet in our new flat and my parents in Bielsko had terminated the contract with internet provider some days before I came. That way I had more time for myself, for my friends, family and I got used not to use computer so much that now I don’t even feel like turn it on! But unfortunately nowadays life without computer and access to internet for a student is impossible…

Multidimensional dreams

In last post I wrote about very realistic dreams in which you wake up, so you pass to another dimension, and then you really wake up and again pass to another dimension which is called reality ;) Today I would like to describe a bit similar phenomenon which happened to me not once. I don’t think there is a specific term relative to this kind of dreams so I gave it a name by myself and I call them ‘multidimensional dreams’. There are two differences between false awakening and my multidimensional dreams: not always passing from one dimension to another is associated with awakening but there are other ways of such a transition; events present in each part of a dream are not everyday activities but on the contrary they are very often unreal situations which only appear very realistic in that dream.

One of my multidimensional dreams which I remember the most includes four transitions between different dimensions. I have to admit that it was very specific dream and it wasn’t very pleasant. In a nutshell it was something like this: 

'I was with my friend in a strange place where someone forced us to drink a poison. After doing that we died and we passed to other dimension. In that new world I saw some friends and family who were tortured and one of torturers told me ‘You can choose one person who we can leave alone'. I didn’t want to choose only one person. I was desperate and I started to cry and pray to God. Suddenly, when I made a step forward I crossed an invisible doorstep and again I passed to other dimension where I saw all my friends and family free and happy. There were also the torturers who became good people. Then we all danced together and in that point I woke up and realized that all the strange events were only in my dream. Suddenly, my friend patted me on the arm and asked me ‘What are you reading?’ and I realized that I read about that dream in a book during the travel by train. I answered ‘Oh, nothing interesting. There are only stupid stories in modern books.’ Finally, I truly woke up.

It is almost unbelievable that I can remember such a long and complex dreams but I really do. They happen to me very often. The structure of my multidimensional dreams in my opinion resemble to pictures where is a picture in a picture… like this:

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?