Back on the Island!

I still don't understand why the Union flag was a necessity for this picture.

It was so good to be back in Oxford for a few days. When I arrived at the train station it just felt like being at home again. Strolling down the Cornmarket has never been so pleasurable, even in pouring rain and with crowds of tourists flooding around.

I managed to catch up with more people than I've actually expected and I had a wonderful time. I'm glad that I've actually went in the end, because I honestly didn't feel like it for quite a while. But it was fantastic. I feel like I'm repeating myself. Yes, I had loads of fun. There was a trip to the college bar, brunch in the dinning hall (best meal of the week), Tuesday breakfast with blueberry pancakes and a morning coffee in a Jericho cafe. Thanks to everyone who made my time in Oxford so special (you know who you are)!
And I even managed to go to the cinema and see 'The Imitation Game', such a good film (although I suspect that a small part of the reason I have enjoyed it so much is that I went by myself with only a bag of toffee popcorn to accompany me that afternoon).

I came back to Leiden with a suitcase full of crumpets and breakfast muffins dutifully bought for Captain America and three jars of mincemeat to make a stack of Christmas pies next month. It seems that I got my dose of Englishness to carry me through the next few months. Hooray!

Handful of time. At last!

Exam week is finally over!

Let's put it this way, I know finals next year will be worse, but I'm still glad I survived those exams. My brain feels drained, especially that last time I had to take exams was in the middle of my first year at uni, which was quite a while ago. So I guess I've just had some practice now (with more to follow next semester, fun times).

As I walked out of the exam this afternoon I thought 'gosh, what do I do with all this time now?' I'm done for the semester, so assuming I haven't failed any exam, I need to fill in the next over two months somehow. In sight I have a trip to Oxford, a potential trip to Munich at some point too, lots and lots of baking, arts and crafts and proper sleep. And of course I need to continue directing the play (premiere on Dec 8!). And do some revision for finals. But this is not fun at all, so I'd rather omit that one.

There is a stack of books in my room that wait to be read, so hopefully I get round to these. I expect prolonged tea times, with relaxing music in the background, stacks of biscuits and comfy pillows behind my back. At last!

Fluffy jumpers time.

If I was to choose between hot summer or a freezing cold winter, I'd go for the latter, mostly because it is a fluffy jumpers time.

I've written a short account on my feelings towards Christmas, but really I just wanted to share my new jumper, so I'll spare you reading of that terrible piece.

Doei!

Who am I?

11th November. It's Independence Day in Poland: the ultimate celebration of Polishness.

I'm reading The English. A Portrait of the People by Paxman at the moment. I was desperate for a book with no 'law' or 'legal' in a title to read in those scarce free moments and only this in the entire English bookstore seemed at all entertaining, so I bought it for 5 euros.

One of the chapter is entitled Funny Foreigners and it basically talks about the English dislike for other nations. The book is from 1999, so in the context of current deliberations as to the immigration policy and the EU treaty renegotiation, it acquires a new dimension, but anyway, I thought of me being a foreigner in the UK. As much as I assimilated with the culture, I still hold a Polish passport. But despite this passport I'ma foreigner in Poland too, because my mentality has changed a lot and I probably feel more foreign to Poland than England at this stage.

So today, as the entire Poland celebrates the independence regained after 123 years of annexation, I wonder who I am actually? I can wear a patriotic white and red pin on Nov 11th, but I'm equally enthusiastic about the Queen's jubilee (or the Royal wedding or the birth of another prince). This is a strange feeling of being neither here not there. Though I'm not entirely sure how important it is to identify yourself with a specific country nowadays. I mean we live in a global world and the mobility is so widespread that it's sometimes a matter of pure chance where you end up being born.

So if I got asked "who are you?" (kto Ty jesteś?), being Polish would probably not be the first thing that came to my mind. Maybe 6th or 7th, that's definitely more like it. And there's nothing wrong with it. It took me ages to deal with a feeling of some bizarre patriotic guilt. But what seems important to me now is not how much of a Pole I feel or are perceived as by other people. What is important is that if I wish I can go back to Poland that is free.