Are you out there? Have you wandered off down another corridor in the blogosphre? Shame, shame, shame! Anyway, I'm still kicking around, and am grateful and indebted to anyone with the patience and curiosity to tune in and see what I have been up to these days.
Instead of giving you the typical paragraph,anecdotal style run-down of my life over the last two or three months, I am going give you a chronological list of things that have been thrown at me that I have been trying to manage more or less mildly successfully since October or so.
1.) Started School-M.A. program in International Relations.
2.)Became so busy all of a sudden with work. Ironically when I became a student, everyone in Warsaw decided during the same week to learn English from me.
3.)received a legal form saying the police would come interview me for my residence status.
4.)cops came and were nice.
5.)Came to a realization that studying International Relations wasn't easy while teaching English.
6.)after a misunderstanding regarding my paperwork in order to live in Poland as a legal resident, i was told at the last minute to leave Poland and the Schengen area to get a new stamp in my passport.
7.)after being told that The Ukraine wasn't a good place to go to because of swine flu, I was advised it would be wiser to go to England(a non-schengen country.)
8.) Was detained by the UK authorities because they said I was violating EU law and working in the EU illegally, and promptly sent back to Poland after spending the night in a detention room*
9.)after being told that I was a 'polite bloke,' by the UK authorities, they escorted me to my plane back to Poland and informed the pilot to tell the Polish customs officers to go easy on me when they detain me.
10.)taken off the Ryan-Air plane in Poland and interrogated as to why I was detained in the UK, but after everyone(including myself,) that no one had any idea why I was detained, I was set free.
11.)Despite the fact that I was a free man, I only had one legal day left to stay in Poland, so two days of little to no sleep, I jumped on a bus to the Ukraine-a non-Schengen country to try again to get a visa stamp.
12.)went to the Ukraine for two days. Had a nice time, drank cheap beer, stayed in a cheap run down hotel, and had a nice meal.
13.)Came back to Poland and got a new visa stamp for 90 days.
14.)got really sick-probably swine flu
15.)tons of homework/presentations/mid-terms etc.
16.)received decision on Residence Card-Approved!
17.)Became totally burnt out.
18.) Went to Opole for Christmas, had a relaxing time, and wrote one of 3 term papers.
19.)Picked up residence card and had a happy new year.
20.)enjoying last days of vacation before I go back to Work on Tuesday and begin exams next month!!
So that's all for now. I have been one busy creature, but it's better to be busy than bored. I'm definitely got a lot to do. I'm even technically wasting time writing here. Anyway, I'm not bored, so I'm better off than most!
*I still wouldn't recommend being detained by the UK Immigration officials at Stansted Airport.
Here's your moment of zen- a bus in the Ukraine!
