Polish New Years

Alright this will be a fairly short post even though it is an important holiday. The fact of the matter is that New Years in Poland is celebrated almost identically to New Years in America. So there isn't a whole lot to tell you other than skimming through what I did on New Years Eve.

On New Years one of my classmates invited me to a party at his house, so I accepted. My host parents drove me (after I had spent the entire previous day getting explicit directions on how to get to my friend's house by bus.) and then I met my friend's parents, and was surprised that they spoke fairly fluent English. It was pretty much a normal party with people standing around and talking to eachother, some of the guys played poker and such. At one point some of the more fluent English speaking girls were asking me about their accent, as one was very proud that I told her that she spoke English with a British accent, and the other mad that I told her she sounded more like an American. (In Poland they learn only British English, so when they speak many want to speak with a British accent.) Later we went outside and shot off some fireworks and welcomed the New Year with a bottle of Russian Champagne. Then we went back inside, talked for several more hours and eventually went to sleep. The next day I slept through my bus so my friend's dad drove me to the city, I wandered around for a couple hours waiting for my bus home, ate a kebab (one of my favorite things to eat in Poland), and then finally went home. My New Years wasn't all that exciting, but it was still interesting enough. Oh and I should mention, in Poland the traditions of "The Dropping of the Ball" and kissing your significant other at midnight don't exist. And after new years day, school started once more. :'(

Sorry but I didn't bring my camera to the party so no pictures this time. Look forward next time I get around to writing (hopefully sooner rather than later) because it will be about my trip to Livigno, Italy and me trying and failing to snowboard. I'll also have plenty of beautiful pictures of the Italian Alps.