20.

eh. is that number cheerful or depressive? cheerful, i'd rather say. it's sunny outside and the air is very fresh. i can think of only one tune for today anyways:

"Ja mam dwadzieścia lat, ty masz dwadzieścia lat,
Przed nami siódme niebo!
Dziś nie potrzeba więcej nam do szczęścia chyba już nic...

the response(s)

wow. i must say that i am truly amazed by the power and influence of media.

yes, i always knew it existed; i had read about it, i had seen many documentaries with noam chomsky and gore vidal etc. however (and those who know me are quite aware of this), i am quite an empirical bastard and i never fully believe until i try myself.

publishing an article in vancouver sun was a discovery of what sort of storm can such a small feature cause both on my blog and in my mailbox. i have got emails from my zero-years in flekke (apparently someone printed the article and put it up on the noticeboard!), couple of polish students at sfu, rotary club in burnaby, piotr lutynski (with congratulations), a girl who wishes to get into uwc and so on...

this incredible discovery can be only compared with my complete astonishment at the mechanism of the tides on the fjord in flekke. before coming to norway there was just pure tidal theory. there was my physical geography teacher talking about the tide and the moon and where they interact... but it never occured to me that within a day fjord can back up 10-20 meters!

anyhow. time to go to class. have a good day. :-)

snowshoeing at holyburn mt.

this was in the beginning of january, but only now i have gotten the pictures from alban. enjoy.

(another) publication

hey! yet another newspaper has published me! this time it was vancouver sun and their saturday's supplement "travel". i told them a uwc story (what else could have i told them, anyway?). click to enlarge.

besides, it's still snowing outside. even the oldest vancouverites don't remember such harsh winter for the city...

cover:

and the feature:

lpc, here i come

"let me come back to the paradise again and again" i wrote when i was sixteen in the letter full of gratitude to lpc (luethi-peterson camps), a swiss foundation which organizes international summer camps.

you can't even measure the importance of lpc in my life. yes, it was a definite turning point for me: first, it opened the gates of the world (in rcn, i argued that without the lpc experience there would be no uwc for me), second, it moved my thoughts about needs, live and so on slightly to the left (they are somewhere there since), but primarily lpc saved my life. and only now i am not afraid to speak about it frankly. it did save my life.

anyhow. i am going back to the most idealistic world i have ever tasted... (if you think uwc was idealistic, you're wrong.) i am going to hegnes (ironically, it's a 2 hour hike from flekke, hahahah!). it's an awesome campsite. it's right by the fjordshore. no running water, the house (plus the barn) is falling apart (actually, i reckon that the barn is in better condition...) spartan, simple living, really. lpc. eh.

at least now i have something to look forward to. here i come.

ps. all the nordics, i think of having a little tour de scandinavia before the camp starts, so whoever's home during the summer and wants a distinguished visitor from poland, let me know ;-)

o śmierci saddama (polityka)

zaraz po wykonaniu egzekucji na saddamie husajnie napisałem trzy stronicowy artykuł potępiający wyrok. wysłałem go do wszystkich przeglądów, newsweeków, wprostów etc. i chyba tylko polityka wydrukowała kawałeczek w "listach". nic to. i tak jestem dumny... (kliknij aby powiększyć)

from "stories of happy people" by gustafsson

"... and perhaps it isn't so important that everything should be important ... wasn't it true that all the power in the world was based on the same big lie: that the meaning of our lives is located outside of ourselves? ... why do we need the enigmatic in people to love them? ... the monster would rather die than give up his gold. rather die than show himself ... 'what does a lake turned into a bog reflect?' 'itself?' 'or a different sky' ... this leave-taking was, in spite of the continous fever of the wound, the most beautiful he experienced. so light and cheerful, and at the same time so serious and deep that he could still reacall its breathing. it was a vehement reminder that life is easy, that it consists of the purest lust, and that it only exists for those who are able to dance and to laugh."

go canucks go

vancouver canucks is a local hockey team. everyone in the city goes crazy about them (it is fucking well publicized too, but this is a different story). especially that now they havent lost in 6 games.

imagine that yesterday i went to a hockey game. canucks were playing a team called florida phanthers. i went with adam. you know, just to get the real canadian experience. it is not even plausible without hockey.

so before the game started he had to explain all the rules to me for obviously i was completely yellow. polish hockey players are employed in nhl only to fight on the ice, so this was basically the idea i had about hockey.

but the game is not (only) about bumbing into the other players. in order to win the team has to score a goal as well.

it was supposed to be an easy game for the canucks, but they won only after shoot-outs.

ps. i was really impressed by the goalie's job in hockey.

confronting the pace of reality again

i am really tired of the questions: "how was your break? what did you do?" etc. i simply chilled. it is the activity i havent really enjoyed properly since the summer ended. i could be completely careless and spontaneous. i could do whatever i wanted. there were no duties, homeworks to do, no gatherings, meetings to attend, no appointments or deadlines to meet. it was sweet. it was wonderful. i will miss it throught the term which is approaching extraordinarily fast.

there is a lot of movement on campus again. i liked it peacful. calm. the whole campus resembles this athlete who is going to start in the marthon run within couple of seconds. it is getting tensed and densed. brrr.

gianmarco left to italy. but salome came which made me very happy. well, derek lost his luggage, but found salome. hahaha. anyhow. tonight we shall skål to her first week in vancouver. i hope she'll enjoy it.

i already know that it is going to be extremely busy term. i have sort of agreed to that already. partly because i have a wonderful summer to look forward to. i hope to save some money and travel my ass off in europe. oh europe. old, beautiful, classic. eh. but one of mariam's new year's resolution was to enjoy canada. i will try to follow it to.

enough of thought stream. i will read something now (speaking specifically: death and the maiden by ariel dorfman - a very good political drama).

2007

so it has finally come. 2007. we were almost the last ones to get it, so when it was 5:00 pm here, poleo was drunkely laughing at me from spain that i lived in the past. it was interesting, though. be a year behind for couple of hours.

we celebrated it at the "our community bikes" (yes, it is a bike shed...). it was awesome, decorated in cuban colours with very good people, very good music and fantabulous atmosphere. i shall say no more for i need to sober up.

wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji nowego roku!

¡feliz año nuevo!

happy new year!