Themes: The airport, Alfred Hitchcock, dumplings, sleep, giving yourself space, water
Hi! I’m in Poland! Warsaw to be exact. On a narrow balcony looking out over a lot of nice stuff. I got in last night really late, I was traveling for 22 hours! 3 flights, 2 buses and one car. My friend Ariel drove me to the airport which was really nice, my first flight was a red-eye that left JFK at 11:55pm. I appreciate that they do that because if it was midnight I would be confused and lost.
The last few days in New York I was running around trying to do a lot of things, to get my place ready for my dad and a subletter and getting everything ready for me to leave.
I saw a play before leaving (and did a lot of errands in Union Square-returned something, got edibles, got flowers and some cream cheese). The play was called Invasive Species. An acquaintance was in it and I saw some ads on Tik Tok and just went for it. I got rush tickets for 20 dollars and managed to get a really good seat.
The play is a true story, written by and starring Maia Novi. It follows her realizing her dream to act and all the places that takes her (Clowning school in France, Acting School in Connecticut) but she ends up institutionalized in pediatric hospital for having a psychotic break? It’s all from her perspective and it happens the way she experienced it so at first we don’t really know what’s going on. I thought it was pretty good, interesting and unique. Honestly the highlight for me was that Jeremy O’ Harris was there the night I went and that felt special and cool.
Then I walked to a 24 hour hardware store and got copies of my keys made. I got roses for my dad at Trader Joe’s but then they died so I went back and got more roses. I set up a lockbox on my steps, found a lamp and an injured baby bird on the street, watched a lot of sMothered, ate bagels, threw a lot of compost away in a bin, rolled a lot of clothes to shove in a backpack, spent 110 dollars at Target on said clothes, typed up a document about my house, cooked a curry, called out of work because I was sick, bought a return ticket, etc.
This last week before leaving was such a blur in a good way, I had an ever expanding checklist that no matter what I did always felt like it had more on it. I missed EJ a lot and was excited to see him, but nothing else felt real. I put up a hand towel in my bathroom for the first time since I’ve lived there.
I feel really good about my room, I emptied drawers but maybe not the underwear drawer I’m realizing right now. Now I’m in Poland! I love Poland I think. Mostly because things are really cheap. The lowest point of the trip was after the first flight at the Oslo airport where I was tired and hungry but everything was really expensive and I couldn't find anywhere to lay down. I just waited for 5 hours on a bench, writing and watching Tik Toks.
I only brought a backpack so no books. I drew my friend Jade while I was at the airport waiting for the first flight and that was nice, I had been wanting to do that for a while for her birthday which is in July but I was worried I would forget or miss with the time difference/traveling.
Today the biggest struggle is we bought Polish SIM cards but now it seems like you need a PESEL number (which seems to be like their SSN?) to register it. The guys at the counter were trying to say something but didn’t speak English and there was a line and we all just kind of gave up. Who knows.
We got breakfast/lunch at this dumpling place and a garlic cucumber salad which was just huge slices of cucumber soaked in a salty vinegar with sesame seeds that was really refreshing and good. We’re both tired. EJ is sleeping now but I had too much in my head.
On my last flight I was seated next to a man who started talking to me and quickly revealed himself to be anti-mask, unpleasant for me. I felt really insulted and offended because he the way he was talking to me was infuriating, he kept saying things like, “I respect everyone’s opinion” and “everyone should do what they want” but then in action clearly didn’t really believe that because he kept also saying I was wrong and living in a “fear mindset.” I’ve talked about this before but 1. there’s nothing wrong with ‘living in fear’ if it makes you respectful of something that’s dangerous. It sounds like something someone who would want to have sex with you without a condom would say. And 2. I would argue that people who have checked out of learning about the science because to accept it would make them change their lives too much for them to consider are living in fear just as much as I am it just looks different. But ALSO I don’t lecture people not wearing masks about not wearing them, I assume they’re making a choice for themselves based on their own experiences and thoughts. I personally wish everyone would mask because I think the government has abandoned us and that’s one of the only things we can all do to protect ourselves and each other but it just doesn’t seem like it’s gonna happen.
We have a show tonight and I’m anxious because when am I not lately? I feel bad for EJ because he seems to be on the receiving end of whatever I’m feeling and I’ve been a little grumpy and overwhelmed. Why does he love me? I bought a 3 dollar bag of licorice at the Oslo airport and that’s all we have in the Airbnb here and I’ve been eating it as a snack which is not its ideal application.
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It’s Thursday now! First full day in Poland! We love Poland! It’s a little annoying about figuring out the SIM card, but so far so good. Last night we did a show that was mostly fun, I didn’t have as good of a set as I wanted but I didn’t bomb so we’re counting it as a win. There were people from so many different places! There were 17 people at the show and people from: India, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Poland, UK, US, New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil and one more maybe I’m forgetting. But it was really cool. EJ had the line of the night where he was like, “You’re like the UN of not laughing.” They were enjoying the show they were just very quiet, mostly smiling or listening. But he had the best set and then I was third.
When we were heading to leave we realized it was POURING rain, and were kind of hungry so we asked for restaurant recommendations. One of the other comics on the show told us about this place just a few doors down that had good Polish food and we ran. We sat outside because of me, for Covid, which I really appreciated because it was cold and even though we were under awnings the rain would still come in at times. Eventually we got blankets from the hostess which was cool. The menu was really big and kind of hard to understand but very fun. Lots of potatoes!! My favorite!!
We decided to get a vegetarian dumpling platter, a latke with mushroom gravy, a cup of rye soup, and what we thought were two sweet dumplings, vanilla flavored cheese and raspberries with cottage cheese and mint. Every page had this part at the end called “Grandma’s portion” and “Grandpa’s addition” and the grandma’s portion would be like 9 of something, and grandpa’s addition would be one extra you could add to things. So we thought you could order singles of stuff, like 2 dessert dumplings to try. When she brought out the food we realized this was not the case.
We got two full orders of dessert dumplings, alogn with the two entrees we were splitting and the soup. We tried to explain what we thought we ordered but the language barrier was too great, also it seemed like you cannot do that. It’s still unclear to me what the grandpa’s addition would work for, but whatever it was, was not for us. But we ended up keeping everything and then having some for breakfast this morning. The dumplings (pierogis) came with metal tureens of white, sweet cream for the dessert and sour cream for the savory. EJ said they looked different to him but they looked the same to me and I was very fearful of making a mistake, thank god I never did. Everything was DELICIOUS.
When we were in Prague we tried some Czech food that I was a little disappointed by so I didn’t really know what to expect but it was amazing. I told EJ I would be happy to focus on Polish food while we’re here, we didn’t get to try croquettes and I would have many more latkes and dumplings happily. When we finished the rain had mostly stopped and we decided to walk home which was 30 minutes. It was so nice! Really nice out, but then it started raining again but we just kept under buildings and trees and it was fine.
By the end we were happy to get inside and were a little cold and wet but the walk was really nice. I saw this old woman on Tik Tok talking about how she and her husband go on “fart walks” after meals, and how it really helps with digestion and she’s right. It feels so good to walk after a big meal! I thought this was for Thanksgiving only but it turns out you can do it anytime.
When we got home we started Elektra, a movie we tried to watch the night before but only got a minute into before we realized we were too tired to do a whole movie. But this night we tried again and got mostly through, the last 20 minutes we watching this morning.
This movie has a 1.6 rating on Letterboxd which is unsurprising but still sad to me. I honestly feel sorry for people who cannot enjoy movies like this. It must be so tiresome to need everything you consume to be good all the time. Where’s the fun? This movie is SO fun. It’s from 2005 and that is a feeling that simply cannot be replicated now, we’re all too cynical. The stylistic choices in this movie were breathtaking. Truly. From the storytelling to the dialogue there was such a feel-obviously the music, I know you know, but I was noticing even dialogue, they left so much unsaid which can be bad writing but can also be a sign you trust your actors to get you there. I feel like so much now is really spelled out, characters literally saying their intentions and desires but this, there was so much room for the actors to play and also me as a viewer to guess. I feel like this could be frustrating if I was focused on knowing and being right but if you’re open to having fun and being along for the ride it was really interesting.
There was also such a fun visual language in the movie. There were demons, literal demons that were chasing the girl she’s trying to protect who she decided not to kill (keep up!) as a test her old sensei gave her. They have different powers that were so fun to see. One’s was that his tattoos could come to life, and their eyes would open on his chest and then they would climb out and fly or slither away. (They were all animals but it’d be cool if one was Betty Boop with a gun). This was so fun!! The girl’s (only one girl, it was 2005) was that she could manipulate time? Or death? And they showed this in a forest by her touching someone and all of the leaves on the trees nearby turned yellow then read then black and fell around them. Cool!!
Some of the fighting scenes were bad in that the choreography wasn’t that interactive so it felt more like tricks than a real exchange but who cares!! Also literally all the good people are white and all the bad people are asian but look, this was a different time. The government was focused on not helping people during Hurricane Katrina, they didn’t have time to do this too!
Anyway, the movie was really fun. Then EJ went to bed at like 2:30am but I wasn’t totally tired yet. I stayed up for another hour or so watching Tik Toks (learning) and then I was getting ready to go to bed and what do I see? DAWN. At 3:30am! And I heard birds chirping! I looked up the sunrise and it was at 4:14am!!! Today is apparently the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year! It felt literally insane trying to go to bed at 3:30am when it’s getting bright and you hear birds. 3:30am is a spiritual time, my time, when everything is supposed to be dark and quiet.
I eventually fell asleep and then slept about two hours later than EJ for balance. This morning we had our leftovers and finished Elektra but I still felt tired! So we started one of our marathons, Hitchcock more decided by streaming availability than anything else. We started Strangers on a Train and were enjoying it but paused to check in. It was getting later in the day and EJ was getting antsy. He went out to get us SIM cards, which again didn’t work/needed to be registered with the government through some kind of ID we don’t have, and then he went on a run.
I was battling some internal shame around not going out or getting up but then I just told myself, there’s no should I don’t have to do anything. I’m tired, I want to be here. So he went out and I gave myself permission to rest and hang. And wouldn’t you know it, after a bit I wanted to get up and do stuff. I made the bed, opened the curtains, put the rest of my clothes away and transferred the dirty clothes to the hamper, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher and ran it, tidied up the living room, took a shower and got dressed. Now I feel much better and I’m writing this newsletter!
I really appreciate how differently we’re treating this trip than the other, when we were doing three nights in each place I would have forced myself to get up and go out because I would have felt like I needed to try to see Poland because I would have known we were going in a day. But we have four more nights here! A dream. It’s so nice. Much more my speed. My aunt recommended a book called Poland by James A. Michener, who apparently does really good histories of places. There was an initially a four week wait but I guess someone gave up because I got it today! Excited to listen and learn some things.
Last night at the show I was trying to google stuff to figure out how people would respond to some of my jokes. Like is shoplifting cute and fun here? I learned they do not have trials by jury in Poland! Depending on the severity of the crime, it’s either one judge and two other people a few steps down but still in the judicial field or a panel of judges! All judges! Kind of cool. Don’t know enough to know if it’s good or bad, but it kind of seems like to make decisions that change people’s lives there should be a criteria to know some stuff. But maybe now. Law seems inherently flawed. A problem for another day!
I have this weird hard bump on my knee that I keep picking at and keep being surprised by its texture. Why is it so hard? I already worry enough so I’m not taking anything new on, I’m just assuming it’s fine which I think it is. Speaking of choosing not to worry about things, I KEEP getting these fucking scam emails from Capital One and they keep telling me there’s nothing they can do. I have frozen my credit with one of the places and called twice and confirmed I do not have an account with them. I also got three different PayPal codes this morning that I did not request so someone somewhere (or multiple people) are trying to steal my identity. It’s cool this is happening, clearly from many companies asking for my data then selling it, something out of my control and horrifying. Love my government!! No notes.
Something I was happy about at the show was that multiple people made jokes about Israel, where they are bad guys in the wrong and they got laughs/were greeted warmly and without controversy and it’s cool to see that internationally there doesn’t seem to be any confusion about what’s going unjust mostly in the US because we are funding them so all our propaganda is in support. That felt good.
My dad is in my room! He said I did a good job decorating/setting it up. I am hopeful that he gets a package I had dropped off. Two posters, let’s hope it’s fine.
EJ just got back from his run, he’s going to take a shower then we’re going to get food and sit by the river. We’re by a big river and that was a great choice. I love Poland. I just ate an edible. Life is good. I hope you eat an edible and sit by a river or just drink a lot of water. Water is really good. Oh, the only downside of Poland aside from government stuff and the SIM card situation, is that the tap water is bad. Not good. Water can be such a range of flavors and I feel so lucky to live in a place with delicious water. Never take it for granted!!
Some last thoughts: I started a movie that I didn’t finish because I fell asleep but was really enjoying, called The Incredible Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carrell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, James Gandolfini and Jim Carrey about MAGIC. Like The Prestige but a comedy it seemed? I’ve never heard of it or seen it anywhere. It came out in 2013? I was really having fun, I’m going to try to finish on my flight back. Entering Poland I did not go through customs. At any point. No one checked my passport, or asked to see a return flight, nothing. We got off the plane and were released out into the world. The most common question seems to be, “Why Poland?” people are confused anyone would come here, which is so funny.
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Was almost done with the newsletter but decided I needed to go outside then another day went by! It’s a little challenging for me here because I confronting some anxiety stuff that maybe I didn’t realize I had. But good day yesterday, went to the University of Warsaw library which is gorgeous, the Old Town where we had dinner and ice cream, sat in a square and listened to music, started Psycho, found an outdoor screening of a soccer game that had ended, and FINALLY got to sleep on a regular schedule here (me). Now it’s raining and there’s a thunderstorm warning.
Tried to rent Bolt scooters but there was a glitch and my account was blocked but rode them for a few minutes and it was fun! Perhaps I have been wrong about the scooters, they are fun! Still need: SIM card, body lotion, body sunscreen. EJ and I have been listening to Poland by Lil Yachty, a 90 second song he only released because it went viral but doesn’t like about drinking lean. I love it, it’s perfect.
I had a dream I was writing letters for something and needed donations of items, like hats? And my mom wrote a post that got a ton but then I went to the bathroom and my brother threw out the toilet, all that was left was a porcelain basin and a piece of poop. Good luck decoding that!
Love ya, here are some pictures:
Thanks for reading,
Julie