Last night I got a little pile of ashes sprinkled over my head.

It is a good thing that I am staying for two semesters because właśnie NOW I finally like Poland. I mean, I really enjoy being here. The reasons are multiple: First, I kicked dupa on my exams. (Scores of 5 out of 5 on everything except writing, which was 4.5) Meaning I actually understand this manic language. Aside from a soaring level of confidence, the practical implications of these results leads me to...

Reason Number Two: I joined a choir. That's right, I am now a Soprano II in the Chór Akademii Rolniczej w Krakowie. At least at the beginning, when you still go through the smalltalk, which by now I have thoroughly rehearsed, I found it was not so difficult to have conversations with people. On top of that, the people in this choir probably make it the nicest choir in Europe. The director is a doll, the students are so welcoming, the atmosphere is relaxed and not intimidating at all. Right off the bat, when rehearsal was over on Monday, the other foreign girl and I were invited to a piwo with everyone, the director included. It was just one of those things where I immediately felt really and inexplicably good in that place. I like it when that happens. Even though I am not playing my violin for anything here, it also felt good to b doing something musical. Rehearsal again tonight. I'm pretty sure it will go well again.

Reason Number Three: I know people who aren't in any way connected with my school program. I am becoming (I think) pretty good friends with a couple of Polish guys, Piotr and Adam. Adam is my Tandem partner, which means that he is supposed to help me with my Polish and I help him with English and the Spanish he's learning. Now what it REALLY means is that yeah, we'll do some concrete Polish studying, but I like best the part where we watch Polish movies and sitcoms and he'll translate for me. :) Piotrek, on the other hand, is the guy whom I had the fortune of meeting on my kurwa bus ride to Vienna. He doesn't live in Kraków, but he comes in every weekend for university classes, and we've been hanging out. Piotr is crazy but in a completely harmless way, so I enjoy his company. Plus, he keeps trying to stump me on long, tongue twister-like phrases. I've been able to hold my own on everything except "the table with the broken leg": stół z powylamywanymi nogami. Yeah, let's see you try that one. Coincidentally, both of these guys live in Kielce, which is about halfway between Kraków and Warsaw, and tomorrow I will be taking an early bus to go up there for the weekend and see each of them. Friends are good.

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I may have to abandon my travel plans to Lviv, Ukraine because the time is fast approaching for Tamas and I to go to Madrid. Hopefully I will be able to update from there. "Who is oh-so-excited to Spain?" "Ooh! Me, me! Pick me!"

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For anyone who's keeping score at home, the Warsaw Halfmarathon is in 53 days. On Tuesday I ran an easy 10k. Took about an hour. That was three laps around the big field, the Błonia, near to Piast. Now if I can keep adding a lap per week, I should be in darn good shape for 21 kilometers. However, even today, I am dead tired.

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Finally, this post's titles refers to Ash Wednesday, or środa Popielcowa, which was yesterday. I went to a service where at one point a Polish priest mumbled something while sprinkling a pinch of fine gray ash over my head. I wonder why we have the tradition of drawing a cross on our foreheads.

One thing I like about going to Mass here is that, while I certainly don't understand everything, it serves as a weekly yardstick of how my Polish is progressing. Now, when Grandpa Merc sits down at the table and asks, "Did we pray yet?" for the third or fourth time, I can say "Na imię ojca, syna, i ducha świętego" right along with him.