Visitors part 2

Tuesday, I dropped Kristine off at the train station before heading to work. I was quite early, so I ended up commandeering the printer in my shared office, printing plenty of information about Sweden. I realized then that I don't have class on Tuesday. So I need to make a point of going into work on Thursday to print my plane tickets. And I need to buy travel bottles. SO MUCH TO DO!

Classes were fine. While working on narrative writing, one of my students shared an amusing anecdote about being mistaken for a hooker in Amsterdam. I thought this was quite funny, because she's not in the least hookerish.

I spent large portions of Tuesday and Wednesday working on Polish and Swedish language learning. Mainly, I want to know enough Swedish to say Hello, Thank You, Please, I don't understand, and Do you speak English?

I also booked my tour and flights to Italy. That's right. Italy. For my birthday. The entire state. I don't know if I'm more nervous about going to Italy or going to Sweden. In one situation, I will have English speaking comrades. Hopefully that will include an old couple who will take a shining to me because I remind them of the granddaughter they always wanted. And that old couple will have a handsome grandson that they want to hook me up with. Then I return back to America and live happily ever after. In the other situation, I function entirely by myself. But they equally intimidate me.

Thursday afternoon, I picked Kristine up from the train station, and we headed to Lazienki park. While I imagine it will be much prettier in the spring when the roses are all blooming around the Chopin statue, it was gorgeous with the fall leaves.

We saw the Palace on the Water then wandered around the rest of the beautiful park before heading home on a crowded bus. We stopped by the grocery store for dinner and watched Despicable Me. All in all, a wonderful homebody evening during which my movie collection saved the day yet again.