Asun in Natolin

Yes, you read right. Mr. Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine and leader of the Orange Revolution was today in Natolin. It was the long awaited visit, and finally he came. It was amazing the security measures that they took for his visit...He talked about a future accession of Ukraine in the EU, membership in WTO, NATO, energy, security...Really interesting, but unfortunately too short. However, we really appreciated his visit.

Here you have some pics!

If you would like to see Warsaw and Natolin on the French T.V., just click on the following link and you will see a debate on the future of the EU. But if you want to skip the whole (and long) debate and just see the interesting part  :-) (Warsaw & Natolin) just click and sroll until you arrive to 1 hour and 12 minutes! Actually, it was filmed the day that we had our class in the garden (pictures just below).

http://france-europe-express.france3.fr/20759824-fr.php

Some Polish colleagues are interviewed because of the second anniversary of Poland in the EU, and then two of our teachers make also some comments. Enjoy!

May 3 is the day of the Polish Constitution. It was the first Constitution signed in Europe (in 1791 a few months before the French one) and the second signed in the world after the one in the USA. It was adopted on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and it represented all the people of what today is Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and a small part of Russia (well..more or less, because you know how much borders changed in Europe, especially in this area...) The Constitution didn´t last too long because Poland "disappeared" from the map and it was partitioned between Russia and the old Prussia in 1795, and had to wait until the end of the first World War to gain its independence again.

Polish´s borders have been changing all along History, creating new lines in maps and new political situations in the region. That´s why I believe that Polish people are extremely proud of the country that they have now.

We also wanted to participate in such a celebration, and here are the results....

 

Italian National Party in Natolin.

A fashion show in the real italian way.

Asun as Jackie Onassis and Chema as her Mafia guy...

No comments...but Chema was chosen the coolest guy on Campus!

Visit of Mom, Silvia, Jorge, Mateo, Gema & Ana! Cool time, great company and lots, lots of fun!!!

Dear all,

I would like to thank you all for all your birthday wishes! it´s so nice to see how all of you remembered my birthday! I must admit though, that I´m getting kind of scared to realize how FAST time goes by...

When I was younger, I really thought that by my age, I would be someone completely independent, so sure of myself, with my own life completely integrated into this "hard working world", probably already married and with kids...

Don´t laugh! honestly, when you think of someone being 28 when you are about 14 or 15, you think of someone like your parents, already settled down and dealing with the day by day life...

But me...I just feel that I still have many things to do before I actually settle down, that sometimes I feel as insecure as when I was 15, that I really can´t believe that I am already 28, that that age doesn´t really fits in this person that still is trying to find herself...

I don´t know, I guess it´s just the fact of knowing that the frontier between being in your 20´s and being in your 30´s is getting closer. And I just don´t like it very much...

Oh la la...it´s been such a long time since I last told you how life is going over here in the wonderful world of Natolin...Well, actually a lot of things have been going on since my last post, so let´s get started.

After suffering during two months temperatures that I could never, ever imagine in my life (we reached - 25º C), my body was asking me for some sun in order to do the photosyntesis, so I flew to Madrid for a few days. It was, as always, really nice to be back at home. Simple things just become so special when you are back home: just taking a walk along Alcalá Street in Madrid, feeling the sun´s rays on your face, drinking a coke in a terrace already in early March....those are the little things that make Madrid so special...

Batteries recharged and back to Natolin. A LOT of stress during the whole month of March. First of all, I had the great idea of taking the class "Doing Business in Central & Eastern Europe", which was very interesting, but which also required A LOT of work. It even makes you feel more stupid when you are one of the few people on the whole campus that took that class because all the others didn´t feel like doing a class presentation of 20 minutes, plus writing an essay of 5000 words plus a final open book exam....Yeah...sometimes I wonder why I always have to prove to myself that I can manage with everything, no matter what the workload is...

But somehow I managed to do all of it, and at least the class presentation and the essay are over. I´ll deal with the open book exam later on in June, when all the other exams take place.

In the meantime, the Spanish students in Natolin were organizing the National Party on Campus, and of course, I was also in. It´s a policy of the College that each nationality of students organizes a party for all the others in order to show our culture and customs to our colleagues. That´s also "european integration", I guess :-)

And of course, coming from Spaniards, the party was HUGE!!! It took as a lot of time and efforts to organize it (a party for 130 people is really TOO MUCH). We got some support from the Spanish Embassy in Warsaw, the Cervantes Institute as well as from the Spanish Office of Foreign Trade in Warsaw. In the end, the party was a success. I know I should be modest and let the others say so, but really, we had a great time! First of all, we organized an "Andalucian Night", that means, of course, Flamenco, Sevillanas y olé! And the following day we had the official dinner (even the Ambasador came!), we played some spanish movies, and at night, a real party like the ones we have in Spain was organized. Sangria, Kalimotxo, and a revival of the 80´s...

Take a look at the pictures that I uploaded and just get your own impressions!

The day after the party (with no sleep during the last 2 nights getting everything ready), I left to Romania with my colleagues from my Major of this second semester (Central & Eastern Europe). It´s a study trip organized by the College, and we had the opportunity to go to Transylvania (and even see Dracula´s castle!) and to Bucharest. There, we met the Ministry of Justice and the Secretaries of State of European Integration and Foreign Affairs. Romania is really excited about their future accession to the EU next year, so they welcomed us very warmly everywhere we went.

I also uploaded the pictures from Romania, so just enjoy and try to find Dracula in them! :-)

And right after I came back from Romania, some of my friends from Madrid were here in Warsaw. It was so GREAT to see them here! Thanks Tati, Lourdes and Belén for coming!!! I couldn´t stop laughing while you were here! We had such a great time! and you are such experts on Poland! I wonder what would have happened with the Churros and the Mohedanos! :-)

          

And now...well, a Master Thesis to write plus two papers to finish in less than a month...BUT April is the month of the visits in Natolin!!! Jorge, Mom, Silvia, Mateo, Ana and Gema are coming...and all in the same week!!! It´ll be a lot of fun, and I just can´t wait to see them all here in Natolin! We´ll do tourism in Warsaw & Krakow for sure, and if we still have some time left, we´ll love to go to Gdansk, so...April let´s get ready!

Hope all of you are doing great. Keep leaving your comments because you already know how much I love them!

By the way...Happy April´s fools day!

                                                           

The Winter Olympic Games are taking place in Torino (Italy), but here in Natolin we´re also celebrating our own  peculiar Olympic Games, called NATORINOLIN. Some collegues thought it was a good opportunitiy to "do some sport" on campus and to take advantage of the Olympics in Torino, so we are also celebrating our own Olympics. We can participate in Chess, Poker, Baby-Foot, Ping-Pong, Intelectual Game, Dancing contest, Billard & Football. I´m participating in Ping-Pong and Intelectual Game. I´ll let you know if I win any Gold Medal!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!!!!

No, I didn´t forget about my blog...Actually, I miss it sooo much these days...specially because it´s mainly the only way to stay in touch with all of you...BUT...access to internet very limited these days...no internet at home since we´re spending the Christmas Holidays in Fuente el Saz, where we have no internet...I´m sorry!!!

But anyway! I just wanted to let you know that I think of you very often, and that I wish you all a HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Lots of love,

Asun

Well, all of you can see now the improvements in my blog! From now on, you can see the temperature in Warsaw and in Madrid, as well as the time in this beautiful wacht that you can see on the left hand side. You just can´t imagine how much I like to "waste" my time doing all these things..but I must confess that this is not the product of my high knowledge in programming and computers. It´s been Sergio, my friend from Ukraine! He´s a real expert in computers, and now I found an allied to get more involved into the Blogs´World! It´s amazing what new technoligies can do for us. He is in Lviv (Ukraine) and I am in Natolin (Poland), and chatting on skype he was explaining me step by step what I had to do to improve my blog as you see it now. Thanks Sergio!

We all are exhausted. Today we had one more exam. This time "Transformation and Integration in Central and Eastern Europe". The subject is interesting and not difficult at all, but it´s been the hardest exam for most of us so far...After 4 months of intense work (specially the last 2 months) we all are mentally tired and ready to go home for a few weeks. Actually, I´ve never wanted so bad to be back at home. And not because I don´t like it here ( I actually like it very much) but just for the fact that I want to be some weeks without worrying about the Financial Perspectives for the next period, the EU Budget, the problems of enlargement and wondering if there is or not an european civilisation...

I want to go home and spend lots of time with friends and beloved ones. I already told mom I can´t wait to eat her excellent Tortilla, and I told Dad that I miss Jamón Serrano so much as well as all the specialities of the Spanish cuisine...

But back to my world in Natolin...after the exam, we decided we needed some time for ourselves, and of course, don´t touch a book for the rest of the day (even though we have our last and hardest exam next Tuesday: European Law). So we went shopping, for the very first time since we are in Poland, to the very top 1 symbol of capitalism in Warsaw: Galeria Mokotów (and please, don´t confuse with "Molotov", he,he..). There you can find all kind of shops representative of globalisation: I was there, and it was as if I were in Spain or any other country in the world: H&M, Mango, Zara, Swarovski and of course, Mc Donals... When you are in one of those huge Malls, you really don´t know anymore what country you are in....and actually, it´s so sad...

I must say (for those of you who may be thinking that I went crazy buying in such a "paradise for consumerism") that I almost didn´t buy anything: just a teddy bear for my little cousin Yaiza, and one red hat for myself to face the cold winter in Warsaw...

Unbelievable, but tonight has been the first time that I´ve been to the movies in Poland...and actually, I really missed going to one of these multi Movie theaters, buying lots of popcorn and a Coca-cola, and just sitting there for 2 hours and let yourself get into the story. We went to see "Nieustraszeni Bracia Grimm", that in understandable language for us is "the Brothers Grimm", with Matt Damon & Heath Ledger. It´s not the movie of my life, but it´s ok...and no, we didn´t watch it in Polish...Fortunatelly, all movie theathers in Poland play the films in original version with polish subtitles, something that we should do in Spain, by the way...

What really amazes me about Poland is the kindness of its people. Whenever they see that we are foreigns, they always try to help us and start asking questions about our homeland. You can feel they really want to come closer to Western Europe. That´s something that we never really pay attention to in Spain (and probably in other western countries), but we have been living in completely different worlds for over 40 years, and now they really want to "rescue" the time that they´ve lost...

They may need to catch-up and "come closer to us"...but there are also many things that we need to learn from them...really...