I'll inform you right away, hand on heart, that any slight inaccuracy is not intentional and results from the fallibility of human memory.
Day one - May 4, 2000.
We're supposed to leave at 8:00, but there's neither the Civic Platform (PO) nor the coach. 8:10 - the Civic Platform (PO) materializes, 8:12 - the coach pulls up. It maneuvers between students, parents, guardians, luggage, cars, the garbage can, and the school. Finally, it stops. Crowds are crowding into the trunk. Get rid of the bags and backpacks. Mine's at the end. There's no room for it. The driver opens the already closed glove compartment. It fits. I get in, all the seats are taken. Oh, there's a free one. Next to Wera, good, she's relatively nice. She doesn't want to put her bags on the rack, I wait. The Civic Platform (PO) intervenes. We're supposed to leave. A collective wave. They turn on the TV. Channel One, Channel Two, WOT, probably Polsat. 8:25 a.m. - we set off. They turn on "góroli" (Highlanders). Singing, dancing, an hour of agony. Wera, Magda, and Marta R. (the latter two sitting behind us) chatter, I stare out the window. Bus stop. Toilet, cola, breakfast, a walk – whatever you prefer. We leave. We have to. I prefer not to go to the toilet. Rightly so. The food in the store is too expensive, and besides, I have my own. Walking through the sand doesn't suit me. To the coach. Phew, we finally leave. We arrive around 12:45 p.m. We wait 45 minutes on the coach. We're not allowed to leave until we've surveyed the area. Hot, muggy. A so-called health and safety talk. We have to adapt to the group. Finally, R. arrives. We can leave. We grab our bags and go. Beautiful cottages. Three or four are for us. Each one seats 10 people, so I think it's four. Problems with the placement. I'm supposed to be in the room with Monika, Michał's sister. Very similar, unfortunately.
We unpack. Monika leaves after a moment. Fine. 3:00 PM – meeting for lunch. I'm sitting at a table with Magda, Marta R., and Wera. Dinner is poisonous. Free time. I look for my phone. My 100 has demagnetized. Unused. No one will lend me a card, I don't even have to ask. When I was packing something into the wardrobe, the heavy sliding door simply came off its hinges. I set it aside. Dinner. Potato pancakes. Greasy, disgusting. Right after dinner – a tour of the grounds. We go to the lake. Everything is fenced. Finally, you're allowed to go anywhere. Gośka is crying. The teachers keep telling you that if you don't like it, go home. I'd go back – if only for that.
We sit on the grass, on the boards, on a tree. I talk to Mirek. As usual, "Do you have a boyfriend?", "Do you like anyone in our class?" Always "in our class?" Never "at all." We're going back. Private property.
I'm going for an early bath. A mistake. I'm lying in bed (you can't lock the door because "we're family") when the boys burst in, laughing. I put on a sweater and pants and go outside. A moment later, the six o'clock boys run up to me. One of them proposes to me. I explain to him that he's not my type. The flirt and four others jump me, pretending to rape me. I pretend to defend myself: I kick one of them and scratch the other. They let me go. I go home. Monika borrowed "KALIBER 44[/i] Worse than Disco Polo. I read a little. The only book I took is "Tęsknota" (Longing). Sad. I find that, like Dolg, I am lonely among people. I go to sleep.
Day two - May 5, 2000
My mosquito repellent broke. Great!!! I fix the door. After breakfast we go to Olsztynek, to be precise - to the open-air museum. Interesting, although I keep hitting my head on the doorframe. We go to the windmill, the hundred-year-old wooden stairs move under us. Then we go to the center. Market Square. I find a bookstore. I buy "The Dead Man's Whole Sentence." 300 pages. To the newsstand; maybe there will be some magazine. There is no magazine, but I find three volumes of Tales of Margit Sandemo packed in a cosmetics bag. I go back to the bus. I am a rarity. 20 pages in 15 minutes - no one does that. I can do it. No, I didn't take any courses. Dinner is potatoes, beets, and beef cut lengthwise. Filthy!!! That scratched one keeps following me around – apparently I damaged his ear. In the evening, my friends invite me over – I have to draw them. I draw Wera – impossible, Marta R. – straight away, and Maciek from 8b – from the photo, he looked like Mietek Szcześniak. I left their room after 11 p.m. A surprise awaited me: Monika informed me that she was sleeping over at Olga and Karolina's tonight. Great! I read the penultimate book and went to bed.
Day Three – May 6, 2000
Right after an inedible breakfast, a full-day trip to (at least that's the plan) Malbork and Frombork – visiting Teutonic castles and the planetarium. On the coach, I finish the last book and look out the window. The journey is longer than from Warsaw. We've finally arrived. We're in Malbork. Everyone wants to use the restroom. A złoty. The Civic Platform (PO) is paying for us. The lady who served us (poor, by the way, she spends so much time in the bathroom) says there's nothing missing. Indeed, there's a toilet, toilet paper, soap in a dispenser, paper towels, and a huge worm on the floor. The lady urges us: "Quickly wash, dry, and leave, the others are waiting." That's probably the only thing she knows how to say, besides "really clean, nothing missing." She also sends me away, even though I'm the last one.
Our guide, Ms. Halina Chuda (hmm...), comes to pick us up. She gives us a quick tour, speaking briefly but engagingly. She takes a break for photos. PO snaps more photos of the whole group with his ever-new camera. Finally, we stand up. We can continue exploring. Amber jewelry, insects in amber. Every now and then, someone touches the glass, and a piercing squeal resounds. Another exhibition. For the boys. WEAPONS!!! Yuppi-ya! Sabres, swords, clubs, axes, chainmail, cuirasses, karabelas, rapiers, double-edged weapons, two-handed weapons, hussar armor, shotguns, flintlocks... Great! There's another tour with us in the room, the guide just keeps talking and talking, ugh! We continue exploring. The kitchen, the dungeons... The end. We haven't been to Frombork. There wasn't time. Even before entering the castle, the teachers tried to convince us it wasn't on the schedule, but luckily, one of the sixth-graders had a carefully written note with information about what we would be doing that day. The translations changed immediately. Mrs. R. was writing the schedule at school, and a friend suggested Frombork, because it was close... R. had no idea it was so far from the seaside from Masuria. Apparently, she didn't have a map either. "And anyway," we learn after a moment, "the schedule is for parents, so they see that we have a structured day, and we can't just stick to it blindly." I won't say what I think...
We go to the center for dinner. Marta F. has arrived. The entire eighth-grade class comes to greet her. No one invites me, even though we live next door.
In the evening, Monika, Olga, and Karolina call me. They're all in bed—one bed, I wonder how comfortable they can be?—they ask me to tell them the contents of the book "the one with the dirty pictures." Beautiful! On the cover, there's a kissing couple that has nothing to do with the content, and there's no illustration inside. I'm telling the story. The girls keep interrupting, asking, "Did he…" The book itself doesn't interest them, so I finish it as quickly as possible. Too bad I didn't pick up Demon of the Night. They would have had a field day!
Day Four - May 7, 2000
Right after breakfast, we head to the beach. It's scorching hot, blistering hot. Next to me, in a straight line, are people from my class: Michał, Monika, Gośka, and Mirek. Goszydło asks me if I'm dating anyone. I'm fed up with these constant questions, so I say yes. Shocking! What's his name? Marek (sorry, Marco!). Questions about kisses, age, school... What have I gotten myself into? I asked myself this question for the first time today, and—as it turned out—not the last. I'm sunburnt—no wonder, since we were in the sun for an hour and a half: from 11:10 to 12:40. Then time off, lunch, time off, dinner, and a disco. Brr! We have to go, we have to have fun, we have to adapt, we can't hang up, we have to be in the same place, and so on. Ugh! Everyone's dancing (except the guys from our class who "operate the equipment"). I watched my classmates with surprise. Vampish, provocative, with thatched hair, unfeminine movements, obscene gestures, and a complete lack of feeling for the songs, they looked, at least to me, grotesque. I was overcome with the urge to escape from this small, stuffy room, the classroom, the center. Home! Home!
Michał from the sixth grade approached me. He asked if I would go out with him (if I refused, they would laugh at him). I told him I was taken, I didn't agree, but if anyone asked, I would confirm. What happened! Gośka immediately shouted it to the whole group, a song for me and Michał, slow dances, explicit lyrics, innuendos... Another dance? I refuse, I don't want to, I have a weak heart, I don't feel well, I'm going home, I want to sleep. I escaped.
Day Five - May 8, 2000.
We're not going anywhere. I'm devoting this entire day to discreetly undoing yesterday's mess. I'm not denying Marek—the biggest bluff. I haven't caused such a ruckus in a long time!
Oh, and Monika's sleeping in my room again. She overslept and didn't have time to sneak away from her friends before they woke up. PO and R. caught her and threatened that if it happened again, she'd have to sleep in the hallway. And for what reason?
Day Six - May 9, 2000
Today we went to the beach again. We paddled our bikes. I was with Mirek and some Robert from sixth grade. They took me because every group has to have someone who can swim. We talked. Back on land, the boys threw water at me, and I was promoted to "Miss Wet T-shirt." After a while, I had enough of swimming and went back to the cottage with those who refused to sunbathe after 12:00—in other words, were "antisocial." They didn't wait for the change. I'm starting to dislike it here more and more. And then there's the food, which has to be eaten because it's the right thing to do (it's how we express gratitude for a meal), and the wardrobe door, which flew at me again. I was just getting out of bed when it landed on me, scraping the skin off my arm. It's scary to think what would have happened if I hadn't remembered in time to get my pocket knife out of the cupboard... Everything is flying at me: the boys, the door, the wooden curtain rod...Only mosquitoes don't.
Right after dinner, there was another disco. Miraculously, we managed to fight our way home to change. It took me fifteen minutes to get ready, and the girls in the next room half an hour longer. I sat in their room, looking at each outfit, makeup, and hairstyle. Finally, I groaned, "Girls, you all look wonderful. Can we go now?" It worked.
The disco was boring and as long as a bad year. Michał, Monika's brother, had broken the equipment, missing CDs, and almost all the boys in our class had left, leaving no one to flash a flashlight. When four sixth-graders surrounded me and refused to leave, I went out into the hallway. A moment later, the disco was over.
Day Seven - May 10, 2000.
A terrible day. The Police Department assigned us a bio-lab assignment: assessing the cleanliness of the facility and its surroundings. I was supposed to be with Gocha and Monika S. I rebelled, and the Police Department added me to the neighbors from class four. They said they'd call me. For now, Monika and Aneta from class 6a had teamed up with Mirek and were all throwing bird cherry donuts at me. Later, when the girls found out I was allergic to dandelions, their wafers were added. I didn't care anymore; bird cherry also gives me a runny nose and burning eyes. I was covered in donuts, cereal, and sand. It was a small consolation that they were too, especially Mirek. Things
weren't much better at home. The little ones were coming in, including the PO's son. They were rummaging through my things, shooting me with guns. They couldn't get them out, especially with Monika on their side.
The girls from class 4 called me. They did everything except for one, the hardest task, which they wanted to assign to me. Instead of the task, I made a fuss and went to the shop. I managed to get a card. Something nice. I called my mom. Although she can't come, she told me she'd pick me up at school with Klaudia! Even PO's son seemed like an angel to me at that moment. PO said I was breaking a lot of things and "Mommy might have to pay..." Or maybe it was for compensation...?
A strange thing happened during dinner. It was spaghetti. They served it with a fork and... a spoon. I ate with just a fork and looked in surprise at the girls using both fork and spoon. No one in both classes and teachers ate like that except me. Everyone's astonishment was even greater because I ate two portions faster than most of them ate one. Well, my stay in Italy did something for me after all.
Day Eight - May 11, 2000
Today's a trip to the forest. We were supposed to go to the shore of a lake, but we ended up at a hunting stand. We all climbed into it one by one. Lunch is at 12:00, and at 12:30 we're supposed to go to the Grunwald Fields. Meanwhile, Mrs. R. didn't hear the waiter during lunch telling her that we had to leave an hour later because the director had something to discuss. We're sitting on the coach. We wait. They put on some movie, I think "Kiler." The ending. Finally, we set off. The girls from the next room, Koza, and I, are playing flirting. Boring! It's no better in the Fields. We watch a bit of "Teutonic Knights," mint coins, and then continue on to Mrs. Tatiana and Wojtek's. We see Apache, a 7-month-old Caucasian puppy, stroke the ducklings' feathers, ride horses, roast sausages, drink milk from the cow (crazy, the farmer's son had to bring a new bucket), and eat cake. Then we go to the stables. We pet the horses, foals, a llama, a goat, and cows. One of the stallions is named Winnetou. We return with regret. I pack my things, watch ER and The X-Files.
Last Day - May 12, 2000.
For the first time, it's cold. They assigned us a geograpy paper. It concerns the glacial landscape: ribbon lakes and terminal moraines, and the development of the Masurian Lake District.
Writing a report in the cabins isn't working out, we have to have it done by Monday. It's 12 degrees Celsius, everyone's unpacking their sweaters. Lunch is again at noon, and we're about to set off. The cleaning lady thanks our cabin for their cooperation.
We're loading our luggage, and we're off. HURRAY!!! It's Kiler again. Every eighth word is audible. Olga and Karolina, sitting in front of me, ask about Marek. I answer. Just so we don't get confused!
Looking out the window, I remember that last, farewell Green School. I laugh, remembering how one evening (well, after dinner, anyway) we went to the forest for firewood and then lit a fire. Everyone laughed because I was so dirty—but I had every right. I carried a whole armful of wood, while the mockers carried a few sticks each. Then we roasted sausages—I didn't drop a single one—and chatted. Or how Michał, the one from the disco, suggested I dump Marek(!) and I told him to get stuffed. Of two evils, I'd rather have a boyfriend like a pocketbook hero than such a sleazy brat.
I learned a few cool jokes and learned a song (hip-hop, of course; it's strange that I didn't learn the same phrase over and over again). I saw a wonderful performance with children with disabilities... It wasn't that bad, actually, so why am I so tired?
We arrive promptly at 5:00 PM. Through the window, I see Mom, Klaudia, and Layla. Home at last! Warm greetings. Then we grab our luggage and leave. I don't say goodbye to anyone.
Brak komentarzy:
Prześlij komentarz