Steveski's Blogski Part 4

New departure date... March 3rd I believe. Feeling slightly burnt out. In need of tacos, pho, and more English speaking peeps.

How long until I can say I lived in another country?

I think it takes six months maybe? I dono. A month doesn't cut it does it?

You know what's crazy, in all honesty, I can't remember what the address of my house is. I've tried for the past three days to figure out what it is, and for the life of me I can't remember it. This is bad. I know the street, city, state and zip... but not the house number. I guess all that matters is that I have a key, and I know how to get there.

Went out the other night and took some pictures of Slupsk ( the town I'm staying in). Turned out decent I suppose.

The town center in Slupsk.

My hotel, Hotel Piast ( in the middle). Sick restaurant we've eaten at a few times.

This is one of the greatest pics ever. Timbo Slice doing his best rendition of the incredible hulk (or something like that).

And then there were four... Justin aka DJ (Dirty Justin II) had to bounce out of the country for a bachelor party the other day. Two of the originals are left (myself and Mike) and the two late bloomers (Boss man, aka TK, aka Timbo Slice, and Joe) are still here. We're hoping that we get done in time to check a few more touristy type things out. The largest eastern European castle apparently resides three hours to the east of Slupsk. May make an attempt to head over there. We'll see how things pan out.

It's field day 21 and as you know, I lost my mind a week or so ago. I now wear my scarf around everywhere I go, and chant "Here we go Polska, here we go!"... Kidding. Just bought a few things today including the scarf (It was 20 freaking zloties... 8 bucks or so). First things I've purchased for myself since I've been here (with the exception of a few thousand pints of pivo).

Can't wait to be back in the good ol' US of A. I know it's been shitty of late, weather wise. But I'm hoping that when I return, I can pick up my bike from my folks place in PA... Hi Mom, Hi Dad. Hope the garage is treating my baby well. Have you taken it for another spin Pops? Tell Leroy, Lexie and Oliver I said "Hi". Give them a good pet for me.

Anywho, this will more than likely be the last or second to last blog from Polska that Steveski's going to post. Thanks for the comments, can't wait to see everyone. Until then...

Good day from Polska,

- Steveski

Steveski's Blogski Part 3

Not a whole lot to report back to the homefront. It's field day 17, and for those of you are familiar with the field day calender, you know that means I've already lost my mind. But that's ok.

I'm trying to pick up some souvenirs for as many people as possible, but it's tough to think of ideas for everyone. I'll do my best.

I'm thinking of getting myself a souvenir as well. I haven't looked into it yet, but I think I'll check out what they have in the way of mail order brides. I figure the quality will be a little lesser than what I might get if I was in Russia, but the price will be more up my alley. And even if it is expensive, the money I'll save from not having to go out on dates and the wedding and all that back in the States will make it worth it. Now the big question is what to go with... the blond, brunette, red-head or black haired lady. I'm leaning towards the black haired Polski beauty. Oh dear, life is full of difficult choices.

We ended up going to Gdansk Sunday afternoon, and even though we only spent a few hours there, we got to see a fair amount. Was a pretty neat city, had the touristy European feel that Slupsk is lacking.

While there I found out a few things about Gdank's history, so let me crack a few eggs of wisdom on you... It turns out that Gdansk is home to many famous inventors. Laser hair removal can trace its roots back to the city as can the dust buster. I don't believe the vacuum was invented there, but I know for a fact that the dust buster was. The first piece of glass was made from the sands along the Baltic Sea in the town of Gdansk and the first pair of chopsticks was made there as well. At one point it was the center of the Roman Empire, until of course the Canadian army burnt it to the ground in the late 14th century. Gave me a lot to ponder while sitting in one of the cities cafes, drinking my kava (coffee).

That past Sunday appears to be the only day we're getting off while out here. Time is beginning to become an enemy. I was slated to be jetting out of here on the 26th, but it's looking more and more likely that I'll have to stay for at least a few more days. There needs to be two Steve's. The world would be a better place if that were the case. Instead of Steve II or Steve junior we could have Steve and Steveski.

I've come to like Warka Strong more than any other beer here.

I shaved my 'beard' and left the stache for the morning today... looked pretty funny... couldn't even look myself in the mirror. It's gone now.

Mulling over the idea of heading to Belgrade if we do end up getting another day off. Just picked up a sweet American flag jacket that I'll probably rock while there. Should be fun. Justin says they light up the American embassy at night and it looks amazing.

I went to an absolutely ridiculous dance club called 'Miami Nice' on Wednesday night and proceeded to drink and dance until the wee hours of the morning again. Was the British guys last day here, so they had a little sending off party for him. Thursday morning was rough, but I'm a trooper and worked through the pain. Unlike the bars in Phila and DC, the bars here are open till 4 am... very dangerous.

Think we're going to try to sneak up to the town of Ustka just to the north sometime this weekend or next week for a long lunch. It's a sea town, and is apparently a happening place in the summer. Hopefully we can find a decent restaurant and I can grab some sand from the Baltic for my sand-o-the-world collection I got going on (Yes I am a loser).

Wish I had some more excitement to write about, but all we really do here is work, chill for an hour, go out to eat (which apparently is a huge event here because it's impossible to go out to eat in less that 2.5 hours which is extremely annoying), and then watch a dvd or use the internet and then hit the hay. It's not too bad, but not having weekends to vedge gets to you after a while.

Sorry I'm going to miss your BDay momma dukes, you know I gotsta pay the bills. I promise to give you a call.

I guess that's it for now. Good day from Polska

- Hoosteadyski

Steveski's Blogski Part 2

WacArnolds, Rotten Ronnies, McD's or whatever you choose to call it, is a glorious hangover food, no matter what country your in.

Don't talk politics with you boss while both are inebriated... especially when you have differing opinions.

Hot dog rolls in Poland are great, potentially better than their American counter parts.

I still cannot speak Polish... the pointing and grunting method is still working well.

I'm attempting to grow a beard to cover up my ugly face.

I was under the impression that Matt's wife was about to give birth to their first child and that's why he had to leave early... as it turns out, Matt is the one who is pregnant. That poor child doesn't stand a chance, I personally witnessed him endulge in many a cigarette and consume many a beer. Poor poor child.

Some of the toilets are seemingly designed to display ones shit on a pedestal for the shitter to see. I suppose the Polish take pride in their shits and prior to flush, like to observe, photograph, and maybe even share and discuss the shit with their colleagues. I don't know.

I met Lee Humphrey the other day at the hotel... really nice guy. He had meals with us a few times. Just moved here from a Greek team. We had planned on going to their game Saturday night but we got the times mixed up and didn't get the chance to go. For those of you who don't know who that is, he was a member of the Florida Gators 06 national title team. Think he was the only Senior... Noah, Brewer, Horford and other dude were underclassmen. He shot lights out in college.

Other than that, Poland is still Polish and I'm still working and living.

We've got today off and are getting ready to head out to Gdansk for the afternoon. Should be some good sights to be seen.

Good day to you, Steveski

Steveski's Blogski

Greetings from Slupsk, Polska

Yes, I am still alive... Yes, I am in Poland... Yes, I cannot understand a single word of Polski.

Where to begin???

So far, everything has been great. Myself and the three other guys from the the office that came out here with me are finally settled in. The time change of 6 hours wasn't too hard to adjust to and the food hasn't been bad either. I'm learning the language slowly... I already know 2 words.

Piwo is beer and dziękuję is thank you. So far, I've gotten by just fine with only those two.

I'm not going to go into detail about the work aspect because as you all know, work is work... but the nights after work have definatlely been entertaining. My company has about 10 other people here from all over the place. We've got something like 5 Germans, 2 other Americans, 1 Brit and 1 Aussie. Dinners with our group are quite entertaining... might have to do with the number of Polish beers consumed during them.

We've yet to have a day off, and likely won't have one until next Sunday, if at all. But for better or for worse, that hasn't stopped us from familiarizing ourselves with the local bars, clubs and people. Friday night was absolutely ridiculous. Words won't do it justice, so I'll have to tell those interested about it when I get back. It involved 2 bars, a club (the music here is so bad, fortunately they end up listening to a lot of terrible American rap), mass amounts of Żywiec and other tasty beers, 4 Polish girls who became my dance partners, departing the club unexpectedly, meeting the Policja, speaking lots of German even though I don't speak German, a piano, the floor and a bunch of great blurry memories... Good times.

The aforementioned żywiec

View from my hotel room

Throwin' round Zloty cus' we came to party

I'll post again shortly I hope... It's 1:30 in the morning and I have to be up in 5.5 hours... Until next time... Punkt Zdobyty Fuksem