Happy Post!

See, we're off to Budapest for the weekend (must charge camera) and I don't want my blog to be left open at 'discrimination' and 'xenophobia' for the weekend, so I'm going to write a Happy Post, full of Cheerful Things.

1) Chocolate: I finished all the Easter chocolate (already), and I'm on a sugar high.

2) We had a conversation class on the European Union this morning. Topics for discussion were suggested by members of the class at the beginning of term and this was one of mine (note there was no limit given to the amount of things we want to discuss, and I'm argumentative). In line with the plan, at ten on a Friday morning no-one else had anything to say on what is basically a very boring topic, so I was able to enjoy the sound of my own misplaced końcówki for almost an hour and a half.

3) Salsa dancing: salsa is great, we go to these salsa dance nights and dance with strange men (mostly computer scientists... oh crap, I forgot to finish that post) and after class we have started going to the pub with Real Polish People who speak to us in Real Polish (with końcówki).

4) Twitter: I'm wondering whether or not to sign up to this. It sounds like a lot of extra effort but it would be well worth it to be able to subscribe to Stephen Fry's succinctly witty Tweeting. I found out that there is a Polish version called 'Blip' (Bardzo Lubię Informować Przyjaciół), but I wonder whether this has the same implications in terms of sharing news. The now well-known example is that of the plane landing in the Hudson, which was posted on Twitter by a bystander from his camera phone, long before CNN had got the story. If the service only runs in one country, surely the potential for promotion and networking - at international level - is hindered? (although obviously it's much better at national level, language being the same, greater incidence of local people signing up, etc.).

5) Taxes: I may have to do a tax declaration for the four months I worked in Poland last year (although hopefully I'll get a rebate, since I spent the rest of the year in the UK and my company, such as it is, is registered there). More importantly, this means that I will have to visit the Urząd Skarbowy, which should be hilarious and very blog-inspiring.

6) Did I mention that we're going to Budapest tonight?