St. Patrick's Day

Poles like Irish ;) That's for sure. Many times I've heard the sentence that as the nations, we are really similar. Because of the catholic religion, similar history in some moments, but mostly because of the temperament :) So... we do celebrate St. Patrick's Day. You can see shamrocks, you can feel a bit... green this day :)
So me and my friends also celebrated it a bit :) My friend is a member of a dance group called Feirin, and as you can quess from the name, they specialise in Irish and Scottish dances. She had a show in one pub and we went there as her fan-club :) The place was small and totally filled with people, but the show was really great :) Pity I can't show you this "live" :) Maybe some other time :)
Since I can't tell you exactly how amazing were those difficult dances, the only thing I can just to is to put a pint of green beer in the air and say "CHEERS!!!" For the green beautiful Ireland!!!":)

Finnish March :)

March was really Finnish in a way :)
First - Johanna came here to present Tampere on a fair :) It was a bit weird to talk to her here in Poland, she brought with her so many memories, smells, impressions of Tampere...Amazing... I hope she will be coming more often!!!! I met thanks to her people from Polish-Finnish association here in Lodz and I think we will keep contact :)
Actually... we did :) One week later in one pub was the promotion of Finnish vodka and... a chance to talk to real Finn :) Actually, with Finnish girl :) Refreshing memory with few Finnish words and expressions :) We shared photos, our impressions of Tampere, it turned out we have more common friends... :)
You see... Even Lodz can be a bit Finnish from time to time ;)

YAPA

It's been a long time since I told you a story... ;) Fixing it now :)

The middle of March. Winter is still here, you can see the snow outside and you feel the cold wind blowing... But there is one weekend that brings the spring closer to your heart. Weekend when you can participate in a students' festival called YAPA. Well, the name has some meaning in Polish, I can't translate it... It is all about students' singing the same songs as in the mountains, while hiking, while sitting next to the fire... Did I say singing? I meant - shouting ;) This is pretty unusual festival - many many students, who are really critical and really want to have fun there. If you are a bad player, let's put it that way - boring, the audience will wake you up with... clock alarms :) They are enthusiastic, young, funny and try to enjoy their time as much as possible - and you can make a fool of them :) Students can recognise it :) Well, I would not say that this festival is about really good and professional singing... there were really good bands that simply didn't have "that something" and few bad, that could make people jump and laugh :) It is just special day, special place, special people and unique atmosphere :) Some years ago I helped to organise this festival, and I still have many friends there, I met many others I know for... ages from mountains, camps, some other places :) It was great to see them again, talk to them, laugh and sing sing sing. As loud as we could. I had lots of fun that night!!!!! Thanks for forcing me, poor student before the exam, to go there!!!! :)

In my Heart...

When something sad is happening to the person you like, to one of your friends, you start to think. How to help, how to show that person that you are with him/her, that you care. And in the same time, how to leave him/her some space. Sometimes I know what to do. Follow some intuition, and this also fails sometimes... Just be for that person and let her know about it. Sometimes it is enough.
But it made me think of what friendship is. Question I am probably never going to find answer to. Maybe there are different kind of friends... With some we keep contact every day, with some just in the moments we want to talk, with some, when we want to party. Maybe we choose person to talk to depending on what we want to hear.
Some people say it is enough to be. To think, to remember. But sometimes we have to let that person know that we think. Otherwise he or she might think we had forgotten...
Friendship is like a garden that you have to take care of. Otherwise it is going to disappear and turn into a place you cannot spend time in. Place you have no reason to come back, because there is no tree that gives you shadow when the sun is burning, no place to hide you when it is raining and no place where you can sit and enjoy sun. Of course it does not happen fast. If it does, it was not a garden of friendship.
I know that with some people there is always a path to come back. But with some you lose something important. Those small things that are happening in your lives. The only thing you share is not about you anymore, there are only memories left.
But maybe this is not truth at all... Maybe friendship is something completely else? Maybe it does not depend on the time you share with someone but it is all about the things you share? Probably truth is somewhere between.

I heard one important sentence. That sometimes some people care about others the way they want to be cared about... now we have to open our eyes.

We all have our own definitions of friendship. We all have different needs. We all behave in a different way. It makes us so interesting. And it makes us special. We don't have to think the same about friendship, we don't even have to think about it, just live it. There is no universal right path. Those here are just my thoughts that I have in my mind from time to time, and feelings that appear in my heart sometimes. But they are not the one and only, the right and good. You may disagree and it is ok. Sharing something is precious.

Time is flying, we are running...But it is good to sit once in a while and think about our friends, and let them know about it! Sometimes it is enought to send a short message. Sometimes you feel the need to write long letter. And sometimes every other day you can leave a note like this one:
"today I noticed the sun shining stronger, and wanted to share it with you. Waiting for the spring. Yours, Kat."