Getting around
Having good flatmates is cool. Ben is a really cool guy: he works for KPMG as an internal auditor and there is a lot of things we can talk about. Fola, the nigerian is a really great discovery. Simone and Chris, the germans well... I think hospitality is one thing our nations for sure have in common. It's grat to be together.

It's really nice at work. There is lots of space there, there is an AC there, I am doing cool stuff. Getting the chance to build a strategy for the next 10 years is awsome. I was dreaming of such a job. See, now I am meeting lots of employees but not as an auditor but rather as a consultant. All managers are introducing me into their topics. Awsome!

Yet, putting together those two experiences is quite tough. At work, I feel like doing something important, I work with interesting people. On the street, I am one of the mass, maby with the
difference that I am white and some people bug me. Hopefully, it's not as bad as Delhi or Jaipur. Comparing them to Mumbai is like comparing Cracow to Warsaw. Here, everybody has a direction, is going somewhere, minding their own busines... realizing their dreams.

I went to a mass today. Interesting. All were indians but they were so different form the hindus... calm, dressed differently.

Crowd
I am sometimes wondering why It feels so crowdedd. I just found out that mumbai is the most populous place on earth. There is about 20 milion people on the island.  A mega mass. Cars don't fit in :D

The minimity of the exteriors and the vastnes of interiors is fascinating. It's not possibl to call it any different. A football pitch on church grounds. A large hall, 5 storeys tall in my office. A huge terrace in our fat. The insides, the space accessed by middle class, by the ritch class, is a place you can hide, relax, breath in fresh air, turn the AC on. Outside, you will never escape crowds. You can only hide in a restaurant, caffe or an office to sit down for a bit. I remember that when I was in Texas, everybody would jump between houses, cars and closed interiors because it was so hot. It's similar here, maby a bit cooler but the difference is corrected by the crowd.

The city train.
I think it is one of the wonders of the world, a culture shock even for indians themselves (those coming here from the countryside). Fully packed. I heard they push people in on tokyo subway, but there doors close at least. Here, the trains do not go underground and the doors do not close, which  means that in rush hours, people lean outside the train, holding something inside with one arm, standing inside with one foot. Some choose to sit on the roof but I heard death rate for that is much higher as electricity is up there. I didnt notice anbyody falling out but I usually stick myself inside as soon as possible. Hopefully, they do have 1st class compartments: people in 1st class are dressed better and they read books. People in 2nd class do not read. The crowd is the same. The ticket for 1st class is 78 rupees Bandra to Vikhroli, 2nd class is 7 rupees. 1st class monthly ticket is 500 rupees. Think of the economical logic of this! It does make sense to me :). There are separate compartments for women, that's good.

I even broke my fear one day. It was all packed and the people from outside were pushing in already, the train was still on the move. I could not just get out. I jumped over the top of their heads and guess what... the power of backwards movement held me in upright position, I felt like swiming in water, amazing. Cutchi told me that once, a guy got out of the trin on the move and was still running not to fall over (due to inertia). People on a train going opposite direction saw him running, thought he wants to get in and pulled him back onto the train... So the guy went back where he came from... People sometimes help each other too much :).

Homestay at Poli's

Might be strange to hear this from me, but one of the thins I said was "It's good to be back". This was the coldest winter in the last 10 years. 8 degrees celsius at night :). A different chemisphere, a different reality.

I never imagined how good an AIESEC homestay can be for a trainee. Poli's family is realy lively and hospitable, we found lots of things to talk about. The world is growing small these days: there is a mixture of all religions all over the world, people watch the same movies (with some exceptions), wear the same clothes, watch similar sports. Funny. We all do use the same facebook :).

There are small differences though. I really liked the way that mr. Kapuscinski described Herodoth's enquires to the matter of different peoples' customs. It was something similar to this: "Egyptians would find defecating as a humiliating act and therefore keep it at home, where all europeans would keep it outside their households"

Now here, you can find different variations of this thing. In some places, people sit on chairs. In others, on the floor. In others, on the bed. Here, a bed can be as much of a meeting place as any place else. And this is not just one observation: it was briliant to see it for the third time since arriving!

The good thing is that buildings have terraces. And people go there a lot (such terraces in my country are usually dirty and unattended). Smoking a hookah, looking at planes taking off and landing in the domestic airport, seeing bombay life at night... that's it.

First day at work (friday,  7th feb).
Could I really be so lucky? I will not say anything by the time it settles.

The best thing was still the name of the position. Strategy support executive. The second question anybody would ask, after enqiring about what my position was, would always be "But what are you actually doing there?".

Stasis.

The trip turned out to last longer than predicted. France, CDG int'l airport. It's a maze - people would usually say, especially when angry for the fact that their flight just ran away. It took me 40min to transfer. The gate was at the end of the terminal. I was running all the time (except for being on the bus and undergoing security checks). Eventually, I saw the gate and felt a bit relieved. I ran to the check-in desk and in the same second as I reached, the gate was closed. This meant 24 hours' break. In fact, I finally got some sleep and recovered from sleepless MA thesis endaveours, ate some masterpieces of french cuisine, got up early for next flight and then finally departed to bombay.

Landing.

You land and you feel two things: It's warm and it smells. The warmth is easy to distinguish but the smell is not. It's a mixture of all smells known to man: spices, sweets, parfume, dung, mud, rain, draught, concrete, detergent, piss, spices, food... basically, india smells and that is the big difference. On the contrary, I could surely say that Poland tastes. Everything that you eat in my homelands has a clear, strong, distinguished taste. This is why we do not use so much spices. Bread, tomatoes, meat, garlic, onions, I could eat each for hours, delighted.

The guys cought me outside the airport. Arjay was there with Pauli and Malinga. They took me to Pauli's place. It was all like a dream. I did not sleep for the last 3 weeks, then I slept for 24 hours and now it all felt like dream. I was actually even wondering if it would ever fade.

The Departed (Co za idiota przetlumaczyl ten tytul na 'infiltracja'?)

As I promissed, the following shall be kept bilingual so with each post, you will be able to find a Polish version of the same below. As some people said it 'Polish is the language of the poets' so I suppose I'd loose a lot in translation, did I not write my thoughts in the original.

Maciek:

So it comes to be.
It's 12,5h since I finished writing my master's thesis.
It's 10 hours since the embassy officer handed in my passport with a fresh-made visa
It's 4 hours before I depart

It all seems so simple before you really fasten your belts for the trip, you just think it's all about spending a few hours on the plane and adapting when you reach.

As Jack put it in "Fight Club", traveling today is not about moving anymore. It is about sitting back and waiting for a few hours until the world around moves underneath us.

Now, At this point it is not simple anymore. Things change. The world changes. The world has changed. And now, sitting down I am really scared, as this question comes in knocking on my mind: "How long will you have to define your place in the world by going somewhere else?".

I never wish to leave you again, never. I'm always scared when you get on a train alone. I know it is not normal. Or maby it's just so special? I'm going out to sort everything out, prepare things before you come... how can a man live without water on a desert though? You are my water in the desert.


Warsaw. The place to live.

Spread out, a night's in gloom reveals,
the eyes of the experienced, the city of twirl
once brought to its doom
arising, calm and asleep.

Two milion lights, dance like the souls
with every breath that moves the curtains
tell a story of the bravest of all
the soldiers who saved the burning world.