12. Home-made gingerbread cookies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGRC2LYmHfU

Christmas is coming very quickly. I just can't wait to decorate my Christmas tree, prepare all these delicious dishes and sing some carols. I love this whole atmosphere which is connected with Christmas and winter in general. I hope there will be snowing during the holidays, because everything looks wonderful when it lays under that snowy cover. Anyway, I want to share with you one of my recipes, which is just perfect for Christmas. What I'm talking about are home-made gingerbread cookies. The recipe is really simple, so I believe everyone can make it without any problems. Here are the ingredients:

• 750g of flour
• 250g of sugar
• 250ml of honey
• 5 eggs
• 200g of margarine
• 1 heaped spoon of cocoa
• 1 packet of gingerbread spice
• 1 teaspoon of ammonia

And this is how it's done:

Prepare a rather big bowl. Put honey in it. Then whisk eggs with sugar and add them to the honey. What you have to do next is melting margarine and pouring it into the bowl. Then we have some dry ingredients: add cocoa, gingerbread spice and ammonia. One important remark: ammonia has to be melted in one spoon of warm milk. Finally, put flour in the bowl and mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Then put the dough back and bake it the next day in 180°C for 12 to 15 minutes. 

My gingerbread cookies look like that:

As you can see, I decorated them with some frosting and sugar strands. It takes much time, but I think the effect is worth it. I guarantee everyone will love them!

I suppose I won't write anything in the nearest future, so I wish you Merry Christmas. I hope you'll spend that time with your family and friends in a peaceful and warm atmosphere. 

11. Karpacz is always a good idea!

Do you know that feeling, when you are tired and bored of all your daily duties? So do I. Fortunately, after some discouraging weeks at the university, I had a chance to run away from that monotony – I spent one weekend in Karpacz. Every friend of mine knows that I love mountains and I visit them with pleasure every year. This time it was a really short trip, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Fascinating places, breathtaking views and a great company – it’s all I need! I could finally relax and forget about my studies, even for a moment. Instead of spending another day in the room with my notes, I was walking down the streets of the city with my boyfriend, admiring the Karkonosze mountains. Despite I was in Karpacz a few times before, I still marvel at this place and its vicinity. I’m sure I’ll come back there in the future.

As always, I took plenty of photos during the journey. I want to show you some of them. 

10. All good things come to an end.

Yes, it has happened – holidays are over and it’s time to come back to studying. Those three months went by so quickly! Of course, I didin’t realize my plans about writing blog in summer (I’m so predictible in my laziness). I promise I’ll do my best to improve myself in that matter. Anyway, I should probably say something about the last months. How did I spend them? Mostly at home, unfortunately, but I was hardly ever bored. So many books had been lying unread on the bookshelf during the academic year and I finally had some time to read them. Furthermore, I got down to watching tv series and a few of them really caught my attention. Of course, not only did I stay at home, but also I went outside with my friends. As I mentioned in my previous post, I visited Natalia in her house in Malbork, where we spent eight awesome days together. I’ve got a lot of pictures as a token of that time. For me, this summer was great, but I believe the next one will be even better. I hope for getting a job and going abroad for a month or two. But first, I have to come through another tiring year at the university. May the force be with me!

09. Now I can actually be lazy.

It finally happened - my first year at university came to an end. I can't believe that holiday have just started, I don't feel it yet, but I'm sure it's going to change in a moment. I should have some spectacular plans for the nearest 3 months, but actually, I will probably spend most of free time in my family house doing "sweet nothing". I have a lot of TV series to watch and even more books to read, so I won't be bored. Of course, I intend to do something more than staying home. I hope the weather will let me spend some time outside with my friends. Every summer we ride our bikes or play volleyball for hours and there is always lots of fun. This year I've been trying to organize something more - I wanted to go abroad to work. Unfortunately, it didin't come into effect. I was upset for that reason. I thought I will be forced to stay in my little countryside all summer, but then my friend, Natalia, offered me to visit her for a week. She probably doesn't know how grateful and happy for that I am. She lives in Malbork, so I'm really excited about seeing the famous medieval castle. And obviosusly, I can't wait to meet her again. :) For now however, I'm focused on different things. The World Cup goes on, every match is more and more exciting. I'm very curious, which team will reach the trophy. Every member of my family has its own favourite, so the competition is even more fascinating for us. 

I want to stay in touch with English, so I decided not to give up writing on this blog for summer. Actually, this task turned out to be a big pleasure for me. If I wasn't so lazy, my notes would appear more regularly. I will try to change it, but it's hard to fight with laziness, so I don't promise anything. ;)

08. Index cards.

When we learn a foreign language we need to be focused not only on the grammar, but also on the vocabulary. I've always had a problem with getting to know some new words, I couldn't remember them for longer than a few days. When I have to say something in English or French, I often forget even basic words and it's really hard for me to make a full sentence. My previous English teacher always said: "Knowledge is what you remember". I hated that expression, but in fact, she might have been right. Recently, I've started to wonder, what can I do to improve my vocabulary skills. Nowadays, the most popular way to do that is using index cards. I decided to try it and you know what? It's really effective! Several days ago my boyfriend showed me an application for computers and mobile phones, which is called Anki. It enables us to create our own database with words we want to learn. According to our needs, we can divide them into different groups and categories. There is also an opportunity to change the application language, for instance to French. After setting all preferences we can finally start to learn. Everyday, we may check our knowledge and repeat choosen words. And this is how it works.

After choosing the category, the application gives us a single word or phrase
we put earlier into a database. 

We can think of that and check the answer. Then we mark
one of three options: our response was correct, the word was easy or we need
to practice and revise that word. Thanks to our answer, the program decides,
how often it will show us this specific word.

Isn't that easy? I've been studying words this way for last week and I see that I can remember more. It takes only a few minutes, so everyone can find time to learn by Anki. What is more, we can study wherever we are, the only condition is to have a mobile phone. I truly recommend this method, I hope it will be useful for you. 

07. Barbecue season.

I must admit that I don't really like summer. For me, it is too warm outside in June, July and August. Despite that, I love some activities we do in hot, summer afternoons. One of them is obviously barbecuing. Me and my family like it so much that we tend to do that even 2 times a week. We sit in our garden, turn on the music, take some cold drinks and start a little party. My dad prepares plenty of delicious things on the grill - sausages, fish, chicken meat etc. I always get an "extra" meal - slices of crunchy, grilled bread. After a tiring week, every member of my family takes part in it with pleasure. We talk a lot, everyone knows some funny stories, so we share them with each other. I think such meetings improve our relations, beacuse we finally have some time to spend together. 

My little rabbit also enjoyes those parties. As we sit next to the grill, it can run over the backyard, play with its ball and eat some grass. 

06. Something about speedway.

I'm a big fan of sport. Unfortunately, I'm to lazy to practise, but in spite of that, I always have some free time to watch sport events on TV or even better - to admire them live. In winter, I follow all of the biathlon and ski jumping competitions. Now we've got spring, so it's time for motor sports. Since I was a little girl, I have attended motorcycle speedway matches. My grandpa is totally keen on this sport, my dad as well, so it runs in the family. It is said that the Polish league is the best in the world and it is admired in other speedway-related countries. I totally agree with this statement, I can see it in every single match. Most of riders are determined to fight for the victory to the bitter end. I find it thrilling, when competitors change their positions and pass each other during the whole race. I believe this season will be really exciting and I'm extremely curious which team will be the best. Unfortunately, Unia Leszno (my favourite team) have been a little disappointing recently. I hope it will change soon and "the Bulls" won't surrender to their rivals without a fight. 

Final 2010, full stadium. I regret that this year there are so many empty places on the stands.

05. Two windy days in Wrocław.

Although the weather wasn't favourable lately, I decided not to give up my plans about going to Wrocław. I went there with my boyfriend, who had convinced me to visit the famous zoo. I've been in this city only twice, so I was really excited about that trip. Wrocław turned out to be very beautiful and fascinating city. To be honest, it is more impressive than Poznań for me. On Friday, we spent about 5 hours walking round the town with our friend Dawid, who lives there during his studies. He showed us plenty of interesting places and told us something about the history of Wrocław. After this tiring afternoon he also took care about our accomodation ;) On Saturday we finally visited the zoo, the main purpose of our trip. Fortunately, it didn't rain, but the weather was still really cold and windy. We spent another 5 hours admiring animals from all over the world. From the smallest creatures, like insects, little frogs and lizards down to the huge crocodiles, elephants and bears - they all were incredible. Watching them was a big pleasure for me. I hope I will visit the zoo again in the future. 

During our trip, I took a lot of photos, especially in the zoo. The quality isn't perfect, but I want to show you some of them.

 

04. Easter time!

My family is really traditional, so we respect all the customs which are connected with Easter. Every year there is a chaos in my house. Each member of the family has its own stuff to do. The Holy Saturday is the most crazy day. There is so much to do, especially in the kitchen. Cooking is women's thing, but my dad helps us with pleasure. His spicy vegetable salad is an inherent element of Easter. Of course, before doing anything in the kitchen, we have to get down to the household chores. It's unpleasant and, unfortunately, time-consuming work. Besides cooking and cleaning, there are some Catholic duties. Every year we take part in the liturgies of the Holy Weekend. I am also responsible for going to the church and to have the food blessed. After all these things I have finally some time to spend with the family. This is what I like the most in Easter. In our daily lives we are too busy even to talk with each other and this is the period, when we can change it. Obviously, there are more reasons why I like Easter so much. One of them is of course eating - I just can't wait for tasting all these delicious dishes! Unfortunately, I have to focus on my student's duties now. I intend to use this free time to enrich my knowledge about Latin and literary studies. Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed!

Happy Easter!

03. PYRKON 2014

For those, who don't know what Pyrkon is. --> CLICK

For the first time in my life, I had a chance to take part in such an event and I must admit that it was a really fascinating experience. In comparison to other people who came there, I'm not so crazy about fantasy stuff, but I quite like films and books touching on this subject. It was a great opportunity to learn something more about it. There were so many attractions, every participant could find something suitable for himself/herself. Reading books is my big passion, that's why I spent most of my time in the literature zone. I even bought Jarosław Grzędowicz's novel and I can hardly wait to read it. I suppose that if I had more money, I would have bought more things, but I could afford only to purchase a book and a t-shirt with Yoda - one of my favourite film characters. After a small shopping I spent about 3 hours playing games with my friends. I think it was the most popular part of the whole event, it was extremely hard to find a free table! Nevertheless, people seemed to enjoy their time. One does not simply visit Pyrkon without taking tons of pictures. So didn't I. I took a lot of photos, as a token of my first time ever visit to such an event. In conclusion - Pyrkon turned out to be an unusual experience and I will surely return there next year. 

02. A small review.

Watching films is one of my favourite activities, so when a few weeks ago Natalia had offered an outgoing to the cinema, I immediately agreed. For the reason that we both are really keen on history, we didn't have any problems with choosing a film - "Kamienie na szaniec" was a perfect option for us. This movie is an adaptation of the book by Aleksander Kamiński. I read this novel about 6 years ago and I forgot most of plots, so I got a chance to recall the story. Before watching the film, I acquainted myself with the reviews. I was a little disappointed, because I've read some unfavourable opinions about this production. Despite this fact I decided to watch it and I don't regret. The showing was really good, there were some touching and brutal scenes, which made a good impression on me. I really enjoyed the playing of all actors, but my favourite character was definetely "Rudy" - he was the most convincing in his role. On the other hand, a lot of threads were left out or shown quite differently than in the book. For me, it was much more intriguing and spectacular in the Kamiński's novel than in the movie. To sum up - I can easily recommend this film, it is totally worth watching, although those who like the book might be not satisfied enough. 

01. It's always hard to begin.

Et voilà! This is my blog in English. I've been organising everything on this website for 2 hours and I hope that writing posts will be less time-consuming. Let's check it.

Today, for the first time, I felt that spring is coming very quickly. The weather encouraged me to go out and to spend some time in an active way. The name of this blog suggests that I'm lazy, which is true, but sometimes I want to do something more than lying on my bed and watching TV. It was sunny and warm outside, so I thought: it's a perfect day to ride a bike! My dad agreed to join me, so we took our old bikes and went outside. We spent only an hour riding through the forest, but it made me feel like I could do anything, I was full of energy. We returned tired, but we were happy and satisfied, because we didn't spend another afternoon doing nothing. I intend to repeat that next weekend, I need this kind of activity after a hard, tiring week at university.

Fortunately, writing posts takes only a few minutes. What is more, I think it would be a pleasant duty for me, because I really like to create something new. I hope I will be motivated to do it once a week. ;)