Day With a New Friend

Greetings, followers!  I had a wonderful day with a new friend today.  Her name is Paulina.  A mutual acquaintance from the language club introduced the two of us via text.  I had never met anyone via text messages before, but I think we got along very well from the start.  Paulina is from Mexico; but she was working in Germany and was in Krakow on holiday. 

Being with Paulina was another great opportunity to practice Spanish again.  She was very patient with my stumbling through sentences and searching for words, and she also spoke slowly to me in Spanish so it was easy to understand.  Thankfully, Paulina also speaks English well, so we could always revert to that when things got hard for me.

We traversed around Rynek Głowny, Wawel, and into Kazimierz.  This time around, I could show someone else a few things in the city.  Kind of a strange feeling.  But Paulina also had a couple things to show me.  For instance, in the Jewish district, she showed me a building where Jews lived during World War II.  I think they were Jews who worked in Schindler's factory.

I also had the challenge today of communicating with those who do not speak English.  I was looking for the post office to buy a shipping box.  I thought it was in the train station, Krakow Głowny, so Paulina and I went in to ask where it was.  The desk worker didn't understand "mail", "package," or "post office." She ended up giving us a tourist map.  We looked for help elsewhere.  Turns out the post office is a separate building nearby, whose worker also spoke zero English.  My transaction there was a strange combination of random words, gestures, and getting help from the guy behind me.  In the end, I was successful, and Paulina thought I did an excellent job.  Whew!

Later, Andy and I took Paulina to the language club meeting spot, where we met with our mutual contact, Roxana, and of course, a whole bunch of other great people.  After all that, I am very tired.  I think I'll go to sleep now.