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January with dogs

The photo shown here was taken yesterday, which happened to be the first day with real snow this year. We were very lucky because my mum and I had planned this visit in advance, not knowing the weather would be so picturesque. The snowy landscape made the experience even more magical, and the dogs seemed to enjoy it just as much as we did. Spending time with dogs from the shelter always feels rewarding, but yesterday was particularly special with the winter aura adding an extra touch of beauty to the day.

The name of this dog is Candy. He seemed a bit confused the entire time but absolutely loved the snow. Whenever we threw a snowball, he would run after it enthusiastically, only to lose track of it in the sea of white snow, unable to tell it apart. It was both adorable and funny to watch.

The visit was really nice, although it got dark earlier than we expected. I went to the shelter with my mum and sister, and we had such a great time. My sister especially loves all dogs and couldn’t stop petting them (as you can see in the photo). She connected with them instantly and looked so happy being around them. Spending the day with Candy and the other dogs made the visit truly memorable for all of us!

I think I never encouraged you before, but I really advice you visiting schronisko fundacji "azyl pod psim aniołem" in Falenica.

P.S. the entrance might be hard to find, but I featured a photo of it in one of previous post

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Sopa del país vasco

Two years ago I was on a school trip Basque country and me and my friend were sleeping at the house of Roman and Pes. Roman was a great cook. That was particularly fortunate as our project for this trip was to create a presentation about a food of that region. One day he cooked as this absolutely delicious soup based on potatoes. The next day I asked him for the recipe.

As I was looking through the notes from Spanish classes from there with sentiment I stumbled upon this recipe. And I thought it would be a great idea to use it for my CAS - creativity. It may seem quite an easy task, but the recipe was not that accurate and I had to guess many elements and I could not find similar recipe on internet. After all it was very tasty, but not even close to the Roman's version of it!!!

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November - A LOT OF CLIMBING

September was a really active month. I am not sure why, but I found it so addictive to climb and then go train at a gym. I think that is the life time peak of physical fitness and for sure when it comes to strength.

It feels really rewording when you can see the effects of hard training and gives you even more energy to continue. I am aware that there is still a lot to work on when it come to the climbing technique and finger strength. I recently started recording some of my climbs, because I've heard it can provide many insights about our technique that we might now be aware of. A plan on continuing this journey.

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October with Israel Kamakawiwoʻole

IZ was I think the most popular Hawaiian musician of his times and listening to the history of how he recorded his greatest hit - Somewhere Over the Rainbow inspired me to play a little bit in this month. I has never musically gifted, nevertheless I really enjoy trying to play something nice.

The sound of ukulele always calms me down and makes me want to lay on the beautiful Hawaiian beach. I think it would be really nice to be able to play one day really well to allow others to travel there for a few minutes as well. I will try to practice more by emphasizing learning new strumming patterns that are a little more complex than basic Hawaiian strumming patter. Till next time!!

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SILESIAN MONTH - CAS Project

As a CAS project We decided to educate people on the culture of Silesia. It might seem as a dull and random choice, but it really is not. 1/4 of my family is from Silesia, and from time to time my dad speaks a little bit of Silesian. That culture always seemed distant and alien to me even though I visited my family living in Ruda Śląska on many occasions.

Before starting this project me and Franek Rz. talked on numerous accounts about the Silesian culture, heritage and history of that region. Franek is very knowledgeable when it comes to history of that area, so I learned a lot from him.

My main roles were to: create the posts out of the information provided to me, think through the sequence of them and with Franek Rz. provide an insight about the Silesian culture both to our posts and the people interested.

I believe our initiative was particularly impactful as it allowed people like me, who had some family from Silesia, to better connect with this culture. It spread awareness about the muddy nature of Silesia's independence and distinctness, and most importantly celebrated the beautiful and unique cultural heritage of Silesia and Silesians. I am glad that we decided to start that project and I am satisfied with the knowledge we made available, particularly on the Instagram account silesian_month.

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September - Visiting dog shelter in Brodnica

As I as was paying a visit to my grandma living in Rypin we drove one day to Brodnica and by a chance I saw a dog shelter. If not for the past experiences with dog shelter in Warsaw I probably would have ignored it, but this time an idea came to my mind. I wanted to gain an experience, interact with dogs I love and compare the standards of dog shelter in Warsaw and in Brodnica.

I was genuinely surprised by how different those two places were. The main difference was the scale of those places. In Warsaw the shelter was huge, with many dogs and smoothly working system of taking dogs for a walk. On the other hand, in Brodnica the dog shelter was more local, home-like. There were much less dogs and each was taken care off. That being said, lady working there told me that they have very few volunteer so walking all the dogs cost them a lot of effort. I understand why those differences arise. In Warsaw there is a greater number of homeless dogs than in the small city or rural areas where there are a lot of 'local' dogs. Therefore, people at Brodnica's dog shelter can pay more attention and care to individual dog. Whereas, people in shelter 'Azyl pod psim aniołem' in Warsaw do the best they can, but the number of dogs is much greater and it is hard to focus on every single dog.

I asked by dad to leave me there for 3-4 hours, so that he can do the things he had to do there and I could spent time helping there. I was on a walk with three dogs in total.

The dog on the video was a dog walking around something resembling reception or rather an entrance room. As I was resting there on the couch he jumped on it and started licking my dirty hands.

Great place!

P.S. I think the name of this place was "Reksio" so if you by any chance will be around Brodnica I strongly encourage you to pay a visit.

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May was all about running

I enjoy running so much, even though I am not great at it. My approach to it is not very analytical and and focused on performance. I do it because I enjoy it, it keeps my endurance in check and feeling when you finally get a cold shower afterwords is priceless. I personally like listening to podcast during running. It distracts me from being tired. During runs the only podcast I listen to is Lex Fridman Podcast. The blend of really hard runs and Lex is magical.

I also prefer to run in late afternoon or even night as then there are few people on the street and I often meet other runners which gives me motivation to beat them. I always finish in the place that in Polish is called 'tężnia solna' it it has really nice benches on which I can rest healthy air.

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April Activity

I made monthly activity for CAS in one day. On the Friday I had only two lessons. At 11:00 I went on the bouldering gym. Finished one x6 and worked on couple more. Then started gym workout focused on calisthenics, and squats. In total it already took me around 3-4 hours. Later I traveled to Ursynów to play a football match with my friends. It was a good effort and I had loads of energy. It was a very satisfying day, due to both strength based workout and endurance based workout in great company. Physical activity, dopamine and adrenaline boosts made me super tired in the evening. As I reached home I immediately fell asleep.

I did not take any photo both on the bouldering gym and football field (there were more important things to focus on).

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Revisiting the animal shelter in the March

As I mentioned before I was planning to visit that wonderful place once again. This time I went there with my older brother because he is an adult.

This time we also brought some food to the shelter. From what we heard they are not desperately asking for food for animals, but more food never hurts.

We are not very experienced when it comes to interactions with dogs from the shelter, so we go pretty chill dog that gets along with everyone named Felix (the one the picture).

At first he was pretty hesitant to walk and wanted to turn around after 10 minutes, but then I guess he changed his mind and became very energetic.

We ended up taking him for an enormous walk in the nearby forest. We spent with him so much time that we started to worry that people at the shelter might fear that we stole that dog or something of that kind. After couple kilometers we returned that wonderful and tired creature to the shelter and returned home.

I admit that leaving him at the shelter was pretty sad, but from what I saw people working there are going to take care of him as much as they can. Those people are great with animals and truly care about even the most rebellious dogs.

As I said the previous time I do plan to come back there, for the CAS or not.

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February service.

In Fabruary I visited schronisko pod psim aniłem, and walked two of their dogs. I went there with my mother, because she is more experienced and know that place well. In total walking those two dogs, and providing food took 4-4.5 hours.

It was great because dogs we got were very gentle and energetic. It was also a middle of the week, so there were almost no volontaries.

Even though that schronisko is small and they have many dogs they take a good care of them. It's really inspiring to see that so many people do that hard work just to help those poor animals. They know every single dog by name and character.

I surely will visit that place many more times in the future. Such a positive energy!!!

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Working on diary - January

Near the beginning of the January I came to the conclusion that writing down everyday thoughts and experiences would benefit me a lot. It helped me to find what's meaningful in the day, and repeat it the next time. I created a habit of working on diary for about 10 minutes a day, before the bed. As I look through every day, I also can find patterns and commonalities that connect each "succesful" day. It really helps to self reflect and work on myself.

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Bouldering progress throughout December

I continued attending the bouldering gym with the goal of finishing my first x6. I was very surprised when, after two sessions following my last post, I successfully completed my first x6. However, I could not find any other V6 problems I could do, so I continued climbing on x5. It really bummed me out. I thought that somehow I completed that x6 solely by luck. However, near the end of December, I managed to summit the next x6 and another one. Now I know that I am fully capable of climbing x6 boulder problems. My goal for the next month is to work on technique on x6 problems and manage to finish them all!

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Ukulele November

Throughout the November I was practising playing on ukulele. I had that instrument for a while, but never really learned to play on it. So, as a CAS creativity part I decided to make use out of this instrument. I found some free online course, and started to learn new chords.

At first when you learn to play some song it is frustrating, because you don't really HEAR that song there. But, when you finally make some slight change in a way you play in, you start to hear that song there. One of most statifying moments recently!!

Looking forward to learn some new songs, chords and strumming patters!!!

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October

My activity throughout the October was mostly rock climbing, and to be precise bouldering. In bouldering you climb problems that are around 5/6 meters tall.

Boulders at my gym are graded from 1 to 9. When I started at the beggining of September I was able to climb 3's, and ocasionally some 4's. Now, after almost two months, I climb most 5's at the gym. Grades make it so much more satisfying! I go bouldering 3 times a week for 2/3 hours.

My goal for next month is to finish my first 6. It is a big step, but I think it is achivable. I am so grateful for discovering that sport. Commonity in that local gym is amazing! People are very helpful, and you always can chat with them.