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29.09.2024

Today we set up the mini studio. No more green screen, ha!

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28.09.2024

Good morning, Dallas!

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[fregolicotard]

27.09.2024

We took a walk around downtown Dallas today. First of all, it’s hot! Sure, it’s Dallas, but poor me, coming from chilly Poland where it’s already ‘end of September, what did you expect?!’ weather. Let’s just say it was a bit of a shock.

Speaking of shocks… no ceramic plates or metal cutlery at breakfast. 😫 Here we all are, sipping through paper straws thinking we’re saving the planet, while breakfast after breakfast is served on plastic plates, with plastic cutlery and plastic cups. 😭

On our walk, we met two lovely ladies selling Bibles right next to this eye. They told us that the story goes like this: the owner of a nearby hotel originally bought the land with plans to build a parking lot. But the city council rejected his proposal, saying it would be an eyesore. So, he left them with an actual sore eye on the spot instead.

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26.09.2024

Hello, Chicago! Or rather, “Hello, golf course *sort of near* Chicago airport!”

We made it! We missed our connection to Dallas and had to wait 4 hours for the next flight, but at least we had a surprisingly good lunch at The Publican (a decent airport restaurant—who knew?). We arrived late in Dallas, and if you don’t count a bit of dozing off on the plane, I’ve now been awake for 27 hours. My thoughts were just sounds booming in the distance.

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25.09.2024

After making 9,389,874 calls to airlines and hotels (is there an award for hours spent on hold?) and squeezing in some last-minute editing, we took a short walk in Madrid. We stopped here and each called our mothers to complain about what had happened.

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[fregolicotard]

24.09.2024

Remember when I complained yesterday about my "uber adventurous and packed day". 💀 Such a sweet sweet summer child I was...

07:00 am – Wake up, bleary-eyed, and drag ourselves to the airport. Completely unaware that we won a ticket for an obstacle course disguised as air travel.

12:30 pm – We finally take off from Berlin, fashionably late by an hour. No big deal—just leaves us with a razor-thin 40 minutes to catch our connection in Madrid for Dallas. Who doesn’t love a little adrenaline with their layover?

15:30 pm – Land in Madrid and immediately get an email: Good news: we’re rebooked! Bad news: it’s to New York at 16:20. Because why go straight to your destination when you can collect cities like trading cards?

15:40 pm – Andrzej calls Iberia, and they inform him that, surprise, the New York flight is also cancelled. Meanwhile, the monitor insists it’s boarding. Who do we trust? The airline or reality?

16:00 pm – We run to the gate for New York like two racehorses. The gate agent tells us we can board… but our luggage isn’t coming with us. So we’d have to file a claim in New York to get it to Dallas. Hard pass. She sends us to customer service to get rebooked instead. Because clearly, that’s where all problems are solved.

16:10 pm – Join the purgatory that is Iberia’s customer service line. Forty people ahead of us, two agents “helping” with the kind of enthusiasm you’d expect from people about to perform a root canal on themselves. Meanwhile, Andrzej is calling Iberia and then British Airways, trying to find a way to Dallas.

17:30 pm – Victory (ish): Andrzej books us on a new flight… to Chicago… in two days. I suggest we keep waiting in line, just in case customer service has something earlier up their sleeve. Maybe they'll take pity on us?

18:00 pm – Eighteen people still ahead of us. Food and water? Nonexistent. Assistance? Please. No one gives a tossing fig about us.

18:10 pm – Just as I start wondering if I’ll grow old and die in this line, the agents announce their shift is over and walk out. Mayhem. Everyone starts screaming. We’re directed to another desk—because why stop at one disaster when you can have two? It’s a 30-minute hike across the airport, because of course it is.

19:00 pm – Desk #2. We split up: Andrzej tries to file a luggage claim, while I get in yet another line. I sweat these are actually East European post offices disguised as customer service desks.

20:00 pm – After what feels like eternity, the desk agent tells me to go to bus stop #7 for the hotel shuttle. Which hotel? Who knows. Apparently, that’s classified information. I try to ask, and she snaps at me to “just go to the bus stop.” Customer service is dead, and she’s the one who killed it.

20:20 pm – Standing outside at bus stop #7, surrounded by luggage, rushing vehicles and men who look like they will say at any time: "Hey, gorgeous". A bus finally pulls up, but the driver looks at us like we’ve asked for a free ride to the moon and refuses to take us. So Andrzej heads back inside, leaving me to babysit 123 kilos of baggage, increasingly convinced I’m living in some twisted social experiment. Maybe I died on the flight to Madrid and this is purgatory? Straight to hell old girl?

21:20 pm – An hour later, Andrzej returns, saying the bus stop is somewhere else and that “Jorge” is waiting for us. Whoever Jorge is, he’s our only hope.

22:30 pm – We’ve now been waiting an hour, and shocker: Jorge hasn’t shown. Our fellow passengers are skedadling one by one, calling Ubers, tired of the lie that Jorge is coming to rescue us. What if I made Jorge up?! Maybe I'm so hungry that I'm imagining Jorges is shining armour coming up in a shuttle bus??

23:45 pm – We join the others, booking a hotel ourselves because dignity is for people who didn’t trust this airline. I call an Uber van big enough for our suitcase bonanza.

00:30 am – Arrive at the hotel, a hollow shell of my former self, wondering if life was ever anything other than an endless airport queue. Energy depleted.

00:45 am – Tapas. Flavor profile: Optimal. Resource expenditure: Excessive. Emotional satisfaction: Temporary. Take a selfie because surely they don't allow you selfies in hell?

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[fregolicotard]

23.09.2024

Today has been such an incredibly insanely busy day.

08:00 – Wake up 10:00 – To the mall for “just a few things” that somehow include a whole suitcase. Overpacking? Us? Never. (See photo evidence above.) 12:00 – Back home to cram more stuff into bags and make last-minute video edits, because, hey, deadlines gotta deadline. 12:30 – Off to another town, a breezy one-and-a-half-hour drive away. 14:00 – Sign the contract. Success! Except there’s no time to celebrate. Smiling is for the weak. 15:00 – Drive to yet another town to pick up some essential gear. Spoiler alert: it’s not there. Guess it’s back at home, after all. 19:00 – Back in Poznan, tear the house apart hunting for the gear. Find it! Realize all four suitcases are overweight, panic-pack, and make some brutal choices on what stays behind. 20:00 – Hit the road for Berlin, with nothing but caffeine, desperation, and broken dreams to fuel us. 21:00 – Pull over to charge the car at a TIR parking lot. It’s dark, creepy, and the ideal setting for a horror movie. Enjoy some McDonald’s macarons and coffee as if this were totally normal. 23:00 – Roll into Berlin, abandon the car at the parking lot like that toxic ex, and catch the shuttle to the hotel. 23:30 – Finally check in at the hotel. Victory! 00:00 – Spend a cool €10 on 500 ml of water because, clearly, hydration is a luxury.

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[fregolicotard]

22.09.2024

More packing today.

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[fregolicotard]

21.09.2024

Andrzej: packs around 100 kg of filming gear, with different organising configurations and an extremely detailed checklist. Irina: packs cosmetics and her clothes, feels overwhelmed and anxious about forgetting something. Buys several liquid containers, "just in case", then finds the "just-in-case-but-never-used" containers from the last trip. 💀

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[fregolicotard]

20.09.2024

Packing.

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19.09.2024

Sleepy jelly beans

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18.09.2024

I walked through the old market with my sister-in-law and her son.

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17.09.2024

"However far away I will always love you However long I stay I will always love you Whatever words I say I will always love you"

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16.09.2024

I made her a tent.

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15.09.2024

Rain all day and then have breathtaking sunsets? Sure!

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14.09.2024

OMG, that hyperextension 🥹 However, the physiotherapist I saw a few times told me he also has it, which made me feel a bit better, I suppose.

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[fregolicotard]

13.09.2024

It's raining all day and then we get a beautiful sunset with this lovely light in the evening.

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