Sweater challenge, part 1

My last project seems to have gained a lot of popularity those last two days.
Orders for hats and scarfs are coming in from countries all over the world. My answer?
DIY!
And so, in order to show you that you can do it yourselves, my dear friends, I will post the Ugliest Icelandic Sweater In The World (later referred to as UISITW) behind the scenes diaries.


Day 1, 13.11.11


First, you make a small sample on the wool you're gonna use. One, it will give you an idea of how difficult it is to knit with it (very in this case..). Two, you'll see how many stitches you have to do to get the right size (measure yourself; count how many stitches you have in your sample; measure the sample; calculate how many stitches you need to get the desired length).

Next, start the first stitches. It was actually the most annoying and unnerving part of the whole process, I think. The wool's really delicate and kept on ripping all the time. I was so proud to have my 86 stitches ready for next rows!

If you're stupid enough to want a pattern, you'll have to learn how to knit with two (or however many colours you'll need) yarns at the same time. Not the easiest thing to be doing, although this seems to be the easiest pattern available. Don't even wanna think about how I'll be cursing once I get to the snowflake pattern around the chest..

Voila.


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Anyone brave enough to take up the challenge (needles) and knit with me? 

A journey of a single sweater begins with a thousand stitches.*

Icelandic sweater is a funny thing.

The first time you see it, it's ugly.

The second time you see it, you start wondering what is wrong with those who wear it.

The third through the hundredth time you see it, you start wondering maybe there IS something about it.

The hundred and first time you see it, worn by a beautiful girl or by a cute guy clubbing in Reykjavik, you think hmmm not so bad after all.

After that, you just want one.

There comes a moment you enter one of those tourist shops to look at sweaters and that's what you do - after realising one would cost you about 150€, you just look at it and leave the store.

Then, and by that time you already need that sweater, you meet this cute American girl spending her evenings in a little town called Pingeyri knitting herself one, which costs her ten times less - the cost of wool. And so the moment you accidentaly stumble accross a wool store in Isafjordur, you're hooked - you're knitting yourself a damn sweater! 

You buy the wool. 

The wool hitchhikes through Iceland with you. 

Then it takes a ferry to Denmark with some Polish dudes you meet a day before you leave the island (kinda problematic to fit everything in you 30l backpack and have it ready for the Rayanair crew 'one piece of luggage' verification).

After a month long trip in France and Spain you hitchhike from Frankfurt to Warsaw and stop in Poznan, to pick the wool up (which later has you hitchhiking from the middle of the highway praying for your life; it also has you taking photos with your GPS camera, so that your dad tells you how many kms you have to walk alongside the road to reach the next gas station..).

The wool finally gets home and sits in the closet for 2 months, cause you don't have time to learn how to knit.

And finally, there comes a day (yesterday) when you decide enough is enough and you pick up those scary needles and get on with it.

The plan is to have the sweater ready in a month's time, so that it can keep me warm during my trip to Brussels. Everyone, my mum included, says it's kinda impossible, especially that I want some patterns around it (what would an Icelandic sweater be without the Icelandic patterns, I ask you!). 

Challenge accepted! 

 

A sample I was learning on yesterday. The only unfortunate thing is that the wool I need to start knitting with is much thinner and not spun so tightly, making it a lot more difficult and needing me to be a lot more careful with what I do. But hey, nobody said it was gonna be easy..

Alright then, off I go to knit!

*You inspire me, Jim! ;)

Independence Day celebrations (?)

Everything was looking out quite well. 
The day was chilly but unexpectedly sunny, with beautifully coloured autumn leaves falling down left and right and forming a most amazing yellow-red-orange carpet in the parks all around town.

I met with Fer, a Spanish friend's boyfriend who's currently on an internship in a Polish town called Lublin, and wanted to see Warsaw on our National Day. We went to pick up Mauro, an Italian CSer who'd just come to Warsaw on a business trip and wrote me looking for a bit of local company for a couple of hours. Together we set off in the direction of the Old Town and the walk took us through Saski Park, where we got just in time to see a bit of the Independence Day parade by the Unknown Soldier's Tomb.


All the time we were walking there, I was feeling so positive and proud to be seeing the Polish Flag all over - traditionally street lamps and building entrances are decorated in white and red, but also people and cars carrying little flags, children using bigger ones as Superman-type caps, SuperPoles, if you will. Everyone rejoicing, celebrating the day Józef Piłsudzki was announced Commander-in-Chief over the Polish Forces - 123 years of occupation, partition and bloody fights were over, although the nation didn't get too much time to embrace their independence.. And it should be mentioned that Poland got to celebrate 11th of November openly only 24 times in its history! It was estabilished as a National Day in 1937 and got banned under German occupation (39-45), it was also illegal to celebrate it during the comunism era (45-89). Thus, we got our Independence Day in '37 and '38 and then from '89 till now. Not too much independence celebration for a centuries old nation, it would seem..


But back to the day at hand - so there I was going on about how great this day is, how Poles finally come together, stop complaining about their country and their countrymen. All was true till the moment I decided to take Fer for dinner in U Szwejka, a restaurant at the Constitution Square, where we got ourselves in the middle of riots started by, pardon my vocabulary, moronic imbeciles who instead of celebrating the freedom they can enjoy know, started demolishing the very city they find shelter in. Also, to make things worse, they invited our German neighbours to help them fight the police, beat up innocent people, throw bottles and bricks at anyone unlucky enough to be within their reach. We got gased and coughed a bit of our lungs out, almost got hit wth glass.
splashing in front of our feet.. I was so furious and embarrased I could only try to joke about it.

Why are people unable to create anything worthy so keen on destroying whatever anyone else has managed to achieve with their hard work and effort?

Your booking has been successful

Any guesses? ;)

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The company I work for has started a huge campaign today and this week's been quite busy. Actually, a lot busy - yesterday I was working almost non stop 9am - 11:20pm. At the office, on the tram back home, in my bed.. Today was just 9,5hrs at the office, so chill. Next week will probably be around 10hrs daily, although who knows?

I guess that's why I decided I'll have earned a short breather come December. A while back I had also promised myself I would get there before the end of this year - I want to meet some friends I haven't seen for ages, want to eat some food I've been craving for, want to go ice skating on my favourite ice rink.. Granted, I can't take too much leave but 4 days on the spot will be enough for me to enjoy what I've been missing so much. 

Oh, and I guess I'd better really enjoy it, as it will most probably be my last international trip in 2011. . Seems kinda unbelievable and a bit depressing but that's the life of a working gyal for ya!

Workshops. Sexy?

Yesterday was d-day for the workshops I've been talking about recently.

Here a little clip with the routine I taught.

And now a question to the guys: would you call this sexy?

(any tips for future choreos most welcome ;)

Interviews, International Conferences, Business Trips

That's basically what a young professional's (my) first week at work looks like, although only the last part was related to the job I've recently started. To take it from the top:

1
My second interview for the Poland Asia Research Center has appeared online. It was a lot of fun to talk to Erika and I think the interview's better than the first one, or at least I hope so. After all, I would love to learn how to interestingly interview people and how to best portray them with my questions and their answers.

2
Wednesday saw my debut as a kind of a TV journalist. Kinda because the movie we were shooting won't be aired. Kinda because there was a cameraman, there were important people and there was I asking questions. The before mentioned Poland Asia Research Center was a co-organizer of this year's Think Tank Dialogue: Eastern Europe Asia conference and hosted a number of world's specialists and academics on Asian-European relations. We met in one of Marriott's conference rooms for a very good welcome dinner with delicious mini salads (oh, I learnt a new word. The mini salads as I call them are in fact ..  damn' I already forgot! help anybody?). The thing I didn't like so much is that I was, with almost all certainty, the only person with such a small knowledge about world's (and especially Asia's) current politics and economy. Also, where did my Japanese go when it was finally about to get handy?

Last week on Monday I was out to a bank with my boss in the morning and I was thanking him again for letting me take a day off on Thursday. No problem, said he. In the afternoon the boss gets an email and seems kinda surprised.
- What time does your thing end on Thursday? 

Well, about 10 pm, I will be there the whole day. Why? 

- We have to go to travel fairs in Poznan.
2 minutes later I get an email saying 'We leave on the 12 pm train'.
And I think 'dang'.

On the one hand really excited about the fairs and my first business trip, on the other totally depressed, as Thursday was the first day of the actual conference and because of the trip I could only be there for the first 3 morning hours. First off, I was about to miss a most interesting two day event. Second, and more importantly, there were people counting on my being there and doing the interviews, as previewed much earlier. Luckily, they managed to find a girl to fill in for me (an actual reporter, mind you) and I felt a bit better about having to stand them up.

3

The 3.5 hrs on the train was spent working - drafting letters and dealing with customers. A quick taxi ride to the hotel, check in and 10 mins later already running to the fairs. Leaving a suitcase in another taxi's trunk, a frantic search for the driver whose phone number couldn't be found anywhere, a quick decision to run to the train station, getting the suitcase back and entering the fairs. Walking around, meeting all those travel agents, resting eyes on all those travel magazines, seeing all those foreigners trying to seduce me into visiting their country and doing business with them - I was in the right place. A stronger notion of the same came on Friday, while I was discussing potential co-operation with an African DMC. He was showing me the map, explaining which coconut farm our clients would go to, which shacks they'd spend the night in and all I could think to myself was "this is it, that's what I need to be doing" and smiling like an awfully goofy person. 

Oh, and another thing - how come Poznań's night life is so much better than Warsaw's? Why is the capital so much behind?

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Today the second week of my career has started. Hopefully I won't cause any drama or catastrophes, just as I managed to avoid them last week.

The first thing I did after work was to go to a local Cutural Center to find out whom to speak to about a photo exhibition, will call them tomorrow morning. Also, they have their own online radio. I wonder if they ever do any travel material? If not, then it's high time they did, wouldn't you agree?

The second thing was to find out about the possibility and conditions of renting a danceroom for my upcoming workshops. I went to the same place I recorded in a year and a half ago for an online SYTYCD contest, a fitness center/gym right across from my house. I asked for the rates, the lady asked me for the reason and after a couple of minutes "Wait, aren't you that girl..?" "Yes, I think I am" "Well, you're hired. If you ever want to start teaching, I want you here".

Unfortunatelly, the financial proposition she could make was veeery unattractive but still, that was nice! So, I've rented the room for the 5th of Nov and that's when my Sexy Dance workshops part 1 will take place. Anyone interested gimmie a shout!

The third thing I did was figure out how to easily find more Poland based Asians for my interviews. To think I hadn't thought of it before..

And now it's time to read a bit more of my beloved P.J. O'Rourke 

(man, this guy and his writing are something else!).

On the paradox of choice

An issue that's been on my mind ever since I graduated uni. Was finally able to do all the things I've always wanted to be doing and see all the places I've wanted to see and .. I did nothing.

Cause when you can do pretty much anything you want, how do you choose where to start?

I was randomly going through some TED talks and found one about the matter at hand. For your consideration:

Agreed!

Mon-Thu. What next?

Monday was busy.
Tuesday was busy and tiring.
Yesterday was hectic and exhausting.
Today was madness and I'm so tired I can't stand the thought of having to get up in 5 hours and starting all over again.


It's definitely going to be an exciting time and the job will keep my on my toes. I just hope I want fall asleep somewhere along the way. Or during one of the upcoming business meetings.


A ver.

The Office

Nah, don't get your hopes up - it'll be about me again, not the TV series (which I have never seen, by the way).

Today was first day of work!

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On Friday I went for a meeting with the director of a Polish travel agent's that co-operates with my company and after I left, I just couldn't wait to go back there Monday morning and start working!.. I know, right?

Was pretty excited and happy today, which I guess isn't really a state of mind I shared with the majority of the working class. Got to the office a bit before 10 am (my official working hours are 10-6 but the real ones are more the "when I work, you work" sort of thing) to sign the contract and waited for my boss's arrival. He got there, gave me a fancy notebook and I was finally ready to note down what I was supposed to be doing.

It was a rather laid back day and it picked up a bit of pace when it turned out I was leaving for my first business trip this very Thursday! It's a pretty cool one - the boss and I are going to Poznań for some travel fairs and staying there till Saturday, but at the same time it's horrible - there's a big international conference I've been hired to work at as a journalist and interview panelists coming down here from allover Asia and Europe, and 2 days before the event starts I had to notice my editor I wouldn't be able to be there! Instead of interviewing people till 10pm I've till 11:45 am, when I have to run to catch my train. I felt really shitty, and still do, but there's not much I could do. Actually, there's nothing I could do - the job will pay the bills, so it has to come first.

Oh, how I'm growing up!

A Young Professional in Warsaw

Guess who's the new PA to the Director of Business Development for Eastern Europe, Baltics and the CIS Markets of one of the major Italian tour operators?

...

..

.

:D

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The last couple of weeks have been very laid back and hectic at the same time. Laid back cause I didn't have that many responsibilities, hectic cause I had a lot of events to attend, a lot of friends to meet, went back to university, went for my first proper job interviews..

The first one was last Thursday - a part-time at a bank, a proper job contract, stabilization, commitment, they were looking for a team member for at least a year and a half - scary things! I went for the interview certain I wanted to land the job but as the interview progressed I had to try harder and harder to convince myself (and the recruiter) that I actually wanted it  At one point the recruiter asked me why I wanted to work with them, as he could clearly see my head and heart were in a different market. I left the office (which I really liked and would have loved to work in, by the way) going over his questions and my answers and trying to figure out how I really felt about the whole thing. I was pretty sure I'd get invited back for the last interview with the Big Boss and needed to be sure I won't be wasting his time. Thus, after a lot of ponding, I wrote them on Friday thanking them for their time and declining the offer of the last interview.

On Wednesday last week I was already sure I wouldn't follow through with uni - it didn't feel right. Not only the fact that I had to get up at 6 am and sit through some of the most boring classes you can imagine, not even the fact that some of the professors talked to us as if we were 5 years old. It didn't feel right, 'cause it basically seemed like going backwards instead of moving on with my life. I didn't go to my classes on Friday and Monday, this Tuesday I had to go to one of them, as I had volunteered to give a little speech about Aristotle and his Poetics (don't even ask). As soon as that was over, I left and don't ever intend on going back.

Straight from there I went to another job interview - a foreigner needed a personal assistent, a job in a travel agent's, had no idea about the technical aspects of the offered position. I went for the interview more for the experience than with the will to get the job, as the other travel agent's who wanted to send me on the guide course was thinking about offering me some event managment related tasks and I was looking forward to that. Also, dance had yet again shyly welcomed itself back into my life and I was considering pursuing that path again. The interview was very short and not 'traditional' by any means. I was asked one question and then given an assignment due in the evening. I left the place super excited and with the feeling that it might be it - I wanted this job! Didn't mind the full time aspect of it, was thinking how cool it would be to work in one place for at least a year or two, was all happy inside when I thought of all the responsibilities and tasks that would lay ahead of me, thought the potential boss seemed really laid back and a nice person, most of all, and the salary would be enough to allow me to save some travel money. Plus, there were real prospects of travelling within the job itself.

So I got back home and panicked, thinking I didn't know how to write those letters.

However, I decided I would deliver the best drafts the guy's ever seen.

So I sat down and wrote them.

I then had a team of more experienced and able people check them and give me suggestions, wrote and rewrote certain parts over and over again.

And then I sent them out.

Yesterday morning I got an email saying my drafts were 'satisfying' but he was waiting to see what other candidates deliver, thus inform me about his decision on Friday.

I guess the candidates didn't deliver or he simply decided those were the best drafts he's ever seen, 'cause I got a message about an hour ago "Hello Magda, you won the job".

I always knew the moment I drop out of university, things will be a whole lotta better. Too bad it took me so many years to have the opportunity to do so ;)

.     .     .     .     .

Tomorrow I'm going to sign a contract for three trial months and I'll be finally fully qualified to attend all those Professionals in Warsaw events - it always felt kinda strange to be there, seeing how I was neither an expat, nor a professional. Well, I might still not be an expact but the professional part's already there!

And now I'm off to think of a routine for tonight - am filling in for a friend who teaches dance in one of the city's cultural centers and have yet to create what I'll teach today. Sexy dance - here I come!