High five

32 things that make me who I am

It’s my birthday today. Thirty-second one. We’ve known each other for a while, so I thought you should know. Then I also thought – hey, since I’m sharing plenty of stories from my life (aka the never-ending journey) with you, it would be cool if you got to know me a little better 🙂

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Fun fact for starters: there are literally 5 people in the world (excluding family) who know how to spell and pronounce my last name.

These are the 32 things that make me who I am.

  1. I grin. That’s not smiling anymore, that’s grinning. My biggest tragedy would be losing my two front teeth.
  2. I’m afraid of bridges. It’s called gephirophobia and it’s a thing. This doesn’t stop me from walking onto every bridge I see and getting a mild heart attack.
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  3. If it wasn’t for the fact that he doesn’t fit into my backpack, I’d still be sleeping with my 31-year old teddy bear. Or at least keeping him somewhere close.
  4. I’m on a diet more often than I’m not. And even though my dvd fitness trainer says that my body can handle more than I think, it actually can’t. I know, because it hurts every time I actually try to try.
  5. My spirit animal is a mix of a puffin and a koala bear. I used to think it was just a puffin, but really, has anybody seen a puffin drunk on eucalyptus leaves?
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  6. I’m willing to dance Vienna waltz during any party. All it takes is for my ears to hear the 3 beats to the bar. I don’t even need a partner.
  7. In primary school I was always one of the two last ones picked for a sports team. Always. And after the first (and the last) tennis class, the couch asked my parents whether they had considered signing me up for the chess club.
  8. That hurt, for the only way I could ever win at chess was if my opponent gave up because I was taking too long to make the next move. My dad was a blitz chess champion. You cannot inherit every talent.
  9. I consider these household items completely redundant: iron, hair dryer, hair flat iron, TV set. My three favourite furniture items are: piano, hammock, dish-washer. In this particular order.
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  10. I’ve never pierced my ears or dyed my hair (unless we count the primary school experiments with crepe paper). Most probably I won’t dye my hair till it gets grey. I might just go back to my origins then and dye it green or blue.
  11. At east 90% of my clothing items gets a second life with me. Usually my second-hand outfit costs less than my lunch.
  12. I draw really badly. I mean REALLY badly. Kasia is the only person who always knows what my drawing is, which is why we’re a Pictionary dream team! The biggest challenges she’s faced so far were a groundhog and a louse. The only thing she didn’t guess was the Tasmanian devil. I can see why.
  13. I go to sleep around the time when normal people go to bed. I usually try to hit the sack when I realize Piotrek’s alarm will go off soon.
  14. I’m a linguistic and geographical despot. I cannot take it when people who I consider friends don’t know the capitals of Europe. What is even worse, I do correct grammar. On the other hand, I can’t handle punctuation, it’s my mum who does all my commas.
  15. There is no such occasion for which the perfect gift would not be wine, gummy bears, a book or a plane ticket.
  16. I can’t blink with my right eye and I can’t pronounce the Spanish carrramba R.
  17. For the first whole year of my second course at college I went to classes without my teachers’ knowing that I’m not actually a student. They found out when I took the exams with a self-made evaluation form.
  18. I’m alarm clock-resistant. I have never met another person who’d be that immune to hearing an alarm. I’m seriously worried that I was the only professionally active 30-year old woman whose mom had to call her every morning to wake her up for work. Well, sometimes it was Piotrek calling, which is less pathetic, since it could be taken as a romantic morning phone call…
  19. My antediluvian mobile phones are legendary. If I told my friends right now that I have a rotary dial cell, they’d believe and only ask where I got one. In search for a detailed world map I was forced to get myself acquainted with one of the smart phones, but deep down I’m still that girl.
  20. The little blue aquamarine I got when I was five woke up my passion for mineralogy. It was a close shave and I would have become a burnt-out geologist. I gave up geology when I found out that I would have to start understanding physics. The aquamarine turned out to be a synthetic one, but it still has a honorary spot in my collection.
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    My precious! The most amazing one in my collection – the fire opal.
  21. I was equally charmed by Backstreet Boys and by the Kelly Family in primary school. High school came with a smooth switch to the Doors. This phase lasts until today.
  22. I am always late. Incurably. Do not trust my when I say, I’ll be there in 10 minutes. I won’t. 10 minutes is what I need to actually get there, but before it happens, I shall triple check my wardrobe, finish my tea, find my keys, see my facebook updates and brush my teeth.
  23. You can use my feet to chill your cans of beer on a warm summer night.
  24. The combination of my alarm-resistance and always being late made my friends tell me the train for winter holidays was leaving two hours earlier. This was one of the few occasions when I actually pulled myself together and came on time. I spent two hours in the Katowice railway station (and let me tell you, it was not a nice place at that time…) starting from 5:30am. I was mad. But I do understand why they did that to me.
  25. If I’m on a road that’s ever frequented by cars, I’ll hitch a ride. My biggest hitchhiking achievements are: hitching a funeral car from Saragossa to Barcelona (luckily without any extra passengers…), going 800km one day on the back of a pick-up truck, going 3 days with the same lorry driver, hitching one ride for eight hitchhikers and surviving hitchhiking in Armenia.
  26. I am the only licensed make-up artist and stylist who has been wearing 4 t-shirts in turns for the last 1,5 year and only takes out the mascara from the bottom of her backback for special occasions. I do have a small set of eye shadows with me, but seriously, I can’t remember the last time I used them…
  27. I have as many trained professions as I have interests. Some of them even overlap! Depending on who I’m talking to, my reply to “So what is it that you do?” is usually different.
  28. I make the best risotto in the world. My risotto delights even the pickiest palates. The greatest thing about making the best risotto is that if I use different ingredients, no one will ever know that I can barely cook anything but risotto.
  29. I organize trips for everybody, whether they want it or not. It’s enough for someone to mention that they’re thinking of going somewhere and my whole brain gear thing gets started. Within minutes I’ll have seven ready journey scenarios. And then it turns out that all they wanted was to go to the movies…
  30. I’m impudently good at acquiring and using new languages. I’m equally good at communicating in languages I don’t actually know.
  31. With all my wanderlust, it’s at a countryside house that I rest best. This can’t be just any house, oh no! The golden medal goes to Prawiedniki, a village near Lublin. In Prawiedniki they feed me blueberry dumplings, they don’t complain when I sing by the bonfire and they have a whole cellar filled with vine preserves… I love you, Prawiedniki!
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    And my favourite city is Lisbon, but you know that already 🙂
  32. I shop for shoes in a children’s department. People keep asking me how I’m able to stay in balance with this height-feet size ratio. Well, the answer is simple. Quite often – I’m not.

It’s your turn to share some of your weird stuff with me 🙂 Let me know in the comments!


If you liked this post, I’d be very happy if you recommend my blog to your friends. 

2 Comments

  • Ângela

    Dear Hania!! I loved to know you better and was wonderful to read the funny things you say about yourself! I laugh a lot! But please try to be on time… you need people’s trust. So nice to read that your favorite town is in my country! Portugal is a wonderful one!! Love , Ângela

    • Hania, kierownik wycieczki

      Oh, believe me, I’m trying every time 🙂
      And Lisbon is unbeatable, I absolutely adore it and miss it so much!

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