Life v3.0

I started a new life in the US and moved my blog onto another server. Check it out on http://blog.kacper.me! I may keep the blogspot version for a while.

Extra Travel Tips

Greetings from France! I'm stuck at the Marseille airport as my flight is delayed for two hours. You got it, there is a strike of air traffic controllers. At least, I've got two hours to be productive and to write something interesting. I've already given tips for traveling in the three previous posts. Here, I'd like to add some more useful stuff.

1. Smell good without carrying perfumes. If you travel light, there is one major downside of carrying your own perfumes; they are typically in heavy bottles which add to the mass of your hand luggage. So, how to deal with that? At any airport you can find a duty-free store that carries perfumes. Go there, spray yourself, and ask for free samples. That way you can smell good for free. If you stay in the city, you can use the same tactic. Find some Sephora or any other store with perfumes. It's guaranteed that you'll find one in the shopping mall. Also, if you sweat a lot, get baking soda from any grocery store or pharmacy, and use it as an antiperspirant. Just apply the powder on your skin, for example, under armpits. Baking soda is very effective in fighting bacteria, cheap, non-toxic, light, doesn't leave yellow stains, and can be carried in hand luggage.



2. Smartphone. I've travelled with a laptop, tablet, and smartphone. From my experience, the only device that you'll need while traveling is a good smartphone, such as Google Nexus 4 or Apple iPhone.
3. Say toilet. At least in Europe, don't use the words washroom, restroom,  or bathroom. Many people don't seem to get them. Toilet is universally understandable.
4. CouchSurfing got worse. The whole CouchSurfing project has changed; at least in three aspects. First, CS became a for-profit project which, I believe, has had an impact on the website and the users. Second, the CS website has a new layout which is very counterintuitive. Third, the most important, CS is no longer a community of like-minded travelers. In the past, you could send few requests and get answers promptly. People wanted to travel and to host travelers. These days, many people join CS just for free accommodation. Whereas they like to CouchSurf (because it's free), few of them host people at their place.
   



5. Pick a cool hostel. I've been to dozens of different hostels. Choosing a great hostel is not an easy task. For me, a great hostel is one that: 1) attracts young cool people, 2) is about partying, 3) is clean, 4) is cheap, and 5) is safe. There are multiple websites to search for hostels, such as HostelWorld. When searching, I sort the results by price and rating. Further, the opinions will give you a clue about the points 1-4. Additionally, the hostel description will tell you if the hostel offers lockers (important for safety) and free WiFi. The latter is pretty standard, though, WiFi may not work in all the rooms. Finally, I don't care if the hostel offers any breakfast. Typically, I come back too late to wake up for the breakfast. Also, in the past, hostels offered more varied breakfasts. Nowadays, they offer mostly milk, cornflakes, crappy wheat bread, and fake jam. Pure carbs. It's neither healthy, nor filling, and not very tasty when eaten daily. I'm off that.
6. Hotel is an option. I'm not a big fan of hotels. Typically, they are more expensive than hostels and you don't get to meet many new people. Sometimes, however, there may be no hostels at your destination. What do you do then? Consider Airbnb or book a hotel room. Recently, I found great hotel deals on Cyprus through Booking.com (which was recommended to me by hotel stuff). They don't charge booking fees.
   



7. If got a student card, ALWAYS ask for student discounts. Sure, this tip doesn't work too often, but when it does, you pay half of the price. For example, recently I scored a ticket from Paphos to Larnaca for 2e.

Be Smarter than the State

I never understood the economy. All the obfuscated mumbo-jumbo lingo that you hear in the media is extremely confusing and explains nothing. At some point I thought that maybe I'm too dumb? But wait. After all, I was able to understand the formalities of Quantum Physics, Electrical Engineering, and much of Psychology. So why not the economy? The key to understanding is accurate and precise explanation. What I learned is mind-boggling: modern economy is based on a giant fraud scheme. It's sad, but it explains what the hell is going on. I think you should understand it as well if you care about your well-being, wealth, and future.

Within the last six months I took the time to educate myself about the basics of Macroeconomics. I found these fantastic online lectures by Prof. K. Petrov. Here I would like to describe my understanding of one fundamental concept of modern banking system: inflation. Don't worry. Actually it's all extremely simple. It is also extremely evil.

Inflation. It simply means price increase across the entire economy. When you hear the news, you think that inflation is natural and that's the way things are meant to be. But hey, do prices increase themselves??? Of course not. One of the ways to increase inflation is to increase money supply, the infamous money printing. This is not how things are meant to be! Please, do yourself a favor and watch a short episode of Duck Tales (that I absolutely loved as a kid):

So what is the lesson here? It's the following: if you print money (and others don't), you are the one who primarily benefits from it. Imagine yourself printing extra money. Got it? You can buy a new car, travel more, and get more financial freedom. What are the consequences? After a while the money supply on the market increases and prices go up. In other words: the money loses its value. Let's say you've got $100 today, but someone doubles the money supply within one day. What happens? Tomorrow the actual value of your savings is only $50. You lost half of the hard-earned money. The entity that printed the money, however, already spent it and benefited from it.

Who prints money? In the real world central banks print money. They can print as much as they like. For example US Federal Reserve printed several TRILLIONS of $$$ in the last several years. If they print, it is called quantitative easing. If you print, you go to jail. Unfair, isn't it? I'd say more. It's immoral.

Why do they print money? Have you noticed that governments always spend more money than they have? Consequently, they need to somehow borrow more money. When you borrow money, however, you have to pay it back. But wait, how can you pay the loan back if you have no money? You can either take another loan or you can print more money! So this is what happens in practice. The government prints money. The government is the one who benefits from printing. Citizens, on the other hand, lose money. Are you cool with that?

How come they are allowed to print money? It is possible because modern currencies are fiat currencies. Their value comes from the law; they are not backed by any tangible commodity. Several decades ago currencies were backed by gold and silver. For example, you could always exchange US dollar for a fixed amount of gold ($1 = 1.505g of gold), and British pound for silver. That prevented the government from printing money, because they could not replicate precious metals. Fast forward to the year 2013; due to inflation dollar dramatically lost its value. If you had $100 at the beginning of the 20th century, now it would be worth only $4. If you have savings, what's their value in 50 years when you retire?

Is there some way to defend yourself from getting ripped off by the government? Yes, there is. You can be smarter then the state. Get rid of all the paper money. If you have savings, invest them in something tangible, experience, or of real value. For example, you can invest in own education, traveling, a startup, stock market, precious metals, etc. In fact, for the last several thousands of years silver and gold were good stores of value. Unlike any kind of paper money issued by governments/central banks/banksters. If at the beginning of the 20th century you exchanged $100 for gold, you would get 150.5 grams of gold. Do you know how much it is worth these days? $5896. That's a slightly better business than the $4. Isn't it?

Disclaimer: although the article talked about US dollar, all the above applies to pretty much any other currency: British Pound, European Euro, Swiss Frank, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona, Polish Zloty, Japanese Yen, etc. Throughout the history the governments have been making the same mistakes over and over again. The future is predictable. In the end the paper currency is worth nothing.

Which Trait Would You Rather Have: Confidence or Accuracy?

Would you rather be confident but, perhaps, incorrect, or accurate but insecure? Would others appreciate you more as a confident person or an accurate one? It all depends on the situation, for sure. Let's talk about day-to-day life situations and communication through mass media (including Twitter, Facebook, etc.).

A recent study of Twitter investigated how professional pundits and amateurs predicted the results of baseball games. The study shows that people who are confident about predicting the results have more followers and are in more demand, regardless of accuracy of the predictions. In other words, if you are confident, you get more popularity. It does not matter whether you are right or wrong.

What are the implications of that study? The results can, perhaps, be generalized. They may explain some of the examples where confidence brings significant benefits to an individual despite of low accuracy:

• Hitler moved unparalleled crowds. He had a vision and was confident about it. His accuracy was very low. For sure. His racist claims were not backed by any scientific evidence.
• Recently I was told a story how you can travel by bus in Copenhagen with an invalid ticket. How do you do that? Be confident that your ticket is valid, smile to the driver, and show only a part of the ticket so that the expiry date is hidden. Perfect confidence and no accuracy. It is confirmed that the story works for blond girls. If they can pull it off, then you can do that as well :-)

It's easy to say be confident, but how do you gain confidence if you are not confident? Confidence comes from experience and familiarity with various situations. Getting into unexpected situations gives you new experience. Getting out of your comfort zone makes you uncomfortable and exposes your fragility to others. That's how confidence is built. What is a natural setting where you can exercise both? Traveling!

Allow the Job to Find You

Want to increase the odds of getting an interesting job offer? I found a very effective way that requires minimal effort. Does it work for anyone? I cannot claim that but I am sure it works well if you have a unique skill-set. Does it work right away? No, it may take several months before you start getting interview invitations. Still interested in the idea of allowing the job to find you? Read on and learn how to set up a honey pot!

Let's do a quick experiment. Imagine that you are a head hunter or a hiring manager. You are looking for a person with specific combination of education and software engineering skills  For example, you're looking for someone with PhD education, who can program in the language Haskell, and has experience in software modeling (whatever all of that means). Below are two sets of keywords that you could type.

1. phd, haskell, metaprogramming, modeling
2. phd, haskell, software modeling

Let's use two popular search engines to search for the keywords. Check out the two queries:

1. Google, Bing
2. Google, Bing

Wow, Kacper is on the very top in both search engines! What do you do as a hiring manager? You go to his professional homepage and drop him an email with job interview invitation. Pretty simple, eh?

What's going on there? Kacper has a googlable webpage that attracts head hunters and hiring managers. If you want to start getting job offers, create a good personal webpage! The key idea is to set up a honey pot that allows head hunters to find you. Here are some tips:

• Figure out what specific skills you have, what kind of job you'd like to get, and how these skills relate to the job. Add a short paragraph that summarizes what you're doing and what you've done.
• Present a vision of the world and the job. Be honest.
• Think about different types of visitors and tailor information accordingly. This is very important. On my webpage you can see that I've got separate paragraphs for students who want to work with me, people who want to hire me, and entrepreneurs who look for hackers. I assume that students would be looking for projects in my lab and research. People who want to hire me would like to see my resume, the projects I worked on, and awards. Entrepreneurs would be looking for the startup spirit and source code to judge my programming skills.
• Include important keywords that describe your skills, completed projects, awards, and anything else that may convince someone that you are qualified. A good way of doing it is to write a resume directly on the website. Attaching resume as a file won't help much, because the information is not directly visible.
• If possible associate your website with a professional institution. For example, my website is associated with the website of my research lab.

How effective are these tips? I believe they are very effective. I redesigned my website last year according to the guidelines above. I didn't apply for any job. I've never had a Linked In account, yet I'm receiving very solid job inquiries every month. I also ask recruiters how they found me, and they say that through the website.

Now, what do I mean by very solid job inquiries? First, they are tailored to my specific skills. There is no bullshit and I know that the company or the head-hunter is serious about me. Second, they came from Google, MathWorks, multiple Wall Street financial institutions and head hunters, and a Silicon Valley startup. Some of them even wanted me to cancel PhD and start working for them as soon as possible. Finally, I actually signed a contract with MathWorks and I'm going to start working this year after finishing PhD. I think that's enough evidence that this method works and brings benefits in the long run. Convinced?

So what are you waiting for? Want to get a great job? Allow the job to find you!

Traveling Is a State of Mind

Why is it that for most people traveling is something they crave for, yet they do very little? Why do people associate traveling with something expensive? And even if they have money, why do they complain about lack of time to travel? Why do they think that traveling is a 2-3 week break during the year? Let's challenge these ideas! I think that to travel you have to want to travel. It's really about your state of mind.

First of all, I think that the above ideas are imposed on you by: 1) the travel industry, 2) the society, and 3) own laziness. Let's be honest. Think about it: what holds you back right now from taking a break and going somewhere for a week? And I mean right now. If you could travel anywhere without any consequences, would you do that? Do you have what it takes to leave your house for a week? Or even for 2 days?

Time. Let's say your life-span is 80 years. That equals 4160 weeks. What happens if you decide to spend one of these weeks traveling? Think about the reasons for doing that now, instead of the reasons for not doing it. Do you really want to travel?

Money. You need to buy food. But you have to do that anyways, regardless of where you are.

Accommodation. Check out CouchSurfing. You can stay at someone's place for a week. Or better, find 2-3 people who can host you. You pay $0.

Transport. Depending on where you wanna go, the cost may vary. Let's say you're broke as fuck. Perfect, check our hitch-hiking or car pooling. I met people who traveled all around Europe, America, and Asia that way. How much they paid? $0.

That's all you need to start the journey. Well, almost. What you really need is a strong desire to make things happen.

Now, the key thing is that traveling is not so much about the location, but more about the state of mind. It doesn't mean going to some remote island. You can go to a nearby town and enjoy traveling. I routinely do that when I visit Mississauga or Toronto. Set your mind into the travel mode. Stop for a while and think: how is your mindset different when you travel from your current state of mind? Take your time.

For me the key difference is that when you travel you are in the absorb mindset. It's a state of mind where you absorb incoming sounds, pictures, smells, feelings without prematurely judging them. You are just as curious as a small child for whom everything is new. For me the joy of traveling comes from: meeting new people, appreciating the architecture, learning the culture, getting into unexpected situations, and stepping out of my comfort zone. You can certainly have all of that in the nearby town. It's the matter of paying attention to the details. Think about what you enjoy about traveling.

You can even become a tourist in your own town. Why not to apply the same mindset to daily situations. Start looking at the things around you, change the usual route to school/work, talk to people about whatever comes to your mind. Isn't the world more interesting then? Several months ago I even heard about a girl who was CouchSurfing in her own town!

Now, go to a nearby city and see what's cool there! OK, honestly, I'm almost sure that you will find excuses and will not do that. But remember, if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting. Are you happy about it?

How to Explain Things?

Being PhD student is a great thing. On the one hand, you have to specialize in single topic so that when you graduate you become an expert in that topic. On the other hand, you have to know the related work that may be surprisingly broad at times. For example, I'm doing research in software engineering. My goal is to help software developers to be more productive and to produce software of higher quality. Cool. Recently, however, I needed to check out publications from cognitive psychology! Why would I do that? We were interested in how people learn new things and how brains of experts differ from brains of novices. I learned a lot and want to share some of the findings. You can use these findings to be more effective at explaining things to others. This blog post is based on our recent publication.

Base Your Explanations on Examples

Let's say you want to explain your younger cousin Newton's law of gravity. Certainly, it's not enough to give just a bunch of equations and expect the cousin to understand the topic. Why not? Because learning is about building mental models. Mental models represent our intuitive understanding of the world in the form of generalized information, such as rules. So how to build the intuition? You're right, through examples! Examples capture intuition. You need to see multiple examples of a single thing or phenomenon. For instance, to start understanding gravity you need to see an apple falling from the tree, a sandwich falling on the floor, or you can even jump out of the window. Only then will then brain start noticing commonalities, will generalize information, and will come up with a rule. Of course, these examples do not fully explain the law of gravity, but provide right intuitions.

Present both Examples and Abstractions

OK, we agreed that presenting just examples is not enough. In fact, the best knowledge transfer occurs when learning comprises both examples and abstractions (such as rules). So to fully explain gravity, you'd have to show both examples and the mathematical equations. Then your cousin should be able to relate examples (that represent intuition) to the equations (that represent general rules). Why do we need to present examples and abstractions simultaneously? First, examples typically capture just a small part of a general phenomenon. In many cases you would need a huge number of examples to appropriately model the general rule. Of course working with a huge number of examples is incomprehensible. Second, abstractions capture the knowledge more completely than examples, but are equally difficult to comprehend on their own.

Novices Need Examples, Experts Prefer Abstractions

Your younger cousin is clearly a novice and knows very little about gravity and physics. In his case examples are useful to build intuition before presenting the general rule. Would you use the same approach when talking to a professor of physics? Quite likely they'd get bored with your examples and would consider them trivial. Why? Because the professor is an expert and has all the required intuitions and knowledge. A better approach is to first present a general rule and then use examples only for clarifications. In that case examples compensate for the missing knowledge. In short, novices need examples right-away, while experts need them only for clarification.

Show a Variety of Examples

Now we know that examples are useful. But, think about it. Are all examples equally useful? No! If examples are too similar (such as showing two apples falling from the same tree), they provide little information. If they are too different (such as showing and apple and a solar system), you cannot easily find commonalities and generalize the information. Effective learning requires a specific variety of examples. The most effective are near-miss contrasting examples. Such examples emphasize critical differences and facilitate building flexible abstractions (mental models). We can distinguish positive and negative examples. Positive examples represent something that is correct (for instance, an apple falling from the tree). Negative examples represent something that is incorrect (for instance, an apple attaching itself to the tree). They explicitly show things and phenomena that are disallowed.

Brazil: Probably the Best Country to Be a Man

One of my dreams came true: I visited Brazil. I wanted to visit this country for a long time. I met many Brazilians in Canada and really enjoyed their company. The story that you're about to read includes a lot of fun, fantastic parties, and drama. Brazilian soap opera. It's a rather personal account of events, so I'm deliberately avoiding people's names. I'm also not going to put photos of people that I met, because I'm not sure if all of them are proud of what happened. Don't get me wrong. Although some things didn't work out, the whole trip was awesome!

Wednesday

The journey started with a long flight from Toronto to Rio de Janeiro via Panama. Travel time: 14 hours. I made it to Rio around 2am and took a cab to my hostel. It was dark but I was curious about the city. I was carefully observing the surroundings from inside the car. My first impression was not too great, but I'm not judgmental. After half an hour the cab stopped at the address from hostel's website. But where the hell is the hostel? Even the driver didn't know. All we could see was a dumped building with old door. After a minute we figured out that it must be here, so I entered the building. Indeed, that was the hostel: hidden among other buildings in the Lapa district. I was very tired after traveling and quickly approached the reception desk. To my amazement I heard that my reservation was canceled. What the hell? Come on guys, I'm tired and I need to sleep. Fortunately, the guy let me sleep and we agreed to resolve all the issues the next day. The hostel required some deposit for the key. They didn't accept credit cards and I had no banknotes. All I had was $20CAD and this is what I left at the reception desk. OK, the first impression was not too great. What does it mean? It means that things can only get better!

Thursday

I woke up fashionably late and went out to explore Lapa. Lapa is also known as the party district of Rio. It was still before the Carnaval but the streets were full of people. I heard that Rio is dangerous so I wanted to disguise myself as a Brazilian. How? I was wearing Havaianas, famous Brazilian flip-flops :-)

(Un)fortunately it didn't work out. Many people were looking at me and knew for sure that I was a gringo. Looks-wise, I'm white with dark blond hair and blueish eyes. Women were giving me noticeable looks and smiles. I felt welcome! In the meantime I went to eat food per kilo, where you pay for food per weight. Delicious and cost-effective.

After several hours of fooling around and meeting locals I went back to the hostel to resolve the issue. The issue turned to be a non-issue and we quickly settled the things. I took a shower and checked out what was cool that night. CouchSurfing had a meeting at Copacabana. As I was shaving, I met a Japanese guy. He asked me about my plans so I told him about the CS event. He joined me and we headed to the beach around midnight. What I saw was totally surprising. 350 CouchSurfers enjoying caipirinha at one of the bars. The meeting was huge! I quickly made some friends. At some point an Austrian girl was looking for people to swim in the ocean. I've got some experience with oceans by night and I couldn't resist the urge. We were trying to get more people on board. The usual excuse was: I have no swimming suit. Well, fuck that. I didn't have mine but it's not a reason not to enjoy the beach. After several minutes we were running towards the ocean and jumped into a meter high waves. NOSSA! It was very cool to swim and fool around. We got back to the bar. Turned out that the adventure was just starting that night. I made some Spanish friends, put shorts on my wet pants and we took a cab to Lapa. My ass and the cab seat were totally wet. Lapa was full of people! The vibe was there and we hit some bars. I was desperately looking for a sertanejo party. After talking to several bartenders and shemales we made it to the club. I found it very very cool. To my amazement Brazilian girls are fantastic dancers. They really feel the rhythm and know how to make dancing very sexy.

Friday

I woke up pretty late. Actually, I lost the sense of time. Initially I was heading to high-five Christ the Redeemer as CouchSurfers were hiking there. At some point I got hungry and went to an all-you-can-eat restaurant. The food was so delicious that I got late to the hiking event and went to see the Big Guy on my own. To my surprise, right after booking the ticket I met the Japanese guy from my hostel again. We both had reservations at 4pm. Cool, someone to hang out with. The statue is pretty big. Most of the people took pictures from the perspective imitating the Christ. I put it in the same category of cheesyness as supporting the leaning tower of Pisa with your hand.

Friday was the first night of Carnival. I was hanging out with two other guys from the hostel. Good men. One of them was wearing the Spiderman suit. He got a lot of attention while walking around Lapa! The streets were very crowded. After hanging out for a while we met some crazy teenagers who where enthusiastic about anything we said:

teens: Where are you from?

me: Poland!

teens: Poland??? WOOOOHOOOOOO!

As mina pira. The girls wanted to kiss. Actually, the whole Carnaval is about international love. People make new friends, make out, and party everywhere in the streets 24/7. Wash, rinse, and repeat. I asked the teens to teach me forro, because it's the kind of dance for the sertanejo music that I love. Not only they taught me forro, but also showed some samba and funky moves.

Saturday

Again, I woke up late. When I got out of the hostel I saw people partying since the very early morning. Everywhere in Lapa. It's totally crazy to see thousands drunk people dancing samba, kissing, smiling, and singing. We were heading to a CS bloco party. The party was not bad. From what I remember the live band was playing Michael Jackson's songs in the rhythm of samba. I was significantly tired that day after the previous night. After two hours we went back to the hostel, because I needed to rebook my flight. I was required to go to the airport and do it there. On my way to the airport I heard several times:

some gals: Lindo! Lindo!

It's great to be a gringo in Brazil. Some of the girls approached and asked for a kiss. Other girls were more shy and were saying:

some gals: My friend would like to kiss you!

It was totally entertaining. I don't see any of that happening in Canada any time soon. Also, I got the impression that while girls in Canada prefer to hang out with girls, girls in Brazil like to hang out with guys. I conclude that Brazil is probably the best country to be a man. Maybe it's time to move to Brazil? Anyways, I later came back from the airport I took a nap. I woke up around midnight, met people from the hostel, and headed to the street parties.

I have no idea how many people I met that night. We left the hostel with my buddies from the previous night and a couple. All of the sudden, I met the Spanish friends on the street who were with some Aussie girls. One of the girls was a blonde of Polish background so she earned a point. The girls were heading to the Sambodrom to dance at a platform. They had really cool outfit. In the meantime we went with the Spanish girl to get some vodka as I was thirsty. When we came back we met very cool Brazilian guys. One of them was fooling around with an Aussie girl. Her name was Izzy and he kept calling her Easy :-P I was amazed that I was able to hold a conversation in Portuguese for an hour or two. My Portuguese is very bad, but people could follow my thoughts. I started learning only 4 months ago. All the Brazilians were extremely friendly and receptive. Great people!

We were hanging around the whole night. The Brazilians took us to a funky party in an area that resembled favela. On the way I heard more: que lindo! Unfortunately this time it was said by a shemale. I'm not really into that kind of stuff. As I was talking to Brazilians in the street, they were also into sertanejo music. When I started singing Gatinha Assanhada, they were totally into it! What the hell, Polish guy, living in Canada, learning a little bit of Portuguese, and singing dirty songs in Brazil! Now, that's cool!

Sunday

It was a lazy day. We went to Ipanema to a bloco party and to hike on the beach towards Copacabana. Ipanema was totally crowded and it was almost impossible to walk. The crowd was very happy, cheering, and singing right on the beach. The beach itself was also very crowded. We made it to a hill and I took very nice pictures. Some minutes later we got hungry and went to Pizza Hut. Apparently Pizza Hut is rather expensive and of good quality in Brazil. My buddy chatted up two Brazilian couples that were sitting next to us. They were extremely nice to us and gave us pizza for free. NOSSA! I feel that Brazil is very about sharing. While in Canada people are relatively rich, they seem to care mostly about their own business. In contrast, in Brazil people are not as rich, yet they share a lot. I find the latter culture definitely more appealing.

Sunday night was the time for me to meet my Portuguese pen-pal. Whom? Long story short, I knew a girl  who was helping me a lot with Portuguese. On the Internet she seemed nice and I know she badly wanted to see me in person. I had no doubt that she is very smart. Naturally, I wanted to find out who she really is. We were chatting a lot on the Internet and it was obvious that she liked me a lot. She also planned a lot of stuff to do, so I couldn't resist meeting her. I must say that she looked really great in person and had a very charming smile.

Right away we went to a Carnaval party. I met there her friends and really enjoyed the night. Everyone was very nice to me. Perhaps all the people at the party knew I was a gringo. The party was very like Polish village weddings. Very fun and lighthearted with a lot of dancing.

Monday

We started the day with going to Alambique with the new friends. I didn't even have a breakfast and was already served cachaça, wine, and jurupinga from a local artisan. The countryside was really beautiful with lots of green hills. We also visited local farmers where I got a coconut cream and Amarula. We then headed to a store to buy stuff for churrasco, BBQ. We spent the whole day at a friend's house. Similarly to my trip to Aruba, I figured out that the people here really like each other. They do enjoy spending time together. No beer pong is necessary, not even a flip cup. Just good conversations. Obviously, I couldn't follow all the convos, because of my poor Portuguese. On the other hand, they didn't speak Polish, and only few people spoke English. It was enough to find a common language.

Tuesday

In the morning we went to a market with fresh fruits and vegetables. It was my Portuguese pen-pal, her two friends, and myself. I got a chance to try açaí, which was very sweet ice-cream. The pen-pal was taking really good care of me. Afterwards, we spend most of the day on an off-road trip to Pedra Grande Atibaia. It's a huge hill made of a single stone. The view from there is breathtaking. Lots of people were parachuting, gliding, and para-gliding. As the evening was approaching we headed first to a churrasco at a friend's place and then to the club to enjoy the Carnaval night.

Wednesday

Early morning I had to work on my publications. Yep, sometimes I need to work when I'm away. It's a small price for being able to explore new country. In the afternoon we went to Sao Paulo. The trip was unplanned but I did my best to meet up with other friends there. Unfortunately, my phone stopped working. The best I could do was posting comments on Facebook from a friend's phone. It's a lame method and in the end it didn't work out. We spent most of the night in a snack bar. The night was very calm and it ended up pretty quickly.

Thursday

We went to a local park with my Portuguese pen-pal. The park is beautiful and very green. It is big enough to explore for an hour or two. When we got back from the park, I bought a coconut. I absolutely love coconut water. We had no tools to open it, so I used a knife. I stabbed the coconut and was hitting it on the ground. The coconut was very tough. I wasn't careful enough and cut my finger. A bit of blood showed up, but nothing serious. I was desperate to open the coconut and eat its flesh. The moment of glory came and I opened the bastard!

When traveling, people ask me to send postcards. It took me a while to find some postcards and to write something nice. I even managed to write one of the postcards fully in Portuguese. NOSSA!

As it was getting darker, we went to the bar. We met more friends of my Portuguese pen-pal. The night was rather slow, but I'm always in search of adventures. One of the guys suggested going to a sertanejo party. I can never say no to such parties, because I have never seen them outside Brazil. I decided to go but my pen-pal stayed at the bar. She said that we need to wake up early tomorrow for a parachute jump. Yes, I left her at the bar and went to the party. I thought she would be cool with that, because I'm, perhaps, the biggest Polish fan of sertanejo parties. I didn't realize that leaving this girl at the bar could be so disastrous. The sertanejo party wasn't bad. The band played some of my favorite songs. The club was full of girls. Apparently more girls attend the sertanejo parties than guys. I can't complain about it. I came back home around 5am, jumped over the fence, and slept for only 2 hours.

Friday

As I woke up I knew the things were going weird. My pen-pal was playing it cool, but I intuitively knew that something was wrong. It was very similar to how we split my Brazilian ex-girlfriend a while ago.

me: Let's be reasonable and tell me what's wrong.

she: Everything's fine!

me: Sure?

she: Sure! Don't worry.

Well, what can I do. I can't read thoughts and can't make the other person speak when they don't want to. Anyways, an hour later we met her friend and were driving several hours to a parachute site. My pen-pal arranged the jump a long time ago as a gift for me. I was totally thankful. The plane took us up to the altitude of 4km.

The jump itself is a great experience. I wasn't nervous at all. I was jumping as the last person and saw all the people jumping out of the plane. It's unbelievable how quickly they disappear from the horizon. We were sitting at the edge of the plane for about 3 seconds:

the instructor: 3... 2... 1... Let's go!

me: Bring it on! WOOOHOOOOO

First, you free-fall for 45 seconds. The wind blows strongly into your face and you feel that you have little control over the direction. The 45 seconds feel pretty long. Then suddenly the parachute opens and you feel strong tension all over your body. The free-fall is over. Now you're just calmly floating. The instructor let me steer the parachute. You can turn left, turn right, and slow down the speed. You can also land precisely on the ground. I was extremely happy after the first jump.

We were driving back for several hours to the house. The atmosphere in the car was pretty weird. Most of the talking was done in Portuguese and I was unable to follow the convo. Obviously, I later wanted to talk about it. I'm always into resolving problems, instead of making them get out of control. Minor problems are a waste of time.

me: Tell me, what's the problem. You didn't talk much to me today.

she: There is no problem. Don't worry. It's just we were with my best friend.

me: Sure? You know, if it's the last night, I'm sorry.

she: No, don't worry. Everything's good.

OK, I've got experience in handling drama girls, but come on, I'm in Brazil for only one more day! Why to lie that everything is good, while it's not? I then said that I want to go to Sao Paulo to visit my friends. She said that I should stay and that we will drive somewhere the next day. Think about it, though. Wouldn't you trust a person who books you a parachute jump? As it turned out later, I was lied to about plans for the next day... 

In the evening I was getting ready for the next sertanejo party. She said many times she'd take me there. Obviously, that didn't happen. She kept saying how she likes rock music now. Cute :-) Instead, I went out with other friends to the party and it was really great. I was slowly learning how to dance but there is still a long way to go.

Saturday

I woke up pretty late after the party and didn't know much what was going on. People were speaking mostly in Portuguese. I then was taken to a churrasco party. I thought it would be just an hour and then we move on. The day before I heard about completely different plans. Uncool. Although I enjoyed practicing my Portuguese and meeting the people there, the churrasco prevented me from going to Sao Paulo. Don't get me wrong. The churrasco people did their best to make me feel welcome. I am really grateful for that! Unfortunately, everyone was misinformed about my plans for Saturday. No one besides my pen-pal knew that I wanted to visit my friends in Sao Paulo. I was picked up from the party at night and failed my friends in Sao Paulo. I know that one of them even planned a day for me and became very sad that I didn't show up. What can I say? Not much. Probably I can only blame myself for not pushing my plans too hard. I don't have any bullshit excuses.

Sunday

Early morning my pen-pal picked me up with her friends and took to the airport. I was noticeably annoyed by the previous day. I felt like being manipulated. That was the unhappy ending of my overall very happy trip. In any case, I'm still grateful to my pen-pal for taking good care of me and providing a lot of fun. No hard feelings on my side :-)

Besides the minor accident, I enjoyed Brazil a lot. Maybe even too much. I think it's an awesome country with really really great and friendly people. Brazilians love their country. I heard it so many times: I've never traveled anywhere outside Brazil, but I think that Brazil is the best :-) I had 10 fantastic days and one less fantastic. Anyways, mama, there is no time for the drama. Lessons learned: 1) trust people, but not too much; 2) make your plans very clear to others and if they are not helpful, push harder. To those whom I couldn't visit: I'm sorry. Update: some people misinterpreted my post. Probably because the wording was unfortunate. I rewrote some paragraphs to make it clear that I am very thankful and consider the trip a huge success. I underlined some phrases to explicate that my pen-pal did a great job and took a great care of me. Thank you!

Aruba: One Happy Island

I was looking for a nice summer destination for Christmas holidays. I had never been to Caribbean so this region was of particular interest. There are quite a few islands and all of them look charming in the pictures. Imagine this: beautiful beach with powdery white sand, palm trees, temperature over 30C, tropical cocktails, and sun all day long. Tempting, isn't it? I read reviews of various islands and finally picked Aruba. It got fantastic reviews, it has a decent nightlife, merges Dutch, Latino, and American cultures, and is very safe. It is a 30 km long island located in the very south of Caribbean. I thought I have give it a try!

Thursday

Fast forward to Dec 20, I was on my way to Aruba. Finding cheap accommodation in Aruba is a challenge! For the first few nights I had a reservation in a guesthouse. Later, I was hoping to find a CouchSurfing host, or, in the worst case, was ready to sleep on the beach. Rienke, the owner or the guesthouse, promised to pick up Barbara (another guest) and myself from the airport. When I landed, I had to wait 20 minutes in the immigration line. Finally, I got the Arubian stamp in my passport and heard "Bon bini!" from the officer. I was happy that they didn't ask any questions. In particular, where I'm going to sleep :-)

At the airport we had to wait for Barbara, because her flight was delayed. In the meantime I got hungry and we went to the nearby restaurant. Outside the airport I instantly felt hot air all around me. As if someone moved me from a freezer to the oven. I ordered Dutch croquettes and sushi. The croquettes are crunchy and go well with beer. The sushi was less impressive. An hour later we finally made it to the guesthouse. I took a dip in the pool and we went to the dinner with other guests. Who was there? Two former US Army soldiers (Taylor and Brandon), and two Scandinavian girls (Lisa and Aino). No dinner can be completed without wine, so around 9pm we decided to head to the beach and drink some wine. The ex-soldiers turned out to be very cool and knowledgeable guys. They said how the night before they sneaked into Marriott to enjoy the hot tub. I'm very adventure-driven, so the convo went like that:

me: No way, guys! Let's go there!

Brandon: Let's do it!

Several minutes later we were all in a hot tub enjoying the beauty of the resort and colorful waterfalls. Some American girls approached us. I reckon that they were a bit drunk. I jokingly asked if they can impress me and stand on their hands. Guess what? One of them showed off her skills and she was standing on her head for the whole minute! The first night in Aruba was already entertaining. The adventure was on.

Friday

How is it to work when you're tempted to go to the beach? It's not so bad. I promised that I'll keep working on my research paper because I'd like to finish it ASAP. I kept working for the whole day. The afternoon was sunny again and I went to the beach to take some pictures. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the sun. The sky started getting reddish at 6:30pm. That was the time to take pictures of the sunset over the sea. I must say that the view was breathtaking.

After these visual pleasures I came back to the guesthouse, met the fellow guests, and we hit the bars. The nightlife in Aruba seemed very laid back. There were lots of Dutch and Latino people, which I really liked. I knew it before but this time I rediscovered one fact: Dutch girls have really big breasts. Not a bad combination with blond hair. Anyways, Aruba is a very interesting mix of cultures: Dutch + Latino + some American influence. One bar was particularly good and we stayed there until it closed.

Saturday

The day didn't start very well. It was raining the whole morning. I thought it was a great time to do some work and to write postcards. It took me two hours to handle all the postcards. I got a tons of requests from people who wanted a postcard from Aruba. Then, I kept working until early evening. When the sun set, we met with Rienke, the Scandinavian girls, and ex-soldiers and went to a live show on a luxurious cruise ship Freewinds. The show was of high quality and gave us  a glimpse into world music. We finished the night enjoying wine and conversations.

Sunday

What a day! The ex-soldiers told me that they're renting a jeep to explore the island. I thought it was a fantastic idea and really wanted to join the party. We visited several sites, such as the restaurant ZeeRover that served fresh wahoo fish, and Baby Beach. Our main goal was to go to the Arikok National Park. We were ready to check out the local flora and fauna.

But what the hell? As we got to the park, it started raining! Seemed like a very heavy rain that should pass within a minute or two. How heavy was the rain? Well, within a five-second jog all my clothes were as wet as if someone poured a bucket of water on me. Fortunately, we could stay in the visitors center for a while. The center kicked us out at 5pm as they were closing.

me: Guys, what do we do?

Taylor: Well, let's go back to our place. It won't get better.

The guys wrapped all the stuff in towels and put into backpacks to protect cameras, phones, etc. We ran back to the jeep realizing that it is all wet, because we had no top! The car was full of water. We had no other choice. We had to drive back to the guesthouse. The heavy rain continued for two hours and the streets were flooded. At the beginning I was kinda chill due to cold wind. The ex-soldiers were actually enjoying the ride! Every time we got into a pound, the water splashed, and got into the car.

Everyone was completely wet and the guys kept yelling "Wooohoooo!" and loudly laughing at the situation. Exactly as in the Hollywood movies about soldiers :-) It's the kind of moment when you think to yourself "I wish it sucked more!". You cannot be any more wet, so let's enjoy the ride! When we got back to our place, Rienke offered us hot tea and coffee.

me: Guys, let's go to the Marriott to the hot tub!

Brandon: Sounds like a good idea!

They both were down, and so we went to relax a bit and to swim in the sea. Later, we traditionally hit the town and explored bars and nightlife.

Monday

The Scandinavian girls, ex-soldiers, and myself went to the beach. It was a perfect day for swimming in clear water, for exploring the hotel areas, and for chilling in a spa place. It was also the day of changing my accommodation. It was the day of CouchSurfing!

I'm a big fan of CouchSurfing. When I look for a host, I typically judge each profile by recommendations, the number of friends, and the date of last login. I messaged all the 30 Arubians on CS. Unfortunately, most of those who got back to me were going on Christmas vacations. Fortunately, I got a positive reply from Elias. He only registered on CS and had completely empty profile. I thought that's a chance to do CS in Aruba. Right away he seemed very helpful and said that can host me for the whole week. It sounded too good to be true! He called me that afternoon.

Elias: My friend, where are you?

me: I'm at the bus stop in front of Marriott. I'll be in downtown in 20 minutes.

Elias: Hey, we've got a car! I'm going to pick you up! How can I recognize you?

me: Black t-shirt, blue jean shorts, black sneakers, and winter jacket :-)

Elias: See you soon!

His English was respectfully good as for someone who learned the language only by speaking with people on the street. On our way to his place I got some booze and food. Traditionally: vodka, ginger ale, and cucumber. It turned out that he has one of the top hair saloons on the island. The couch was waiting for me right in the hair saloon. How COOL is that? :-)

It was the day of Christmas eve so we went to a dinner to his friends. It was fantastic! The people were of Latino and Arubian descent. One girl was from Serbia. I hardly ever see people hugging and kissing so much while having a conversation. That was an interesting experience. The dinner itself was delectable: I was offered a marinated wahoo fish, tamal, tiramisu with vanilla ice-cream, wine, and vodka. The house was very artistic and also hosted a number of animals: chickens, hens, turtles, dogs, Persian cat, and geese. I really enjoyed the meeting because everyone seemed extremely chill and they really liked spending time with each other. You know, in Canada parties typically end by 3 am. By that time everyone is gone and the party is over. Here? Felt more like Poland. We finished some time around 6am. Nobody was giving lame excuses and there was always something stimulating to talk about. An interesting fact that I learned was that people in Aruba speak multiple languages. Throughout the education they learn: Dutch, Papiamento, English, Spanish, and then either French of German. Many also speak Portuguese. Anyways, after we headed back, I was sleeping like a baby on a couch in the hair saloon.

Tuesday

The Boxing Day started lazily with a lunch at a Latino restaurant. I got churrasco with avocado sauce and jack chips. The weather was warm, sunny, and light breeze kept me cool. Elias, my CS host, took his car and we were exploring the island. Besides the beaches, we hit the north coast which hosts one of the symbols of Aruba: the California Lighthouse. It is located on the coast where the Caribbean sea is much more rough. No beaches, just rocky coast line. Two days ago it was raining heavily, so there was lots of water and mud on the coast. We were forced to drive off-road with a Nissan march. Quite an experience!

In the afternoon we visited some more friends and got a lot of food for dinner. During the dinner I saw how strong bonds among Latino people are. Again, everyone was hugging, kissing, and touching each other. Something that in North America and some parts of Europe is recognized as sexual harassment... After the dinner we headed back to the hair saloon because Elias had a meeting scheduled with a client. That was one of the more unexpected things that happened during the trip. The lady invited us to the party full of Arubian ministers and business personalities! Although the party was pretty formal by design, I could not miss the opportunity to meet the local top politicians and businessmen. The party took place in a beautiful house with a swimming pool, colorful lights, live band, and Arubian classy atmosphere. Now, that's COOL!

Wednesday & Thursday

I woke up pretty early in my favorite hair saloon. The weather was still great so I decided to go for a walk along the beach and to explore downtown Oranjestad. Along the route I saw many roundabouts with Christmas decorations, shops, hotels, resorts, and a whore-house where I was personally invited by the mama.

mama: Fico, fico, sico, sico? Come in!

or something like that. The Latino music is all around the island. Salsa, merengue, bachata, you name it. Everywhere. I could hear it in the hotels, grocery stores, and on the beach. I think it mixes really well with the sunny weather and chill attitude. I needed to keep hydrated so I drank hectolitres of coconut water. I think it's my new favorite non-alcoholic drink. It tastes best when comes from young coconuts. The water is inside, so you need to chop off a part of the coconut and put a straw inside. The water is kept in coconut flesh, a white edible part. It has a jelly texture and a mild taste. To eat this part you need to cut the coconut in half and scoop the flesh with spoon.

Arubians were extremely friendly. While in North America I see tons of fake smiles (people smiling only with their mouth), here I got lots of genuine smiles (expressed both with mouth and eyes). Many drivers greet pedestrians with honking, waving their hands and smiling. No, it's not because you're walking wrong :-) During the two days I made around 50km on foot, which is not so bad as for a walk in 35C.

Side note: this is the first trip on which I'm not using a deodorant. I found them ineffective in warm weather where I'm constantly doing something for 8-10 hours. On this trip I have been experimenting with baking soda. Strange, as it may sound, baking soda is a fantastic deodorant. It has no scent, doesn't leave any marks, and keeps everything in shape for the whole day. You can buy baking soda in any grocery store for less than a dollar. Need some scent? Put on cologne and you're good to go!

Friday

Beach, wandering around, partying. A bird made a poo on me so I had to clean the shit.

Saturday

It was the day of picking coconuts from coconut trees. Learning how to climb the trees took me the whole day. For the night we headed to downtown Oranjestad. It seemed pretty empty at 1am. Taking that into account, we drove to Noord as more clubs and tourists are there. The town was pretty vibrant and I knew it would be a cool night. Do you remember the Scandinavian girls from the guesthouse? Unexpectedly, we ran onto each other in front of a club.

Lisa: Hey Kacper! What are you doing?

me: Hey! We just got here and are looking for a fun place.

We met the girls, Barbara (the girl whose flight was delayed), and some new friends. It was a pretty cool night, indeed. The group split and I was left with Lisa and Barbara. Barbara was giving us merengue lessons. It's confirmed, Latino girls are amazing dancers. Nothing can beat their moves and the natural feel of rhythm. We also had some good conversations and I really liked the place. Everything was run in Spanish and the crowd was very lively. After the last call we went to grab a bite as both Lisa and me were hungry. We ordered 2 beers, 2 burgers, 1 fries, and 1 coke. I couldn't believe that they charged $35 for that! Bastards :-) OK, the quality of meat was very good.

It was some time after 3am and none of us was sleepy. We decided to go to the beach and hang out more. The sky was completely clear. We could see all the stars, the moon, and their reflections in the sea. Add Ai se eu te pego to that. Beautiful moment. The dream is over. Then I realized that I'm pretty far from my favorite hair saloon (10 km) and it was getting around 5am. My flight was around 4pm but I still needed some sleep. I wanted to get a cab and decided to check the number in the guesthouse (using the complimentary WiFi). Well, when I travel, things rarely happen according to the plan. Of course, I didn't take any cab. Lisa helped me and kindly let me stay in the guesthouse. In the morning I somehow hitchhiked to the favorite hair saloon, got a short nap, and got my shit together.

Sunday
Writing this post and flying back for New Year's Eve to Canada. Overall, Aruba was a wonderful experience: beautiful island, sunny weather, friendly people, CouchSurfing in a hair saloon, meeting with Aruba's VIPs, decent nightlife, and coconut water. It doesn't get any better. Highly recommended!