I didn’t look at the destination sign closely this afternoon so it took me three hours to get from Jabłonka to Lipnica Wielka because the bus I got on went to Lipnica Ma a. And of course as I was walking through the fields toward Lipnica the sun set. And the sky was cloudy, so I turned around and went back to the road. I was afraid I would get lost in the forest which had appeared before me so very suddenly.

I walked for a while and suddenly a babcia stopped me and asked, “Skad jestes?” I thought for a moment and pointed toward the end of the village and muttered, “Tam.” And she asked me again. I was angry and tired, and though I understood her words, I didn’t understand what she meant. I tried again: “Jestem z Ameryki.” She shook her head. “Skad jestes›?” she asked again. “Gdzie?” I asked. “Hej!” she confirmed, rephrasing it, “Gdzie byłes› ?” I told her everything: “Mieszkam w Lipnicy Wielkiej. Byłem tam,” pointing again. I apologized, “Musze isc,” and left.

I tried for an hour to get a ride via autostop, but no one did. They would all turn on their lights to see who I was, then drive on without slowing. I laughed as I wondered why they didn’t stop. “Myslysz, ze ja bede mowic, ‘Daj mi twój maly fiat?'” I yelled at them.

Finally one guy stopped. He asked me where I was going. He muttered something about “sto” something. “Bedzie dobry,” I sighed and started to get in. He yelled something and drove off, only to pull into a drive sto meters away. What I want to know is if he was only going 100 meters, why the hell did he pull over in the first place?

Another car pulled out of a drive behind me, drove about fifty meters and began slowing as it approached me. “Finally,” I thought., but the car passed me and pulled into another driveway, about seventy-five meters away from where it began. “Lazy jerk,” I thought.

Finally someone gave me a ride. I walked the final kilometer to the main road from Jabłonka where I quickly caught a ride all the way back to dom naucy–oh, to my apartment.

Stupid day . . .