FRESH START:A MONTH IN Poland and I'm back up to speed on national (and local) events. Our parliament is busy ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. Unlike in Ireland, the electorate has not been asked for its opinion on the matter.
It came down to a tussle between the new prime minister, Donald Tusk, and the president, Lech Kaczynski. Tusk and his party are pro-Europe. Kaczynski is old-school, communist era. He's not keen on powers beyond Poland bringing in strange ideas such as gay marriage.
Leave that to liberal nations such as the Netherlands. The thing is, Poland is changing all around him. And the Dutch are reaching out to old school communists like Kaczynski - his wife has just had a tulip named after her. The Maria Kaczynska tulip is cream-coloured and has "a dignified appearance". She'll be getting into a flower bed with Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Bernadette Chirac. Cosy.
In local news, the Polish really know how to celebrate not being 17 anymore. It's not exactly My Super Sweet 16 - we're not wealthy enough for trained elephants and SUVs - but my friends rented out nightclubs and fed and entertained hundreds of guests. We had DJs, catering and even the occasional gift of a car (a used Opel rather than a brand-new Land Rover).
We haven't reached the party level of the Irish student yet. Ireland had its first visit from MTV for an Irish Super Sweet 16 party last year, but I think it might be some time before the cameras come to Poland. You don't see many Polish girls with expensive fake tans and Juicy Couture tracksuits. Don't worry though - as our economy improves, I'm sure we'll start to look the same.
Once the money starts to arrive, the pounds start to pile on, too. The Irish are getting fatter, with 300,000 obese children in the country now. About 20 per cent of Poles are obese too, so we are keeping up with the trends.
My dog Dino is very fashionable in that regard. He was thin when I left for Ireland but he's very tubby now. I suppose he's eating because he misses me. Or perhaps my grandparents are over-indulging him.
I will not be returning to Poland to finish out my studies as I had hoped. I cannot transfer to second year in a Polish university and I couldn't go through first year again. My mother, the doctor, suggested that I give up medicine altogether and start a degree in veterinary science. I thought about it, but I can't do it. I have wanted to be a doctor since I was 11. I have worked with animals for almost as long. I can't stand the fact that the full range of medical treatments are simply not available to animals and that often the only treatment we can offer is to put them down.
Also, I'm curious. I want to know what's wrong with patients. Animals are hard to diagnose because they cannot communicate. I need to know the answers and try to solve them scientifically.
I went to Mass on Sunday and thought about the issue there - hoping a decision might come to me. The priest said that we should all try to be where we belong in our lives, and not where others tell us to be. The problem for me is that I want to be in medicine, but I want to be in Poland. There's no easy answer to this one.
Better stick to what I know. Like physics. This year I am studying soundwaves, again. I can't believe I did this last year for the Leaving, and three years ago for my exam in Poland and now I'm doing it again.
You'd think I wouldn't have to study it again, but exams are like that.
They make you forget things you already know. The trouble is, I had motivation to study this stuff the last two times - I really wanted to do medicine. Now I am doing medicine. Except that I'm not. I'm studying electromagnetics. And algae. Will it ever end? I'm thinking of getting a bigger house for the summer, with a garden, and getting a puppy to put in it. I'm glad Dino can't read. If he knew I was thinking of cheating on him with another dog, it would send him rushing to the fridge.
I need a bigger place because no less than 12 of my Polish friends are coming to spend a summer in Ireland and they expect me to put them up, find them jobs, feed them and keep them entertained. Right now, I have one bed. I'm able to have breakfast in bed every morning because I can reach the kitchen without getting up. There's no room for a pest, never mind a pet, and certainly not 12 partying Poles.
I'll rent a big house in the country where we can all live for the summer. It will make a huge difference from my solitary lifestyle of the last year. Instead of having only a physics book for company, I will have enough people to start a commune and a mini-zoo of animals to practise my veterinary skills on. I'll give English lessons in exchange for housework and live like the first lady of Little Poland until October. Perhaps they will name a tulip after me.
• Miroslawa Gorecka is a first-year medical student at NUI Galway
