Hey, so my name’s Lukasz Karpinski, or if you would like to say it properly, Lukasz Karpinski [Polish pronounciation], and I just turned 26. And, I’m from Poland, it’s Mazowsze, and the exact city name is Radom. In my home country, Poland, I was studying, I just finished equivalent to A-levels, which in Poland would be called Matura. I left the country about--not about, exactly, on the 16th of June, 2007, and I did it on my own. I’ve lived in Belfast for more than 6 years by now. Why did I choose Belfast? Handiness, practicalities I suppose. My close cousin has already been living here for a while, so I think it was just a handy starting point. What do I do in Belfast? I work, study, live, I suppose would describe all general activities that one can imagine or not.
The object I brought with me for the purpose of the project is a collection of poems by Wisława Szymborska, who is, or, I should say, was, a Nobel Prize winner in [the] 90s in [the] Literature category. And it wasn’t actually an object that I brought with me on the day that I came over to NI, but a poetry that I received from my literature (Polish literature) teacher back in secondary school, and it more or less symbolizes the culture I am from, the beautiful language, and to some certain extent who I am and who I have become. That’s pretty much it, I think.