Visitors part 2

Tuesday, I dropped Kristine off at the train station before heading to work. I was quite early, so I ended up commandeering the printer in my shared office, printing plenty of information about Sweden. I realized then that I don't have class on Tuesday. So I need to make a point of going into work on Thursday to print my plane tickets. And I need to buy travel bottles. SO MUCH TO DO!

Classes were fine. While working on narrative writing, one of my students shared an amusing anecdote about being mistaken for a hooker in Amsterdam. I thought this was quite funny, because she's not in the least hookerish.

I spent large portions of Tuesday and Wednesday working on Polish and Swedish language learning. Mainly, I want to know enough Swedish to say Hello, Thank You, Please, I don't understand, and Do you speak English?

I also booked my tour and flights to Italy. That's right. Italy. For my birthday. The entire state. I don't know if I'm more nervous about going to Italy or going to Sweden. In one situation, I will have English speaking comrades. Hopefully that will include an old couple who will take a shining to me because I remind them of the granddaughter they always wanted. And that old couple will have a handsome grandson that they want to hook me up with. Then I return back to America and live happily ever after. In the other situation, I function entirely by myself. But they equally intimidate me.

Thursday afternoon, I picked Kristine up from the train station, and we headed to Lazienki park. While I imagine it will be much prettier in the spring when the roses are all blooming around the Chopin statue, it was gorgeous with the fall leaves.

We saw the Palace on the Water then wandered around the rest of the beautiful park before heading home on a crowded bus. We stopped by the grocery store for dinner and watched Despicable Me. All in all, a wonderful homebody evening during which my movie collection saved the day yet again.

Visitors part 1

My Sunday began at the airport, where I picked up Kristen who had just flown in from France. We returned to the apartment where Kristen asked if we were going to Mass. Of course, the next Mass was at one o'clock. It was 12:53. So, I waited for Kristen to sort her stuff out before we flew down the street to Church. I brought my Polish/English Mass parts book, but I was still confused. 

Afterwards, we caught the number 10 tram all the way up to the Uprising Museum. The Uprising Museum is free on Sundays (yay!). That was especially nice as this would have been my second time to the museum in as many weeks. Plus the hours I spent exploring it the first time I ever went there. I'm a bit museumed out. That, combined with my lack of food intake and my low blood sugar, made for a very slow moving Amanda. So, I sat down and watched this really long film they have. Then I went up to the cafe and got a pot of tea while I waited for Kristen to slowly really examine everything they have in the museum.

While in the museum, we met up with Andrew who was visiting his "girlfriend" Anna. So, we met up with them for pierogi after the museum closed. Good times were had by all. Especially me, since I was eating apple, raisin, and cinnamon pierogi. I'm a sucker for the dessert ones.

The evening wound down to a close shortly after that.

The next day, we went to Browarnia. I ate delicious kielbasa and garlic bread and the best french fries ever, paired with a delicious stout. Afterwards, we checked out the Warsaw University campus, the Nicolaus Koperniki statue, and the church where Chopin's heart is buried in the wall. I showed Kristen all the old palaces that belonged to Polish nobility. Then we went to Saxon Garden (another example of old school Polish nobility caring more about their comfort than the wealth of their people).

The park is right behind Plac Jozef Pilsudskiego. Pilsudski had a really serious walrus mustache and is known as a freedom fighter for Poland in a lot of ways. Even though he ruled Poland with a kind of dictatorial edge during the few years of freedom it had in the early twentieth century. The square is also where they have the tomb of the unknown soldier, so Kristen and I lingered a little bit to see the changing of the guards.

Afterwards, we slowly made our way up Old Town where I showed Kristen the interesting things that she missed when we were there in the daylight before. We went back to the Uprising Monument.

Then we walked along the barbican until we came to the little boy soldier. This is a surprisingly hidden statue for how awesome it is.

By then, it was nearly too dark to see anything else. We dilly dallied everywhere so much that we didn't get to go to the Museum of Technology inside the Palace of Science and Culture. But maybe that's something I can talk Lola into doing with me next Monday. It was too dark to wander down to Lazienki park, too.

Now Kristen is in Krakow for two and a half days doing the Krakow thing. Hopefully she can fit it all in, especially now that I realize she's a very thorough tourist. As in, she sees everything very slowly. Which actually I guess is a not very thorough way to travel. Because then you don't see as much...

A Gathering of Minds

I titled this post "A Gathering of Minds" because I thought it sounded like an appropriately snobby way to describe a Fulbright pot luck. Arriving at 6, we stayed for at least five hours at Professor Wood's (KU) lovely home - the size of which was proof positive that the senior Fulbrighters receive a much larger stipend than us lowly students. Nearly every Warsaw Fulbrighter made it, including some unexpected additions such as Smichaels, all the way from Poznan. There were pot stickers, sausage, and borscht, and a good time was had by all. I attempted to convince Dara W that she should invite me to the new Dracula-based play. Conversation was great, although, I did not get the opportunity to share with Professor Wood how much his work with technology in Poland reminds me of my senior thesis work on technology in the American West. His discussion really added new depth to the idea of what it means to have new technology. There was a book published (I forget the name, but I read it early in my research) about how people were afraid of electricity initially. It's not that technology is terrifying, it's just that it takes people time to adjust. And they do so quickly. The light show that I talk about in my thesis would be nothing today. Even in Warsaw we have an electric light show. I haven't seen it yet, but this is something I've heard about... So it exists and is now common place.

After the pot luck, Billy, Rachel, Lola, and I all wandered to the trendy area in Mokotow known as Politecknika where we sat at a Czech restaurant and chatted until they pushed us out the door with shots of cherry vodka. All in all, it was an enjoyable night.

Tomorrow, my friend Kristen will come into Poland for the week. So I expect that I'll get a lot of sight seeing done. After all, there's a lot that I have yet to do. Starting with the museum of technology at the Palace of Science and Culture.

Because some of you can't seem to wait for updates

Ashley came into town this weekend. So Thursday through Monday was fun times central. On Thursday

Thursday included dinner in the old town at a sweet Jazz club. Afterwards, we went to Rachel's apartment in Old Town and lingered for a very long time.

Friday, we ate Pizza & Pierogi and went to the mall for a bit. I got a European phrasebook and some logic puzzles. We watched a movie at the apartment. Afterwards, we went to the Warsaw Film Festival. We wanted to see one film, but when we got there, it was sold out. So we decided to go to How to Boil a Frog from this Canadian person. It was interesting and environmental. It made me feel guilty about eating red meat. However, there were some serious problems. One of the solutions to fixing the world was to only have one child. While that makes sense, it is a serious limit to women's reproductive rights. And think about the abuses in China after the one child rule.

Saturday brought with it work. Unfortunately. After work, I met up with Aniela (who was in town for the day), Ashley, and Lola. Once I was able to get a hold of them, that is! They wanted to go hashing. But hashing starts at 2, and they showed up at 2:20. So... that wasn't happening. Instead, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe (kind of as a boon) and then to the International Scrabble Tournament/World Scrabble Competition/whatever it's called. Lola thought that it would be some sort of interactive thing because it was advertised everywhere. However, it was just people playing Scrabble.

After that, we went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, which is one of the coolest places. It's a truly fascinating museum. I wanted to buy a coffee mug, but they gift shop closed before the museum did. We returned home to more movie watching and Robot Unicorn Attack. Which I'd never played before. It's wonderful. I've heard of this before but now I know why it's so popular. I cannot get this song out of my head!

On Sunday, we went to the area around the Politechnik metro stop after I got off of work. This is a super trendy seeming area with lots of restaurants. We ate Thai food for lunch and we lingered. Then Ashley and I explored this wonderful French restaurant that served these chocolate spreads with their bread. It was delicious. I tried an average creme brulee and a glass of red wine. We sat outside, which, despite the heaters, was fairly chilly. So by the time I got to the end of my red wine, it was very cold! Not at all how I like it. The people watching in this area was great. There were Italians and French and people speaking English with accents. It was wonderful. The waiter was fairly cute as well. Much win!

Work on Sunday was exhausting. The first class (8 am, mind you) brought a surprise because it was the class that I normally have at 11:30. So, I'd arrived at class early enough to write on the board what they did wrong in their papers. These papers were originally about the separation of Church and State in Poland. However, the kids who showed up at 8 this week had written about their favorite genre of literature before. So, I was telling them how they spelled Catholic wrong when they told me that they hadn't written about the subject. I took extensive notes on which class time had which group had which topic. So I was really confused. I tried to recover and finish the class. Which happened acceptably. So then I get to my 11:30 class, and I recognize maybe three of the kids in the class. So I ask them if there are a lot of new people. To which they respond that this is an entire new group! They made a second American group and NO ONE told me that my classes COMPLETELY changed.

Ashley's Visit to Warsaw

Things that happened this weekend in Warsaw:

1. A visit from one lovely Poznan Ashley (Fulbrightbesties)
2. The Warsaw Film Festival (How do you boil a frog)
3. The International Scrabble Competition (Can you spell awesome?)
4. Bread and chocolate and wine at a French-ish restaurant near Politechnik (Yummy food, Yummy waiter)
5. The Warsaw Uprising Museum (still wonderful)
6. Teaching (Should someone have told me that my classes changed?)
7. A tour of food (Pizza&Pierogi, delicious Thai food, sweet Jazz club in Old Town)
8. Not seeing When Harry Met Sally, the Polish play (But driving past the billboard was worth it!)

More to come.
At least on most of the points. :)

Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest YoHoYoHo

This is how my Sunday morning began. On a 200 year old boat called the Black Pearl (Czarna Perla) with its own theme song (see below). We showed up early to get tickets, but they weren't sure they would have a 10 o'clock ride. So, we waited. In the boat. With Polish speaking pirates. OK. They weren't really pirates. But as close as you can get without going to Somalia.

The captain invited us to the captain's cabin where he piloted the boat. It was an adventure, for sure! He kept talking to us in rapid fire Polish. He said that I look Polish, but my friend (Lola) did not. Which makes sense because she's Irish-Mexican. But doesn't make sense because it perpetuates the stereotype of the homogeneous Polish society.

The Czarna Perla took us to Westerplatte, where WWII began (and ended?).  It was a definite change in atmosphere from the boat.

The Westerplatte monument

"No More War" - a quote from JPII

We returned to Gdansk on the same boat two hours later. It was beyond lunch time, so we had a delicious lunch at a restaurant on the shore.

Afterwards, we were limited in museums that were open, so we went to the Main Town Hall.

This also holds the Museum of the History of Gdansk.

Some super awesome Gdansk costume

And they had a special feature on this astronomer - Johannes Hevelius.

After finishing the museum, we returned to the hostel for a quick rest before we ventured back to the Old Town. We sat outside, and I drank Grzane Wino (hot mulled wine) while people watching and listening to live music.

You Make Me Feel Like Danzig (A Few Days in Gdansk)

For the sake of all the photographs I want to show and all the stories I feel like I should share, I'm splitting this into two posts. Friday started off in a very exciting manner. We went to the train station, purchased our tickets, and proceeded to wait for our train. It was an adventure figuring out which train car we were supposed to be on. They are definitely not clearly labeled. We were in first class, but there were a multiple first class cars. They were not next to each other the way they should be. They were spread out through the train.

Our train car already held three passengers - a woman who was just coming back from three months of missionary work in Russia, a man who was a Fulbrighter in California, and an old man who spent two years in America, working in Washington state, picking apples (and discovering new strains of apples). So, there was quite a bit of English spoken after the old man saw that Lola was reading a book in English.

The old man was a hoot and a half. He kept saying racist things (which isn't funny), and we weren't quite sure if he understood that he was being racist. Other than using the N word and calling Asians "yellow people," he also asked us if we were frightened to have Obama be our president because black people might take over. I wish I could remember the exact words. I assured him that it was OK because Obama was only half-black (tongue in cheek) while Lola remained at a loss for words. Luckily, Lola recovered and proceeded to explain that white people don't need to fear minorities in the presidency.

Upon arrival to Gdansk, we walked from our hostel to the Old Town. Old Town is gorgeous. We were so hungry from our 8 hour (local) train ride. So we went to a pierogarnia. They had a sweet option where you could try four varieties of pierogi. So I had blueberry pierogi, raisin, nut, and peach pierogi, wild game pierogi, and spinach and tomato pierogi. They were all so good.

We walked around the Old Town after that. It was only 8 pm, so we didn't want to go straight back to the hostel. So, we decided to see a movie. The only option was The Skin I Live In - a Spanish language film with Polish subtitles. (For the record, Mom and Dad - do not rent this movie. I promise you that you will hate it.) The movie - what we understood of it - was really weird. It's about a plastic surgeon, revenge, murder, sexuality, and all sorts of dark themes. We wikipediaed the film when we returned to the hostel, and it turns out that we understood most of the plot with only a few, minor aspects.

The next morning, we woke up early to follow Rick Steves's walks (a "Royal Route" walk and a Solidarity walk). Nothing in Gdansk really opens until 10, so it was nice wandering the streets at 8:30-ish. 

We went to Mariacka Street, the street by the Church of St. Mary. It's the most beautiful street in Gdansk. It also hosts many amber shops. Which means that around 10 o'clock the streets are full of display cases.

Also on Mariacka Street is the house that Nikolai Koperniki's lover lived. Now, if I remember my history correctly, Copernicus never married nor had children. But the Gotyk House makes a big deal about how his lover lived there. So she may have been a serious girlfriend.

The best thing on Mariacka Street (other than Nicolaus Copernicus's lover's house) was the following. So if anyone wants to send me 6,000 zloty, I can have my roommate pick it up next time she's in Gdansk.

Since we were on Mariacka Street, it only made sense to go to the Church of St. Mary. This is by far the most important Church in Gdansk (though St. Brigitte - the home parish of Lech Walesa would also be a cool church visit for Lola and I later this weekend). This church has a very tall tower. 406 steps tall. So we climbed it. Not only did we climb 406 steps, but we paid 5 zl to climb 406 steps. I thought I was going to die. The nice German ladies who were climbing with us commiserated. 

Next, we went to the Amber Museum. This museum was totally worth it for one single awesome reason: the building it's in used to be a prison. This is more obvious from the below photograph. That heavy wooden door  hides a cell that is maybe 8 feet by 6 feet. If I'm being generous. I am so glad I was not a criminal back in the 1300s (or 1500s - I need to break out my Rick Steves to double fact check).

Other cool things about the museum included two entire rooms devoted to the history of imprisonment and torture, including great background "music" (the sounds of people being tortured). It was delightfully kitschy. There was also the following photograph. Which was completely without context.

Next, we did the Solidarity walk. Which was basically just a walk to the Solidarity Museum with very little of historical interest on the way.

We realized we arrived when we saw the first political statement - a piece of the Berlin wall across from a piece of the shipyard wall. Poland is very adamant about the fact that Solidarity began a domino effect that ended Communism. I would argue that they're correct, but I imagine people could argue otherwise. After all, Solidarity wasn't the only factor weakening the Communist stronghold at the time.

That's the real life pen that Lech Walesa used to sign agreements - I believe during the Round Table talks. It's entirely legit and GIANT. It's one of those pens that's probably as long as my forearm. You can buy replicas for 15 zl. I kind of want one. It's also a Pope Pen for those who can't see the face very well. As in JPII. Legit.

Then we saw the monument to the dock workers - primarily those who died during the 1970 massacre, but also those who fought for freedom during the 1980 strike.

Finally, I made Lola walk all over Gdansk with me so that we could see Lech Walesa's church. The same church that holds a memorial to Jerzy Popieluszko. Popieluszko was a priest who was brutally murdered by three thugs in an attempt by the Communist government to stop Jerzy's involvement in the Solidarity movement. He was pretty BA. He's officially recognized as a martyr and has been beatified.

So, that's the first two days. Two more days to go! But that will have to wait for another day.

Kara Walker and Teaching Confidential

Teaching again on Tuesday was not as great as Sunday but definitely better than Saturday.

I have had some real character moments in my classes. Some of them resulting from misunderstandings:
- The girl who wrote one paragraph on why she wanted to learn English when the assignment was to write about whether or not society is too reliant on technology. (I asked multiple times if anyone had questions, and I rephrased the assignment so everyone understood. This is totally not my fault.)
- The guy who turned in his assignment after fifteen minutes when the assignment was to write for forty-five.
"Is this all you're going to write? You don't have anything else to say."
"Yes." (He leaves)
"Please continue writing, class."

Then there are the personality moments.
- The guy who told me that he doesn't really "study" English because he's getting tired of it (even though he's a third year and almost done with his degree). He spent the summer working as a janitor, and hey - it's good money.
- The girl who told me that she's learning English so she could talk like me.
- The guy who stopped me after class with rapid fire Polish (of which I understood the first two words: Mam pytanie) because he didn't realize I wasn't Polish. But he really wants to join the American group - which I run!

So, after Tuesday classes, I met up with my roommate at the Kara Walker talk and exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is located in this gorgeous castle at the top of Lazienki park - one of the coolest places in Warsaw, if not all of Poland. It's definitely up there with Krakow's rynek and the salt mines.

Anyway, Kara Walker is this African American artist who explores African American identity in some fairly shocking ways. She does some very cool word art, cut outs, and shadow puppet films. The films are probably the most disturbing because they're very in your face. The cut outs are really beautiful on one level, so it's more striking when you realize that she's not necessarily giving a beautiful message. Her most famous piece (probably) is Darkytown Rebellion.

So you can see what I mean about the cut outs being beautiful in their own particular way. She talked a lot about the different things she did and her techniques. Roomie asked a very insightful question about how Walker's art might have extra depth or a different interpretation in Poland. Unfortunately, Walker doesn't know enough about Poland to answer. But it is particularly interesting to have a woman who does very in-you-face artwork about black/white relations in America to then have her work transplanted to one of the most homogeneous societies in the world. Of course, the Polish people might disagree with that assessment of their nation, but the fact remains that Poland in 98% white Catholics (much like Notre Dame!). I think the curator really missed the mark in the display because there were a lot of visually striking things right in a row. Maybe for Polish sentiments it was different? For example, some of Walker's work deals with sexual themes, including rape. When we talked to Polish women about their safety, they told us that they always felt safe and never worried about things like rape. Yet, in America, 1 in 4 college aged women has or will experience sexual assault. Is it that we're more aware of this phenomena or that our society is less safe? Either way, the attitude towards rape changes the way each culture perceives the artwork.

Teaching, the First Weekend

So, teaching was definitely an experience this weekend.

Saturday began... interestingly. I got to school insanely early because I thought I would have trouble finding school or getting things in order. Well, I arrived just fine (though I did manage to take one wrong turn). Which resulted in me waiting forever before class started. We have a teacher's room (my name is on the door and everything), but it's fairly small. Also, I don't have a key for it. I could get a key from the porter, but I don't know how to reassure him that I actually teach there. Maybe he already knows.

So, I eventually entered my empty classroom and began writing on the board. Except first I had to go "borrow" a dry erase marker from someone. When I went to return the marker, she was gone. So, by default, I believe the dry erase marker belongs to me now. Evidently, I can get dry erase markers from the porter (who thought of this system anyway?). I hate to do this, but... In AMERICA,  you would have dry erase markers in the classroom. Or at least at Notre Dame. Because, really, who is going to steal dry erase markers? Especially dry erase markers that spit up all over your lovely orange blouse that's part of your carefully chosen First Day of School Outfit. (Thanks eHow.com, hairspray did not help me remove that stain.)

The first class was brutal. Which means the first day was brutal because I have the American kids on Saturdays (as in, kids who want to learn to speak/write like Americans). I thought this would be a completely legitimate assignment. Unfortunately, the students were terrible. I didn't really maintain authority as well as I should have, so I believe they began to see me as kind of a joke. I wrote down the book they were supposed to buy, instructed them to get a group e-mail (Things are so unorganized here that instead of having listservs for every teacher, the groups themselves create an e-mail that everyone has access to. It's another example, Poland, of why doing things last minute is not the most efficient way.), and then proceeded to run out of things to talk about. I still, at this point in time, had not seen a copy of the textbook. So, I couldn't do any exercises. I still don't know what level their English is at. I was supposed to give them a test, but someone teaching the grammar class came in a few minutes before my class began and told me that the tests were actually for her group. She was kind of a jerk about it, too. I really wanted to open up my e-mail at that point and show her where it told me to administer these tests, but it's not worth it to continue to be upset about it.

So, I went to let the kids go early when they say, "So we don't have to show up for Academic Writing" (which they have with me during the next class period). So, I decide we'll just have Academic Writing right away. Which wouldn't have been the worst idea ever if it weren't for the fact that it was the first day of school. As such, people were trickling in all over the place. So, I was constantly explaining that we were having both classes at the same time to people who probably hadn't even looked at their schedule yet. Luckily, after dismissing the class, I stayed in the room because I had to meet with a professor after class. This was good because I had stragglers coming in just for Academic Writing. All in all, I felt flustered and like everyone knew I was flustered. It was awful.

Then, I met with a professor about the writing exercise I'd just had the Academic Writing class do. To which he replied, "Fail. Fail. Fail. This is terrible. These fucking kids don't even fucking care." (He drops the "F" word all over the place, making me think that he either doesn't understand that it's not necessarily the nicest word to use or that he just really likes filling his sentences with sound when he's lost for words.) He proceeded to tell me that I shouldn't worry about the kids who are doing really poorly because they'll just drop out. Evidently there's a really high drop out rate because they're really trying to turn the program into something competitive.

After returning to the apartment, feeling completely defeated, I met Lola for a relaxing meal at none other than Pizza Hut. Because where do you go in a foreign country when everything is going wrong? Pizza Hut. (We could've gone to McDonald's, but we were feeling classier than that.)

Sunday was much better. I was prepared, and I managed to use at least an hour of the class each time. I still need to get some of the textbooks, but they aren't in the library. So I'm kind of out of luck.