Venice

So, Italy began unfortunately. Lufthansa pushed back my flight five hours. So I had plenty of time to wait in the Frankfurt airport for my connection. When I arrived in time to catch the first flight, I was told that would be impossible because I'd have to pay a change fee... to get on the flight I'd originally booked. Needless to say, I was cranky.

I arrived at my B&B in Rome only to discover that, despite it's proximity to the airport, a taxi there cost more than a taxi to the center of Rome because it's a different city. Needless to say, I bitched at the driver and took his information down, thinking if I threatened him, he might lessen the charge or compromise. No such luck. So there I was at approximately midnight, standing outside my B&B. Waiting for someone to open the door. But no such luck.

When someone finally arrived (they must have some sort of connection to the doorbell on their cell phone because they weren't answering my calls either), I was scolded for not notifying them of my arrival time - even though nobody asked, and it was posted online that the reception desk was 24/7.

Then, I was up most of the night because I was sick.

Things were not looking up.

ALAS. THE NEXT DAY I WENT TO VENICE. Venice is way cool. Mad expensive. But way cool. Completely pedestrian and boat friendly. Very romantic. Lots of curvy streets, but impossible to get lost. I loved it. I met up with my tour group and had dinner that night with the two who would become my besties - Jon and Trudy, the non-married couple who had been together for five years and were waiting until they could be together geographically. 

The next morning was the beginning of our tour. We went to Murano for a glass making demonstration. The things they made out of glass were amazing. And comparably expensive. So, I wandered to the outlet stores further down the road/pier and picked up a nice necklace/earring set of Murano glass. Legit.

Then we went into the town of Venice for a tour of the Doge's palace. The Doge actually was not a very respected position, evidently. Because they had really small apartments within the palace, had to provide their own furniture, AND would have to use their own money to help the city if the city's coffers were low. Or, at least, that's how I remember the tour guide telling the story.

This bridge is the Bridge of Sighs (thanks, Jess), and it connected the palace with the prison/torture area. Evidently it was called the Bridge of Sighs because you'd sigh in relief if you got to go over it twice?

The windows above the building below are where Casanova was imprisoned. For being... a casanova. Obviously.

Then, I wandered around St. Mark's Square. I went and saw more famous bridges, grabbed a bite to eat, and loitered, waiting for the time to go on a gondola ride. While window shopping, I happened across a stamp store. They had mostly international stamps. BUT. There was a block of US stamps. I happened to look, finding stamps to be very interesting. They had THREE Trans-Mississippi International Exposition stamps. The red 2 cent stamp was the most popular. Interestingly, it was the domestic rate. Meaning that while it was the most produced stamp, it would not have made it over to Venice by itself on a postcard. It would've been traded (I assume most of these were traded, but a girl can dream that they were sent to Venice by some American friend who attended the fair). The 2 cent was in nearly perfect condition with (as you can see) perforation that was slightly off. Usually this increases the value of the stamp (I believe).

The other one was the brown, 8 cent, slightly racist "Troops Guarding Train" based on a Remington portrait of ... well, troops guarding a wagon train. The final one is the blue, 5 cent "Fremont Conquers the Rockies" displaying a completely fabricated image of the greatness of America as viewed by explorers. God Bless.

After that giddy moment, I headed down to the dock near Harry's American Bar - a now expensive bar because cool people like Hemingway used to hang out there. I did not go in for a drink, because I figured if the tour guide with a steady job thought it was expensive, it was probably way out of my league.

Gondola! We had music and champagne!

After the gondola ride, I went to a couple museums including the Guggenheim. Which was the highlight. It didn't have any paintings that I knew of before, but the sheer number of amazing artists represented was out of this world. Also, I love modern art. Pollack, Picasso, Miro, Dali, Duchamp, etc. The walk back to the hotel took quite a while, but it resulted in some lovely evening views of Venice.

The next day we headed to Pisa and Florence!

There is no Solidarity without Love

Amanda arrived back in Warsaw after returning to the US for a short visit. I picked her up at the airport, and we wasted time until a satisfactory hour. BECAUSE...

I HAD TICKETS FOR NIE MA SOLIDARNOSCI BEZ MILOSCI.

What's that you say? You've never heard of this masterpiece? Never fear. I will enlighten you.

Once upon a time, some Polak wrote a musical and entitled it, "There is no Solidarity without love." For those of you in the know - the Solidarity movement was a labor movement in Poland that led to the downfall of Communism (before everywhere else) and the rise of Lech Walesa as a person of awesomeness.

So, Lech heard about this musical and wrote to his close friends Bono and Elton John, asking them both to compose a song for the musical. Elton and Bono replied with very nicely worded letters of support for the musical.

Even without Bono and Elton's lyrical input, it was a great musical. I understood a large portion of the plot. And I got one of the songs entirely. Granted, the lyrics were pretty much "Happy New Year. 1980." over and over.

Below is one of the songs - the only one they put on youtube so far. They haven't released a soundtrack yet, but I'm hopeful. I'd love to get it AND a sweet t-shirt with the awesome logo...

Edit. Someone posted this link on the facebook page for nmsbm! So, if you're coming from there, hello! After realizing that I may be one of the few English speaking locations reviewing this musical, I thought, "Golly. Perhaps I should say more about the musical itself."

I don't want to give away the plot. Suffice it to say a young man has gotten in trouble with the law before and doesn't want his single mother to be worried about him. He's still a rebel. You can tell this because he wears a leather jacket and sings with angst.

Our lead girl is a trouble-maker, involved in all sorts of anti-Communist activities. You see them develop love as political turmoil occurs around them. They argue, having an especially heated debate about the usefulness of a strike as a political action.

Things really come to a head when the shipyard strikes go down. Boyfriend has to decide whether getting his passport and his freedom is worth betraying his girlfriend. He also suffers some survivors guilt related to the death of his father. It's quite emotional and pretty awesome.

Would I love this musical if I wasn't fascinated by the Solidarity movement? I can't say for sure. Not knowing what the songs were saying, except for "1980. Happy New Year" song (which has taught me how to say 1980 in Polish!), I can't speak to the lyrical greatness. But the acting was good and the singing was good and the music was fun. I'm anxious for them to (hopefully) have a day with English supertitles, because I would totally go again. But until that day, I'll just sit back and hope for the soundtrack... Then make my students translate it for me!

Dropkick Murphys

Despite the fact that Lola is desperately ill, we went to the Dropkick Murphy's concert Tuesday night. It was in a bar not far from my apartment called Stodola (which, I believe, translates to "the barn" because when I google imaged the name, I got images of barns).

Stodola is a fairly large venue once you get in. In another example of Polish inefficiency, the coat check was right by the door. So you come in the door and turn right and check your coat. Great, right? Except, there becomes a line. Then no one can get in. That wasn't a huge deal for us. The problem was leaving. Everyone blocked the door, waiting in line to get their coats so they could leave.

This is the same illogical thought process that makes their movie theaters have a line for every cashier. Then, when you finish purchasing your ticket, you fight your way back through the line to get out. There's not a "flow" or an "entrance -> exit" pattern.

Anyway, Lola and I moseyed upstairs to nurse a beer while the opening act played. We finished and wandered downstairs just in time to get a place in the middle of the crowd for the concert.

Consider a concert this way. The first half of the audience moshes. The second half nods their heads. The fringes near the front really like the band but hate moshing. The fringes near the back have heard maybe two songs by the band ever. That's just a theory.

Lola and I were right behind the moshing.

The band was surprisingly awesome live. I guess I knew they would be because they've been together and touring forever. But it seems like with some of the harder rock groups, that you just hear screaming vocals. But I could make out most of the lyrics fairly easily.

After the concert, Lola and I nursed another beer while we waited for the traffic jam in front of the door to clear out. Then we purchased cute Dropkick Murphys tshirts. Yes, we're pretty fly. It was good times.

Dragon Tattoo

One of the things I love about the new Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie is that the title in Polish is an easy translation (Girl with the tattoo). I had a short break after Aniela left before Lola and I left to meet Rachel at Zlote Tarasy for a movie.

Fun facts about Polish movie theaters (I can't remember if I shared this with you after Twilight or Jane Eyre):
You have assigned seats. And people actually sit in their assigned seats.
I find this to be an illogical system which makes it harder for people to buy tickets separately or meet each other at the theater. I may be the only one who feels this way. Both Lola and Rachel were awed by my assertion that if there weren't seats together, you just ask someone to move over a seat so you can sit with your friends. Evidently that doesn't fly on the east coast. Which I think is interesting because Lola has increasingly been accidentally slamming the midwest when she's not being careful. Then she tries to backpedal like, "Oh, Well, I guess I've never been there." At least when I diss SoCal, I can say I've been there!
The previews take FOREVER. And are mostly ads. Not previews.

I guess that's only two facts. But two are better than none?

Afterwards, Rachel, Lola, and I went out for sushi. I got the eel. Yum. And we talked academic stuff. Rachel is just full of fascinating wisdom, being that much further down the academic career path than I am. And she did an interdisciplinary MA. So she has her own thoughts on that part of my future as well.

Afterwards, Lola and I waited for our bus at the bus stop when this drunk Polish guy started bothering us. He realized we spoke English and that only seemed to increase his desire to want to talk to us... in Polish. The only thing he knew in English was "My name is..." He introduced himself to us three times. I'm not sure if that's because he was drunk or because he was showing off his English skills. I began to get worried when he sat next to us on the bus, but he and his cohorts got off the bus a few stops later, much to my relief.

Aniela Comes to Visit

So, Friday, Aniela took the Polskibus to Warsaw from Lublin. So, I picked her up. We made some grilled cheese and chatted. After a while, we headed to Plac Konstytucji (which I can never seem to say, so I always just say Constitution) for some coffee. Then we met up with Dara and headed to her adviser's house for pizza and conversation. Dara's adviser and her husband were hilarious and super sweet.

We toasted with champagne, ate some pizza, and talked about the play we were all going to see that night. We also talked about this phenomenon in Poland (and other parts of Europe/the World) in which women go to malls, pick out clothes they want, then offer men various sexual favors for the clothes. Evidently it can't be classified as prostitution, so it's in this awkward gray area...

The play was really cool. They had English subtitles. So, I was able to follow for the most part. The entire play was fascinating. It, as much Polish literature is, was about the search for the Polish identity. It was rife with witty word play. Some of the word play, I have no doubt, would be much better in Polish than in translation. Overall, the play wasn't a comedy, but it kept the audience laughing. The ending was very emotional, with a twist.

Basically, the play focuses around a family. At the end, you find out that the family never existed because the grandma died in the bombings at the beginning of World War II. It ends with the granddaughter yelling out for bread, a very symbolic part of any culture, but especially in Poland. Earlier in the play it had been distinguished from baguettes and fancy breads of other cultures.

The best part of the play was this long monologue about Polishness. It began with something like "in the beginning, everything was Poland." The entire play was mocking of the predominant Polish attitudes towards the world, but it was a self-referential mocking that seemed more kind than mean. There was also a great part in the play when the woman said something like "There's no point in going to Italy now that the Pope is dead." It was wittier than that, but it basically said that there was no current Pope since JPII is gone.

After the play, the group of us went to Cafe Kulturalny for some drinks. We had a nice chat for the most part. Lots of gossip and good stuff. Nothing too special happened. Then we ended the night at Fridas for some food. At that point I was starving, so that was nice. The great part of the menu was...

AMERICA NIGHT!

The next morning, Aniela and I met Sarah for some delicious brunch at Charlotte. This is by far my favorite institution in all of Poland. Such bread and jam and deliciousness I've never tasted anywhere else before.

Sadly, Aniela shortly had to leave to return to Lublin.

Plagiarism

After doing some grading to try and catch up before exams, I found something truly extraordinary. I opened a Word document from one of my students. On the document, there was a piece of text obviously cut and paste from a website. The first hint was a powder blue background behind the text. I found that a mite bit suspicious. So I did what any self respecting teacher would do. I entered the text into Google. Low and behold...

PLAGIARISM!

So... I wrote to my student, telling him that he failed the assignment. He had the guts to write back, saying that hed do the assignment again (smilie face). So, I had to tell him that I was failing him. Which is a stressful thing for a teacher to do for the first time. I mean, there's a level of authority required, that I haven't quite internalized.

Anyway, the problem is that now I'm overly suspicious of every time my students do extraordinarily well. But at least one of my students will be a bit of an example to the others. I have so much power!

At Last! Polish Language Class!

I met with Professor Jacek at SWSPiZ (which I can now refer to as SAN because they changed their name. I still haven't figured out what happened).

Professor J told me that he could get me lessons (at last). He called up the Linguae Mundi foundation, which gives cheap lessons to non-EU folks living in Poland. It has a bigger mission statement, but that's the part of their mission that's relevant to me. So, they were in the middle of a session, but I was allowed to join in.

The next day, I wandered over to the Linguae Mundi offices where I took a Polish language test. It was definitely a challenge. I felt like an idiot. But I have to remember that the test is supposed to test from beginner to fluent. So not knowing a lot doesn't mean I don't know anything... right?

OK. So, the next day, I got a call from the LM offices offering me a class on Wednesday and Friday nights. Yes, this might cramp my travelling schedule a bit... but I think that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make...

Anyway, I headed to class on Friday. It was supposed to start at 5:30, so naturally, I arrive at 5:15... I want to make a good impression. Surprise! The class has just naturally moved back to 6.

The first class was rough. The teacher basically allowed everyone to question me about anything they wanted. Luckily, the lack of creativity in a foreign language meant I was mostly able to answer questions - Where are you from? What do you do? How long have you been in Warsaw?

Why are you learning Polish? was a difficult question. I mentioned that my grandfather was Polish and that I like Wyslawa Szymborska. Then there was a whole slew of follow up questions by the teacher. Like - why didn't I learn Polish from my grandfather. So I tried to explain that while he was Polish, he was born in America. And he learned Polish in America. And he died before I was born. And he didn't teach my aunts/uncles/mother Polish. Well... let's just say there's a bunch of vocab I don't now there. Like... born. Died. Especially when it's all in past tense!

After embarrassingly dodging that bullet, I got stuck on "Where do you teach?" The teacher figured out that I was referring to the academy in Lodz. So I had to figure out a way to say, "Yes, but I live in Warsaw and teach at the Warsaw satellite branch." Looking at that in English, it seems like a very basic sentence. Saying it felt like I was in an Abbot and Costello routine. "The one in Lodz?" "Yes, but in Warsaw." etc. etc. etc.

After class, teacher told me that she thought I was in the right class. She told me I had the option of joining a harder class or an easier class, but she thought the easy one would be too easy for me(!!!!) So, I jauntily walked home, stopped by the Carrefour express, and picked up a bottle of 6 zl champagne to celebrate (something that will become a common theme in my Warsaw life until they run out of New Years Eve champagne!)

Poczta

The other day, I received a package slip in the mail. However, instead of my name, the package slip was addressed to MB. Of course, I knew that MB was the person who had sent me the package. So I mosey my way over to the post office. There's only one window that accepts package slips. That window has a sign saying "Closed, go to the next window." (Well, the Polish equivalent.)

So, I dilly dally before approaching cautiously with a polite "excuse me, ma'am."

She looks at my package slip and tells me to wait a minute. Then she just continues to do her job while I stand there for five minutes rehearsing how I'm going to explain that I'm AJ, not MB in Polish. Finally, she gets the package. This is a huge relief for me because I assume that once she has the package, she can look down and see my name.

She looks at me, looks at the package slip. Then asks, "Who are you?" So I begin my spiel. "I'm AJ. MB is my friend. He lives in the USA. He's never been in Poland." She interrupts me, however, to ask "Who's MB?" So I continue on. She interrupts me once or twice more as I try to stutter my way through the explanation. Then she stops me with a single English word.

"Husband?"

I pause for a moment. Then I nod. "Tak." Sign for my package and leave.

Amanda Comes to Warsaw

Other Amanda came into Warsaw for a night before she returned to America for a short bit. We had a great time. I met her at the train station after class. We chatted over coffee and caught up on the juicy details of life. We went back to Mokotow and did some shopping.

This brings me to two shopping related stories.

First off, Poland has the best board games ever. The first, "Kolejka," recreates communist times. Kolejka means "line" as in - waiting in line. So, it's a board game meant to teach the post-communist generation about the shortages of the communist times. It sounds fascinating. You compete to get the first ten items on your grocery list. You represent different members of your family. You have to strategically send them to wait in line at stores, but you don't know which store will get a delivery or when. There's also a black market. And you get tip cards - like getting inside information from a communist friend on which stores will have which foods when...

The second, which I don't know that much about, is "Mali Powstancy." It's about children during the Warsaw Uprising. So, you play a scout who is organizing his or her scout troops to deliver messages that will help the uprising cause. I may or may not purchase both of these board games before I return home. However, I'm not sure starting a Polish board game collection is really the smartest thing. After all, I don't know who I can talk into playing with me!

The board game I finally purchased...is... APPLES TO APPLES PO POLSKU! So, I saw this at Empik in October. But now it's all sold out. So I looked for it online, but it was completely gone. Luckily, I don't give up. So, I kept checking online. Until I found a toy store that was selling it through allegro.pl (the ebay of Poland). I couldn't use allegro, because I don't have a PESEL (Polish ssn). So I had to use some devious methods to go around allegro. The result was that a few days later... Apples to Apples showed up on my door step.

That evening, I was shopping with Amanda and Lola. We went to H&M. Back story. Back in November, I went to H&M and tried on this really cute orange sun dress. I wanted it. It was on the sale rack. But it didn't have a price tag. There were no other orange sun dresses in the entire store. Flash forward two months. Lola and Amanda and I are in H&M and the dress is just sitting there. Still on the sale rack. Still in the size I tried on before. AND Amanda speaks Polish. So she helped me ask the sales person what the price of the dress was. And I got it on super sale.

That night, returning to the apartment, Lola, Amanda, and I picked up some 6 zl champagne. And we made a night of it, watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog and drinking champagne. 'Twas bardzo bardzo dobrze.

Return to Poland

So, I arrived back in Poland on January 5th. I then struggled with jet lag in the most unfortunate way. I could barely stay awake past 6 pm, which makes sense. Because at 6 pm in Warsaw, it's already been pitch black for over two hours. Life was pretty uneventful.

I met up with my friend Monika and Embassy John. Monika is from Canada, but her grandparents live just outside Warsaw. She was in town just for the holidays. So, we met up. Travel-weary, I didn't even realize that it was the Epiphany. So almost everything was closed. Luckily, Monika and I found a nice little restaurant where we consumed some obiad.

The next day, I went to the old town to return some dishes to Billy. While there,  I hunted for a foil nativity scene like the one below. Luckily, Christmas stuff was still in the stores since the Epiphany was just on January 6th.

I felt like I was being super productive by leaving the apartment when I didn't actually need to do so. It was a refreshing way to begin a new year in Poland. I'm determined to go out and be adventurous. Or, if not adventurous, at least to go out.