Teraz, Tylko Jeden Tygien

I'm approaching my fifth week of intensive Polish classes. They keep me busy but man, my Polish has gotten a lot better. It's really exciting to be approaching a point of competence in a foreign language. I'm still a stuttering mess when I try to say anything complicated, but I have a few friends here who don't speak English, so we communicate completely in Polish. I'm proud of that! This, by the way, is a picture of the courtyard at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). It's hard to see properly, but in the middle is a statue of Pope John Paul II that always has fresh flowers and a lit candle at the base. When the weather is nice I study out here during my afternoon break and usually I can hear someone practicing the organ (did I mention that I've met 2 famous organists here?)

For anyone who is looking to study Polish (I'm sure there are a ton of you out there. Slavic languages are so in right now, and I mean that with all sincerity) this course is by far the best one I've found or heard of. The teachers are amazing, and for the first time in my studies the cases (almost!) make clear sense. The teachers work really hard-we rotate teachers for our individual lessons each week and every teacher has been so enthusiastic about preparing lessons for me that focus specifically on women's history and solidarity vocab. I don't see any other way trying to do archival research would have been possible. Here's a picture of my class. The denim clad lady sitting in front is Bozena, my great teacher. My roommate, the history grad student who frequently calms me down when I have an "honors thesis? what honors thesis?" sort of brekadown, is standing next to me in green, and seated in the right hand corner is Siostra Maria-my favorite nun EVER.

It seems as though my language limitations might not be a problem for archival research, after all. A bigger problem is finding a place that has relevant information and is open. I didn't realize this before, but August is "Cucumber Season" here and mostly everyone goes on vacation. I found one archive thats open, and the director may have some contacts I can interview, which would be sweet. But it's all very up in the air at this point.

I have just 3 weeks left until I return to America and I'm really happy about that. Poland has been great-I'm loving every experience and I know I'm so lucky to be here, but I've been gone for almost 7 months. I need some fish tacos, black bean burritos, mounted shower heads, iced soft drinks and clothes driers back in my life. Not to mention the people who are kind enough to occasionally read this blog.

Szczesc Boze!

I'm writing this from the basement computer lab of my dorm that smells like humid carpeting and is stocked with 6 computers that are a throw back to 1994. I just made the exciting discovery, though, that there are NUNS living in the bottom floor of my dorm. Yes yes yes.

POPE JOHN PAUL TAUGHT AT MY UNIVERSITY.

There’s also a good chance that the 5 week highly intensive program will kick my butt.

Today we had our introductory meeting and first lecture in the same class room that Karol Wojtyla taught in before he became the Pope…and I can’t really think of anything cooler than that. Except, perhaps, the photos of JPII that are mounted on the walls…my favorite shows a young and hip Jana Pawel II strolling around campus in a cool pair of shades that would give Bono a run for his money. There is also the statue of Pope John Paul in the main court yard, with an eternal flame in front. The French nun in my class is just another element of awesome. You might not know this about me, but I think nuns are really, really cool. It’s all I can do not make eyes at her all during class.

Our first lecture was a history of the Katolicki Universytet Lubelski Jana Pawla II. The fact that KUL employed the Pope is just one of its claims to fame. It was established in 1918, when Poland received independence after 100 years of being partitioned by Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Prussia. Its purpose was to collect the intelligentsia to take charge of the newly reformed nation. In 1938 KUL got full state status, which is a big deal for a private university here. During World War II, the school was officially shut down, many professors were killed, and the building was used as a hospital. That wasn’t enough to stop the priests, though, and they organized secret classes throughout the city. During the 1950s and 60s, the university was persecuted by the communist government, but they were still able to exist as the only independent university in the Soviet Block and to employ many professors who were fired from other universities. How’s that for important?

The crucifixes in my dorm and in all of the class buildings bring back flashbacks of my 13 years at Catholic school, especially in Michigan, and I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t like it a little.
That said, whatever comfort I get from familiarity is much needed because I think I signed up for a course that will kick my butt. Not necessarily because it’s too hard-I think my language placement is about right-but because for the next 5 weeks I will spend 37 hours a week learning Polish. Then I will spend 2 weeks researching my thesis, which I need to find time to prepare for while in Lublin. This sounds great, but it puts me back in Atlanta the day before school starts. Nothing like starting out senior year and an honors thesis with jet lag and 7 weeks of summer school. I’m honestly scared.

For the next 5 weeks, my daily schedule looks something like this:
8:30 Breakfast
9-12:15 Grammar
12:30-13:15 Lecture in English
14-14:45 Lecture in Polish (I will probably generally opt out of this, for mental health purposes)
15-15:45 Individual Lesson
17-18:30 Conversation
18:30-on Dinner…and homework

The program has a very different feel from last summer’s program in Krakow. I think this will improve my Polish much more-the teachers and other students seem to be taking Polish more seriously. I’m going to be so in touch with my Polish identity come the end of August-by that point I will have spend 8 months of the last 12 in the Old Country. Damn.

We saw the Gates of Freedom! (dramatic or what?)

Since my first trip to Poland last summer, I've been wanting to spend some time in Gdnask, and my opportunity came 3 weekends ago when Hilary and I took off for a one night stay in the city of Solidarnosci. Our initial plan, for no obvious reason, was to take the 6 am train, which would have put us in Gdansk around noon. However, being the smart young women that we are, we soon realized that there was utterly no reason for us to leave so early, and seeing as I was strung out on caffeine and low on sleep due to exams, we might as well treat ourselves to a good night's sleep by leaving at 9.

The extra sleep made a great difference and thank god for it, because as it was we arrived in Gdansk pretty tired. Shortly before we arrived we made the unfortunate discovery that I left the hostel address and directions in my apartment. Luckily, Hilary was hip to the beat and had also written the address down, though we were without directions. Undaunted, we asked several people for help, and 1.3 hours later we discovered our hostel and that THE PEOPLE IN GDANSK ARE THE NICEST, EVER. We asked about 10 people for directions, and to help us, they got out maps, ran into their apartments to check the internet, called across to their neighbors, and generally were amazing. They smiled a lot, and I’m pretty sure they found my broken Polish charming. We realized later that our hostel was actually a 7 minute walk from the train station, as promised, and that I had actually forgotten to open the email containing directions. Hence, from now on, I bow down to Hilary in plan making.

After settling into our hostel, which also served as a house and a computer business, we took the train from Gdnask Oliva to Gdansk Centralny, where the old town is. We stopped to caffeinate, and the rain started.

It kept raining sporadicly for the rest of our trip. This should've been a bummer but I think the weather suited the city. The old town is my favorite in Poland-I love the fact that it's seaside. Here is a view of the "crane" building and if you look closely you can see big shipyard cranes in the background.Here's another photo from the Old Town. I love love love the colors and the architecture.

We decided to have dinner in Sopot, which along with Gdnask and Gdynia makes up the seaside tri-city area. Before we left we saw these awesome, happy street performers dressed in white linen. They were pretty good, and were seriously some of the smiliest people I have seen in a long, long time. But, this picture raises some questions, namely, how to guys wear white linen pants?
Dininer in Sopot was great, we found a nice, cheap restaurant on a sidestreet and then spent the evening on the beach. We got some beers at a local shop, were carded for the first time in Poland, and then checked out some bars on the beach. The night ended on a high point-we danced to latin music with a stout, jolly old Polish man after being egged on by his wife.

The following day we checked out the Solidarity museum in Gdansk, only to find it closed for rennovations. It was disappointing, but I think the new and improved museum will be finished when I return at the end of the summer. I'm doing my honors thesis next year about women in the Solidarity movement, and so I was really excited to see the monument:


And here is a closeup of the images on the monument:


and close still:
We were also able to see part of the "Road to Freedom" Exhibit outside of the museum. It includes 2 huge gate structures...this one was made by V. Tatlin, who we studied in art history and I therefore found very exciting.

And here's a picture of one of the gates to the shipyard...I'm pretty sure that it's one of the gates that was a focal point during the strikes. Of course, JPII is all over the place.

There was also a huge photo installation outside of the museum, on the same ground that the strikes took place on. Here is a photo of Anna Walentynowicz, one of the most prominent women/people in the strike, whose firing from the shipyard was a major motivator for the strikes.

I wish I had the time and more "off the top of my head" knowledge to write more about the shipyard monument. But, I'm sure there will be plenty more ramblings about Solidarnosci and Gdansk in the weeks to come, as I study Polish and really dig into the research for my thesis. Can't wait!

Last Night in Wawa

Why pack when one can post? Today is my last night as a resident of Warsawa at 140 ul. Solidarnosci. I'm going to miss this city a lot.

I have no doubt that a goodbye post is coming.


Goodbye, beautiful green BOS building.

Happy Birthday to a Classy Old Dame

I'm back from Babcia's and off to Paris tomorrow, with just enough time to pack up my very messy apartment and franticly say goodbye to some friends.

Again, the Gdansk post is coming, and is worth looking forward to because Gdansk is probably my favorite city in Poland. It has the sea, it has Baltic architecture, it has shipyard workers, it has the largest grassroots resistance movement in the former Soveit Block so what's not to like?

But until that happens, I figured I'd recap the few weeks with Hilary...because she is gone, she is awesome, and I miss her!

A few days after Hilary arrived in Warsaw we decided to check out Praga, which is across the river from the main part of Warsaw. Apparently, the other side of the river gets the same rap that the other side of the tracks does, and many Poles have warned me about the dangers of Praga...if you must go, go during the day and with a group. There are hooligans there! Hil and I figured we're pretty tough looking gals, so we made the treck across the bridge, and saw some cool stuff, like an Orthadox Church, an old Vodka factory, and some REALLY AWESOME THRIFT STORES. Hil bought a beautiful, beautiful dress that MIGHT have been worn by a Babcia at some point in the past, and has the most lovely colors. Best thing is that it cost 5 ztolty. We made a plan to dress up at least once, her in the beautiful dress of many colors, me in the beautiful green polyester trench coat-dress that was mom's and Babcia bribed me back to Poland with.

Of course, we put this plan in action, and dressed up last Sunday for the Chopin concert at Lasenki Park. The old ladies were REALLY checking us out, and quite jealous. Here's Hil with a couple of the gals:
And here I am crossing the street near Metro Politeknika. Note the lovely, lovely buildings.

The concert was great, and we felt a bit like glamorous Fitzgerald-esque ex-pats. We ate some delicious, over the top waffles and then Hilary started twirling.


I would too, if I had that dress.

We celebrated our last days together and Hil's birthday by going out to the bars in the barracks behind Nowy Swiat. They are pretty awesome, kind of shady and some have really trashy decorations that I can't begin to describe. One of them is awesomely retro with some sweet brown tones and that's where we spent the evening.


Here we are in the brown toned bar with our matching Russian shawls! Really, so much about Hil's time in Warsaw had to do with us embracing our old age early.

For Hilary's actual birthday, we started out with sight seeing some cool monuments. Hilary's an awesome tour guide. Then we ate kabobs, went shopping, and used the internet at Wayne's coffee, where the beverages are caffinated and the music is bangin'. Then Hilary and I had a date in the old tonw, followed by a drop by at a Polish party and then we danced the night away. Believe it or not, that night Hilary and I celebrated her 21st birthday AND the techno remake of "Satisfaction." It was sweet!


It was a great reunion.

Kocham Polska!

Having Hilary here is great for many reasons. The obvious ones being that she is awesome, and also that we are so good at being roommates that it's pretty ridiculous. Another reason is that we both like to fly by the seat of our pants, and it has led us on some pretty sweet adventures throughout Poland. And so, here is a quick tour of Poland, courtesy of Smith 305.

The second weekend that Hil was here we decided to go to Krakow, buying our tickets the night before in true adventuror style. We wanted to take the 9 o'clock train, since the ride is only 3 hours we figured that would put us in Krakow with a fairly solid day for sightseeing. However, buying tickets the night before a trip doesn't always work out so well, and we ended up on the 7 am train. Early, yes, but we felt so accomplished and slept so well at the end of the day.

After arriving in Krakow we walked around the train station, through the adjacent mall, and eventually found our way down the road to our hostel. It should be noted that during all of this wandering, Hil was gallantly carrying a bowl full of curry, which we had cooked the night before and couldn't bear to leave behind. It smelled a lot less than you might think, thankfully.

I've always had really good experiences at hostels, and while the 7th Heaven Hostel wasn't awful it was one of the more awkward places that I have found myself in since middle school. Luckily, there were plenty of things to do in the city, and promptly after checking in we headed down to Stary Miasto.

As we approached the Rynek, we heard a lot of music and saw masses of people also approaching the Rynek, and that's when it dawned on us that that reason I had the day off of school was because it was a religious holiday, which in this country means big time celebrations. So, we watched the Corpus Christi procession in the Rynek, and at one point decided we might as well join in, it looked like the thing to do.


Throughout the city it was obvious that Corpus Christi is a big deal here, as a lot of buildings had religious icons (the pope, the black madonna, jesus, or images of the eucharist) hanging outside of their windows. The churches were also set up for Eucharistic Adoration.

We did all of the main sightseeing, I think which was impressive for the rather short time that we had. Here I am in the traditionally obligatory Wawel Castel photo.


Being the smart girls that we are, we figured it was senseless to spend the whole day battling crowds in the Old Town when we could head to Kazimerz, the Jewish Quarter, for a more low key day. I really like Kazimerz, it looks more lived in and less prisitne than Stary Miastow does and thus, more authentic. We had a rather unfortunate episode in Kazimerz, though. There was a group of young hooligans playing with toy guns who thought it was really clever to shoot at us. At first, I thought it was stupid but harmless. I even thought it might just make a good photo so I asked them if they would pose for us. Big mistake. They shouted "NIE!" with more vehemence than I could have imagined, and then started chasing us. At one point, the nasty little thing in the striped shirt put his gun up to Hilary's head. I kept trying to tell them off in Polish but I'm pretty sure they just made fun of me in response.


From Kazimerz we decided to cross the river over to where the Ghetto Wall and Schindler's factory are. We walked and walked and walked, eventually finding our desitations. But, we spent a good 20 minutes next door to Schindler's factory trying to figure out where it was. We get fairly incensed that there was no sign or marker of the spot, and took a lot of pictures of a lot of buildings figuring that we would google image the factory and then match our photos up. Here is one of those photos.

As we were leaving I decided to be ballsy and ask a young Polish guy who was sitting nearby and reading whether this was Schindler's factory. It was a good move on my part because it turns out we were 1 building away from the factory, which does in fact have a large sign in front of it as well as a museum (which was closed by the time we got there). I was pretty impressed with myself for a. asking directions in Polish and b. understanding them.


One our last day in Krakow we went to the National Gallery which is one of my favorite art museums. I had been there over the summer, but only had an hour to run through the exhibits, which is not nearly enough time. It worked out really well because I had a Polish Art History exam the following Tuesday so I felt productive.

We also went back to the Old Town for a photo shoot.


As we were buying souviners in Cukernica we saw these lovely Polish girls dressed up for the holiday, I think. I'm not sure whether they were hot and uncomfortable, annoying at my blatant objectification of them, or just angsty but, along with our Kazimerz boys they make me think that Polish youth aren't exactly the happiest folks ever.

and that, is Krakow. More on Gdansk later.