How to be a cannibal in Polish and other musings

It's been a great week. The program in Wroclaw included Polish language classes and lectures on Polish history, sociology and art. I had an amazing Polish teacher who was always so enthusiastic and excited. It made Polish seem less intimidating.

In every language there are words that have nothing to do with each other in terms of meaning but still sound similar. Polish is no exception. We were learning food words so we could go shopping. I was trying to say dziczyzna (venison) but instead I said dziewczyna (girl). It's probably not a good idea to ask for that at a butcher store; it might give Poles the wrong impression of America. At least I made that mistake in a classroom ;).

We were very well fed in Wroclaw. We had soup every day before a very nice midday meal. Polish food makes heavy use of vegetables and they are able to make them very tasty. Here in Poland (like in Brazil and much of Latin America), the midday meal is the main meal of the day. The evening meal is usually fairly light. One other nice thing is that Poles believe in second breakfast, so I get to feel like a hobbit!


This is where the meeting of EU finance ministers was held in Wroclaw while I was there. The building was all locked down so we couldn't go inside. I believe Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, was also present.



Wroclaw loves its dwarves. There are small statues like this all over the city, tied to the theme of whatever is nearby. This one above is from the archives.



And here a little girl is looking at the dwarves in the main square.



Only in Europe do you see a lancer hanging out in front of a mall. This is Peregrine, of Wroclaw, who quoted his grandfather as saying "better at home bread and cumin than elsewhere a plump chicken."


These two pictures are a view of Wroclaw from the top of the mathematics tower:





This is a picture of the monument to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German minister who resisted the Nazis, and ultimately was executed by the SS. He was a resident of Wroclaw and a very brave man. The picture below is a bust of him in Wroclaw in one of the city buildings:

This picture shows how Wroclaw tries to accommodate blind tourists. Here is a model of the building that they can feel and a description of its history in braille. There were many of these models in Wroclaw.


This is a Nazi propaganda poster on display at a historical monument in Wroclaw, saying something about how Stalin the arsonist is going to die (I don't remember the exact words- the translation didn't make it into the picture). I assume that the arson comment was referencing the Reichstag fire but I'm not certain. I've always found propaganda images interesting.


This picture is from the Panorama Raclawicka. It's a huge panoramic painting of an important battle in Polish history in 1794. During an insurrection against the Russians, the Polish were able to defeat the Russian army on this battlefield. It was an important symbolic victory, although the insurrection ultimately failed. What I loved about this place is that the panorama is surrounded by a three dimensional set with real dirt, plants, swords, carts, etc. It makes it hard to tell exactly where the painting ends and reality begins. Very cool effect.


Here I've marked where a sword is laying in the dirt in front of the painting.


In this part of the painting peasants with scythes are attacking Russian artillery.

The last thing I did in Wroclaw was attend a string chamber concert. It was put on by the Wroclaw Philharmonic at the Aula Leopoldina (the beautiful hall at the university I posted pictures of last week). Listening to beautiful classical music while admiring elaborate frescos, paintings and sculptures was amazing. The acoustics of that room are great.

All in all, I loved my time in Wroclaw, but I am very grateful to be back in Warsaw with the family.

Orientation at the Embassy and then off to Wroclaw

Well this has been a very interesting week. On Wednesday Fulbright Orientation began in Warsaw. We started at the US Embassy in Warsaw. We have quite an interesting and diverse group of Fulbrighters. There are forty of us. There are a lot of English teaching assistants and people doing research in various fields, such as theatre, music, history, Jewish culture in Poland, among other things. It has been very interesting talking to them about their research plans. Every one of them is very passionate about whatever brought them to Poland.

Unfortunately the Embassy does not allow cameras for security reasons so I have no cool pictures from Wednesday. We got to hear from a lot of Embassy staff that morning and get answers to a lot of our questions. We talked a lot about Polish-US relations. After that meeting we went over to the U.S. Ambassador's residence to have lunch. That was a very interesting and formal affair. It was a large and beautiful house. The food was excellent, the plates had the american eagle seal on them, and the napkins were red white and blue. It was a very exciting opportunity and I got to meet a lot of interesting people, both in the State Department and Poles returning from Fulbright studies in the United States.

The next day we took a bus from Warsaw to Wroclaw in southwestern Poland near the Czech and German border. I was on my way to the hotel where the Fulbright bus would be departing from when I saw a memorial statue of a soldier that looked very interesting. I was in a bit of a hurry so I didn't get a chance to look around for too long for a plaque, but I didn't see one. I'm not entirely sure what the monument is for but I thought it looked cool.

The bus ride helped drive home to me some of the ideas that I have read about, especially about Poland's lack of natural barriers for invading armies. The land I saw on the way to Wroclaw was very flat and relatively clear the whole way there. Much of the area is forested, but the forests are clear of undergrowth and would be pretty easy to get through in any case. Many of the country homes are very well kept and attractive, with metal and brick fences.

My stay in Wroclaw will be for nine days to complete my Fulbright orientation. Wroclaw feels very different than Warsaw. Warsaw feels very metropolitan. Wroclaw feels much more distinctively European. This city has a very interesting history. It was originally founded in 990, and at various times it has been ruled by different nations (Bohemia, Poland, and Germany are a few examples. More recently it was ruled by Germany until the end of World War II, when the German population was largely evacuated and Wroclaw became a part of Poland once more. Wroclaw is built on a number of islands that are all connected by bridges, leading some to compare it to Venice.



One of these bridges has an interesting tradition.


When a couple falls in love here, they write their names on a padlock and lock it to one of the bridges that connect two of the islands.

Our orientation classes are being hosted by the University of Wroclaw. The university itself is very beautiful. A lot of it was destroyed during World War II but it has been rebuilt in the same style it had before. The Aula Leopoldina I believe was one of the few areas that survived intact. It is where formal and important meetings are held.

I am amazed by the detail in all the paintings, statues and other decorations on the walls. There is a lot of work in this room:


During the week we have lectures on Polish culture, history, and lessons in the Polish language. This weekend we got to tour Lower Silesia and Wroclaw itself. One of our first stops was the Church of Peace in Świdnica. This was a Lutheran church that was permitted to be built in Catholic territory following the Peace of Westphalia. There were a lot of conditions for the Protestants to follow. The church had to be built entirely of wood, it had to be built outside of town, could not have a church bell and had to be completed in a single year.

The result was the largest wooden church in Europe. I was amazed that they were able to complete it in a single year. Here are some pictures of the inside (bear in mind, the inside of churches tend to be very dark and I was using a small point and shoot camera with no tripod):

This is the pulpit.


This is the organ.

This is an example of the detail work inside. Most of the church is equally detailed.

And this is one shot of the ceiling. Incredible that they got it done in a year.

We also got to see a castle near Wroclaw. It looks different than you would expect because it was continuously inhabited until WWII and was renovated from time to time.



The entrance has many statues like this one:


The inside was very elaborate.




Here's one of the courtyard:


The gardens were equally beautiful:



If I remember correctly, the owner of this castle ran afoul of the Nazis when his two sons went to London to join the Allied forces (this area was part of Germany prior to WWII). Hitler recognized the boys on TV and seized the castle and used it as a headquarters for one of his paramilitaries. It was later occupied by Soviet troops and the castle was looted and damaged. It is in the process of being restored.

Here are some shots that look more like what you'd expect at a castle:






It looks like I'm out of time for now so I will save my other pictures for next week. Wroclaw is an amazing place and I will have to bring Annika and Paul out to see it before we leave the country.

Getting to Poland: The First Week

Flying across the world is certainly exhausting under the best of circumstances. In my case I was so wound up about leaving that the night before we flew out I only slept about 45 minutes (not an ideal way to start a long trip to be sure). Paul on the other hand was a happy camper almost the entire trip. Here he is enjoying his long layover in DC. We got to sit next to a window where he could see lots of planes, baggage trucks, and fuel trucks running around which kept him occupied for a long time. The only drama we had was when he tried to drink some hot chocolate a little too fast in Germany. He showed that his lungs are still in good working order for a long time after that.




The flight over the Atlantic was pretty boring. Not much to see out the window, unfortunately. We flew over Ireland, the UK, France and Germany all in the dark. I did manage to get one decent shot out my window just before sunset as we were flying over the eastern coast of Canada.

We crossed seven time zones and arrived in Poland on Tuesday morning. That morning we took care of some errands, signed the lease on our apartment, and then I went out to get a few essentials. I really like our apartment. It is quite small but it is very space efficient with lots of cabinets. The fridge is tiny, so I imagine we will be making more frequent, smaller grocery trips. Some things seem very different, but others seem very much the same. Aside from the language it feels like I’m still in an American city in many respects. Some things are quite different. For instance, there are no drinking fountains anywhere. I couldn’t find one in the airport in Germany either, so I guess they must be an American thing or something. My friends here told us to only drink bottled water anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Paul was very excited to get to Poland. Here he is on a quilt his Aunt Miranda made for him, pointing out Poland for us:

People say that the best way to get over jet lag is to try to stay awake the first day. We tried, but I sat still on our couch a little too long and ended up passing out about 4 pm without meaning to. Annika and I still adjusted pretty fast, but Paul was not amenable to that. People say that young children deal better with jet lag than adults, but I beg to differ. This picture is from Wednesday afternoon.

We had decided to let Paul take a short nap and then wake him up so he could theoretically sleep that night. I took this picture right before I tried to wake him up- emphasis on tried. I tickled him, talked to him, poked him, swung him around, and got no response at all. Then I hung him upside down and blew on his neck real loud. That got him to say “Daddy stop” with his eyes still firmly closed. After about ten minutes of trying I eventually gave up. We tried to get his naps shorter a little each day. Yesterday he and I were both starting to get very tired around 6 pm, so we decided to go out shopping for winter clothes to try to keep him awake. No luck there.

He was too tired to walk, so I put him on my shoulders because I figured it would be harder for him to sleep up there. I tried to wake him up once we got to the store but that child was in deep hibernation. We put him in the cart.


But nothing would stir him. I rode the metro up to downtown Warsaw to go to the Institute of International Relations at the University of Warsaw where I will be studying to take care of some administrative stuff. The city is absolutely huge, and Warsaw is very international. On my way to school I saw a Brazilian storefront a few blocks down. I’m not sure if it’s a restaurant or a market or what but I am excited to see later when I have more time. I still don’t know very much Polish, but I know enough to ask for directions. I stopped a man in the street to ask him where the street the university is on was; I asked him in Polish and he answered “I don’t speak Polish.” I thought it was funny that a man I picked at random turned out to be another foreigner. I didn’t manage to get any really good pictures of downtown. This was the best shot I had.

I’m still getting my wires crossed a little bit with too many languages running around in my head. While I was at the mall a man asked me a question in Polish (simple enough that even I could understand it) and without realizing it I answered him in Spanish. It took me a second to realize that his blank stare showed that my brain had jumped linguistic tracks before I was able to correct myself.
Overall the week has been pretty exhausting. Since we don’t have a car and are relying on Warsaw’s excellent public transit system, we’ve been walking a lot more than we’re used to. Maybe Poland can help me trim down a few pounds (err, kilos. Gotta think metric now!). Getting around has been very painless because the transit authority here has an Android application that will figure out your route for you and buzz you when it’s time for you get off the bus/tram/metro. Earlier this week we invited the sister missionaries from our church over for breakfast, partly to get to meet them and partly so we’d have a translator for when the internet installer showed up (which he never did). We had some paperwork issues and we won’t be getting internet until this Tuesday (and dealing with utility customer service in a foreign language is pretty hard) so I’m uploading this through my phone. Hopefully the formatting doesn’t get too screwed up.

Yesterday I took Paul to the Pole Mokotowskie. It’s a very large park built on what used to be an airfield, with lots of green space, bike trails, a lake and a children’s playground. It’s only two stops away on the Metro so it’s quite convenient.

Some things are universal throughout the world. One is that talk radio hosts make people angry. I can’t read all of the sign but the “Idiota” seems pretty self-explanatory. This ad was at the metro station:

We went to the local branch of our church today. It’s only one stop away on the metro so it’s very easy to get to. The meetings are translated between Polish and English so everyone can easily participate. The elder’s quorum president (a local church leader), President Neto, is from Mozambique, so I was able to talk to him in Portuguese even if my Polish isn’t very good yet! They had a pot luck after the meetings ended so we got to enjoy some good Polish food. The members are very friendly and made us feel welcome from the first moment. Here’s a picture of us with Sister Richards, the branch president’s wife. She and her husband are serving here as missionaries. They are from Las Vegas.


And here’s a shot of us in front of the building where the branch meets:


Anyway, that’s all for now. So far we are loving Poland and have felt very welcome here. Next time I should have a better connection so this should be easier.