End of the trip.

Last night we went out with Szymon and Piotr, which proved to be somewhat awkward, but fun i guess. We danced at a club and had some piwos (beers). Today we are taking care of some last minute shopping and all of the other things we haven't done yet. So, I think it will be a busy day. I am on a mission to get these shoes that I have been seeing around Warsaw, I think I might finally have a lead as to where I can buy them. We are also planning on going to Wedel, a nice chocolate shoppe for hot chocolate. Then packing, cleaning up our room and getting ready to leave. Poland has been great, but I can't wait to come home to see all of my family, and friends, and Alex!

A Joke from Doctor Josh.

so i've been working on my assignment number three all day. my friend, molly, and i were sitting on the computers typing up the problems and josh, one of our professors walks up behind us. normally, this would cause frustration because he sometimes complicates or deviates instructions from the other instructors or otherwise makes the work more confusing. he means well though, the material is inherently boring and confusing. instead, he asks us if we are doing alright and we said, "yeah, we're okay". he then he proceeds to tell us, " a skeleton walks into a bar and he asks for a pint of beer and a mop". we look at him, kind of confused, and then we get it. a joke! it was great. i can't wait to get this work done!

Lost in Warsaw.

So we set off in search of this communist themed restaurant without knowing that the route had not be planned ahead of time. It soon became clear that we were going to get lost both due to the fact that we are completely unfamiliar with most areas of the city, and that those who had come up with the idea of going to this out of the way location would not accept help in the way of navigation. An hour to an hour and a half later we finally arrived at the location and had a beer. It was a generally pleasant dinner with Molly, Jessica, Shannon, Kelly, and Nicki. It was especially nice because the group that went doesn't generally hang out with each other all the time. I had a roasted vegetable salad with goat cheese and boiled potatoes (because it's Poland), apparently my salad was pretty bourgsie, by the potatoes were for the proletariat. 

**take a look**

Work Work Work

The weekend was fun, but this week is pretty stressful. We are all hurrying to work on our research papers, which are due at the end of the trip (yikes). Mine is about the relationship between gender, employment, and self-confidence (so far). So mostly we've been spending our time in the computer lab. Tonight we are hoping to go to a restaurant that is Communist themed or something? Supposedly, there is a menu for the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. I wonder where vegetarians fall?

here is the website of the place

http://www.czerwonywieprz.pl/

Fun Weekend

Hello Everyone,
We went on another tour of a different part of Poland this weekend. We went to Lodz, which was a lot of fun. I was sure it was going to be exhausting (we don't get much down time to just sleep), but it was pretty worth it. We went dancing with our Polish friends, Piotr and Szimon (sorry if I spelled your names wrong, guys) the night before, so we were extra tired and not exactly enthusiastic to take the train to a new city. However, the train ride was relaxing and we made it to Lodz in no time. Lodz is the second largest city in Poland and once had a large textile industry. It is also home to one of the largest, if not the largest, Jewish cemetery in Europe. This cemetery was our first stop. It was beautiful. There were a mix of new and extremely old gravestones. The cemetery is still open to burials, so many parts of it were well kept. Other parts, however, were extremely overgrown and broken. It was almost as if the gravestones were part of the greenery in some places. The trees had completely taken them over with leaves, ivy, and moss making them green and organic looking. There is conflict among the Jewish community as to whether or not these areas should be cleaned up. The overgrowth is a clear indication of how Jewish life was completly eradicated as a result of the war. Following the visit to the cemetery we saw the Museum of Cinematography featuring great posters of Pola Negri and other famous movie stars. We went to a restaurant, Greenway, for lunch after that. Greenway is part of a chain of vegetarian restaurants in Poland. Lastly, we visited Manufactura, which was formerly a textile mill. Recently, though, it has been converted into a modern mall. There is a large sand pit for volleyball and a playground, as well as many stores and restaurants. The look of this place is very cool because there is a lot of glass and other modern architectural attributes overlayed onto this really old, brick textile mill. So, the weekend was pretty good, but I'm really exhausted. School and the work load from it have started to accelerate, which is becoming somewhat overwhelming- but there are only 11 days left.**Photos (thanks Molly): Lodz Train Station, Jewish Cemetery, Manufactura**

Pictures from Molly!

Here are some pictures from Krakow!

**Krakow's City Square, Me eating food a Vega (Yummy),

How do you say "ham" in Polish?

Last night was an experience. I went out with some friends of one of the girls in our group, Justyna (that might be spelled wrong- sorry!). They were very fun and it was nice to be around people who spoke Polish- for real. However, I made a critical mistake by ordering chlodnick, the magenta soup, at a local bar. It had ham in it! yuck! That's not the worst part though. After eating just a bit of ham soup and confirming that the meaty texture was, in fact, ham I went home to be sick. So, needless to say, I'm not feeling very good today. I'll write more tomorrow after recovering from the shock of meat to my delicate vegetarian system.

Watch out, the Polija are coming!

Hello Everyone. Bad news my camera is gone. It was either stolen or I left it somewhere, but either way, it's gone. I headed a mad search for it when we got back into Warsaw from Krakow, but to no avail. So, needless to say, I will not be posting photos right away. I started a flickr accout with rest of the people from the Warsaw trip, so I will have access to all of the photos, but until everyone loads them, I don't have any :(. Anyway, this weekend we went to Krakow, which was really cool. Krakow is south of Warsaw. We took a two hour train ride from Warsaw on Friday. In Krakow, we stayed in a hostel near Old Town. We were very excited because our room had a hook for the shower (We later found out that it wasn't exactly effective, but at first we were excited). Old Town was really cute, more like what I imagined Poland to look like before I came. There were many churches and synagogues that dated back to way before the war. We toured the city on Sunday including the castle, Wawel, and the Jewish District, Kazimierz. On Saturday we took a tour of the Salt Mines of Krakow, which were very cool (both figuratively and literally). Krakow was really hot and we spent most of the day underground. There were interesting sculptured scenes of the history of Poland, as well as the history of the Salt Mine itself (and they were all edible- we licked the walls). In addition to all of the touring we had a great time at night! The majority of the kids on the trip went out to a pub and then to a club to dance. By the end of the night everyone was a hot sweaty mess, but we had a great time.

**there will be pictures soon- i promise**

Home Sweet Home

I've been at school a lot this week and haven't really been taking pictures that are terribly exciting. So, I thought that I would share some photos of my room. All of the rooms in the Hotel Hera are different. There is a dorm side and a hotel side. We were lucky enough to be placed on the dorm side, which is older, but larger. There are two beds, a couch that pulls out into another bed, chairs, a desk, shelves, a changing room with closets, and a bathroom. Basically, we have an entire apartment. It's pretty incredible (especially compared to some of the other, smaller rooms). They are nice too, though. The only thing that we don't have is a shower. There is a bath tub and a shower hose, but it doesn't hook onto the wall or anything. In fact, even in the actual showers there is no place to hook the hose, you just, sort of, hold it. It kinda strange when you are used to a stationary shower set up, but we've gotten used to it. The room is really nice, but we don't spend much time here. We are in school from 10 to 4 during the day and then stay to do homework on the computers or go to the internet cafe (to update blogs). Today our first big assignment is due, so I will be here working all day.

**Photos: The room from the door/Our beds (Whitey is there on my bed)/ the Bathroom

Poland: Food Edition

I knew it would be tough to be a vegetarian in Poland, but considering my love for a variety of pickled foods, I went for it. I was right, most restaurants have little in the way of vegetarian options aside from pizza. In fact, I have been eating a lot of Italian food. However, I have recently found some great food! Maciek, my professor, recommended a great place that is almost all vegetarian and we went there for lunch on Monday. It has a cool coffee house atomosphere (my style) and tasty fresh sandwiches and salads. The next day was when I really found the perfect food for me. We went to a small restaurant with another instructor, Irina. Where I order polish soup. I love soup. It is a beet based, cold soup, with yogurt, cucumbers, green onions, and dill, topped with hard boiled egg. Yum. (and it's a really pretty magenta color) So, basically, this is what I'll be eating for the rest of the trip. This place also had other great options like vegetarian baked beans and crepes.

** Photos: Monday's lunch spot/ Food pictures from Tuesday (isn't that color awesome!)

the tour continues...

On Sunday we had another whirlwind experience with George, the tour guide. The day began around nine when we got breakfast. We then proceeded to make a 2.5 hour trip to Kazimierz, which is a small touristy village outside of Warsaw (way outside). George narrated the entire trip until we stopped at a park to look at some of the architechture there. While, George's enthusiasm was great, we all grew impatient after several hours without a restroom. When we finally made it to Kazimierz, there was (thankfully) a restroom as well as a great castle that we climbed, complete with a watchtower. It was built in the 13oo's and much of it is still there. After climbing the tower, we were all tired and hungry so we had to talk George in to taking a lunch break. We were convinced he didn't eat. We then split up and explored the village in small groups. On the way home to Warsaw we were able to stop at the small remaining Jewish cemetery, as well as a Russian Military cemetery. We finally made it home after getting caught in rush hour around 8 or 9, we all passed out immediately.

P.S. Thanks for the comments- I love them!

** The photos are as follows: The Jewish cemetery/Everyone in the group and the busGeorge, the tour guide/The city square in Kazimierz/Stephanie and Niki next to a life size version of the rooster shaped bread they sell in the village/Lee, Jeanette, and Nicole in the castle/Lee and Stephanie at the top of the tower

Speed Tour of Warsaw

The first day here we had a break from the conference on sociology. We were all hungry so we went to the closest cafe to school, Roosters. It turned out to be the polish equivalent to Hooters..so yeah, it was awkward. Later that night, we went out to dinner which was really nice. The next day we went on the fastest tour of Warsaw. Our tour guide was a small, polish man named George. He was very hard to understand, but very charming. Here are several sites of Warsaw. **photos are: top, left- this is the monument for Chopin in the park near our hotel. top, right- this is a view of the Warsaw library (my favorite thing so far). second row, left- roosters. sec row, right- old town everything has been rebuilt to look as it did before destruction. cool mural I saw walking home. next, is the summer house of a king. Finally, is the front view of the library before the storm we got caught in. <3 Lee

I'm here!

I made it to Warsaw. Two of my flights were delayed and I lost my bag, but I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I have met everyone and so far, we are all getting along well. My roommate's name is Jeanette, she is very sweet. We are all staying at the Hotel Hera, which is affiliated with the University of Warsaw and houses all of their guests. I will be adding more about the tours and school soon. ** pictures: the top, left picture(from left to right) is jeanette, nicole, niki, and stephanie in front of school. the top, right picture is Hotel Hera, and the bottom picture with the statue is school (IFIS)