PICTURES!!!

The link to my pictures is on the left. It is the second link labeled, pictures.

AMERICA!!!

Well, I'm officially back in the United States of America. I finished up class and turned in everything so now all I have to do is write my final paper. Wednesday and Thursday we spent enjoying Warsaw and shopping. It was really hot, in the 90's. Thursday we went back to school to say our goodbyes to our professors which was sad. We also enjoyed our last Polish meal and then went to the chocolate shop to get hot chocolate and got the most delicious thing in the world, drinking chocolate. I brought some back for Mom and I'll put pictures up later. Friday, I got in the cab with my friend Lee and we went to the airport. I was so excited to get home. As I was waiting at the gate my roommate Jessica appeared and told me her flight had been cancelled and she had been put on my flight, which was kind of nice to have someone to travel with. We were looking at her ticket and realized that she was in business class and I was jealous. When I gave my lady the ticket at the gate the machine didn't accept, so she gave me a new ticket, also in business class. I flew home in first class and decided that is the only way to travel, thank you very much. I went through customs like a breeze, but had to wait for more than an hour for my luggage. Uggh. I went through that gate and saw Mom and Dad and was so thankful to be back on American soil. I told Dad that we needed to go get me a cheeseburger, so we went to Weber Grill. I had the best cheeseburger ever. Mom wanted to stop by IKEA real quick to look for stuff for her redecorating hoopla. I started to question if I had actually left Poland because there were so many people there who were speaking Polish, uggh Chicago.( hehe) However, I got my needed dose of Americana and went to the Decatur Celebration to see what America is all about, greasy food and small talk. All in all my journey was a great experience and I even wouldn't necessarily going back, but boy am I glad to be home.

Almost Home!

The last couple of days have been a blur. We walked around some but most of our days have been committed to studying. We had our final exam today. I guess I find out tomorrow if I did okay, but I felt pretty confident in most of my answers. I get sick in the middle of the night on Friday, most likely from something I ate. I just slept all day on Saturday which was kind of a bummer when your in a foreign country. Luckily I bounced back quickly and was able to study pretty hard on Sunday and walk around town a little bit. All of our data analysis for our papers are due tomorrow which is probably what I'll spend the rest of the day on. I leave on Friday and I am pretty excited to go home, but of course with mixed emotions because it was great here. I am most definitely ready for some American food and conveniences and of course my family and friends.

Statistics?

After a long weekend class has been especially hard this week. Things are starting to wind down so we are getting more into our papers. It's all a little overwhelming because it is all happening so quickly. I think I'll be able to hold my own though. Monday night we went to this Japanese restaurant. Jeanette and I shared some sushi and ginger chicken, it was very good. Tuesday we went to the UN Development Program office, which was pretty interesting. To get there we walked by the Israeli Embassy and that was a little scary. Basically, let's just say I saw automatic weapons. For dinner we went to the Inn Under the Red Hog. It was a communist themed restaurant. Fidel Castro and Mao have eaten there before. The menu is divided between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians. The food was pretty good too. I had sauerkraut and mushroom pierogies and I split potatoes pancakes with a friend.


***ADDED NEW PICS**** CHECK LINK TO LEFT!

***Pictures: wating for the bus in the rain with Lee/ memorial at Jewish cemetary/ factory mall/ my room, my bed is on the left***

Last week was kind of crazy with school and just trying to catch up on sleep. We watched a couple of movies and such but didn't do anything to exciting during the week. On Saturday I went shopping with Lee and Jessica. We were there for a couple of hours and I didn't find a single thing, sad day! Apparently my feet are too big for Europeans. That night we went to a disco and danced it up with some 30 somethings but it was a good time. We danced to rock from the 50's and 90's techno, it was pretty sweet. Sunday we went to Lodz (pronounce like woodch). We went to the Jewish cemetery which is arguably the largest in Europe. It was really interesting. Parts of it were completely covered by greenery from not being taken care of. It is disputed whether or not to clean it up because some believe it represents the disappearance of Jews from the area. We also went to a film muesem, but that was only semi-entertaining. The main road was really cool with most of the buildings dating back to the 1500's. Lodz is a really old factory town that almost completely fell after the transformation to the free market. The old factories are now being developed into new modern apartments, stores, malls, etc. We went to this really neat mall that used to be a huge factory. The architecture was amazing to see new against old like that. With so many trips, train rides, and school work we are all still battling for more sleep in our lives but that will probably have to wait until we get back to the states.

Weekend in Krakow

** The first picture is free toilets at the salt mine (very exciting, usually they charge)/ the beet root soup I ate/Wawel castle/ crazy storm rolling in at the train station**

Wow! What a weekend! We left at about noon to catch the train to Krakow on Friday. The train ride was about 3 hrs. long. We sat in cabins w/ 6 seats and my cabin was just people from out group. Krakow is a very neat town and so different from Warsaw. It is much smaller to begin with and everything is a lot older because it was not destroyed during the war like Warsaw was. The newest buildings are probably from the 1950's and really good examples of socialist realism architecture with extremely large statues of "the worker." The hotel/dorm we stayed in was really nice and recently renevated.
When we got there we went down to old towne and ate super on the sqaure. I had this delicious fried spinach pancakes which is becoming one of my favorite dishes in Poland. On Friday night we went to a dance club. It was strange because all of these clubs were underground in extremely old cellars or basements. Saturday I went just outside of Krakow to the salt mines in Weilczka. Now this sounds like a strange thing to do but it was really cool. The miners over the years carved statues, cathedrals and ballrooms. Everything is completely made of salt rock and most of it is about 400 ft. underground, but still above sea level. We went down some 500 stairs and then up in this tiny lift. I had squeeze into non-existent space when the door opened and then squeeze out so that the other door could be open. The whole experience in the lift was not pleasant for me. The one nice thing about the trip underground was that it was 60 degrees and about 90 degrees above ground.
My friend Lee and I went and got dinner together at this place called Bar Vega. It was vegeatrain (Lee is a vegetarian) and it was really good. We both had this spinach pasta bake and beet root cream cold soup. We walked through the market after that and I got these really cool earrings for Kelly and Ellen. They are amber which is really big here because it washes up on the Baltic Sea shore.
Sunday we went to Wawel castle from the 14th century. It was really neat. Kazimierz the Great is buried inside of the cathedral there. After lunch we went on a tour of Krakow by way of golf cart. It wasn't a very informative tour and kind of scary because we were some pretty busy roads. When we got back to Warsaw there was this really terrible storm rolling in. I've never seen the sky so black. We got back to the hotel before it really started to hit, thankfully. I was standing in the hallway after we got back talking to some people when the power went out. Lee and me grabbed each other and ran to find a flashlight. Thankfully it only stayed off for like 15-20 minutes.

I'll post more pictures very soon.

July 8-10

The past few days have been really busy. One of the main reasons was because our first assignment was due today and it took a lot of time in the computer lab. Tuesday we went to the European Union office which was kind of neat. They explained to us the organization of the Union and what they do. That night we all went out together again and I am proud to say I had Polish food. I had pork loin in like a mushroom sauce with fried potatoes and then for dessert this sort of apple dumpling cake with ice cream. All of it was very good. In class we've been learning and reviewing about the communist era in Eastern Europe and it has been very interesting. I feel like I am finally learning some of the importance of the areas I had seen on my tour of Warsaw. Today we went to the Palace of Culture and Science. It was a gift from the Soviet Union to another one of its countries. It is a great example of social realist architecture and was pretty cool. We went to the top and saw a great view of the city. I'm glad that I finally finished my first assignment because it was a lot of work and it feels like a load of my shoulders. Also, since I am in school I figured I would share that my research topic is finding the correlation between religiosity and thinking that the Catholic Church has too much influence. Also I added more pictures today.