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.

July 7

We had the first day of actual classes today. Jessica and I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch because we are cheap and they were very good. We finally got access to the computers at the Institute which was nice not to have to pay for internet. It rained most of the day which was good because it cooled things down and Poland is in a drought. Class goes from 10-4 with a 2 hr. lunch break. Today was mostly introductory lectures, so it was not very interesting. Tomorrow we are going to the European Union office in Warsaw and I'm super excited for this opportunity. I finished my homework, so my mom would be proud of me for not procrastinating. I still am pretty tired and getting used to things

July 6

We were with Jorj again today. He told us he was about 14 at the end of the WWII, so that would put him just under 80! However, he moved better and much faster than the rest of us! We took a very bumpy two hour ride to the small town of Kazimierz. It was along the river and a very popular place for tourists. It was packed with people visiting. There was the ruins of a 13th century castle up the mountain (more like a very large hill). We also went up to the watch tower which was an interesting climb because the stairs were really only made for one person. We ate at a small bar and grill which was also interesting as we tried to order not really sure what we would be getting. When we got back I went for the third time to the restaurant where we have been getting pizza, we are becoming regulars.

July 5

Today the whole group went on a walking tour of Warsaw. Our tour guide was the old man named George (but say with thick Polish accent) and he was spunky. We first went to the garden right by our hotel that is 200 squared km. The park has the Belveder Palace and an old summer house among other things. In the summer or boat house is where Louis XVIII stayed during the French Revolution. We went on the roof garden at the new university library and it had an amazing panorama of the city. After that we went over to the university. It is gorgeous with huge buildings that remind of southern mansions (yellow terracotta). We next saw the palace where the round table talks were held before the fall of the wall and the end of communism. We went by this beautiful church and Jorj (our guide) wanted to take us inside so we followed. He went to walk through the sanctuary and a wedding was about to start; this did not stop him and he kept going! Half of us didn't follow him because as we started to walk in the organ started to play! HA! We also walked in the back of another church with another wedding, so we crashed two weddings total. They were both very pretty. Every church seemed to have a wedding on this Saturday.
The churches were in old towne which is gorgeous. It was almost totally destroyed during WWII. You can't even really tell, amazingly. After the tour was over we stayed in old towne and walked around and got ice cream. We went back to the place where we had gotten pizza before to get dinner and then called it a night after being on our feet for 8 hours.

July 4

Happy 4th of July! Today we had class but we were done by 12:30. We all wanted lunch so we went to this restaurant by our class. We walked in and realized it was like a Hooters, so it was a little awkward because their outfits were more promiscuous than Hooters. We went to the Internet cafe for a while to reach 'civilization' again. After that a stop at a fruit stand made for a good snack option of raspberries. We decided we needed to go to the store to get to some food and it down poured on us, as we got lost. It was an experience.
I took a nice nap, still a little jet lagged. We all went out together and just hung out at the hotel the rest of the evening. The place we went to dinner is less than a block from our hotel and is called the Blue Cactus and is like a Mexican restaurant (like Carlos O'Kelley's) which I thought was funny.