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.