Friday, and what a Friday it's been

I promised not to talk much about work, but I need to mention something about it to allow my readers to appreciate why this day was different than normal.  My company president came to Kraków today to see the operations and meet the new employees.  It was kind of a big deal for me because I've never met him.  However, one does not rise to the top of a consulting business without being personable; he was very easy to talk to, and everything went well as near as I can tell.  And that's all I'm going to say about that. After work, I went to the general meeting of the language club to relax.  I'm glad that I have Polish friends here that continue to show me new things.  I learned about some new areas of Kazimierz that I'm going to need to explore and take note of....

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Zakopane Addendum

In the routine of the week, I don't have a whole lot new to report.  Things are pretty normal here.  Although I'm still learning new items, they come at a slower pace and with less surprise than initially. Here are a couple of more observations about the weekend in Zakopane: Grilled cheese means something entirely different over here than what we think of in the US. Finding the words that are different between Australian English and American English is fun.  Example: Sarah and I both see something at the festival grounds.  Her/me (simultaneously), "Candy floss!"/"Cotton candy!" Then we look at each other and after a few seconds she says, "OK, what do you call it?" I've heard that for years there was this guy that dressed up as a white bear in town and tourists would...

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Weekend at Zakopane

This is going to be a long post, folks, because it details a rather exciting and full weekend for me.  I honestly don't think I've attempted to pack this much into a weekend since the wedding or maybe college.  I'll go chronologically and divide it into days to make it easier. Zakopane is a town in the Tatra Mountains, part of the Carpathians.  It's about 2 hours away from Krakow. Almost anytime I ask someone what they're doing this weekend, "going to the mountains" is likely to come into the conversation.  I figured I should see what all the fuss was about. Friday, August 24 After a hastily-planned trip devised during the week, we leave for Zakopane via bus at 7PM.  There were five of us taking off from Krakow, but...

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Busy Days!

The next few days are going to be very busy for me.  Today, I cam back to the apartment, ate a quick dinner, and went out to do a little souvenir shopping before going to Spanish night.  Spanish night was fun, but I had to leave early to make sure I could get everything planned for the trip to Zakopane (mountain town) tomorrow evening.  You won't be hearing from me until about Sunday if all goes well, because I'm not planning on taking my laptop or anything much with me on the excursion. I leave you with some pictures of the folk art festival currently taking over half of the main square.  This is an actual blacksmith working on some tourist goods: ...

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Readjustment Continues

Having been back in the U.S. now for a few days, I've had more time to digest being here and notice what stands out to me.  It's strange how things can be so familiar you don't even bat an eye, and then--you see that little something that makes you double-take. I think I'm having to get used to looking out my windows and seeing large expanses of green.  It's not just that the urban environment in Krakow didn't provide much green space (and besides, there was the Planty!); it's that when I left the country, all the grass I saw here was brown.  I think it also has to do with the amount of space I can see, though.  It feels like it takes longer to walk places here.  Even though I know that I did much more walking in Krakow than on campus, it just seems like so far between...

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Couchsurfing group

Tonight I went to another group of foreigners, primarily English-speaking ones.  It's a "couchsurfing" group, which sounds like basically a way to stay for free at others' homes.  There appears to be some sort of website associated with it, but I haven't been there myself.  Anyway, it was near the apartment and a good way to meet people.  Several of the others from the Language Exchange group (both English and Spanish nights) as well as some others I knew were there. In chatting tonight, I may have set up a trip to go to the mountains.  "Go to the mountains" appears to be a popular activity around here, centering mostly around the town of Zakopane about two hours to the south of Krakow.  This puts it at the foothills of the Tatras mountains, which is the border...

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Polish Folk Art Festival

Over the past few days, another festival has sprung out of the ground here in the Krakow city center.  It's in the main square this time, and after a little digging I found out that it's a festival of folk art.  Basically, it's a giant flea market of Polish goods.  There are all sorts of vendors, some selling cheap souvenir junk and others selling real handmade stuff.  There's even a blacksmith offering to put your name on your own lucky horseshoe! One of the things I love about these festivals is that they have a very similar type of grill going at basically all of them.  Kielbasa, pork steak, shish kebabs (made entirely of pork cuts, bacon, and onion), pork tips, along with grilled vegetables, bigos, and sauteed...

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Small Observances

It's gotten warm again.  The high today was about 90°F, which is OK in the air-conditioned office, but the apartment is quite warm.  The train was also above-average heat today. As the faithful readers of this blog have likely figured out, during the week my life is pretty routine.  I'm fairly used to the pattern of getting on the train, going to work, and coming back.  Laurel, with more free time, was able to do more fun exploring and picture-taking.  This is not to say I'm not enjoying things, but rather that I have less large observations to share with you.  Instead, here are several smaller ones: I still enjoy hearing the hejnal from my open apartment window each hour.  For those of you that may have missed it, here's what that is (not my video): There...

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Polish Pilgrimage

Most of yesterday was uneventful.  I went again to the pirogi festival for lunch, which was excellent.  The variety of pirogi there is just amazing!  There are the traditional ones: meat, cottage cheese, cabbage, blueberry, etc., but there are also ones that I had never heard of.  Included in the latter category are kielbasa and potato, "Mexican" (beans, meat, onion, and some seasoning), chocolate and something (I don't know the word), salmon, duck, and others.  I could eat there every day for a week! In the evening, my friend Aamri from Oman hosted a get-together at his apartment.  It was largely the same group as the language club, and thus I knew most of the people there.  At one, point, though, the conversation took an interesting turn. Aamri is considering...

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Re-entry

I am safely back at home in Fort Wayne now.  I landed right on time with no delays last evening.  That was at 8 PM; I was passed out by 9:30.  I'd like to write about some of my initial impressions coming back to the United States.  I started this post yesterday while I was traveling, though, so it kind of counts for both yesterday and today. Title: A Very Long DayAs I write this, I am laid over in Chicago after an eight-and-a-half hour flight across the Atlantic and Canada.  It feels like it's about midnight, except it's only 5 o'clock here.  I'd really like to go to sleep, but I also need to reset my biological clock.  Hopefully, writing this blog post will help keep me awake.First thoughts coming back into the U.S.:1: I can understand 99% of what everyone...

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Here's My Take

I'm glad that Andy posted about yesterday (Thursday), but I also wrote my own account while I was on planes and in airports today...

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The puffin has flown

Laurel got on a train for the airport this morning at 8AM, and she's just entered Canadian airspace right now.  Since today has been kind of sad and boring for me, I thought I'd write a post about yesterday instead (like I promised her I would).  You'll hear from her again, though: I've asked her to make a post or two about re-entry into US life. Thursday was a largely practical day for Laurel, although she did get to go to the peirogi festival for lunch and view the Sukiennice's art museum.  She also successfully mailed a large box o' stuff home, which was a multi-day process to figure out how to do.  We'll figure out if she got it right when it arrives in the US. In the evening, we went back to her favorite restaurant...

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Polish Holiday

Yesterday was a holiday here in Krakow.  We think it celebrates two quite different occasions.  The first is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary; the second is a Polish army day celebrating the Battle of Warsaw in 1920.  This was also my last day off with Andy, so we wanted to have some fun. We started out with a run around Błonia that went pretty well.  We got to go all the way around the park this time instead of just down one leg of it.  I knew I would get to see Wawel and the river again, so the park made more sense for my last run. After we returned to the apartment and got cleaned up, we headed out and made a few errands, including taking a short stop into the Church of Peter and Paul.  The organ was playing...

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Schindler's Museum

Today I was successful in visiting the Oskar Schindler factory.  Along with the Rynek Underground Museum (see previous post), this is one of the newest museums in Kraków.  I was not sure what to expect entirely, because (condemn me if you will) I haven't seen the movie Schindler's List.  I did know he was a German associated with the Nazi party who decided to help some Jews. So with that minimal background, I entered the world of a Kraków citizen in the 1930s and 1940s.  The museum is designed to immerse the visitor in the surroundings, with walls, floors, objects, sounds, and interactive screens that put you in the shoes of a typical citizen--sometimes a Jewish citizen.  There was so much to take in!  I learned...

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The many meanings of "proszę"

It occurred to Laurel and I that there is one particular word which we hear an awful lot in Kraków: Proszę.  It's pronounced as "PRO-shem", we originally learned its translation as "please."  That's one of its meanings, but it's also used to mean any of the following (my translations): Please Excuse me / pardon me Next (as in, what a cashier would say to the person in front of a line) Here you go If I may Also, proszę is often combined with "bardzo," which translates to "very."  At least, that's what I thought it meant.  Google Translate also gives the following for "bardzo": Very Greatly Pretty Badly Some Vastly Plenty Sorely Ever So Mightily Jolly You can see why "bardzo proszę" must always be determined by context.  In isolation, this phrase (in addition...

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This is so Ghetto!

It's sad, but we've started thinking about my going back home.  I will be flying on Friday.  Since we've both been out of the country for an extended period of time now, we wonder what reverse culture shock we're going to experience.  Last night, we talked about what will be strange to us: lightswitches?  prices?  driving a car?  having a yard?  Maybe most of all, the weather!  Although it's cool and dreary here, at least there's rain. Let's not forget that we will also be able to communicate problem-free with just about anyone.  Last night at the English language meeting, Andy and I were talking with some Poles about learning English and learning Polish.  Both groups had some funny stories...

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Pod Rynek Główny (Under the Main Market Square)

Tonight we went back in time and underground to what Andy aptly described as a Discovery Channel special on Rynek Główny.  The Rynek Underground Museum is probably the newest museum in Kraków.  It was opened just a few years ago after the excavation of a newly discovered archaeological site.  Archaeologists uncovered the foundations of market stalls from the 13th century.  They were abutted against the foundation walls of the Sukiennice (the building in the center of the Rynek Główny). There were multi-level buildings in Rynek before it was just a big open space like it is now.  The ruins the museum is built on were like basement stalls, with staircases leading down into them.  On top, there were two-story buildings...

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McDonald's

Dual post day! Today, Laurel and I had a late lunch and thus weren't very hungry for dinner.  We decided it was a good time to visit the McDonald's on Florianska street.  If this sounds atypical of us, here are a few reasons we went there: As previously mentioned, we weren't very hungry.  Thus, only minimal amounts of actual McDonald's food needed to be consumed. Visiting a foreign McDonald's is an interesting experience.  In many ways they're the same as the American ones, and in others they're different.  For example, the McFlurries were served with Wedel chocolate pieces.  Also, they translated "chicken" into Polish in one part of the menu, but still left it as "McChicken" in another. Laurel and I don't eat...

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Are You Sure It's Not October?

Today we went to Wieliczka Salt Mine.  It was an excellent day to spend doing something inside, because it was rainy.  It was also 55° Fahrenheit most of the day today.  Yes, it's August, and it was 55°.  When Andy told me the weather forecast for today, I asked him if the projected high was for inside or outside the salt mine.  The salt mine was also chilly, though, so we had already prepared ourselves to wear jackets and long pants; it's just that we ended up wearing them all day.  The foray to the salt mine generally went much more smoothly than my trip to Auschwitz.  I would say two things about the experience in general: it is really cool, and I would recommend it as something to see if you happen...

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Day With a New Friend

Greetings, followers!  I had a wonderful day with a new friend today.  Her name is Paulina.  A mutual acquaintance from the language club introduced the two of us via text.  I had never met anyone via text messages before, but I think we got along very well from the start.  Paulina is from Mexico; but she was working in Germany and was in Krakow on holiday.  Being with Paulina was another great opportunity to practice Spanish again.  She was very patient with my stumbling through sentences and searching for words, and she also spoke slowly to me in Spanish so it was easy to understand.  Thankfully, Paulina also speaks English well, so we could always revert to that when things got hard for me. We traversed...

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I Survived Auschwitz

And it really was a day full of challenges and discomfort.  However, the challenges did not so much come from experiencing the horrors that the prisoners endured in the concentration camp, but from the logistics of getting to and from Auschwitz.  The train ride to the town of Oświęcim (Polish word for Auschwitz) is about two hours long, so I had planned accordingly with the train schedule.  I was standing on the platform where the train was to leave, watching and waiting for the train to arrive.  After a few minutes, I heard movement behind me, and saw a train pulling away on the track on the other side of the platform.  I had missed my train standing right there next to it.  Thus began the first challenge of the...

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