Promise Fulfilled

There are other things worth noting from over the weekend, which one of us will post about in good time, but the biggest news from the beginning of this week is that I have had an interview and been offered an internship!  It's all happened so fast, I almost can't believe it, but I do believe that God had His plan prepared for just the right moment.  Prayers have definitely been answered, and I couldn't have asked for more, because the offer comes from my number one choice school district.  I've been waiting and searching for seven months, but I remained faithful, and God did too.

Celebration occurred at one of our favorite fancy Old Town restaurants, Miód Malina (Honey Raspberry). :-)

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History and Art, Part 2

Publishing an update here. I finished my grand tour of the National Museum main branch on Friday, and I saw the remaining two exhibits: the gallery of 20th century Polish art, and the gallery of decorative art.  There is nothing that warrants long explanations from my second visit, as that would probably bore most readers, but I wanted to share some photos.  The gallery of 20th century art actually provided some interactive fun.

This piece of "art" involved a hall of mirrors.  Fun!

 Where's the real Puffer??

 This painting was neat because it showed a map of Poland at its height back at the end of the Middle Ages and named all of the Polish kings, starting from the 1100s or 1200s up through when Poland was divided during the 1800s.  That's a lot of history.

The gallery of decorative art once again marched through centuries of history, including medieval stained glass windows, enormous solid wood chests carved and inlaid with several types of wood, and dish- and serving ware in many different styles, from French-like to East Asian.  There were even some musical instruments.

This is a hurdy-gurdy.  I don't believe I'd ever seen one of these before.  Plus, it's just fun to say.  Hurdy gurdy, hurdy-gurdy!

 Puffer and I were tired after the trip through the museum.  Time for a restful weekend.

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History and Art

This week has not been terribly exciting, but I've gotten a chance to learn about some finer points of Polish history and culture.  On Monday, I attended the Free Walking Tour of the Old Town.  Although I didn't learn as much as I did on the one through the old Jewish district, I still learned a fact or two, and I appreciated the guide's enthusiasm and spunky commentary.  One thing I learned was that there were certain official "rules" that dictated the layout of medieval cities, especially the main square's specifications.  And although it's not the largest main square in Europe overall, Kraków's is the largest medieval square in Europe.

On Tuesday, I visited some exhibits in the one museum I wished I had seen last year: the main branch of the National Museum in Kraków.  I saw a very cool exhibit of surrealist paintings by a Chilean artist, but the exhibit more pertinent to the theme of this post is the Polish Arms and Armor collection.  This series of galleries takes you through the entire history of what Poles marched into battle carrying and wearing, from about 1000 A.D. until World War II.  I found it really helped me see the big picture of Polish military events.  I even got to dress up as a Hussar (those winged horsemen from the 17th century)!

 Puffer got to play with stuff, too.

I will go back to the museum at some point to see more exhibits, because my ticket is good for two weeks from the date of purchase (the time I have remaining here). 

Today, I didn't travel very far and visited two smaller museums close by in the Old Town.  The first was all about the art of the Young Poland movement of the late 19th century, and the second was about the January Uprising of 1863.  One note before I describe these: during the time period of both these exhibits, Poland didn't really exist as a country.  It was shared among Russia, Prussia/Germany, and Austria. The January Uprising (as near as I can tell) was in rebellion against Russian occupiers.  There was an entire underground movement, including an unofficial government.  Of course, the Poles were not successful in overthrowing their Russian masters, but the Uprising came to be viewed with rosy lenses as time went on, especially after World War I, when Poland really did gain independence.

The Young Poland movement was a sort of awakening of artistic spirit and creativity right at the end of the 1800s.  It was like Poles were finally getting so fed up with being occupied and repressed that creative people just started bursting with ideas.  Influences of Impressionism showed up in art, and artists began making cartoonish drawings of famous people--actors, actresses, professors, and other artists--to express a different perspective on life.  Ah, Polish Bohemians!

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Blessings and Curses

It's been awhile since I've authored a post.  This is for two reasons:

1. My life has more-or-less settled down into the working routine here in Krakow, and
2. This is the first morning in six days when I haven't woken up ticked off.

As Laurel wrote about earlier, we've had trouble with someone moving around in an apartment next to ours and waking us up between 5 AM - 6 AM for the past five mornings, although it's usually closer to 5 than 6.  It sounded like exercise, but it's really difficult to tell where it's coming from.  Yesterday, I decided this would stop and I wasn't going to wait for my apartment owner to handle it.

I should clarify something: here in Krakow, people actually own apartments but may not own the building.  I think of it like a condominium.  So, although my apartment owner owns several units in the building, in Krakow, and even in other cities in Poland, he doesn't own every unit in the building.  This complicates enforcement.

We started by waking up the people upstairs above our apartment up at 6 AM.  This technically isn't against the few building rules that exist, as "curfew" is between 10 PM - 6 AM.  I recognize it's a bit of a jerk thing to do, but I want my sleep!  Anyway, they were very nice for us having woken them up at 6 AM on a Saturday, but they weren't the guilty parties; both of the units' occupants had been sleeping.

We rang more doorbells of the units around us, but no one answered.  Later (after lunch), we caught up with our neighbors from below and determined they couldn't be the cause.  Their arrival date and waking hours were not in alignment.  

At each point, I'm sending a text and/or email to my apartment owners to give them the idea that this problem is my #1 priority and I'll do whatever I have to to make it stop.  My search thus far had made my next-door neighbor the primary suspect, and fortunately my apartment owner also owns that unit.  They contacted the occupant, who was very surprised to hear of the problem.  Laurel and I also (independently) talked to the occupant, and I highly suspect we have our culprit.  The arrival date, waking hours, and some exercises all correspond to what we're experiencing.  We agreed that they would be a little more careful in the morning and Laurel and I would knock if the problem continued, thus we could at least get more information if it happened again (and they're already up, so no worries about waking anyone).

Fortunately, everyone in this situation was an adult about it and very nice.  I was getting progressively more ticked off as my sleep deficit grew, but most of my venting was focused at the apartment company who knew they had to make it better and understood my frustration.  Last night was our first full night's sleep in 6 days, and it was glorious.  I tend to sleep for 7-8 hours regardless, but Laurel is currently at 9 and still out cold as I'm writing this.

That's the "curses" part.  Now, on to the blessings.

A week ago, I passed my final actuarial examination.  I had taken this exam in early May and it wasn't until Friday, July 12 that results were released.  I still have two more requirements to get out of the way before I'm truly done, but those are less time-consuming, low-pressure, and will take more time than they should because of deadlines and travels.  Still, it's no longer a question of "if" I get there, but a question of "when."

I try to bring a few US customs to the office, and one of them was I brought some nice treats on the following Monday for my coworkers at the office.  They saw how big of a deal this was, and they're familiar with the designations from email signatures, so on Tuesday they got me a present.  

One is a pencil and one is a pen.  A pencil because I had made sure they all had mechanical pencils for their work, since every actuary needs a pencil for their math scratch work.  A pen because they see the final designation as the person who signs reports a lot, so I'd soon be signing reports and need a good pen.  This set will come back to the US with me and go straight to the office, and I will make sure the first report I sign will be with this pen.  I had not expected a gift from them; this was a wonderful surprise.

Laurel and I also got to go to part of a jazz concert last night.  We wound up sitting on a stone planter-box for seats, so after 90 minutes I was ready to move on, even though the concert went on for quite a while longer.  This was in Mały Rynek, which is about a block from our unit.  It's amazing to live where we do.

"Noc" = "night", by the way.

I also got to take Laurel to the famous kielbasa man.  Yes, he's famous.  It's sort of like a grown-up version of those little stands that spring up to feed students late at night on university campuses.  It was quite the experience for  Laurel, and I was proud that I could conduct the entire transaction in Polish, getting everything we wanted (and holding the mustard for me) and paying.  Yes, it's not the most complex transaction and I've done it before, but it's nice to see that my Polish is progressing.  Laurel got a new photo of him to share as well:

We've also discovered a wonderful new ice cream place, on par with Jeni's from Columbus, OH, and we finally got to go to a gym yesterday (which means we're sore today).  I've posed enough pictures of the main square on this blog, but it is still amazing to walk through it during a clear summer day or evening.  Krakow is still a delight, and it's even better when getting a full night's sleep.

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Everyone Wants to Exercise at 5:15 AM, Right?

Andy and I have had some troubles sleeping in this week.  And by "sleeping in," I mean past 5:30.  Starting Tuesday morning, we've been awakened every day by an intermittent, steady thumping around 5:15.  It has periods where it's quieter or louder, faster or slower, but it sounds like it is directly above our bedroom and goes on for over an hour.  At first, we had several hypotheses about what the noise could be.  Was someone playing drums?  Jumping rope?  Running on a treadmill?  By our best estimation, we determined someone was doing some sort of choreographed exercise, either step aerobics or an exercise video.  The frustrating thing was we could not figure out the exact apartment it was coming from upstairs.  The walls are thick here, but the floors are not, apparently.

I have to applaud this neighbor's motivation (and their cardio endurance), but by the third morning this had happened, Andy was about to light into someone.  On Wednesday, I had called our apartment managers to let them know about the problem, but their first attempt at a solution was not very assertive. This morning, they got a call at 5:20 AM requesting they come over immediately to resolve the noise.  At least our apartment managers are responsive.  Eventually, the apartment owner himself came over and determined which apartment the thumping was coming from.  He said he was meeting with the other building's apartment owners today and would explain the problem and work toward a cooperative solution.  He's planning to get back to us sometime tomorrow.

I really hope this does NOT continue next week, and goodness forbid, tomorrow, for our sake and for the neighbor's.  Andy will give whoever it is a piece of his mind if it happens again.  Here's hoping for a good night's sleep later tonight!

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New Kraków Discoveries

Let's see...This week so far has led to some new discoveries about Kraków.

Monday Andy tasked me with a challenge: find "American" celery somewhere in Kraków.  Since he has been sharing parts of American culture (i.e. snacks) with his coworkers, they have become more and more interested in unique American food innovations.  For example, last week he introduced the staff to s'mores.  Another idea for a snack he had was ants on a log.  (You know, celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins on top.)  We had brought peanut butter to share from home, and raisins are easy to find, so we were looking for the celery last week.  Although the Polish word for celery is similar to English (seler), Poland's version of celery that we found was not what we needed:

With the help of Łukasz, one of Andy's coworkers, we discovered that there are two types of celery: the one shown above, which is more of a celery-root vegetable, and seler naciowy, which is the kind we're used to. 

So, I was on a quest to find seler naciowy.  After some initially fruitless Google searching, I stumbled across a possible location to find the elusive vegetable: a market within walking distance of the Old Town called Stary Kleparz.  Sure enough, soon after I started shopping, I found what I was looking for!

 

We plan to have the snack for the staff on Friday.

Yesterday, I also made new discoveries about Kraków, because I went on one of the free walking tours available for tourists.  This tour was specifically about the areas of Kazimierz (the old Jewish Quarter) and Podgórze (the Jewish Ghetto during the Nazi occupation).  The tour guide was very knowledgeable and funny, and I loved it because it was an opportunity to learn more things about my surroundings.  One thing I learned was that at one time, starting back around the 15th century, Poland was home to 70% of the world's Jews!  I also got to see more of the remnants of the ghetto and hear more of the true story of Oskar Schindler.  

 The Jewish cemetery in Kazimierz.

A remaining portion of the ghetto wall in Podgórz.

Perhaps the most valuable part of the tour was the map and information about other tours that the guide gave us at the end.  I will definitely be checking those out for things to do!

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Wrocław

I am again composing a post from a bus, this time as we head back to Kraków  from Wrocław.  We had a pleasant weekend where we got to see a few of the city’s important landmarks.  I would say that Wrocław is very similar to Kraków  in many respects, but one charming element sets it apart is the city’s gnomes.  The little metal gnome statues are all over the old city, mostly in places well-traveled by tourists.  Puffer got some celebrity shots with a few of them.

 These gnomes actually represent individuals with various disabilities.  Puffer is sitting the lap of a gnome in a wheelchair.

When we arrived in the city, we started looking for the gnomes as soon as we were ready to go exploring.  Since our hotel was in the center of the old town, the first place we saw was the main square (another Rynek Głowny).  It is the second-largest main square in Poland, and other than having a few more buildings in the center than Kraków’s, it is almost exactly like it in style and contents.  Although we could appreciate the sites of the square, we were really looking for a mid-day meal, because we were really hungry!  Luckily, we found a charming alley of Italian cafes tucked away just off the main square.  The food was delicious!

We wound our way around some of the venerable buildings and made our way to the city indoor market—and just in time.  We only had about 10 minutes to explore before the market would close, but we found a couple good snacks.  What I really wanted to see yesterday was in an area far from the old city center.  One of Wrocław’s significant landmarks is an exposition hall and surrounding grounds, called Centennial Hall.  (It’s also a UNESCO site)  It was quite an architectural marvel at the time it was built about 100 years ago, because of the size of the reinforced concrete dome.  Inside the dome, now, though, they do a really neat light and sound show.  It really tricks your eyes!  The hall of course has a museum, in which we learned that one of the most famous events convened there was the Conference for World Peace in 1948.  I wonder why this important event was never mentioned in any history class I had.  Did the U.S. not attend?

We got to explore the Japanese Garden on the expo grounds, and then we watched the enormous fountain perform to recorded music.  This was the one thing I was looking forward to seeing in the area!

One more experience of note about yesterday was our dinner.  Andy found a place he wanted to go on the internet, but the translation of the menu from Polish was a bit…amusing.  If there are no impressionable children around, check out the link here and translate the page (with Google Chrome's translator).  You'll have to scroll down a bit before it becomes obvious, but you're looking for the section headed by two words, one of which is "baked."  Read carefully.  In any case, we had a great evening reflecting and celebrating Andy’s passing exam CSP.  And what is still baffling my mind is that we did this in outside at an authentic Polish restaurant.

Today we visited the City Hall and explored another distinctive part of Wrocław: its river islands.  Wrocław is actually known as the Venice of Poland.  The City Hall/museum was a good example of how buildings are changed over hundreds of years.  No one knocks buildings down in Europe; they only add on and renovate things periodically.  Wrocław’s city hall was originally built in about 1300.  The islands made for some perfect picturesque views.  It almost felt like Disney World…except that it’s the real thing.  We briefly got to see the main cathedral on one of the islands as well, although it being Sunday, we actually got caught up in the beginning part of a mass.

 The cathedral (St. John the Baptist Cathedral) is in the background.

It was a beautiful city, and a good way to relax and do some more celebration.  Now, back to life in Kraków.

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Milestones and Celebrations

Yesterday, I realized that I had passed the one-month mark that Andy and I have been in Poland.  And this means that as of yesterday, I've been in Europe longer than I was last year.  Plus, I still have about three and a half weeks left here!

The other major news of yesterday was that, for the second year in a row, Andy found out the results of his exam while in Kraków.  In case you haven't checked Facebook in the past 24 hours, he passed!!  After seven years of studying, he is completely done with actuarial exams.  This is part of the reason I didn't write this post yesterday: we had to go out and celebrate!  I'm actually writing this post on a bus as we ride to Wrocław for the weekend.

While Andy was busy hitting "refresh" on the results website yesterday, I was out doing more exploring.  I went to two branches of the National Museums of Kraków: The Arsenal (a collection of ancient artifacts of an established family of Polish magnates), and the house of Jan Matejko, Poland's most famous artist.  I was slightly disappointed by the ancient collections, partially because it only consisted of one gallery of items, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Jan Matejko house.  I felt like I learned a lot about the nineteenth-century artist.  For example, he owned a large variety of historic clothing, objects, and weapons from different periods of Polish history, which he used as models in his historic paintings.  Some of these objects are in the photos below.  Matejko earned several artistic honors in France, Germany, and Poland.  He was actively involved in restoration projects of some of Kraków's most well-known landmarks.  He was even visited in his own home by the Austrian Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph!

 Some mummified body parts.

 Jan Matejko's awards.

The artist's home studio.

After we found out that Andy passed the exam, we had a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite old town restaurants and went to see a friend of ours from the language clubs play harmonica in a blues club.  Yes, this is our friend Piotr, the Polish ornithologist.

Andy edit: A note for our native English-speaking friends: "Wrocław" is not pronounced anything like you probably think it is.  If you guessed "roh-claw," you're wrong.  You're not just a little wrong.  You're so wrong that Polish people would have no idea where you were talking about.  The correct pronunciation is closer to "VROHT-swaff."  W in Polish = v in English, ł in Polish = w in English, and c in Polish = "ts" in English.  Just FYI.  Try your luck out on Łancut, another Polish city. (answer at the end).

Answer to pronunciation question above: Łancut = "WAHNT-soot".  It actually sounds a little like "wine-sooth" when said quickly.

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Watch Out For Snails!

After a failed attempt yesterday, I visited the Botanical Gardens of Kraków today.  It was beautiful and peaceful (albeit a little buggy in places), and it made for a great photography session, as you will see.  But I don't want to get ahead of myself.  Let me start with what happened yesterday, when I thought I was going to the Botanical Gardens. 

I had looked up the location on Google maps before I left, and it looked within walking distance.  All I had to do was go straight down the street our apartment building is on out of the old town for about 1 kilometer.  So yesterday afternoon I did just that.  I passed by the Jesuit Basilica on the way, which I took a quick detour to see, but in general I just kept walking down the street.  And walking.  And walking.  Until I got to the very end of the street, where I finally saw something behind a fence that looked like the gardens.  There was a lane that led back into the fenced area, so I thought, "That must be the entrance!"  Nope.  The gate was closed, once I got up the lane far enough to see.

Seeing that a walking path continued around the edge of the gardens, I decided to follow it.  The entrance must be somewhere around the bend.  So I walked some more.  And walked.  And walked.  Plenty of fenced garden, but no entrance.  Finally, I saw another lane cut into the fenced area up ahead.  "This has to be it!" I thought.  I went up that lane, which really was more of an alley, but alas!  It did not reveal any gates or doors or signs. 

I was pretty annoyed at this point.  I thought, "I will follow this street until it meets a cross-street so I can get back to the street I started on."  Unfortunately this step in my plan didn't work either, as I never really came to a cross-street.  The street I was on dumped me out into a major intersection with bus and tram routes criss-crossing in all directions.  I only panicked for a moment, because I recognized the roundabout intersection from having ridden the bus up to Kościuszko Mound last week. 

My next task was to figure out which tram I needed to go in a direction that would take me back to the old town area, or more accurately, the Galeria Krakowska.  I walked nearly all around the roundabout, but I found the right tram and was soon back at the mall.  I was disappointed, but at least I knew how to get myself un-lost.  I might be starting to really know this town.

Today, I decided to try again, and I did my research a little more carefully this time: I took note of an exact street address.  Because I was looking at the address numbers as I went, I found what I thought was the right building.  But I still wasn't sure at first! (<p>short rant) Sometimes Kraków's signage is poor, but in this case it was abominable.  Several things work against someone searching for this place:

1. There was nothing that said "garden," or "ogród," as it would be in Polish anywhere near the building.  
2. There was noisy construction going on right next to the gate in front of the building.  
3. The actual garden entrance was off to one side, partially behind another building.  

I had to ask if I was in the right place--in Polish, of course.  It's no wonder I missed it the first time!  Finally finding my way in felt like a major victory! (</p> short rant)

Now, you're probably wondering why there are snails in this post's title.  I will get to that momentarily.  First, some beautiful photos of plants:

 Puffer is here for scale.  These are the largest lily pads I've ever seen.  Alaina could probably sit on one and not worry about sinking.

 This is "fossil oak."  Apparently, it undergoes a chemical reaction when buried by sand and clay, turning it black and preserving it.  This stump was estimated to be nearly 800 years old (not sure if that counts the age of the living tree or not)!

 The infamous pitcher plant...

And now, the snails.  Unfortunately, this story begins sadly.  I was walking along a path deep in the back of the garden, when I heard something crunch beneath my foot.  I looked down and saw it was a large shell, and then I realized--!  It was a snail shell.  I had crushed the poor thing!  I felt absolutely awful, as this was no small snail; its shell was a couple inches wide.  I really looked around after that to make sure I wouldn't step on another one.  Sure enough, this guy had friends.

 It was fascinating to watch this guy eat the dandelion leaf.

I continued to be vigilant for snails, but I couldn't help but accidentally tread on another one, because there were so many on the path at one point.  :-(  I really am not a vicious snail-killer.  I made my way quickly to where there were no more snails after that.

Regardless, it was a successful trip and a pretty place to see.  Tomorrow, I am planning on visiting one of the city's museums.

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