Visit to the Gym

Today I decided to try out a Polish gym.  The easiest one for me to get to is actually really close to my work; it's easiest to get to because I have a train pass to go there, which makes it easy even if it may be a little longer than it otherwise could be.  The gym has a website here (if you click on the "EN" in the upper-right, you'll get English) for those that are curious.

The office park where I work has five buildings in kind of an "L" shape.  I work in the closest one to the train stop; the gym was in the one furthest away.  I had to walk across a gravel parking lot to get there.  Since it was Saturday, there was basically no one else there, so it felt kind of like walking through some sort of odd movie scene.  Nevertheless, the gym really was up there on the sixth floor of the building.  (Fun fact: they start their floor numbering at zero, so if you ask a Polish person, they'll say it's on the 5th floor and you have to push "5" in the elevator to get there.)

The gym was pretty nice, and they let me work out for free because it was my first time.  Interestingly, though, there wasn't any source of free water there.  I had to buy a bottle.  Still, I suspect I'll go back and get a weekend-only membership and just make that a routine part of a weekend morning day.

I decided that the main goal of today would be to obtain a prepaid cell phone.  It started with going to a few stores that a friend had sent me addresses for, and then exploring down to a few others I had seen along the way.  This route took me by one of my favorite outdoor "fast food" (it has a different meaning in Poland) places, and I decided there wasn't enough Polish sausage in my diet.  This is a true Polish sausage:

Unfortunately, it appears that Poles believe no used phone shopping occurs on the weekend.  I went to a total of five different stores, of which four were closed.  I would up buying the phone from the first place I went to, but got a pretty long walk in the process.  The good news is that I was able to basically find my way back from Kazimierz to Rynek without a map and using unfamiliar streets; my sense of direction around here is improving.  Kraków's signage helps, too.


I spent a little time in Rynek this evening, but I didn't feel like staying out as late as last night.  However, I did grab one quick shot of the statue in front of the Cloth Hall.

I'd like to point out three things about this picture:

1. The guys in the foreground had just finished putting on a dancing performance.  
2. Notice all the people around the monument: this is a very popular meeting place.  
3. Notice the people ON the monument: apparently that's OK, because children are always climbing on it.

Blog note:  I've been playing with the design a bit, so don't be too scared if things look a little different or move around a bit.

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One Week

My first week in Kraków has passed.  Let's review some important lessons so far:

• Most useful phrase: "Czy mowi pan(i) po angielsku?" (Do you speak English?)
• Drying clothes without a dryer takes much longer
• Carrefour employees have about a 50% chance of speaking English
• Trains are awesome
• The Planty is most useful because it's well-neigh impossible to get lost in it

Today I discovered a wonderful dessert bar just south of Rynek which I intend on showing Laurel soon.  I also got a chance to try Polish pancakes.  Although similar in taste to US pancakes, they're a little thinner and don't come with syrup.  Instead, my batch came with a lot of chopped fruit and a few small helpings of whipped cream.

I also went out about 10PM to the main square to walk around and grab a snack.  There, I found a performance of some full-body metallic wolf puppets dancing to a piano player spinning around on a giant wolf-head piano.  No, really, you read that correctly and I'm totally sober.  I have a video of some of it here:

Rynek was radiant tonight.  I tried to capture a panorama shot of it, but panorama mode and night mode do not intersect.  Still, take a look at this, and ignore that it's a little fuzzy:

That's only about 110° of viewing angle.  I wanted more like 180°, as another small but beautifully-lit church was to my right..

There's also currently some happy (drunken?) yelling outside my window, which I can't really see what it's about.  However, I'm not too worried about this; the fan in my bedroom is good at drowning out irrelevant noises.

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Spanish Evening!

Today was a fairly normal day at work, so I'm going to talk about what happened after work.  After work I went to the Language Exchange Group's Spanish night.  It actually took me way longer than expected in order to find the place where they meet.  The place they meet calls itself a "cafe", but "random kitchen" might be a more apt description.  Nevertheless, the people were friendly and my happy to remind me of just how much Spanish I've forgotten.

I snapped two photos on my way home from the Spanish club.  The first is looking south, and in it you can see the Barbikan, St. Florian's Gate, and St. Mary's Basilica.  I am blissfully ignorant of what the statue in the foreground is for.

The second photo is of the building in the middle of the main square.  I'm a little confused on what it's called (remember, I haven't taken any tours), but I believe it's the cloth hall.  The photo turned out better than I expected.  Go little camera!

That's all for today because I got back later than expected.  Weekend starts tomorrow!

Edit: A Polish friend told me the building in the main square (second picture above) is called Sukiennice.  Here's the Wikipedia page on it (in English).

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Nothing Special

Today was the fourth of July, and it was just another day here in Poland.  Other than the complete lack of emails from my coworkers, it was no different than any other day.  I would periodically remember that all of my friends back home were relaxing, some for a five-day weekend, instead of being in an office.  However, I'll have my revenge on August 15th, when Poland has a church holiday and everyone else will be at work.

I did some more research on a cell phone, and it looks like that project may be on hold until the weekend.  It sounds like buying a used handset and a card to go in it is the best route, and then to do things via prepaid.  However, there aren't many (any?) places that sell used handsets within the city center.  The nearest one is about a mile south, so that may wait until the weekend.

I didn't take any pictures today, so I'll share with you one I took a few days ago.  This is St. Florian's gate, and it's at the north end of the old market area.  Although I'm rusty on my facts here, I believe it dates from the late 13th century.  Krakow was destroyed by an invasion of Tartars in 1241, and the walls were built in response.  Most of the walls are now gone, but some survive on the north end of the city.  I believe this is the only gate that survives, but again I could be wrong here.

Florianska street is also one of the most popular tourist streets.  Because it goes directly between the main square and St. Florian's gate (and other tourist sights), it has a whole host of shops along it.  It can be quite busy!

Today I also stopped by a small grocery store (I've all but given up on Carrefour) and got dinner for myself there. I also was able to navigate the language barrier with the cashier, so that was nice.  Also, I was able to have pirogi for dinner! At the apartment, I tried doing laundry, and I've learned that the main constraint to laundry load size is going to be drying rack space.  (I have no dryer, by the way.)  This will influence my schedule more than I would desire.

My days are falling into line now, which unfortunately may make for less interesting posts.  I'll do what I can, though.

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Train!

Today I had my first successful train ride and got to work on time!  I also was able to deal with a non-English-speaking ticket counter.  The conversation went something like this, translated for your convenience:

Me: Do you speak English?
Her: No.
Me: OK.  I must have ticket from Kraków Głowny to Krakow Business Park.
[Note, I'm standing in Kraków Głowny at this point, so it's an awkward phrasing. "Here" would have been a better choice of words, but I had temporarily forgotten the word for it. I now remember that it's "tutaj" (too-tay).]
Her: OK.
Me: I need it for...for...["month" (in English)]
Her: [incomprehensible Polish]
Me: ...I don't understand
Her: [pointing at calendar] July?
Me: Yes!
Her: OK.

It got me what I needed.  Fortunately now that I've actually started working with coworkers that speak English well, I have a resource for asking questions more than once every three days.

Today it was raining when I went out after work, so I didn't take my camera. I will make up for it by taking a picture of my apartment for you.

It's cozy, but not bad with just me.  When Laurel arrives we'll see how it feels.  Regardless, it has everything I need, and I'm dealing with the lack of air conditioning OK.

That's about it for today.  Being a weekday, I had less time to go exploring.  Tomorrow I will try running before work and seeing if I can still make it in on time!

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First day of work

Let's start with the beginning of the day.  That occurred at approximately 4AM, because that's when it gets fairly light outside my apartment.  Lesson learned: close the doors to the bedroom.  It also helped me figure out what the mysterious black paper in my room was for.  After making those adjustments, I got a bit more sleep, but less than usual.

This morning, at approximately 7AM, a crew started painting the front of my building.  This placed a large "cherry picker" machine directly in front of the exit from the building.  That was fun to get by on my way out the door.

I've resolved to myself to keep discussions of work to a minimum on this blog, but I'd like to chat about lunch.  Lunch differs in several ways from the usual American lunch in three principal ways: it's the main meal of the day, it's typically eaten at 1-2 PM, and it's only 30 minutes long.  Fortunately, the workplaces have cafeterias with prepared foods in order to handle these constraints.  Today, I had to face one of these alone, but I made it out with some pork and golden potatoes (and it only cost about $4.50).

I also had my first experience with public transportation today.  I purchased a ticket from an automated machine for about $1 USD and got on a tram in order to get home.  It went fine.  I'm slightly confused about what I was supposed to do with the ticket.  No one asked for my ticket, and no one else seemed to be doing much of anything with theirs.  There were some orange boxes that looked like they were for the tickets, but no one was using them, so I didn't either.  Tomorrow I start using the trains, and I suspect they'll be more organized.

Update on the public transportation: I went to the language exchange group tonight, and they confirmed that people are supposed to use the little orange boxes.  I took a tram home and had the ticket successfully validated.  It seems like a lot of concentration for two small punches on a card the size of a post-it note.

After work, I tried again to battle Carrefour.  This time I got an English-speaking cashier, but one of my items (a stack of notecards) wouldn't ring up.  I wound up just leaving without it.  Boo.  The rest of the purchases, however, allowed me to make my first dinner at home.  Nothing exotic (just sandwiches) but a victory nonetheless!

Tomorrow the real work begins...provided I can actually catch the train.

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Moving again

Today's principal activity was moving from the hotel I've been staying at to the apartment I'll be living in until I leave Poland.  The apartment is much closer to the city, which is good; however, it is not air-conditioned, which is unfortunate.  They did bring in a fan for me, but it's still pretty warm in here.  The internet connection appears to be better than in the hotel, though, so that's another positive.

I'm on the fourth floor, and the apartment has what I would like to affectionately call "the world's smallest elevator."  This elevator is clearly designed for one, although a couple could probably squeeze in as well, as long as neither were too large.  Also, Poles start their floors from 0, so I have to remember to push "3" in the elevator or I'll go one too far.  It's only a matter of time before I mess that one up.

Picture of said elevator:

The apartment landings in front of each door have timed lights.  There's a glowing light switch that you can hit to turn on the lights, and then they turn off automatically.  The result is that when you step off the elevator, it's very dark, except for the spot of light where the switch is.  That may take some getting used to.  It's secure though; the building requires a code to enter in the first place.

The apartment is in an old, European building and is fairly small.  The windows face North and are immediately above the street where you enter the building.  The windows open fully, but have no screens.  And before anyone gets any ideas, I neither have nor desire a mechanism for stringing my clothes high above some European street to dry.

Fortunately, the apartment has an iron and ironing board, which my sad, rolled dress clothes desperately needed. I'm neither the best packer nor the best iron-er, but I think I made it through alright.  This action will avoid my coworkers believing that I sleep in my work clothes.

I also did my first grocery run in Poland, and there I had my first experience with a non-English-speaking cashier.  It was a little rough, but I got through and I don't think I lost anything in the process.  Items to remember: cena = price, and make sure to get a label for your produce.  Also, the plastic bags cost 45gr each (about $0.13 USD), but are slightly stronger than the American versions that are free.  I'll keep my eyes open for a reusable one, though.

Supposedly there's a grocery or two that are closer than Carrefour, where I went today, but I needed some atypical items (ice cube tray) that made me want to go to a larger store.  This store is in the middle of a mall. Imagine going to Glenbrook (for the Fort Wayne folks) or Circle Center (for the Indy folks) and having a grocery store in it.  Kind of weird, but workable.

Lunch today was at a "Mexican" restaurant that I thought it would be fun to try.  While not bad, there are some definite discrepancies between this place and Mexican food.  Pros: I could actually read the menu (in Spanish), food was good; cons: no one in the place spoke Spanish, not exactly normal Mexican seasoning (cilantro y cebolla, anyone?).

For dinner, I had my first pirogi in Rynek Głowny (the main square, which I am now two blocks from).  They were delicious.  This meal cost about $7.80 USD including tip.

My first day of work at the new office is tomorrow.  They're sending a taxi for me, so that eliminates one variable, but there will still be a lot of new stuff to learn.  The adventure continues!

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