The past week has been rather busy and eventful. Tuesday afternoon, I convinced several classmates to join me for a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, since it is free of Tuesdays, and I had yet to visit. Most of it was sub-par and not at all interesting, but there was one piece…
Hello again, dear readers! It’s been some time since I’ve written, and quite a lot has happened! Two weeks, in fact, it seems. This week has been quite a full one. Last Monday, my Polish folklore class (basically a generic class which does anything which could remotely be considered in some way “cultural”) hosted and…
Sometimes, my university celebrates its 650th anniversary. Sometimes that means foreign students get roped into singing a song in Latin in front of a huge crowd for the beginning of the festivities. You can see the video here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=767720136594272&set=vb.164610150238610&type=2&theater (If you look closely, you can briefly see my head on the right side at the…
Hello again! My apologies my updates have become rather few and far between. The middle part of the semester has turned out to be slightly hectic, but rewarding. After returning from my adventures in Budapest and Zagreb, we had class Wed. – Friday. Remember the town of Żywiec, previously in these pages, from my failed…
More later! Many stories! adventures! and lots of Polish to learn!
(the photos on this are a bit scrambled, but at least I’ve been able to extract some finally from my camera!) Park behind Hero’s square And… at long last, here I am! Class is back to normal in Cracow after a wonderful few days abroad (abroad from being abroad?); and I have much to tell–these…
The past week has been full–and more thorough narrations shall follow. But, I am alive and well–after a week of oral exams, last minute invitations to Passover Seders in Jewish Cracow (fabulous!), last minute packing adventures and homeworking, complete failures at laundrying (me and Polish washers should learn to get along!); long bus rides through…
Several months ago, my undergraduate history department started a blog. One of the more recent posts, by a English-American historian lyrically captures much of my own experience as a historian in East Central Europe. Prof. Van Vugt writes how frequently, when his hosts during a research trip to Yorskhire, England, discovered he was not on holiday,…
Tuesday: midterm exams are coming in full swing. We had our exam in listening and vocabulary today; tomorrow is grammar, reading, and writing; speaking on Thursday. It’s been a full few days: after a busy Friday (the soccer game), Saturday brought a picnic in the park by our dorm (apparently I’m not the only one…
Last evening (Friday), several of my classmates from the Uni convinced me to join them at a match at the Cracovia football (i,e soccer) stadium. Cracow has two football teams–Cracovia and Wisła (the Polish name for the the river Vistula which flows through Cracow); the rivalry between the two teams is quite intense, despite the…
1) When someone Polish asks me for directions, and I can successfully respond, in Polish. And they understand. 2) Quiet morning walks through Wawel Castle, at 7h30, before tourist Cracow awakes. And the fact that the castle is right across the street from my classroom window. 3) Walking everywhere, because. And in and out of…
Last night, I joined that monks at the Dominican Church and Monastery (klasztor!) for Gregorian Vespers … ul. Dominikańska (Dominican St.). A gorgeous service, in one of my favorite churches in the city–and all in Latin! Now I know the word for Vespers: “nieszpory.” This has best be useful. Somehow, the service reminded me of Adam…
(No, this has nothing to do with Czesław Miłosz’s poem, but you should read it anyway! http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19195) Cracow feels so European, and Lublin so far from Europe. Spring is out in Cracow, dressed in all sorts of flowering shrubs and trees. Stunning. Supposedly, the bagel was invented here in Cracow (the word is first printed…
I’d heard quite a bit during my Polish studies about Cracow’s dangerous pollution levels; during my two previous visits here over the summers, I never noticed anything that seemed necessarily out of the ordinary. Much of the problem, it seems, is from coal burning–much of Poland still uses coal for heating; so during the summer–when the…
This past Saturday was adventure day. Friday afternoon, I decided to take an early morning bus to Wrocław (the old German city Breslau, a supposedly–yes, supposedly, I still haven’t seen it–stunning city several hours west of Cracow). I arrived at the bus station at 6:00, only to find the bus I’d hoped to take was…
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