Poland and whatnot

So! Last weekend my whole program went on an organized trip to Krakow, Poland. It was pretty exciting. I had never thought much about Poland before, but I am glad that I got the chance to go, because Krakow was a beautiful and relatively quiet city with lots to explore. I would love to go back. There are lots of pictures up on my new picture site, too.

We headed out on Thursday night around 10pm for a night of completely non-restful sleep on a tour bus, drove for 7 hours, and arrived in Krakow around 6:30 am. Way to early for my tastes. At the border, nobody even came on our bus to check our passports, we just handed them over in a big stack to one of our professors, Marek, who gave them to the border patrol, and we were back on the road in 10 minutes. It was still exciting though.

This was the first time that our entire program, with the addition of a few stragglers from other programs and a few friends, has been somewhere together. This was, I must say, both a blessing and a curse. Some people I was glad to be around, and got to talk with and hang out with. Others, like the disrespectful girls who insisted on being chatty cathy's while we were in the barracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau, I was less than pleased to be around. But, it was an experience nonetheless.

When we got there, we waited for somewhere to open for breakfast. After that, Marek gave us a tour of the city center and of the old Jewish town. We walked around the square, learned some stuff, took some pictures, and had a generally nice (albeit sleepy) time. After checking into the hostel and eating a pizza lunch, we piled back on the bus to visit Auschwitz.

Visiting the concentration camp was surreal, to say the least. It was a bright spring day, the trees were blooming, it was warm out, and it smelled like lilacs. Yet we were in the middle of a place that was home to some of the most gruesome atrocities the world has ever seen. It was very sobering, and I am glad I had the opportunity to see it. I will talk more with people about it when I get home, if you want. I had lots of thoughts from that day. There is just no right way to write about it, for me anyways.

After that we ate dinner, and my friends had Marek show us a good place to eat dinner. We ended up at this cool vegetarian buffet type place, which also had some traditional Polish food. I had white borscht (even though I still can't tell you what borscht is...) and some good pork and cabbage.

The next day it was kinda cloudy and rainy (it really would have been a better day for visiting Auschwitz) and we had some free time, so Amy and I went souvenir shopping and clothes shopping. I got some neat stuff, for others and for me. Krakow has some really nice amber jewelery because amber is what they are famous for. I didn't get any though, so don't get excited.

Then we went to the salt mines, which were really cool. Basically just caverns carved out of rock salt, with statues and stuff. I think they still get salt from the water that they drain out of there, but I don't think they mine any more rock salt. Our tour guide was great, she was super tiny and Polish and made all these hilarious jokes that were only hilarious because English wasn't her first language.

Then it was home! Sunday I basically slept all day, which was nice, and went out to dinner for my friend's 21st birthday. We went to a great vegetarian place that I had never been to before, so that was fun.

This week I have been working on papers. It's slow going, but it's only because I am totally not motivated to do them, because I know they will not take much time. I actually just finished writing one, and am taking a break before writing the bibliography (my least favorite part about papers).

Tomorrow I am going with Hannah to visit Česká Třebová, a small town where some of her extended family live. Here is a website about it if you want to check it out http://www.ceska-trebova.cz/eu/.

I can't believe it - 3 weeks from today I will be home. Half of me thinks that is way too long, and the other half of me feels like I just got here.

Lots of love, hope everyone is doing well!