Witamy w Polsce! (Welcome to Poland!)

Two Dialogues in one summer what was I thinking?! When I got back from Spain I was supremely burnt out, but after two weeks at home I was able to recuperate a bit. Thank goodness because this Dialogue to Poland is shaping up to be quite a doozy.

Sunday/Monday

Ready to go!

It's officially our second day in Poland, but we actually left the States on Sunday afternoon. Needless to say it was a very long day-ish of traveling. We flew out of Boston at 4:30pm and landed in our connection in Frankfurt around 5am their time and left on our last leg of the journey at 7am, getting to Warsaw at 9am.









Even though the flights were long and I am notorious for being unable to sleep on planes it really wasn't all that bad. We flew Lufhansa and those Germans do it right when it comes to flying, the seats were pretty comfortable, the array of entertainment choices were superb, and the food served was excellent. As most of you know the food, if their is some served on your flight, usually sucks so its awesome when you actually can enjoy it. :)

We got picked up from the airport in a snazzy little Mercedes-Benz bus with bright orange interior, that we have delightfully named the Party Bus for its coloring.

What we didn't realize is that the hotel we are staying in is an hour outside of the city. This fact was a little bit of a bummer, but it means we are staying at an extremely nice hotel. In fact, today (Wednesday) we came down to breakfast and found out our lobby was taken over by a film crew for the most popular sitcom in Poland, and apparently a famous Polish rock star is staying here as well since he was being interviewed on the back patio. Hope they like have American extras...

The rest of that first day in Poland we spent touring the grounds of the hotel, in a lecture, and finally some naps and dinner. Nothing too exciting just jet lag

Tuesday

The next day was an early morning for us all, legitimately and just physically feeling it. Since we had an hour ride ahead of us we had to be out of the hotel early to get to our appointment at Warsaw University. Our first stop of the day was a lecture in one of the University classrooms given by the head of the History department there. Don't ask me to pronounce or spell his name, it would just be disastrous. I have definitely not conquered this language yet, sorry. He gave us a 'brief' (2 hour) overview of the history of Poland leading up to World War II. He heard that we are only here to learn about WWII history and he was appalled since his area of study is ancient history and insisted we needed this lecture. It actually turned out to be pretty interesting since I didn't know beforehand most of what he taught. Did anyone else not know that Poland didn't really exist until the 20th century?? Even at Ellis Island people from this region didn't register as Poles, but as Prussians or Austrians. It wasn't till they arrived in America that they realized they were Polish... Surprise!

Our Classroom :)

Afterwards he gave us a tour of the campus which is located in Old Warsaw on the 'Royal Street'. Meaning that way back when this was where all the royals built their palaces since it is right on the river, amazing views and a breeze is exactly what the princess ordered.

Gate to Warsaw University

We ended up finding one of their conference rooms where speakers come to give talks to the students of the History Department. And guess what?! It was a room full of columns and replicas of Greek and Roman sculptures. Can someone tell me why this doesn't exist at Northeastern??!! Curry Ballroom is looking sad now.

OH and to top it all off guess what stands in the middle of campus? Just Guess. If you said Palace you guessed right! Yep a palace exists on the grounds of Warsaw University. With a grand staircase and gold inlaid rooms and all. Here is a picture of me chilling in the middle of campus on a fancy sofa for student use. It currently serves as the regent's palace/home, and we think President Auon gets too many perks.

We asked about tuition here in Poland and especially for this particular university since it is gorgeous. You're not going to believe me but I'll tell you anyway. Back during Communism only 30,000 students attended and you had to pass an exam to get in, if you passed you got education for free. Nowadays 30,000 students who score the highest still get to go for free, but another 30,000 can go if they would like to pay. Right now you're thinking oh dear their expenses must be so high to have to pay for the other half of the students... well its not the United States, so nope. The Professor informed us that the highest tuition was for the law school and that was only $3,000 per year. I think I may be moving to Warsaw, sorry folks.

After the Palace he took us to the University library, again Northeastern gets trumped. A mass majority of this library is actually underground. And why you may ask. Well, because on top of it are public gardens. Trees, fruits, flowers, and veggies grow right above a library and in certain spots there are windows looking down into the library providing natural lighting. Wicked cool, I must say.

Destroyed Warsaw, Poland

After the Library we took a walk around Old Warsaw. Which just blows my mind. After WWII 85% of Warsaw was completely and utterly destroyed. The people of Warsaw afterwards actually decided to rebuild parts of the city as they were beforehand with their Baroque cathedrals and Greek influenced buildings and so on. Why haven't other cities and countries done this? The Polish people have so much pride in their history and past they don't want to forget it so they recreate its magnificence. I mean last summer in Bosnia-Herzegovina we had tours of the city and they had decided to keep some of the damage so they would never forget the horrors. In comparison to the Polish reaction I find that just silly, why focus on the terrible parts of your past instead of the good?

After tours we grabbed a late lunch in an outside cafe. Yummmmm cheap good beer and WAY too many pierogies to finish. Living the life!

Lunch!

We ended up taking the public bus back and boy was that an experience. Standing for an hour in a giant sardine can with no airflow, not okay. Needless to say it was sticky and gross and smelled horrible. On top of it all the bus driver was insane. Quick stops and NASCAR starts, meaning everyone was constantly being thrown around. And you had to run on and off that bus because it was all rolling stops and running starts. Obviously a vodka shopping trip by the whole group was needed after that adventure. When in Poland right!

Wednesday

Since we spent all day in Warsaw yesterday, today was lecture day. We were supposed to have a lecture yesterday evening but that didn't pan out. Too exhausted.

Today started out with another uber delicious breakfast served by our hotel. Must say all our meals here are pretty awesome.

Professor Burds giving his lecture

Our first lecture was given by Professor Burds, our Dialogue leader from Northeastern. He gave a recap of yesterdays lecture from the department head of Warsaw University and then expanded into what our Dialogue is actually focused on... World War II.

Comic during war

Basically we are learning every side of every issue that faced Poland during this time. But there is some historical background we need to know before we can truly understand what people were thinking.

After Burds' lecture we had a guest lecturer who is an expert in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This lecture was a bit depressing but very informative and interesting overall. It got a little awkward in the end during question time when both Professor Burds and another student asked about things that were published within the past 10 years that he didn't know about. And in some cases refuted the information he was currently aware of...oops!

aahhhhhh :)

The rest of the day the group has been spending reading our assignments. Since by tomorrow we have 54 page reading to finish on the KGB prisons. And an entire book to read by Friday :( yikes


Keep reading for the rest of the trip! Tomorrow we are visiting Rakowiecka Prison, a KGB prison that is still in working use today. dun dun dunnnnn. We have to dress appropriately so as not to insight issues with the prisoners we may run across, super creepy.