Days 24, 25 & 26

Day 24: Vocational day/A day of rest. Today was another much needed day of rest. Vocational day was arranged for the morning, but with some changes due to the visit to the University not being arranged. So rather than go to our sites things were arranged to give us the morning off. Kim and I were going to meet up to get two hours of shopping in but then at the last minute were summoned to attend Ralph's vocational visit to Jacek's son-in-law's firm. John visited a bank and Brian (since he was also originally scheduled to come with Kim and I to the University) slept in. In the afternoon we all met up with Tomascz (sp?) and drove out to his country side home, approx 50 km outside of the city.

It was nice to just lay around in the sun, we had beautiful weather, drink a couple glasses of wine or beer, go for a walk, read a book, hit around the volleyball and overall just relax.

Day 25: Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi is a Catholic Holiday that I don't quite understand other than it's a BIG deal in Poland because it's a national holiday. Catholics gather to pray and parade around the village or city praying and participating in ceremonial readings, vigils, etc. What this means for tourist bound American's like us is that all the shops are closed on this holiday and in the Village there is no way of getting groceries unless you bought them the day before, so we headed back to Warsaw at noon to meet Jacek. The car ride back in to town was a little bit of a hair raising experience. It appears (now please bare in mind that this assumption is based off an isolated experience) that when there is a national holiday there are no police patroling the speed of cars on the highway so the Polish decide it's their opportunity to see what their engines are made of! Traveling in a Honda CRV and a BMW SUV of some sort we all definitely saw our eyes clock our speed at 120 mph!!! No Joke! If any of us ever wanted to experience life as the passenger in a nascar race we definitely got a taste of it.

In the afternoon we headed in to the old town of Warsaw,

which in reality is not that old. During WWII Warsaw was completely blown to pieces and as a consqeunce nothing existed so most of what exists of Warsaw today was all built (even the old town that was reconstructed to look like it did pre-war) in the 1950's.

Day 26: Shopping and The Uprising Museum. At 10 in the morning we all met at Arkadia, the 2nd largest mall in Poland. We had until around 2pm to get in all of our last minute shopping for gifts, etc. Bryan and John took this opportunity to mow down a couple of good ole Burger King burgers and fries, I guess they decided after a month of perogi and lots of varieties of pork and cabbage that BK would be a nice treat. The Polish food has been great, but it's nice to have a taste of home every once in a while.

The Uprsiding Museum was definitely the highlight of the day. It's hard to comprehend everything and really one needs about 4 hours to really read everything (we only had about 2), but it exposes pieces of Polish history that I don't think many Americans are well aware of. It's sad to admit, that what I remember learning about WWII is limited to the very specific involvement of the US, ie. Peral Harbor, the beaches of Normandy and trying to stop the extermination of the Jews. But it was so much more than that. Poland is a country that has faced a lot of strife (and that's a complete understatement!) being ripped at the seams by Germans on the West and Soviet Russians on the East. Much of Poland's history between 1941 and 1989 was not allowed to be talked about by civilians, exposed to outsiders or even celebrated until the end of the Communist reign in 1989. The Uprising Museum opened in 2003 to give homage to the more than 240,000 people that were killed in Katyn, and the thousands of POW's, Jews and others that had their lives taken from them unwillingly in the persuit of a perfect race. However what I have seen and experienced from my travels is that Poland has proven to be a country and a people of incredible resilience. There is a lot of opportunity here and it's hard to believe that as little as 21 years ago this was not the case.

We only have 1 more day left and this will conclude our trip. Tomorrow we will tour more of Warsaw and then head to a final BBQ with a few Rotarians before retreating to our hotel and heading to the airport at 3:30am. Thanks to everyone who has followed our travels and kept us in their thoughts, hearts and even prayers. We look forward to seeing all of our friends and family real soon so we can share our photos, stories and what we have learned about this amazing country. See you on the home front!

Days 21, 22 & 23

Just a quick update and I'll add more details later. In Torun we learned that we have quite an international following of this blog so now the pressure is on to provide :) We made it to Warsaw today and Kim found my converter in her bag so I'm once again with my netbook! Yay! I hope to post pictures once again later in the week.

Day 21: Teutonic Knights Castle and visit to a Renaissance "resort"

Day 22: Vocational Day, Tour of Torun, the Planetarium, Gingerbread factory and Rotary meeting.

Day 23: Transfer to Warsaw by train! My last host family was amazing and my new host family is awesome. My Warsaw family has two little girls as well, one 8yrs and one 19 months.

I'll fill in the gaps soon!

Days 19 & 20: Lodz and Torun

I have to apologize upfront that there will not be any photos for a while :( I accidentally left my converter in Lodz and so will have to use my host families computer (which don't have a place for my camera card) from here on out to post to this blog....

Day 19: Vocational Day in Lodz. TodayI went with Piotr (Peter) around the University and then walked around Lodz. Peter was a professor at the University up until a couple months ago when he and quite a few other faculty members lost their jobs due to lack of funding. I didn't quite understand all the reasons, but from what I could put together the President of the University mismanaged the budget and has put the University in a pretty poor financial state.

Later on we met up as a group and went to a shelter for abused women and children. This was definitely a highlight for me given my background and interest in social services. All the same social services that exist in Iowa exist in Poland they are just funded differently and not as "noticable" in the community. For example, this women's shelter serves anywhere from 24-33 women and children (and now with the change in the law they have to admit men as well) on a daily basis. That seems like a lot except for when you realize that the city of Lodz is 1 million people and this is the only shelter like this! The facility was quite run down and they are going to be undergoing a renovation in a couple months that will help with that, but the services they provide are well ahead of the curve. They collaborate with the police, the hospital, legal services as well as psychological services for the women that are staying there. Women are allowed to stay up to 3 months and during that three months all they are supposed to be focusing on is rebuilding and restarting their lives. The shelter conducts trainings and workshops (i.e. stress management, dealing with abuse, coping mechanisms, etc) for the women and children. The Rotary club of Lodz Centrum (our host mom's) has been supporting the shelter for several years now and has provided them with a new fence, refigerator and two "fully loaded" computers for the children.

In the evening we headed to Manufactura which is the largest shopping centre in Lodz. The area reminded me of Jordan Creek, just a bit smaller. It's constructed from an old textile factory so all the buildings are brick and most of the bars and restaraunts all have outdoor seating or "garden patios" as I have learned they are called. The guys headed to the Museum of Modern Art while Kim and I took off to go shopping. We also had a mac attack and so stood in line to grab a McDonald's Big Mac and curly fries, yes the Mickey D's here serve curly fries along with breaded shrimp!!

Day 20: Transfer to Torun. Today we made the 3 hour transfer from Lodz to Torun. I'm really looking forward to Torun, it's a smaller city, around 200,000 and very beautiful. Torun is home to the late Capernicus, the astronomer who was the first to say that the Earth was not the center of the Universe. For years (500 to be exact) the Catholic church denounced him and just this last week the Catholic Church celebrated the 500 year anniversary and formally recognized him. In Torun we have homestays again. I have been placed with a very young family who owns several bakeries and ice cream shops around town. It's a family operation that has been in business for over 60 years! When we were walking to their flat they told me that they hope I like ice cream because I will be having lots of it. They have two little girls Laura (7 years) and Magdaline (3 years) who are super cute. I've always had a way with kids, but let me tell you, it's difficult to communicate with a child when you don't speak their language! They just stare at me as if I'm and alien, it's kind of funny!

After lunch we went for a stroll and of course stopped off for my first Lenkiewicz ice cream experience. I wish I would post a picture because I thought I was in for a single dip chocolate ice cream cone and what I was served was the most beautiful large ice cream sundae with two different types of ice cream topped with whipped cream and a couple of chocolatey corn flake type cereal pieces. It was delicious. We then went to Lulu's parents house, sat around and talked and as you can guess, ate more tastey treats. The one thing the Polish do not lack is hospitality.

Later that evening we met up with Margot (I've shortened her name since I don't know how to spell it) She was one of the gals who was on the GSE to Iowa. It was great catching up with her and hearing about her group's trip to Iowa and exchanging stories. We hung out at a pub with her and some of her friends, listening to a good band and enjoying a couple of bottles of Lech. It was a fun low key night.

Days 17 & 18, Castles and the Boat City

Day 17: Castles of the Czesthowa region. Today we got to play. We began the morning by meeting with the mayor of Oslyn (sp?) and touring the old castle ruins. We then were greeted by a fabulous 26 year old daughter of one of the local rotaians who toated us around town in her "farmer high heels". Meaning heels with a wider heel, she is from Warsaw and used to wearing stilettos every where. So up the rocky hill side she climbed with us to the top of the castle remains. We then made our way to her father's restaraunt which is an old grainery building with a thatch roof! If we get a better internet connection I'll try to post pictures. The rest of the afternoon found us meeting with another mayor and visiting even more castle remains including an old castle that is being restored. It was AMAZING and so huge! The investor who bought it (can you imaine purchasing a Castle with your personal money?!?) is hoping to turn it in to a museum and then is building a cottage looking hotel next to it. Poland is one of the best kept secrets of Europe and many of the smaller villages are hoping to capitalize on tourism as a way to revitilaze and make their towns prosperous.

Day 18: Lodz (pronounced Wooj) or Boat city. We moved on to our next city yesterday. It's much bigger than the last, approximately 800,000 people. It's called the boat city because it sits up higher and has never been flooded. We have host stays once again, Kim and I lucked out though, we've been put up in a flat to ourselves! The guys are all off to separate places once again. Lodz has 4 Rotary clubs, one all men and three are mixed, one of the clubs is very young where all but 2 members are under the age of 40. Today we went around the city with Julia, she is the 27 year old daughter of our GSE coordinator. She is a spit fire and a lot of fun. Her and her boyfriend took us to several of the old textile factories and the "summer home" of the Herbst family who had been given the mini palace as a wedding gift. In the afternoon we went to a home for disabled children because one of the Rotary clubs was receiving an award for the work they have done for the home over the last 10 years. The theme was Native American and they were celebrating much like we would celebrate cinco de Mayo with the kids wearing paper had dresses and feather necklases. From there we went to dinner (lunch) at 3pm and then to another Rotary Club meeting. Our days don't start until 11am this week so we didn't cram too much in. Tomorrow morning I'm going swimming at the indoor acquatic center of the place that John is staying at and then we another vocational day tomorrow.

I'll write more (and hopefully post photos) when I get the chance. Thanks for reading!

Days 14,15 & 16: Krakow and Czestohowa

Day 14 and 15: Half Way Point FREE DAYS!!

This weekend was a much needed time of REST. Our hotel is about a 35 minute walk to the Market square, but it saves us money and gives us good exercise. The Market square is a booming place. Krakow has been rainy and cold the past two days but sunny and warm this weekend. Everyone is enjoying the fresh air and freedom to dictate our own schedule. We are half way done and I think we are all getting tired of living out of a suitcase and wearing the same clothes over and over. Good thing about our hotel this time around is we've got a lift! (aka elevator).

Most of our free time has been spent wandering the little shops, I bought a way cool hand carved chess board, or sitting outside eating at the outdoor restaurants. Below is a picture of fried goat cheese, when it is right off the grill it is yummy! It looks like it is breaded but it isn't, it turns brown from being cooked.

The Market Square on Saturday was full of families and people out and about. There was a live music playing and even street acts like you see in Chicago or Las Vegas on a couple of the corners. Below is a picture of one of the streets where they park all the tour carts. They are 6 person golf carts and as you can see they have loads of them!! They drive all around town and take tourists to various tourist attractions including Schindler's Factory.

On Saturday night I and the guys (Kim stayed back at the hotel) went to the Harris Jazz Bar and listened to a really good Blues/Rock band that was on tour from New York. Paid 25 zloty for cover per person. 1 zloty=.30 cents.

The square was much quieter on Sunday. All the shops are closed for a National Catholic Holiday but the restaraunts are still open and booming with business. There are many families out and about today. One thing we've definitely picked up on here in Poland is that there seems to be a much stronger sense of family than what we practice in the US.

We transferred to Czestahowa today, approximately a 2 hour drive. The mini bus that came to pick us up only had one back seat and 3 spots (1 being the driver) in the front. So guess where I got to ride, yup, smack dab in the middle seat crammed between Ralph and the driver in the front because I've got the shortest legs!

Czestahowa is a town of about 250,000 and home to a very large Monestary that sits on the hill. People from all over each year make their Pilgrimage to here on August 15th to see the Black Madonna. The picture below if from the Monestary looking down on the pedestrain path that runs through the middle of the city.

Days 7-13, a much needed update!

So for those of you who are following our travels, I apologize for the delay in our correspondence. It's been a whirlwind of packing and unpacking, walking, learning and getting to know the Polish better. I will try to summarize our past week as best as I can.

Day 7: We spent most of the day at the District 2230 Conference,

sitting in the back of an auditorium listening to what translated in to our ears as gibberish. As you can imagine it's difficult and exhausting to be listening to people you can't understand for 6 hours straight. We've come to realize the Polish culture in terms of schedules and time is similar to that of the Mexicans. When they say something is going to last until 1, you better add 2 more hours to your agenda!

Day 8: A unique part of Polish towns is the "world" that exists underground. Like we saw in Lublin, in Rzewoza we took of tour of the underground merchant chambers.

In most Polish towns there is a market square and back in the day when the market was the form of commerce and trading, merchants needed more space for storing goods, so they dug cellars underneath the buildings, these cellars were then connected to eachother through tunnels that run underground. In WWII these chambers became hiding places for the Jews, however Nazi Germans were clever enough to figure it out and would drill holes from above ground and drop deadly gases down the chutes, inevitably killing everyone below.

In the afternoon we toured the Lancut (pronounced Wine Suit) Palace and then transferred to our hotel which also was a Palace at one time!!

Dinner brought with it a very new experience for both Kim and I, it was our first time eating snails. And much to our surprise they were very very tasty. After dinner our group walked around the grounds and just enjoyed being in the fresh air. In the morning John went for a run and got chased by dogs, don't worry he's ok.

Day 9: We transferred to Jeroslaw and met with Mayor first thing in the morning when we got there. He gave us a tour or the City Hall and was eager to sell his town and is looking to partner with another city in the US.

Whoever thought that this GSE trip might result is one of us creating a relationship between our home town and a sister city in Poland! He got Ralph's contact information so we'll see where it goes from here.

After that we went to a Museum and had a tour with a lady that spoke no English and reminds us of the gal from Polterguist. That evening we met with the Jeroslaw Rotary club gave our presentation and ate dinner. The discussion that followed our presentation is the best we've had up to this point. Through our travels and meeting with the various Rotarians, it has become very apparent that the role of women in Polish Rotary is unwanted and non-existent. Given this and the strong females that Kim and I are we have questioned that notion in order to better understand their reasoning. The conversation has always been kept friendly but you can tell that at this point in the devlopment of the Rotary Clubs, they are very comfortable with the separation of the sexes. Our conversations that evening encompassed many topics beyond the role of women from comparing agriculture to talking politics. Regardless of what ideas were exchanged we feel like the Polish welcomed us with open arms and it was proved to be a good night topped of with lots of "Polish Woda".

Day 10: In the morning we visited the Lady finger biscut factory.

It's a small family owned company that produces 500 tons of Lady Finger (sponge biscuts, made out of flour, sugar and egg, as you can imagine they are very light and airy) a year. The eye opener for us was when we heard they run three eight our shifts and only give the women one 15 minute break a day for lunch. I think it made us all greatful for our education. In the afternoon we boarded a train from Jeroslaw to Krakow. The three hour trip with all 5 of us and our luggage crammed in to a tiny little cabin went by much faster than I thought it would.

When we arrived in Krakow we were greeted by Janusc (yawn-nus), the Rotary Club- Krakow Center President, a gentleman with a unique personality in which no words can really describe. For example at the meeting that evening when he was reviewing our itinerary with us he asked if we had cell phones to which we all replied, no. He then continued to stare at us with a perplexed look as if someone had just told him the world was coming to an end. We proceeded to reassure him that people have gotten along just fine for many years prior to the invention of the cellphone and that there would be ways for us to work around it!! Krakow is definitely the largest city we've been to yet, approximately 1 million habitants, 180,000 are students. It's been Unfortunately for us it's been rainy and cold but the more unfortunate thing is the flooding that has been caused by all the rain. It's quite severe and reminds me very much of June 2008. We were informed that Auschwitz has been closed due to flooding which means it's pretty severe because it's never been under water the way it is now. The flood has people a little irritable and is creating a real issue in terms of traffic flow.

Day 11: Today we visited the Salt Mines. It was incredible and my favorite experience up to this point! Ironically 150M (450 ft) underground in the middle of Poland Brian ran in to sister Joan, the provost at Clarke College where he works! We've never seen him so giddy and it totally made his day! In the salt mines we saw many carvings of Elvis or was it the Pope? I don't know, it was someone who is cool and important to this area of the world (95% of the people here are Catholic and there is little separate between church and state). In the afternoon it was still raining and so Janusc dropped us off at the Galeria (Mall) for 4 hours. Who would have ever thought that you wouldn't be able to keep an American entertained for 4 hours in a mall. We all realized that it was too much time.

Day 12: Toured the Wawel Castle, ate at a Polish Mexican restaraunt (very different from what we are used to) and then walked around Market square. In the evening we met with Rotaract (the 18-30 year old Rotary group) and had pizza for the 2nd night in a row. The conversation led to a discussion regarding the gap between Rotary and Roteract, not seems as if in Poland there is not a real place for people 30-50 years old. We are starting to pick up on the fact that Eurpoeans are much more comfortable with class distinction than we are in America. We topped the night off by going to watch one of the Rotarian's Jazz band.

Day 13: Vocational Day 2: Kim and I went to the city council, the gal was late because of the flood but the conversation was great and gave Kim and I an inside look at the role of strong women in Polish Politics and family life.

Ralph met with a corporate lawyer, John met with Stan a Rotary member who is a branch manager at Deutsch Bank and Brian met with Katrine a drawing instructor and art conservator. We then went to Jangiello University, the 4th oldest University in the world, it dates back to 1364. Our afternoon lunch consisted of sushi and once again a "first" for Kim who excitedly used chopsticks for the first time.

Days 4 & 5: Zamosc & Day 6: Rzeszowa

Day 4: Transferring to Zamosc

Prior to leaving Lublin we visited the Kozlowka, a former Palace (now a museum of course) that at one time also included the town of Kaminoka and eleven villages! In total there were 14 rooms that are well preserved with massive gold framed paintings, furniture, carpets, etc. Not really my taste at all but very cool to think about how old it is, there is nothing in the United States that is this old.

(Pictures: Left to Right: The Palace, Our group in front of the palace, John, Bryan and I didn't get the memo that we didn't have to wear our uniforms!, Dinner with our Poland GSE Coordinator Jacek and his wife, Periogi's a national favorite. It's a dough like shell filled with either meat, cheese or cabbage and the either boiled or fried.)

We arrived in Zamosc on Wednesday to Hotel Arcadia. Zamosc is a beautifully quaint little town of approximately 65,000 people. The town square reminds me a little bit of Pella although there really is no good reason as to why other than the buildings being very close together. Outdoor eatery's and Pubs are very common in this part of Poland and make for a great atmosphere for conversation and good food. We made our first presentation to the Rotarians and then were treated to a very nice dinner in the old wine cellar of a restaraunt on the square. And if there is one thing we are not worried about, it's having an empty stomach. We think the Polish are trying to uphold the American stereotype of eating a lot because they feed us all the time!



Day 5: Vocational "Study" Day.

Today we spent some time in our coordinator's, Tomasz, English classroom. He teaches English at a private language school and his students range in age from about 20-24. It was a fun question/answer session and we all felt like we were at a zoo, but only this time we were the animals. After that we visited with the Mayor and the vice Mayor presented to us all the restoration plans for the city. Since the fall of Communism the city of Zamosc has had a difficult time recovering economically. Thus the local government is trying to turn to Tourism as a way of changing the status of Zamosc.

After lunch we we all went our separate ways to spend sometime learning about our vocation and how it plays out in Poland. I (the service-learning coordinator) went to the Volunteer Centre, Kim (ED of Worth County Development Authority) to the City Hall, John (a Banker) to a Bank (Ralph tagged along becuase his site fell through) and Bryan (art history professor) was paired up with an architect. It was a neat conversing with people in Poland who do similar things for a living as us. To my surprise I found out that volunteering in Zamosc and the way it is coordinated is not much different than in Iowa. They face the same struggles of trying to involve more young people and males, but the most interesting fact I learned is that they now have laws in place regarding volunteering because companies were taking advantage of people by calling their work volunteering and not paying them. So the volunteer center is trying to educate people about what volunteering is and trying to move away from using the term volunteer job since volunteers don't actually get paid.

But perhaps the most classic event of the day was when Kim and I ventured out with two of our student translators to try and find a Wi-Fi Hotspot so that we could order her a calling card off the internet. We walked pretty much the entire city square and could not find anything, then Whalla! At the most random spot in a alley way there it was! Rafael agreed to be my laptop holder while I navigated my way around the net. We got quite the stares from people!

Day 6: Transfer to Rzeszowa (pronounced as Jezoff, strange huh?!?)

Today we transfered by mini bus to our new location. The drive took a total of about 3 hours. Rzeszowa is much different than Zamosc, I'm not sure how big it is, but it's definitely a booming town with lots of Shopping!!! Fortunately for us there was nothing planned for us to be at until about 8pm tonight so after grabbing a bite to each we all went our different ways and explored the city. Kim and I of course being the ladies of the group had to live up to our stereotype so we went shopping. We found a few good souveniers to bring back and under the influence of Kim splurged and bought a pair of shoes. What do you think? Very European looking and oh so comfortable :)

Tomorrow begins the district conference and we will be making our formal presentation to 150-200 people. So I'm off to bed for a little shut eye!

Doblanos! (Polish for goodnight)