I'm Finally Here!

I've finally arrived in Warsaw! I landed in Warsaw yesterday around 2pm...I flew from NJ to Frankfurt (where I was quite thourougly searched, questioned, and tested for bomb-making materials...) and arrived at my hotel (the ETAP Centrum) around 3:30pm. My hotel is basic, and thus far has been perfect.

Today we (me and all the other Fulbrighters - there are about 25 of us total, ranging in age from 22-65) went to a reception at the United States Ambassador to Poland's ( Lee Feinstein..check him out : http://poland.usembassy.gov/ambassador2.html ) residence. The house was incredible! We had various "briefings" (e.g security, economic, political, medical) to fill us in on the goings-on in Poland as well as the status of US-Poland relations - they are currently very friendly. We had several much-needed coffee breaks, during which we got to chat with the various Embassy staffers. After our second break, a pannel consisting of Ambassador Feinstein, The head of the Polish-US Fulbright commission, the Ministry Representative, the Distinguished Fulbright Chair (Gary Harrington - a professor who is on his second Fulbright teaching American Literature at a Polish University), and Dr. Antoni Bojanczyk who was a Polish Fulbrighter to America (he studied at Cornell). The Ambassador spoke about his experience thus far in Poland (he has only been in Poland one year), and how he hoped we would help to foster even better Polish-US relationships.

After the panel we had "lunch" (read: SNACK) and got to chat with the panel members aside from the Ambassador who I assume is a very busy man and had to run. After the fancy reception at the Ambassador's house, Agata (my roommate) and I went to check out an apartment. Her cousin very graciously drove us to the apartment and accompanied us inside to help us negotiate with the real-estate agent. We were delighted when she told us we got the apartement! It is quite small, but serves our purposes well. It has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room. It even has a tiny,tiny balcony! Although, I doubt we will be basking in the sun much on our balcony...perhaps out shivering in the snow...So, anyone who wants to come visit, I can offer you a couch :)


Tomorrow we are off to Krakow for orientation...which looks like it is a combination of Polish lessons (yay!), lectures on various Polish topics (history, politics, ect.), and day trips to nearby tourist destinations. I'll keep you all posted on how orientation goes!

This is quite a rambling post...I'll try to be more coherent later on when I'm less jet-lagged.

Tata for now,

MW