So November in Warsaw...what I heard about the weather is proving to be true, it has rained pretty much everyday for the past week. It also gets dark around 4:30pm everyday! So the weather is a little doom & gloom, but I'm getting used to it. Other than the weather, I'm still really loving Poland. I'm taking 4 classes: Polish (language), The Structure of Polish Political Systems, Poland's Integration into the EU, and Polish Society & Politics. As you can see, tons on Poland!
So far, my favorite class is Polish Political Systems because there are only 6 of us total in the class, so it is less lecture-style (which my other classes are for the most part), and more seminar-style, which I prefer. The teacher is also incredibly interesting and has a lot of stories to tell...her father was an army official for the communist party during the Communist period in Poland, so hearing about that is always interesting. It feels like almost everyone here has an incredible back-story because of Poland's turbulent history. From being involved in communism, to resisting communism, to having relatives who survived WW II and the concentration camps, everyone has an interesting story to tell. Poles are also incredibly proud of all the progress they have made in the past 30 years (rightfully so!) so I also hear a lot about Poland's achievements from professors, students, and other people I speak with.
Last night we (Fulbrighters in Warsaw) were invited to a concert at the Royal Palace (which was rebuilt in the 50's & 60's -as was most of Warsaw- because it was destroyed during WWII) to celebrate the 150th Birthday of Jan Paderewski (a Polish Composer). The event was hosted by the US Embassy (the US Ambassador to Poland was there and he spoke)because Paderewski spent a lot of time performing (Piano) in the US, and was actually buried in the US at the Arlington National Cemetery per his request. He did not want his final resting place to be in Poland until Poland was a free country, so he was buried in Arlington until 1992 when President Walesa requested that his remains be moved back to Poland (which they were.) The concert was amazing! There were 4 sets of music played, the first with Piano and a Baritone singer, the second with just Piano, the third with Piano and a soprano (amazing) singer, and the finale was piano and violin. The finale was my favorite, the violinist was incredible!
Oh! Also, I've been doing a little bit of traveling, 2 weekends ago, I went to Poznan, Poland, and for Halloween weekend, which was a long weekend due to All Saint's Day, we went to Krakow. Both trips were really fun, and we stayed with Fulbrighters who are living in those cities while we were there, so it was nice to see them as well (we hadn't seen them since Orientation in September). Poznan is a smaller city, but much of it was not destroyed during WWII, so that was interesting to see. It is a beautiful town! Krakow is where we spent orientation, so we had seen most of it, but it was still nice to walk around, and one of the days we were there was about 65 and sunny, so that was amazing! And, one of the last nice days for awhile.
All Saint's Day (Nov. 1) is a big holiday here where everyone travels to their local cemetery to place candles on the graves of their loved ones. While it sounds like a depressing holiday, it really has a festive, celebratory feel to it. We (Me, Nicolette, Abi- Nicolette's roommate, and Sam - a boy from Oregon who is doing his study abroad here)went to the biggest cemetery in Warsaw (and maybe in all of Poland) to see all the candles. A lot of famous people are buried there, and their graves were covered with hundreds of candles! You could feel the heat from the candles when you got close - it was pretty incredible! I'm really glad we went! I'll post some pictures of that.
Ok, this is fairly long, so I'm going to sign off! I'm headed to Cairo next Saturday to visit Ty for a week, so look for a post about that!
Miss you all!!!
MW
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