Thoughts on Poland

Well, I have about 10 mintues before for I leave for a super-long day in Lubin and surrounding areas. We are to visit a university and a beautiful city called Kazimierz Dolny. I'm warming up my shutter finger as we speak.

There are only a few more days for us in Poland. Less than a week. Last night my hosts and their twentysomething son sat down with me in their living room and asked me the million dollar question. All the Poles want to know what YOU think of Poland and, though this question was hard to answer in the beginning, it is getting much easier at the end of the journey. Not only do I have the experience of the month with which to form my opinion, I also have the experience of answering this question for the 30 billionth time.

But I enjoy answering it. And I am sincere in my opinion of Poland.

It is a beautiful country, rich in spirit. The theme for this land is perserverance. You may not be up to speed with the long and sometimes tragic history of Poland. The only other country who has an older constitution than the US is Poland and despite their intense love of freedom and democracy, they have be ravaged in the game of world politics. From the time that Germans were invading, to when the country was completely divided among three nations and there was NO Polan, to the times when Nazis were invading and mass-killing 6 million of its citizens, the spirit of Poland remained strong. And even after WW 2, when Russia "liberated" Poland and gifted them with 50 years of communisim, they stayed strong.

When communism fell, the Poles flourished and I am so thankful to be here not only in the spring of 2008, but the "Spring" of Poland. They are blooming and I can't see how much more growing they will do.

Straight to the top!

We've been to the top of Lublin... and back!

Lublin is wonderful, warm and welcoming. We come home in only 6 days. Can you believe we've been here for 24 days already???

We will try to post more later, like about our meetings with the Lublin Rotary clubs last night and such... but for now, we're off to Chelm!

Hello world!

My brain is about to explode with all the things I want to share about Poland. A few random bits right now and probably more detail later as I can unwind into my new accomodations. First:

Not all the bed are hard as nails. Who knew! For the last week or so I have spent the slumbering hours in two different palaces complete with soft beds and daily maid service.

Second, not all Polish drivers brake like the fate of the world depends on the brake pedal hitting the floor board at Mach 2.

Thirdly, I thought there would be more to discuss, but turns out I am a bit overwhelmed. I think all of us team members are getting a little frayed on the edges. We're beginning to get homesick not only for our "people" but for our food, too. On the way to Lublin this afternoon, Megan and I had a 20 minute conversation about breakfast cereal. Just cereal. With ice-cold milk.

Earlier this afternoon we had dinner (lunch) at an artist colony that was established 10 or so years ago out in the middle of nowhere. These glorious, artsy people saw an impoverished part of Poland that had little economy and even less cultural arts, so they set up shop and began building this teensy village for artists. They did it for the love of paintings, theater, music, etc..., but also to give the poorest people of Poland exposure to exceptional art that they might not otherwise be privy to, due to their economic status.

They also made us an incredible meal, from scratch (as if there's any other kind of meal in Poland) and a home-made wine from wild plums. It tasted like liquid candy and carried just enough kick to allow for a short nap in the car to the next city. Perfecto!

My new host family is busy preparing to go to Mass. They asked if I'd like to join them, but I (hopefully) politely refused. The laptop with high-speed wireless Internet was too much temptation on this sabbath.

Well, I'm off to unpack and perhaps try to take some quiet time and process the last few days. It has been a whirlwind, complete with a helicopter ride one evening and fireworks the night before that. Pretty awesome!

We've stormed the castle!

That's right folks, we stormed the Lancut Palace. OK... maybe we actually stayed in the portion of the palace that has been renovated into a hotel but either way, very cool! The area of the palace we stayed in used to be the servants quarters. We did get to tour the castle with another group of tourists and what we saw was quite beautiful. However, because our host Rotarian knew the Director of the palace museum, we got a rare private tour and saw rooms that were either under restoration or had been closed to the public to preserve its history. I don't get choked up often but the library made me misty-eyed. As Sheri put it, this palace and its contents were straight out of a Jane Austen novel. I am not able to post pictures right now but we'll have plenty to share with you when we get back.

Besides our exciting palace adventures, we traveled to Rzeszow and met with their equivalent of our state governor. If anyone is interested, you can see our pictures on their government website at the Rzeszow Government page. Later that day, we went to visit the Lancut vodka factory were they produce a variety of vodkas from Sobieski to toffee flavored vodkas. We not only learned the history of vodka distilling but also had a tasting party. FUN!!!

We unfortunately were not there for the Lancut Rotary meeting but were fortunate enough to meet some of their members at the vodka museum. Like all other Poland clubs, they were very warm and welcoming.

We are now in Jaroslaw with our new hosts. Laura and I are staying with a family in a village just outside of Jaroslaw and Danna and Sheri are being housed in yet another palace hotel. We are off to eat dinner (again!) so goodbye for now.

Flexibility is the name of the game.

I am yet again the slow poke in keeping up with my blogging and for that I apologize. In my defense, I'm in Poland and having too much fun to slow down!

So - as my title says, flexibility is the key word for today. We were surprised to find out a change in our luggage requirements for a future flight we have within the European Union; we must each lose one suitcase. With four women, this is a challenge! As I sit here and type, my fellow teammates are upstairs organizing and repacking. Our first hosts in Warsaw are coming to our rescue though. We will be shipping a few boxes of personal items to them to hold until we arrive back there in 2 weeks. As we've been learning over the last few weeks, our host Rotarians are amazing and they continue to be by helping us.

We had another presentation tonight with one of the Krakow clubs and as all other clubs have been, they were a fun and energetic group of people. (I unfortunately do not have the pictures from the meeting so we will pass along at a later date.) Tonight's presentation was quite funny for a few of us because their club meets in a very popular tourist restaurant... complete with traditional era costumes, singing and dancing. We learned this in the middle of Laura's speech as song broke out in the restaurant and drowned her out. She was a champ though and kept on going even though Sheri and I (yet again) broke out in a fit of giggles.

Because I haven't been diligent in my posting, the below pictures are out of sequence but these are some of my favorites. Do wizdenia for now!

More pleasurable impressions

I feel so behind in keeping you up-to-date. So I'll just go forward. The girls have done a fabulous job letting you know everything. Since it has been a long 4-day weekend here in Poland, surrounding May 3rd's Constitution Day (their Independence Day equivalent) we have had the chance to explore a little on our own for each of the four days. Megan is well on her way to recovery after her bout with a vicious cold - and I am halfway there. Here are a few pics from the last few days. One of the girls at Wawel Castle and one us with Cracow in the background. We also had a surprise flag presentation at the RC Krakow President's manor in the country after a kielbasa cookout. Stay tuned for more ...

Polish Consistencies

Sheri and I are keeping a rough list of things that are (or have been) consistent for us throughout this trip. Here are a few of my notes:

• Tasty treats! Mmm. Kielbasa, peirogis, lody, bread, bigos, amazing soups and on and on and on.
• Riding (or driving) in cars here is like playing "chicken" constantly with every other driver on the road.
• Crossing the street is like playing frogger.
• Friendly, welcoming hosts with a sense of humor, warm heart and undefeatable spirit.
• Tasty beer and vodka!
• Roads that rattle your teeth loose... even the "super-highway"! (that's a joke you'll have to come to Poland [soon] to get! :)
• Toilets that flush like a hurricane. Our new saying is "nothing flushes like a Polish toilet flushes!"
• Extremely firm beds. Sheri has termed them "Springform Masonry"... the brand may catch on some day!

We're still talking about the "food" post... hopefully, we'll get pictures and descriptions up someday soon-ish.

Stay tuned to our adventures!