Jumping Borders

Where the time goes here, I have no idea. I can't remember if I've said that in a previous entry but it still blows my mind.

Both times that I've crossed Poland's border there's been passport trouble. Coming back from Berlin, my friend from France had lost her ID card which let's her cross borders pretty much everywhere (except Russia I think). We were worried she wouldn't make it back into Poland. Luckily, for whatever reason, the Polish border guards decided not to check out cabin for our passports. Again, this time coming back from Prague, two of my friend's from Scotland had forgotten their passports. Czech Republic enforced a fine and luckily the Polish guards accepted this as suffice and no trouble ensued. I'm glad Poland has nice border guards, this makes me wonder what other border guards are like at other countries. 

Seeing other types of currency is really cool, and when the conversion is in favor of the dollar it's even cooler. The hard part is learning what the average cost of things are, how much a beer is, dinner, a postcard... I know when I get back onto the dollar I'm still going to go, "ok now this is how many dollars...oh yea." But for the most part I'll be happy not to have to do a series of arithmetic every time I go grocery shopping.

I'm terrible at remembering

So I've missed two posts. So here's one.

Two weeks ago, I started classes. Finally, back in school. It felt incredibly strange for me to go on such a long break from classes. 

So everything was going well. I had found all of my classes and made it to all of them on time. And mind you, this is quite an accomplishment, being that all of the classes are at least a 30 minute walking distance from my dorm, if not more. And none of them are in the same direction.

So, of course, on the day of my second class, I have to wake up too late to make it to class on time by walking. It's okay, I think, I can take the bus. I've done it a few times before. Should be no problem. 

Waiting at the bus stop, I checked times. The schedules do not tell you where the bus goes, just what time it comes to the stop. I saw that 116, the bus I knew I needed, would arrive in 3 minutes. 

Three minutes came and went, and still no bus. Five minutes, eight minutes, no 116. Finally, after ten minutes, I saw a bus approaching over the hill. I saw that the first two numbers were 11 and assumed the last number must be 6. I gathered my things and boarded as soon as the bus stopped.

Relieved to be on my way to class, I took a seat near a door in the middle of the bus. I pulled out my schedule to make sure I would arrive on time to class, and also to make sure I was aware of everywhere else I needed to go that day. 

About ten minutes into the bus ride, I had finished checking my schedule, and I began to look around. I did not recognize any of my surroundings. I figured I just didn't remember walking through this part of town because I had been talking to someone, so I would wait a few minutes and check again. 

Another ten minutes passed, and still I recognized nothing. I should have been at my class by that time. So I looked up to the front of the bus to see which stop was next, and lo and behold, I was on bus 119 and not 116. So, I would definitely be missing class that day.

So after exiting the bus at the next stop, waiting 20 minutes for the next one that would take me home, and checking three times that it was, in fact, the right bus, I was headed back toward my dorm. Another 30 minutes, and I was back at Olowek. I emailed my professor to apologize for my absence, and then left to, quite happily, walk to my next course.

I need to be more careful with the bus system here. 

I would like to give my regards to you all, fellow posters, fellow samplers of these Eastern European states. I would also like to send you all my apologies for my late entrance into this blog.
There's so much that can be said about a month spent here in Wroclaw, so many things done and seen, that I think I'll just have to skip summary and move directly on to a few impression and events.
Perhaps the most important impression of Wroclaw for me really stems from the nature of our dorm. Wroclaw from the 13th floor is a mass of orange roof tops, forest on the outskirts of the city, and clusters of aging soviet block housing in the distance. The view has changed so many times, and taken on so many different types of moods and garbs. On certain days early on, when it was snowing hard, the sky was so full of snow that one could only see a little past the first rows of snow shod houses below. Sitting and smoking in the stairwell, I would watch the white flecks hammering through the wind tunnel created by the dual Oloweks. On a certain occasion, it was snowing fiercely and blowing hard between the two spires, and up from below flew one beleaguered pigeon, trying to manage the updrafts, and finally roosting on a jutting cement beam, I watched him for a while.

Then on other days, the view which was so often white and grey a few weeks ago, would take on the black flapping frenzy of a hundred thousand blackbirds swarming by the spires in which we live. The first time I noticed this phenomenon I was smoking. A black mass came into view above the city many blocks off. What frenzied flock was this? I leapt to my feet to look from the window, and lo what a murder it was. The flock of ravens stretched for many blocks, hundreds upon hundreds deep and wide, it swept up and back on itself, curling around as a great dragon of asia might twist through the clouds. It grew closer and closer, and finally drew up and charged Olowek, breaking upon the spire to swarm over and around it and move on.

Now on to more societal issues. Upon arriving, I had the distinct impression that the basic code of conduct for Poland worked in different ways from that which us Americans might be used too. I think my favorite personal example of Polish manners takes place in the grocery store across the street from our dorm. I was about to check out, and when I came to the check out lines I noticed that one was somewhat shorter than the others. There was a lady in her early sixties already in line, and a shopping basket in the aisle next to her. It looked like everything was going all right, so I stepped past the basket, it wasnt really in the middle of the aisle, but kind of sticking out into it. I realize now that that meant that the aisle was closed, but at the time for whatever reason I didnt make that connection. I stepped over the basket and was about to set down my groceries on the belt, when the lady who was checking out, mind you, not the lady at the cash register, but the sixty year old one in the aisle, turned to me with a wild eyed expression. Her whole presence puffed up like an irate grouse as she drew back and the blood rushed to her face, and with a throaty Slavic cry, summoned up her reserves and gave me a very startling shove.

Do widzenia for now,
Gabriel Morgan

Location: Wroclaw / Setting: First 24 Hours / Date: 19.02.2009

Please allow me to introduce myself and provide a slight bit of background as to who I am and why I am here in Wroclaw before I relate the events of my first full day in Poland. My name is Robert Gilbert, and the story of how I wound up at UNCG would take a little while to recount, and would perhaps be beyond the scope of this blog's subject matter. Feel free to email me if you would like to learn more. At UNCG, I am a double-major in English and International Business with a minor in German. I would also be considered a second-semester freshman for all intents and purposes. I work for The Carolinian so some of you may recognize my name - I covered varied Spartan athletics for the duration of the fall semester and will continue upon my return to Greensboro in the fall. I also am one of the inaugural members of the Honors Ambassadors program at the Lloyd International Honors College. It was at the LIHC's welcome dinner for fall semester 2008 that I heard part of an announcement mentioning the Honors Abroad in Central and Eastern Europe program. It stuck in my head, and I continued thinking about it. The application deadline was some four or five days after the dinner, so I did not have much time to make my decision. I finally decided to apply for this study abroad program, and be a relatively rare second-semester freshman international student. 

My reasons for applying were varied, but some of the most central were related to the fact that I intend to go through law school in the states and become an international business lawyer. I felt that in the long run, the more cultures I saw, the better I would be able to approach my career. This program would guarantee my being able to see at least three different countries and their respective cultures within the course of the semester. I chose Poland over Estonia due to several minor reasons - the Catholic presence in Poland, the Germanic history of Wroclaw, the proximity to other European countries, et cetera. 

My process of actually physically leaving the United States and arriving at my destination was perhaps one of the most complicated, drawn-out procedures intrinsic to such activity. Some know the issues I went through attaining my passport, blood-type for insurance purposes, and the multiple departure date changes incurred as a result of the aforementioned problems. It eventually entered the realm of farcical happening, and I reached the point mentally where I could only laugh at each subsequent occurrence, watching the size of my bank accounts dwindle daily. 

After initially deciding to arrive in Wroclaw on 6 February 2009, I did not actually step foot in Poland until 19 February 2009. I flew from London via LOT Polish Airlines, with a connection in Warsaw. My first reaction to Poland, specifically Frederic Chopin Airport in Warsaw, was that of bemusement tempered with understanding of the reasoning behind Polish concepts. The Polish airports have a state of security that would put American and London airports to shame, the London airports being the closest to those of Poland. Unlike in America, the Poles have security checkpoints when you disembark your plane at your destination or layover in addition to the standard security protocols before your initial departure. I also observed that Frederic Chopin Airport has chain link fence in the terminals all the way to the ceiling, a rough guess of which would be circa 125 feet high at its apex. There are also a large number of Polish flights that bus passengers from the gate to the airplane, or the airplane to the gate. Moreover, as in London, there are guards patrolling heavily armed with assault rifles, sidearms, and other accoutrements. To digress for a moment, I will say that London's guards were slightly more impressive, as they carried Heckler und Koch G36 assault rifles, pistols, and at least two other kinds of weaponry. That said, England is able to spend more money on their equipment as opposed to the Poles. Lastly, another interesting point about both Polish airports I was in is that the security checkpoints required that you open your laptop, which has never happened to me at any other airport. 

I transferred to Wroclaw's Copernicus Airport, landing at roughly 16:45 CET. For those in the eastern time zone, that would be 10:45am. It was snowing lightly and the presence of a few inches of the lovely white flakes was already on the ground, thusly making my first impression of Wroclaw about as good as it possibly could be. Again, those of you who know me know that I am in my element in what would be frigid temperatures for others, and especially snow, and by snow I mean serious snow, not North Carolina snow. Thusly, arriving in Wroclaw with snow both on the ground and in the air was as if Wroclaw had rolled out the welcome wagon on a red, velvet carpeted road. Speaking of the welcome wagon, my ride from Copernicus Airport to Olowek, one of many student dormitories in this city, was late. I waited roughly 30 minutes and had decided if it were another ten minutes and no one showed, I was taking a taxi and doing it myself. 

Well, about two minutes later, my ride showed up, and my first solo adventure in Wroclaw was delayed. The two students who picked me up provided me with some basic information, and helped me check-in at Olowek. I met my roommate, a Turkish man, who has been perhaps the best roommate someone could possibly have. Shortly thereafter, I went out with Mandy and others to Pasaz Grunwaldski, the mall I have spent many an afternoon at and will spend many more at during the remainder of the semester. 

I had already unpacked, having left over half of my stuff and nearly 2/3 of my clothes in London due to yet another issue on the way to this country. Mandy and company purchased ice cream, but I held off, going the route of pizza instead. To date, I have yet to discover good pizza, but I have already obtained a promise from a friend back in the States to buy me real pizza when I return. 

I then went back to Olowek, chatted with my roommate for awhile, and went to bed. The next morning I went to the last session of the two-week Polish intensive language course I had missed completely. After that class period, I went to the Foreign Office of the university to pick up my student ID, my February stipend, and check-in with Urszula Broda, my contact in Poland throughout my entire application process to Wroclaw University. 

After completing these orders of business, I took the tram back to Olowek, but after awhile went back to Pasaz Grunwaldski. I spent awhile shopping, making various purchases of an electric and electronic nature to enhance my flat's capabilities. I had picked up several Polish phrases already and have since learned a relatively decent conversational amount, and am sure I will learn more on the fly throughout the duration of this semester. Later, I returned to the dormitory, and went to bed early. I am uncertain if my first day were typical of stereotypical first days in foriegn countries, but I will state that I was never nervous about my ability to handle being abroad. It has merely gotten to be an even easier transition over my first fifteen days in this country. Please feel free to comment or email me with questions, and I will get back in touch with you as soon as possible.

This past weekend I had my first go at Estonian skiing. Friday afternoon a group of ESN students went to a nearby city, Otepää for skiing through the great hills of Estonia. And yes, hills. Estonia is a fairly flat country, so there really aren't any mountains here. After several hours of snow and wipe-outs we went to a lodge about 30 minutes away and had a nice traditional Estonian dinner. This consisted of a beet slaw, another salad similar to cole slaw, rye bread, a type of meat loaf, boiled potatoes, and a cream sauce to go over them. All of this served with juice. (side note- I've noticed that the drinks go differently in this part of the world. In the States you are always served a drink with ice in it, have the option of complementary water, and usually get free refills at restaurants. Here, however, drinks are not served with ice, only water is rarely, and water is not free. In fact, sometimes it costs as much as a soft drink. And there are definitely no free refills) After dinner we were served a traditional Estonian dessert. The only way I can think to describe it was a smooth raspberry flavored oatmeal/custard. We were also given milk to mix with it before eating. I don't think I've ever had anything with that consistency, and not many people were fans of it, but it was part of the experience! After the dinner we went to a smoke sauna in the lodge. I really think that this is the same process that they smoke meat with because the next day all of my clothes smelled like smoked ham. The sauna was nice though. Several people were crazy enough to run outside in their bathing suits, run through the snow and jump in a small hole in the frozen over lake, then run back into the sauna. I didn't manage to make it past the snow...

I thought I would note some things about life here that is different from home:
For one, there are coat checks in almost every building except for stores here. The way they work is you leave your coat with the person, who in turn gives you a plastic card with a number on it. Whenever you are ready to leave the building, you simply hand the number back to the person and they give you your coat. Many places even have benches and mirrors around to assist you in dressing in your entire second wardrobe before braving the cold again.
Although the grocery stores are fairly similar to those at home, the stores here do not provide bags. You either have to provide your own or purchase plastic ones. And where chicken is probably the most common meat available at home, with beef right behind it, they are second to pork here in Estonia. I have actually found beef to not be very common at all.
When entering a home in Estonia, you are expected to take your shoes off at the door. The host or hostess will then offer you slippers to wear, or they may offer the choice for you to remain in your socks if you wish. I like this tradition. It makes you feel more at home as a guest in a house.

A month? Already!

Thirty days I've been in Wroclaw but where has the time gone. No one was lying when they said time here would fly by.

I finally got out of Wroclaw for a weekend with a group of erasmus people and it did me a world of good. I've found that when I'm in a new place I feel very small

and my surroundings seem infinite. The train ride out of town into Krakow helped shrink my world and provided a sense of geographical placement in this foreign land.

The 5 hour ride was all sunny and warm and relaxing as we each had 1.5 seats to ourselves. (much different to the ride home :-( ) The trip and sights were wonderful

with Wawel Castle and it's Dragon. The lesson learned was to get out of town more often. Of course the trip let all of us get to know each other a lot better which is 

also important, to know who you're sharing this experience with.

The people in Krakow were just as nice in Wroclaw even though we were obviously tourists there. If someone in line hears that you speak english but you're

attempting so hard to say your order in Polish they will ask, "what is it you're trying to say?" and then relay the order or tell you how to pronounce it. It certainly cuts 

the embarrassment of the situation down in half. It must always be pretty obvious that I'm an out-of-towner because I take this deep breath of "here we go" before I

order things. :-P Unfortunately I hear that though natives are not unhelpful to most foreigners, they do look down on some. And this is based on skin color. :-( A fight

erupted outside our dorm between 5 polish guys and 2 spanish guys. One of the Spanish guys came out with a huge black eye. Actually a lot of fights happen right

outside of Olowek, another happened last night when I heard screams below. I ran out to the balcony to see 8 guys running around each other. Pretty scary.

There was an instance in which a group of us were harassed. A club had held a Carnival themed erasmus party and a group of us were heading home from it. We

were 4 girls and 1 guy and snowballs started landing around us. We turned around to see two Polish guys yelling and lobbing them in our direction. We yelled back but

the ambush did not stop. I decided to turn around and asked them in polish to stop,please. They accepted laughing still but they stopped. After rejoining the group the

guy with us lent a bit a truth to the situation. The guys were probably trying to flirt with us as we're all dressed in cute outfits and we just couldn't understand what they

were saying. And that they were laughing probably because I was trying to act intimidating while dressed and painted as a leopard. Oh that wonderful language

barrier.

Our Russia trip!

Hello!
A couple of people have emailed asking for details on our Russia trip (May 8-13)--so I thought I'd update you here.

Remember that the Estonia group needs to make a trip to visit their peers in Poland at some point during the semester. I know that you are all rather mobile, so I will leave the timing/planning to you---the first days of May are good travel days (May 1 is a holiday) but if the Estonia crowd plans to travel to Poland then, you should check on the Students Days calendar first. Student Days is a festival in Tartu in the beginning of May--it should work out for the Poland group to be in Tartu for Students Days just before board a bus for Russia on May 8. The plan at the moment is for all of us to meet in Estonia, departure for Russia the evening of May 8. Arrive in St. Petersburg May 9 (am) transfer to hotel and begin our adventure! We have a guide for a walking tour/a couple of museum tours/ a minivan trip out to see some incredible palaces just outside of town. We should have time on our own to roam the streets, take a boat tour of the city (this isn't on the schedule, but it is easy to book on our own, it costs about $15 but if we are lucky enough to have a sunny afternoon, it is a beautiful and relaxing ride) and find some interesting food to eat. We'll be staying in a hotel with breakfast included (2 to a room as far as I know, we can work that out on arrival). The tours and transport are paid for so you just need money for food and souvenirs.

I have really been enjoying reading your posts! I was thinking about posting some points to ponder about recording observations on the blog from a conference I just attended. I want to encourage you to get out on your own, make a list of places to go and just observe how they do it there (grocery store, market, religious service, public spaces, cultural event, riding a bus or public transportation). I'd love to hear where you all are shopping in Tartu and Wroclaw--the markets and grocery stores are really different in Poland and Estonia (as I hope you'll have the chance to see!) so some descriptions, please!!

Last note--I have the passport scans from Gabriel and Robert, but still don't see them on the blog. Could you nudge them? Hopefully I will be in touch with some instructions for you guys on the visa front very soon!

Best,
Kathleen