One week in the books

A shade over a week into my trip to Poland and I'm ready to go home!!  Just kidding.  But here's a quick summary of my journey thus far.  The flight over here wasn't too bad,  I flew LOT Polish Airlines, with an overnight haul from Chicago to Warsaw (Var-shaw-vuh in Polish).  I have to admit the airplane interior/features were a bit dated, but the food portions were very generous.  After a nice 2 hour slumber, I woke up just in time to see Denmark (I mistook it for Ireland at first) below.  On the descent to Katowice (cat-oh-veetz-uh), the 3^rd largest city in Poland where Dagmara's mom lives, the scenery below was very similar to that of southern MN near Gustavus: lots of fields with some woods here and there.

Denmark at sunrise

Woods near Katowice on my descent

The airport security in Poland was very easy to get through, as I did not even have to go through customs or fill out a form on the plane before we landed.  Oh, PS on the plane I met the girlfriend of former WI Badgers bball player Trevon Hughes.  She was on the way to watch him play in Lithuania.  Fun fact if you're a badger fan.

Dagmara's mother's house

Backyard view

Grandma's house

Dagmara's house in Katowice is beautiful.  The city kind of blends into a farm landscape on the outskirts, so there are a lot of fields around her neighborhood.  I even spotted a couple pheasantesque creatures.  Her grandma's house is on the same property, about 30 feet away.  The landscaping is cute (feel strange using that adjective), there's a pool, and a little playground for her little bro Oscar.  Sunday (the day I arrived) was the only day that it didn't rain/snow since I've been here.  While In Katowice, I got to try some Polish food: Kluski slaskie, Rolada (beef), Golabki (cabbage w/ meat and rice inside).

On Monday we hit the road for Lodz (sounds like "wootch", translates to mean "boat" though there is no lake) in Dagmara's mom's sleek, smooth-riding VW Passat Station wagon.  If you come to Poland, you will see that the station wagon is very much in style.  The silky ride of the Passat has been key, because roads here have a re-donkulous amount of potholes.  The roads are also much narrower, and the road signs are not always intuitive, and the drivers are slightly better than those of South America.  Also new: diesel car using kilometers per liter.

Kitchen area of the apartment

View from the window

The drive took about 3.5 hours and we arrived when it was dark, so I didn't really get to see the city till Tuesday.  I did notice a fair amount of garbage and graffiti in Dagmara's neighborhood (it IS safe, though!), however, and made the comment that it was a bit "ghetto."  Little did I know, her neighborhood literally WAS a Jewish ghetto during WWII.  There is a Jewish Cemetery/Mass grave memorial 2 blocks from her house that we are going to visit hopefully tomorrow.  There is a lot of sad but important history throughout Poland. 

Lodz is the second biggest city in Poland with close to a milli inhabitants.  The architecture of many buildings is older, which I find cool and Dagmara finds normal/not so cool ;)  There are no skyscrapers in Lodz.  I've seen a lot of interesting churches that I still need to take pictures of, so hopefully I'll have some up later.  They do have a few very modern/American-looking commercial areas.  Dagmara took me to a nice mall that was converted from a factory, giving it a really unique look.  There were colorful fountains, ice-skating in the central plaza, normal mall shopping, and traditional Polish restaurants such as KFC, Subway, and McDonalds. 

Some foods I've tried so far in Lodz are Bigos (a delicious soup of cabbage, shredded meat, kielbasa, and mushrooms) and pierogi (pasta-like ravioli) with cheese (more for dessert) and pierogi with meat and fried onions. 

Bigos and Polish Ham!

The past week I've spent a lot of time job hunting and visiting a lot of language schools, working my American charm on them.  I have a promising "tryout" teaching very small children for half an hour tomorrow, so hopefully that goes well, but I'll need to get a lot more hours from another school….we shall see.

Another fun fact about Poland: per Wikipedia, it is the LEAST diverse country in the world.  So everyone is white, but I have seen 2 black people and 1 Asian so far.  This is almost culture shock for me, because in Miami I was the minority being white.  In Miami, since I look white, people would speak English to me instead of Spanish.  In Poland, I look like everyone else, so they speak Polish to me.  The biggest culture shock issue I'm having is communication, which has taken away some of my independence so I have to rely on Dagmara at times if I want something.  The weather also is not the greatest—yes, it is much warmer than Wisconsin, but it rains or snows or both everyday, and it is just a mess outside.

Overall, I am having a great time, I love seeing new things and I learn something everyday.  I hope to keep this blog updated every week or two, so check back then!  Hope all is well with everyone back in the states.