On Saturday, Jess and I decided to head up to downtown Warsaw and check out the Warsaw Film Festival.  We weren’t sure what to watch, and had looked through a few of the descriptions of the movies playing in the "English Only" theaters.  As we were about to leave, we noticed a few other friends of ours were planning on seeing Autism: The Musical (www.autismthemusical.com).  We hadn’t seen this one, and it interested us, so our decision was made.

We were a bit early, so we bought our tickets, then got some Tiger Chai Latte’s from Coffee Heaven (good stuff).

The Warsaw Film Festival is a large, international event with filmmakers from various countries around the world showcasing their work.  Autism: The Musical was the only movie we ended up watching, though I’m sure there were many other good films there!  It was produced in the U.S., so we didn’t see anything very international, but it was VERY good.

The movie is about a woman, Elaine, who adopted her son, Neal, from Russia.  Over the years, it became apparent that he was not developing as was expected.  She discovered that he was autistic.  Some of the things she said people told her, like "Send him back to Russia" were heartbreaking.  But Elaine has more of a heart than that, and set out to defy society’s preconceptions and hopefully open people’s eyes.

I can say that she opened mine a bit farther.

Not that I’m close minded, but there’s always room to grow, and always things you didn’t know.

Without giving too much away, the movie follows a group of autistic children as they participate in Elaine’s "Miracle Project".  The Miracle Project is essentially a play that the children help write and then perform.  The movie follows their preparation, covering their successes, failures, and struggles.  They also spend a good amount of time on most of the children’s backgrounds.

The underlying theme is that autistic children are not lost cases.  They can accomplish as much as anyone, but they’re not the same as most people.  So rather than to simply not try because it’s too hard, or too strange, these families joined together to prove the world wrong.  They fight the world and themselves every step of the way to overcome what they see as more of a language barrier than a disability.

In the short duration of the movie you really come to know and adore all of the children for who they are, and their own personal quirks…  Lexi who mostly repeats what’s said to her, the over-articulate Wyatt, Henry and his Dinosaur obsession, Adam and his cello (and the girl he likes!) and the Silent Neal, who seems to have ultra sensitive hearing, reminds his mother, and in a way the viewers, to be a better listener.

The movie tugs at your heart, and brings on a few tears and a few more giggles.  It is a sobering experience, sharing both the playful times and the challenges that these families face every day. It reminds us that our most difficult struggles bear the greatest rewards.  Or as Khalil Gibran wrote in The Prophet: "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain."

With a little help and asking around, Jess and I went online and reserved a room at the Blue Hostel, and our train tickets to and from Kraków.  After we stocked up on food supplies for Jess, and got a good night’s sleep, our journey began! 

Our room at the Blue Hostel.

The Hostel was just outside, or maybe on the edge of, Old Town.

There was a little bar next door where we had a drink at the end of the day on Saturday, before retiring.

The Planty Garden

On your way in to Old Town you pass through this garden, which encircles the entire Medieval center.

It was built over the old moat, which was filled using the rubble from the devensive walls when they were torn down at the turn of the 18th century.

Nice Church

I’m not sure which church this is, but we saw it and it was empty, so we decided to poke our heads in.  It was very beautiful, but we were locked out of the main structure.

There was a woman praying next to us, as it seemed many came to do.  The sun was coming in and it made for a nice photo.

On our way to the Central Square

We passed a few large, ornate buildings, like this Theater.

There were also a few small, but beautiful gardens.

We wound our way through the narrow, cobbled brick streets and found an information booth, where we picked up a tourist guide and a small map.

Wawel Castle

Now with some direction, we went south and climbed Wawel hill to pay a visit to Wawel Castle.

The castle is set atop a hill, overlooking the Vistula river and the Old Town.

In the castle, there is a Cathedral where many of the Polish Kings were crowned and entombed.

Wawel Cathedral

We weren’t allowed to take photos inside of the cathedral, which is a shame because it was amazing.  I did get a few photos of the mismatched building from the outside.

Part of the tour included climbing the bell tower.  I’m not sure if photographs were allowed, but everyone was taking them, so why should we be different?

Sigismund Tower

There were several bells along the way up this tower.  All of them were huge.

To get up the tower, you had to squeeze between the posts, and clamber up some sturdy, but narrow, stairs.

It felt like we were climbing up a wooden spiderweb.

The bells (at least the topmost one) have been announcing important events and religious holidays since 1521!

Dragon’s Den

We didn’t pay for tickets to see the rest of the castle, so we bypassed the castle interior and went under it instead!

The Dragon’s Den is a cave that leads out under the castle.

The rock was full of small holes, almost as if the dragon dug out little holes for himself.

Vistula River

After emerging from the dark depths, we took a moment to sit on the banks of the Vistula and admire the view. 

The sun was lowering, leaving a sparkling trail in it’s wake.  A lot of other people shared our sentiment and sat for a bit, and took some photos.

Shopping

After our castle and cave exploration, we roamed around the town to see what the shops had to offer.

There were many street performers and artists.  We picked up a few of the drawings, but sadly, this bear couldn’t come with us.

Saint Mary’s Basilica

On Sunday, we had a little time to kill before our train left, so we saw a few of the other gems in Old Town.

The Basilica is far from the least of these!  It is a beautiful 14th century gothic church, built before the central square was even established.

The Basilica has two tall towers at it’s front.  A bugler plays a tune on the trumpet there every hour since the 16th century.  Before that, the trumpet wasy played at the opening and closing of the city gates, and as a signal in the event of invasion or other important event.

The Barbicon

Of course, with my love of castles, we couldn’t leave without exploring this.

The Barbicon is best preserved of the few remaining such devensive structures in all of Europe.

Before the walls were demolished, and the moat filled, this was the main entry into the city.

That’s the brief summary of our self-guided tour.  Next time we go, we plan to stay longer and take a guided tour of both the Salt Mines, and Auschwitz.  Not the most uplifting of places to visit, I’ll admit, but still an important piece of history, which will no doubt be very informative.

You can see all of the photos from our trip in my Kraków Photo Album

Oh yeah…  I got a hat…

Without anything better to discuss, I figured I’ll hit on another difference, which is the stores.  Not so much the stores themselves, but moreso the attitude of the employees.

Residual from the Communist era, most store workers do not try practice aggressive selling tactics, as they do in the states.  This makes me VERY happy, because I absolutely despise forceful selling.  I rebelled against it when I worked at subway, and I am constantly speaking out about deceptive advertising and other such tactics.

Sadly, however, as Poland grows and becomes more Westernized, you can see the trend of deceptive marketing and forceful selling beginning to creep into the current structure.  

When I’m in a store, unless I have a question or am in obvious need of assistance, I’d prefer that the workers just left me alone.  But that’s just me.

Probably a more noticeable difference is that most checkout workers sit in a chair…  At first, you never really realize that they all stand in the US, but when you get here it just kind of clicks.  I was told the reasoning is that in the US, it is perceived as doing less work, so in order to give the illusion of diligence, we gladly sacrifice health and comfort.  More US marketing bullshit that drives me nuts…  

I’m a big advocate of common sense… Call me crazy, but if someone has to be in the same spot for hours, doing nothing that requires them to stand, why shouldn’t they be allowed to sit?  I guess you could also save money by cheaping out and not buying chairs.  Ridiculous.

I mention Restaurants in my title only to point out that in Poland, as with any other European restaurant I’ve been to, you do not typically get the bill until you ask for it specifically.  There is no rush to get you out the door so they can squeeze in another customer and make more money.  It’s more about enjoying the experience than turning as much profit as possible.  Plus Europeans tend to be more laid back and less stressed than the average American.  But that’s a broad generalization.

Another point on restaurants (I guess I do have more than one) is that at most places you find a seat yourself.  There is rarely a host/hostess to greet you and take you to your table.  You just pick a spot you like, and have a seat.  They’re pretty good about noticing you and usually a waiter/waitress is at the table shortly after you sit.

One last thing about restaurants: When you pay your bill, and you want change, make sure not to say "Thank You" (or Dzienkuje – hopefully spelled correctly).  If you do, they will take that to mean that the change is their tip.  And since you’ve paid and they’re not obsessed with checking on you every 5 seconds to see if they can shove you out the door, you may not see them (or your change) again for the rest of the night.

I will conclude my "Obvious Differences" category with a brief discussion about Electricity.

Poland, along with most if not all of Europe, follows much closer to Nikola Tesla’s standard for electrical distribution at 230 Volts and 50 Hertz.  Whereas the United States follows Thomas Edison’s standard at 120 Volts and 60 Hertz. 

The result of this, is that you need to have a voltage adapter capable of handling the additional voltage.  For most modern electronics and computer equipment, this isn’t a problem.  Most desktop computers have a switch on the back to select the voltage.  

If there is no converter built in, or the power supply can’t handle the voltage, you need an external voltage converter…  These are usually good for short term usage only, and can burn out with long term use, or low-wattage equipment like computers.

Each system has it’s advantages and disadvantages.  If you’re really interested, read more about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents

http://science.howstuffworks.com/electricity.htm

The other major difference is the sockets themselves.  In the US we have a two or three prong plug where the two main prongs are flat (sometimes one is larger than the other – usually in any equipment where polarity is important).  The third prong is the ground, and is usually round (ish).  The socket has two or three corresponding holes, and both the socket and plug are typically shaped like an oval, with the long sides flattened out.

In Poland, the plug has two prongs and one hole.  The prongs are round, as is the hole.  The hole is for ground, and the prong for this is actually on the socket.  The socket has two holes, which typically have some kind of spring-loaded plastic covers which cover the holes – I’m guessing for safety reasons.  The plug and socket are both circular, which tends to make them feel a bit bulky.  Though most non-grounded plugs are small and diamond shaped, having only the two prongs and they slide in next to the round prong.

I took a picture of a socket, but oddly enough, forgot to get one of the plug.

Another difference related to, but not directly influenced by electricity is the light switches.  

This doesn’t exactly fall into the "Obvious differences" category, but I figured as long as I was on the topic…

In the US we have switches where we’re actually toggling a little bar up and down…  In Poland the switches are much bigger and work with more of a see-saw action.  See the picture:

While my wife is off on the ninth grade camping trip, I’m left home alone without much to do (aside from my usual work).  So I figured this would be a good opportunity to catch up on my Blogging (seeing as how I’m stuck waiting for dreamweaver to upload, since apparently switching sites while uploading is just too much for it…).

I’m going to start with just some generic info to catch up on what’s been happening lately.  Since we don’t have television and aren’t big seekers of news, we’re a bit out of touch.  Not being able to read an entire newspaper article, or catch up on bits of conversation, only makes the blackness deeper.  So apart from what we’re told, we’re not really up-to-date on current events, from a news standpoint.

In our lives, however, we seem to be keeping track of things pretty well.  Jess is currently off on a camping trip where they’re doing a cave crawl (got a text message saying she made it through and loved it!), some rock climbing, and other camp-related activities.

It’s easy to forget you’re in a foreign country when you rarely leave the house…  Though we’ve gotten our hands on the remainder of the Pimsleur language classes, so I’ve been doing a lesson as part of my morning bike ride, or at some other point during the day.  We’ve found that the combination of Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone is a good mix.  Pimsleur gives you utility phrases, and Rosetta Stone expands your vocabulary.  The two together have allowed us to figure out new phrases and recognize new words that we pick up while out and about.

Yesterday I barely left the couch, let alone the apartment.  But I got in some extra hours, and so hopefully I can cut my week short (again).  Tonight is volleyball, which should be fun.  Not sure if we’re doing anything afterwards, though.  I hope so, but if not I’ll be okay with it.  I think I’m going to take the bus in, though.  I’m not sure I’m up for another hour of biking today.

Lastly, it has been requested that we take some outdoor shots of our apartment…  I didn’t get any of our "yard" or the courtyard where the kids play because, well, I forgot.  Plus our yard is completely overgrown with weeds at least 2 feet tall (have not yet found a tool for cutting them).  Well, without further ado, here is a little piece of the morning commute.

The door to our apartment.  My back is to the main entrance (and there’s my bike!)

Our lobby, complete with "Skinny" mirrors.  Jess loves them. (our apartment is behind me and to the left.  Front door to the right)

Our entrance, from the inside.  Mailboxes are in the breezeway.

The intercom, and where we get our mail.  (Still not sure how to send it, apart from having the school do it)

Our entranceway, from the outside looking in (none of those windows go to our apartment – we’re on the back side)

Looking left as you come out…

And to the right.  Nothing says brand-spanking-new like cranes, trees with crutches and construction noises…

Our development from the road as I head south on the bike trail to the school.

The aforementioned bike trail…  notice the sky color…  feels just like home!!

The "Red" beer tents…  also called Meta.  This one also has a grill with good food.  This is about 2km from our house.

Huge-ass crucifix that was put up since we moved in.  Huge.  There seem to be crosses or shrines every 2 or 3 km or so.

Now, as I eat my eggs and toast, I give you the second installment of observed differences between living in the US, and in Poland (Warsaw, specifically).

This continues the "Obvious Differences" category with: The Metric System.

Currently only 3 countries in the world do not use the Metric System.  They are, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Liberia, and us Yanks back in the ol’ US of A.

Actually, it’s interesting because some measurements in the US are in metric.  Soda comes in 2 liter bottles.  We measure sodium and fat and other food constituents in grams.  And I’m sure there are many scientists and engineers who use metric.  So some things aren’t so shocking.  Getting drinks measured by the milliliter takes some getting used to.  As does the fact that 50 kilometers per hour is SLOW.  Temperature is another one that messes you up, though we changed our thermometer over a few months before we left the states, so we’ve had some time to figure out roughly where everything is (20 is room temperature, 30 is shorts, 15 is pants, 10 is jacket…  pretty simple).  Though this is pretty easy when deciding what to wear, it makes cooking a bit more challenging!  Luckily we brought some of our own measuring cups and spoons, since all of our recipes are measured in cups and spoons, rather than liters and grams.

It’s still really hard for me to judge distance, though part of the bike trail is spray-painted in 100m increments up to 1km, so that helps.  Weights is another story, though…  When I ordered a half kilo of cold cuts, I didn’t expect to get so much!  But it was a manageable size.  Though next time, I’m going for a quarter!!

Makes you wonder when and if the US will burst from our little bubble and join the rest of the world on the Metric system.  Don’t get me wrong, that kind of change takes a LONG time and a lot of work, so I don’t see it happening any time soon (not like the US is a small place!).  But it makes me wonder if we could start transitioning the little things…  give the weather in Celcius and Farenheit for a while…  Heck, we’ve already got that on most thermometers.  And our cars tell us both kmph and mph, so maybe someone’s already started this…

At some point, I’d like to do a "day in the life of…" style entry.  But today you get the abbreviated version.

Last night I didn’t sleep so well, as with the night before.  I think it may be related to the new pillows we got at Tessco (essentially Wal-Mart).  Not so much because the pillows themselves were uncomfortable or painful to sleep on, but simply because, now that I have two pillows, I tend to sleep on my stomach or side more, which hurts my back.  Plus I had a piwo last night, which I think hurt my stomach, further proving the fact that beer hurts me.

So I tossed and turned from about 1am until somewhere between 4 and 5 when I managed to find a position that didn’t hurt my back, and fell asleep on the couch.  

I almost didn’t bike in with Jess this morning, but I knew I’d regret it more if I didn’t.  I checked the thermometer, and it was around 15°C, so I put on my warm weather gear.  At first, I wanted a hat or earmuffs as well, but once we got going it felt good to have someplace for the extra heat to go.  Though, I may have wanted earplugs when I hit a snail for the second day in a row.  That makes the most God-awful snap you’ve ever heard…  about the same sound your heart makes when you realize what it was.  The first time I think Jess almost cried.

It was still pretty wet out, and there were a lot of clouds, but they were breaking up and moving on.  We got to school a bit more muddy than when we left the house, but better than yesterday.  By this point both my stomach and my back were feeling a little bit better (I had a banana before we left, which helped because I think mostly I was just really hungry).

My legs were really stiff from working out yesterday, but I figured I should keep at it.  I did a little bit, but not much.  Then made the mistake of doing a few kip-ups (where you kick from your back up to your feet) and hurt my neck, too.

The return trip was pretty – sun was out and I had good music on my ipod.  When I got home, I checked the thermometer…  35°C!!!  Granted, it was sitting in the direct sunlight, but so was I!  That’s a huge jump, and me in my cold weather gear (well, some of it anyway). 

If it stays this nice, I plan on taking a stroll over to a small park near our house that I only just noticed.  I’d like to bring my little notebook and do some writing in it, since I haven’t touched it since we got our Internet connection!

So now I’m cooking some eggs and toast (a change from the usual bowl of cereal) and having a glass of juice.  Mmmm….  (they have good juice here).  After this, I’m going to shower, maybe shave, and then start my work day…  I need to get a new desk and/or chair, though, because the ones I have aren’t even close to ergonomic, and I will fall apart if I keep this up too long.  That’s another thing I’m going to do a section on when I have time…  the myths about working from home!!

Saturday night we headed downtown to catch a few free, outdoor concerts by some big names.  You might have heard of them: George Clinton and Wyclef Jean.  There were some other acts, but those were the two we caught.

It was pretty cool.  As someone who doesn’t go to many concerts, it was pretty cool.  I don’t really idolize people, and so I don’t really get caught up in the crazy for seeing someone famous in person.  I think it’s cool, but that’s about where it stops.

So this was fun, but not terribly exciting for me.  It was neat to see these guys in person, though a little weird when Wyclef did half of some of the acts that he’s done with other people, like Shakira or Lauryn Hill, and he’s basically just singing along to a recording.

Anyways, it was a nice event, playing for free in the name of peace, and Wyclef did a few really cool numbers, like some Bob Marley stuff.

All in all it was a pretty good night, but left us pretty exhausted.  I tried to get some pictures, but mostly just got a lot of blurry lights and a strong urge to watch PCU.

Here’s the best ones I got:

I almost forgot to post some stuff about our last trip deeper into Warsaw!

Last Saturday we decided to take a bike ride along the "Royal Route" and head up into Old Town.  Little did we know it would rain most of the day, and be sunny and clear on Sunday – but Sunday’s reserved for grocery shopping, since the shops are a bit less congested.

Anyways, we went with Jess’ social buddies, John and Rachel, who led us up there, since we only had a vague idea of where we were going (as usual).  We took a slight detour to see the US Ambassador’s house.  Wow, that’s a nice place.  I didn’t get any photos of that, unfortunately.  Maybe next time we go out.  It sits on a hill overlooking a beautiful park.  And the place is BIG.  

Once we got downtown we found the street blocked off for what looked like a fair of some sort (I’m thinking like Strawberry fest or the Spiedie fest, back home).  The center of the street was lined with shops selling anything from meat to jewelry to honey and alcohol.  John and Rachel stopped to buy a bowl they liked, and I debated some kielbasa, but in the end decided it wouldn’t sit well in my backpack for then next four hours or so.  

After weaving our way through the crowds, we entered old town.  We were near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which we didn’t get very close to on our last tour, so we decided to check it out.

The tomb is basically at the end of a large, open square, and is under a few shattered columns.  The columns are remnants from either an Orthodox Church, or a palace, I forget which…  But they were all that remained of the structure after WWII.  I want to say it was a palace, because the Church was torn down by the Polish government after Poland became a nation after WWI.  It was torn down as a symbol of independence from Russia.

Behind the monument was a large park none of us had known about.  The main walk of the park had a huge fountain, surrounded by statues that seemed to depict academic subjects, or possibly some Greek or Roman dieties.  I wasn’t quite sure, but most of them were fairly naked.

Just past the fountain was a small sitting area beside a crystalline pond with willow trees framing it like curtains on the window.  There was a small structure across the pond that reminded me of a small Greek temple.  Anyways, it made for a great photo and would be a great place to sit and read.  We sat and read a bit, but we read a map instead of some great work of literature.

Afterwards we took a ride through old town.  There were many things I would have liked to photograph, especially going through the castle-y area, but it was pretty damp so we kept the camera stowed.  Plus we didn’t do much stopping, and did a lot of pedaling.

After old town, we headed up to new town.  I learned from John that Old Town was rebuilt using the bricks from the ruined city, but new town was rebuilt from all new material.  Both look fairly similar, as they are set in the style of the old buildings and city.  We stopped for lunch at a small cafe, and I ordered a "mulled beer with honey" which I was hoping was mead, but that’s miòd pitny.  Turns out it was just warm beer with honey.  Not too bad, but it came with a straw…  Beer through a straw?  Why not.

So I’ve decided to do a comparitive section to highlight the differences we’ve noticed as Americans living in Poland. 

These differences are just our observations, and are only as good as that.

That being said, let’s get on with the first, and most obvious difference: Language

It’s definitely disconcerting to live in a place where you don’t speak the language.  It gives you a newfound respect for people in the US who dont’ speak English.  It also prevents you from ever saying "Why don’t you learn our language" in a spiteful manner ever again.  It’s easy to end up somewhere before you’re completely fluent, or even passable, with a language.  After studying for a few months, Jess and I only have a very basic grasp on the language.  We know some words and phrases – mostly where food is concerned, but I wasn’t able to carry on a conversation with a 5-year old.  Very sobering experience.

The Polish language is at first very intimidating.  The words look alien to a native English speaker.  However, once you learn the rules of pronunciation and wrap your tongue around some of the tougher sounds (there are a few sounds and letter combinations that just don’t exist in English), you can at least read and pronounce just about anything.  There’s not a lot of strange rules.  And after you get used to hearing it, it’s actually a very beautiful language.

The other difficult thing about Polish is that, with most other languages I’ve touched, the verb is the only part that conjugates.  In Polish, the subject and object can change depending on the verb, pluralization, and gender.  It can make the language very daunting.  For example.  Rower is bicycle (Row-vair).  Jedzie na rowerze (Yejay na rovairzheh… zh sounds like the g in garaGe) is "riding a bicycle" (or something close to that).  Make it tough.  Lots to remember, anyways. 

But Polish isn’t the only linguistic difference. 

Unlike the United States – where we are a united, contiguous landmass of country-sized states that all speak the same language, Poland is in the center of Europe.  Europe is a conglomerate of countries different cultures and languages.  These countries are roughly the size of a US state.  Try to imagine if each state spoke a different language and had a different culture.  We may joke about it, but the differences between states are nothing compared to differences between countries in Europe.

The reason I mention this, is that Poland is roughly the size of Ohio…  They import a lot of what they need.  It is not uncommon to find products in other languages with no translation.  Most have multiple languages on the packaging, others have a Polish translation stuck on them. 

To give you an example, in our apartment our washer is all in German.  We’ve seen products in the grocery store entirely in German, Italian, English, Greek, and I think Swedish, or something similar.  And we’ve seen clothing labeled in French, among other languages.  And I don’t doubt that we’ll come across even more.

So it’s very easy to see why someone from Europe would think Americans are ignorant and stupid for only knowing English.  But we’re not really exposed to much else.  There is a fair amount of Spanish, and in some places French, but that’s about it.