Halloween Abroad

I'm sorry to say that I did not get a picture of myself carrying a 20kg (44lb) pumpkin on the public tram last night. It was quite a feat. And perhaps even funnier than seeing me struggling with the beast was the reactions from the people around me. Children were pointing in curiosity, and adults were laughing at the absurdity. It was clear that it is not every day that people walk around Poznań carrying large pumpkins, not even on the day before Halloween. Happily, we did successfully carve it (as you see on the left), though we had to use a dinner knife to do so.

Halloween is not a major holiday in Poland. Granted, many of the larger stores have a small corner for Halloween decorations, and a few of the clubs, bars, and restaurants did have Halloween-themed events or parties, but generally it is all on a much smaller scale than might be expected in the US. I have found a fair number of pumpkins in supermarkets, but most are pre-cut into quarters, and even the whole pumpkins are rather ugly and strangely shaped-- much better for cooking than for carving. Some places do have small jack-o-lanterns on display, but it seems that they are generally purchased pre-carved. I have yet to see a child dressed in costume, though a rather ghastly-clad trio of adults was handing out candy in the Rynek two night ago. I have not heard of anyone who goes trick-or-treating, though whether this is because it is an outlandish idea or whether it is because neighbors simply do not have candy on hand for the children, I cannot say.

Instead, I think one of the big reasons that Halloween is not widely popular in Poland is because of the immense importance of the day after-- November 1, All Saints Day (Wszystkich Świętych). To mark this holy day, Poles travel all over the country to visit their hometowns and the graves of their relatives. (Thus, the days before Nov. 1 are always the busiest travel days of the year in Poland). Family members visit the cemeteries, clean the graves, and add flowers and candles. To make the holiday a little bit less stressful, many cities, including Poznań, add extra public transportation services directly to and from the cemeteries to accommodate the huge crowds of people. Tomorrow I intend to join the throngs journeying to the cemeteries, but for now, have a happy All Hallows' Eve!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

If someone has visited Poland, chances are they've been to Kraków. Perhaps they've also been to Warsaw. Maybe Gdańsk (but probably not). But the longer I'm here, the more I learn about gems that are hidden below the surface and off the beaten track (or at least, off the radar of most American and Western European tourists). The following list is a work-in-progress that I will continue to add to as I learn more. In no particular order, here's just a few of the amazing places I would like to visit:

• Przemyśl, Krasiczyn Castle, and the Bieszczady mountains (also Lviv, Ukraine, which is just across the border)
  
• picturesque Kazimierz Dolny
  
• Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains -- a hugely popular summer and winter destination for Poles, but a place I had never heard of before coming here
  
• Białowieża Forest-- huge primeval forest in eastern Poland and western Belarus. They have bison!
  
• Toruń, a red brick city from the days of the Teutonic Knights, has fantastic gingerbread. Also, Copernicus was born here.
  
• Lancut castle
  
• Gniezno, the first capital of Poland, and today famous for its cathedral doors
  
• Warmian-Masurian lake region
  
• Malbork castle near Gdańsk, headquarters of the Teutonic Knights and the largest Gothic castle in Europe
  
• Częstochowa, famous for the Black Madonna icon
  
• German bunkers in Miedzyrzecz area
  

And of course, the cities:

• Poznań, Lublin, Wrocław (whose Old Town is connected by 100 bridges), Katowice, Łódź, Szczecin, and more!

Here's a Map of Attractions from Stay Poland.com

Poznań Marathon 2010

Poznań Marathon, 10.10.10
from Aleja Niepodległości
runners from all over the world and all ages












And last but not least, my favorite participant, and the last runner of the day:

Lessons at a Polish University

Though university classes started at the beginning of this month, this past week marked the first time that I was teaching lessons by myself. Overall, though I was initially anxious about how I would get a group of Polish students to talk about the Elgin Marbles for over an hour, everything went surprisingly well. I worked on how to structure the content of a letter, and with my older students I discussed the strict format for a formal letter, especially cover letters. If you're rusty on how to use the block format, I discovered the following resources:
Letter Writing Guide.com
Using English: Letters

I'm also learning more and more about Polish Universities. For example, after being spoiled by my American University, I assumed that all universities issued their class schedules well in advance. (We typically received ours in early April for classes that started in September). However, I did not receive a finalized course schedule here until 3 days before the classes started -- and I'm told that we were lucky! Some unis only issue it the day before. (The bureaucracy sometimes reminds me of Bruno Bozzetto's comic interpretation of Italy).

However, there is some sense to this. Whereas many American Universities follow the liberal arts structure and encourage students to take classes in all different disciplines, regardless of major, most Polish universities (and perhaps the majority of European universities in general) require students to join a specific department and degree program when they begin their studies. Thus, there are specific classes that all the students in that degree program must take every year and very few (if any) electives. Many students in the same degree program have identical schedules and move from class to class together as a group.

However, it is becoming increasingly popular with Polish students to study with two separate departments -- or even at two separate universities! (Polish unis are free). This is where the problem comes in. Because these departments have no communication with each other, it is possible, and sometimes likely, that courses will conflict. Thus, a Polish dual-degree or double-major student may spend the entire year missing a class every other week in order to attend the conflicting class, or leaving one early and arriving at the other late. There seems to be no easy solution to this, and it requires a lot of hard work and dedication to be successful! This may explain why many of the dual-degree students that I've met wait to start the second program until the 3rd or 4th year of the first program; thus they only have a few years of these frustrating conflicts and double work, but their university experience may be extended from the usual 5-year program (for a Master's) to 8 or 9 years of study!

Packages from Home

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thank you for the box. There's something special about receiving a package; it feels like it's Christmas or your birthday even when it's the middle of October. Even though 99% of it was things that I had set aside to be included, it was still a joy to open it up and see the contents. Contact solution! Warm clothes! Winter boots! PEANUT BUTTER! (which, contrary to popular belief, is not impossible to find, but it's not popular. And I haven't seen Peter Pan anywhere, so thanks!)

However, the shipment was much bigger than expected. A lot bigger. I thought I'd have no trouble carrying this box by myself, but luckily the nice lady in the office arranged for one of her colleagues to drive me back. So now the box is opened and the contents are scattered around my room, and I've realized again that, though I needed a lot of those things, I have SO MUCH STUFF.

So dear friends and family, please do visit me in Poland. But when you arrive, please bring an extra suitcase. I'll show you around Poznań and Poland in exchange for you bringing some of my stuff back to the States. Great deal, huh? You might also want to bring one of those luggage scale-hangers. And while you're at it, perhaps bring some American candy or non-perishable foods (cranberry sauce!) that you can leave here. ;)

Otherwise, I'm not sure how I will get a lot of this back. I'm already planning on leaving a great deal behind next summer, but even still. We'll tackle that when we get to it.

Love,
L

P.S. To my Polish students-- this is an example of an informal letter!

Chilean Rescue

In the midst of all the tragedies and bad news that usually fill the cover stories, it is a relief to see that one that ended happily. As the world watches with joy today, Chile is slowly and carefully bringing each of the 33 miners who were trapped under the earth for two months back to the surface. Watch BBC's live feed here.

XKCD on Social Networking

XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe has created a brilliant map of the current activity, number of users, and popularity of just about every social media, online community, or other web 2.0 site that you can think of. Definitely click the image to view it in detail: http://xkcd.com/802/

Spotted: Kraków

Famed 19th century Polish actress Helena Modjeska (Modrzejewska) is trying to get more Facebook friends, so she's asking all of Kraków to search for her (or to "facebookować" her).


Billboard across from Kraków's main train station

Pa Pamericano

One of the most popular club songs in Europe right now, and an amazing hand-tapping/dancing video to go with it:



"Pa Pamericano", Yolanda Be Cool

First Day of School

Yesterday was officially my first day of school in Poland, though it feels like that first day stretched from 7am Monday until about 3pm this afternoon. Six classes, an orientation, an exam, a welcome party, and several meetings later, I am ready to hibernate until the spring. And this is only Day 2?!

Did I mention that yesterday I left at 7:45am and didn't get back until 11:45pm? But I'm not complaining. This year's Erasmus program was officially inaugurated yesterday, and between meeting my students and meeting international students from France, Sweden, Romania, Turkey, Finland, and so many other countries, it was worth it.

Technically, the academic year for Polish universities, like many of the universities across Europe, starts October 1. Because October 1 fell on a Friday this year, inauguration festivities were held on this day, as the Rector and other Deans in traditional academic garb officially opened the school year, but classes did not begin until after the weekend.

As an English TA, the six classes that I have attended so far are all English courses for second and third year students. (Previously all Polish university students would study for 5 years and graduate with a Master's, with no intermediary step for a Bachelor's. Now, due to the Bologna Accords, students receive a Bachelor's degree at the end of 3 years and can either choose to graduate or to continue their studies for 2 more years for the Master's). Tomorrow and Thursday I'll meet the last of my classes. Hopefully by next week, I'll also be able to organize my schedule so that I can attend classes myself as a student, namely in the fields of politics, history, and Polish language.

It Gets Better

Columnist Dan Savage has launched the It Gets Better Project in response to the disturbing numbers of recent teen suicides related to sexuality and bullying. GLBT individuals from across the world are sharing their stories through YouTube in an attempt to encourage young people to hold on.

The tragic story of Tyler Clementi, musician and Rutgers freshman, has probably received the most international media attention, but he is only one of many. These are only the names that we know about, and from September alone, and four within the last week.

Billy Lucas (15) September 9, 2010. Indiana
Cody J. Barker (17) September 13, 2010. Wisconsin
Seth Walsh (13) September 19, 2010. California
Tyler Clementi (18) September 22, 2010. New Jersey
Asher Brown (13) September 23, 2010. Texas
Harrison Chase Brown (15) September, 25 2010. Colorado
Raymond Chase (19) September 29, 2010. Rhode Island
Felix Sacco (17) September 29, 2010. Massachusetts
Caleb Nolt (14) September 30, 2010. Indiana

A number of projects are being launched across the US. Celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres are speaking out (here's the resources she mentions), the Chalk Messages project has declared that Monday 4 Oct will be the next nationwide event to write these public messages of love and support, and The Trevor Project continues to offer help via a professional and anonymous hotline for GLBT who may be contemplating suicide.

Regardless of what you may think of the gay, lesbian, bi, or trans lifestyle, no one can argue that teen suicide is a tragedy and an epidemic to which thousands of young people lose their lives every year, often triggered by bullying. And while the projects listed above are specifically geared toward GLBT youth, as they are often the most at risk, many of the messages of hope, such as the stories from It Gets Better, are universal for anyone who has experienced bullying.

Polish Lesson

It's come to my attention that many readers of this blog might know absolutely nothing about Polish. In the interest of encouraging you to visit Poland, here's a very basic lesson to help you get started.

Pronunciation
This may be the hardest part for English-speakers who start learning Polish. Polish has a number of longer words with sounds that might often tongue-tie English-speakers. Here are some VERY basic approximations to help you start reading Polish words. This should not be considered an exact replication of the sounds, it's only meant as a start. (For example, there is a difference between cz and ć, but it's hard to hear when you start learning). I'll try to find audio files as well.

cz = "ch" (like "chalk")
ć or ci = "ch" ("cheek")
sz = "sh" ("shark")
ś or si = "sh" ("sheep")
drz or dż or dzi or dź = roughly "j", but best to listen to audio of the different z's (z, ż, ź) to hear the difference
rz = "rj" (similar to a strong rolled r; BBC compares it to the "s" in "treasure")
c = "s" or "ts" (NOT /k/)
j = "y" (i.e. Jakub is pronounced more like "Yakub")
ń = nasal "n"
ł = "w"
w = "v"
ą = "on" (think French)
ę = "ehn" (like French "bien")
ó = "oo"


Now that you've mastered many of the basic sounds, take a look at this chart from the BBC. They do a more precise job at explaining some of the sounds, and they also include helpful phrases. For those of you who might know the IPA or just want more info about the history of the Polish language, here's the Wikipedia link with phonology and orthography.

EDIT: And because BBC continues to be amazing, here's their link for audio files to pronounce the Polish alphabet.

Powodzenia! (Good luck!)