Welcome to Warsaw

This page is to contain correspondance and imagery from our very own Laura Jasiczek while she is on her grand tour of Eastern Europe. You can reach her here.

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Easter Break
April 16th, '06
Spring break with my family

These are my pics from Easter Break. My dad came and we traveled to southern Poland to meet my family. My great-grandparents left Poland in the beginning of the 20th century and except for one visit back to Poland by them, no one has been back to visit my family since. My father and I have kept in contact with a few members of the family. Mostly, my cousin Agnieszka because she speaks a little English. My father has also kept in touch with Wanda, my great-grandmother's cousin, who would write through an interpreter.

All in all, it was a really amazing experience. The family we met are some of the warmest, most wonderful people I've ever met. Even when they were unable to speak to us, they did everything in their power to make us feel welcome. Mostly, that meant that they served us a lot of food! Not only that, but every bit of it was homemade. I'm fairly certain I gained at least 5 lbs. just over the Easter weekend, which is probably the most widely celebrated holiday in Poland.

The first 4 pictures are of Czermna and my family that lives there. This is family that was related to my great-grandfather. The last picture is of my family in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, the family related to my great-grandmother.

Next to seeing the Solidarity monument, meeting my family will be remembered as one of my best experiences in Poland. I hope to come back in the near future and spend more time with them while hopefully improving my Polish and learning some sustainable agricultural methods...a dream among many.

Anyways, on with the pictures:

Left to right: Jozef (my uncle of sorts and the father of the family we stayed with), Tadek (his brother), Sebastian (Tadek's son), Adam (my cousin), Grzegorz (Agnieszka's husband), Agnieszka (my cousin), and I on their farm.

This is my family in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska - Dad, Wanda, Marek, Dorota, their 2 daughters, and I.

The largest structure in the village of Czermna. The new church that was finished 5 years ago. I wish I could show you more of Czermna; it is the most beautiful part of Poland that I have seen, but my pictures do not do justice to the landscape. It is a wonderful of village built on many hills and valleys.

I've heard this called "the Polish limousine" in jest. It's a tiny Fiat and you see them all over Poland. Seriously, I think it would take about 4 men to lift it off the ground with ease. The reason I took this picture is because when we walking back from taking pictures of the church and these guys kept driving up and back on the one main street in Czermna. When I asked my cousin, Anja, what they were doing, she responded that they did this every week, purely for entertainment! Fabulous form of entertainment, ay?

Pawel (a cousin by rights of being Jozef's sister's son) and one of the family dogs.
Gdansk
April 8th, '06
Home of the Solidarity Movement

dammit...i started working on this once and apparently it didn't save right so, here we go again. hopefully, you'll be back on skype by the time i get done, then i REALLY have to work on my fucking paper! so, here's gdansk, etc. pics. enjoy!

Adriana, Greta, and I at the Myslovitz concert.

This is Greta with my director, Bogdan. He and the assistant director, Kasia, are the primary reason this program is as awesome as it is. They are both great people.

Water's edge in Gdansk. The whole city is pretty much made up of islands and peninsulas; prettiest city I've seen yet. The building in the back left of the picture is the elevator with a couple hooks that used to be used to lift masts and heavy things off ships.

This is one of the wheels that in the elevator shown previously. There were two wheels and it was the job of three people per wheel to walk around in them to raise and lower the hooks that lifted things out of the ships. Kinda like a gerbil...pretty fun job, ay?

This is the monument that was erected a few months after the first strike of the Solidarity movement at the Lenin Shipyard. The three crosses were erected to commemorate the first three that died on that spot in the 1970 strike and demonstrations. Solidarity is one of the most amazing revolutions that ever existed and we never learn about it. It was completely bloodless until martial law was declared at the end of 1981 and it was the impetus for all other nations in the Soviet bloc that eventually broke free from Communism. I had chills being at the spot where such an amazing revolution began, out of astoundingly simple circumstances.

These are crosses displayed by participants of the Solidarity movement during the movement. While they occupied the shipyard, they held mass everyday. They also used this church, the Church of St. Bridget. An alter and monument were also built dedicated to Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who was killed in 1984 by Polish security service officials. If anyone wants to study this phenomenal movement more, I recommend: The Polish Revolution: Solidarity by Timothy Garton Ash. It's well worth the read.
Wroclaw
April 11th, '06
Nother weekend outting

So im finally sending pics from wroclaw. I will send pics of the concert I went to and gdansk sometime in the next couple days, I hope...

One more pic from Wroclaw. The best really; I like to call it "Laura - Future Best Old Cat Woman Ever!" I'm practicing early ; )

This is the group I went to Wroclaw with sitting in front of the Raclawica Panorama, a huge painting housed in a special building depicting a battle between Poles and Russians that the Poles won. It was really amazing scene and it managed to survive WWII because of the Poles' abilities to remove and hide many of their important works of art before they were stolen or destroyed. In the group, you see French, Portuguese, Italians, Finnish, Dutch, German, Canadians, Americans, and probably some other nationalities I missed. It was fun to go on a trip and get to know all these International students. We already hang out with the Germans and Canadians quite a bit, but I got to hang out and get to know the Italians. They were really great guys.

Here is a picture of (left to right): Fabio (Italian), Rushmie, Sana (Canadian), Kirk and Me in front of the river in Wroclaw.

Here is the view of Old Town in Wroclaw from the ridiculously high tower we climbed! About halfway up I regretted the decision; it was this horrible steep, winding staircase from hell that took about 10 minutes to climb. It was awful, but the view was cool, I guess.

Here is a picture of the horrible, awful tower, which is the Church of St. Elizabeth, built in the 14th century.