So we headed to the armory, and wow... I definitely remembered it from my 2005 visit, but this time it was that much more meaningful. We saw a lot of objects from the medieval ages; swords, halberds, shields, armor, all of that fun stuff! Plus, old cups, jewels, the sword that was used for the coronation of all of Poland's kings. Also, Nate was awesome in explaining all of the weapons, their uses, the methodology, as he is an actor in Polish reenactments! Cannons, history, all sorts of fun stuff. Fascinating. Then we moved on to "Lost Wawel," which I had not seen before. It's an exhibition which shows artifacts from the Wawel castle, as well as it's changes through time, and what it was like way back when. This includes walking through a part of Wawel which was left destroyed or from some dig, I'm certain. It's really cool to walk through it and see it in its ruins, because that also gives you an idea of its massive size. Oh, plus, they had some bones from a burial there! Nerdy me started calling out what they were... (I definitely need to touch up on that...) We walked through the kitchen too, or what would've been the kitchen. But once we finished that exhibition, we went by our late president's tomb once more, out of respect, and headed on to the Dragon's Den! So, what you do, is you descend down a huge spiral staircase, and end up in a cave, and walk through the dark, rocky cave, imagining a dragon would've lived there, even though it's actually rather small when you think about the size of a dragon. I was nerdy and took a video, walking through it, explaining that we're in a cave, and we found no sheep bones yet. Yeah, it was nothing special, but now I can say I went through it, and I saw the dragon again!
In fact, Monika and I fearlessly stood before the dragon as it raged its terrible fiery breath just above us, and Nate bravely recorded its horrible flamethrower for the record of all people to know its horror! ... Yeah, I know, I just made that super nerdy and epic all at once. :)Ok, in all seriousness, we ended up going to grab some Asia to Go to see how good the Asian food is over here. Pretty good, I'd say, if not better. Different, but I liked it for sure! From there, we headed on to a museum that was opened just last year: it's underground! Under the sukienica actually! It's an interactive sort of museum which shows you Kraków in the middle ages, when it was a bustling medieval city, full of merchants and travelers, and just one of those medieval capitals of the time, ya know? You could go to a little nook and hear some Polish guy yell at you to go away, look at some maps, see how much you weighed or how tall you were based on olden time measurements, then there was a really cool rounded theatre that went through all of the important people in Polish history from Kraków! Oh, you walked under the fountain that sits in the square, and you walk through the dig sites of Kraków's old square. Cool fact about this: they started the archeological dig in August of 2005. That was two months after I left! Literally, the entire square in Kraków was completely torn apart so that they could look at the structures of the old market places. They had clips going through the museum, and they had old, black and white drawings of previous kings and queens smiling down on you. :) Err... looking at you, rather, except for the lovely Queen Jadwiga. <3
Although, the wait for it was quite ridiculous! It was a free day, so we were told 15 minutes. Tons of groups went in before the three of us (they can't pack the museum, so they're careful with the amount of people permitted in), and we waited for 45 minutes while dealing with snotty Polish customer service (yes, Polish customer service is no customer service, essentially), but the museum was nifty!
We finished our day far earlier than I expected, which was wonderful. That was it for the day, though! We came back to the apartment, I relaxed before heading back out once again to this language exchange club. It. Was. Packed. No seats. At all. Next week, I plan on sitting with the Polish table, but this week, I ended up talking with two girls, also from Poland, who wanted to improve their Polish. Marysia and Ania, I think. Marysia had been to America not too long ago, and she fell in love. She wants to go back. Ania says she'd like to go, but ehhhh, maybe, if it can happen, that kind of attitude. We talked some about accents... A lot about accents, actually. They were absolutely shocked by the Southern imitation I attempted. They assumed there was only "one American accent," and Nate and I both went into the explanation that is far from the case! In general, we talked about some comparisons as well, such as Christmas, and schools, and all sorts of stuff. There was one guy who was quite tipsy and personal that I talked to briefly. He was really glad to find the two of us Americans and took Nate with him; which I found out later they discussed conspiracy theories of 9/11. Great topic! Yeah, the guy came back to me and informed me of this. He was... very very in my face. Literally. I keep on forgetting how close and personal Polish people can be. Although, being tipsy, and the area being loud did not help, I'm sure. Oh gosh, plus the smoke was horrid. Ick. So many smokers. Why. Why must they permit smoking indoors. It just stays.
Oh what else happened... Ah, not much to be honest. I ended up going back home earlier than last week, reminding myself of my early class. Back home, Monika and I chatted, as she had enjoyed an evening with some distant family, so we talked about our families and grandparents. That was really fun. (: Then Nate joined us, and we all had tomato soup!
Eventful day, right? Well, today was no slower! Morning, we had our Holocaust class. I still am absolutely fascinated by it, and I'm learning so many interesting nuances I never considered or knew before. I have a feeling I'll end up just being a professor on the Holocaust, or the significance of genocides, and somehow manage to incorporate comparative cultural anthropology, or social anthropology in determining why people permit things like this to happen. Honestly, I have no clue; there's so much going on with me trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and in college right now. I stayed up way too late last night trying to making another four year plan to incorporate new plans, and I'm worried about these new plans, and I feel like I have one hundred interests going one thousand different directions. However, that is not the point of this post!
After the Holocaust class, I had an adventure trying to buy tickets for traveling. I can't buy bus tickets from Zakopane to Wrocław outside of Zakopane (maybe Wrocław) apparently, and it's not like I could've bought them this past weekend while in Zakopane, because they likely wouldn't have sold them to me. I need them for my parents and me on New Year's Day. Then I tried to buy a bus ticket to Wrocław for the upcoming long weekend. All sold out. So, I walked to the train station, the lady was actually really nice and ensured that I got a student ticket (I wouldn't have asked otherwise), and I have a ticket for my trip to Wrocław! Super exciting! Did some mini shopping, met up with Nate for pierogi (a mix plate, once again, and yes, delicious), then we walked around the Rynek, buying gifts for people, or in my case, trying to find the cheapest deals. Although, I know more and more what I plan on getting for everyone, I think. I still need to get post cards. Desperately at this point. Then we headed on to Poland in Europe in the 20th Century; I learned a LOT in that class today! So many new people and facts I never knew or realized about Poland. The first president in the new, developing, democratic Poland was assassinated. And Poland never really had many political assassinations otherwise, so this was an absolute uproar and upset that did not help it's attempt to grow up as a country. Oh, and you know why this man was assassinated? ...
He was atheist. 1920s. Atheist. In Poland. In politics. Who managed to get the parliaments votes to become president. That's impressive. I would've never thought. I really do like these course! (I really should just dedicate my life to studying Poland; it's a part of who I am, after all.) But yeah, class ended, I found the library where my readings for my Polish ethnic history course are, and I spent some time there before heading on to my first Polish language class. (Still incredibly happy how that turned out!)
It was interesting. I have never heard that amount of Polish accents. I meant, accents while speaking Polish. It's amazing how much holds over from your native language, but it's also so cool how so many people can connect through a second language. It's a unique and special unity, I feel. Let's see. We had some Czechs, a Slovakian, a fellow American, a Canadian, a Ukrainian, a Swede, a Spaniard, oh who else... ah, yes, Austrian! And some others which I cannot recall, but look at that beautiful diversity! We're going to be encouraged to talk to each other as well, as it started off today! We all introduced ourselves by drawing three symbols we consider to represent us (I chose people, i.e. family, friends, helping people; arts, i.e. drawing, music, writing; and travel). Then people had to guess what we drew and what we could interpret about the person from the drawing, then we introduced a bit more about ourselves, and everyone had to ask the person a question. Therefore, our teacher could listen to our speech, via discussion and our answers. Then we answered a weird questionnaire; it was for her to see our level of writing, but I'll be very honest... the questions were odd. Such as what excites you, what you fear, what you are ashamed of, what you would give a woman, what you would like from a woman, who is your dream woman (no, I am not making this up), what you want from life. They definitely allowed for her to learn more about us and our writing style, so it was a great exercise. Also, I felt great, because I felt very comfortable in writing. Writing in Polish now comes to me far more naturally than before, and wow, is it a wonderful feeling. I'm really getting things down, finally.
After that, we ended off the class with some tongue twisters/pronunciation exercises. Again, for her to pick out what level we're on. They were interesting, but I was a bit saddened by the lack of times I actually had a chance to say anything. (In fact, I was the one person whose name she did not know...) I got one go, while everyone else had at least two. Ah well! She ended up saying that our speech is on a great level, and now she just needs to figure out how we write. If we're lucky, we won't have to buy books! And yes, you can bet I am hoping that we don't need to buy books. Class ended, I checked out the rosters downstairs and realized that hey, I'm actually in the level just under the highest level that made it this semester! I'm a B1.2, and the only classes above me are two B2.1s. And there's only one B1.2 class (which means I was fortunate in how well these times worked out for me). Yay for more confidence boosts!
That's the end of that, though. I just know now I am exhausted, and I indeed have classes in the morning! Then I have to go finish my reading for my Polish course! Oh, course work. <3
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