Once upon a time, the villagers were forced to leave their homes.  First the Russians came and took all the able bodied men and put them away in Siberia.  Then the Germans came and moved all the women, children, and elderly to Belarus.  As a little boy and his family were leaving,...

I haven’t been going to the forest, so the forest came to me.  It toddled over my laptop, ran under my bed, and waited patiently as I frantically tried to take photos of it in manual, in bad lighting, with poor composition, cursing under my breath all the while.

Aga brought Hedgehog in for...

I may have learned my lesson about springtime travel in northern/central Europe - it certainly isn't spring in California or fall in Australia. I've developed a serious cold/sore throat and lost my voice this afternoon, probably due to overexposure to the elements. Tomorrow I'll have a bit of catching...

happens to belong to an old, um, dead lady.  I was trying to figure out what it was about J’s place that was so delightful, and in the morning, when I woke up with a mild headache and phlegm in my throat from breathing in dust all night, I realized that her flat’s the best museum I’ve been...

I went caroling with my students on Saturday, for Orthodox Christmas, and I was narrating the whole time.  The voice in my head wouldn't shut it, even after I ducked out and ran home after an hour and a half.  Emma was sick in bed, we were talking, and I was narrating our conversation...

Babcias don’t like me.

The turtle is like the neck part of the turtleneck. Or a very warm necklace.

Emma and I were walking home from the village shop when a babcia – a grandmother – stopped us, stared at Emma as if she were the strangest thing since sliced bread, and peppered her with...

If you’ve been paying (very very close) attention to the
BBC or my beloved NPR, you’ll have noticed that we had elections this past
Sunday in Poland.  Out with the old super
conservative PM Jarosław Kaczynski!  In with
the new...center conservative...PM Donald Tusk...

My personal good luck was born out of terrible luck for
my university.  The Polish government
changed its legislation regarding funding to non profits and stuck it to our ovaries.  Big. 
Because our program isn’t regional, because we gather our students from
all across...

2007-07-22

I.
I used to think that I love to sing. I’ve been in and out of choirs since I was ten, and in college I loved gospel choir, even though I don’t love Jesus. Now I know that “love” is much too strong of a word. They’re still singing now, after we’ve sung all day. They’re...

2007-07-11

A group of five girls show up at the school in the morning and spend the entire day with us. It’s a pity they’re only in their second year of high school; they’d make good candidates for the University. Everybody who participates in our event is too young. The kids we talked to...

2007. 07. 20

Three trains, two buses, and eight hours: Warsaw to Janowiec. A group of teenagers are playing basketball at the school when we finally arrive. We are beaten down by the heat and the travel, and we are singing gypsy songs. They eye us suspiciously. Later when we go talk to them, they...

“Spam is the Paul Giamatti or John C. Reilly of the culinary world, an everyman food that lacks the charisma or looks of a leading ingredient, but consistently makes all other ingredients taste better.” Howard Yoon

I can’t quite figure if that’s a diss or just the plain truth (regarding...

2007-06-01
(First day of six-day bike trip from Teremiski to Sejny.)

I’m not a big fan of churches, generally avoid them except to attend the occasional gospel choir concert. We’ve been to five churches today. Five. I’ve heard five different reports about when given church was built and...

We had over 20 kilometers of forest to bike through to get home, and though the sun was glaring, thunder clapped down from the direction we were heading. When I woke up this morning, I thought—truly, I did: “I should pack my raingear; the heat is so sticky that it’ll probably storm today.” ...

"I might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack or a Jew in Poland." The History of Love, Nicole Krauss

When I read this sentence to my students, their faces immediately became somber. Needless to say, after the atrocities of World War II, few Jews remain in Poland. To break it down, quite...

1. Pierogis – No trip to Poland is complete without trying these dumpling-like mounds filled with goodness (meat, cheeses, etc). Fried, sautéed, or poached, pierogis are just scrumptious. Link – http://www.pierogi.com

2. Zubrowka Bison Vodka – Mixed with apple juice, a glass of this vodka,...

Originally Dated: Oct. 3, 2006.

So the last four days I was in Krakow, Poland (and vicinity.). what we did, in chronological order:

-Night train to warsaw
-EARLY morning train to krakow
-Wieliczka Salt Mines
-Explore Krakow... Wawel castle, flea market, etc
-Auschwitz

details!

So we...

Poznan, situated halfway between Warsaw and Berlin, is a great place to visit if you're in Poland. It's a university town, so there are plenty of pubs and clubs to suit your fancy. To soak your artistic soul, Poznan boasts an Opera house, several theatres, an international theatre festival in the summer,...