St. Peter’s Bascilica – The Vatican

Anyone who’s traveled with me knows that climbing to the top of whatever structure is open for viewing is a must, so of course we went to the top cupola of the Bascilica at St. Peters.  551 steps to the top!  Delaney managed to do it while carrying on a running commentary the entire time (ha!)  She was a bit scared when we first got to the top viewing area, but then quickly decided she was secure enough to do laps around it (dodging people far faster than I was able to keep up with her).  The sky was very clear and the view was wonderful.  We could see the snow covered mountains in the distance – very cool.

 St. Peter's Square where the Pope gives his Easter address (among others).

 Stairs inside the Bascilica's dome.

If you look closely, you can see the people on the lookout at the base of the top columns.

Sitting around on the roof of the Bascilica (gift shop to the left - no joke)

551 steps back down again into the nave of the sanctuary – amazingly large!  The guidebook indicated that it didn’t feel overwhelming large because everything is in such perfect proportion.  The center structure over the alter is the height of a 4 story building!  Beautiful marble statues.  Surprisingly, there was no massive organ console in sight.

 Shrine with bones of St. Peter under the main alter.

 Statue of St Andrew

Alter

Visiting the Colleseum

Enjoyed a good breakfast at the hotel, then set off to explore Rome…first stop:  The Colleseum!  We took the local on/off tour bus and got off at the Colleseum.  Although it is much warmer here than Lublin, it was still quite chilly in the shade with the wind blowing.  Delaney and I were wishing we had worn another layer.  We got our admission tickets and went in to explore (and wait for our guided tour).  What else can I say other than it was amazing.  There are holes in the walls all around the structure.  The guide explained that this is where metal was used to bolt the blocks of stone together, but long ago the metal had been removed to use for other purposes.  The fact that the building was still standing was a bit of a mystery to engineers.  Learned that there were 4 levels of seating in the arena:  VIPS on the lowest level with the best view, middle class men, slaves, and women on the very top tier.

Enjoying Rome

We've been in Rome 2 1/2 days, but the cost to connect to the internet is pretty high at the hotel, so we've been saving our posts and pictures.  We'll post a few things now, and put up the rest when we return home on Tuesday to Lublin...

Thursday

5:00 am          Wake up (an early start to a long day)

6:20                Bus to Lublin train station (still VERY cold out, had our heavy coats, long underwear, hats, scarves, etc.)

7:03                Train to Warsaw (uneventful.  Had the cabin to ourselves)

9:45                Taxi to the Fredrick Chopina Airport

(Made the mistake of taking an “unmarked” cab and got charged an outrageous amount!)

1:00                Plane to Rome  (Very different to hear Italian and English instead of Polish.  Got to see some of the Italian alps during the flight!)

3:25                Arrive in Rome

4:07                Train from airport to center city (Delaney took great delight in snapping pictures out the window on our way into town.  It was so nice to see green trees and grass and not snow.  Temperature is about 55 F, seems quite balmy)

4:40                Arrive in center city station (Termini)

(This is the largest most confusing station I have ever set foot in.  It is huge, winds around extensively with limited signage and long walkways, and hordes of people). 

5:30                Metro to outer ring of the city toward our hotel  (The metro system here rates pretty high on our public transportation scale.  Clean, well marked, smooth, speedy.)

6:00                Exited metro system and started looking for our bus stop.

(It was already dark and my map did not clearly show where the bus stop was to get to our hotel.  We inquired at a local bistro and the owner directed us down the street.  We found a large bus stop with a kiosk.  A bus employee directed us across the street to a smaller, almost unmarked stop.  The bus arrived just about the same time we did.  The driver thankfully told us which stop we needed to get off  at.  A walk down a dark narrow street brought us to our hotel at 7:15 pm.  Rooms are nice and view over the  city looks great.

You can see the dome of the Bascilica from our hotel balcony.

Postal adventures

As you can tell from the photos, it looks like the box went through WWIII!  It arrived wrapped in plastic and packed within a second larger box.  The original inside box was decimated.  Surprisingly, almost everything arrived intact, including our DVDs, so we were thankful for that.  However, a shoebox with the kids posters for their rooms (picked out by them as Christmas gifts) was missing.  I think the postoffice must have repacked everything when the box fell apart and somehow missed putting the shoebox back in the larger box.  I also realized this morning that something else was also inside that shoebox...over 1000 popsicle sticks that I use for one of my class simulations (they are "guns" for a disarmament exercise).  I will now begin my search for replacement "guns".  I haven't come across a craft or hobby store yet, but I will start looking...

Visit to Warsaw

I spent the day traveling to Warsaw and back with my colleague Dave Jervis for a Fulbright orientation meeting.  The meeting was brief and then we went to a very nice lunch and got to visit with some of the other Fulbrighters who are in Poland this year.  Several were faculty and several were students.  It was interesting to hear different people's experiences thus far.

It was an extraordinarily cold day to travel - about 7 F not factoring in wind chill.  The train we took was the first departure and had sat unheated all night, so we could see our breath for at least the first 30 minutes of the trip.  Here are a few pictures from the day.  I think I mentioned the last time we were in Warsaw that the train station is under construction,  and it is not particularly attractive...

This is the Palace of Culture and Science.  The tallest building in Poland.  You can go up in it to see the city (we didn't yesterday).  The guidebook describes it as "a gift of Friendship from the Soviet Union to the Polish people" built in 1952.  Locals tend to disdain its appearance, giving it the nickname "Elephant in lacy underwear" - massive building, frilly sculptures.

Nice sunset at the end of the day... (The days are getting noticeably longer!)

Costume Party

Delaney's class had a special costume party yesterday.  She wore the princess outfit we bought last week.  They had dance and cheer contests and lots of snacks.  I'm not sure what the particular occasion was, but she had a good time.  She talked about one contest where two people had to dance on a spread out piece of newspaper, then fold it in half and dance some more, then fold it in half again.  Your team was out if you touched the ground instead of the newspaper...pretty funny watch!

Apartment decor

There are some interesting features to our apartment (and presumably to other Polish apartments)...The curtains are all just sheet like squares of fabric that are clipped onto a hook on a rod.  A simple pull will bring them down (easy to wash), or allow you to change them out.  Most hang all the way to the floor, so there is not so much custom fitting required.

We also have a "glowing rock" that the landlord specifically pointed out when showing us around the apartment.  We've seen them in several other shops around the city, so they must be the "in thing" right now.  They kind of remind me of lava lamps...

Headed to Warsaw

I'm returning to Warsaw tomorrow for a brief orientation for new Fulbrighters in Poland.  Its about a 2 1/2 hr train ride (one way) and the session is scheduled to last 1 1/2 hrs.  Its a lot of travel time for a brief meeting, but it will be good to meet other new arrivals.  I'll be traveling with Dave J. who is here at UMCS with me, so it will be good to have a travel companion.  I've prepped my classes for Weds, and for the following week since we'll be going to Rome this week : )  -Carolyn

Hair gel

We've started to run out of various toiletries that we brought along.  I was shopping for more styling gel the other day and just thinking about it makes me laugh.  At the large grocery store there are plenty of supplies to choose from.  The challenge is that they are mostly labeled in Polish although there is a weird kind of mixture of languages on labels sometimes.  Its really interesting to see which companies/products are familiar and which are not - Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo is available and so are the Axe products that Adam likes so much.  -Carolyn

Delaney update

Mom came with me to school this morning to help me with a powerpoint presentation for my class.  We picked out pictures of Kansas and Wichita and showed them to my friends.  They were amazed at the pictures of storms in Kansas, and especially liked the picture of the tornado that we showed.  No one had ever seen the movie Wizard of Oz though.  We also showed a picture of our cats, but Mom couldn't find a picture of Arthur to include.  I said a few words in Polish to explain the pictures and Mom helped.  We might do another presentation after we get back from Rome with pictures from the trip... -Delaney

"Flamingo ballet"

Delaney and I attended a Flamenco dance performance last night at the local Philharmonic concert hall.  When I saw the posters up a few weeks ago, I thought it would be a fun thing to do together.  David and Adam had no interest, so Delaney and went together and really enjoyed it.  Delaney kept calling it "flamingo ballet" before we went - ha!

There was a music ensemble and two dancers.  The ensemble included a spanish guitar player who was excellent, a drummer, and two percussionists whose hands were miked for their clapping and other percussive sounds.  The man and woman danced several solos, then wrapped up with a joint number.  Their footwork was absolutely amazing.  The one down side was that we thought we had balcony seats, but ended up on the next to back row at ground level.  Some genius decided to add a few extra folding chairs at the end of each row, which stood at least 6-8" higher than the regular seats (where we were seated). (The fire marshall would have had a fit.)  Delaney had a hard time seeing, but finally managed to lean far forward to see between two other heads.

Nuns shopping

Adam and I saw two nuns on the bus today (no, this is not a nun joke!)  They both had clearly been shopping.  They had bags full of bread, and both of them were carrying brand new printers still in their boxes.  I don't know why, but this struck us as kind of funny : )

Fire on the street

As I was headed to the bus stop the other day, I smelled something like burning plastic.  As I approached the bus stop, I realized there was smoke pouring out of the trashcan by the stop.  A few people were standing at the stop, no one was even looking at the trashcan fire.  Since it was a solid metal can on the middle of a concrete sidewalk, I decided there was no reason to be concerned.  (It was -11 C and I was tempted to move closer for the heat, but the smell was pretty noxious!)  The stick-on advertisement on the side of the trash can was charred from the heat.  I realized over the next couple of days that many trashcans around the city had the same black charring on them - must be rather common to have trashcans on fire here.

A little beer (mis)adventure tonight. I chose two new Polish beers to try, one of them was Redd's "O Smaku Malinowym". It reminded me of an Irish Red, but man was I off! Turns out that "O Smaku Malinowym" translates as "raspberry flavor". Not caring for fruit beers and expecting a red ale of sorts, well... it was an adventure.

Beer #2 tonight was ŁOMƵA, a product of SABMiller. I read a review that called it a good "lawnmower" beer; good ice cold after working hard in the sun. I can agree with that.

And speaking of Miller, I found MGD on the shelf for 4.19 ZŁ per bottle ($1.50). I think not!

My Christmas idea for Carolyn, since she is so fond of Milka. Wonder if I could get away with it as a carry on for our return to the states.



Carolyn made desert last night, strawberrys from Spain with chocolate syrup and chocolate Liebniz cookies. Yum!

Still waiting for box # 3 to arrive

Ever since our other boxes arrived last week, we've been waiting impatiently for our last box to arrive (the one with all of our DVDs along with other goodies). We decided to go shop for 3 more movies this weekend, the others that we have are getting old after multiple viewings.  The boxes were shipped at the same time, where could #3 be?  No tracking number, no way to know...

Administrative buildings

What I've seen of local administrative buildings is really interesting.  These are pictures from the hallway of the bus ticket office.  They are stark, dark hallways and the doors look like they belong on a navel vessel.  The surprising thing is that once you open the door, you find completely modern and pleasant looking offices (although smaller than many US offices). I couldn't politely take a picture to show the contrast, but it was quite a difference!  With how small the offices are,  you have to really like your colleagues or suffer the consequences. There's no room for cubicle walls, everyone's desks are back to back against each other.  The HR office I was in the other day had 5 people in a space no bigger than 30 ft x 15 ft.   Each had a desk that was quite small with a computer terminal on it and very little space left over for piles of papers.  You have to be really organized with so little working space!  -Carolyn

Political Science Major - Academic comparisons

I learned more about the Political Science degree at UMCS today.  I had noticed that the students kind of hung around the in halls between classes, but I didn't see many heading toward the main part of campus several blocks away.  I asked if they took any classes on the other part of campus and was told that they took all of their classes in the Pol Sci building and another near by.  Apparently pol sci majors take all pol sci classes.  The first year they take intro philosophy, econ and sociology, but these are taught by Pol Sci faculty.  After that its all Pol Sci classes.  My colleague seemed surprised to learn that at WSU, pol sci majors take 120 hours of classes and only 33 of those hours are in Political Science.  Quite a contrast!

Dinner

Had a good dinner last night - sausage and potato pancakes.  There are so many sausages to choose from in the market that its hard to decide.  David really cleared out his sinuses with the mustard!  The rest of us were happy to do without.

Bad luck shopping

David remarked today that I seem to have the remarkable gift of selecting one item on each shopping trip that does not have a scan code on it.  This involves the checker placing a call, a person coming forward to see the item and then disappearing, often never to return.  Several times we've waited and waited, finally just thanking the checker and leaving.  Today the item was staples for my newly purchased stapler.  It was not an option to just forget about it.  Staplers need staples.  After waiting while 6 more shoppers' items were rung up, I finally went back to the aisle myself, checked the price, got another pack of staples and went through another line.  The checker tried to ring them up and failed.   I told her they were 3 zloty 19 gr.  She proceeded to call someone up to check on the price.  The woman looked annoyed because she had been called to check on this item once already (but clearly hadn't followed through because she disappeared again to go look it up).  She finally came back and my staples were rung up: 3 z 19 g.  Sigh.  Misson accomplished. -Carolyn

2nd swimming adventure

Delaney went to the pool for the first time with her school today.  It was not what she was expecting.  It was actually swim lessons, and many of her classmates swim well, so she couldn't show off as much as she hoped.  They got 10 minutes at the end to play on the water slide or in the hot tub.  She's going to give it another try next week and decide if she wants to keep participating or not.

On a more positive note, she says "I've finally figured out school" and had the best day yet.  She says she gets her teacher now and her teacher gets her. ha!

First Day of Class

Both of my classes met for the first time today.  I'm teaching undergrad Intro to Int'l Relations Theory and graduate Post-Conflict Peacebuilding.  Both classes meet in the same classroom (below).  During the first week of classes, students visit many of the different classes that they are interested in, then choose to enroll in their favorites.  There are some things that don't change across cultures...all the students left the first few rows empty and filled in from the back of the room first : )

My students seemed a bit surprised by the graded expectations for the classes.  I did my best to explain the reasoning behind the graded components, but 'different' is often unsettling and I may lose some students before we meet again next week.  I may have to fully rethink some of my simulations as a consequence...

"Yard sales"

Since many people live in apartments here, its kind of hard to have a yard sale or garage sale...I think some of the apparent street vendors are actually just residents selling some extra stuff.  I'm not sure what the rules are for doing this (permit required?) but they just seem to show up in random places.  There have also been people selling homemade breads and canned vegetables just outside the grocery store...

Princess Delaney

Delaney and I had a fun shopping trip the other day.  Her school is having a costume party next week - dress as your favorite book character.  She decided to go as Rapunzel.  We found a wonderful store in the mall with princess dresses in her size.  She added the wand and sparkle slippers with her Valentine gift money that Grandma sent (thanks Grandma!)  (I think the soccer tournament medal around her neck is a great finishing touch!) -Carolyn

Beauty in small things

Sometimes you have to look a little closer to see the beauty around you, but its there.

 Door handle into the political science building.

 Paving stones in front of the bookstore.

Bank office window.

Dingdong ditching

Had an "opps" moment the other day...Our hallway/stairwell light is on a timer.  We stepped out one evening and the light was on.  We got halfway down the stairs when it went off.  Each landing has a switch on the wall, so I reached for the switch to turn it back on and...hit the neighbor's doorbell instead! Dashed on down the dark stairwell...fortunately no one was home.  No harm done.  -Carolyn

Cars and things

Big jar of Nutella calls for big pretzels.

Old and new together. An old East German made Wartburg taxi parked near a Hummer H2.

On another note, I have noticed (or failed to notice) any water fountains in this country. I have yet to see a single one, be it at a mall, store, train station, airport, or either one of the kids schools. Everyone either buys bottled water or the kids bring an empty bottle to school to fill from the sinks.

Feeling adventuresome, I grabbed this bottle off of the shelf having no idea what it was. After doing a bit of research, I still am not sure what it is. Here is what I do know:
It is sweet, most likely honey, hence the name "miodowe" meaning honey. The name "Maçkowe" does not translate to English, but it appears to be a root of the word "flower" (mᶏka). The bottom of the label (not pictured) translates as "Unique flavor and sweetness of the old recipes". From what I could find, it is from Browar Cornelious and they show a product called marcowe. Ratebeer.com states that this beer is a style of spice/herb/vegetable, a style that I have never heard of. Maybe someone can enlighten me. The Polish Wikipedia sight sates the following:

"Beer in March (Marzen de., Märzenbier, Oktoberfestbier) - a strong bottom-fermenting seasonal beer lager. Beer from Germany in March and there is the most popular.
Beer is produced in March in the first weeks of spring, mainly in March (hence its name) of the last stocks of stored, last year's malt. Then aged for the entire spring and summer until September. Since the nineteenth century in March is a traditional beer beer served at the Munich Oktoberfest (hence its popular name of the second Oktoberfestbier). In Poland in the interwar period to the esteemed beer was "The March" produced in Lviv".
I believe that the brewery started business in 1927 as a metallurgy trading company, eventually producing vinegar and soft drinks (hope they didn't mix them up). In 1938 they began bottling beer. From then on, it goes the usual route of being bought and sold numerous times to and by different companies. The bottle has the date "1921" on it, but I have no idea what it references to.
It was fun studying this brand's history, but I don't plan on buying it again as I don't care for sweet beers.

My Department office

I went into the office today planning to run off my syllabi and check on the technology in my classroom. I did not plan to get a workout on a stair-stepper, but that's one of the things I accomplished (in addition to my other two anticipated tasks).  There are 3 floors and 3 stairwells in my building.  None of the upper floors connect to each other, so you often have to go to the first floor, walk across the building to the other stairwell, and walk up to the 2nd or 3rd floor to get where you need to go. (No elevators in the building at all).  My office is on the 3rd floor on the East stairwell, the copier is 2nd floor West stairwell, the technology guy, 3rd floor Central stairwell.  I'm feeling pretty fit after my workout today!

Here are some pictures of my office on the 3rd floor (aka the attic).  I don't really have a problem with the space.  They've provided a new computer and printer with an internet connection, so I can get work done while I'm holding office hours (3 hrs/week required).

Looking in from the door.

From the corner, looking at the hallway door.