Off to Wola Rzędzińska

Today is the day that that we all leave Krakow for our host family's homes, each in a different town. I will be heading to Wola Rzędzińska. How do you pronounce that? I have no idea! I am excited and certainly a little nervous. We begin teaching tomorrow!

Since my last entry, we have gone to Auschwitz, eaten traditional Polish and Georgian food (who has ever heard of that?), and gone to the Lenny Kravitz concert as part of a yearly festival here.

Honestly, Auschwitz wasn't exactly what I had expected. Somehow it was too museum-y. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty crazy and certainly a little eerie being in that place... but it was't like it hit me hard that THIS was the place. It seems to me like the horridness of this place, the unspeakably hateful crimes that were comitted, and the pure evil need to be realized. This genicide really happened. I don't know why... but I wanted to get a glimpse of how the prisoners felt while they were at the camp. I guess that that would make the whoe thing come to life. Maybe I felt removed from this site because it has always been such a far off thing... I thought that I would never get to go there, it has always been "something in history" only to read about in books, and also I was a little tired. It would be a shame if I didn't experience it fully because of the last thing... but I don't think that that was it. Most barracks in Auschwitz 1 were cleared out and made into a themed building. There was one that talked only about the Polish prisoners, one about criminals, one showing the logistics of how the whole operation was pulled together. There was one thing in the camp, though, that got to me a little bit. There was a themed barrack that contained things that prisoners had left behind. I walked into one of the first rooms and there was a huge, lighted area full of hair. Women's hair was shaved off of their heads and used to make rugs and other things after they had gone through the gas chamber. Traces of gas chamber chemicals were actually found in the carpets. Talk about sick! That was a pretty horrible thing to see. Other things in the building included glasses and shoes and braces from the prisoners. There was also a large room of suit cases. Each prisoner was to label their suit case with their name, address, and date that they entered the camp. It was so eerie to see those, knowing their fate. Really really saddening. We saw one barrack that was preserved as the way it was when prisoners stayed there. Obviously, living conditions were horrid.
We had a tour guide that told us about the camp and then took us to Aushwitz 2-Birkenou. This was much larger than Auschwitz 1, but we say less of it. Quite a bit of it had been burned to the ground by the Nazis when they knew that they were going to be invaded.
This is one of the most horrible things that I have ever known of... really of the devil, and it should be remembered so that something like this would be stopped before it gets started. There will always be horrible people in the world...

After our trip to Auscwitz, we went to a restaurant in the historic, original part of Krakow which used to be the "green baloon cabaret." "Cabaret" had a different meaning then. It was a comedy show and this one was apparently a big deal. The owner would send people that he didn't want seen at his place to the "dark room." It is funny to me that they did that. Its so different from anything that would be allowed to happen today!

After five nights of sleeping nearly none, I crashed back at the hostel after dinner. Some of the others went to a cool pub. There were apparently huge tubes of beer that four or more people had to share and you would get the beer out of a spout on the bottom. Later, they went dancing. Sounds like it was a great time. I was sorry I missed it, but it was so good to sleep!

Yesterday began with rain outside, so we had our "lesson teaching lesson" inside. Later we went to eat and then had free time. A group of five of us went up to the top of the St. Mary's cathedral tower, and watcher the trumpeter play his song. There is a story behind that, but I don't remeber what it is. Hehe, we got pictures with him and his autograph. We didn't need to know why he was a big deal, just that he was. ;)

Shopping came next, an essential part of traveling. There are some really cool stores in Krakow. Later came Georgian food. It was really good! There were different spices and dipping sauces for these "cheese and meat pies" and flat bread sandwiches. I know, cheese and meat pie sounds disgusting, but it tastes great! Who knew?

The weather was bad, so Anna and I decide to go to her favorite cafe before time for the concert. Oh my goodness, this place was right up my alley! If I was to resort to my career plan B and open a coffee shop, this is very similar to how it would be. The decorations were awesome. There were big tree sculptues with lights at the end, a huge skylight, and a loft area with places in the floor that you could see through. It was very chill, and very popular. We sat down and had a look at the menu. Well, Anna had a look at the menu and told me what it said. We ended up with something called "Drunken Chocolate" in Polish. Can you say "emotional-eating material?" It was the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted! Hands down. Swiss miss has got nothing on this stuff. It was creamy, but has some texture where you could feel the thickness of the chocolate. It had a dark chocolate flavor... rich, but not too strong, and my choice was added coconut liquer. (Rum was the other choice.) It was so good!

We went back to the hostel, met up with some of the others, and headed to the concert. It was super crowded! He took a while to come out and people started yelling his name. Only, instead of Lenny Kravitz, it sounded like Lenay Claviiiits. Pretty funny stuff. He finally came out and gave a good concert. it was a lot of fun and way cool to get to see him in Krakow.

This time in Krakow with the group has been a great introduction to Poland. I hope that the rest of my time here will be just as great.