Poland, Dublin, the past 2 weeks in CPH

Last weekend, I went to Warsaw. I went with a Polish friend from my kollegium, which was awesome. I didn't go with any Americans and I realized it was the most time I've went without interacting with a single American; 3 days. There was some international economics conference, so there were lots of other eastern Europeans there from Romania to Ukraine. It was cool meeting all those people and they all spoke English, since they had different languages. I missed most of the conference since it started Monday and I came on Thursday for the weekend. Thursday and Friday, I stayed in a hostel which a bunch of the conference participants. My room was me and three girls, one from Prague, one from Romania and one from China. It was cool meeting them.

I hung out with all the conference participants on Thursday night and then Friday I explored the sights. I saw the remains of the Warsaw ghetto wall and many palaces and churches. The juxtaposition of buildings in Warsaw is really interesting. It's a mix of historic buildings(most of them were bombed), communist buildings and flats and new capitalist buildings. What is interesting is that the native Poles do not have as much disdain for these buildings as you might expect, perhaps because they are young. They almost view the communist structures as a joke, the same way westerners do.
Warsaw ghetto wall:

Pretty cool castle:

Palace of Culture and Sciences(a gift from Stalin instead of a metro apparently)

Friday night, I went to the conference closing dinner. It was a buffett of delicious Polish food, including cabbage, sausages, desserts and lots of wine. After the dinner, we went to a bar in the park. It was beautiful.

Saturday was a more laid back day. I stayed at Szymon's(my Polish friend) best friend's place a little outside of the city. We didn't really do anything all day, except go over there and watch some soccer and nap. Szymon and his friend apologized for not doing anything, but I told them it was fine because I was experiencing Polish culture, which was true. Even though I didn't see any sights, I got to hear about their lives and experiences growing up. Szymon's friend was very generous and we ate a lot of meals at his house. They later told me the dad spoke English, but did not want to speak to me because of my fast accent.

That night we went and just relaxed at a flat in the city with a few of their friends. There, we watched a scary movie. You could really see the cultural differences between Americans and eastern Europeans at this time. When I was startled by the movie I yelled once or twice. When the Poles were scared, they either didn't say anything or maybe elbowed the other ones. I guess they just aren't as loud.

On Sunday, Szymon and his friend took me for a little sight-seeing. They took me to this awesome park where there were some old castle structures and peacocks running wild. It was spectacular.

Then we explored this old neighborhood of Praga and went to a cafe. It was interesting seeing the buildings from different eras in other parts of town. The guys complained that the architecture looked so different.

Szymon and his friend at the cafe:

From this trip, I can make somewhat of a comparison betwen the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. I can say I think Poland is the most progressive, which shows from its economic figures. They had by far the most ATMs and modern structures. But, I liked that it was still dirt cheap.

The students also seemed less eastern European than the students I hung out with in Prague and Russia. They seemed a little warmer. Granted I don't have much of a sample size, but I believe Poland is moving westward.

I actually really like Warsaw, even though when I went back, my other Polish friends said it was a dump. I look forward to seeing more of Poland. I still need to get to Krakow and the concentration camps. I was looking for a way to see Treblinka, which was close to Warsaw, but I would have had to drive there or go on some crazy hike, so I wasn't able to do it. I figure it was better to take advantage of my Polish friends anyway.

I had a busy week after that. One of my friend's from high school came to visit on Monday. I had class all day and a big paper due, so I let him explore the city and then he hung out with the Polish guys while I did work.

On Tuesday, I had community service. I've been mentioning it in posts, so I should probably explain it a little bit. I volunteer for somewhat of a homeless drop-in center, although many of the people who go are not homeless. Many of them are just pensioners or former drug addicts. It's kind of like a restaurant, but the food is discounted. It is mostly just a place where they can hang out to combat loneliness and allow the people to network. I don't really do much there because they have plenty of staff, but I help out where I can and interact with the patrons. It is sometimes challenging because many of them don't speak English. But, some of them do and it helps me work on my Danish.

After community service I went with Ben and my friends to Christania and we walked around there a bit and got food. I went even deeper in this time and I realized how big it is. Marcel, another one of my Polish friends, gave me a more detailed history of it. Basically, the issue isn't only the self government and the drugs, but also that the dwellers don't technically own the land, so developers want to put high end housing there. If they do that, the many many residents of Christania will riot.

That night I went out to celebrate my birthday. It may not have been the best idea, since I had two field studies on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun though. I share my birthday with the queen of Denmark, so my first field study was going to a royal musem and seeing the queen wave for her birthday. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but the queen is very popular in Denmark. They have a constitutional monarchy, so the queen basically has no power. Apparently, she can veto things, but never does. There was a band and a large crowd when the queen came out to wave. Everyone was cheering and waving their Danish flags.

After that I went back to school and took a 15 minute nap and picked up my birthday gifts. I got some nice cards and two books by Muhammad Yunis about microloans. My summer reading list is piling up. I still have to finish the John Irving book I am reading, read my dad's short story book, the two Yunis books and read Ulysses(more on that in a moment).

My second field study was Nazi Occupied Copenhagen for my Holocaust and Genocide class. We saw all the sites of executions and the SS offices. Although some Danes did serve in the SS, many were outright rude to the Nazi occupiers. What is also interesting is the Danish government was allowed to operate until the middle of 1943. They had a policy of cooperation (they liked to call it negotation) with the Nazis, which allowed them to save many Jews. Since they surrendered fairly easily, they were treated pretty well. In class, we have been learning that the rescuers in many cases are not al black and white. While the Danes provided food to the Nazis, they also saved many Jews. Another example we were given was of an SS officer who provided the gas for Aushwitz. He also saved 50 Jews on the side.

The former SS HQ(now a Mcdonalds):

A memorial at the field where the Nazi executions took place:

On Friday, I went to Dublin with a few friends. We stayed with my friend's 32 year old buddy from home just outside the city. It turned out to be great because he lived right by the cost and near the James Joyce tower from the first chapter of Ulysses. So, I went inside the tower and learned a little more about Joyce. My high school senior thesis (kind of a joke) was on Dubliners. Apparently, much of Joyce's fiction was based off people he knew. He angered the people he shared the tower with by talking ill of them in a poem. He was finally kicked out when one of them had a bad dream and fired gun shots into the fire place. The other dweller thought it was something Joyce did and said "leave him to me" and fired his gun at the pans above Joyce's bed. The pans fell on Joyce and he abruptly left.

The tower:

Me by the coast:

We also saw the sites within Dublin. Dublin is not a big city, so in two afternoons we saw a lot of the sites(mostly churches).

Irish people were interesting. Many of them were very drunk. We met a few at the pub with Brian's friend and a couple of my friends received interesting drunken nicknames. Brian was wearing a nice button down, so was referred to as "Tommy Polo" and my friend Nate was somehow called "Germaine." Of course this is a generalization, but many Irish people were either really nice or really mean. When we bumped into someone on the train in many cases they were very polite. Other times, they were outright rude. On the escalator one time, I was not quite to the right. Some people were rushing for the train and rather than saying excuse me just yelled "get out of my way." When I realized they were talking to me and moved, they both called me a jerk.

We had a 6:40 AM flight Sunday, so stayed up all night. I was really tired on Sunday. This week I am going to get ahead on my work because some family is visiting next week. I also have a Danish film and food session for Danish class. I am excited to eat Danish food, since I don't eat it much because it is expensive.

This weekend I am going to a lacrosse tournament outside of Copenhagen. It should be fun and will be nice to escape the city a little.