Today, I paid homage to the talents of a great man, my former English teacher, Jason Chumley.
When he was a younger man (16 I think), he travelled on his own to Greece and lived off of a pittance by mastering the art of taking food from other people's plates. He would sit down at a cafe and purchase something very cheap, like tea or coffee. He would then sit around, perhaps reading a novel, and people would come and go, eating their meals at the cafe. As these people would finish, Chumley would ask, "Are you done with that roll?" or "Have you finished your salad?" And after a time, he would have accrued enough food to make a meal. He would then return to the Greek life, well fed and without having to wash dishes for a meal.
Polish food courts at malls are like small grottos where actual sit down resturants cater to customers that sit in a shared sitting area. Food is of good quality (Even pizza hut looks like an upscale dining facility), and is served on real plates with silverware by waiters. I sat down in this grotto with my copy of Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" and waited for people to eat. As a couple near me finished, they got up to leave, and I asked whether I could have a piece of pita that had been left on the plate. They didn't understand English, but after some sign language, I got my hands on the baked wheat goodness. After that, I didn't even ask. As people left, I would subtly sneak to their platesand remove articles of food that had not been touched. It was wonderful. I had a full meal in no time, and the food I ate was all excellent.
As I gorged myself on other's unfinished courses, I thought back to some of the stories that Chumley had passed on to my English class. I must say, this adventurer owes a lot to the tales of a real estate baron English teacher.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Bits from week three
I went and saw a movie last night at the Polish theatre: Anoli i Demony. Polish theatres have an isle up the center, so perfect placement for a showing is out of the question, but when you purchase your ticket, you get to choose your seat from a display akin to the ones they have for airlines. I chose one in the back, thinking that I could have a good seat and be left alone if I fell asleep. No luck. A couple of elderly Polish women sat next to me and would not stop gossiping with each other for the entire film. At one point, the phone of the woman sitting next to me goes off and she pulls it out, making the terrible ringtone even louder. I was pissed, but I started to look away, thinking that this would surely be the end of this whiny pop tune. But then she does the unthinkable; she goes, "Oh, Bartyk," and answers the phone. As she sat there talking for two minutes, I slowly leaned forward in my seat staring directly into her face, shaking my head. I would expect that extreme loathing can be understood regardless of cultural barriers, but apparently not; she kept right on talking. I couldn't believe it. This has never happened before. However, some good did come of this; as I was walking out, I started talking to the group that had sat below me about this woman's base behavior, and thus made some new friends. Go friends!
I apologize for beginning my post with this rather tangential story, but I was thinking about it; needless to say, I'm still pretty ticked off. This past week has been one of the most eventful. On Tuesday, I went to the Polish opera to see Figaro. Kasia asked me whether I liked it afterwards, and I believe I summed my feelings best when I told her that, as I didn't understand any of it, I couldn't truly enjoy it, but I could appreciate the talents of the actors as singers, especially the soprano, so I came out on top. The opera itself was in both Italian and Polish, so there were words here and there that I picked up, but that only made the experience more confusing. I spent the majority of my time attempting to deduce whether or not an actor in an orange wig, red stockings, and a fair amount of rouge was a man. I remain unsure.
Juwenalia, the giant student festival began on Thursday, and I wandered down to the square where everything was happening (I had fallen asleep earlier in the day listening to the parade of school busses with no tops, elaborate stereo systems, and tens of screaming students). One of the focuses of the celebration was the construction of interesting costumes, for which prizes would be given, and among the five hundred or so students that I could see at any given time marching through the street, there were some exquisitely designed disguises. I whipped out my camera to take a picture of the human birth canal (complete with ovaries and fallopian tubes), but the damn thing was drained of batteries. It seems like any time there is truly something worthy to take a picture of, my camera is dead, and thusly, all of my photos seem kind of trite. Rest assured, I'm doing more in Poland than taking pictures of buildings.
Right after I passed the natally garbed reveler, I was confronted by the 105th division of beer drinkers, a group of students who had dressed in fatigues and strapped beers to themselves like sticks of dynamite. The culture of Poland truly does identify a large portion of itself with beer; for example, water is twice as expensive a beer at pretty much any given restaurant. Much like other European countries bars line the streets of the town square and the surrounding areas, and it seems as if the day's events revolve around the period of drinking that can begin as early as 5 and last until 6 in the morning.
I've come to the conclusion that, for the most part, Poland is a country where taking care of one's self is not of heavy importance. This conclusion is based on several things that I have noticed, the first being the excessive alcoholic consumption, and the second being that almost everyone here smokes (And in this case, when I say everyone, I am not generalizing). All of my friends on my hall smoke, people in restaurants and malls smoke, and I can't walk 500 metres without running into an ash collector (Poland has a lot of public trash cans, and it has led to some fairly clean streets). And because everyone smokes, no one ever runs, which explains my experiences of zipping by Poles glowering at my short shorts. Brilliant Holmes! But to look at the anatomy of the general population of Poland, one would never guess at the lifestyles of the peoples. Though the men do not generally seem to be attractive, most are thin, and the women are slender and beautiful! One might be surprised by this apparent paradox as I was, but I believe that between the extensive walking that Poles do during the day and the nicotine in the blood stream, there is a dearth of overweight Poles, though that by no means represents the health of the nation. So where America may be suffering from obesity (I, personally don't believe this), the US is not necessarily the nation with the least concern for health. Lewis Black had some scathing words for the American health clubs, but at least it encourages an interest in one's bodily condition.
A couple of nights ago, I took a journey to Wroclaw that was quite the trip. It had originally been for the study abroad students (A group of 6 girls and one guy from NCSU who have paid to take classes in Polish history and ethics in Biotechnology), but none of the study abroad students wanted to go, so I took the trip with a professor of Polish history, a remarkable man (A Morehead Scholar, but I don't hold it against him), who was able to provide an abundance of quite possibly my favorite commodity: stories. We met a couple on the way out of Poznan who had met on Facebook, and I told them at the end of the trip to add me as a friend. Oh the wonders of social networking! A friend of Hanna's, biochemist, psychologist, and yoga instructor, came to meet us at the train station, and proceeded to give us a brief tour of the city from her ponderously moving blue van, which was great since it was raining and I didn't really want to drench my hair. After our brief sojourn, she took us back to her house, possibly one of the most interesting homes I have ever been in, a clash of German, Soviet, and Polish influences, and we made some Jurek for supper. I didn't recognize it at first, but as soon as I plopped in a spoonful of horseradish, I knew it as the dish that my family prepared for Easter each year. She then made tea and gave me some advice on marriage.
We decided to move on and wander about the city, so she led us to the door and gave me the number of a choirmaster in Poznan. He had asked her what part I sung, so there is a chance that, before I leave, I will be able to sing with a Polish choir! (As a reminder to myself; call the Kazmierskis, Wojciech. and the choirmaster) We then proceeded to wander about the city, delighting in the plethora of parks and churches; literally three or four of each were on every corner. We saw an African-Polish wedding, something that is apparently pretty rare, stayed at an outdoor choral concert complete with electric guitar and orchestra, and peered in the windows of the city's many antique book shops. The food I had eaten earlier wasn't agreeing with me, so we sat and enjoyed ourselves at a kind of German tavern under the Town Hall, and discussed Polish History, the religious background of the Nazi party, and ancient Slavic beliefs and some of their modern day manifestations. After a light meal, we again ventured into the town square, now lit up as the sun died beyond the European architecture, revealing a shining crescent against the beautiful cerulean that can only follow a storm. It was an amazingly romantic scene. At one point, I found myself surrounded on all sides by flower salesmen and water fountains. In the low lights of the city at night, this was breathtaking. I have fallen in love with Poland.
We sat with a guy who was coming down rather hard off of something on the train ride back. Kind of ruined the end to a perfect day, but you can't have it all.
I promise in my next post, I'll give some perspective on political feeling here and the attitudes toward the USA. I may even get one of my friends studying political science to give me some notes. I would do it now, but I've got to run and do some work on the HPLC. Cheers!
I apologize for beginning my post with this rather tangential story, but I was thinking about it; needless to say, I'm still pretty ticked off. This past week has been one of the most eventful. On Tuesday, I went to the Polish opera to see Figaro. Kasia asked me whether I liked it afterwards, and I believe I summed my feelings best when I told her that, as I didn't understand any of it, I couldn't truly enjoy it, but I could appreciate the talents of the actors as singers, especially the soprano, so I came out on top. The opera itself was in both Italian and Polish, so there were words here and there that I picked up, but that only made the experience more confusing. I spent the majority of my time attempting to deduce whether or not an actor in an orange wig, red stockings, and a fair amount of rouge was a man. I remain unsure.
Juwenalia, the giant student festival began on Thursday, and I wandered down to the square where everything was happening (I had fallen asleep earlier in the day listening to the parade of school busses with no tops, elaborate stereo systems, and tens of screaming students). One of the focuses of the celebration was the construction of interesting costumes, for which prizes would be given, and among the five hundred or so students that I could see at any given time marching through the street, there were some exquisitely designed disguises. I whipped out my camera to take a picture of the human birth canal (complete with ovaries and fallopian tubes), but the damn thing was drained of batteries. It seems like any time there is truly something worthy to take a picture of, my camera is dead, and thusly, all of my photos seem kind of trite. Rest assured, I'm doing more in Poland than taking pictures of buildings.
Right after I passed the natally garbed reveler, I was confronted by the 105th division of beer drinkers, a group of students who had dressed in fatigues and strapped beers to themselves like sticks of dynamite. The culture of Poland truly does identify a large portion of itself with beer; for example, water is twice as expensive a beer at pretty much any given restaurant. Much like other European countries bars line the streets of the town square and the surrounding areas, and it seems as if the day's events revolve around the period of drinking that can begin as early as 5 and last until 6 in the morning.
I've come to the conclusion that, for the most part, Poland is a country where taking care of one's self is not of heavy importance. This conclusion is based on several things that I have noticed, the first being the excessive alcoholic consumption, and the second being that almost everyone here smokes (And in this case, when I say everyone, I am not generalizing). All of my friends on my hall smoke, people in restaurants and malls smoke, and I can't walk 500 metres without running into an ash collector (Poland has a lot of public trash cans, and it has led to some fairly clean streets). And because everyone smokes, no one ever runs, which explains my experiences of zipping by Poles glowering at my short shorts. Brilliant Holmes! But to look at the anatomy of the general population of Poland, one would never guess at the lifestyles of the peoples. Though the men do not generally seem to be attractive, most are thin, and the women are slender and beautiful! One might be surprised by this apparent paradox as I was, but I believe that between the extensive walking that Poles do during the day and the nicotine in the blood stream, there is a dearth of overweight Poles, though that by no means represents the health of the nation. So where America may be suffering from obesity (I, personally don't believe this), the US is not necessarily the nation with the least concern for health. Lewis Black had some scathing words for the American health clubs, but at least it encourages an interest in one's bodily condition.
A couple of nights ago, I took a journey to Wroclaw that was quite the trip. It had originally been for the study abroad students (A group of 6 girls and one guy from NCSU who have paid to take classes in Polish history and ethics in Biotechnology), but none of the study abroad students wanted to go, so I took the trip with a professor of Polish history, a remarkable man (A Morehead Scholar, but I don't hold it against him), who was able to provide an abundance of quite possibly my favorite commodity: stories. We met a couple on the way out of Poznan who had met on Facebook, and I told them at the end of the trip to add me as a friend. Oh the wonders of social networking! A friend of Hanna's, biochemist, psychologist, and yoga instructor, came to meet us at the train station, and proceeded to give us a brief tour of the city from her ponderously moving blue van, which was great since it was raining and I didn't really want to drench my hair. After our brief sojourn, she took us back to her house, possibly one of the most interesting homes I have ever been in, a clash of German, Soviet, and Polish influences, and we made some Jurek for supper. I didn't recognize it at first, but as soon as I plopped in a spoonful of horseradish, I knew it as the dish that my family prepared for Easter each year. She then made tea and gave me some advice on marriage.
We decided to move on and wander about the city, so she led us to the door and gave me the number of a choirmaster in Poznan. He had asked her what part I sung, so there is a chance that, before I leave, I will be able to sing with a Polish choir! (As a reminder to myself; call the Kazmierskis, Wojciech. and the choirmaster) We then proceeded to wander about the city, delighting in the plethora of parks and churches; literally three or four of each were on every corner. We saw an African-Polish wedding, something that is apparently pretty rare, stayed at an outdoor choral concert complete with electric guitar and orchestra, and peered in the windows of the city's many antique book shops. The food I had eaten earlier wasn't agreeing with me, so we sat and enjoyed ourselves at a kind of German tavern under the Town Hall, and discussed Polish History, the religious background of the Nazi party, and ancient Slavic beliefs and some of their modern day manifestations. After a light meal, we again ventured into the town square, now lit up as the sun died beyond the European architecture, revealing a shining crescent against the beautiful cerulean that can only follow a storm. It was an amazingly romantic scene. At one point, I found myself surrounded on all sides by flower salesmen and water fountains. In the low lights of the city at night, this was breathtaking. I have fallen in love with Poland.
We sat with a guy who was coming down rather hard off of something on the train ride back. Kind of ruined the end to a perfect day, but you can't have it all.
I promise in my next post, I'll give some perspective on political feeling here and the attitudes toward the USA. I may even get one of my friends studying political science to give me some notes. I would do it now, but I've got to run and do some work on the HPLC. Cheers!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Weeks 1 and 2: A relatively accurate summary
Hello everyone! Good to see that you're taking an interest in Poland, because most of the people I've met thus far are convinced that Americans know nothing of Poland, and are fascinated by the fact that I chose to come here; by far, the most frequent question I have been asked is, "Why Poland?" I haven't had Internet access for very long, and was thus delayed in making this blog, but I'll have you know that I took detailed notes, for the most part, and can give a summary of my trip thus far.
The journey was eventful enough that it merits mention. I sat next to a woman named Sam on the flight to Heathrow, and wouldn't you know it, she is also a huge Who fan. She was going to London to see her son who was studying abroad, and we chatted at length about travels until the flight attendant spilled tea on me while I was sleeping. I got free chocolates and news publications. I felt kind of gypped; they usually give you a first class upgrade for that kind of thing, but the flight was almost over, so, Delta, I forgive you this transgression. Jonathan said the chocolates were good.
Dustin, our grad student, Jonathan, JP, and I got in around 6, but it looked like it was noon. We got our things unpacked at the Jowita, the student akumulatory, kind of like a dorm but with far, far fewer restrictions. We then headed out to the Stary Reynek, generally referred to as the market square and had dinner at the Brovaria, which I must say is one of the finest dining establishments in Poznan.
The food here is generally wonderful, and always cheap. At one of my favorite Chineese places, one can sit down in a very high class establishment, order half of a duck with Bartzch, a drink, and expect to pay about 40 zloty, a little more than 10 USD. And the food is so good; they do not skimp on the seasonings here like Britian. Menus are 10 pages thick, and there are at least 20 varieties under each heading. Shopping at grocery stores is amazing too. 2lbs of fish for 5 bucks? Insane! And as many of you know, frozen fruit is like candy for me. Here, they have a dearth of peaches, but they do have frozen plums for little more than a dollar. It truly is wonderful to be paid in American dollars and to be let loose on Piotr i Pawel, the quintessential grocery store. My daily stipend is about 120 zloty, and I bought food, good food, for two days with 60 zloty.
When it comes to dining in Poland, whatever you do, do not let your waiter take the candle from your table and give it to a party that appears more distinguished. Fight for that candle. It will be returned.
I am actually here for a purpose though. I'm working on a novel oligonucleotide photocrosslink in the biochemistry department of the Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza, under the wonderful, Professor Bohdan Skalski. The bulk of my time is currently spent in the lab, though, as I was warned beforehand, it is nigh on impossible to get things done here. When we walked in, all of the Polish researchers decided to book the lab equipment for weeks in advance to thwart us in our endeavours. At least that is what it feels like. All in all, though, our project is moving along fairly well, and we are on track thus far to publish by the end of the ten weeks. I end up working 10 hours a day and going in on weekends, but I've learned a hell of a lot of lab techniques, including ion-argon laser photoexcitation.
Christies, there's so much more to write about, but already this post is waxing lengthy. I've met several people whilst here, including the presedent of the university, a Polish rock band, a guy who is breaking into the printed shirt business and has amassed a multi-million zloty fortune, my amazing Polish neighbor, her Dutch boyfriend, and all of her Polish friends, a Portuguese Political Science major who is a lover of electronic music, a Turkish Opera performer, a group of 6 guys from Spain who all started hitting on me, a pregnant Irish DJ (Who also shared my love of classic rock), several history professors at the university who were able to provide me with a little bit of information about traditional Slavic beliefs and the Magic Belt of Poland, a guy who cooks amazing Polish barbecue and called me out on my stereotypical American Dress (when you're wearing a lab coat all day, you really have to tak a break sometimes and wear your shorts and flippy-floppies), and his husband who is fluent in Polish, English, German, Russian, Spanish, French, and Japaneese.
I've seen Prussian castles with towers built for Hitler that the Russians tried to blow up with tank shells, salsa line dancing in an Irish pub to American pop tunes sung in Spanish, typical Polish revelry after Poland won an improtant football game, an impromptu concert that the cops let me into for free, garbage trucks that come right below my window at 3 in the morning just in time to wake me for the 4:30 sunrise, people giving me sour looks as I was out for my daily run, getting freaked out an errant peacock from the zoo right next to the dorm, a piece of fish on a plate that was looking back at me, and all of the crap that floats in Polish tap water.
There have been several other adventures, but I don't want to go on too long. I'll probably end up mentioning them retroactively. As for pictures, I really want to augment the number I have taken, but I don't want to feel like a tourist. JP recommended that we all dress up with suspenders and mustaches, speaking in random German phrases in order to disguise ourselves.
I'll also post a compilation of thoughts and opinions I've heard concerning America and Americans, as well as my opinions of those opinions. Society, Society, Society!
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