Another Important Lesson Learned

I forgot to mention two other important lessons I have learned since I have been in Poland.

Additional Lesson 1:

Polish Mexican food is not even close to Mexican food.  I ordered a burrito, and I got a fried envelope filled with chicken and vegetables.  It was like a pot pie served with a side of salsa.  It was absolutely ridiculous!!  There was even a brussel sprout in my burrito.  

Additional Lesson 2:

There are "Native Americans" in Warsaw.  It was a little crazy.  A little stroll through Old Town led to me being curious about this group surrounding these street performers.  I wandered over and sure enough, there were native americans who spoke polish playing their flutes and wearing head dresses and dancing.  Who would've thought?

Life Lessons I Learned This Weekend

I learned all of these lessons over a few bottles of wine and some hard liquor this weekend... :-)  It was me, another younger UOP advisor, and an older more life-experienced gentleman.  Most of this advice is from him.  Enjoy!


Lesson 1: If you have to have the DTR (Define The Relationship) talk with a guy, then he obviously doesn't like you enough to deserve you.  He should ask you to be his girlfriend before you ask where you stand in his view.


Lesson 2: If the chemistry is not good, it is not worth wasting your time to try to make it better.  Forget about it and move on.


Lesson 3:  Wine is negative calories.  The more you drink the more weight you lose and the better you feel.


Lesson 4:  I am on a paid holiday because the location is so great.


Lesson 5: The Italians think less of me because my extra long nomex is frayed because I step on it all of the time.  I see their point.  However - I really don't care what my nomex looks like.  I climb through columns and vessels and come out filthy and the last thing I am worried about is if someone notices the frayed legs of my nomex.  

A Day at the Movies (in Poland of course)

So today** I went to the movies in Plock with one of my friends.  We went to see Nocna Randka staring Tina Fey and Steve Carell.  It was really funny and in English!!!  There were Polish subtitles but the movie was in English!! I'm ecstatic that I won't miss seeing Sex in the City 2.  Most of the movies are shown in English with Polish subtitles.  They are only dubbed in Polish if they are cartoons.


Anyway, Date Night was good.  I'd recommend it if you want a good laugh.  But I love Tina Fey!  :-)

I also spent part of the weekend in a medieval castle.  We went to see it, and didn't realize you normally have to pay to get in to see the medieval armor and weapons exhibit.  But of course, we went on a day of a festival where they let everyone in for free!!  Yay!!  The whole thing was in Polish, but we got to go into a castle built in the 1200s and it was only an hour drive to get there.  Not a bad way to spend an afternoon... 


**I started writing this May 16 and then didn't finish it until now... :-)  Sorry for any confusion!

Another Drive Through Poland

I decided to spend my weekend in a different city - sometimes I need a change of pace. And besides, my goal is to see most of Poland before I leave. So why not?

I went to Wroclaw, which is in southwest Poland. It is the greenest city in Poland. They have more park land per person than any other city. They also had a botanical garden, which interested me. I like taking pictures of things that can't move - like flowers. It's easier for me! :-)

I only spent one night there, and it rained on Saturday evening. But at least my hotel was AMAZING! The room was really small, but I didn't mind that at all. I'm only one person. There were a couple different tv channels that had English shows/movies with Polish subtitles. From what I have seen in Plock - there are movie channels with the movies in English, but there is someone speaking in Polish over the actors. So you can hear the actors speaking English, but the Polish is so overpowering you can't actually make out the conversation. It is really annoying.

So you know how I mentioned in a previous blog that you have to insert your hotel key to turn on the lights - same thing at this place too!

After a great breakfast at the hotel, (there was a ton of fresh fruit), and meeting a few Americans from New York, I made my way back to Plock. I decided to take my time - there was no need to rush back. So I stopped and took a few pictures of the forests I drove through.

I also decided on my drive that I am probably going to Prague next weekend, no matter what. Unless the other UOP person begs me to wait, in which case I will. :-) So if Prague falls through I decided to try to see every castle in Poland. And there are more than you think! My first one will be in Ciechanów, which is only an hour away from Plock. And if I feel up to it, I'll go down to Warsaw too. I have already started making the list of castles to see. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

A Walk Through Plock, Poland

I went for a little walk today, in one of the rain breaks.  These are a few things I saw...

Walking Path

A few flowers along the path...

I'm not really sure what this statue is supposed to be, but I took a picture anyway.

Road Trip to Southern Poland - PART IV

Auschwitz - Birkenau Part II
I mentioned earlier that most Jewish women and children were sent directly to gas chambers at Birkenau.  I forgot to mention the sick part of the selection process.  Women strong enough to work and who did not have children were selected to live as prisoners.  Pregnant women were killed in the beginning.  Eventually Dr. Mengele wanted to use the newborns for medical experiments.  Children over 13 were forced to work unless they were weak.  Children younger than 13 may have been kept for medical experiments, especially if they were twins.  Dr. Mengele was trying to figure out the genetics of twins, so then German women could have multiple children with blonde hair and blue eyes.


The living conditions were terrible.  Most prisoners suffered from diarrhea because of malnutrition.  Prisoners were only allowed to use the toilet at certain times, and were punished if they used it without permission.  In order to contain their excrement many prisoners used the bowls or dishes they had for their food.  Most bowls were shared by 10 people, they took turns eating.


Most "beds" held 8-10 people on a regular basis.  Sometimes 12 people would sleep in one "bed".  The prisoners tried to sleep with their heads on an incline, especially on the bottom bunks.  The diarrhea problem also affected prisoners during the night, and if your head was on an incline the dirty and soil would roll away from your head.  The other problems at night were the insects and the rats.  Prisoners tried to hurry up and fall asleep so they didn't have to feel the rats crawling across them. 


I think that covers about everything I learned.  It was incredible to walk around a place where such terrible things happened.  So many people died there.  Over 1,100,000 with about 90% being innocent Jewish people.  As the tour ends, the guides remind the visitors that this was an extreme case of bullying.  And that it is up to the witnesses to stop it.  

Road Trip to Southern Poland - PART III

Auschwitz - Birkenau (Part I)
Alright - I'm going to explain what I saw.  Some of it was really difficult to see and listen to but it is an important part of history.  The camps were liberated in 1944 and in 1947 it became a museum in order to remind the world what could happen if no one stands up to the bully.

Auschwitz

Auschwitz was the original camp and was used to house Polish prisoners just after Germany invaded southern Poland in 1939.  Most of the prisoners were well educated people like priests, teachers, engineers, architects, etc.  I think it was by 1942 when the Nazis started to move the Jews to Auschwitz.  They told them they had work there.  And they did have work - 12 hours of it.  And they were not allowed to walk any where.  They had to hustle.  If someone died at work because exhaustion or starvation, the prisoners had to carry them back, because for every 1 person missing 10 people were killed during roll call.  The same went for people who tried to escape.  If someone escaped, 10 innocent people died from the village.

Auschwitz - HALT!

There were three death/labor camps.  There was Auschwitz, Birkenau, and another smaller one where the prisoners worked to build a chemical plant.  As the Jews from all over Europe started to be shipped to Auschwitz, they ran out of room at Auschwitz and decided to build Birkenau.  It was about 1 km away.  Birkenau was built by the prisoners at Auschwitz, and most of the blocks were made of wood.  At Auschwitz they were brick.  Birkenau had over 300 buildings that housed prisoners, and most held 800-1000 people each.  In addition to prisoner blocks, they also added three bigger gas chambers and crematoriums.  The crematoriums at Auschwitz could only handle 350 bodies a day.  The crematoriums at Birkenau could burn 5000 bodies a day. 

Blocks at Birkenau

Blocks at Auschwitz

Most Jewish women and children were sent directly to the gas chamber from the unloading platform.  The elderly were also sent because they could not work.  In addition to the Jews, there were also Russian soldiers, gypsies, prostitutes, and anyone who did not fit the perfect Nazi mold.  There were prisoners that were forced to cremate the bodies in the gas chambers, and every few months those workers were executed because they knew too much about what the Nazis were doing.  The prisoners working in the crematoriums shaved the hair off of the women and children, extracted any gold teeth, and burned the bodies.  The hair was shipped to Germany to be used in textiles for Nazi uniforms.  At the museum - they have 2 tons of hair from the prisoners.  The suitcases of many, the shoes, the toothbrushes, etc.  It is overwhelming to see.


Block 11 is known as the Death Block in Auschwitz.  It was were prisoners were held in cells to await execution, or where they were starved to death.  To punish some prisoners, they put them in standing cells, about 1 square meter, with 4 or 5 others. The prisoners had to stand all night and then work the next day.  No one survived more than 20 nights with that punishment.

I'll write more later.  This has already turned into one long blog...  I learned so much about what the prisoners had to deal with and am very thankful I have not had to deal with such hardships.