dad picked me up at the airport, and we took the bus into town..(i'll always love any sort of public transportation into a town)..the bus stopped at the university of warsaw, which happens to be almost exactly across the street from the flat in which dad was living..he lived in a studio flat, it was definitely small..(but still bigger than the last flat i lived in in korea!)...
during the days that i was there, dad and i visited two museums...one was dedicated to the warsaw uprising, (1944, not the same uprising as the jewish ghetto uprising, which took place in 1943) which involved the whole city...they fought to free themselves from nazi/german rule, before the russians who were thought to be advancing quickly arrived..(the russians in reality were waiting just outside the city for a while, waiting for the uprising to end one way or another)..the museum seemed huge, but maybe that was just because they had so many exhibits...so much information, so many things to look at..the city itself (what was left of it anywho) was pretty much torn to pieces during the fighting, it's hard to believe anyone lived there..one estimate says that only 64 of 987 buildings were untouched..general estimates say that 180,000 civilians died during the uprising..there is so much packed into this museum, it's almost overwhelming..the other museum we visited used to be a prison..a prison in the former jewish ghetto..it's a much smaller museum, giving information about the people held in that particular prison...many were taken on "day trips" each day, to the headquarters of the secret police, for questioning..they've kept a few cells and there are little plaques that tell who was kept in each cell..out in front of the museum they've kept the original gate to the prison, though it's been ripped in half..there is also a memorial tree out front..it used to be a real tree, but years ago it died, so they built a fake one..there are memorial plaques all around the tree..we walked from that prison/museum through what used to be the jewish ghetto..there is nothing left of the ghetto..none of the walls, gates, etc..there are a couple memorials as to where specific things happened, but that's it..oh, and there is a giant memorial, next to where a museum is being built that will be all about the jews in poland..i was surprised that this museum isn't already in existence, given that prewar warsaw was about 1/3 jewish..the country as a whole was 10% jewish, though the percentage was much higher in metro areas..at this point no one is sure what the museum will be like..anywho...
warsaw managed to stay quite religious over the years, even through the years of communist rule..there are lots of churches, people have been worshipping at them consistently through the years..some are absolutely beautiful, some are just plain old..there are people in the churches pretty much all the time...
since dad was in warsaw to teach, i took the opportunity to do something i've never done previously..watch him teach..i sat in on both of his classes, both having to do with east european media..(one focused on communist media, one on current media)..the classes were taught in english of course, and it was easy to tell which students had better english skills...believe it or not, i took notes during each class:)..(some habits never go away, i suppose)...
one day we walked through the old town, which i believe is mostly authentic..it's a really colourful area of the city, and due to the fabulous weather that day, the photos were fantastic..it's also called the tourist quarter, there are tons of stores selling polish kitsch...
one evening we had dinner with a guy named andrew..andrew is the son of one of dad's east european colleagues who teaches at santa clara university in california..andrew speaks polish, and lives in berlin, working at a foreign correspondent on a freelance basis..he knows poland practically inside and out, which is nifty..(at least for me and dad, who love history and culture and how things change)..we had pierogi (dumplings,) a typical polish food..(though it seems to me that many cultures and countries claim dumplings as a typical food)..another night we had dinner with kasia, who was in warsaw trying to study human trafficking (women, mostly)..she has a huge amount of energy, and was also in the process of applying for graduate programs in the states..i tried to talk her out of ohio state, as i cannot in good conscience recommend that school..(i'm a michigan fan)..that dinner was at a restaurant that was supposed to serve traditional polish food..YUM..i had something that basically amounted to stew, i loved it..we noticed a group having a birthday dinner, it was probably going to be a looooooong night for them..we saw bottles upon bottles being delivered to the table and there were several times when the entire group stood up to take a shot in honour of the birthday boy..lol..
warsaw isn't the city most people think of when they think of poland, most people think of krakow, and auschwitz, the former death camp..but warsaw is rapidly changing, and becoming a fully modern city..i'd recommend it:)
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