Warsaw & Gdansk

Update needed! I have been super busy the last few days so I have not had time to update my blog. Here is what we have been doing the last few days!

Wednesday, June 24:
We visited the College of Europe which is located in a suburb of Warsaw. The College of Europe has two branches, one in Warsaw and one in Bruges, Belgium. The campus in Bruges is the larger of the two. It was founded in 1948 at the Council in the Hague, where Churchill pled for the unification of Europe. The basic purpose for the two campuses is to provide graduate degrees that will prepare students for careers in the EU or for positions within their own governments that directly relate to the EU. The campus is Bruges is more specific (i.e. European Union Law) while the campus in Warsaw takes a more interdisciplinary approach. Classes are conducted in French and English, which is usually not a problem since most students can speak both languages already in addition to their native language. The Warsaw campus was formerly an aristocratic residence that was part of the Wilanow Palace, home of the Polish kings. It was then nationalized by the Communist party and it served as a retreat for important party officials. Nikita Khruschev even visited once! The current campus began in 1989, after Communism fell in Poland. The program is a one year program and only 100 students are accepted. It was a beautiful campus and very small. I will post pictures later.

We also visited the Center for the Advancement of Women in the afternoon. In Poland, women are often treated unequally in terms of opportunities and salary. Its much more difficult for women to find work and when they do, they are often paid less than men. Children can also be an issue for women because there is not adequate child care available for women so that they can work and be a mother. The foundation works to increase equality for women, especially in the workplace and by trying to increase the amount of social institutions available to help women care for their children. Its much more common for women over 50 to quit their jobs to stay home with their daughter's children.

Thursday, June 25:
We took a tour of Warsaw by bus this morning while getting a brief history from our tour guide at the same time. Poland has around 1.8 million people in the actual city. Approximately 800,000 Polish citizens in Warsaw were killed during WWII. The Royal Castle in Warsaw was completely destroyed during the war and it was not rebuilt until the 1970s because the Communists refused to give money to rebuild it. During the Warsaw uprising in 1943, where the Jews rose up against their Nazi captors in the Warsaw ghetto, almost all prisoners in the ghetto died. After 1943, the Nazis claimed the Warsaw ghetto no longer existed. There is a beautiful memorial that stands where the ghetto once stood as a testament to their strength and memory.

The first Starbucks has arrived in Warsaw. Our guide told us this is where most of the "15-19 year old Polish snobs spend all their parents money". Its a status symbol to be seen at Starbucks.

There is a large statue of Nicholas Copernicus in the main square, as he was of Polish descent. The Vatican suppressed the publishing of his findings that the Earth orbits around the Sun until 1828.

In the afternoon, we visited the Ministry of Education, which was one of my favorite meetings so far. Currently, Polish students begin school when they are 6/7 years old and they do not graduate until they are 19. Students are tested three times during their educational career- in the 6th, 9th, and 12th grades. The 12th grade exams are like exit exams. They are required to take tests on the Polish language, a foreign language, and up to 6 exams of their choosing. Universities release their required exam scores for admissions in May so students know what courses and exams to sign up for. If students do not pass these "exit" exams, they may repeat them the following year. They may try to pass an exam or improve their score up to 5 times. In Poland, like the U.S., teachers are paid a low salary but the prestige of being a teacher is much higher.

Our last meeting of the day was with an American professor at the Warsaw University who married a Polish man and has now lived in Poland for the last 20 years. She was very interesting. When she moved to Poland in 1987, they were still under Communist rule. She remembers have ration books for gas and meat. Daily life took up most of your day under Communist rule. Everything involved waiting in lines. In order to go to the grocery, you literally waited in a different line for each product. Milk in one line, bread in the next. Most of your day was spent waiting in lines. There was no concept of self service, which was a challenge when they switched to a market economy. Even alcohol and cigarettes were rationed! In order to make a phone call, you would have to order a call through the central line operator and then wait for several hours before you would be connected. People did not keep passports at home. They could not travel freely. They had to apply for a passport from the government for a trip and the government could turn them down for any little reason. You were not allowed to keep the passport after you returned.

Friday, June 26:
We visited the Ministry of Labor and the Polish Parliament. Poland has not been as heavily affected by the current economic recession. No one below 18 can work without a permit so youth workers are not as common as in the States. The fixed minimum monthly wage is about 1160 zloty, which is around 300 US dollars. For young workers entering the labor market, their first year they are only paid 80% of a full time salary since they have no experience.

In the evening, we went to the Polish Chamber Opera House for an opera. It was a piece from Mozart's works. It was in Italian but we could kind of tell what was going on by the actions of the cast. It was fun.

Saturday, June 27:
We left Warsaw early this morning to travel by bus to Gdansk, which is in the northern part of Poland by the Baltic Sea. On the way, we stopped in Malbork to visit the Malbork Castle. It was built by the Teutonic Knights during the 13th century and it is the largest brick castle in the world. It was partially destroyed during WWII and it was not repaired until recently because it came under Nazi control and the Communists did not want to support anything having to do with the Nazis.

We arrived in Gdansk and had dinner in the Old Town. The architecture is beautiful. It is a mixture of Renaissance and Gothic. Again, like Warsaw, much of the city was destroyed but it has been rebuilt. There is a heavy Dutch influence in the architecture because many Dutch immigrants moved to the city. It is the most multicultural city in Poland.

Sunday, June 28:
We had a meeting at the Universit of Gdansk this morning and then we took a bus tour of the city this afternoon. We went down to the shipyards, where the Polish solidarity movement began. It is the 20 year anniversary of the fall of Communism in Poland so there are lots of celebrations of the Solidarity movement this year. It was the Polish resistance movement against the Communist regime and it began in the shipyards of Gdansk.

After our tour, we had free time so a group of us went "power shopping" for amber jewelery, for which Poland is well known. I found some beautiful jewelery. We took a taxi to Sopot, which is the beach town on the coast of the Baltic Sea. It was very cold today, about 60 degrees, so no bathing suits were brought but I did get pictures standing next to the Baltic Sea! I will post them later!

Tomorrow we leave for Warsaw, where we will spend two days before leaving for Krakow, the old capital! I hope you have enjoyed this rather long update. Good night!

P.S. My discovery of the wonders of Skype has made my trip much easier. I can now talk with my family and Colton. I can even see him!