Midway Point

Today marks the halfway point of my semester in Europe. Pretty crazy. I do feel like I've been here a while, but 2 months still seems like a long time - I enjoy my time here more every week, so in some ways 2 months also seems very short.

I just got back from a weekend in Poland. I decided to go there by myself - I'm a fairly independent person, so I thought it would be fun to travel alone. I got into Krakow around 5:00 on Friday after spending 8 hours on a train. I found my hostel, then walked around the city for a while. Most things closed early, so I sat in the Main Square, had some dinner, and did some more walking. There were some really cool people at my hostel, and I hit the town with them after dinner. They were all from either London, Australia, or South Africa.

On Saturday morning I took a tour of Auschwitz, the largest of all the concentration camps of the Holocaust. This was the main reason I chose to go to Poland - I wanted to see the concentration/extermination camp. I would definitely not describe the morning as being fun, but it was an important thing to see. I've learned a lot about the Holocaust in school, but to actually step foot on the same ground as the victims opened up an entirely new dimension for me, and put my own life and difficulties into a different perspective.

I did some more sight-seeing in Krakow in the afternoon, had Golabki (meat wrapped in cabbage), and made some more friends in the hostel.

Here are some highlights from the week:

Tuesday, October 13th: I had my first choir rehearsal. It was scary because I really couldn't understand anything the director was saying the entire rehearsal - it was all run in German. I would just watch him and smile, and occasionally glance at the other Americans in the room to see how they were understanding him - not much better than me. Fortunately, music is read the same way all over the world!

Wednesday, October 14th: My "Austrian Art and Architecture" class took a tour of St. Stephen's, Vienna's famous cathedral, at the very center of the city. I had been inside it already, and found it incredibly tacky. However, after learning more about how it was constructed, and how it actually looked when built, with colors and without signs for tourists, I began to appreciate it a bit more. We go on a tour every Wednesday. I also have Thursday tours with my history class, so it's a great way to see the city.

Thursday, October 15th: IES hosted a halfway party for the whole program, and it was a lot of fun. It's a large program (110 kids), and I still have not met everybody.

Friday, October 16th-Saturday, October 17th: Krakow and Auschwitz (see above).

This is the final week of classes before midterm week, so it might be a bit busier than usual as I make sure I'm all caught up in everything! Wish me luck.

I love you all.