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I volunteered for computer lab duty this afternoon so that I could update and catch up on e-mails.
Yesterday was a completelly fun day. After classes in the morning the American staff (there are about 20 of us) took the train into the city of Gdansk where we could spend the rest of the afternoon. Once we got to Gdansk, I went of with a group of four others. Emily (my TA who is actually really annoying), Jennifer, Joanna and Peter. Joanna and Peter are brother and sister and both speak fluent Polish. We started off the day by going to the top of the tallest brick church in Europe. It was easily 1,000 steps to the top walkiing up this narrow winding staircase. The view was amzing at the top. After we went over to the old part of the city to explore the shops. We walked into an art gallery that had absolutely gorgeous art by Polish artists.
While we were in the gallery, Peter started talking to one of the women working there. He kept talking to her while the rest of us were watching this street band. Anyway, she told Peter about this great restaurant around the corner and then invited us to meet up with her and her friends at a bar. So went to get some food, then back to meet them.
On the way to the bar, we stopped to take a picture in this really cool tree. The limbs were winding all over the place so we were all able to sit down on the tree for the picture. We ended up talking to these two guys from Finland (Olle and Auntie) who are backpacking around Europe and they joined us at the bar. Well, we were having a great time at the bar until we realized we had about 20 minutes to run back to catch the train to tczew. We raced all the way back and got to the train literally just as the train was starting to take off.
I forget to mention the part that yesterday was Peter's birthday. He turned 24. We came back to the dorm, got changed, and then we a bunch of the American staff went to this bar around the corner from the school for Peter's birthday. This bar is great. It's just a small local bar owned by a little old Polish lady named Marota (I think I'm spelling her name right). Marota is our new favorite person in Tczew. There was a guy who was getting a little drunk and then a little too friendly with Emily on our staff. We had asked him to leave many times before Marota came over to kick him out for us.
The best part is that once she found out that it was Peter's birthday, she decided to close the bar down, just for us and have a party in the back. She turned the music on and came in to dance with us. It was a blast just hanging out there and we were so thankful to Marota for being so kind to us. It was definitly a night that I'll remember for a long time
There was some bad news from the day though - when we were climbing the stairs of the church, Peter offered to take a picture of me climbing up. After I handed him my camera he dropped it on the stone steps. It sounds like something broke in the lens and it won't stay on or take pictures now. Peter felt horrible about it, but I realize it was an accident. I'm not quite sure what I will do about pictures for the rest of the trip. The good thing is that pretty much everyone has a camera, so there will be plenty of pictures everywhere we go.
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Jen
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Miss you bro!
Dan, It sounds like you are having an awesome time! Besides the broken camera, but since there are other people that can take pictures I'm sure you will have plenty to show us. Franky is here at the apartment now just so you know. I look forward to the next update! Love, Jen