Sunshine on My Shoulder?

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I’ve been in Poland for a total of about eight weeks. I have come to truly enjoy the country and the people I’ve met. I know that I am only here for a short time, so I see myself as an observer but I also know that I come to this place with my own bias. I said this was a journal to share my view of Poland through “Midwestern” eyes. As I think about it; I realize that it is really just me. I call myself a Midwesterner but I’ve lived in the North and the South and on both coasts. I have been most strongly influenced by my Midwestern roots and I’m definitely conservative.
For example, I view the human body as a marvelous machine with inherent beauty. I have enjoyed art that exhibits the beauty of the body. However, when it comes to my own body, let’s just say that I prefer to keep it covered! I don’t wear blouses with plunging necklines, or short skirts (I’m well past the age to do so anyway!), nor do I think the world needs to see my “muffin-top” peeking out between my trousers and my shirt. That’s just me, others are “free-er” in their thinking. My attitude was given a good shake during a recent walk through the park near our apartment!

We were walking home one afternoon when we happened upon sunbathers in the park. The weather was warm and bright so it was understandable that people would be out enjoying the sun. The first pair of outdoor enthusiasts we came upon had quite the little camp set up for their afternoon’s enterprise. They had towels, a couple of stools, and a little table. He was wearing a classic Speedo and she a bikini. They were happily preparing a snack when we came upon them. So far, so good; except that, the two sun worshippers were well past their fifties and quite possibly knocking on the door to the seventies. Add to that, his massive belly that made his brief suit that much briefer. Her body seemed better suited to a muu muu than a bikini. A lifetime of hard work and sunning had made roadmaps of both their bodies. It was a bit of a shock to round the bend in the path and see them but they appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely!

The second pair of sunbathers we encountered caught me even more off guard. They were less obvious and their sunbathing had a more impromptu air about it. At first, I just noticed two people lying on the ground near the path but facing the lake. It seemed that this pair had spontaneously decided to enjoy the sun and just stripped down to their underwear to do so! This pair also appeared to be in the second half of their fifth decade. I have to say, in my 50+ years on this earth, I’ve never had the urge to remove my clothes and sunbathe in a public park. Am I’m missing something or are attitudes just different here?

Life Changes

Monday, August 25, 2008

I'm finally coming out of my jet-lag fog and I'm ready to write about recent events. Sunday, August 17, I took Elizabeth to college. Monday, August 18, I returned to Warsaw. I don’t know who had it harder; Elizabeth or me. I think I did because I couldn’t let her see how difficult it was for me to leave her there. She cried when I left. She cried when she called me at 10:00 pm that night. She was crying when she called me at 1:30 or 2:00 am Monday morning! (Some door banging in the hall woke her up.) Each time I swallowed my own tears and encouraged her. I was able to send a note to her Academic Advisor to give her a “heads up” about Elizabeth and her situation with her parents being so far away—for the first time in her life. I told the advisor that in a couple of days everything would be fine. It’s the transition that is difficult! I didn't say it would be hard for both of us.

I’ve always referred to Elizabeth as my “unexpected blessing”. I thought our family was complete with four of us and then I discovered I was pregnant. I wasn’t ready for another baby—the boys were ten and six and fairly independent. It took a while but eventually I began to look forward to having a baby in the house. When she was born, I cried to discover she was a girl. I loved my boys but it was wonderful to have a girl. She and I have always enjoyed a good relationship. Sometimes, Easel has even accused us of being “joined at the hip”. That’s fine. We have been able to have a lot of fun together—especially over the last few years as she has grown up. I am proud to say that my daughter is also my friend just at my mother is my friend. I don’t think everyone is fortunate enough to be able to say that! I know Elizabeth will be fine. I’ve watched her mature into a self-confident young woman. She just needs a reminder every now and then that she is capable of handling herself (and others) as well as any glitches along the way. I know she will have a great experience in college. As the week progressed, I could hear her voice change. She went from uncertainty to more confidence as each day passed. I am so thankful for the technology that allows me to talk to her regularly, if not daily! Now, I can’t wait to see all the changes as she continues to grow and mature.

This transition is a change for me as well. I am now into full-blown empty nest! I think I’m going to like it but it will take a little time to “settle in” to this new way of life. Now, I only have one other person’s schedule to consider when I want to plan something! Yes, I know, Elizabeth will be home from school for holidays and summers but this really is the beginning of a new chapter for Easel and me. We’ve had children (and teenagers!) in the house for nearly 30 years. It’s a bit quieter without others in the house. I’m glad we enjoy each others’ company! We are hoping that over the next few months we can travel quite a bit on the weekends and see more of Poland and some of the surrounding countries. Everyone tells us to go to Prague, so Prague is high on the agenda but there is so much to see in Poland that we will spend a lot of time traveling here as well.

Elizabeth starts classes today. I start my “new” lifestyle today. Wish us both a good start!

Taking My "Baby" Back Home

Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The alarm went off at 5:00 am and we all got up to start the process of getting to the airport. It was the day for Elizabeth and me to return to Kansas City to prepare for her to go to Truman. Easel drove us to the airport and dropped us off at the terminal so we wouldn’t have to drag our bags so far. We went inside, checked the board for our flight and got checked in. No problem. Our flight boarded and we were off to Amsterdam. I was surprised at how much room we had on the LOT flight but we were happy to ride comfortably—quite a contrast to our trip to Nashville in June!

We arrived in Amsterdam and began our “trek” to our next flight. It was quite a hike from the “C” gates where we landed to the “G” gate we needed to reach. We hurried as quickly as we could because we only had an hour and a half to get the boarding pass and get to the gate. We got to the “transit” desk and felt relief because we had plenty of time and the “transit” desk was right next to our gate. The line wasn’t even very long. False hope is a terrible thing. The line was long enough and my need for a bathroom strong enough that I left Elizabeth in line and ran to the nearest restroom. I didn’t take long but when I returned, Elizabeth had not moved from the spot where I’d left her! As we stood there waiting, it became obvious that things weren’t going very well at the desk. First, there was only one person handling customers, then there were two but nothing seemed to be happening very quickly and everyone who stepped to the counter seemed to have difficult issues to settle. I stepped out of line again for a moment to check the departure board. For the first time ever while traveling by air, I was excited to see that our flight was delayed. Finally, we were called forward and, at first, it looked like things would be pretty straightforward. And it was, until the agent realized that we were supposed to catch a continuing flight to Kansas City in Chicago—and our bags were only routed through to Chicago. First, he told us we would miss our connection, which I’d already figured out. Then he told us that our new connection would be on another airline and much, much, later than our previously scheduled flight. Lastly, he said he would try to get our luggage continued on to the new flight. He suggested we go to baggage claim in Chicago to look for our bags but that he would try to get them continued on to Kansas City. (We didn't realize it at the time, but we would have had to get our bags anyway for Customs. Our kind agent was successful in getting the bags checked through so we didn't have to haul our bags very far in Chicago. It was very helpful!) With no idea about what things would be like in Chicago, we weren’t worried; we thought we’d have lots of time in Chicago! The last thing this poor, harried agent told us was that our gate had been changed. We were first supposed to go to “G3” but it had been changed to “G4”. No problem. We thanked him and wished him well for the rest of his day. He seemed to appreciate the thought but didn't expect things to get much better. We got some water and a snack because it felt like lunchtime to us. We knew we’d get something on the plane but the plane wasn’t due to take off for another hour and a half. Then, we went to wait in the gate area. Airport security people started setting up for people to go through security to board the flight when it was announced that our flight was going to board at gate “G5”. So, we and the rest of the hopeful passengers moved to the new gate. We saw the plane land and the “deplaning” process began while security people set up for our flight to go through security. As we were waiting, we heard an announcement asking that passengers named "Roberts" report to the desk. We alerted one of the security people who got us through the first step of security and in line for the x-ray machine and metal detector. Once we were through those requirements, we went to the desk. When the people at the desk looked at our tickets, they asked a couple of questions and then said, “It’s your lucky day. You have been upgraded to business class!” After we walked away from the desk, Elizabeth and I giggled quietly to each other and went to sit down and wait for boarding.

The boarding announcement finally came and we were told to board from the “red carpet” which turned out to be a rectangle of red carpet right where they were taking the boarding passes. We got on the plane and not only were we in business class; we were on a side by a window rather than in the middle where the seats were three-across. Our seats were wide and comfortable with adjustable headrests and extendable footrests. They also reclined! Even with my footrest extended and the person in front of me reclined, I still had LOTS of room. We had blankets and pillows, TV monitors and headphones. We were given warmed nuts for a snack, our water glasses were always full and the food was very good. In short, it was a seven-hour flight but it was an extremely comfortable seven-hour flight.

When we arrived in Chicago, we got in line to go through Customs. A very, very, long line. Bad weather earlier in the day had caused quite a back-up but more Customs agents opened more stations and the line began to move quickly. We got our checked bags, took them through Customs, and proceeded to get our boarding passes for our last leg. We were almost home. All we had to do was wait a while and we would be in Kansas City by 10;00 pm. It was more like 10:45 but we did make it home. Next step, a quick shower and bed!

Gdansk, Hel, and Westerplatte

Friday, August 1, 2008
After we returned from Krakow, we spent a couple of nights at home in Warsaw and then we visited Gdansk. My impressions of Gdansk: this is a working city, it is filled with lots of history, and is glad for tourists but they are not the top priority of the city. I was fascinated by the shipyards as we sailed past them on the ferry/water tram. The cranes waiting to offload cargo or move items onshore looked like duckbilled dinosaurs looking for a snack or water birds (maybe cranes!) waiting for a fish to swim by so they could make a meal. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Old Town of Gdansk. The buildings were beautiful and I loved the ornamentation on them. I’m still amazed when I see buildings that I know were built in the 1600’s—or earlier. Everything seems impossibly old, even when I have it on good authority that some things I see are reconstructions. I don’t know if that amazement will change while I’m in Poland.

We took the water tram to Hel. We had to make the trip. Elizabeth really wanted to be able to go to school and tell her friends that she “went to Hel and back” this summer. It is an interesting place with lots of little booths selling the same trinkets (OK, there were probably five different types of booths but you saw them repeatedly around town.) We walked to the lighthouse and climbed, and climbed, and climbed, and climbed some more. We finally reached the top and had a spectacular view, once the top cleared out a bit. I have to admit to a bit of claustrophobia when I got to the top. I suspect there were way too many people in that space. But over a period of a few minutes, it cleared a bit and we could look out and enjoy the view of sailboats, the water trams to Gdansk and Gdynia and the larger ferries headed toward Scandinavia. We bought the book about the history of the lighthouse—very interesting. That little spit of land has been important for navigation since about 890! As we waited for the water tram back to Gdansk, Elizabeth and I were looking into the water and are pretty sure we saw jellyfish. I need to do some research because I had never thought of jellyfish in the Baltic. Of course, until we moved to Poland, I must admit I never really thought about the Baltic. We took the water tram back to Gdansk and had the best meal (we each had a different kind of fish) of our vacation week. We decided to splurge a bit and had a great time eating our fish dinners and sitting on the front porch of the restaurant watching all the “goings on” on the waterfront.

The last thing we did before leaving Gdansk was to drive out to Westerplatte. This is the place where the first shots of World War II were fired. There is an impressive monument erected on the hill but two things have been left that really illustrated the war to me. One was a gun platform that faces the channel from the harbor to the Baltic. It seemed very sad to me. Here was the concrete structure that was designed to protect the soldiers who manned the gun from an attack from the water. It was a reminder of a war that was fought differently than previous wars had been fought. The other structure was a brick and concrete building that had been reduced to a shell. Parts of it had fallen down but in places you could see the marks left by heavy gunfire.

Krakow, Salt Mine and Kazimierz

Monday, July 28, 2008

Monday was the day we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and took a tour of Krakow and Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter.

I’ve toured caves in the past. I’ve walked through caves ranging from Mammoth Cave in Kentucky to the Cave at Silver Dollar City. I’ve even toured a copper mine in Michigan. But Monday was the first time I ever toured something so large and underground that was entirely man made. The mine was in active production for 700 or so years. The area around the mine was a source of salt before the mine came into existence for thousands of years. We calculated that our initial descent took us down around 375 steps—or about 95 meters into the earth. We walked about 2 kilometers and continued down to 135 meters. Some of the chambers are huge! As amazing as the size of the excavation is the art work to be found within the mine. The carving of the salt into shapes, statues, and art began because the miners wanted to have a place of worship in the mine. The first chapel, of wood construction, didn’t last because of a fire. So it was decided that they would carve what they needed for a chapel from the salt. Throughout the tunnels that visitors see are carvings of saints, crucifixes, and even copies of works of art. Most notable in my mind is the relief sculpture of DaVinci’s Last Supper. It is only six inches deep from front to deepest point but the artist go the perspective so well that even from an odd angle, you can see the 3-dimensional picture clearly. What’s the big deal about the carvings? All of the art in the mine was done by miners. One huge room even has a floor carved—by hand—to look like tile. It also has chandeliers made from salt crystals. I was amazed by my visit to the Salt Mine and the work of all those men—who, by the way, were well paid workers and not the stereotypical “slave sent to the salt mines.” It was hard dangerous work but it was a coveted job.

The second half of our day was spent taking a tour of Krakow and Kasimierz on something that resembles a “stretch” golf cart. From my vantage point on the back and looking through the plexiglass roof, I saw Wawel Castle, the Cloth Hall (great place for shopping!), St Mary’s Church—and countless other churches—and the remnant of the wall that used to surround Krakow. We continued into Kasimierz, or the old Jewish Quarter, to see more squares and churches and synagogues. After our little tour, Easel and I walked about half of the “Green Route” around Krakow. This is a lovely park that literally rings the heart of Krakow. As we strolled under the trees on the blacktop path, we saw the foundation stones for the old wall that once protected the city from invaders—or tried to protect the city. When we came to the part that was still standing, we took pictures of the wall and the Florian Gate—the only gate left and the one honoring St. Florian, the patron of Krakow. As we were taking a short break on a park bench, we heard the “heynal”. This is a bugle call that is played every hour on the hour. The tune begins and then there is a sharp break as it suddenly stops. This bugle call is played in commemoration of a bugler who tried to warn the city of invaders and was stopped in mid-call by an arrow to his throat.

Our day ended with two churches. In one, a service was in progress and the beautiful tenor voice we heard, drew us inside. We stayed quietly in the foyer while gazing at the beautiful church and listening to the prayer or scripture (in Polish). The second church was visible from our hotel room window. We walked to it and since the doors were open, we went inside. This church was filled with relief sculptures and beautiful mosaics. We didn’t see anyone so we just went in and sat down. It was a worshipful experience. After we left the church, we stopped at a little “delikatessy” and bought some meat cheese, bread, fruit, juice and yogurt for dinner—and I asked for all of it in Polish! I was very proud of myself. We took the food back to the room. We ate. We showered. We crashed! The next morning we headed home.

Visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau

Sunday, July 27, 2008
Today, we toured Auschwitz and Birkenau. I am overwhelmed and extremely saddened by the experience. I remember my history lessons probably about as well as anyone else. I know that a terrible thing happened in my parents’ time—they were children at the time of World War II. So, they may have heard about concentration camps. I know I read about them. But, hearing about something and reading about that thing, as I did, are totally different from actually walking around on the ground where that thing took place. Elizabeth went through a period several years ago when she read books about World War II and the Holocaust. Her response to the tour was exactly that: “You can read about things but they are more real when you go to the place where they happened.”

For me, the experience was a combination of things. I was undone by the room with the display of human hair. That room affected me more than many of the other rooms such as the room of suitcases (names printed on the side so the owner could retrieve it later), the room filled with piles of shoes, the room filled with eyeglasses, and the room filled with brushes (hair brushes, shoe brushes, tooth brushes). The hair was a physical part of the people who were so brutally murdered. It is all that is left. I was horrified to learn that the Nazis used the hair, shaved from the corpses before cremation, in making fabric that was then used to make overcoats for soldiers. There were many, many other difficult things to see but seeing that hair was hard. How many soldiers unwittingly wore coats that included hair from those who were gassed at Auschwitz and Berkenau? I was also overcome by a different emotion when we were in the courtyard where executions by shooting were performed. The wall, against which the doomed prisoners stood or knelt, had a multitude of stones carefully placed in every opening large enough to hold a stone. The stones are remembrances from people who have visited this place. I looked it up after we returned home and it is part of a Jewish custom that when someone visits a grave, they leave a stone which shows that someone remembers and came to that place.
The other thing that made a big impression on me was the totally methodical, highly planned and organized way the camps were designed and run. The most dramatic presentation of that fact was the map of Europe showing how centrally located Auschwitz/Berkenau was. For the most part, as I understand it, the rail lines were already in place. That made it easier to transport the prisoners. It was efficient.

As a young person, when I started learning about World War II, concentration camps, death camps, and the Holocaust, I wondered how people could do those things to other people. But the answer is in the question. If you don’t consider the others to be people, you can excuse your own behavior. I pray the lessons of Auschwitz/Berkenau and all the other camps have been learned, I fear they have not.