All the Polish Fulbrighters are here so we've practically taken over the city with almost 50 Americans. Which is normally fine, except when we all want to hang out together. Most of the bars in the city accommodate about 50 people on average, so even if half of us go out, we generally take over the entire bar.
Torun has been chock full of activities. I generally leave my room around 7:45 for breakfast and don't come back till around 10 pm after dinner and some hanging out at the bar. Needless to say, the pace has been incredibly exhausting.
Last night, I didn't feel so great, so this morning when my alarm when off, I went back to sleep and missed out on the two lectures of Polish society that I was looking forward to the most---a talk on Smolensk and religion in Polish culture.
A typical day starts out with breakfast in the hotel, which in Poland means sandwich-type foods. At 9 AM, we have a Polish class. The classes were broken up into three levels-beginner, advanced, and everyone else. I'm in the intermediate "everyone" else class which means some moments I have no idea what's going on and others I'm bored. It's truly incredible how quickly the language is flooding back to me.
Every day we have lectures on different aspects of Polish society. Some of the most interesting ones have been about the lasting marks of communism on the Polish memory, as well as some aspects of the Holocaust.
Sunday, the commission treated us to a day at Malbork, a Medieval castle belonging to the Teutonic Knights. It's a gorgeous and HUGE work of art. Unfortunately, about 50% of it was destroyed during WWII...so (like many places in Poland) it's been reconstructed over the years. The expense of reconstructing such a large area means that it is still not fully completed...many of the rooms aren't painted and the church is still in major disrepair. But, that does not take away from the sheer beauty and majesty of the building.
Yesterday, we visited an enthnographic museum, housing farms from the Kujawiak and Kashubian regions. We learned about the Polish wedding, which was super fun. Some of my friends dressed up in Kujawiak costumes and we played around with traditional rhythm instruments while singing a song about geese. I learned to walk on stilts, successfully might I add. And we also cut out window coverings for the house...although our copies didn't turn out as nicely as our teachers. The last art activity involved making sand artwork. Back in the old days, their entire yards would be covered in sand art.
Perhaps the most interesting part was trying Kashubian snuff. I wasn't sure what the lady was pouring on my hand and telling me to sniff, but I'll try anything once and I figured it was legal since this was an official tour visit. Never again. One experience of my sinuses burning and my throat itching is more than enough for me.
When I studied abroad, I let mom pick one place in Poland for me to visit and she picked Torun because it is famous for gingerbread. Well today would've been her favorite day...we went to a "living gingerbread museum" and learned how to make gingerbread. You can imagine my displeasure though when the guy told us we couldn't eat it! However, the beautiful piece of art will serve as a wonderful reminder of my time in Torun.
The rest of the week is going to be equally as busy. We have a few more Polish classes and lectures. Plus, tomorrow will be a dance workshop and Friday we will go to a concert in Bydgoszcz.
While I've enjoyed everything in Torun, I'm looking forward to finally arriving in Gdansk and starting normal life. Look for a few more posts in the coming days about Polish class and what I've found out I should expect in Gdansk!
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