I have two words for Wroclaw, Poland: intimately exotic. What a lovely, sweet, city. Streets of cobblestone, an abundance of bridges, and the most gorgeously designed gardens in the world. The whole trip was beyond-words incredible. Everyone needs to see this country, or at least to experience travelling abroad. If you'd like to see a few pictures from my trip, click here.

Now, here are some random observations I made while taking the trip:

Early in the course there was a guy who interviewed some of my classmates about our program and their projects. He ended up skipping all references to our class, and twisting their words around about their projects (which were about tourism in Wroclaw) so that it sounded like they the city wasn't a good tourist spot and people got bored with it in a couple of days. Apparently, journalism in Poland isn't known for its professionalism.

We had a second set of interviews, which I was able to participate in. A different guy from a different newspaper wrote about us this time, and our director will be reading what he writes before it goes to print to ensure that he publishes our words accurately. This interview went extremely well, although I haven't yet heard how the article went. The only negative thing that DID happen was that, at the start of our interview we were outside, and a pigeon shit on us. It was gross and stinky, although the Polish folk there insisted that it was good luck. Uh huh, I think they just made that up to console themselves when it happens to them, because there are a huge number of pigeons in Wrocław. Still, I'm gonna get published overseas. Can't wait to see how this one goes!

Each person had to do a project that somehow connected to Poland, Communism, Nazism, etc. I planned to do mine about non-traditional protest art, but ended up focusing on the differences between legal and illegal graffiti art. Even got to interview some graffiti artists. They seemed very proud of their work, and very frustrated with the less honest groups who steal cans at their international events. I sent the guys a copy of my article so that they can see what I wrote about them, but they never wrote me back so I don't know if they checked my e-mail. I also have some incredible pictures of the art they made.

I bought souveniers while abroad: necklaces, jewelry, T-shirts, etc. One shirt is about the virtues of piwo ("beer," pronounced "peevo"), and is written in Polish.

Interesting cultural differences include: The people appear rather standoffish when walking about the street, but if you ask them for help they are frequently very willing to take the time to aid you in finding your way around town. Also, they have absolutely no problem with PDAs. I can't count the number of times I saw girls and guys making out with each other in parks around town and such, sometimes completely oblivious to random passers-by clearly watching them. Sweet, in a way, though I'd likely have been quite uncomfortable doing that myself.

When we visited Auschwitz, I didn't completely connect. It still felt like this was some sort of TV episode that I was watching. It didn't seem real that so many atrocities could have happened right where we were standing. I mean, we even entered the last surviving gas chamber and crematorium.

After our visit, we went out to eat and drink (alcohol) in Krakow, and I also bought some souveniers for myself and the family. The pub we went to in the Jewish district was awesome, and we had a wonderful time goofing off there. Using my mp3 player to find familiar music, we took turns singing loudly to songs. (There is actually a lot of American music played here, but much of it is cheezified remixes.)

We also visited Prague one night. Beautiful city, if overly touristy. One large cemetary there that had some of the most interesting statues. A number of sad female statues huddling in fear or pain, as well as worry-stricken angels. This confuses me. To me, cemetaries have never held the aura of sadness or creepiness that they do for many others. I've always thought of them as peaceful places, and of headstones (particularly creative ones) as monuments to how someone wants their life to be remembered. If this is a legitimate way to interpret grave sites, then it is interesting that there was such a number of depressing and negative images in stone. I'd like to know more about those people's lives.

Of course, even the grave markers at this cemetary were nothing in comparison to the Jewish Cemetary in Wroclaw which I'd already visited. Many headstones there as big as gazebos, or bigger, with columns and everything. Oddly impressive in their uniquely imposing magnificence.

The dynamics of the class were interesting. The guys say very little in discussions, relatively to how much the girls speak, perhaps due to the fact that they are in a minority, or maybe they're just less talkative fellas. Also, the women in charge are more authoritative in how they present themselves than the guys. The main woman, Hannah (who I am very impressed by) loves order and tries to connect the classes with the text we're reading. The guys, who do not actually run any classes, have many times emphasized to us the lack of importance of the readings and the greater importance of the experience of Europe (ie. the pubs and hanging out with our international comrades). I have to say, both approaches make sense. The guys' philosophy is more enjoyable, but the readings and discussions have added a great deal to my understanding of Europe and of Communism as well. All in all, I'm just kicked my own ass in attempting to fulfill both obligations at once while I have the chance, because they are both important. Oh, and just to make this clear, the women wanted very much for us to fully experience all that we can in Poland too. Its just that they weren't willing to skip out on our class learning to do it, whereas the guys would have had no objections to skipping most of the classes and solely experiencing the city.

An early pub night involved a normally straight-laced American describing himself as "Tee-totally messed up." It's one of the most brilliant expressions I've heard since I got here.

One night some of us Americans had a discussion with one of the Polish dudes about the concept of "personal space," which completely baffled him. He insisted that wanting to touch people was healthy, that the imaginary personal bubble was bogus. Of course, it is healthy, but there's still a comfort level issue for me and (I think) most people in the states. It occured to me later that our architecture mimicked our need for individual space. Even in the most congested of cities (and definitely in medium-sized and small towns), the vast majority of buildings have at least a couple of feet between them, so that they are not sharing walls. Such a situation is a rarity in Poland. Each side one building is connected to its neighbor, so that the only spaces are at street corners and purposely constructed alleyways. A much more efficient a logical way to build, when you think about it, but I suppose its largely a cultural thing.

The beds in our hotels were made up slightly differently. Instead of a set of sheets, under the blanket was a light cushion that was folded over. This you could snuggle into, as though it was an extra soft sleeping bag with no zipper. Instead of two soft pillows, underneath the top soft pillow was a stiff one shaped like a triangle and angled down. This created an unusually comfortable setup, and as a result I avoided my usual neck cramps that I get at home.

The billboards kinda got to me while I was there. Every one of them only showed white people. The entire time I was in Poland, I literally only saw members of minority races when they were introduced to me as part of our class's program. The only exception was a single black girl that I saw passing by in a car. That was it. No blacks, no asians, no arabs, no anything other than caucasians. The biggest tourist feed they have over there is Germany, and that is largely because Wroclaw was formerly the German city known as Breslau.

I'm so used to the diversity over here. I am trained to expect advertising to aim towards as many groups as possible, to be inclusive, so that they can be politically correct and get as many types of customers as possible. From what I understand, the homogenous phenomenon in advertising came from both the lack of minorities present, and something of a still-present prejudice against those different from themselves, though its hard to judge what kind of prejudice they could even have against people who aren't even there.

We visited a Commmunist kitch bar called PRL. It felt wrong entering at first, since we've always been drilled with Communism=evil in the States. Of course, the Communist regimes were/are evil, seeing as they have no problem murdering millions of people. The point of the bar, though, I think, is to poke a bit of fun at those regimes. There was one sign up there that said, in Polish, "Imperialist Capitalism wants you to buy Coca-Cola!" At the bar undertneath this sign was a bobble-head doll of Lenin. I mean, seriously, they just commidified a Communist leader! How much more ironic can you get?!

Also fun, we studied a satirical anti-Commie protest group known as the Orange Alternative. In honor of said group, we wore orange dwarf caps to school one day. The leader of this group, whom we saw doing activism from a few years ago on video, is hilariously brilliant. I recommend reading up on his movement.

Finally, except for having a less slender build, there is very little that physically sets the "typical" American apart from Europeans. The melting pot is just too think to pin any distinctive characteristic down. Except, perhaps, attitude. There IS, apparently, an obvious "American attitude" or American style of behavior that Europeans notice about us. Being an American, I'm not sure how to define what it is, but I find it interesting that this is what most clearly sets us apart in the eyes of others.

As far as complaints, here are the unimportant few that I can make: Still water (as opposed to carbonated water) can be difficult to obtain at times. There are no free refills for any drinks, even water, and the glasses are very small (except for beer glasses, which are huge and the beer is stronger and generally tastes better). Toilet paper is quite rough in comparison to the states. And, a laundramat can be difficult to find.

Last thing I'm gonna mention here: the absolute best juice in the world is Cappy Juices. They have this in lots of the restaurants in Poland. They are the most flavorful, yummy juices in existence, and *gasp* Coca Cola makes them. I request that a petition start to bring these things to the United States, because they totally rock, and most of what I drink is usually juice (I'm lactose intolerant, don't like carbonated beverages, and have recently been losing my taste for cappucinos). All the flavors I've had so far have been good, even the tomato juice, which is just nasty in the U.S. I want it here. *Pouts*

Pretty much everyone got emotional before they left. We'd all connected so well, and had gone through so much together. Auschwitz, the classes, Prague, drinking every night, half a dozen games of Psychiatrist (heheh, I so rock for bringing that game to foreign nations), an even more cruelly fun game called "Storyteller" of which I was the first victim, late night chick talks among the girls, cultural learning and joking around, long bus trips on the weekends, meeting the mayor, exploring the intimately exotic and very beautiful Wroclaw, our presentations and video, sharing musical tastes with one another, many of us taking hundreds of photographs and then sharing them, and just everything.

The last night we didn't have any work to do (finally), so we partied harder than we had for the entire three weeks. We were in a dance pub. People drank and danced and it was SO sexy! The most fun I've ever had at a club, period. The music was very dancable without being cheesy. There was enough room to actually move, so that what we did was a mix of freestyle hip hop moves (though the music wasn't hip hop) and very sexy paired dancing that was intensely, pleasurably physical on that steaming hot floor. Even the bartender did some table dancing! Many times we got a circle going where people jumped in the middle to show off their skillz (or lack thereof, which was fun to watch too).

A second group was there with us that was also having a great time. They had just finished a theater class. And we all know that drama parties are the best in the world, right? From now on, those party-pooping guys who refuse to dance out of machismo or insecurity or whatever the hell it is, they're going to appear ten times more lame.

The funniest quote of that night: How can you spot a feminist of the dance floor? When James Brown tells her to shake her money maker, she shakes her head. ;-) Apparently, I'm not a feminist, because I was totally shaking my ass. Oh well, lol!

I'm already missing everybody. It was over too quickly for me. As we were leaving it occured to me that I now know more about the history and culture of that Polish city than I do about any other city in the world. Add to this that the entire experience has been a major ego boost. To my international comrades, I can never express how thankful I am to you all. I need to do more travelling abroad! Anybody wanna fund some trips for me? PLEASE?! *Batting my eyes sweetly.*