Night and Day with Language Camp

The above is a bit reminiscent of the title of  a very wonderful Polish film and I think also book.

Day adventures -- the weather continues to be cold and rainy. I don't mean mist or quick mountain showers, but rain that goes for hours. That makes outdoor recreation challenging. So we taught as usual in the morning and then piled into the bus to do a tour. We went first to the nearby Natural History museum associated with the Tatra National Park. We saw an exhibit about a married couple who are noted naturalists and photographers in the Tatra Mountains. This visit was very retrospective and it was great fun to see photos from the 1930s- 1960s.

The picture is "crooked" because my granddaughter took it, and apparently taking photos at angles is the current teen-age method.

The above photo shows some of the old cameras as well as other tools this couple used for their mountain explorations. We also viewed several short films here about animals in the mountains and the human effect upon the mountains. I think I was not the only one who took a short nap during the films!

We next went to Chocholow (in a blog I cannot write the correct Polish alphabet letters for this village). The history teacher who is accompanying the Polish students gave a short lecture about how all the people in this village united during the 1846 uprising in an attempt to remove the ruling Austrian police force, while other villages fought only a battle between the Polish peasants and noblemen. We also stopped at a wood carver shop here. He has a wonderful shop displaying wares for sale and also maintains a small museum showing how a peasant family would have lived during the late 19th century.

Finally we came back to Zakopane and stopped at the church the people of Zakopane built to express their thanks for Pope John Paul surviving the assassination attempt. The is a new structure done in the old, traditional Zakopane style and is one of my favorite buildings in Zakopane.

Night -- On Thursday night the students presented "Polish Night." They organized this by taking us all on a taxi ride in the Tri-Cities of Gdansk, Gydnia, and Sopot, then jumping us to Warsaw, and finally for a taxi ride in Krakow.

Here is one the campers providing information about Krakow. Note the students spelled the name of the city in the English manner.

At the end of the program the campers presented a cake to two of our volunteers who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary by giving back for their blessed life doing this volunteer trip.

On Friday morning we left very early for Krakow. Good thing our major destination was the new Underground Museum, for the weather remained cold and rainy in Krakow as well.

Anyone who has been in Krakow during the past few years may remember scenes such as this of the Rynek being all dug up. The museum now displays the archaeological finds from this immense dig.

We had reserved tickets for 11:30 and 11:45. While waiting the students enjoyed posing for pictures.

When I changed my viewpoint in the arcade I was a bit surprised at the other pose.

The Underground Museum is located under the Cloth Hall. Anyone can easily enjoy the museum for see how the information is provided.

One simply selects a language of choice and then the information appears in that language.

One of my favorite exhibits was of old combs. One needed a comb not only for making hair neat, but also to remove the lice!





There were many videos in the museum, too. The one below comes from an exhibit called Multimedia 180 which shows Polish history.

I especially enjoyed this video, but unfortunately you may have to turn your computer sideways to enjoy it. English speakers should go to the very end!

The students had free time after the museum as it began to pour rain when we exited. There was hope the weather would clear for a walk to Wawel Castle later in the afternoon. The adult volunteers stayed in the cafe of the museum and enjoyed coffee. Then one got the idea to go to the American consulate in Krakow and ask for materials that might help with a July 4 presentation. Since I had been there before I could take people there. Another did a telephone negotiation and learned if we got there in ten minutes we could get some materials. Good thing it was a short walk!

Dorota, the Poland country manager, and I had walked across the street to a shopping center to have coffee. We were waiting for a phone call telling us to return to the bus. Ah, but we got a surprising one. The counselors had called for the bus to come to Wawel to get the group. It was only when my granddaughter became concerned she couldn't find grandma that they realized they had left us. Some mobile calls later we finally connected with the bus! Almost more adventure than we had planned on. However, if they had gotten truly too far away we were in a good spot right by the train and bus station and could have gotten ourselves back to Zakopane.  Up to this point, the counselors had always been asking me to check for sure that my granddaughter was with the group for she has truly integrated herself with the students. Thus, it did turn out to be quite funny it was my granddaughter who had to save me from getting left.

We were about 40 K from Zakopane when those at the very front of the bus witnessed a rather bad motor vehicle accident. Both cars were severely damaged, but thankfully all but one person was able to walk out of the cars. One person appeared trapped in the back seat of one vehicle, but the police and then rescue squad arrived within about ten minutes.

We were all glad to return safely to our wonderful Wanta Hotel where a hot meal of fish fillets and french fries awaited us.