Have you heard of the Polish Edison?

While visiting Tarnow this summer, I saw an exhibit about Jan Szczepanik, often called the Polish Edison.

 I must admit I'd not heard of him before.

Why should we care? Well, have you watched television today? Have you seem a film in the past few days? Have you enjoyed pictures of your family or recent vacation? All of these things are possible because of Szczepanik. In his life time Szczepanik acquired several hundred patents for his inventions, primarily in the areas of color photography, television transmission, and color films for motion pictures.

However, he also invented the first ballistic vest and was honored for this by Alfonso XII of Spain. One story says Alfonso's life was saved by the wearing of this vest.

The exhibit in Tarnow centered on the development of color photography. According to this story, Szczepanik looked at the beautiful buildings in Tarnow and wondered how those colors could be reproduced in a photograph.

 Szczepanik received a patent for the color photography process in Poland, Great Britain, and the United States. In the United States Kodak bought the rights to the process.

Szczepanik, shown above with his family, was taken from us too early by liver cancer. He died in 1926, but at least with in what was then free Poland, having been born into the Austrian-Hungarian controlled area of Poland.

It's amazing what one can learn taking a walk around town. I really enjoy how Poland museums put displays up in public spaces such as the market areas, so one can learn outdoors!

From Europe to Minnesota

Well, a week ago I was in Amsterdam, having flown there from Warsaw. I had intended to take the train to the city central and have dinner, but I was tired when I arrived. All of us on Saturday morning complained we had not slept well. I felt like I had flown all night instead of just for two hours in the afternoon. So after checking into Citizen M -- love it by the way -- I walked back to Schipol Plaza

and had a hamburger.

It really tasted good. Notice the fries are served in a paper cone.

The next morning I flew back to Minnesota.

Oh, the fun of jet lag! I've not felt tired, but rather couldn't get back on a Minnesota schedule. I kept waking up around 3 AM unable to get back to sleep.

On Monday I took a walk around the area to see what has been  happening.

 The river is no longer at flood stage and so the fountain is running. I don't know what the fountain designer had in mind, but this always makes me think of grain moving on  conveyor belts.

The river looks beautiful, too.

As are the flower baskets.

On Thursday I went to a performance at the Showboat.

 The actors meet the audience as they arrive, dressed in 19th century clothing.

It's called the Centennial Showboat because this theater started in 1958, the year Minnesota celebrated its 100th anniversary as a state.

Meanwhile real life as intervened -- problems with my car, having to renew my nursing license, having to renew my driver's license, and getting courses ready for Fall Semester.

How Ethnocentric Can We Get?

Yesterday I flew back to Minnesota from Amsterdam. This flight was at 10:25 AM and the airport was very busy everywhere.

When I got to passport control I saw big signs for self-service passport, but this turns out to be a new innovation for those holding EU identification. So I headed for the All Passports line. By me were Americans loudly asking, "Where's the line for the USA?" I loudly answered back, "We go in the all passports line." Do some Americans really expect we get special treatment?

We don't give it. The choice for passport control here in Minnesota is for U.S citizens or visitors.

And then some were loudly complaining how slow it was. Well, I guess 4 minutes in line might seem slow, but if  you don't like it, don't travel at the very height of the vacation season. Many Europeans take vacation in August, so the lines for travel activities are long in August. Go in September if you want shorter lines.

Most Americans act like good guests. The ones who don't seem to have to do it loudly!

A Huge Surprise

For two reasons -- First I wrote about the surprise and then managed to delete it. So perhaps you will think you have read this before and you may have.

Now to the real surprise.

Polish Night is a tradition of the Reymontowka Language camps. The students practice dances, make posters, and prepare presentations about Polish geography, history, and notable persons. I felt quite badly they were going through all of this work for our team of only two -- since we are both experienced volunteers and have participated in language camps several times.

Then I walked into the tent and found people I had known at previous language camps, here just for the other volunteer and me -- to give us a bit of honor for serving many times. This almost brought me to tears. One was a former camp director, now taking a bit of rest after directing summer camps for 20 years! The other were two very accomplished young men who are excellent musicians. One is a camper I have known since he was about 8 years old. What a joy to see him now nearly an adult.

We had a wonderful evening. The campers again did a version of the polonaise. You may see this on my previous entry about Polish Night with a date of July 19. The students also sang Kochem Cie Polkso and you can also see a performance of this on the July 19 blog.

When the student part of the evening's presentations were completed, we were given a treat of a short concert.  All of the above guests performed several times. What a wonderful treat.

 

The evening closed with Hey Skoly -- not written correctly for I have an American keyboard. I found out later this song was in the evening's activities because they remembered it as one of my favorites.
Here is part of the celebration:

What a great time. And it wasn't over. Then were guests for late evening refreshments and conversation.

This will be an evening to remember for a very long time.

Reymontowka Language Camp

Add 58 children, some counselors, staff, and we volunteers and this is where I've been for nearly the past month.


Oh, add some heat, too! This has been a very hot summer in Poland. And the woman in the video is not me!

Today I had my students first write about a city or country they would like to visit and then design a tourist poster for that place. One of my students did this for Warsaw:

 I hope this drawing the video above found on You Tube put to rest the stereotype of Poland as gray and dark place. The natural world is very beautiful, the people are wonderful, and you all should come visit or better yet volunteer at language camp. See www.globalvolunteers.org for more information about being a language camp volunteer.

Could they have believed it?

This weekend I went to Lodz. If I had a Polish keyboard I would changed three letters in the word and then you could all understand why it's pronounced something like Woodge. But that's not the "Could they have believed" question.

The weather was perfect on Saturday and then the sun set and the air cooled so it was even more perfect. I sat along the "beach" in the Rynek within the Manufactura area watching a huge TV screen showing the 400 M swimming race at the Olympics.

It came to my mind -- the pictures in my blog entry of December 14 showing photos of the Solidarity exhibit that was in Minnesota. I remember those faces of despair looking through the shipyard gate in Gdansk and wondered if they could ever have believed a beach ion a rynek with the Olympics on the TV screen.

Poland holds surprises everywhere -- not the least a beach in a rynek! Come see for yourself!

More about Lodz when I have time. Back to teaching tomorrow morning.

Learning Adventures

For this camp session I have eight students. They have a lot of vocabulary, but don't quite know how to use it. It is rather as if someone taught students the names of the tools for a carpenter, but neglected to show the students how to use the tools.

Today I had a worksheet that directed the students to make as many words as possible out of the word, woodpecker. One of my students really struggles, but his attitude is great, and his effort is 110%. I was trying to help him get some words and gave him the word, dock. He didn't know this word, and so I asked him where the alligator is sitting. He really looked puzzled, and said, "I no understand what you are talking about." So I told him to come with me and we walked to the pond and saw this scene.

 I could almost see the light bulb come on over his head. He said, "Alligator sit on dock over water." Yes, precisely!

And in case anyone is confused, there are not alligators in the pond! This is a product of the wood carvers who add to the beauty and fun of Reymontowka.

Another thing we do is use songs and dance. After the students work hard in three classes they are ready for a different type of learning activity in the 4th session. Here is Cotton-Eye Joe. I'm so very glad we have some young teachers and counselors who can teach this. This dance is quite beyond my skills and stamina.

 I hope you enjoy it!