IT FINALLY HIT ME!

          Oh my gosh!!!  It seems like yesterday; I just found out I was going to Poland.  I remember thinking to myself, “Oh man, Spring Break isn’t until WAAAYYY later!  These next couple of months are gonna seem like forever.”  I have mentioned this before, but throughout these past couple of months, it had never really hit me (about traveling to Poland)…..but now….it smacked me across the head with a baseball bat! Now it’s only days away!!  Now, everything is starting to fly by so fast and I don’t want it to!

          After doing my research over “entertainment” with Lindsey, I was stoked!!  Are we actually going to visit these beautiful places of Poland?   Will these pictures in front of me actually become a reality?!  What is very funny to me is that everyday I watch TV and surf the net.  I see tons of beautiful places like Canada, France, Australia, Italy, etc.  I watch TV and I see couples who visit Paris, France, spring breakers who visit Cancun, Mexico, and researchers who travel to see wildlife in South America.  I would always think to myself, “Wow, how sweet it would be to travel another country!”  I never actually thought that I would ever get that chance.  Actually, I thought I would never travel another country in my whole life.  Growing up on a farm 14 miles outside Hereford, Texas, I never really thought about big cities and beautiful foreign countries because I honestly felt it were a waste of time just to think about it.  Hmmm…..I guess that is why it took a while for the thought of traveling Poland to hit me.  Now it almost feels like I won the lottery!  It is too good to be true!  This is a definite blessing!

          Ok, so now that we have been shown tons of pictures of different countries around the world in Monday’s class; I just want to yell.  Now I feel like I’m being teased.  Why couldn’t they show us these pictures the Monday before we leave to Poland?!  Now, I’m just way overexcited about this trip.  (Breath Ricky Breath)  Just a few more Mondays, till then…….

-Ricky Mariscal

Part I: Presentations Part II: Irene Gut Opdyke

Part I (Class Presentations)

Janelle and Heather’s presentation pointed out a very obscure fact today. I thought it was quite interesting that white sneakers are considered touristy/American. It’s small bits of information like that that make a person realize how different coutries are. We have the same types of buildings, drinks, etc…but the small things we still differ in! The only bad part about listening on what to wear to be comfortable and warm is knowing that the pictures we take are going to be with us for the rest of our lives. I mean, I want to look cute if half the world is going to see them, right? I know, it’s a stupid thing to worry over. But it can be hard to be warm, comfortable, cute, AND on a budget!

As for Monica and Angela’s packing information….well, what girl is not groaning right now?! Haha! I do take pride in the fact that while y’all will be sharing hair curlers/dryers I’ll be sleeping in that extra 5-10 minutes baby! (Note: No matter how “funny” it might seem like to wake me up so that I don’t get those extra few minutes is not a wise idea. I may look small and helpless but I’m like a mama bear when someone wakes me up. Note to Note: Sorry in advance to my roomies.)

Allan mentioned the forum www.polishforums.com and I was excited because David and I had discovered that site as well! Poles keep telling me that as long as I don’t act like a stuck up American that is the conquerer of the world I’ll be good to go. So I just plan on acting like the Texan that is the conquerer of the world…kidding.

Part II

I have listened to everyone’s projects and saw pictures but they seemed like just projects and pictures.  I’ve looked at Brant’s cars with y’all, I’ve laughed as Katie talked about not packing guns/knives/bombs, I’ve groaned as I wonder what shoes I’m going to take, I’ve heard everyone’s speeches right alongside all of y’all. But nothing was really sinking in. Janelle mentioned in a post that it was the same for her. I want to be on this trip as much as the next person but it was still so unreal to me. And that’s when I remembered….

When I was a pre-teen, gosh around 11 or 12 years old, my grandmother bought me a book on tape called In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke. I hadn’t listened to it in quite a few years because, well, it’s on tape! Lucky for me I work at a book store. I bought the book a couple days ago and have been reintroduced to this wonderful lady. Irene was a seventeen year old Catholic, Polish woman when Russia and Germany came in from both sides of her country and dividied it up amongst themselves. She was training to be a nurse at the time and was several cities away from her family. She was forced to flee, raped, beaten, worked at a Russian hospital, almost raped again…the list goes on. What’s amazing about her (other than, of course, surviving all I mentioned above) is that she was later forced to be a mistress of a Nazi general. Under his very nose she hid and helped 16 Jewish men and women. One even had a baby while living underneath the general’s floorboards.

I have always loved her story. For years I have admired this woman and questioned how anyone could be as brave as her. Suddenly, as I started rereading her book, it hit me that I was going to be in the same country this woman lived in! She did later move to America and has since died, but many of the places she mentions are Polish cities! In fact, she grew up in a northeast division of Krakow! That’s when everything concerning this trip really started to sink in. I mean yes, I love Night and Elie Wiesel, and have known of his story for a few years but I have had Irene “with” me since I’ve been a child. Her life has been intertwined with my mind for 10-11 years. She was not Jewish yet she was caught up in the war like anyone else. The customs David and I researched (some of which we did not include in our powerpoint) are the same customs she mentions in the book! Poland was her home, Poland was her pride. And I get to visit that country!

If anyone wants this book we have about 2 copies at Barnes and Noble. $6.99 each.
-Cristin

Time Begins to Slow Down….

Recent News: 12 Days till Poland!!!!

Well, of course time is beginning to slow down, just when the trip is almost at our finger tips. LOL. But, seriously, OMG, it’s almost here!

Ok, well I have mentioned that I am super excited about going to Poland like in all my entries. I have talked about the fun I am planning to have with my friends. I have also talked about the reason we are going to Poland.

The things I have not talked about at all in any of my entries are my fears. I am really nervous about going to a country that I barely knew existed before I read the book, Night. I love to travel, I have traveled my entire life and to each place that I have gone I have fallen in love with. I am planning to do the same with Poland nonetheless. Obviously these things are not a fear of mine.

One of my biggest fears is surviving in a foreign country and not knowing any of the language.  We are going to be learning a few phrases this coming up class, but I seriously don’t think that I am going to benefit from it, because it is impossible for me to learn enough of the language for it to ease my worries.

I love trying new things. Food is one thing that I rarely do because I am too scared to embarrass myself in public by trying something new and then fainting or worse. However, I cannot wait to try the Polish foods in Poland, even though it is kind of scary and nerve-racking.

Ok, so my fears aren’t exactly big or that great. My biggest fear however is going to the concentration camps and witnessing a part of history that many people will never see in their lives. Parts of history that many people don’t know exist or who simply don’t want to believe it exists. Many of the people that know about the trip have asked me to take tons of pictures of everything I do during the trip. I am really nervous about trying to capture such images and then have to tell people what it is that they are seeing only in a picture.

I know that I can do this; I have no doubt in myself. I just wish that it was easier. I know that I shouldn’t say this but it is something that I know will change my life and hopefully I can help people understand this history a little better.

The fact that we are going to Poland is settled well in my mind. The fact that we are going to see where one of the most tragic events in history took place is still something quite hard to really express in blogs and to actually believe we are going to be doing soon.

DAVID MERAZ

1000 words

I have been told that a picture of worth 1000 words. 

Last week, we had a WT Professor come in to talk about taking pictures while we are gone.  That has gotten me thinking…  a picture is worth 1000 words.  Sure, this is true when you vacation to Hawaii, or visit the ranch for the weekend.  This is also very true of the goofy pictures you take with all your best friends in a cramped photo-booth.  But a photo of a concentration camp…  the gas chambers… its seems that the pictures we take on those days- will be worth 1000 words and millions of lives.  Going to tour an old concentration camp isn’t a usual “tourist” spot.  It’s not a usual family vacation. 

A friend was talking with me.  They said “wouldn’t you rather be hitting the ski lifts, or the beach for spring break?”  But I really wouldn’t.  I am taking a part in history.  I am taking part in finding my “response in responsibility” [Elie Wiesel]. So my Houston friends might be working on their tans, and my Canyon friends might be hitting slopes… but I am witnessing history with 19 of the coolest WT students! 

 So back to the photos… one thought this professor brought to my attention was to not take people out of their natural habitat when taking a photo.  We shouldn’t ask people to pose a certain way.  We shouldn’t try and change how they have placed themselves.  This would be contaminating their culture.  We should just take what we have- and photo around it. 

I hope to bring back photos worthy of the emotion we will each experience while on this incredible journey!

-ALMiller