Wawel Castle and the Best Lody in Krakow - Sunday, May 21st

Sunday afternoon, we met to tour Wawel Castle, an amazing castle and chapel dating back to the mid-11th Century. It was very interesting to see the architecture of the castle as well as the art displayed. The chapel was especially interesting and eclectic in its architectural style. There were many small chapels surrounding the main chapel and each was completed in a different architectural style. The highlight for me was climbing the bell tower (on a very ancient staircase) where we had a fabulous view of Krakow.







Following our tour of the Wawel Castle, we visited Kazimierz, the Jewish Old Town in Krakow. It is a part of Krakow that has been revived in the past couple of years and, according to our hosts, the place to be for local nightlife, opposed to the tourist nightlife in the Krakow Main Market Square. We enjoyed walking the streets, visiting some synagogues and the Jewish Cemetary. However, one highlight of Kazimierz was eating the best Lody in Krakow.

Lody is Polish for ice cream and we have become expert Lody critiques during our two weeks in Poland. We have found some great ice creams shops and in order to become true experts, try to eat lody at least once a day. Anna informed us that her favorite lody was from a shop on the main square in Kazimierz, so we tried it and she was right, it was great!

Having a Ball at the 2230 District Conference - May 20, 2006

Saturday, May 20, we had the opportunity to participate in the District 2230 District Conference. It was both very similar to and very different from our experience at the District 7610 Conference in Fredericksburg. We were very fortunate to be able to meet participants from all of District 2230 including Belarus and Ukraine. Seth and I enjoyed using our Russian skills to speak with them.

On Saturday afternoon, we did our presentation in a large auditorium in a state-of-the-art conference center in the Krakow Old Town. We presented along with a GSE team from Germany who were just finishing up a two-week exchange. It was fun to speak with them and share experiences. The presentation went very well and everyone loved the hula, especially. Upon recommendation from the incoming team from Poland, we taught the hula to District Governor Jan, the Rotary International Council Director, Solve Kernell, and many others during our presentation. It was very fun! Mr. Kernell used the hula and leis as an example of extending friendship during a speech later at the conference.

On Saturday evening, we were guests of District Governor Jan and the District at their Rotary Gala. Live music and a lot of great food (and drinks) provided for a very entertaining evening. We had a great time mingling and visiting with Rotarians and I think we all found at least one person to speak with who shared some of our vocational interests. We enjoyed sitting at a table with some Rotarians from the Ukraine and discussing the changes taking place in their country now.

We were forewarned that their would be dancing into the middle of the night at the District Conference and there was. The live music was interrupted throughout the night for an auction and the presentation of awards, but the dancing floor was full from about 8:00 pm to about 1:30 am. It was very fun to watch and participate in some of the traditional Polish dances. I personally am amazed at how well everyone knows the traditional songs and dances, especially after they have had a few drinks.

It was an honor to participate in the District Conference in such a beautiful city. I think we were all surprised by how quickly we fell in love with Krakow. It is a beautiful city that never sleeps. As soon as I have some pictures ready to post, we will share them with everyone!

Moving on to Krakow - May 19th, 2006

I'm finally adding pictures to these past blog entries (6/5/06)!! Here are some highlights of our first day in Krakow!







Last Friday (hard to believe it was a week ago), we left Lodz for Krakow. The drive to Krakow was interesting for both groups, Ann and I went separately from Seth and Jerry. We rode down with Eva, our hostess in Lodz, and her friend. There was a lot of traffic. Ann slept and I watched a movie most of the time. It took us quite a while to find our way around when we got into the city, but we did, and as soon as we were out of the car, we were off!

The District 2230 Conference in Krakow began on Friday night with a social at a pub in the staroe miasto (old town). We walked around before it started and got soaked and by the time we were at the social, we were pretty tired. We had a great time visiting with the Rotarians from the District and were able to spend some time with the Governor, Jan Wrana, and the President's Representative, Sollve Kernell, and his wife from Sweden. We learned pretty early on that Krakow doesn't sleep, ever!!

In Krakow, we had great hosts. Seth stayed with the Governor and his family, Jerry was with the President of one of the Krakow Rotary Clubs, and Ann and I stayed with Anna, a friend of one of the Rotarians. We had a great time learning about the Clubs in Krakow. Earlier, Ann and I had spoken further about the strength of Polish women and how we thought that there should be a women-only club in Poland because the women get things done. In Krakow, there is a women's only club. It is the third club in Krakow and it was very interesting to meet the women who lead it. Especially interesting for me because one of them is an expert in the area of building accessibility for people with disabilities.

I have been blessed to have many spontaneous vocational visits, including speaking with that woman, Hanna. The District Governor's wife is even a special education teacher and she and I had a great time talking about our passion for helping people with disabilities have fulfilling lives.

Touring with Piotr - Monday, May 15

Today our day was planned by the fourth Lodz Rotary Club, the Culture Club and we were led by Piotr Korczynski of that club.

We began the day by visiting a special school for children with severe disabilities, the Specjalny Osrodek Szkolno-Wychowawyczy Nr. 3 Im. Henryka Jordana W Lodzi (www.soswnr3.prv.pl). The school houses 150 students and has about 60 teachers. The students receive a variety of instruction there including vocational instruction, indpendent living skills, and different therapies (speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and sensory therapy). It was very interesting (especially for me) to learn about special education in Poland. Each child in the school has an individualized educational program and receives individual attention. We were able to interact with a lot of students who were very pleasant and happy to be in school.

In addition to a school, the center also included a workshop for graduates of the school where they learn arts, woodworking and other trades and make items to sell to sponsor community and other activities for themselves. We were able to meet some of the students of that program as well and even purchased some of their art!







After the school, we went to visit a plant where they can energy drinks. The factory is owned by a friend of Piotr's and was interesting for us to see, even though most of us either knew before or found out that we weren't very interested in energy drinks. The factory cans drinks that are shipped all over the world and our tour guide provided us with samples, but I think that Piotr and Jerry were the only ones who sampled them. They'll have to let us know if they experienced the euphoria promised by one of the drinks! The woman who gave us our tour was very nice and showed us the different parts of the factory.

After the factory, we had an excellent lunch at Hola Amigo, Piotr's restaurant. The food and service were great. Following lunch, we visited the main Lodz fire station, where we learned about Lodz's great fire brigades. They have a fire brigade olympics here every year with fire brigades from many countries. Lodz always wins! It was interesting to see their facilities and equipment. Seth and I were even able to sit in one of the trucks.





We spent the rest of the afternoon touring with Piotr and then made our first Rotary Club Presentation in the Rotary Club of Lodz, the oldest and, according to them, best Rotary Club in Lodz. We had a nice dinner and made it through our presentation. We taught several of the Rotarians the hula during our presentation, which we and they enjoyed.

Barbecues and Auctions - Sunday, May 14

Originally, we were told that we would have the first day in the country on our GSE to rest and get ourselves together. However, our Polish friends were ready with activities from the beginning! Ann and I got up early and went exploring on our own a little. We took a taxi into the city center and walked around before attending our church services.

For lunch, we all met at the Summer Home of Andrei Dolinski, a Rotarian, in Grotniki, outside of Lodz. We had a barbecue with Andrei and his family and several Rotarians. It was a great chance to get to know some people and the food was great. We had fun talking and eating and spent several hours enjoying the fresh air in the country. It rained off and on, but not too hard. This is a group picture taken at the barbecue.



A highlight of the barbecue was when Michael, another Rotarian, came with his Bentley, of which he is the "original owner." Actually, I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but I believe it was owned by the English consulate and prior to that, the German government.



Following the concert, we attended an art auction held by one of the local rotary clubs (and organized by Eva, our hostess) to benefit the poorest children in Lodz. It was in a beautiful building.

After the auction, Eva's son, Stan drove us around and gave us a great tour of Lodz. Lodz was and is well known across Europe as a major manufacturing town. There are several large older factories that are no longer in use, some of which people are just starting to restore. We had a great time learning about the history of Lodz and the past and future industries here. He took us all over and we had a great time. These area couple of pictures of the oldest textile factories in Lodz.





We finished out the evening on Piotrkowska street, a famous shopping and dining street in central Lodz where we saw a live concert of a band from Southern Poland and ate a nice dinner in a traditional polish restaurant. There are several monuments on Piotrkowska street and this is one of them, a famous Polish poet whose nose you can rub for good luck.

The Adventures in Poland Begin - Our Arrival

Our trip from Dulles International Airport to the city of Lodz (pronounced Wudzh), Poland took from 5:30 p.m. Friday to 7:30 p.m. Saturday! Okay, so it wasn't really 26 hours, but it felt like it. We lost six hours en route so it was really only twenty hours and was uneventful, in a good way. We were sent off at Dulles by District Governor John and Norma as well as Scott Mills. The lines to check in were quite long, but the lines for security were surprisingly short.

We arrived in the London Heathrow airport at approximately 7:00 am, London time, and left there around 10:30. We arrived in Warsaw Poland at 2:30 and found our bags quickly. We were greeted at the airport by Elzibieta, the District 2230 GSE Chair and spent about three hours in the airport waiting to catch a 5:30 bus to Lodz. Seth, Ann and I spent a lot of the time exploring and even found some great Italian ice cream.


This is Seth upon arrival at the Warsaw airport.

The bus to Lodz was packed and the Polish people weren't too excited to see four Americans with a lot of luggage trying to get on. But, we got on and made the two-hour bus ride to the Lodz train station where we were met by Rotarians from each of the four Rotary Clubs in Lodz. Our first impressions were that they Rotarians were very friendly and excited to have us in Lodz. Ann and I are being hosted by the same family in Lodz and are staying in the hotel of one Rotarian, Eva Radominska. Her hotel is Hotel Avia and it is very nice.

Everyone made their ways to their respective residences. The cooks at the hotel made us a great Polish dinner, Golumpki. This literally translated is pigeon in English, but it was not pigeon and it was delicious. We went to bed pretty quickly and I think everyone except Seth (he's staying in a bachelor's pad) got a great first night of sleep.

7610 District Conference

Our team had the privelege of attending the District 7610 Conference in Fredericksburg, VA the last weekend in April. It was a great opportunity to learn more about Rotary, to get to know the members of the District and to spend time with the incoming team from Poland. We would like to thank the District, the GSE Committee, the Rotary Foundation and all of those present who made us feel so welcome! We look forward to meeting more Rotarians upon our return when we will be available to make our presentation (with hula if requested) at the clubs in the District.

Here are some pictures from the conference:

This is our team and the incoming team from Poland with Lester Schoene, GSE Chair. Back Row: Renata, Seth, Jacek, Lester, Ann, Piotr, Karolina; Front Row: Tomac, Sara, Jerry.

The next two pictures are from our presentation that we made at the District Conference and will be repeating in Rotary Clubs in Poland. Seth is our very talented ukelele player and taught us the hula. If only we'd known it was so easy to entertain Rotarians we would have planned more singing and dancing. Jerry's club especially enjoyed seeing him doing the hula. (These pictures may NOT be used for blackmail.)



We really enjoyed getting to know the incoming team better. It was exciting to hear more about Poland and their hometowns, some of which we will be visiting. We became close friends and that increased our excitement to travel to Poland and get to know more Polish people as well as the culture.





The keynote speaker at the Paul Harris Dinner on Saturday night was Representative Jo Ann Davis, representative for parts of District 7610 in the US House of Representatives. It was great to hear her speak and meet her following the dinner.