Eurotripping, cont'd

train from Warsaw to Krakow

I made it safely back to Washington, DC this past Thursday and somehow managed to get through a full Friday work day without any jet lag!  Here are my final updates from Krakow and Prague, again with positive and negative highlights. 

Krakow, Poland
-/+ Didn't leave a lot of time to buy tickets for our train from Warsaw  to Krakow, so while my mom stood in an impossibly long line, I tried to buy tickets through a self-service machine which had no English option.  I am extremely proud of myself for getting through the system almost all by myself in Polish, especially when I had to make choices between options that looked like "vmkelra;jfiew," "qreowfvkldasjf," or "vmkljfwow."  I admit, some nice businessmen helped me choose the number of seats, but I still am quite proud.
+ Were very willing witnesses to a nice English bloke's Stag Day.  For those who haven't had the privilege of seeing one of these, it's the British equivalent of a bachelor party which often involves dressing up a to-be-wed friend and parading him through a large city, embarrassing him as much as possible along the way.  We found this lovely boy doing cartwheels, lunges, and handstands in the central town square.
+ Very, very pleasant city that was totally walkable from one end to the other.  I can see now why people say it will be the "new Prague," but I actually think it is the much better laid out city of the two.
- Would have loved to experience the bars and clubs here, since it seemed to be a very active, young social scene.  From what I could see, the city as a whole seemed many times younger than Prague.
+ Finally got a Doner Kebab, which my friends from studying in Spain know all about!  I love these things, which are basically the late night food/meal on the run of choice across a lot of Europe.
 

congrats on your marriage, dude.

part of the town square

the Wawel Castle, from the river

Also visited Auschwitz-Birkenau which is about an hour bus ride from Krakow.  I don't think "highlight" is the best way to describe it, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience that I am thankful for.

Prague, Czech Republic
+/- Once you start shopping, it is very hard to stop.  Between the two of us, I think my mom and I bought 12 pashminas.
+ Got to see an awesome art exhibition of Mucha and Dali, two artists that I actually have a lot of interest in.  Bought four postcards of Mucha's series "the Four Arts" that I plan on framing.
+ Took a great tour that included a boat ride down the river
+ I just do not understand how the food is so cheap.  Two three-course meals + bottle of wine was like $40.
- My struggle to find meals not involving mushrooms and red meat continued.  And my mom tried two local dishes (goulash and something else) that she didn't like much.
+/- On the recommendation of a friend, we spent our last night eating at a microbrewery and doing a beer tasting.  The light and dark lagers, wheat beer, and special of the month were good, but others were absurdly offensive to the senses.  Top of that list was nettle beer which was bright green and tasted like grass, followed closely by a coffee flavored beer.  Sour cherry and banana were okay.
- Had a run-in with the transportation authorities.  Mom and I were confused by the "system" of paying for tram and metro rides, so decided to play the foreigner card and just walk on without paying, which is what the majority of people appeared to be doing.  Problem is that fare enforcers can come on the trams and trains and ask to see your ticket.  We had been warned in our hotel packet to be careful of people imitating these authorities and that if you are approached by someone, you should ask to go to their office instead of paying them right there.  We guess we made ourselves easy targets by looking at a map and speaking English, because we got approached on the tram by a guy with a small badge in his hand.  I calmly told him that we would rather go to his office to pay, and he argued a while with us and wanted to just bring us to an ATM.  Obviously this made us more suspicious, and when we followed him off the tram thinking we were going to his office only to end up at an ATM, we were not feeling good about this at all.  He had the same superiority complex issues of security guards in the States and our conversation there included him calling me "woman" and repeatedly telling us that "You're not in the States anymore.  This is the Czech Republic.  I speak English pretty good, yes?  You understand me?"  Eventually a Czech guy by the ATM was brought into the conversation and verified for us that "this guy is not trying to fuck with you, he's real and you have to pay him."  So we paid our ~$70 and continued on with our lives.  Mom turned back as we walked away to see if the guy approached the transportation guy for half of the money or something, but nothing of the sort happened.
+ The city in general was gorgeous and was so well preserved compared to what we saw in Lithuania and Poland, since the city was not significantly damaged during WWII.

The famous astronomical clock in the city square, with moving puppet-like things

The Charles Bridge, originally the only bridge in and out, dating from 1357

view from the top of the clock tower

gorgeous decorations

view from Petrin Park

nettle beer. not so much.

Eurotripping

I am writing from a Bed & Breakfast in Warsaw, on the third of five stops of my two week trip. My graduation present from my mom was a trip of my choice, so after narrowing it down to India or Poland/Lithuania, we chose the latter. I am Polish and Lithuanian on her side, so it has been a bit of a heritage trip, although we weren't been able to bring any useful addresses with us- we just know that her grandparents were from Vilnius and Krakow. We added the other cities for personal interest, and to visit our family friend Jette. Here are some positive and negative highlights so far:

+++ Business Class for IAD --> Frankfurt --> Copenhagen and our return. As my mom said, I feel sorry for people who get to do this all the time! Stuffed myself silly (fo FREE) in the Lufthansa Business Lounge, used the remote to arrange my chair in about 13 different positions before takeoff, and completed one chapter of a Russian language learning program on my personal movie/game screen. Only expression I remember: "Da, bino!" ...Yes, wine! Oh, and enjoyed a three-course meal and plenty of champagne.

Copenhagen, Denmark:
+ Having Jette as a local tour guide
+ Meeting her ex-stepson (son of her first husband), who might be the most beautiful man I have ever seen. Originally from the Faroe Islands. I might move there.
- Didn't get a picture of him.
- Lots of rain.
+ Christiana is so so so cool/funny/unique. To give you an idea of the extreme hippie-ness, the majority of the tenants were originally squatters and they still don't pay rent, there is marijuana grown and smoked out in open (although much less than a few years ago apparently), and there was a "people's liberation" type mural in Spanish on one of the many painted walls. Felt straight out of a 60's LSD trip.

by one of the main restaurant streets by a main canal

entrance way to the former independent republic of Christiana

Vilnius, Lithuania:
- Plane was late and Bed & Breakfast hosts decided we must not be coming, so we were stranded for a while outside on the low-lit street of the B&B at 11pm. Not a comfortable start to our first few minutes in Eastern Europe.
+ Had way more to offer than we expected. St. Peter and St. Paul's Church was the most beautiful church either of us had ever seen, and between the two of us we have seen a number in Europe and Latin America.
+ We were lucky enough to be there on the night of their celebration of their 3rd place finish in the World Championship of Basketball (who knew?). Arrived at the Town Hall Square at around 8pm, celebration started around 9, and the team arrived around 10:30. Despite our best efforts to blend in, we became friends with/the joke of a group of locals who pulled us into their dance circles a lot.
-/+ Failed to get off at the right bus stop for the town and castle of Trakai, so ended up on the side of a random rural street, thinking the next bus wasn't coming for 3 hours. Luckily, we misunderstood the info and one came 10 minutes later. And the castle was awesome- artifacts from the 2nd century onwards.

inside the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. picture doesn't do it justice.

tell it, brother.

a later highlight of the night was singing "we are the champions."

stranded in rural Lithuania

Trakai

Warsaw, Poland:
+ Our 11th floor apartment has an incredible view of the city, and the B&B staff and guests are very nice and interesting. And it is located on Nowy Swiat, part of the "Royal Route" and one of the prettiest streets in Warsaw- restaurant central.
+ One of these days I am going to figure out how Europeans make their coffee that seems to be somewhere between espresso and our drip coffee. It's delicious. Insights, anyone?
+ Pierogi.
- I don't like red meat or mushrooms, which is making Eastern European menus pretty challenging for me. Apparently "mushrooming" in a very popular sport/pasttime in Poland and Lithuania. I did give in and eat the bacon on my pierogi though, and I don't regret it one bit.
- If you ever come to this city, do NOT bother visiting Praga, the formerly independent city across the water. While Zabkowska Street and the former Koneser Vodka Factory were on the Top 10 of Warsaw, we found them to be very unworthy of that title. We had wanted to find a place to sit and have a "wodka" drink (the factory is supposedly now a museum, but looked more like a deserted warehouse), but could only find one bar/restaurant on the entire main street. The next day, one of the B&B staff said she was shocked that another staffer recommended the area to us, since "the only reason you would go there is if you want to get robbed." Still, one bad sight out of everything so far is totally acceptable.

first pierogi in Poland

original tenant house from the Jewish ghetto

part of the last existing piece of the ghetto wall, with map of original walls and entrances

Lazienki Palace

We've got a few more sights to hit in Warsaw tomorrow and then we're off to Krakow. More updates from there and Prague later!

Peace Corps Process

I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of submitting my Peace Corps application. As you can then guess, it is a very long application process that I have sometimes avoided explaining in detail to my friends and family, both because I often doubt they want to hear it and because it can be stressful just to think about. Now that I'm (hopefully) in the final stage of the process, here's a timeline of how the process has gone for me, which will hopefully shed some light on why I don't know how to respond when someone says, "oh, so you got it? you're in?" You are warned, this is a long post.

October 13, 2009: Submitted my online application. This included lots of background and resume information, two essays, and three recommendations. I thought it was interesting/cool that one of the recommendations had to be from a friend- thank you dearly, Haley Bryant! After pressing submit, it then leads you to a screen where you quickly fill out a medical checklist- Yes, I have had this condition and No, I have not had this one.

November 11, 2009: Received an email inviting me to set up an interview with the UVa Recruiter.

November 19, 2009: Interviewed with Tom. Had to bring fingerprint cards, background check forms, and more forms. Was told at the interview that he wanted to nominate me to community development in a Spanish-speaking country. I was ecstatic for this, since that had been my ideal assignment but I hadn't wanted to get my hopes up. Tom was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed the interview, which I suppose is unusual. When I first arrived and filled out more short essays, he skimmed over my application. He looked up and asked, "so, I've got some things to tell you about yourself. Do you want this now or later?" While confused I responded "now," and in one breath he said something along the lines of, "You're a very driven person, a great leader, very intuitive and creative, you're not afraid to jump into a big project and see it out until it's completion but your weakness is that you often shoot before aiming. You tend to get yourself in way over your head but you push though it. Am I on the right track?" I told him my psychologist parents would be very impressed.

Didn't hear from Tom for a long time and was very confused about some "status updates" and lack thereof on my online toolkit. Tried to call him a number of times over winter break with no response. Finally emailed him and received this autoresponse on January 19:
As of January 12, 2010 your new University of Vriginia Peace Corps recruiter will be Jessica xxxxxxx. Please redirect all correspondence to xxxxxxxx@peacecorps.gov Jessica may also be contacted by phone at 202-xxx-xxxx
If you need to contact me personally in regard to the Cameroon Water Project I can be contacted at xxxxxxxx.

January 19, 2010: Emailed Jessica and got a response the next day. She explained:
"You have not received your medical paperwork yet because you have not been nominated. At this point there are no open programs that match your skill set so we will have to wait until new programs open. There is the potential for new programs to open next week, and if that does not happen, new programs will be opening in March. I will keep you updated regarding potential program openings, but until then, just sit tight!"

...lots of more anxious waiting. I guess Tom had said the same thing about waiting for there to be an "opening" for me in community development in a Spanish-speaking country, but I didn't expect it to take this long and had sort of thought from our conversation that I was already nominated.

March 2, 2010: Received a call from Jessica, nominating me! My nomination was to South America, Central America, or the Caribbean (Spanish-speaking) working with at-risk youth, leaving in February 2011. While that departure date was later than I was hoping for, it was better than the alternative I had expected from my conversations with Tom, who had suggested June, July, or September 2010 departure dates. She asked that I continue gaining experience with "at-risk youth" (kids growing up in areas of heavy crime activity, incarcerated/neglectful/alcoholic parents, etc.) until my departure.

Returned from Spring Break to find my medical packet ready to begin. Tried to set up appointments as quickly as possible, since I had been told this is the longest/most "patient" part of the process.

~April 1, 2010: Mailed my completed medical packet. This included full dental exam, lots of immunizations, detailed descriptions of my allergic reactions, etc. Turns out that for every box you checked "Yes" on that quick questionnaire after completing the application, you get an additional form to explain that condition. So this part included numerous doctors visits, phone calls, faxes, and tracking down doctors that I hadn't seen since I was 13.

May 27, 2010: Dental clearance received, which was great, but what about medical? I had been warned this might take a long time... Called the Medical Office sometime around then and asked when they might be looking at my medical clearance. They tell me around August/September, since they put people in priority-order depending on when they are leaving. Basically, I was low man on the totem pole.

June - August 2010: Volunteered with DC Scores camp in DC, thanks to the recommendation from my friend Katie Neal's dad. This organization runs an after-school program during the year for DC Public School elementary and middle school kids and the curriculum is focused on soccer and creative writing. I absolutely loved the camp and the kids and talked with them about the possibility of coming on as a girls soccer coach in the fall.

July 29, 2010: Received a letter in the mail stating that my medical packet was "incomplete" because two lab tests were missing. I eventually figured out that those two tests (which I had included) just needed to be redone because it had now been over a year since they were done in May 2009.

August 13, 2010: Medically cleared!!

August 27, 2010: Legally cleared!

So now my application is officially in the Placement Office. It's a big relief to be medically cleared, because 1 in 3 people who make it to that point (application, interview, nomination) aren't eligible to serve. Basically, think of the number of conditions that are totally treatable in the U.S. (example: asthma) but might be life-threatening in an isolated area with no electricity or refrigerators (good luck finding albuterol). Here's a non-exhaustive list of the conditions that can defer/disquality someone from Peace Corps service.

The Placement Office says they will be reviewing my file in the next 4-6 weeks. I don't know if that means that I will be receiving an invitation then, but I've been sending them updates to my work experience. An invitation isn't guaranteed, but everyone I've talked to has said "not to worry about it" at this point. I hope they're right! The other thing to keep in mind is that I could potentially receive an invitation outside of my nomination, but my understanding is that that's more likely for applicants whose nomination doesn't include a language skill. So I might not end up working in youth outreach, but hopefully will be staying in Latin America.

If you're thinking about applying and have any questions about the process, please feel free to leave a comment.   As long as this process has been, I'm confident it will be worth it because Peace Corps is a great fit for my personality and what I want to do for the next two years.