Final Countdown to the Break: Culture and the Former USSR

TL;DR or Quick Summary

Vilnius Christmas Market

• Classes are wrapping up for the year here. The Polish winter semester do not end until February, so I will have my same schedule when after winter break.
• There is so much Christmas spirit in Poland. Warsaw and Białystok have decorations lining the streets, massive Christmas trees, and festive store displays. It definitely helps me feel the holiday spirit.
• Last weekend (Dec 10-11), was an intense culture weekend for me. I attended a ballet and an opera.
• This weekend (Dec. 16-18), I visited Vilnius, Lithuania. It was an amazing city that I plan to revisit during the summer.
• I will not be alone on Christmas, so no worries. My girlfriend, Kim, is flying to Poland on the 27^th and will we spend New Year’s together in Poland. 

Class Update

Texas Culture has made it all the way to Lithuania

Looking back on the semester, there is so much that I would change if I could do it all over again. I would change how I presented material, how I presented the course to my students on the first day, how I organized the class, and several other things. However, I am sure most teachers feel this way at the end of a semester. Now I know the amount of work that students expect to receive, how many students I should expect to actually do a reading assignment, how clearly and explicitly I need to give my instructions for homework and essays, and so many more things you probably do not want to hear about. Sadly, I won’t have an opportunity to do everything over again, now I have much more experience to base next semester’s classes on.  

Street art in Užupis, Lithuania

Despite all of the things that I would change, I do think of this semester as a success. The students respect me (as far as I know) and most of them only harbor a slight hatred for me seem to like me. Some of my students have even written in their weekly journals about  how they do not mind waking up for my early morning classes (they got TWO smiley face stamps but no extra points). I can see tangible improvements in their writing compared to the beginning of the semester. Students are much better at connecting arguments, proposing ideas, and writing fluidly. It is nice to see such changes.

They have also become more comfortable with me (and I have become more comfortable with them). Thinking back to the first day of classes, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from my students or the semester. I remember my first thought was that I was glad their English was so good. They could all understand me (except for my terrible handwriting) and I could understand them. After that relief, I slowly started to figure out how I wanted my classes to run and what type of relationship I wanted with my students.

I think I have found a good balance; my students (mostly) pay attention during class and participate in class activities. However, they also ask me what I think of Poland and Białystok, ask about what I do for fun, and usually laugh at my lame jokes. I have asked them to translate many emails, how to use a bottle of drain cleaner, and where to get a haircut. Overall, I definitely enjoy my students.

Travel and Social Updates

Erasmus Christmas Party 

The Erasmus student organization in Białystok hosted a traditional-ish Christmas party for international students in Białystok. While the 12 official Christmas dishes were not all there, there was plenty of food. One of my favorite Polish traditions is the breaking of the Christmas wafer (I'm not sure if that is the official name thought). Each person receives a wafer and you go around the room and break a small piece off of everyone else's wafer and eat it. You also wish them luck or good fortune. At smaller or more personal parties, the wish is more personal and authentic. The party was a great way to get the Christmas feeling started.

A Weekend Crammed Full of Culture

Swan Lake with Zapiekanka

Fulbrighters at The Moscow City Ballet's performance of
Swan Lake

Last weekend was a cultural experience. On Saturday, the Moscow City Ballet was performing Swan Lake in Warsaw. I wasn’t originally planning on going, but at the last minute, someone’s plans changed and I ended up buying her ticket. Before the show, I went to a really nice dinner with several of the Fulbrighters in Warsaw so knew the Warsaw food scene very well. We had a delicious dinner with drinks and dessert. After dinner we headed over to the ballet, which had its highs and lows.

My first comment about the ballet is that the actual performance was great. To my ballet expert eye, the dancers were all in sync and there were no mistakes. The costumes and set design was fantastic and worked well together. However, the venue was the opposite of all of that. The performance was held in an ice rink (the same one as the Bastille concert in a previous post) and that was really the root of all the problems.

Most of the seats were oriented perpendicularly (at a right angle) to the stage, which made the performance difficult to watch. My assigned seat had a pretty bad view (I was basically looking across the stage), but luckily I was able to move to a better seat. Since it was an ice rink, the concession stands served popcorn, hot dogs, and zapiekanki. It was definitely my first time eating popcorn at the ballet. While the popcorn didn’t make the performance any worse, it did take away any air of elegance. Despite my complaints, I really did enjoy the performance.

Die Fledermaus in Białystok

Białystok Opera House

The next day, Sunday, I headed back to Białystok for dinner and an opera with the Fulbright Scholar who lives just outside of Białystok. He is a Pole who has lived and taught at the University of Pittsburgh for many years. He typically splits his year between Pittsburgh and Białystok. This year however, he is on sabbatical and is teaching full time at the technical university in Białystok.

He and his wife took me out to a wonderful dinner, one of the nicest dinners that I have had in Poland so far. The conversation was very interesting as he has lived in Poland, the Netherlands, and the US, so he had many experiences and perspectives to share. We discussed the differences between his Polish and American university students, the strengths and weakness of both systems, and what I thought about Poland. Before long, it was time to hurry off to the show.

Białystok has a relatively new opera house and its design is quite controversial. It is essentially a metal large cube covered in vines and ivy. It looks rather nice when there are leaves and greenery on the blinds, but becomes rather bleak in the winter. The performance here was much more elegant. There were fancy dresses, suit jackets, and plenty of wine. Although the opera (or more technically operetta) was in Polish, I could still follow along with the main plot points. It was a comedy, so fortunately I was able to understand about 1/3 of the jokes through context clues. 

Visiting the Former USSR: Vilnius, Lithuania

Snow covered Vilnius from above

This weekend, I traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania with three Fulbrighters. There were originally supposed to be more of us, but sickness and a delayed train forced to people out of the trip. It was a fantastic trip. Vilnius was a very impressive city that was much more colorful and lively than I was expecting. If anyone is looking to travel somewhere more off the beaten path, I would definitely suggest Vilnius!

I took a 5-and-a-half-hour bus from Białystok to Vilnius and it was a surprisingly pleasant experience. The bus was fairly empty so I got row to myself and could lean my seat all the way. The ride was as quick as possible with a short stop on the border to check passports (I guess to make sure everyone was in the EU legally?).

Once I arrived in Vilnius it was a quick walk to my hostel which was small but nice. The hostel owner (or at least receptionist, chef, and organizer) was incredibly nice. She offered great site seeing suggestions, talked with us about Polish and Lithuanian politics, and was eager to hear about how we liked Vilnius. Each morning, the free hostel breakfast was homemade by her in the morning. It really gave the hostel a warm and welcoming feeling.

German street in Vilnius

After dropping our stuff, we headed out to explore Vilnius in the evening. Immediately I could tell that it felt like a completely different place. Although Poland and Lithuania share much common history, Vilnius gave off a very different feeling than many cities in Poland. Much of Old Town Vilnius was still original (or at least 100 – 200 years old) and it really provided a strong juxtaposition to Warsaw, much of which was rebuilt after WWII. Walking through the streets felt very authentic and not overly touristy.

Outside the Vilnius Christmas Market

The Vilnius Christmas Market was the first destination. It was my first big Christmas market of the year and I think it was a very good place to start. There was a ring of shops surrounding a giant tree probably 20 meters tall. The food shops sold tons of pastries whose names were completely foreign to me. Lithuanian is distantly related Polish, but is different enough that I was pretty linguistically useless. There was also hot chocolate, warm wine, and mead. Other stands sold scarves, sweaters, socks, hats, and all other types of winter clothing. Although the market was not that big, it was very festive with bright lights, music, and a laughing Santa Claus. We had dinner at a nice Lithuanian restaurant and ended the night at another bar, where I was carded and received a terrible margarita (it was really my fault, my expectations were too high).

Gediminas's Tower in Vilnius

We started off the next day with a great homemade quiche from the hostel and then headed back into town. Overlooking the main cathedral square of Vilnius is the Gediminas' Tower. To get there, all be had to do was hike up a steep and icy path with minimal handrails. Despite expectations, there was only one fall (not me!!). The tower held a small museum with different pieces of armor and weaponry, a diorama of old Vilnius, and a really interesting exhibit on ‘The Baltic Way,’ a human chain that extended almost 600 km from Vilnius to Tallinn. There was a fantastic view of snow covered Vilnius from the top of the tower.

Photo of the Baltic Way
human chain

After descending the icy slopes of the hill, we met up with a free walking tour. Our guide was great; she was enthusiastic and informative. She took us through a quick 1000 years of history and showed us most of Old Town. The most interesting area was called Uzupis. This small neighborhood in Vilnius actually declared its independence from Lithuania in protest of the lack of attention from the government the area received. Today, Uzupis is an artists’ neighborhood. There are many sculptures and murals scattered throughout the small neighborhood. They have their own president, government, and ambassadors to different regions of the world. Until recently, they had an intimidating 12 person military, however in the interests of global peace, they recently demilitarized. It was a great place to have a cup of coffee, warm up, and grab some lunch.

That evening we ventured out for some food and were hoping to buy some wine and have an easy night end. However, we discovered that it is illegal to sell alcohol after 10 pm! This is the first time I have encountered a restriction like this in Europe and it was an unexpected reminder of Texas.

The day I headed back to Białystok by bus. The trip was long but uneventful. Once better weather arrives, I plan to go back to Lithuania to see what the country is like when it is not covered by a massive gray cloud.

That's all for now! I hope all of my readers have a great holiday season! 

Adventures with Creative Writing, Conferences, and Christmas

A rare beautiful sunny day in
Białystok

TL;DR or Quick Summary

1. No exciting trips to report on this week, just a fairly successful week in Białystok.
2. I worked on creative writing with my classes this week. It was a good way to practice writing skills but still have a fun and relaxing class in the middle of the semester.
3. On Thursday and Friday, I attended and presented at a conference sponsored by my university. I was schooled on my incorrect grammar terminology. 
4. Sunday was the official Christmas festival in Białystok. They had a the real life Santa Claus from Finland and an official tree lighting ceremony. 
5. It is getting cold!

It was nice to have a 'regular' week here is Białystok. While I love travelling, it certainly takes a lot out of me. Staying home this weekend was a great way to catch up on my work (I literally have about 80 essays to read) and to experience the start of the Christmas season in Białystok. 

Classes

Writing Classes 

Like I mentioned in my last post, my students were starting to feel the stress of a long semester. So I wanted to give them a break, but still do a writing focused activity. I decided to a creative writing activity; each student would pick a starter sentence that would serve as the first sentence of their story. The original author would then write five sentences to continue the story. After that, each story would be passed to four more people for a total of five authors. Although the students were hesitant (and somewhat confused) at first, I think most ended up enjoying the activity. 

Some of my favorite starter sentences include:

• A hostage situation at the bank was not how I wanted to spend my morning.
• The cemetery was rather quiet on my annual visit.
• Amy was hesitant to open the hotel room, scared of what she may find.
• Flowers came to my house every Monday around 13:00.
• All the nuns at the orphanage were ruthless except for Sister Francis.
• She kept absolutely still as the footsteps got louder.
• The fire was getting closer.
• The text message simply said ‘very clever.'

Snow Wars Episode 6: Return of the Snow

Students ran with the ideas in really interesting ways. There were several serial killer stories, one about a nun who force fed orphans candy, a Batman origin story, a WWII story from the point of Germany, and several others. Not all stories came together in a reasonable manner, but most did. While students were reading the final version of their stories, many laughed and excitedly shared the story with their partner. 

On the academic side of things, the goal for students was to match the tone, theme, and direction of the previous author. I asked students not to completely change the story by bringing in random aliens or nuclear explosions (there were some aliens but no explosions).  For the most part it was successful! I also think that a huge component of learning to write well is to read what others have written, not just 'official authors' but also other authors of a similar level. By having students continue stories from other students, I hope to expose them to as may types of authors as possible.

Integrated Skills

Decorations in Białystok

In integrated skills, I decided to continue with topic specific vocabulary and terms; this week was terminology about jobs and interviews. Most of my students seems surprisingly excited about this topic. We discussed words to describe yourself in an interview (hardworking, dedicated, big picture, detail oriented, experienced, etc) as well as words to discuss what the job will be like (part-time, full-time, work culture, etc). 

After discussing the definition of all the words, I had students interview each other. The questions were pretty basic, but it was good practice. Next week I will continue to work/interview related lesson with some specific phrases and words. I found some good, but silly games that practice using the words; hopefully the spirit of competition will bring out the bet in my students. 

Conversation Class

Christmas decorations or attack of the bioluminescent jellyfish?

I don't think that I have written much about my conversation class before. It is an informal class for graduate students and professors in my university. It is a fairly small class, usually there are only around 8 people, which is lets the class get pretty personal. Since they (in theory) want to be there, they are generally more enthusiastic and engaged in the lessons. There are two graduate students who worked with another Fulbrighter last year, my Polish teacher, and several professors at the university. It is a good group with different levels of English and different life experiences.

So far we have discussed the presidential election, 'The 11 Nations of America,' and many many idioms. Much to the delight of my students, we have discovered that there are many equivalent idioms in English and in Polish.

Last week, I jokingly told them about the Preposition Song that my middle school teacher made me memorize and they were super excited about it. So this week I think that I will be directing a choir of enthusiastic preposition singers. You can file this under the category of things I did not expect to be doing (although I am definitely happy to do it). When we land our first record deal, I will post a link on the blog!

Crossroads Conference

Action pose during my presentation

Last week my department sponsored a conference titled 'Crossroads I: Remembering/Forgetting.' It was a conference that focused on a wide variety of presentations related to human memory. There were presentations on collective memory, how particular people/groups are viewed through memories, how particular books portray memory, and many other topics. It is difficult to broadly explain the presentations, since many of them were very specific. Going into the conference, I was not totally sure what to expect and I was definitely feeling nervous.

For my presentation, I discussed the (now somewhat) recent controversy of the revised Texas education standards in regard to social studies and history. Specially I discussed the changes made by the Board of Education and the subsequent textbooks that were written to conform to these standards. Essentially, I discussed the motives behind the changes, what changes were made, how the textbook publishers used grammar to change the tone of the text, and some possible effects on students. I don't want to go into too much detail here, but you are welcome to check out my presentation if you'd like.

Lunch during the conference

Although my presentation was a success, I was called out on using the wrong term for describing verbs. Instead of using 'passive voice,' I just called it a 'passive verb.' Cue a quick grammar lesson in the middle of my presentation. Due to their many years of intense English grammar, the Poles were absolutely right about my mistake. The rest of the presentation went well and I received several questions at the end.

Interestingly, most Polish presenters read off their entire presentation. Most had written a paper for publication in conjunction with the conference and primarily read straight from that paper during their presentation. The projector was used to display relevant pictures or quotes, but not primarily as a means of information transmission. Talking to several presenters they said they preferred to read because it helped make sure they did not forget any points and because in school they never really had an opportunity to practice public speaking. One even told me that he wished that he could present like I did (without a script).

Overall, the conference was a great chance to meet some new people and see different types of research projects. It was a great academic as well as cultural learning experience.

Light Up that Tree!

The lit Christmas Tree

On Sunday afternoon (can it still be called afternoon if the sun has set?), Białystok held its annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony. It was a much larger event that I was expecting. They had a stage with lights, speakers, and projector. There were creepy 'penguins' walking around and terrifying both children and adults posing for pictures. There was free soup and coffee, although both went extremely fast. And finally, there was Santa Claus, straight off the sleigh from Finland. 

The ceremony started off with several performances by children and teens, few of which were actually related to Christmas. Then came the Christmas songs; I sang Silent Night in Polish (don't tell anyone but I was actually singing the English lyrics) and several others. Finally Santa came on stage, talked to several kids, and promised many presents. 

The final event was the lighting of the huge tree in the middle of the rynek (market square). The tree is about 30 feet (10 meters) high and pretty perfect looking. It will be a welcome decoration for the rest of the Christmas season. 

But what I will remember most is probably the cold. It was 'only' around 22°F (-5°C) but I did not come prepared, especially in the sock department. All day I had been fine going between different heated locations, but after standing outside for almost 2 hours, I really started to feel the cold. Luckily the rest of me was fairly warm, so as long as I don't make the same sock mistake, I should survive! 

Well that's all for this week! Thanks for reading!

Super creepy penguins at the tree
lighting ceremony