Roamin' towards Rome (See what I did there?)

Another summer, another season of summer youth camps behind me.  Work ended last week and I've been traveling since.  I spent last weekend in Bologna, then trained to Florence, and now I'm chilling at a farm/hostel set up outside of Perugia, not too far from Assisi.

After camps ended and I had to leave my host family's place on Saturday, I wandered around the suburbs of Milan, unsuccessfully searched for Internet cafes, and got a haircut.  Since I couldn't connect to the web, I had to sit on a park bench, covered in sweat and little hairs from my fresh cut, leafing through my LonelyPlanet guide trying to figure out which city I'd end up in that night.  Since I had plans to meet my Aussie friend Sarah in Florence on Monday, I decided to spend the weekend half way between the two towns, in Bologna.

I got to the train station late afternoon, got tickets, and made a mad dash towards the Internet cafe (€3 for 30 minutes?!) to book a hostel for a few hours from then.  I found a place that was cheap and HostelWorld recommended, but about 6 km from town.  So when I got in to Bologna, I wandered around looking for a night bus to take me to the middle of nowhere, where I'd either find a hostel or realize I paid €20 to sleep in a field.  At the bus stop I met a couple looking for the same hostel.  We got to talking and it turns out they were from Granada, so we talked about sweet ole Andalucia for a while.  On the bus ride I met several people who were about to start their year abroad at the University of Bologna.  They were chilling at our hostel while apartment hunting.  Several Americans, a few Poles from Wroclaw, and even a Chilena.  I spent the weekend drinking beers and jumping between conversations in different languages.  Just navigating between Spain Spanish and Chilean Spanish proved to be a challenge after several beers.

Then it was on to Florence.  Sarah and I stayed in an apartment we found through a site that is new to me, but highly recommended: airbnb.com  We paid next to nothing for a private room with bath, and I even got to wash my clothes in a fancy washing machine.  No hand washing in the sink for me!  Florence was as beautiful as anyone imagines it to be.  Sunsets overlooking the town from Piazza Michealangelo, Renaissance art and the Duomo, and gelatto.   What's not to love?  We ran into my friend Will, whom I met at work orientation in San Remo, and he and I decided to travel down to Rome together via Perugia.

That's where I am now.  Cold winds and clouds remind me summer is coming to a close.  Last night we went beer tasting: home made pork, home brewed beers, and home baked bread.  I'm loving Tuscany (though technically we're in Umbria, but Tuscany just has that picturesque ring to it).  Now we're off to Assisi for a few hours.  Hard to believe, but it'll be my third time there.  Globe-trotter baller status, what up?

-PM

Lunches and Dinners and Apperetivos, Oh My!

I've been in this small town, Proviglia or ...something, just outside of Brescia, for a couple days.  Our camp has been running very well.  We arrived an learned we'd have four high school-aged helpers. Between them, the camp directors, and us, we almost have as many adults as kids.  My group is between 9 and 14, and a solid bunch as usual.  Most speak English well enough to joke around with and such.  We're planning a sketch show, water balloon games, and other summer camp-y things.

My family here is amazing.  There are several brothers (and their respectives wives and families), a sister, and a nonna, whose house I'm staying in.  Nonna keeps me overfed, as I imagine Italian grandmothers have to by law.  Marco, one of her son's kid, comes to camp each morning dragging a lunch bag bigger than him, filled with food for the both of us.  Today my 'snack'  was an entire melon with a whole pack of prosciutto. And that was just after I finished my sandwiches.  So, I'm pretty much at the exact spot in life I've always wanted to be in: a place where stuffing my face is seen as the polite thing to do.

Weekend activities included: visiting a 10th century monastery, eating pasta, drinking white sparkling wine that this region -- Franciacorta -- is known for, eating some of the best pizza I've had in my life, drinking limoncello, and discussing today's problems with the mafia, and Deniro bashing skulls in as Capone in 'The Untouchable.'  Tonight my family tasted me with grappa, which I was told was a homemade liquor that was banned by the government because there's a good chance you're drinking pure ethonal when you have it.  But, I was assured this was good ish right here, so I partook.  The bottle was from 1999, and drinking something that had been bottled when Clinton was still in office had a certain nice touch to it.  Or maybe that touch was just the moonshine talking.

Fun story of the day: After hitchiking from my friend Fabrice's house in Avignon to Nice, I spent a few days bumming around the French Riviera amongst people much richer and fancier than myself.  After a few hours of walking around Montecarlo, I caught a train to Sanremo for orientation. Since I was a day early, I asked some English-speaking folks for directions to the tourist info office, where I was informed all affordable sleeping options were booked for the weekend.  Rather than paying over 100 euros for a room, I opted for reading 'The Kite Runner' on a bench until 1am and then sleeping in a plaza on turf (like putt-putt golf grass).  I figured if families with baby strollers were okay sitting by me at 2 in the morning, then it was a safe place and people generally agreed I wasn't too creepy to trust around kids.  My only company was a drunk man who, having finished gambling at the local casino, tried convincing me to catch a 5 am train to Milan with him. Next day I met my orientation leaders, only to learn that it was them that I had stopped for directions, and that I totally could have spent the night on their apt. floor.  Bummer.  But an experience, nonetheless.

Now it's late, I've used up the only access to Internet I'll have a good while, and so I'm off to panic about how I'll get through several hours of lesson plans with kids tomorrow.

-PM

Enjoying La Dolce Vita

I arrived in Italy last Saturday and just wrapped up one week of orientation for work.  We spent the week playing games, learning techniques for teaching grammar, and just figuring out how these summer camps run.  The staff is just amazing -- loud, funny, energetic... the typical camp councelor types.  There was about 50 of us new tutors and out of that group, the number of guys was... four.  How's that for la dolce vita?  So alongside the warm weather (oh so hot and stuffy!), gelatto, and oceanside scenery of beaches and palm trees, I've also been enjoying the company of about 45 wonderfully smart and beautiful ladies.

Tomorrow it's off to some small town whose name I can't remember, not too far from Milan.  On Monday I start work.  I will be working with only one other tutor, a blonde Aussie named Sarah.  We have only 21 kids total in the camp, so it'll be quite different from the English camps of 200 I did in Santiago de Chile.  After the coming week, I'll have at least one more week of work, and then after that either more camp work or a quick trip to Rome and a return flight to Warsaw.  From there I'll be flying to NYC.  Haven't looked at flights yet, but I do know I have to be in New York by Sept. 29th for an HiA conference.  Hopefully that conference can lead to some job opportunities in Chicago, or at least in the US. And if not, it's still a great excuse to visit old friends, as well as some of the wonderful people I just met this summer in DC and Amsterdam for my HiA fellowship.

Now I'm off to enjoy my last night out in Sanremo with this great group of ladies (and token gentlemen). 

-Paolo

HiA in NYC

I officially have a homecoming date: October 1st, 2012.  I just signed up for a conference in New York on Sept 29th hosted by Humanity in Action (the same group I worked with all June in Amsterdam and Sarajevo).  I'm really hoping this leads to something like a part-time job or even an internship.  Now I just have to book the major trans-Atlantic flight from Poland to NYC or Newark -- which is closer to where I will be staying with the lovely Mike, who's currently getting his MFA from Rutgers. Thanks Mike!

After my parents left Paris for Warsaw I took the TVG train (high-speed rail that can reach up to 200 mph) to Avignon, to meet up with a friend I met hitchhiking the Carretera Austral in Chile.  Since yesterday happened to be a federal holiday, Fabrice took me cycling around southern France to some of the near by villages.  In 95 degree weather (35° C) we covered about 20 miles through grape vines, dirt roads, and medieval villages.  According to our gps, we hit highs of about 110° F (45°C) and speeds of about 35mph. After cold showers and naps we went wine tasting like distinguished folk.  I swirled reds and rosés around in my mouth and pretended I knew what I was doing.  And I had a good time pretending.

Today we bought a bunch of smelly cheeses and enjoyed our red wines.  After my hand picked soundtrack of Jay-Z and Kanye West moved Fabrice (Edith Piaf was yesterday, of course) we watched 8 Mile, which is shockingly 10 years old by now.

Tomorrow morning I will be on the highway trying to hitch a ride east towards the Italian border, as I start orientation in Sanremo Sunday.

-Paul

I Got My Parents in Paris, and They're Going Gorillas

Actually, they've been quite calm. But still, we're all here in Paris.  My folks planned this trip a year ago and since you could say I'm currently between things (just finished HiA fellowship in Amsterdam, I'm still a week away from my orientation in Italy to teach English at summer camps), I tagged along.  On their pocketbooks :)  We booked a relatively inexpensive hotel (perhaps the price reflects the lack of Internet and surplus of hookers) and have done the standard touristy things: climb the Eiffel Tour, check out Notre Dame, visit graves of famous dead people at Pere Lachase, etc. 

Also, I've had several crepes -- banana with Nutella.  Much better here than in Hel.  Though you really can't go wrong with such a recipe.  Looking back at the few days I spent in Paris with my friend Pete back in 2009, I'm just now seeing how much we missed back then.  World famous landmarks, popular dining spots, and various historic sites we just had no clue existed.  But, then again, for being so clueless we also did a surprisingly great job of actually checking out much of that stuff, too.  So this time around I've been able to re-visit some places with a new appreciation and without any unrealistic expectations of some romantic, exotic city.  And what I've found is that this is actually a pretty romantic, awesome city.

This time with my Lonely Planet guide in hand, I have been able to enjoy the background info on Hemingway's and Joyce's favorite coffee shops, see where Louis XVI was beheaded, and simply walk around town and know when I'm standing in front of Notre Dame, and when I'm in front of some other cool looking church that actually isn't Notre Dame at all, but just  a local Parisian church.

Now my folks are packing and getting ready to fly to Poland tomorrow, and I've just secured plans for southern France, Avignon via train.  There I'll be staying with my friend Fab for a few nights.  We met hitchhiking on the Carretera Austral in Patagonia, at what I consider to be the geographical and definitive end of the world map.  This type around, I'm hoping for a little more civilization.  Although sometimes, the less people, the better.

Sunday I start my orientation in Sanremo, a small town on the Italian riviera.  It's yet another location to add to my list of "Places far too fancy, exotic, or expensive for me to visit...that I've somehow visited (by accident)."  It's a good list.  It's my list, it's full of stories, and it seems to be growing at a good rate.

Hopefully some pictures of my summer thus far (Amsterdam, Sarajevo, Polska, Paris) to come soon.  One day I'll sit down and figure out how much of all this traveling is due to good planning, how much due to hard work, how much due to my family's financial support (a good amount, but looking at our bank accounts certainly not that big of a contribution), and how much of it all is due to plain ole' dumb luck and circumstance.  Something tells me most will fall in the last category.

-Paul (but with, like, the French pronunciation and stuff)

Naleśniki for dinner AND dessert?!

I spent the month of July crashing on my dad's couch in Warsaw. Or, at least, I would have were there an extra couch to crash on.  Since he lives in a tiny bachelor pad with only one couch/kind-of, almost-fold-out bed type thing, I spent most of the month sleeping on the floor.  Still, it's nice not having to pay rent. :)  I caught up with uncles, aunts, and cousins, trying to keep track of all the new editions to the family between various weddings and births that have occured since I was last in Europe.

Spending part of my summer in Warsaw has been an awesome experience.  The city has changed tremendously since my mom and I made our way to the C-H-I.  Even in a faltering world economy, Poland has somehow managed to keep okay (part of that probably has to due with the fact that they aren't on the Euro, and thus don't have to put up with all that Greek bankruptcy nonsense).  And since joining the EU in 2004, Poland has not only sent a work force abroad to various counties, some more happy to receive these "Polish plumbers" than others, but it has also seen quite a bit of foreigners immigrating.  Over the course of my bar hopping around Warsaw (and I certainly bar-hopped quite a bit), I heard Spanish, English, Korean, Ukrainian, and all sorts of other languages I wouldn't expect to hear in Poland.

Though I missed the frenzy of the 2012 Euro Cup in Warsaw, I still saw an energetic night life in Warsaw.  "Beach" bars have opened along the Wisła River (meaning a few bags of sand strewn around a some beach chairs set out), gay clubs have opened up in the city center, and whether you're in the touristy Old Town (Stare Miasto), on the ritzy Michigan Ave.-like boulevard (Nowy Świat), or sipping brews in some local knaipa off the beaten path, you're bound to find a young, (somewhat) international crowd enjoying dark beers and loud conversation.

My last week in Poland I spent in Hel.  By which I mean, I went camping for a few days with my cousins and their friends on the Hel peninsula on the northern coast of Poland.  Hundreds of camping trailers, tents, wind surfers, and families with crying children.  The weather was a bity rainy but we still got some sun.  We enjoyed the ice cold Baltic water for about 2 minutes, and for the rest of the time we chilled on the beach, watched folks wind surf, and ate delicious seafood.  My favorite meal, however, was when we went to a naleśniekarnia -- a place that sells lots of different types of naleśniki, Polish crêpes.  Dinner was some kind of  chicken with veggies all wrapped in a thick crêpe.  And for dinner... why more naleśniki of course. This type stuffed with bananas and Nutella.  Awesome.

Pluses: I've found places that offer shots of vodka and other liquors (but, really, why bother when you've got Wyborowa vodka?) for as cheap as 3 or 4 złote (about US $1).  And not watered down candy drinks, but just straight shots of liquor.  One place in particular is open 24/7 and offers vodka for a euro and plates of traditional Polish appetizers (pickled herring, cooked potatoes, etc) for like 3 euros (12 złote).  If that isn't heaven, I don't know what is.

Warsaw is, by Polish standards, a large city.  So even though that means you can't walk from/to all the bars in one night (like you could in Kraków), it means you also have plenty of different neighborhoods to visit, so you don't get tired of the same old spots.  And whereas Kraków is so touristy you could barely even hear and Polish being spoken in the main square (thanks to cheap flights from/to the UK via Ryan Air and the likes), Warsaw retains its Polish character while still offering a good-sized international flavor.  I met Spaniards that have lived and worked in Warsaw so long that their Polish is about as good as mine.

Beers are almost always served as .50 sizes (half a liter, or just a tad bit more than a pint).  Anything less is just plain nonsense to Poles, I guess.

Transport -- though the Metro layout currently offers a whopping ONE line to travel on, the city is currently trying to double that number to two within the next few years.  What's nice is that trams (trolleys) and buses connect just about every corner of the city, and for cheap.

Currensy -- the złoty is about a 3 to 1 exchange rate for the US dollar ($1 buys you 3 złote) and 4 to 1 for the euro.  Thus, stuff is cheap.  It's not exactly going to be one-third of what it would be in the states (things like brand-names clothes and electronics actually cost quite a bit more than in the US), but overall it is quite easy on the pocketbook.  A dinner of pork chops, potatoes, salad, and a soft drink will run you about $6. 

Minuses:  First off is that it can be quite difficult to find ice-cold drinks.  Most restaraunts offer room-temp waters, sodas almost never include ice, and this is sadly extended to beers as well.  The lady at the shop may say "tak" when you ask if her beers are cold, but what she means is "I want to sell these beers, good sir."  So then you drink warm beers.  Or, if the pizza place you go to informs you that their fridge went out the other night and thus everything is warm, you do as my cousins did and simply ask for ice in your beer.  Why that place still had ice after a night of a broken fridge is still beyond me.

Red tape.  It took my entire month in Poland for me to get my ID card.  Even though I was born in Poland, to Polish parents, and had an original birth certificate, I had to jump through hoops to prove my citizenship.  The lady at one office told me, "Sir, we can't prove that the Piotr Marcinkowski on your birth certificate is the same Piotr Marcinkowski standing with you today. And we can't be sure that the Paweł Marcinkowski on that form is the same Paweł Marcinkowski in front of me now."  Sure...  I can only imagine the amount of work it takes to become a US citizen (I've heard my fair share of horror stories of people just applying for visas to visit the States for a week or two), but hey, those are hoops I don't have to jump through myself.  Fortunately, my folks put up with that nonsense years ago :)

Although there is a lot of stuff in and about Poland I could say that isn't related to the prices or temperatures of their alcohols, I'm going to just leave all that for another day.  Take my word for it though, the foods great, the vodka's strong, and the women are beautiful.

-Paweł

Bikes, Brewskis, and Human Rights

Due to high demand (like maybe two friends asked at some point if I'm still bloggin), I've resurrected the OC blog.  Last I left off, I was about to trek around Torres del Paine National Park in southern Patagonia.  Between December and March I hitch hiked, couch surfed, worked, bought a guitar,  partied on warm beaches and rainy islands, and even manged to hike to the top of a volcano drunk from the night before.  In short, I had a blast enjoying the summer months in Chile.  But, it's always 'on to the next.'  So now I'm hanging out in Europe enjoying possibly the coldest and rainiest summer I've had in a long while.

I participated in a summer conference on human rights with a group called Humanity in Action.  HiA flew me out to DC in late May, where I caught up with old college friends and professors, and wandered around the campus of my alma mater (our hotel was next door to GW).  The US fellows got to participate in a 3 day conference that included panels with various DC shakers and movers working in the field of human rights. We met with some folks at the State Department, got a brief tour of the Pentagon, and chatted with folks at the Council on Foreign Relations (where I ran into my house mentor from my senior year dorm).  After a weekend of playing catch-up with old friends, and a few intense days in DC kicking off the program, it was off to Amsterdam. 

As I sat at National Airport listening to two friends argue about the practicality of modern nation-states and international borders (the coming month would be filled with these over-my-head type conversations) a voice over the PA announced our flight to Paris was canceled.  No explanation, no reasoning, no advice to stay put and wait for the next flight.  Just...I had a flight to Europe, now I don't.   Simple as that.  So we spent a while running between several terminals and baggage claim, and finally all got seats on Air Canada, Paris via Toronto.  After arriving in Paris, I grabbed a bite to eat with one of the fellows and boarded my train to Amsterdam.  I'll explain what I was doing in Europe, in the first place.

The HiA summer program consists of month-long programs running simultaneously in five European cities -- Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, and Warsaw.  Each city has a different layout, but each program has fellows from the US, the home country, and a few others (Ukrain, Turkey, or Bosnia) meeting with various speakers such as local politicians, journalists, Holocaust survivors, activists, refugees, etc.  I was assigned to Amsterdam, where we looked at present-day human rights violations through the lens of the Holocaust.  We had meetings at the Anne Frank House (where she hid during the war), traveled to The Hague to visit the criminal tribunal that prosecutes war criminals from the Bosnian war, visited local TV stations, and met with many cool ass people.

Most of us got bikes from our host families to use for the month. I lived in a newly built area about 30 minutes from city center by bike.  Every day the commute included rides over really long, inclined bridges and almost always lots of rain.  Our group consisted of about 20 fellows from Bosnia, Turkey, the Netherlands, and the US (though the American group was super diverse, with only 2 of the 8 of us actually born in the US).  Needless to say, it was a real chill group full of super smart folks with common interests.  After listening to speakers for 8 hours a day, the convos over beers at local pubs each afternoon were quite lively and thought-provoking.  After an amazing month with the Dutch, we were flown to Sarajevo for an annual conference, and as a way to wrap up the summer programs.

The conference focused on post-war rebuilding and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  I got to catch up with US fellows I met in DC and swap stories about our experiences in different cities, meet HiA fellows from past years, and network with lots of different people in the human rights field (which have already led to some connections in Warsaw).  Sarajevo is an amazing city!  While the country still has plenty of issues to work through, at local and national levels, there is plenty of natural beauty and good vibes across Bosnia.  Sarajevo reminded me of Krakow: fairly small, lots of old interesting architecture, and a vivid night life with crowded small bars packed in various nooks and crannies of the city.  Due to a long lay-over in Serbia on the way to Sarajevo, we also got to see Belgrade for a few hours.  Belgrade, to me, was similar to Warsaw: a sprawling city, lots of worn-down communist-era apartment blocks, but with a beautiful old-town area with castles and a scenic view of the Danube cutting through the city.  Thanks to the Slavic, former USSR connection, I just spent my time in Bosnia trying to communicate with locals in Polish, and succeeding about half the time.

After a month of intense HiA activity, full of soul searching and pondering my next professional moves, it was time to unwind a little with family in Poland.  I arrived in Warsaw July 1st, in time to watch the Euro Cup finals.  I've spent the last 3 weeks catching up with relatives and friends, and just getting to know the city.  Though I've been here several times before (last time was when I studied abroad in 2009), I feel like I'm experiencing Poland in a different way this time around.  Thanks to HiA (the Warsaw program had to run in July due to the Euro 2012 happening in June), traveling in South America, and other resources, I know have a good amount of friends here in Warsaw.  So I don't just have to bounce from one aunt's house to some cousin's house, etc.  I've been surprised by the amount of English I've heard around town when I go out to the pubs at night.  Poland is finally beginning to feel like a part of western Europe now, rather than just the remnants of the Soviet Union.  Between the Euro 2012 and a people from other parts of the EU migrating here for work and vacation, Poland feels much closer to its EU neighbors culturally.  Then again, I'm sure part of it is my own perspective, which has changed quite a bit between 21 and 25 years old.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures and entertaining stories up on this blog in the next few weeks.  I just wanted to get all caught up with what I've been up to since May.  Now it's back to downloading hip hop mixtapes, trying to peacefully coexist with my father, and waiting for The Dark Knight Rises to come out in Poland...

-Paweł Escobarski