My upcoming trip

Just wanted to say real quickly that I wont be writing anything for at least a week because in less than 4 hours a taxi will be here (at 2:40am) to pick me up and I'll be on my way to the airport. I will be in Italy for the next week and returning home late Saturday night (march 6).

Maybe i'll pick up a pink jersey like Sean did...

Titanic Exhibition

On Thursday Karla, LeeAnn and I got a bus to Saggart in Dublin to the City West Hotel so that we could tour the Titanic Artefact Exhibition. It was really amazing and really moving. Unfortunately I was unable to take photos in the exhibition. It was incredible what they have pulled up from the ocean floor. A neat part of the tour is that each person gets an authentic boarding pass boarding pass replica. Each pass has the name of an actual passenger, who they were traveling with, what class they were in, where they were from, where they were going, and other information about the passenger. Once you get to the end of the tour you can check to see if your person survived or not.

My passenger was Mrs John Morgan Davies (or Elizabeth Agnes Mary White) who was 48 years old, sailing from Southampton on 10/April/1912 with her two sons Joseph Nicholls and John Davies Jr. (10 yrs) and 2 female friends. She came from St. Ives Cornwall England traveling to Hancock Michigan. She was in 2nd Class. Her reason for traveling was after being widowed twice, Agnes decided to take her younger children to Northern Michigan and live with her eldest son, who had established himself there. In order to raise the money for the tickets on the Titanic, Agnes sold all of her belongings. At the end of the tour I searched the wall of 2nd Class passengers. Agnes and her youngest son John both survived, along with her two friends traveling with her. Her son Joseph did not survive.

Karla was a 1st Class passenger and she and all of her companions survived (199 1st class survived, then something like 120 or so 2nd class passengers survived and just over 100 3rd class passengers survived. 200 out of 900 crew also survived.)

LeeAnn's was a 3rd class passenger. She and her daughter did not make it. It was very sad and very moving.

I saw all sorts of artefacts, including jewelry, like the elephant broach, and cookware and clothes and beds and money. There was a set up of money that was common in the US like the horse blanket bills, which were larger notes than we have today and were discontinued in 1934.

There were videos of the artefacts being taken by large machines off the ocean floor. We saw quotes and personal stories or people who made and it people who did not.

The way the museum was set up was really cool cuz as you walk around in dark spaces, only lit by low lights, you could hear the rumbling of the engines. You felt like you were really on the ship.

There were 2 deluxe quarters out of the 1st class quarters, and they cost over 61,ooo pounds in todays currency. Even the 3rd class tickets were expensive, costing over 500 pounds, and that got the passenger in a small room with 4 beds, where strangers got put together.

You will notice the black and white actual photo of me, Karla and LeeAnn with the actual captain... (tho there's a chance we may have been photoshopped into the picture with him...)

It's about to speed up...

Ive been fortunate to have a few slow days here and I've taken advantage of them by doing as little as possible!! But things will be speeding up quite fast shortly. I have class tomorrow, then I'll be out around Dublin on Thursday and Friday I'm back in class. Saturday morning I'll hop on a plane and head to Italy. I'll be in Italy for a week.

When I get back I will have 2 weeks to complete my theatre essay (and at this point I dont know what I will talk about. Thankfully it's only 3000 words)

About a week and half after that is when my music essay is due. That's very unfortunate for me because my parents will be here. It's due the day before they leave (the end of March), so I'll need to jump on that as early as possible as well...

Then a week after that is when my cinema essay is due, the first week of April.

At that point, classes will be over (or sometime around then) and I will have 2 more months to meet with my adviser for my dissertation before I'm on my own to work on it and finish it by the end of the summer.

We only found out about essay due dates today, so any trips I've already planned and paid for are going to happen, I'll just hafta use my free time wisely. During this next month and half while I'm writing essays I'll still need to be meeting with my adviser to get started on my dissertation...

So it was good that I was able to chill a little bit, because soon things are going to pick up and start flying!

Me at rugby

Here's one more photo that Monique took of us at the rugby match. I've got my glasses on so I can see the players more clearly. To my right is Hugoline. Under her is Caroline and under me is Monique's classmate Emma.

Back to normal life

So there aren't as many school things to talk about. I turned in my proposal, as I mentioned, and things have been pretty quiet.

In addition to my rugby photos (Dublin in blue, Wales in Red), is a great pic my mom sent me of my mom (if you didnt catch that) and my two nephews.

Our film class was cancelled on Monday but as usual, the professor failed to tell my course. So it ended up being a free day. Then Tuesday morning we did our proposals. Wednesday is usually the long day and we had our regular film lecture and seminar in the morning, followed by our theatre lecture, but our theatre professor let us know that she wasnt available, and wouldnt be for two weeks, to do our seminar, so we ended at 2pm, which is quite early on Weds.

That was nice tho. We girls decided to take a long lunch at Avoca, which is a lovely store. The blue fuzzy blanket my parents have was bought from the real Avoca. This store has several levels of shop and a lovely little restaurant. They also have ready to eat meals, sort of like what you can find in Publix, so I ended up buying a few things to take home. Those were very nice meals for decent prices. That was an Avoca night, since Maria had also come home with a bag of pre made Avoca food. Great vegetarian choices, which I had for lunch, and plenty for carnivores as well.

Thursday was my day off from school, but that evening I attended a play in one of Dublin's several theatres, The Gate Theatre. I went to see Brian Friel's 'Faith Healer', which I had read for class just a few weeks earlier. It was good, but astounding how it took the play longer to be performed than to read... As you may remember I plan to cover Friel in my dissertation so I felt it was important to actually see one of his plays, rather than just read them.

I had my music class on Friday. That was the extent of my day.

I slept in on Saturday, but that night some roommates and I went to the Leinster - Scarlets rugby match. As you may know, Ireland's counties are split into regions and Dublin is in Leinster, so we were watching the home town team who were playing Wales.

You'll see some photos from that night. I apologize for blurriness - my camera struggles with night vision.

Monique, Caroline, Hugoline (the newest roommate from Holland) and I walked about an hour to the stadium. It was cold but a nice day. We met up with Monique's law-student classmates and headed to the stadium. I got chips (fries). What's more fun than going to a sporting event and eating junk? It was funny cuz they introduced the players using the Bull's music. I felt like the next thing i'd hear was "and at 6'6 from North Carolina... Michael Jordan" haha... I have a strong feeling that most of the people in the stadium would not have associated that song with The Bulls. Sad! But I was dressed warmly. I wore leggings under my jeans. then 2 shirts, a fleece jacket and Monique's big poofy black jacket that I wore in Poland. As the night got cooler I added my nice warm scarf that Lisa knit me, my gloves and hat.

We won, by the way. Rugby can be confusing, especially when you're used to football. It's definitely odd when the player with the ball falls to the ground, but the play isnt over. Someone else runs up and grabs the ball and keeps running. Obviously it's a different sport with it's own set of rules, but I just was thinking 'football'. It seems like football in Boppy's day. Basically no padding, some of them wore those little hat helmets... And how many players were hurt and helped off or carried off the field...

The stadium made me miss my own William's Brice Stadium. It was way smaller, held a little over 13,000 that night (not packed), but still was a stadium... makes me wanna get back to my town and cheer on my team.

That evening turned much colder and started to rain so we caught a cab back to our flat.

Sunday was another sleep in day. Then tonight I went to Immanuel Church Dublin. It was a good sermon on Daniel 4. As the preacher was going over Daniel 1-3, he mentioned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and I started hearing Stained Glass' song: "now there was Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the firey furnace they trod, and the form of the fourth man that I see is like the Son of God. The wouldnt burrrrrn....". If you dont know it you should pull out your Stained Glass CD. U learn a lot about the Bible just from listening to their songs. I appreciated what the guy had to say. My friend Jen read from Philippians 2, which is one of my favorite passages, so that was cool.

Then after the service and chatting with a few people, I met LeeAnn down in front of the old famous (and still working) GPO (where you can see bullet holes from the Independence) and we walked to a movie theatre to see Valentine's Day. It was cute and funny. There was no point for Taylor Swift to be in it and she was really annoying... but I enjoyed the rest of the movie.

So that was my week. Little class stuff, but kept a decent social calendar.

This week seems to be another slow class week. Karla, LeeAnn and I are talking about going to the Titanic exhibition in Dublin on Thursday and then Saturday morning LeeAnn and I fly off to Italy for a week. School? What school? This is just a very expensive year off of work!

Auschwitz 2

Sorry this has come so late. I have been so busy, as I've mentioned, trying to deal with school and preparing for up coming trips. But I wanted to finish showing you my trip to Poland and specifically the photos from Auschwitz.

This 2nd camp I went to was call Auschwitz II, or Birkenau. Birkenau was the actual death camp. This was the largest site and where the most people died.

I already mentioned stories below so I wont go into it too much here, but try to explain the pictures. Unfortunately when I was taking video it was so cold that I had a hard time keeping the camera steady and did not get a good view of just how incredibly huge this place was.

The camp was split down the middle into two sides. The right hand side was for the men. All the buildings were made of wood and would not have kept the men from cold. When we went inside it was nearly just as cold as the outside.

You'll see that I took a photo of the 'toilets'. Three rows of holes dug into cement. This is where the prisoners had exactly 30 seconds before getting kicked out. In addition, some prisoners' jobs were to empty the toilets, since there was no plumbing, by hand.

You'll see a photo that looks like a bunch of chimneys. Basically after the War, Poland knocked down almost all of the houses to reuse the wood for their own needs. The chimneys seem to go on for forever.

I also have a shot of the sleeping quarters. 3 levels of beds, which held 10 men in each bed. This is how packed this place was.

To the left side are the brick buildings. This was the women's side. As it was getting so late in the day, we did not get a chance to tour inside the women's houses.

(Unfortunately there was only 1 bus left to take us back to the original camp and if we didnt make it we were stuck. The camp was closed up and there were no places to call, get taxis or find people who worked there. LeeAnn and I made sure we were making it back on that bus, so we could make it back to the first camp, so we could catch the original bus - just a random, practically unmarked bus, to take us back to Krakow. Yup, we live on the edge)

I have a picture of a black and white photo in front of a building. If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see that there on the left are a group of people standing in line. As each person came to the camp, they had to visit the camp doctor. This man is facing the group. He simply would raise his left arm or his right. You see, the doctor determined from the moment you came to the death camp, whether you were strong enough to live and work. If not, if you were too weak, he would raise his right arm. You will notice a large group of people at the top right. These people sent to the right side were killed immediately. They did not settle into the camp. They walked off to be killed straight away. 75% of the people who arrived were sent to the right side.

At the bottom, you'll see my 2nd video showing this photo. The building in the top left hand of this photo is the actual building behind the photo. When I pan around behind me, I show the ground where the Doctor would have stood in that photo and given out death sentences to new arrivals.

Near the end is a photo of 'the ruins'. This was the crematorium. The shot after that shows a long brick ditch under the snow. This was where the prisoners were gassed and killed. They were told that they were taking showers to clean off. Once they all were inside, the doors were shut behind them and the people were gassed to death. They said it took 20 minutes. In reality, it took 7-8 minutes, but the nazis, out of protection for themselves, would wait 20 minutes before going in after the gassings. However, you realize the nazis didnt clear up the bodies. This is why they had prisoners. There were a group of prisoners who's jobs were to find anything of value left on the body, then move the bodies to be cremated. These men though, only worked in these positions for 3 months, as the Nazis would kill them off every 3 months and get a new group of men to work the jobs, so the news of what they were doing would not spread around.

Lastly you can see the pictures from the memorial set up. There are 22 stones with the same message, all in different languages - every language in the EU.

"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe."

Just so busy

So i was going to get in the 2nd concentration camp, known as the death camp, and I will get the rest up, but as soon as I got back from Poland I went right into Proposal mode.

Just before I had left for Poland, I had decided on a totally different dissertation topic, as I believe I've mentioned. When I got back, I found in my emails that I had a meeting an hour after I got to my apt with my prof. So I got all readied up and went back to the city centre and talked about what I'd do now and she gave me a long list of plays that I had to read. So I spent most of last week buying books, finding books, and reading. Lots of reading. All the reading then led to writing the Proposal which we had to turn in today. It was just our course, the 5 of us, and our 4 professors. We read allowed our proposals while the profs read with their copies we gave them and at the end they got to comment on each. One mentioned that he wanted to see more critical analysis in this. Another mentioned that I should not do as many plays on Marina Carr (I'll leave that opinion up to my theatre prof Melissa, who told me to read all these plays... if she feels it's too much at this point, then we'll back off... but Melissa will get to decide that). It tends to be a downer paper and I dont want that and another prof suggested doing something to show the lighter side, but Melissa came to my defense that I had just been reading Marina Carr all weekend so my proposal was reflecting the general feelings and moods from these plays. Anyways, it's just a proposal. I at least feel comfortable in what I'm writing now.

I actually want to try to use Biblical points in my paper to suggest that how the Catholic Church's/society's role in the culture was not just or correct... We'll see what they think....

So I finished writing my proposal, then last night I read all the plays for Wednesday so I could give the book to another classmate so I'm done with the work for tomorrow. Other than the film that I showed up to screen yesterday, just to find out that the professor cancelled it and yet again thoughtlessly ignored our class and forgot to mention it us (as she's done often!), then I get to have a night to relax.

I'll tell ya what I have been watching in my free time. I've got several shows I watch from iTunes but there are a few that I will watch for free online (its harder to watch US shows online when you are outside the US - the sites will notice that you are outside the States and will refuse to let you watch the video - boo)

On Monday I can watch Ghost Hunters International and Keeping up with the Kardashians. Both of those are Itunes. Then I have Desperate Housewives that I can watch online. They view at home on Sunday, so by Monday they are available to me. That's how it goes for all of my shows. I watch them a day or 2 later.

On Tuesday, the most important night, I download The Bachelor. Even tho I've known the winner since the beginning of the season thanks to a blog that Emily introduced me to, it's still fun to watch... i know i know... i've never watched it before. It's sorta like my ANTM... I can also watch Chuck online... I pay for the shows that I cannot get for free...

On Wednesday I get to watch The Biggest Loser. Yup, usually watch that while lying on my bed eating food... Other people working out while I'm being lazy!

I might not really have a show for Thursday night, tho, since I'm not on a strict tv schedule, i tend to watch whatever has come out that week that i havent seen so far - that or rent a movie on itunes.

Then by Friday I can watch last night's The Office.

Like I said, it's not like I sit down at a certain time every night and watch these shows. These are just the ones I'm on right now. Seriously, if you've had to sit down and watch these high school/college age night soap operas over here, you'd kill yourself! And I've got plenty of time to watch re runs of Friends, since that seems to be on every channel over here. Also, How I Met Your Mother - but that show annoys me so i dont watch it if i can avoid it...

Anyways, just dropping a quick line since i havent posted anything since Poland...

Happy 18th Birthday to Andrew!

Happy Birth to Kevin James (oh yea i watch his show over here too) Hollohan

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Presidents Day

Happy Super Bowl

Auschwitz 1

The reason I named this post Auschwitz 1 is, yes, I'm putting up two parts, but there were actually 3 camps under Auschwitz and this first one was called "Auschwitz 1".

On Monday LeeAnn and I woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel, very similar to our other European breakfasts, including rolls, cheese and deli meats, along with eggs and sausage. Then we found our way to the bus station and bought tickets to Auschwitz. It took a little under an hour and half from Krakow to get there. Once there, we headed for the information center. We bought tickets (24 zloty, or 6 euro) which included a 15 minute film, a guided tour thru Auschwitz 1, a bus ride to Auschwitz 2, called Birkenau, and a tour there, taking about 4 hours to complete.

The video was a bunch of footage taken the day the Auschwitz prisoners, those who were left behind, were rescued by the Soviet troops in 1945. On learning that the camp would be taken over, the SS took most of the prisoners and walked them to Germany, where 9,000 would not make it. 7,000 were left behind in the camp. They included the sick, the injured - ones who could not walk, and the weak.

Auschwitz 1 was the main camp. It was the largest concentration camp, tho there were many smaller camps set up around Europe. This started out as a camp for Polish political prisoners. When the Nazis invaded Poland, there was a lot of resistance. Those who resisted were sent to Auschwitz. But soon after Jews, gypsies, intellectuals, homosexuals, and political leaders were sent there. Of course the Jews were the largest population. The gypsies, unlike everyone else, got to stay in their own group with their own families with all of their belongings and clothes that they brought and were not made to work.

To start off, the Jews had to buy their own train tickets to arrive at the camps. The train cars would stuff 80 people a piece, which were meant for cattle, and the trips would take 7-10 days, without stopping for food, water, or bathroom needs. Upon arrival they were asked to leave their bags at the cars, and were promised to be reunited with them later. Then the items were separated into piles and meant for recycling. During the tour, I saw a room with 2 tons of women's hair. This was only a fraction of the hair found. There were 80,000 pairs of adult shoes. There were buildings filled with brushed, suitcases, glasses, clothes, children's shoes, children's apparel and dolls. And these were what had not been shipped to Germany or destroyed before the camp was discovered.

We know that there were gas chambers, which could fit 2,000 people at a time, to kill prisoners, but doctors would experiment with poisons and drugs on people and others starved to death. They would work from 9am-9pm with 1 dinner break, and the caloric intake was no more than 1500 calories a day. At supper, after work, they would get a piece of bread with butter. They were also given bathroom breaks which lasted 30 seconds, no more.

Here's how I will try to do this - I will order the photos (as best as I can control it) and explain what is being seen. Many of them are just photos around the camp. But the first several I will try to describe.

Also, at this camp, it was not allowed to take photos inside the buildings, which is why you'll only see outside pix and video.

The first is a shot of me and LeeAnn outside the camp, very little skin exposed, because it was so cold.

2. Arbeit Macht Frei. This means work will set you free. Ironic since the work was never meant to lead to freedom. This is the sign as you enter the camp. As some of you may have read in December, the sign was stolen. A few weeks later it was recovered tho it was cut into 3 parts. I asked the guide about this who said that this is not the original sign, that that sign is now in a museum.

3. This is a photo from the SS of a band that stood in front of this building. These were all imprisoned professional musicians. When the prisoners would come back from working all day, they had to march to the beat of the music played by the band so that they could be counted easily. If any prisoners died that day, the others had to carry the bodies back so that the same number would come back as who left.

4. The prisoners were always counted, and if the number was different, like when they were leaving for work in the morning than from the night before (meaning if someone had escaped), the people will made to stand in the snow for hours as punishment for the missing person. At the far end on the right is a little black viewing area, where a nazi guard would keep watch (when the weather was bad) of the prisoners standing where I was standing. One little girl who was rescued at the end had frost bitten feet from standing in the snow for 17 hours.

5. I have this photo in a the first video as well. This was the shooting wall. Mostly Polish political prisoners were killed here. They were taken from the building on the right, seen in the video, and made to face the wall so they could be shot in the back of the head.

6. This is the building to the left of the wall. All of the windows here were blacked out so that prisoners from this building could not see the shootings.

7. This is the back of the gas chamber. It's very small compared to the ones at Birkenau

8. Here is the map of the rooms inside the gas chamber. Since I could not take photos inside, this shows how it was set up.

9. This is the front of the gas chamber. You can see members from my tour walking inside.

The rest of the photos are pictures around the concentration camp.

The first video I mentioned above. It shows the wall where prisoners were shot and the building to the left where the windows were kept closed so there could be no witnesses. On the right, the first window at the bottom was the small window cell. Prisoners would be held in this cell without food. It was the starvation cell. At the very end you see the guide knocking on the black part sticking out of the wall. This was the cell meant for suffocation. Since there was no window, no oxygen could get in and prisoners would slowly suffocate. Another cell inside that building was a holding cell that could fit 4 men in each room, each with room only to stand. The doors were very small so the prisoners had to crawl in, and 4 men would stand in the cell all night long, then be let out the next day to work for 12 hours.

The 2nd video starts out looking past the gate at a house that stands just outside the camp. It's currently privately owned, but when the camp was running, the house was occupied by the nazi captain who was in charge of the concentration camp and his wife and kids. Then the video moves to the place where the captain was hung after the war. And then you can see the gas chamber to the left with the chimney in the back

Poland

So as you may know, I got the chance to visit Poland the past few days. I left Dublin on Sunday Feb 7, because I felt that the best way to celebrate Andrew's 18th bday would be to go to Poland, and left Krakow today, Tues Feb 9. Let me tell you - it was COLD!! Since we were outside each day from morning til night, then we got to feel both the highs and lows. The high reached 21, and the low was 10... so... you can see I really mean it when I say it was cold. It was bitter. And I'm sure there are those of you who will argue (*ahem*, Lisa :P) that they've been in colder weather, but I havent, and that's the point. This is so not normal for me!! Plus, most people, especially in America, who live in this weather dont rely on walking at the main form of transportation. Stupid Europe and their walking! I'm thinking Poland most of the year is cold, so try not to visit in the middle of winter...

For only being there basically 2 days, I got plenty of pictures. I feel like many of them need explanation and I'm still trying to figure out how to do it.

LeeAnn and I arrived around 10:30am Poland time, which is 6 hours ahead of the East coast. The Krakow airport was tiiiiny! From there we hopped a train right outside the airport that took us into the city centre. The train station, which is also the bus station, is also the main shopping center/mall. It was actually really large. 3 levels of shops and eateries, and 1 thing I liked is that there was not just one main food area. There were several food areas and then restaurants scattered among the shops as well. The Polish money is not in euro, so we had to wrap our minds around prices a little harder. For instance, we both took about 140 zloty, which was only about 40 euro.

Leaving there, it was really only about 1 block or so to our hotel, which was very nice. The exciting thing was that it was only 15 euro a night per person. Cant find that anywhere! Just a block down the street from the hotel was the city square. So once we checked in we headed out exploring, heading down to the old Jewish town. We figured out just how incredibly cold it really was!

We found a restaurant to warm up in and eat lunch. I tried calling home before the meal to let the 'rents know I was there, but it was only just before 7am and those slackers weren't already up!! So giving them another hour and half, I tried again. The food we got was really good. We both ordered Pierogi, Polish dumplings, two different types, both veggi friendly. You will see our bill combined was 46 zloty, but that is really just over 11 euro. You can barely find a meal for ONE in Dublin that's only 11 euro, much less a meal covering 2 people.

Hopefully I can get these pictures to go in order. The first half is around the city square. After the picture of the castle with the red brick wall in front of it (I was on the phone with my mom at this point and cant remember the name, tho I hear it's a famous castle), the photos get into the Jewish quarter. All 3 videos, including the one of the 1 bird following the other bird, are in the old Jewish quarter.

After getting back to the hotel and defrosting, we ventured out into the square again to another Polish restaurant. I had polish sausage, which is like our smokes sausage, so very very good, and the Polish soup zurek, which was amazing to eat. I spent 16 zloty, which is a lot for dinner, even tho that's really only 4 euro! But to make the evening strange, a beggar came into the restaurant, walked right up to our table (since LeeAnn and I were the only ones in the room at the time) and started asking us for money and even tho LeeAnn kept telling him no, he wouldnt go away. He then got in my face and I just looked forward towards LeeAnn across the table. She kept saying very firmly "No". Finally he left. That's definitely something that would never occur in the US and something that I doubt would happen in Ireland either... so that was an interesting event.

Back at the hotel we watched the Polish version of Deal or No Deal, where the woman ended up winning 73,000 zloty.