On Saturday afternoon, Courtney, Kristin, and I decided that it was time we bought Q-tips and towels and conditioner and razors, so we went wandering down the main street in Lodz, named Pitrowska Street. It's a main avenue that runs for about 3 miles straight through the heart of the city, and at one point it even closes off into a pedestrian zone. We were headed downtown toward a "Central"... a store analogous to a WalMart before the Super was involved. They have everything you'd need, but not 12 choices of each product. Sadly for us, it turns out that the Central closes at 3pm on Saturdays... so we didn't get anything that we needed. BUT we did notice a large crowd gathering across the intersection and decided it would be worthwhile to go check it out.
What we discovered what aptly named by Miss Styres as City Stages Poland 2008. They were doing some sort of open-air festival, and I'm not sure whether they do it every Saturday or we happened to come at the just the right weekend, but there were people everywhere milling about, and a giant stage with different bands playing. The music was in Polish, the cotten candy tasted a little bit wanky, and there was a booth that sold only socks, but we still had a marvelous time people watching and being astounded by the sheer volume of beer that each individual consumes in this country.
We also, quite unexpectedly, discovered Lodz's defining characteristic. About two days ago, Courtney and I were discussing the fact that Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Rome has the coliseum, and Dublin has it's Irish pubs, but that Poland does not have any ONE THING special that we could think of, besides sausage (which is lame if you ask me)... and that Lodz certainly does not possess one defining characteristic. If you'll study the picture below, you'll notice that the lady is carrying bread on a string.... and THIS is what mental image now comes to mind when I think of Lodz. The bagel necklace. It's genius.
Just a view of the street with all of the people. There was even a stage where Polish dancers were performing to Grease Lightening. Oh la la...
A man selling the bagel necklace in not one, but TWO, sizes. =)
Of all the silly things that we encountered during the day, I think the Native American indians playing Simon and Garfunkel on gigantic reed flutes was the most surprising. This picture begs way too many questions. Why are there Native Americans in Poland? And since when have reed flutes been a part of the Native American culture? And why Simon and Garfunkel?
We ended the day with a showing of Ironman IN ENGLISH, complete with popcorn and fountain drinks. The bathrooms were super clean, and shiny, and the theater was brand new. It was amazing... and Robert Downey Jr is not terrible to gaze at either.
We had to walk home super fast because the sun had set and dusk was turning to night, and with all the money being poured into Poland by the European Union, there has been a huge influx of construction workers, so we've been told to stay off of the streets at night. It may all by in my head, but I do get rather jumpy at night here. It's like when you convince yourself that there is a man lurking in your bushes to kidnap you and sell your organs to rich Americans... you can freak ourself out if you think about it too much, even if no danger is actually present.
We made friends with our next door neighbor, Raul, a man from Mexico who is here to paint and give Spanish lessons. His trademark is the flying cow and I've begged him to make me a painting within the next two months so I'll never forget our stay here in Lodz. Flying cow = research on diamond powders. Hahah I can see how they correlate.
It's Monday now and I'm happy to be hanging out in the lab. I have a desk set up with a fast internet connection, my iPod plugged in, and a stack of scientific articles to read. Courtney is somewhere outside blowing up a car engine, and Sonda is in another office learning about meteorites. Damian made Kristin stay at home because she had a runny nose - he said if she came she'd infect everybody, but quite frankly, I'm happy to be here and have human contact again. I missed everyone over the weekend. I need a new surrogate family!
OH! And the most exciting part of last night's evening, Courtney set up Skype and I got to talk to my parents on a telephone for the better part of an hour. It was lovely to hear their voices again... it's been almost a week since I had. And both my mother and father sounded so excited to talk to me... it definitely made me feel loved. ♥
I hope that everything is going well for all of you in America. Hahah I just keep saying to myself... "I'm in freaking Poland." Seriously, how did I get here?
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