Arrival, first Polish lessons and lectures, and enjoying the Rynek

Text and photos by Michael Anes except where noted.

Our luggage came in short order! Bad job for KLM/Delta to lose them in the first place but what a way to recover from the error! Hooray. On our first day, we took the below group shot at the Muzeum Narodowe (National Museum) in Krakow. The museum is just steps away from our rather utilitarian student housing for the week.

Then today (Day 2) we had our first Polish lesson. Here we are before the first class in front of the School of Polish Language and Culture of Jagiellonian University:

Then into the classroom we went, meeting our language instructor Marta. We got right to work in an immersive way!

We next took a tour of Collegium Maius, Jagiellonian's oldest building (dating from 1364!) and the site of a collection of artifacts from the University's long and auspicious past. There were many Copernicus-related objects, and a treasury room with donated items of all types and from all centuries of the University's existence.

Then we had our first academic lecture, in this case by Dr. Joanna Grzymała-Moszczyńska. Dr. Grzymała-Moszczyńska described the Polish reaction to the 2020 (and continuing) Belarus border crisis, where several thousand immigrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the Congo and other nations have been transported to the border by Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko. She described the rather different and generally extremely welcoming actions shown by Poles from all walks of life toward the millions of Ukrainian immigrants displaced by Russia's war in Ukraine. We were presented explanations of research projects investigating Polish attitudes to these two immigration crises.

When we finished, Colleen Schloss took this incredible picture of the Wawel Castle and Cathedral walls from the window of the lecture room. You may see that we had delightful weather today!

Then it was nothing but fun exploring Krakow's Old Town!

Catch ya later and thanks for reading!