Surprise! July 11/12

The beautiful rainbow-lighted Palace of Culture and Science that welcomed me home Sunday night.

This morning I had a pleasant surprise after I had breakfast —> I got a message from my supervisor that she had a lot of paperwork to do today, so it was unlikely for us to be in the lab today and I was therefore welcomed to have the day off. While this was a tough choice and all (sit on my computer in the non-AC office, or go wherever/do whatever I wanted to do for a day), I did take the offer and did not go into the office. 

I spent the morning enjoying a cup of tea and catching up on my emails and other logistics that I had neglected since Friday (had a nice technology break this weekend as I didn’t have wifi nor data for 95% of the weekend). Then I remembered that I had tickets to see the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery and one of the Jewish Synagogue (Nożyk Synagogue) because back when I went to the Jewish History museum about a month ago I purchased the “Jewish Experience” pages essentially which was a set of four tickets to the museum, cemetery, synagogue, and a historical center. Shortly after going to the history museum I began to think I might not be ever able to use the extra tickets because the open hours of everything tends to be 10-5 or 10-6pm which are generally my working hours too. As luck would have it, I got a day off and took advantage of it by seeing these two sites. 

My first stop was the Jewish Cemetery— this place was HUGE- founded in 1806, its 82 acres, with around 250,000 graves. I was lucky to get this day off because it was sunny and 85-90degrees out. Really is was so beautiful! But almost too hot to be outside because it was humid too. Thankfully there was a decent breeze and most of the cemetery was in basically straight forest. While this cemetery was nowhere as crowded as the Prague Jewish cemetery it was very interesting still to see. There was a lot of beauty in the simple graves as well as the elaborate ones. Following the holocaust there were a couple memorials erected in remembrance. The children’s memorial was one of the hardest things to think of the shear number of children that were killed because of nothing they could help but a religion they were born into. This poem [English translation: below] was very tough to read as I know it was true for far too many families. 

“The Little Smuggler”

Through a hole, through a crack of a cranny

        Starving yet stubborn and canny

        sneaky and speedy like a cat

        I daily risk my youthful neck

        

        And if fate will turn against me

In that game of life and bread

Do not weep for my mother; 

do not cry 

Are we not all marked to die?

Only one worry besets me

Lying in agony; so nearly dead

Who’ll care for you tomorrow

Who’ll bring you, dear Mom,

a slice of bread

The original gate to the Okopowa cemetery

Map of the cemetery marking notable people and/or monuments

The classical tombs dating back to the 19th century 

One of the modern graves

"In memory of the Jewish soldiers who served in the Polish armies the fighters of the ghetto and the partizans who fell in the fight against nazism during the second world war and their place of burial is unknown"

Monument to the children victims of the Holocaust

Close-up of the stones and pictures on the memorial- "In memory of the one million Jewish children murdered by Nazi German barbarians 1939-1945" 

The cemetery immersed in forest

Following my trip to the cemetery I made my was back through the Jewish district and then went to the Nożyk Synagogue. Honestly, I’m lucky to have found it! I went through a seemingly random parking lot and at the end of it around a bend was the synagogue tucked away. The synagogue was the only one in Warsaw that survived the flames of WWII. By no means did it resemble the grand synagogues of the Spanish Synagogue in Prague or the Great Synagogue in Budapest, but it has its own history and charm. 

Beautiful opening to the torah ark

Up close to the embroidery of the ark cover

The history to the synagogue

Cool artwork in the synagogue

On my walk back home it was finally after 5pm and starting to cool down some. I enjoyed some time in the park across from my dorm where I sat by the water fountain enjoying the nature. I even decided to bring my postcards with me so I could write back to some of you. Incase you didn’t realize this - I’m a snail-mail fan. I still think there is something special about receiving post from friends containing a hand-written note. Much much better than the typical junk mail advertisements or bills that take up most of the space in a mailbox. 

My view at the fountain by me :)

I guess you could say it was a day to catch-up with family and friends back home. After dinner I was able to make multiple phone calls home to check in with family/friends. Here’s a quick map of time-zone difference to bear in mind when setting up a call time with me (I’m usually free between 6-11pm Warsaw time). If you are in Eastern time- I’m 6 hours ahead of you. If you are in Central time, I am 7 hours ahead. If you are in Mountain time, I am 8 hours ahead. Lastly, if you are in Pacific time, I am 9 hours ahead. Gotta love time-zones making calls difficult. Couldn’t fall asleep on my uncomfortable bed tonight and ended up being up until after my conference call with the states which ended at 5:30am my time. Lets just say Tuesday was a rough morning when you’re working on 3 hrs 17 minutes of sleep despite not working nor partying the day/night before. . . 

On the upside, Tuesday evening was GLORIOUS! I got back from work by 6:45pm and by 6:55pm I was out-cold and didn’t wake up until 8:30am the next morning. You could say I needed the sleep I suppose. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to have a regular sleep schedule, perhaps a goal for when I’m in the real world after college is over ;)