Poland 2014: Live from Poland it's Saturday night!

We made it to Poland! My luggage was left in Moscow when I met my connecting flight but that was to be expected when I had to run through the Russian airport and bypass everyone in line for TSA to make my connecting flight. Thankfully the Russians sent my luggage today and now I have clean clothes! Yesterday was a long and exhausting day, we were all ready for bed at 5pm polish time, or 11am us time. We learned where our apartment was, where the main square and our classes are,a nd had pierogis! Last night we tired out a sketchy bar and got a beer, which is in a 500ml bottle, so that was an odd experience. The bartender was a little confused when we had no idea what to order. Later we went to a liquor store to see what they had and what the cost difference would be and alcohol is only a little bit cheaper in Poland than it is in the US. We were all in bed by 10 though and had a solid nights sleep before out orientation meetings started at 9:30 this morning.

Today it was freezing! We had our first orientation on the city and what to do and what not to do. Our RD even had a slide that said "what is a hipster and why you should be one". His examples all looked like scrawny lumberjacks. We then took on the cold and went on a walking tour of old kraków. The castle and cathedral inside was incredibly ornate and absolutely gorgeous. I wish I was able to take pictures. We ended the tour in the original building of jagellonian university. We had a short lunch before our next orientation meeting, which was delicious! I had breaded chicken with roasted mushroom and fried potatoes. We were also given a sample of sour soup, also delicious. This afternoon we explored the mall and stocked up on toilet paper, trash bags, and international cell phones! For dinner we ate at an incredible restaurant called marmalade. I had a tomato soup with noodles and bigos, which is a sour kraut dish with meat and other things. I believe mine had plums somewhere but the taste was so strong and savory that I couldn't tell. Post dinner we walked back to the apartment and have been relaxing and setting up our cell phones. It's now midnight here in Poland which doesn't feel like bedtime but it'll take a while to get used to the time change I guess. More later, but goodnight for now!

Flying into kraków