Poland 2014: Classes and the Zoo with PICTURES!

Hello all! It's been a while since I have posted but this one is worth the wait! Since I last posted I've figured out my class schedule, went to the zoo, and spent a weekend in the beautiful Tatras Mountains. My classes are nice so far, it's interesting to have a break from all my science courses and to learn history and philosophy. I'm taking five courses total. I have my polish language class, which starts this Friday, a course on the Cold War, The Holocaust and it's Cultural Meanings, Kraków-Jerusalem Polish Philosemitism, and Human Sacrifices and Cannibalism! So far the course on Philosemitism is my favorite because the professor is so outlandish and fun. He was interested in learning about where everyone in the course was from and he made interesting connections with each student. For me he noticed that my last name is German stemming from the word glück, meaning luck. For Darcy he noticed that Maine is he state of Stephen King and has legalized gay marriage! As for the topics of the course, we haven't really covered anything related to Philosemitism aside from what the word actually means. But we have read works by Polish people relating to the psychology of Frued. We have only had two classes so far so there's plenty of time to learn more about philosemitism. In terms of which course is the most interesting, that would be Human Sacrifices and Cannibalism. The course is taught by an older French professor who is very well read but a little difficult to understand. He was excited to have an American taking his course, I'm the first American he's ever taught while teaching at Jagellonian University. This course should be eye opening in terms of how cannibalistic cultures worked, Dr. lebouf explained that the purpose of the course is not to judge the people but to understand and see the deeper meaning within their cultural and religious practices. I'll try to post a copy of our first reading if anyone is interested in reading it.

Aside from class Monday through Thursday, my typical schedule involves working out at the gym, exploring Kraków, cooking, reading Game of Thrones, and doing something fun and touristy! Last Monday we went to the underground museum below the Cloth Hall in the main square. The area in the main square was excavated in 2005, the ground level has risen up to 5 meters at some parts in the past century, and the excavated area was turned into a museum! The museum was incredibly modern and had many different types of ways to show was life was expected to look like around 14th century Kraków and after. The types of media included videos, projections onto a fog screen, 180 degree timeline, interactive videos, 3D building projections, and story lines with history of various topics such as black smiths, women's fashion, and even religious ways of burying the dead. Overall it was a very neat and cool museum!

Kraków has a zoo! Friday we had a fun day trip to the zoo to see the cool animals. And this zoo had some cool animals. It's been a long time since I've been to a zoo so I was incredibly excited, my love of animals helped too. Luckily the zoo has a student discount so we can go back again when the weather is warmer! The weather was a little cold with the occasional rainy sprinkles but that didn't seem to stop some of the animals. Not all of the animals were out but here are pictures of the ones that were!

It's a bird!

Zach made friends with the Cotton Top Tamarin

I tried to make friends with it, his is the picture I took right before it peed at me. I think he liked me

Behold the Emperor Tamarin and his/her glorious mustache

Flamingos!

The fourth from the left was standing like that for a while. He might be broken

A meerkat!

Handsome Mr. peacock

The stork/pelicans were goofing off for us

Two owls

Canadian geese in the zoo. Yes, they're supposed to be there! Another exhibit has raccoons, which I never realized that they only live in North America.

Cute little otters!

The red wolf was trotting around in circles in his enclosure

Sassy ostrich

Grey wolf

A tapir

This goofy giraffe loved looking at us and licking the yummy gate

So curious

Little fennec foxes cuddled up against the cold

Meow! It's a wild cat!

It's big bird!

Massive condor

Things with horns

ITS HUMP DAYYYYYY

"My humps, my humps, my lovely camel humps. Check em out!" -Fergie

I thought about smuggling this money out for Joey

It's a wide eyed and scared lemur, trust me

HEDWIG LIVES!

On Le Prowl

MUFASAAAAA

Meowwww

The lion was my favorite part of the zoo, during this time he was pacing back and forth grumbling and roaring. I took a video of him where he walked back to his wooden pallet and roared for a minute, then walked down and flopped over, exhausted. I can't post the video on the blog but I will post it on Facebook and try to link it.