My wife Kate joined me for three days in Poznań, an old Polish city is
west-central Poland. The first picture shows a beautiful building in
the old city (stare miasto) with the two billiegoats that are the
city’s mascot. The second picture is a fairly typical corner building
near our motel.
This is the recognition event for a retiring dean. I saw the Polish
equivalent of a convocation, which was done similarly. Much more
formal than at UMPI, but with pomp, ceremony and prestige. The rector
(president) and other VIPS are dressed in their academic best, which
includes metals and finery. To the left is a portion of the student
honor guard, with the school flags (see second picture, with myself
and a Chinese colleague). The session is completed with a lecture,
this one on climate change.
Friday night was folk music at the Cutty Sark Pub. I love folk music
(Kocham muzyka ludowa). This is just part of the group, playing Irish
and Polish (sometimes Irish tunes with Polish lyrics), plus „Shady
Grove” for me, with guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, accordian and
flutes/penny whistles.
Can you see the face on the tree? This is on chestnut near the
Szczecin Park that I visit regularly.
While on the food kick, here is a hamburger at the Bół I Krowa (Bull
and Cow) restaurant in the old city (Stare Miasto). I have had a
number of hamburgers in Germany and Poland, and I must say that these
are generally better than what I see in the US. The meat in this
burger is of very high quality as is the bun. The bun and burger hold
together very well without mess. The fries are served in a small
pail, which is a fairly common practice here, even in some of the
fast-food restaurants.
I went to the 24-hour grocery store near my apartment and that is what I bought:
Total cost is less than 45 złoty (about $11.50). The prices here are
astonishingly low by American standards, although it must be said that
salaries here are equivalently low compared to us.
And there are dinosaurs. The sauropod (long-necked dinosaur) is a
beautiful display, with the neck reaching to nearly the top of the
very high ceiling.
There were so many good, in the manner of both informative and
entertaining. Here, in a room dedicated to the art of taxidermy, is a
large spider (model, the spider would not be this big) that you can
walk around. But don’t get too close!
Museums have collections, including animals preserved in jars of
formalgahyde (or whatever they use these days). But here, you walk
right past the collection, with literally, all of it on view. Behind
the cases in front are shelves and shelves of items, all visible.
What has been in storage has become a beautiful display. Wonderful!
Still at the Berlin Museum of Nature. Large museums often have
discovery rooms for children, but this is the first that I have seen
that has microscopes for children to learn about the world of small
things, and there are a lot of children here learning about that
subject. They were also setting up a birthday party where children
made casts of fossils. This was not in some outlying upstairs area,
as I have seen at the Smithsonian, this is right off the main display
area and I actually found this by walking into it. Simply Wonderful!