Kevin's Photoblog

I finished my reading of POLAND, by James Michener.  I do not read novels very often, but James Michener was such a good writer of historical fiction, and his book on Poland was a good way to start my experience here.  Michener novels and very long and consist of many smaller stories that follow a family through time.  There is always one story that sticks to the mind – Levi Zendt from Centennial is someone everyone should read.   For Poland, if you have time to read but one chapter I would suggest the 7^th (VII), Mazurka.  It details two Poles who work together in the Ministry of Minorities in Vienna (a piece of Poland is integrated into the Austrian Empire at that time).  It is about 85 pages long but goes quickly, and you can enjoy this without having to read the whole book.

These are Zloty – Polish currency.  Poland is part of the European Unit but does not use the Euro.  They have 10, 20, 50 and 100 Zloty bills and 5, 2 and smaller Zloty coins.  I had all but the 50 Zl bill and 5 Zl coin in my pocket and so took a picture.  The faces on the bills are all very old Polish Kings (very old, since the last ended his reign in the early 1790s when Russia, German and Austria split Poland up between them).  A Zloty has a value of about 25 US cents.  But the money goes far: I have bought a large bag of groceries (fruit, water, yogurt, beer & etc.), almost as much as I can conveniently carry, for circa 70 Zloty.  Basically, prices in Poland for food is about 20-25% of US prices.  However, salaries are about 20-25% of ours.  We love to complain at UMPI about our low pay, but my colleagues in Poland are paid much much less.

This is at the Park, near the Jon Pawel statue.  We need to build one of these trains for The Fair!

This is the street on which both the Geology Department and my apartment are on.  Named after Adam Mickiewicza, national poet for Poland, Lithuania and Belarus (1798-1855).

Something new – bikes for rent, which can be dropped off at other locations.  Note the local architecture.

This is my tram stop, near the Geology Building.  The trains are quite frequent.

The upstairs neighbors and I went out for pizza.  Here are Agniezka, Maja and Jeremie.

This is my local Rotary Club, there are about twenty members attending here.  One of three Rotary Clubs in Szczecin, this one speaks English.  Many young members, that do good work.

Just to show that nonsense can be found everywhere; here an Alien is used in advertising (sorry, do not know what is being advertised).

Poles LOVE (Kocham, pronounced Koham) flowers.  There are about six private stalls on this corner, and flower shops are everywhere.