Week 1: Warsaw and Wrocław

After a very long day of travel, I finally arrived in Warsaw. The airport is called the Chopin Airport. It is the only airport in the world named after a composer. How cool is that!! My new friend Lukas, who is the assistant of my teacher, picked me up from the airport and took me to my apartment. My landlord happens to be the sister-in-law of my teacher. She and her husband were extremely helpful in showing me around the neighborhood and getting me settled. I live in the center of Warsaw and am within walking distance of the Chopin University and almost everything else. It's a perfect location. On Tuesday, after the first night in my new place, I was walking around town and I saw a bunch of posters advertising a concert coming this November by my favorite jazz artist, Pat Metheny. I got quite a few weird looks from passers-by for taking a picture of a bilboard-like advertisement, but I was so excited that I couldn't help myself.

On Tuesday night I had my first rehearsal with the Musica Sacra-Praga Cathedral choir. It was run completely in Polish. Thankfully there are so many familiar Italian musical terms that I did not have any problems following along. We are preparing the Mozart Requiem along with several Mass performances. My teacher will be in Los Angeles for 2 weeks at the beginning of October and has asked that I run the rehearsals for him in his absence. I'm a little nervous because of the language barrier, though there are many in the group who speak English quite well. Thankfully, we all speak "music" so I think we'll get along just fine.

After an orientation at the US Embassy and lunch at the Polish Ambassador's residence on Wednesday, all of the Fulbrighters traveled together to Wrocław for 9 more days of orientation and beginner Polish language classes. Wrocław is about 6 hours south-east from Warsaw, very close to the German border. There are about 30 of us all together, students, researchers, English teaching assistants, and senior lecturers. To my great surprise, I discovered that there are 3 other Mormon Fulbrighters here this year. We have had a great time getting to know one another. There are also 3 other musicians; a composer, a theorists, and a musicologist. So far it has been really great to get to know everyone and learn about their research and respective specialities. This is quite a talented group!

I had a bit of a scare today. A friend and I had gone to the main train station here to get our tickets for the return journey to Warsaw next week. In our taxi ride back to the University dorms, I accidentally left my wallet in the back seat. I did not realize that I had done this until I returned to my room. I quickly spoke to our guide and he began calling the taxi companies to see if they could radio the drivers and hopefully locate the wallet. For about 2 hours we had no luck. So, I got on the phone to the states and reported all 6 of my credit and debit cards as lost/stolen. During the final phone call, I heard a knock on our dorm room door. It was the taxi driver. He had been driving 3 Polish men when one of them felt it in the seat. They looked through it, saw my ID. They reported it to the taxi company who in turn reported it to us. The taxi driver himself drove all the way back to our dorm and returned it to me!! What a blessing! Unfortunately I still have to wait for my new cards to come in the mail, but all of my money and other wallet stuff was in tact. Hopefully I will not have any more heart stopping occurrences while I'm here.

So far things are going really well. Though, I must say, I don't think I've ever been quite this homesick. I never really got homesick when I was a missionary for 2 years in Chile. But I didn't have a beautiful wife and three perfect children then as I do now. Thank goodness for the internet which makes the distance much smaller.

I would say "that's all for now" in Polish, but that is way beyond what I'm able to handle right now. Hopefully I can work it up for my next post. Take care everyone! Good night from Wrocław!