Here's the little kitchen.
Bathroom
Little washing machine and drying rack.
Living room/office
Book shelf and heater
Fold-out bed/couch.
Other half of bedroom
Front door
This is the view from my apartment window. This building has an open market in it with many shops and fresh fruit/vegetable vendors.
Looking straight down from my 14th floor window. The yellow things down there are pallets of food for stocking at the little grocery stoor that's about 10 yards from my building's front door.
A wider view from my window
Little neighborhood playground between apartment buildings.
The building next to me with grass and bushes on the roof.
This is view from the window in my hallway. The tall building on the left was commissioned by Stallin in the 50s as his gift to Warsaw. Right across the street is the central train station and a huge mall.
My hall way. My neighbor, an old guy, sits on that table several times a day to smoke his cigarettes.
My front door.
The elevators.
Here's that little grocery store that's right next to my building.
It's called Biedronka (sounds like it's spelled), which means lady bug. I was going to take a picture inside, but people already look at me weird because I can't understand what they're saying, I didn't want to add to that.
This is the name of my street, Grybowska (pr. G-zss-u-bov-ska) It means mushroom.
This is the view to the west when I come out onto the street. There's the Radisson hotel.
This is looking east. There are several cafe's, restaurants, banks, and apartment buildings. It's a very nice part of town.
Here is my building, the middle of the 3. My apartment is on the 2nd highest floor and closest to the street.
If I turn around from the previous shot, I see a little path between buildings that leads to the big mall and train station about 3 blocks away.
Here's the path back to my buildings, on the left.
This is the big street half a block west of me. It's named after the last Pope, John Paul II who was Polish. The love him here, his picture is everywhere.
John Paul II street looking south.
John Paul II street looking north.
This is not the best picture, but in the background you can see the Marriott hotel. It was the first foreign hotel built in Warsaw before the iron curtain fell.
This is an old church turned into a museum that's about 50 yards from my place.
About 200 yards east of my place, going down my street, is the main street in Warsaw, Marszałkowska (pr. Mar-shaow-kov-ska).
Marszałkowska looking south.
Marszałkowska looking back down my street.
Right across Marszałkowska is the big Saski Garden. It's very beautiful.
More Saski Gardens.
These are the street cars that I take across the river to go to choir at the cathedral.
Across the river looking at the sky line of downtown.
The Praga Cathedral where we sing.
Going around the cathedral to our rehearsal space in the white building to the right.
This is my teacher rehearsing the ladies this evening in preparation for their performance in Mass. I lead the last 4 rehearsals while he was in LA. He returned yesterday.
Here they are singing.
This way a good week of composing and preparing ideas for pieces to come. I had a great 4-hour lunch with another Fulbrighter, Dara Weinberg, who is a poet and playwright. We shared a lot of our work and are thinking about collaborating on a new project. This is another nice thing about the Fulbright, getting to know the others who are here studying. There is quite a group of very talented people. It's really fun to share our work. Tonight, Dara and 3 other Fulbrighters who live in Warsaw came to Mass with me to hear the choir sing. One of them, William (Bill) Helmcke, is a musicologist. He is here studying the Chopin Polonaises. We have a ton in common. Our classical music tastes, ideas about teaching theory and ear training, and several other things, are very similar. Another great connection.
This weekend we had District conference at church. There are no LDS stakes in Poland, and I know of only this one district, but I don't really know much about that. There is probably a district in Krokow, but I don't know. There are 7 branches in the district, only 2 of which are in Warsaw. Others had to travel pretty far, up to 3 hours, to attend the conference. In this morning's meeting, there were about 250 or 300 people. We filled the little chapel and cultural hall very well. It was a great meeting! I was asked to lead our branch choir which grew in number 3 times with impromptu volunteers right before the meeting, many who were young and senior missionaries. We sang a nice little piece and it really added to the Spirit of the meeting. Afterward we had many nice comments. They have never had a choir perform in conference. It was really fun to be a part of. The mission president, who is from Las Vegas, presided. The district presidency was re-organized. The new president is a young Polish man and his 1st counselor is an American man who has only been here for 2 months. He and his family are here for 2 years. He works at the US Embassy. He bore his testimony and told us what a surprise it was to be called. Many of the audience were Americans and they provide translation for us.
It's really nice to be able to attend church and feel the same Spirit all these thousands of miles away that I do at home. The church is a marvelous thing. It's small here, but it's doing really well. The mission president spoke about working towards being ready for temple in Poland. We are very far from that, but it was really great to get the fire burning in everyone's hearts.
Ok, more next week. I have some exciting things coming up in a few days that I'm looking forward to writing about. I miss my family, but we're all doing really well!!
(sorry if there are typos Janae, I was too tired to re-read)
Never boring! I loved seeing all the pictures of where you go everyday - it makes it that much more real for us readers :) Great post.
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