I stayed up much too late watching the international coverage of the horror in Virginia. I can’t even begin to understand this.
And I feel sort of weird feeling chipper and talking about something else, like my experience here. The shootings were the topic of every conversation last night. While I was working out in the hotel gym, Poles kept staring at the TV screen to catch the latest and walking away shaking their heads.
The students at the American School of Warsaw come from nearly 50 different countries. When they play in sports tournaments, they sometimes do it in Moscow, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Greece – places like that. Pretty cool. A music trip is going to Turkey this week. The model United Nations meets in The Hague.
I want to go to school here.
I continue to be fascinated by the most ordinary things, like mailboxes.
And phones.
And cool cars.
I’ve been trying to eat Polish as much as possible. This is kielbasa, potatoes, and cabbage.
Polish pizza, too. We had 4 of them: pepperoni, 4-cheese, plain, and my favorite: ham and capers.
Sophie and I went shopping for pottery after school.
This is an exit sign. At first, I thought these signs pointed to the bathrooms. Imagine my surprise when every time I thought I was headed for a bathroom, I wound up standing outside.
Hi, I was wondering where you went to HIgh School because I might be going to the high school you attended. I live in Syracuse and go to Nottingham.
Please don’t feel weird. You have no idea how much I needed this post about normal, wonderful things like signs in Polish. Thank you so much. I can’t listen to more CNN standing on my campus saying the same things over and over and using that terrible font to spell out “Virginia Tech Tragedy” in the corner. Your post made me smile. Thank you.
i also thought that was a bathroom sign.
the running man looks like someone needs to rush to a bathroom..so i totally would would assume the same thing.
I must hope that books such as Twisted and Speak and those by so many others will help kids who feel isolated, confused and disconnected. Sending you best wishes for a tour that promotes humanity and compassion.
Looks like a bathroom sign to me 😉
If you feel weird talking about normal, happy things over in Poland, it feels much weirder to be talking about normal, happy things in an American high school. The shootings were barely mentioned in class today… for some reason, that bothered me immensely.
In one of my education classes today we spent most of the day talking about the shootings. For a bit we were discussing how when 9-11 happened none of our high school teachers mentioned it. As a class we decided that it is a difficult subject for many teachers to bring up, because the more they talk about it the more they realize how possible it is.
Maybe tomorrow you can raise your hand in class and ask your teacher to discuss it for awhile. This is totally real and needs to be talked about so that schools, universitys, public buildings, whatever, can improve how they regulate people coming into their buildings.
You mean that’s NOT a sign for the bathroom?! Haha. You could have fooled me!
I know what you mean about the Virginia shooting being the topic of everyone’s conversation. There wasn’t a single class I was in today where I didn’t hear about it. It is depressing to keep hearing about it incessantly at school and on the news.
Those are great pictures! Poland looks like such a great place to visit~ and the keilbasa picture gives me ideas for dinner tonight. =)
The shootings are indeed consistantly in the back of my mind. With all of my wandering thoughts about it, I always end up at the same spot: baffled.
I love the part about the bathroom sign, it made me laugh! Hehe 🙂
Yes, we all need some cheering up right now. Thanks for posting these interesting photos!
Today at work, we had a special lunch planned for a wonderful lady who has been our secretary for 25 years. It was a surprise and we invited some of her friends outside the office. As we were having lunch and feeling festive, the scene suddenly reminded me of a part of the Anne Frank story… they were hiding in the attic surrounded by war… and they were celebrating with a cake…trying to be happy in the moment at and at the same time knowing the saddness of the moment. The Irish call them “thin places” where the veil between heaven and earth is sheer.
That is beautiful. Thankyou for posting that.
I try to go with life as normal as there is not much else to do but in the back of my mind I am always thinking about the shootings.
I go to college in Maryland and people haven’t been talking about it all that much. Last night at dinner it was hard to keep from erupting while we were having our usual boring conversation. I wanted to yell, “Didn’t you hear what happened?” but I just contributed to the problem by instead asking my friends about their classes,etc.
I think that the teachers in my middle school did a really good job after 9/11. We were one of the only counties in our area to go back to school the next day but it was good because we spent the day talking about it instead of sitting at home watching the same few minutes of news coverage over and over.
I didn’t realize that this had become so long, sorry about that 🙂 But please continue to tell us about your trip and also continue to talk about what happened.
Blame
My hope for everyone is that they will realize that every day in their lives is important. Life suddenly ends for some much too soon. The horrific event that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus cannot and should not be blamed on anyone but the shooter. Hind sight will always bring clarity to any scenario. I personally will not waste my time dissecting an irrational act of violence and fuel the media with my attention. My focus will remain on my compassion for my fellow man and to hold my family close because tomorrow might not come.