Update time.

Friday night, I went out on my own for pierogi at a little corner bar. Very good meat pierogi with delicious fried cabbage sauce, side order of bread (served with lard, not butter, quite common here) and pickles, and a small Tyskie (beer) for about $4.00 total. Then Poland Has Talent. A couple really good girl duets, a fine interpretive dancer, a pair of guys who were pen-spinners (it's all the rage, spinning pens in your hand like tiny batons, but between your fingers) and a guy who solved a Rubik cube in 20 seconds. Yeah, Poland Has Talent.

Sat. morning to the planetarium, then visited the house where Copernicus was born (anyway, likely he was born.) Copernicus paraphenalia in a house that's almost 500 years old. Before lunch, a special reception for Independence Day...the Poles co-celebrate it here with us...champagne & sweet Polish cheesecake, fruit, etc. then off to lunch..In the afternoon, across the Vistula to a sports club where we were entertained by a local folk group -- polkas, waltzes, obereks -- but it was hard to get anyone to dance! Had a student as DJ and that went over better...bunches of students (and a few of us teachers) dancing on the grass. We did a cute little round-dance often done at Polish weddings where you first hold hands, move to the right, then left, then hands over shoulders, same thing, then hands behind your backs, then hands on the other person's stomach, knee, ankle, etc. Students really got into it!

Huge banquet of 3 kinds of kielbasa, keishka, 3 kinds of ham, bread, pickles, bigos..bread & lard...I'll post a picture of the spread when I can get some pictures online. It was a groaning board if ever there was!

Then towards dark we had a bonfire, toasting bread, kielbasa & marshmallows. We headed back for the school, walking about 3 miles, at 9:15 and crossed the bridge with a lovely view of Torun in the sunset...

Today (Sunday) we headed down to Golub castle, from which the Teutonic Knights terrorized the countryside half a millenium ago. They do a jousting tournament to attract tourists (all of whom, but us, seemed to be Polish tourists.) The castle, of course, had been destroyed in just about every war Poland suffered through in the past 500 years, which was many, so it's a rebuild, not the original. We did, however, see the dungeon they threw you in if you refused to pay your taxes. They left you there to starve, unless a relative came along to bail you out.

After that, we headed over to the manor built for Chopin in 1824 to try to keep him in Poland. He only spent a few vacations there, though -- preferred gay Paree..We were supposed to have an outdoor concert, but were rained out.

Down by the Torun castle tonight, in what used to be a moat, they're doing arias from Nabuko (sp?.) That might be fun.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. My weekend's near over and in the morning it's back to a workweek of classes.

Take care!