Day1-4

This will not be a very long post, we are waiting on our ride to the church in town.

We arrived on Friday around 6 pm after a plane ride to chicago and then to warsaw, poland. Everything went fairly smooth other than a few snags, but other than that we got through the long 9 hour plane ride to Warsaw, and once we were there we got to spend the rest of the day in old town warsaw, which is beautiful. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures on here one of these nights. We walked around and got some dinner, I don't remember what they are called, but I will figure out what they are and post it on here. We ended up getting home around 11 pm and were temporarily settled in a cabin with some girls.

Yesterday has been one of the most interesting days. We got little sleep waking up around 5 am to get on a bus with another group heading to aschwitz. It was a 3 hour bumpy bus ride. We got a little sleep, but it was restless and interupted sleep. Arriving, we entered the museum first which like everything you hear about the nazi concentration camps. Auschwitz is horrifically beautiful. It isn't what you expect or want to expect. The camp was originally created for polish soldiers so it was very pretty.

Have to go, continue later.

It is 9:30 pm here, its been another very long day; fun, but long.

To continue from eariler, it was quite an experience, we visited Auschwitz I and Birkena. Birkenea was what you would have expected of a concentraion camp, considered to be more of an extermination camp. We visited the all of Auschwitz I and briefly stopped at Brikena.

The more uplifting part of the day we spent in Krakow where we had a few hours to ourselves to eat, shop and do whatever else we wanted. The entertainment was amazing. Just a few different groups of guys on the streets break-dancing. Some of the moves they did I didn't know were even possible. They were doing flips off each other, one-handed hand stand push ups, and another move which you just have to see. I'll put up some pictures below of some of their moves. The city was very beautiful with the oldest buildings in Poland. A little history for you: Krakow was the only city not burned down by the Nazis in Poland, so it was interesting to see all the history in the city. After shopping for hours and eating dinner, we took the train to a town near the camp. I caught maybe an hour of sleep in a dark cabin. We arrived around 1:30 am and after trial and error and a lot of angry awakened campers, finally were settled into our second room of the trip.

Today I woke up around 6:30 am, getting a solid 4 hour of sleep, to shower and get ready for breakfast and church. Today has been a little frustrating with communication. The culture here doesn't walk up to people and introduce themselves. They have friends which they have come with and they are a little difficult to get them to communicate with them. After dinner I did meet two guys while exploring the camp more. They are from here and only one really spoke english, they other only half-understanding what I said. It was an experience, not to be able to communicate, and have to find other ways of trying to get them to understand. They would teach me a few words, which I was to receit and I think they enjoyed that too much. I thought I was saying these words right, I obviously wasn't every time they laughed.

All in all the trip is going very well, a few bumps along the way, but it is all apart of the experience. Tomorrow I am participating in a guitar workshop, so I'm looking forward to learning.

Hope all is well across the pond,

Maddie