Thrift stores and clearance racks

...are amazing in Krakow! We went to the H&M store in the mall earlier this week and found a clearance rack where everything was 10 złotych, or about $3! So I bought a cute black t-shirt, a long-sleeved green and gray shirt, and a short teal skirt. For $8-9. Then today Brad, Rachel, and I walked from Piast (our dorm) into the old city area, passing a lot of thrift stores on the way. The first stop was the store located in the basement of our building where I got a new shoulderbag (I needed a bigger one so I can carry a book around with me, as well as water bottle, camera, etc.) and a sparkly tanktop for dancing. Total was about $13. Stopped in several more shops but didn't get anything until a shop where I got 2 pairs of leather boots for about $7!!!! One pair is black and about mid-calf, with a 2 inch-ish heel. The other pair stops just under my knees and is dark-brown with no heel. Both in fantastic shape with only light scuffing and they fit perfectly! I'm so excited to wear them. After the thrift stores we went on to the mall so Rachel could more money on the SIM card in her cell, a stop at the grocery store, and a scoop of ice cream at the fantastic ice cream cafe on the third floor of the mall.

This week was a great one class-wise. Our class schedule finally seems to be coming together. All of our lectures this week were interesting, although the most interesting I thought was the Environmental Economics lecture Brad and I had Thursday morning. We didn't get very much new material since the professor wanted to do a brief overview of Polish history as preparation for diving into the world of environmental econ next week. Of course, we'd already had an overview of Polish history in our Polish history and culture class in February, but it was cool to hear about it from another person's point of view. This professor (Preisner) focused mostly on 20th century history: the world wars and communism. He had a very different experience during the communist era than the professor (Nowakoska) who taught us in February. Preisner lived as an expat in Canada for several years in the late '70s and returned in '80 when the Solidarity movement began. He talked for a long time about the overwhelming optimism especially among Polish youth at that time - they were completely convinced that communism was over and then came the shock of martial law in '81. Imagine returning home with all that hope only to have things become even worse than they had been before.

I'm now deep into the book I mentioned a while ago, The Legacies of Communism in Eastern Europe, and finding lots of tantalizing little bits that might be interesting for my thesis. Apparently I have some bureacratic checking-up to do though, since I received an email from the coordinator of the Environmental Studies minor asking what I was going to do for my honors preparation. So now I need to email the Peace & Conflict Studies department chair and make sure that I'm registered for an honors minor with that department and then get in touch with the Environmental coordinator and remind her that I'm supposed to be doing a non-honors minor in that department. Although it technically doesn't matter which department I do my honors minor in, since my thesis has to incorporate both fields no matter what.

Now a few pictures!

Awesome gate south of Ul. Karmelicka (the street that runs from our dorm to the old city) on the way to Massolit, the English bookstore/cafe.












Probably my favorite picture of Brad. This is in a pierogi restaurant a couple of blocks from our dorm, Piast, where we went for lunch last weekend.











Brad took this with my camera on the tram today (Friday). I swear Rachel and I do actually talk to each other, despite how the picture might portray our relationship... Check out my massive sunglasses.