Conference post...shh

Hello all!

I'm on the computers available for conference attendees and I thought I'd do a quick post. The first presenter wasn't able to make it for the afternoon, so I have some time.

Yesterday I went sightseeing. It was very very interesting. The city is full of history and very old/modern at the same time. I did a walking city audio tour and walked the entire day. The audio was probably only 3-4 hours, but I stopped it frequently and toured around the side streets. I had a pita type thing for lunch and went to the Banquet for dinner. They had halupki, the blood sausage, bigos (the sauerkraut casserole type thing), potato dumplings that were great!, a beet puree type of thing and some great poppyseed dessert which I think is a specialty of Poland!

Quickly: the gnomes in the city are part of the anti-communist propaganda. They weren't allowed to paint or design any art that was anti-communist and as soon someone did, the communist police would come and paint over it. So in the 1980s, the "Major" (the leader of the Orange Alternative), would go and paint orange smiling gnomes over the paint from the police. His goal was to promote anti-communist propaganda through nonsensical art. So he resorted to these gnomes. Soon, they started appearing all over the city. I mean ALL OVER! Poland is no longer communist (I think from sometime in the 1990s), but these gnomes remain as a tribute to the activists. They are in many different positions and it's really quite fun walking through the city trying to find these little guys. They are on sidewalks, light posts, roofs, some even have little gnome houses next to them!!!!

Poland is great. The people are nice, the city is nice and the food is good. It has surpassed my expectations in many ways and I can't wait to post more pictures and history/stories from my history tour.

Today is the last of the conference and I fly to London tomorrow! Jeremy will be here bright and early Friday!!! YAY! : )