Gdynia, Part 3

posted 29 April 2005

Written 20 April 2005, ca. 7 :oo p.m.

Another "normal" Polish day—except, of course, that it snowed. I swear the clouds follow us around!

Olek picked us up as usual at the hotel, and my morning's lectures covered the rest of "lesser problems II" and all of "parallelism." Then, as usual, in the afternoon I edited abstracts and other short extracts with commentary. The pastries today had excellent poppy-seed filling, so it's a good thing I don't have any drug tests coming up.

For lunch at the institute restaurant, I had a plate of meat-filled pierogis, tossed with bacon fat and sprinkled with sautéed onions and bacon bits. David had a mixture of meat and "Russian style" (i.e. cheese) pierogis and a bowl of clear borscht. Just as we arrived at the restaurant, we glanced out the windows to see it begin to snow. The snow continued for about an hour, but none accumulated.

To make sure that things were going as planned for my second workshop, next week, Olek telephoned Teresa Radziejewska, our host in Szczcecin, only to reach her at the hospital. She fell down the stairs yesterday and broke her wrist! She says she had planned to take us sight-seeing several times, but now she won't be able to drive. Maybe one of us can drive while she directs, or maybe we can recruit a grad student driver.

Dinner at the hotel again tonight. David had the veal stuffed with leeks and chanterelles that I had last night, and I had two appetizers—the potato soup with cep (porcini) mushrooms and bacon, then the almond-coated fried shrimps with lemon sauce made from natural yogurt. Quite good. Then, I just had to order the "banana in beerpie with ice." It turned out to be a banana cut into three chunks, dipped in a thick beer batter, and fried into hot, crisp fritters, then drizzled with rum sauce and served with a scoop of maple-walnut ice cream and a sprig of fresh mint. Yum.

Tomorrow we'll follow a different routine. Olek will pick us up in the morning and drive us to the Oceanographic Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot, where David will deliver his lecture at 9 a.m. Then after lunch we'll come back to Gdynia to continue the writing workshop.

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