We leave tomorrow morning. Our final flight (minus Christian) is Delta flight 2011 Departing Atlanta and arriving at IAH at 10:38pm. If you want to pick up your guy at the airport you may. Everyone else will go, by taxi, to Jesuit where they can be picked up. I will be calling people from the airport (if you're not there) to let you know an ETA at Jesuit. You can follow our exact ETA using delta.com

1st Full Day in Dublin

We arrived in Dublin yesterday. It was a long day (after a couple days of end of program parties) so we were pretty tired. We wandered around the Temple Bar area where we are living, had dinner at an Italian place with Rex's mom, and then went to bed early. Today we got up and headed out to Trinity College where we toured the Library and saw the Book of Kells. The guys kinda ran through the place (I think they thought it was boring, even though it is one of the more important written documents in Western civilization...part of how it is that the Irish saved civilization). Then we hiked over to a famous Gaol (jail) here in Dublin and took a tour of it. I was a little bored there, but still thought it was worth it. We then headed to the Guinness Storehouse and the guys took in every detail of the place. You would think it was Stout beer that had saved civilization instead of Medieval monasticism. It was a very interesting tour and we all had a great time. We then hurried to meet Rex's mom for dinner at a Gallagher's Boxty House www.boxtyhouse.ie , where we had either boxties or fish and chips. Tonight we are going out to Temple Bar area and Pruett and I are taking the guys over to a discotech while we repose at The Dubliner. I think we will end a little early again, today was a full day.

We leave Krakow in the morning. I finished processing the grades this afternoon and the program was wildly sucessful. Every student showed an increased proficiency in every domain of English. Some people skyrocketed, some limped, but all progressed. It's a good feeling.

We were given a warm send off tonight. We had dinner at Pod Wawelen "At the foot of Wawel" castle. Then we came back to the college for a "haustus" as we call 'em in Jesuit circles (a haustus is a house party). Tomorrow morning we will head off to the last leg of our journey in Dublin. Monday we will be home.

Last Day of Class

Today our program finishes. I give the written exam in 30 minutes and then give oral exams for the rest of the day. I can honestly say that I am ready for it to be over. I'm one tired puppy. When the scores are all in and I can see the student's improvement I will probably get another boost of energy...then we are off to Dublin for a couple days of pure non-stop fun.

More about our Hike

On Sunday the primary aim was to climb Mt. Giewont (pronounced Gyeh-vont). It has the nickname "The Sleeping Knight" because, if you look at the video in a post below or pictures in this post you will see, the range looks like a person lying down. Giewont lies in the area of the Polish Tatra National Park (Tatrzański Park Narodowy). In Polish folklore it is associated with a legend about sleeping knights, who will awake when Poland is in danger. The profile of the mountains is similar to a lying knight, wherein the Long Giewont is the knight's torso, and the Great Giewont is the knight's face as viewed from the side (the three 'peaks' being the chin, the nose, and the eyebrow). The cross where we hiked is on the "nose" of the knights "head". The image of Giewont as viewed from the south makes the profile easy to discern. The first portion of the hike consisted of climbing to the top of Mt. Kasprowy Wierch (6,519 feet) where we took a little break and had some hot chocolate and snacks in the little ski resort restaurant at the top. The next portion of the hike was along the peaks of a few small mountains, circling our way towards Mt. Giewont--heading towards the cross. We ascended on our third mountain peak to our highest elevation of 6829 feet (I'm not positive, but I think it was Kopa Kondracka). We then had to climb most of the way down to the valley and then reascend Mt. Giewont (Mr. Pruett and I were dubious of our ability/desire to climb another mountain, but the cross beckoned me and I beckoned Mr. Pruett so we both climbed to the top). Mt. Giewont was, without doubt, the most difficult portion of the climb, but my favorite because there were chains and you had to pull yourself up, giving my legs a much needed break. The guys have taken to calling me "Old Man Reedy" and I earned that moniker this weekend. I've got the knees of an 80 year old! Here is a pic of Old Man Reedy with my trusty walking staff that weighed probably 50 pounds. (I carried it only for the picture)

The trip down was, as always, the hardest part. Our legs were tired and our energy spent so the trip down was brutal. People often make the mistake of thinking this part is easy because you are using gravity to your advantage. Not so.

We separated into two groups during the hike, according to pace. I was in the slower group and finished the hike officially last...even though I was the most experienced of all the American hikers :(

We then hiked back to Zakopane and our house where food and showers awaited.

The Mountaineers

Hiking in Zakopane

Beautiful, Brutal, and Fun

We spent the past few days in Zakopane, hiking in the Tatra Mountains. We stayed at the Jesuit Retreat House (which was a beautiful building with a breathtaking view of the mountians). When we got there the tallest mountains were obscured by clouds. The guys asked me if we were climbing the ones we could see, I said "no, but do you see the HUGE thing going up into the clouds? I think we are climbing that one." Sure enough, yesterday we climbed that very mountain and the "hike" lasted over 11 hours. The total horizontal distance was between 8 and 9 miles but that included 5 mountain peaks, two of which were over 6000 feet. We had to use chains at times to get up the steepest slopes. It was beautiful, brutal, and fun. I will post again about this trip, with more pictures, but I will just state for now that we all finished the hike healthy, happy, and not wanting to do it again for a long time.

Mountains and Reunion

Today is the big day! The guys from the high school group come back to Krakow and we all head to the mountains for our last few days in Poland. At the end of next week we head to Dublin for our final hurrah. I am looking forward to having all the guys together again, it's a good dynamic.

Pierogi Night at Grandma Raspberry's

Last night we went for a dinner of pierogi (Polish dumplings) at a restaurant that translates as "Grandma Raspberry's" They have very good pierogi and decent prices. It is an interesting little place that is decorated in the ,,retro style'' as the sign outside says. By ,,retro'' they mean that the place looks like the cellar of a nice old Polish woman.

Pierogi at Grandma Raspberry's

It has been raining a little lately. Mr. Reedy began to get a little pent up. He said that he felt like a caged squirrel. You make the decision.

On Wednesdays we have a game in the late morning just before Mass (to break the routine). As I mentioned in earlier posts, we had a scavenger hunt the first week and we played Taboo last week. The same team won both times (it was Mr. Pruett's team and it was the most basic class) This week I stepped it up a notch and decided to give Cranium a shot.

I had five categories: Pictionary, Eyes Closed Pictionary, Impersonations, Charades, and Sculpture.

They were a surprisingly competative group and the event got a little heated at some points (Jesuits? Competitive?).


There were some accusations (somewhat well founded) that there were some.....um....let's say "violation of rules." In the end Mr. Pruett's class and Patrick's class tied. The exact circumstances of the tie are too much for words but suffice it to say that Mr. Pruett's class bowed graciously out of the competition and gave the prize to Patrick's class. So his class gets to go out for pizza and beer tonight. We finished just in time to go to Mass....and we needed it!

Cool World Championships Update

After Devin and Patrick invented Cup Pool, Michael found out that he has a distict knack for it. He is the reigning Cool Champion.

Rex-Ray

So here you have a picture of the Rex's X-Ray. No, he doesn't actually have a lightning bolt in his hand, I added a little graphic to point to the fracture. It is harder to take a picture of an X-ray than I thought it would be. They are some very reflective things so you can see me and the room behind me if you look very closely.

Today I went back to the hospital and talked with a different doctor. He said that everything looked good and that Rex should come back Wed or Thurs, have another Rex-Ray, and, if all looks good, get a smaller and lighter cast.

Rex has handled the whole issue with courage and a good sense of humor. I'm proud of him.

The Distinguished Gentlemen's Club

In addition to the exploration of pipes and coco puffs the guys have made a serious foray into the world of billiards...adding to their stature as men of the "Distinguished Gentlemen's Club" as some of them have started calling themselves (there are plans to add tweed coats and long, heated debates on politics). I was sitting in our recreation room when I saw Patrick come downstairs from the billiards room, get some plastic cups, and run back up the stairs. I, soon thereafter, heard a loud noise and a whisper of not-so-gentlemanly snickering. Upon ascending the stairs I saw the sight that you will see in the video remix below. They had tired of traditional billiards and were inventing their own game.

The object of the game was to hit a ball, under a cup, and have it travel becupped to the other end and knock one of the opponent's ball/cups over spilling his cup without spilling your own. There were many other rules which I never understood, but that's the gist of the game.

A Game of Cool, Anyone?

A Man and his Pipe.....

...and a Coco Puff. Patrick found a use for the pipe of which he has grown so fond. This morning he found that he could levitate Coco Puffs with it. I tell you, these are a self-actualized and self-entertaining bunch of guys. It's too bad you can't hear it well, but his little quip at the end is "Coco Puffs."

Coco Puff Levitation

Going out to the High School Program

So today I took the guys here in Krakow out to see the place where the High School Program is and to play a little American Football with the guys out there. (The first picture below is of the teaching schedule where you can see Christian, John, and Rex) We loaded up and drove out to the school around noon. The guys were just getting out of Mass and met up with us. I wandered off with the directors of the other 3 English programs in Krakow to finalize our schedules. The gang got their game underway.

While I was having lunch in the Haunted House (it is one of the Jesuit Communities here in Krakow, but it is in an old Soviet Mental hospital that is, without a doubt, haunted...or should I say, if ghosts exist, they indubitably live there) I got a call from Rex saying that he had broken his pinky finger and needed to go to the hospital. One of the high school directors took him to the hospital in Krakow and I met him there. The finger did look broken but I was hoping for a dislocation instead. We got transferred a couple once before we found the right place (there are way too many stories to tell on the blog, they will be much better in person) and got his X-ray which showed that there was clearly a clean break. He got his temporary cast and we headed back to the high school.

Once back the guys had a little pizza party and celebrated their victory over the Polish locals in American Football, for which they were awarded a beautiful American Football Trophy.

'Twas quite a day.