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.