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Poland 2012
Cold but Happy in Warsaw Square
Welcome to the Poland Page!
If you'd like to see some of the activities from our first few days in Poland, please click here: poland 2010.pdf
The following itinerary for 2012 is based on previous trips and will be updated as we make flight arrangements and receive information from our Polish hosts.
Date |
Time |
Event |
Location |
Notes |
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Thursday May 4 |
2:30 p.m. |
Meet with passport and luggage |
Upper School Lobby, CWA |
One carry-on and one checked bag |
|
2:45 p.m. |
Depart CWA for airport |
Outside CWA Middle School |
CWA bus provided |
|
6:35 p.m. |
Depart SeaTac for Poland |
SeaTac Airport |
Seattle to |
Friday May 5 |
8:45 p.m. |
Arrive in Warsaw |
Warsaw Airport |
Heathrow to Warsaw |
|
Evening |
Dinner and sleep |
Warsaw |
Spend night in Warsaw |
Saturday May 6 |
Morning and Afternoon |
Tour Warsaw Uprising Museum and Old Town |
Warsaw |
Bus provided by school |
|
Afternoon |
Drive to Swidnik and meet host families |
Swidnik Town Center |
Meet hosts and depart with them |
Sunday May 7 |
All Day |
Tour area with host family |
Swidnik, Lublin |
Relax and adjust |
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Evening |
Bonfire |
Lachowka |
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Monday May 8 |
8:30 a.m. |
All students meet groups |
Swidnik School |
Group Work until noon |
|
2:00 p.m. |
Helicopter or plane rides |
Swidnik Airfield |
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6:00 - 10:00 p.m. |
Free Time with Host Family
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Swidnik |
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Tuesday May 9 |
8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. |
Visit Majdanek Museum |
Majdanek Death Camp near Lublin |
Mike Tregenza will guide |
|
1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. |
Group work - art, music, sports, etc. |
Swidnik School |
Students paired with host |
|
Evening |
Free time |
Swidnik |
With host families |
Wednesday May 10 |
8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. |
Tour of Lublin Ghetto and Old Town |
Lublin |
Mike Tregenza will guide |
|
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. |
Free Time with Host |
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Evening |
Disco |
Iskra Club in Swidnik |
Dance Dance |
Thursday May 11 |
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
Final Group Work and Presentations |
Lachowka Hotel |
Closing Ceremonies |
Friday May 12 |
12:00 p.m. |
Departure for Krakow |
Swidnik Town Center |
Bus provided by school |
|
Afternoon |
Tour Krakow in small groups |
Krakow |
Excellent Old town! |
|
Evening |
Check into Hostel |
Krakow |
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Saturday May 13 |
7:30 a.m. |
Breakfast and departure for Auschwitz |
Krakow |
Bus provided by school |
|
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. |
Tour Auschwitz/ Birkenau |
Oswiecim |
Guided tours; lunch independently |
|
1:30 p.m. |
Depart for Warsaw |
Warsaw |
Bus |
|
4:00 p.m. - evening |
Check into hotel |
Warsaw |
Get dinner in small groups |
Sunday May 14 |
Morning |
Breakfast |
Warsaw |
|
|
7:40 a.m. |
Depart from airport |
Warsaw |
Warsaw to Heathrow |
|
5:10 p.m. |
Arrive SeaTac Airport |
SeaTac |
Heathrow to SeaTac |
Monday May 15 |
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Yes, you do need to go to school! |
Charles Wright Academy |
Show off your Poland shirt and get some homework done. |
Reminders for students and families:
- Our informational meeting for students and parents will be on Tuesday, January 10th in room 87 of the new building. We'll set the schedule for student lunch meetings then.
- If you don't have a passport, get that process started immediately!
Travel Information:
- As you plan your packing, check out Lublin's weather here!
- The current exchange rate for US dollars and Polish zloty is about $1.00 US for 273 zloty, but you can get the daily update by clicking here: exchange rate
- Work on memorizing a few key Polish phrases and use these links to help you with pronunciation.
- Transparent Language
Books and Movies:
Even though time is short and you're very busy doing all of that homework (ahem!), here are a few of my favorite titles. They don't replace classics like Elie Wiesel's Night or Schindler's List, but they're centered in the area that we'll be visiting, and you might want to pick up a copy to read on the plane or our bus rides.
- Hope Is the Last to Die by Halina Birenbaum
- Amazon's summary: This book is an important work in Holocaust literature and was originally published in Poland in 1967. Covering the years 1939-1945, it is the author's account of her experience growing up in the Warsaw ghetto and her eventual deportation to, imprisonment in, and survival of the Majdanek, Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, and Neustadt-Glewe camps. Since the old, the weak, and children were summarily executed by the Nazis in these camps, Mrs Birenbaum's survival and coming of age is all the more remarkable. Her story is told with simplicity and clarity and the new edition contains revisions made by the author to the original English translation, and is expanded with a new epilogue and postscripts that bring the story up to date and
complete the circle of Mrs Birenbaum's experiences.
- Publishers Weekly Review from Amazon.com: When the Nazis marched into Mielec, Poland, Eber was a 10-year-old dreaming of romance and happy endings. Her world was punctured by the burning of the butcher shop filled with Jewish men. In this moving memoir, Eber, a scholar of East Asian studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describes her life during WWII and after, and while she presents considerable historical information, her story focuses on war's cruel ability to manipulate human emotions, and the devastating mark it leaves on the human psyche. While Eber's title seems to refer to her decision to escape and leave her family
during the war against her father's wishes, her book chronicles the many choices in her lifelong journey of self-discovery: the decision to live though the Germans wanted her dead; to leave her newly reunited family following the war to pursue her dreams; to be proud of her Jewishness; to return to Poland at the age of 50 and come to terms with the fear and guilt that had shadowed her life. Eber describes how, living in California after the war, she attempted to conceal from others her "anxieties, compulsive behavior, strange phobias, fears and nightmares." Eber's book is a penetrating psychological analysis of how she learned to cope with the destructive forces that engulfed her young life.
- The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski
- From a layman's review on Amazon.com: The story is based on the real-life experiences of Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman [played by Adrien Brody] during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw in WW II. The movie follows him from his piano playing days at Polish Radio, through the restrictions imposed upon the Jews by the Nazis, the move by Szpilman and his family to the Warsaw ghetto,how he is saved from deportation [whilst the rest of his family gets deported to Treblinka, an extermination camp], his role in the Jewish resistance movement, and finally his struggles in hiding on the Aryan side of Warsaw till war's end.
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