Poland and History part I: World Power to Partition

When we were in Toruń, we had an extensive set of lectures about Polish culture. What struck me was just how much history seems to inform current attitudes and conditions. So at this point, I think that it is appropriate to provide some of the context surrounding my living arrangements. The States have a short history by European standards. While this is belaboring the obvious, and while anyone who’s been to Rome has marveled at 2000 year-old ruins, without further perspective it is hard to truly feel how long history in Europe truly is. For the first example of perspective, I’m going to have to handle Polish history in three parts. In the first part, I’ll talk about the general scale of history and do a general summary of relevant points up to the Third Partition of 1795. In the second part, I’ll consider Poland in the 20^th century. In the last part, I’ll talk about what it all means. As each of these three topics is a book in itself, I ask the gentle reader’s kind forbearance, for it is a topic worth an exploration at some length. A fellow Fulbrighter put it best when he said that the history of Poland is a perfect representation of almost every aspect of the human condition: triumph, tragedy, farce, short-sightedness and/or downright stupidity, endurance, resistance, crushing cynicism, exile, loss, hope, stubbornness, tolerance, narrow-mindedness, nationalism, the list goes on.

Let us consider the history of Poland on a familiar timescale, that of the United States. 400 years ago, the castle at Malbork was as historical to those living in the area at that time as West Point is to the residents of upstate New York or USS Constitution is to the residents of Boston today. I was humming a few bars of Thomas Tallis during our tour of Malbork because it seemed appropriate, imagining what the place must have been like with knights in it. But then I realized that that makes about as much sense historically as singing Elvis while imagining Washington at Valley Forge. In 1612, Jagellonian University in Krakow had already been around for 250 years, longer than Princeton, Penn, Pitt, Oberlin, Northwestern, or Michigan have been around in our own time. Wawel Castle had been a royal residence for 600 years, so the average Pole would have regarded the initial settlement on Wawel Hill as we would regard Cahokia Mound or Tenochtitlan today. In present-day America at that time, the settlement at Jamestown was barely holding on and had just managed to survive the winter of 1611. Without a constant influx of immigrants, that settlement would have died out at this time. The Pilgrims would not land at Plymouth for another 8 years. Blackbeard and Henry Morgan had not been born yet, and tales of Buccaneers on the Spanish Main were still 50 years in the future. St. Augustine in Florida, the oldest continuously-occupied European settlement in the continental U.S., had been founded 47 years previously, which is about the current age of the John Hancock Center in Chicago or what Florida is now most famous for, Disneyworld.

Modern Poland came together as a kingdom in the mid-10^th century AD, with an important date being 966 when Mieszko I converted to Christianity and brought in his territory with him. I will confess that between this date and 1386 my Polish history is rusty, but it looks pretty chaotic. Of note was Casimir the Great’s edicts of toleration towards Jews, which were very progressive at the time. Poland was in fact for a long time among the least anti-Semitic countries in Europe, though this varied from time to time. Indeed, Kazimierz, a district of Krakow, was granted to the Jews by Casimir and remained the Jewish quarter until the Nazis conquered Poland and murdered most of the inhabitants.

In 1386, Władysław II Jagiełło, Grand Duke of Lithuania, married Queen Jadwiga of Poland.  Jagiełło was crowned King of Poland, and thus were laid the roots of what would become the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, which was for some time a major world power. The Poles and Lithuanians engaged in a major war with the Teutonic Knights (or krzyżacy in Polish) from 1409 to 1411, partly fought over the control of Danzig (currently known as Gdańsk). Disputes over Gdańsk would show up again and again in history, including in World War II: historically, the city was a major Hanseatic League port and German in nature. However, as the most important port in the general vicinity, it had great strategic and economic importance to Poland.

The Battle of Grunwald (also called Tannenberg) in 1410 was a major Polish-Lithuanian victory that seriously weakened the Teutonic Order. The allies laid siege to the Teutonic stronghold at Malbork (Marienburg), but were unable to take it by force. In fact, a Polish cannonball can still be seen in the wall of the summer court of the castle today. The war was ended by the Peace of Thorn (or Toruń), though the Teutonic order would continue to irritate the Poles until 1521, after which the Prussians paid homage to the Polish crown. This is important background because 1) I visited both Toruń and Malbork, which I hope to write about shortly, 2) it kicks off the “Golden Age” of Poland, 3) Grunwald is particularly important in Polish lore, not least because it was one of the times the Poles got to beat up on some Germans.

Poland-Lithuania is probably one of the most powerful countries you never heard of unless you grew up in a Polish family, in which case you’ve probably heard about little else. At its height, it spanned from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and in 1609, Polish troops captured Moscow.  Granted, that went about as well as Napoleon’s capture of Moscow in the long run, but hey, a win is a win.

What was particularly unusual about the dual monarchy was that in the 16^th century, the king was elected by all members of the szlachta (nobility) who wished to vote. Since at its height the szlachta consisted of about 10-15% of the Polish population this was actually a pretty extensive franchise, more extensive, for example, than that of England in the 18^th century. The king was also responsible to an assembly of nobles called the Sejm (which is the sejm name as the lower house of the Polish Parliament nowadays), and the szlachta would occasionally claim the right to rebel against the king if he stepped on too many toes. In a way, Poland has almost as long a semi-republican tradition as the United Kingdom does, and on 3 May 1791, Poland adopted the second written constitution in the world.

Unfortunately, the szlachta had very sensitive toes, and parts of the system were really stupid. For example, there was this crazy idea called the liberam veto: any member of the Sejm could prevent the passing of legislation by simply standing up and saying “I don’t allow it.” So, as you can imagine, this made the U.S. Congress seem extremely productive and harmonious by comparison. Indeed, I understand that in German the expression “Polish Parliament” has the same meaning as the American expression “Chinese Fire Drill,” an extremely noisy, confusing, and unproductive mess. After a lengthy period of this kind of nonsense, the Commonwealth was in serious trouble. In 1772, the First Partition of Poland took place, where parts of Poland were taken by the Prussians, Russians, and Austrians. There was a second partition in 1793. Following Thaddeus Kosciusko’s rebellion of 1795, there was a third partition and Poland ceased to exist as an independent state. Kosciusko had been a prominent officer in the American Revolution, designed West Point, and has quite a few counties and other things named after him in the States. He’s an important figure for a lot of Americans of Polish extraction for this reason.

The end of the Commonwealth brought 124 years of statelessness to the Polish people. During this time, conditions varied greatly depending on which power was occupying a particular region. The Russians deliberately tried to stamp out the Polish language and identity. The Prussians were a bit more conciliatory, but not much more. The Austrians, holding down a polyglot empire, were generally much more relaxed. By the start of the 20^th century, the Austrians were even allowing Poles to organize rifle clubs that were effectively paramilitary groups! The hope for an independent Poland certainly remained alive: Chopin was an ardent Polish patriot, as were other prominent Polish artists and intellectuals. Poles fought for Napoleon in Russia and elsewhere, and there was a formation of Polish lancers at Waterloo, largely because Napoleon had promised Poland an independent state and established the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Bonaparte is certainly not regarded as the Corsican Ogre in these parts. However, an independent Poland looked extremely unlikely for a long time, which is another theme in the history of this place. And yet, somehow, it just happened as a result of World War I….

Concert in Bydgoszcz

We went to Bydgoszcz on the night of Friday the 21^st of September in order to hear the Filharmonia Pomorska directed by Takao Ukigaya and joined by soprano Olga Pasiecznik perform the Mozart concert arias “Ah, lo previdi!” (k. 272), “Chi sa, chi sa, qual sia” (k. 582), and “Vado, me dove, o dei” (k. 583). The orchestra also performed the overture from The Marriage of Figaro (k.  ),  and Beethoven Symphony no. 3, “Eroica”, in E-flat minor, op. 55. I had not heard any of the Mozart arias, to my knowledge, though one of them did sound suspiciously familiar. The program took place in Artur Rubenstein Hall of the Ignacy Paderewski Concert Hall. 

The concert hall itself definitely had an Eastern Bloc feel to it, but it represented probably the better tendency of that period of time towards monumental public architecture. The hall itself was actually rather small: I would estimate the full house at around 600-800 people, and there was only orchestra-level seating, with no balcony. The lobby at the back end of the hall was clearly intended to hold smaller recitals, and the lobbies in general were well-apportioned with portraits of famous composers, abstract tapestries, and sculptures. It really was a fine public space, and the lobbies were fairly well-designed for their purpose of letting people see and be seen during intermission. Granted, the staircases were not especially grand, but they did not clot up either. The acoustics of the hall itself were unremarkable, either good or bad, but the small size of the hall rendered this a mostly moot point.

What was also noticeable was that there were differences in the performance conventions between this concert and most every concert one might attend in the States. For one thing, there were no paper programs. The program notes were done instead by two speakers who talked for 10 minutes. Also noticeable was that I saw no evidence of corporate or other sponsors, which is typically underscored back at home. Based on what I saw, it seemed to be that the philharmonic was underwritten by the Voivodeship government as well as the national Ministry of Culture. At 30 PLN (about $10), I don’t know how much my ticket was defraying costs, especially considering that my seat was in the eighth row. 

When the concert began, the stage was entirely bare, and the orchestra walked out to take their seats to the applause of the house. The concertmistress did not walk out separately to her own round of applause. Both of these are entirely different in the States, where the orchestra is seated before the concert begins, except for the concertmaster who steps out separately. While the concertmistress did lead the tuning as she would have in the states, the oboist actually played three notes rather than just an A. The concert A was also noticeably higher than it is in the States, and might have been more like 470 Hz compared to what we’re used to hearing at 440 Hz. While this is probably not very interesting to non-musicians, it was quite noticeable to me. 

The Mozart arias were quite delightful, unmistakably written by that composer from a stylistic standpoint. There was some terrific writing for oboe, flute, clarinet and bassoon, sometimes individually and sometimes in combination. While some might argue that Mozart is easy, it is the very simplicity of his works that leads to great difficulty as all mistakes are noticeable and some pieces are fragile as glass: if not extremely well-performed, the shortcomings become obvious.  I will confess that Eroica is not my favorite Beethoven symphony, but once the secondary theme is introduced at about 4 minutes into the first movement it’s still a great piece of music and an important stepping-stone between the Classical and Romantic periods.  

The performance itself was somewhat mixed, with the second half of the program (Eroica) being generally better executed than the first. In the top half of the program, the violins had a number of intonation issues and did not sound clean. It almost lead me to wonder whether or not the strings had tuned thoroughly. Furthermore, the entrances of the strings were at times a bit shoddy, and at one point during the Figaro overture the violins and woodwinds were about half a beat ahead of the rest of the orchestra. The soloist herself was quite good, with a crisp tone, good phrasing, a light tone appropriate for Mozart and a small hall, and a good dynamic range. The orchestra had a much more successful second half, after the smaller setup of the first half (a Mozart-type orchestra) was augmented by additional players. The main issue in the second half was, somewhat surprisingly, balance, with the woodwinds and brass occasionally being a bit too soft. There was also the occasional issue with the French horns, particularly in the third movement where they have a prominent set of duets. Mr. Ukigaya’s interpretation of the piece was also noticeable for striking a balance between the excessive romanticism of certain conductors and the businesslike approach of others. In general, the tempo was kept relatively steady in each movement, and certain rests which tend to be extended in many interpretations had a somewhat “clipped” quality to them in this one. It appeared to me that the conductor was not trying to impose himself excessively upon the piece, which was appreciated.

In general, a fine time was had by all. What was surprising was the great range of experience that our group had with classical music and concert-going in general. A few of us probably are at the symphony every weekend, a few of us (myself included) go only from time to time but listen to a fair number of recordings, and I would not be surprised if this was the first symphonic concert for at least a couple of us.

I realize that I have skipped ahead a considerable bit in the chronology of my time here in Poland. I haven’t even written about Malbork Castle, and that took place a week ago. However, I did want to let my loyal readers know that I am getting a full dose of culture here in Poland, and write about the concert while it was still fresh in my memory. The stale crumbs of my remembrance of the rest of the week will follow shortly.

Some Geopolitics

Other than "everything", what do people argue about in Poland these days? At the Warsaw Welcome, there was a particular stress on a couple of issues that I've definitely heard a lot about. There's kind of an information backlog/torrent, a lot has been happening these last few days! So I'm not going to be quite chronological with the next few posts, but rather roughly thematic.

The Warsaw welcome was an interesting experience, both to hear what the Embassy officials said and what they did not say. Ambassador Feinstein specifically talked about two hot-button issues, the Katyn Massacre and visas to the United States. Both of these have some new developments.

The massacre in the Katyn Forest is something seared into the collective consciousness of most every Pole or person of Polish descent I've ever met. When the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17th, 1939, at the same time as the Germans were striking from the west, a bunch of Polish officers, intellectuals, priests and assorted other anti-Communists fell into the hands of the Red Army. The NKVD and Stalin decided to get rid of them. About 20,000 officers and civilians were brought into the Katyn Forest near Smolensk and other locations in 1940 and shot en masse. When the Germans invaded Russia, they uncovered the mass graves in the forest and broadcast news of this discovery far and wide as a propaganda coup. Except for once, Goebbels didn't actually have to lie that much. When the government-in-exile in London requested an investigation into the matter, the Soviets severed relations with the London Poles. The official Moscow line for a long time was that the massacre had been perpetuated by the Nazis, who then tried to pin it on the Soviets. And for a long time, that was the official Western line as well. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the truth came out...yet not the entire truth. U.S. records relating to the massacre have just been declassified and are available at the National Archives, so we'll finally be able to know how much the Roosevelt administration really knew about what really happened, and how they reacted. The opening of the Archives has been relatively big news in Poland.

The second hot-button issues pertains to visas. American citizens can come to Poland as tourists without applying for a visa, yet Polish citizens going to America have to go to a U.S. Embassy or Consulate (which means either Warsaw or Krakow), pay a fee, get interviewed, and maybe they get the visa, maybe no. If they don't get the visa, the fee is not refundable. This causes a great deal of outrage among Poles, particularly considering that the Polish military is heavily engaged in Afghanistan and played a large part in Iraq and holders of many other national passports can travel freely to the U.S. Pan Kowal points out that this kind of policy is short-sighted from the U.S. perspective, too: Polish nationals can travel freely in the Schengen Area. So, who really wants to be a tourist in the U.S. anymore? Ambassador Feinstein assured us that legislation is pending in Congress to remedy this situation, and apparently the Obama administration supports it. Unfortunately, I think that everyone on Capitol Hill has other things on their minds right now. And I fear that in many other ways the U.S. is neglecting its relations with Poland and thereby losing a lot of the goodwill we have over here. Now, the Ambassador took the Atlanticist view that Poland drawing closer to Europe is good for U.S. relations because we are close to the Europeans. I would note that the Europeans are a quarrelsome lot, and the EU does not really have a coherent foreign policy and tends to stumble in 27 separate directions. As such, hoping to influence Eastern Europe through the EU seems like not as good a bet as influencing this part of Europe directly.

According to what we were told at the embassy, crime has also steadily been on the decline in Poland, particularly violent crime. Apparently, right when the wall came down the U.S. Embassy considered the security situation "critical" as it related to crime. Yet now, that particular worry ranks as "low." Prof. Kowal noted that in general, theft of personal equipment like cameras and laptops and cell phones is not a big issue here, largely because odds are the crooks have a better laptop than you do anyway. The cell phone point is especially germane in my case as I got mine for 60 PLN or about 20 bucks. You do have to worry about pickpockets and cash, however. Those guys are apparently quite good, and everybody loves getting their hands on the almighty zloty. The fact that there was a news story on a major national network about how drunks were falling over in the street in Wroclaw and getting into medical problems was encouraging. No, it isn't encouraging for the drunks, but it does suggest that that's the biggest mayhem the network producers could think up that night. Of course, the embassy staff stressed, and they are absolutely correct, that this does not constitute license to just tune out completely. Like in any urban environment, there are also neighborhoods that it's best to avoid. But in general, so far I've felt reasonably safe walking the streets. 

Finally, and on a happier note, Poland has been increasingly active in democracy promotion around the world, as an example of a country that transitioned from totalitarian satellite state to more-or-less parliamentary democracy. The Economist has generally noted that Poland is probably just about the most successful state in the old Warsaw Pact, and now Poland is increasingly sending people to places like Tunisia to lecture about how to do the whole freedom thing in an orderly fashion. I'm sure the Poles do this in their own inimitable style, and if you have known any Poles you know exactly what I'm talking about.

It's also pretty obvious that things are in a state of flux here in Poland. You see construction and remodeling almost everywhere, and even since I've been here last (May 2011) I can see changes. For example, Krakow Glowny, the main train station in Krakow, has a new train shed that could be in Switzerland someplace. The Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Polytechnika Krakowska had a very "Wschodni Blok" or eastern bloc look to it last year. Now that the building has been re-painted and spruced up a bit, it looks almost Western, with the elevators (the three-man "box of doom" with no dedicated elevator door, just the exterior door on each floor that you must open by hand) giving away the fact that you're in Eastern Europe. You also see certain kludges peculiar to this part of the world, like a Fiat towing a Mercedes around attached only by a piece of nylon rope. If you've visited Eastern Europe, you've probably seen a lot of this.

In general, I haven't even seen much evidence of that notorious Polish fatalism. I did encounter some not particularly friendly people in Warsaw, but they have a reputation for being the New Yorkers of the nation. Granted, I've only been around for a week, but on first impression this is not a country full of depressed people. And why should they be? As I was walking through the square in Torun today, the sun shone, the town buzzed with activity, there were bright colors, and the old song "John Barleycorn" was firmly on my mind.

Short Updates from Torun

So, the last couple of days have been pretty hectic. I got a vague idea of what Warsaw looked like, and I'm currently in Torun, sort of in the north-middle of Poland around Bydgoszcz and roughly halfway between Warsaw and the Baltic. We had a chance to look around a little bit today, as well as have dinner at a fine restaurant a little bit off the main square. Yesterday (geez, only yesterday?) was the Warsaw Welcome at the Embassy. They don't screw around with security there: imagine an airport from hell. I wonder if they are especially on edge considering what just happened in Libya and Tunisia, but probably not.

I'm especially tickled to be the only scientist among this year's Fulbrighters in Poland. There are a couple of economists, but mostly it is humanities and "softer" social sciences. I'm currently rooming with a guy from de Sout' Side of Chicago, one of the "Archer Avenue Poles." He's also a music theorist, so it's great to be able to play Beethoven without complaints!

I'll add more to this post later, but right now I need to tuck in my toes. We're up at 7 tomorrow!

A small hangup in Helsinki

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." - Martin Buber

In my particular case, the secret destination was the center of Helsinki on the afternoon of September 6th. My flight plan called for me to fly out of O'Hare to Helsinki, then grab a connecting flight to Krakow. The O'Hare flight was on American and the Krakow flight on Finnair. The trouble started when I checked in at Chicago. I got an itinerary, but that itinerary did not list the second flight at all. This meant that my baggage was not going to be checked through, and that I'd have to go all the way out to baggage claim and re-check in Finland. I had an hour and a half to do so, so I wasn't overly concerned.

I did not anticipate the flight leaving three hours late. Before leaving, I talked to the gate agent about re-booking, and he said that there were two flights, one to Warsaw, the second a connection to Krakow, via LOT Polish airlines. This would put me in Krakow about 13 hours later than I had originally expected. This was the best option available, so I took the piece of paper that was proffered to me by the agent in Chicago and took his advice to hand that same piece of paper to an American agent in Helsinki, who would be able to handle the rest.

After getting to Helsinki at around 11AM local time, the gate agent first summoned me from the middle of the long line waiting for re-booking (something like 60% of our flight had missed connections). She said that my flight to Warsaw was leaving in 20 minutes. OK, great, here's my slip of paper. Well, on second thought, it isn't. Your flight leaves in 9 hours. Take this same slip of paper and hand it to the fine folks down at LOT when they open up their counter 2 hours before your 8PM flight. They'll know what do do with it.

I was able to make a call to Prof. Kowal, who was meeting me in Krakow, and I informed him of this "slight" change in plans. I then went though passport control, reclaimed my bags, talked with a very chipper (and very helpful) Finnish lady behind the counter of the Tourist Information kiosk in the airport, and changed clothing as it was a good 20 F cooler in Helsinki than in Chicago. I went down to the LOT counter in the other terminal in case anybody was there. Seeing nobody, I then found a locker, left most of my luggage at the airport, and took the bus into town in order to kill off about 7 hours of entirely free time.

 Helsinki felt like a few of the cities that I've been in in the Eastern Bloc, but much cleaner and tidier than any of them. I've taken to calling it "Eastern Bloc by Ikea." In a lot of ways it looked like a lot of the photos I've seen of St. Petersburg, Russia, and I understand that at least one movie had Helsinki as a stand-in for Leningrad, much to the consternation of the locals. This shouldn't be too surprising because a lot of downtown Helsinki was built in the early 19th century by the Russians as a grand provincial capital. Also notable was the sort of harsh, filtered quality to the daylight, even when the sun was out. I chalk this up to its being close to the pole. Though again I must emphasize, the place was very, very clean. Maybe I saw a piece of graffiti somewhere. Maybe.

What was perhaps most surprising was that there was this odd coexistence in the city between fantastic views and fantastic views of eyesores. The best example I can think of is that of a city park on an island accessible by a single pedestrian causeway. Look in one direction and you have the obligatory shot of Helsinki Cathedral poking its head above boats in a marina and a line of buildings that masks it. The whole spectacle is almost Venetian. Turn your head 90 degrees to the left and you see a couple of what I believe were icebreaking ships and what I know for a fact was a tugboat. Turn another 90 degrees to the left and what you see is a large stack of coal and an electrical plant across the harbor. Likewise, there's a nicely wooded park that looks out over a lake, one side of which gives a good view of the train station. But on the other side of the lake is an amusement park and a great view of a bunch of trains! I think Frederick Law Olmsted would have been shocked.

Anyway, after that it was back to the airport. I arrived in plenty of time and stood in line as the LOT counter opened. First, my bags were overweight and had to be lightened. You see, I had not planned to fly with this carrier at all and so had not packed accordingly. Second, that little slip o' paper I was given in Chicago and told to give to LOT in Helsinki didn't have a ticket number on it, and my name did not pop up in any of LOT's computers. Humm. So the agent at LOT sent me to the other terminal (Terminal 2) in order to talk with a Finnair representative. There unfortunately is no tram between the two terminals, so it was a good long hike with all my baggage.

On reaching the Finnair counter, that desk agent said she couldn't help, but if I went to the end of the counter and knocked on a door, someone might be able to help me out. She wasn't especially specific about which door that was, so I went all the way to the end of the terminal and knocked on a likely-looking door. Finding no response, I looked for another likely-looking door and didn't find one. I went back to the Finnair counter and asked for better specifics as to where said door was...which led me to knock on the door of what was probably the broom closet next to the door I actually wanted to knock on. After YET ANOTHER lady from yet another airline asked me what the hell I was doing, first in Swedish, I think, I finally knocked on the correct door. Mind you, the clock is ticking on my flight for Warsaw while all this is going on.

So, about an hour before the flight I explain my tale of woe to a Finnair supervisory type. She said that, in short, American screwed the pooch as I had not been dropped off of the connecting flight I missed earlier in the day. She would try to rebook me, but this could take some time as she needed to access American's system, and there were no American agents at the airport as they had all gone home when the last American flight left Helsinki some 5 hours earlier. The plane for Warsaw leaves in 1 hour at this point, by the way.

So, as I'm contemplating a night in Helsinki, I finally get some good news: the re-booking has been handled, and I should get over to, you guessed it, the LOT counter in the other terminal as fast as I could. I'll bet I set the Helsinki Airport record for the 200 yard dash with a full luggage cart, hiking boots, and backpack.

So, now that I'm at the other terminal, I can check in with LOT. Unfortunately, not only is my large bag overweight, but I'm only allowed one carry-on and no, my backpack is not a personal item. So, I have to check a second bag. And oh yes, the fees for all these things? They can't be paid at the ticket counter. I have to go find another counter which is effectively.......in...the other terminal. So, I hustle back over, this time divested of baggage, find the correct counter, and note with some dismay that I've got half an hour to get back to effectively where I just was, at roughly the LOT ticket counter, go through security, find the gate and board the plane. As I pondered that all this running about is an excellent argument for me to never start smoking, I was able to make it as security was just about empty. I had a well-deserved beer on the Warsaw flight, and the rest of the trip passed without incident.

Welcome and disclaimer

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Mark Kozlowski and I am a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (Class of 2012). I majored in chemistry and economics, and my ultimate goal is a PhD in the former subject. This coming year, I will be in Poland on a Fulbright Fellowship at the Politechnika Krakowska in Krakow, Poland, and hope to tell you a little bit about it. But first, some housekeeping:

All the content and opinions expressed in this blog, including but not limited to posts and photographs are solely my own. They are not in any way official, and do not represent in any way the opinions or policy of the Fulbright Program, the United States Department of State, the Institute for International Education, the U.S.-Polish Fulbright Commission or the Politechnika Krakowska. I do not, nor do I claim to, speak for anyone except myself. Any government types on either side of the Atlantic (or, I suppose, any stray irritated Fijian, Seychellois or Maldivian bureaucrats) who feel that this is not a sufficient disclaimer are advised to contact me immediately.  

With that over, a few details about my project. I will be working in the group of Prof. Krystyna Wieczorek-Ciurowa, with a general research interest in aspects of ball milling. In effect, solid chemicals are placed in a coffee can that is full of ball-bearings. The whole apparatus is spun or otherwise agitated, which has the effect of crushing the various reagents together. Because the chemistry is done in the solid state, this has the advantage of obviating the need for organic solvent, which is good because things like benzene, DMF and hexanes are all things that you don't want to drink. The environmental impact of ball-milling is thus potentially less than of methods that require solvent. While ball-milling is kind of an old-school technique, it has the advantage of being reliable and time-honored.

My arrival in Poland is an adventure all in itself, to be discussed in the next post. Stay tuned!