As June began and my school was still out of session we had firmly made the decision to stay in Warsaw for the summer. The U.S. was open to us, but if we were to return we anticipated trouble as the border to US citizen coming to the EU was closed. Japan had similarly banned U.S. entrance so Aya could go without me if she wanted, a threat she’s still holding over me.
What we could do is hope that the EU countries opened their border with one another and that they did later in June. Even so, we were reluctant to go much of anywhere so over the entire summer we took two short trips. One to Gdansk on the northern coast of Poland along the Baltic. The other to Prague with a stopover in Wroclaw each way.
We also visited the World War II museum which I had heard there was some controversy around. Basically, the government wanted a more pro-nationalistic display while the director and staff wanted a more even handed display. From what I saw the exhibit was pretty even handed. There was one point when I was listening to the audio that it stated that as the Germans retreated in the East that many German civilians had terrible things done to them. In a pro-nationalist museum I would not have expected such a statement. Then, just at the end of the museum there was the pro-nationalist piece of a film showing the strength of the Polish people. While the Poles have suffered quite a lot in the past century the film was over the top, in my opinion.
Gdansk was a quite nice city and we’d like to go back for a little while longer, perhaps exploring the coast further to the west. One thing we did notice, quite shocking at the time, was that almost no on the very crowded streets were wearing masks or attempting to distance. We planned our outdoor activities to avoid busy areas at peak times because of this. At the time we speculated as well that it would not take long for infections to start rising again and it did in fact turn out that was around the trough for infections in Poland with cases rising every week since.
Our second trip to Prague was a bit longer in the car so we decided to stop over in Wroclaw along the way. It is a quite pretty town and felt a lot like Warsaw with an old town square and fast flowing river. Prague was quite nice. The architecture was very beautiful in the old town area which covers a heck of a lot of ground. The city is also quite walkable and so we used our feet mostly but did ride the trams time to time. In some ways we were lucky to go there during the time of a pandemic when borders to the EU were largely closed. The usually packed streets were not very crowded, though there were still a fair amount of people. We mostly walked the old town, the Charles bridge, up to the castle area and around our Airbnb. We also met up with Aya’s coworker for beers at night, a pretty cool experience.
On the final day before leaving I insisted we go to the Basilica of St. James to see the old mummified arm of a thief, and there it is! I love to find a weird or creepy tourist attraction.
Speaking of weird or creepy attractions, on the way home we also stopped off a “bone church” Kaplika Czazszek just over the border in Poland. It was a bit creepy to see all the bones there. A nun was giving tours to small groups every 30 minutes or so. We got the full story in Polish, so we looked it up later to confirm. Many of the bones were from battles or disease. It is hard to imagine though why someone would want to collect all these bones. Do you just show up to the battle with a cart and start stacking people to take home with you? Seems a bit odd but I guess those were different times. We were not allowed to take photos inside, but of course some people have so here is one from the internet.
Besides those two trips we did keep quite busy. There was plenty of work for me teaching two sections of microeconomics for GOA, working on a resubmission for my ISTE certification, writing a fall class on Personal Finance for GOA and taking some graduate credits. Just as all that was winding down in early August work at ASW was gearing up. After much deliberation the school decided to go back to face to face classes with precautions. Everyone would participate in weekly batched testing. Everyone would wear a mask. Divisions of the school would be separated from each other. Larger meetings like sports or faculty meetings were cancelled. All in all, about everything that could be done to start the school year safely. As our start date in August neared we all timidly took that first step back to normalcy. More on that in a future post.
Of course a lot of other things were happening in the world and with my family. My grandmother died in June. This was in some ways surprising and some ways not. Her health was not great for some time but until the last couple months there wasn’t too much indication that the end was near. I kept going over in my mind if I should risk it and try to reach the U.S. to see her one last time and then just hope the border would open for me to come back. In the end I didn’t go. I really wish I could have seen her one last time just to thank her for everything she did for me. I think the one thing I will respect her for the most is that she never said a bad word about my mother and in fact did just the opposite. Seeing many other families whose parents divorced and the relationship between extended family degrade I feel very fortunate that my grandmother always kept my mother close in her heart.
In the U.S. and the world a lot happened in these three months and like many people I feel like 2020 is decades long. We had a presidential election here in Poland with the more conservative anti-EU party just barely squeaking out a victory 51% to 49%. Interestingly the dynamic of politics is similar to that in the US with the progressive urban dwellers voting one way and the rural conservatives voting another, more or less. The divide may become more stark, but Duda has 6 years now to continue the Peace and Justice Party promises.
The U.S. election is in the fall but of course things are heating up already and things are not looking good for the incumbent with a flagging economy and a raging pandemic. In much of the world infections rates have gone very far down and it is largely controlled with the occasional flare up. The U.S., Brazil, India, and Russia are by far leading the world in cases. India seems to have a problem mostly because of the size of the population and the relatively weak healthcare system while the U.S. and Brazil seem to have problems because of incoherent or anti-science strategies. As of the writing of this post the U.S. death toll has exceeded 185,000 and is predicted to reach at least 250,000 by the year's end in 3 months. Interestingly I just had my first conversation with a couple who contracted it. While the wife said she had a mild case she is now, nearly 3 months later, still feeling it hard to breath. The husband said he was very sick for almost a month and now also feels a bit out of sorts and short of breath. He said he'd rather die than go through it again.
As I had mentioned in another post, my school was debating over the summer on how to open properly. While it took some action from the teachers’ union and much studying by the director it was decided that the school year would start with everyone wearing a mask at all times (of course as a teacher being alone in my room I do not have to wear one). The only times to take them off would be to eat or if playing sports outside. Aya was kind enough to get me a few different masks from Japan to make sure that I will be comfortable teaching while wearing them. I have been changing masks after each class and making sure to wash them all a couple times a week. So far, so good, but it is uncomfortable and while a small irritation there are many small irritations in the day with trying to be safe.
I’ve also installed a plexiglass shield part of the way around my desk so when students would like to sit down to discuss something we can do so a little more safely. Generally it is a little safer for me too sitting behind the shield.
I’ve also put fans around the open windows so students get good airflow throughout the class and put up the dividers on each of the paired desks as well as putting them into old school rows that aren’t facing each other. This breaks every rule of good pedagogy but it has to be done. I’ll also have to adjust a lot of my lessons as they all involve discussions or games or something that has students touching things and talking to one another.
Speaking of touching things, the school did provide my classroom with some hand sanitizer and there are automatic dispensers all around the school as well as signs to encourage social distancing. Teachers are expected to monitor the hallways and tell students to distance just like in an America high school. That is not working well. More on that in a later post.
Now, here at the start of the year, I’ll have my fingers crossed that all things turn out well. It all feels a bit odd, but like most things I’d rather spend an ounce of prevention than a pound of cure.
