Poland

well its Monday again but whats separates today from other Mondays is that THERE'S NO SCHOOL TODAY!! yes today we have off, mainly because most of the students arrived at the Kartausa today at two in the morning and they staff knew that none of those students would be coherent today if they made them wake up for 8 AM Classes. so let me tell you about this weekend, it started Thursday night when we loaded the buses at 8 PM to start the long bus drive, we started off with watching a movie by the name of John Q. then for the rest of the trip we took two pit stops and arrived at Poland around 6:15 in the morning. and let me remind you all of this day, is my birthday, and at one of the pitstops two friends of mine ran on my bus and tickled me until i was in a fetal position. there we had breakfast at quite literally some random hotel that we never saw again, then we went to the Shrine of our Lady of Chestohova or the Black Madonna which was supposedly painted by St. Luke on a table made by Jesus for Mary. and outside the shrine there was giant statues of the stations of the cross. Then we went to Auschwitz Concentration camp... on my birthday, and we went to Brinkenhoff the other half of Auschwitz, which was all a sobering time learning what happened there and to such a great magnitude. after we spent some time at the camps we made our way to Krakow where our hotel was, and i found out there was a casino like attached to our hotel and i was surprised, glad, and a little disappointed that i didn't even stick my head in there. then that night we went out on the town and stopped by a sports bar to celebrate my birthday, there was a big group that was in the Sports bar so we only bought one round there and went in search of another one, then we went and found this nice little pub-ish place in a 600 year old cellar. Then we went back and called it a night, except for that we spent about over an hour in our room talking. We awoke the next morning fine and started on our tours, but about half-way on my tour i was feeling less-than-par. so after my tour i located Joseph who had the key to our room and then went to the hotel and slept until 30 minutes before the buses left for the Diving Mercy shrine and weighed my options of getting out because i was still feeling ill, and decided it would be in my best interest to stay in bed, i awoke at 7:15 and felt back to my old self, then i proceeded to eat my sack lunch from the other day while i watched some shows in German and a BBC newscast which was ragging on America, then about ten minutes after that the buses came back from the shrine and then i went out with some of the kids again, i started out to go find where some authentic polish food was, but then i cut off the group to check out the open market and found a nice Chess set that was said to be hand carved and only for about 10 Euros, and then i was heading back to the Hotel to drop off my purchase when i ran into a group of tourists and apparently i looked like someone who knew where they were so they got my attention by getting in my way (but they were young so i wasn't really thinking about getting mugged)and then they asked me where the nearest bar was, so in a broken English accent i told then where the bar i went to last night was. Then i stopped by my room and dropped off my chess board, then i went out again, then as i make my way to the square i meet another group of Frannies (Franciscan Students) and joined them to find a gelato restaurant that was supposed to be really good, then after that two girls wanted to find a jazz bar, so not to have them go to a bar alone i joined them, and the bar we found had a live band and it was pretty cool, the band played all American songs and the singer definitely had some alcohol in him and he was swinging all over the place while keeping a firm hold on his mike stand and the mike itself never got an inch away from his mouth. then we headed back and went to the Hotel and i went up to one of my friends room to catch the end of a really intense Uno Game then we swapped stories with the RD who joined us, then i went down to my room to get my 2 liter bottle of Coke and then i arrived at my room i noted that the door was open and when i pushed the door open something knocked over and i heard something fall and within three seconds i had my knife out and was cautiously entering and turning on the lights but then i found out my roommate came back early and was asleep in our bed and the thing that fell was a coat once the door hit it, so i got my coke and went back upstairs, but as soon as we finished talking i went back down to my room and waited for my other roommate to make it back from his nightly escapades,then when he showed up around 1 we talked for a while and turned in around 2. we awoke the next day and i ran into the bathroom so i would be the first one and i utilized my time to be able to take a bath. then i went downstairs and are breakfast that was then proceeded by being bussed to the Castle Cathedral in Krakow after Mass me and Karol went to there was a statue of a dragon to Slay the Dragon(There's a back story to Krakow where the town was being plagued by a dragon so a nobleman said he could solve their problem so what he did was fill a sheepskin with sulfur so once the dragon ate it it needed to drink some water because the taste was horrible and once it drank the water it exploded and the dukes last name was Krakow so they just named the town after him) so once we made it to where the dragon was said to be and a statue was there to commemorate it we found a stand where it was selling stuff and i bought some items which consisted of a Dragon Knife and a flag but i didn't even spend over ten Euros and i was able to haggle with the guy for a price. then we "slew" the dragon and then started walking around the rest of Krakow where we ate at an authentic polish food, got some more gelatos and then made it in time for the buses to leave. on the way back we stopped by JPII's home town and while there we saw his house, home parish and we ate his favorite cake, and also we had some hot chocolate which I'm sure how they got it was just melt a bar of chocolate and pour it in a cup. then we finished and went to the buses and drove back where i was in the back of the bus and watched Karol the man who became Pope, then the front and was used as a headrest and leg rest and tried to sleep myself, operative word is tried, so i just listened to Matt Maher on my Ipod and crashed once we went to the Kartausa, and here i am, writing about it
funny how that happens,
tune in next week for "STAYING BACK AT THE KARTAUSA FOR A QUIET WEEKEND!!"