Saturday Evening/Sunday Morning

Thought today was a bit of an anti-climax after a week of working hard and it had a slow but early start. Got up at 5 to finish the project and I completed it but not to my satisfaction (yet). Best to just present it and get on with the day.

Breakfast chatting to Dan Boyarski from Carnegie Mellon(Pittsburgh) was interesting then I tried to recharge my batteries by doing nothing much.

After MSNing Marion, I felt a little sad and homesick which passed eventually - lectures between 4 and 6 (both excellent!) then the exhibition opening at the 'Castle'. The Director Ewa G had made 'jam' specially for this event - I thought it was strange that she was leaving about 1 to make jam - this turned out to be a mash of strawberries served with large round wafers. There was also a small liqueur drink in tiny glasses (honey flavoured alcohol served on some Nestle condensed milk. And the instruction was to knock it back which seemed a waste as it was more flavourful than vodka. They did knock back the whisky that I'd brought without tasting it -thank goodness it was a blend!

The projects we'd worked on this week were included in the exhibition opened by someone from the American Consulate (apparently they'd sponsored the workshops). Somehow I ended up having a tour around Cieszyn with him, led by a lady harpist (another Ewa) who'd returned after the 'transformation'. Her husband also came along pointing at things with his walking stick insisting we take the long way round this little town. I wondered if he needed the walking stick as he seemed to be fairly agile and insisted that we take the long way round, over the cobbles and dodgy stone steps. He was the Czech version of Carl Fredrickson.

Cieszyn is 1200 year old this weekend - there's an old part of the town with narrow streets, a museum with a fantastic cafe made from old stables, an Adam Mickiewicz (Pole's Shakespeare) theatre, a castle, St Nicholas's Rotunda (and a robin bobbed by so maybe it the real one!) and a few other points of interest. Ewa clearly loves this place having spent years in Queens, New York and harping in many other places.

There's a 3 day holiday going on to celebrate the anniversary of the tow. The market square was heaving tonight with stalls and people in celebratory mood.

The consulate bloke was from Orlando, Florida wearing a dull grey suit and in his 30s. He knew something about everything, spoke fluent Polish after 2 years here and perhaps had some kind of Asbergers, (no eye contact, strange way of telling people facts or his undisputed opinion!). He sparred a little with Jarek, a lecturer who'd come from Krakow for the day.

After the tour, there was a projection of our work onto part of the castle wall along with examples of students work from the profs running the workshops. This went on for 2.5 hours followed by the fireworks (for the celebration). Some of us headed to the Czech side for one drink in a pub that looked like it hadn't changed in 50 years. I still haven't worked out how much 25 Koruny is in pounds but that's what a pint of lager cost.The American tagged along too - I'm not sure whether he was just trying to shake off his grey suit image.

Back at hotel at 3am - maybe not such an anti-climax after all.