Oh yea, sabbatical...

For those of you keeping score, I really am on sabbatical and supposed to be working for my travel. So Monday I did a lecture at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Jagiellonian University is the oldest University in Poland and one of the most prestigious in Europe, founded in the 1300s. I must admit, Poland is one of those places I never thought I would go, so having the opportunity to lecture here is really cool. The Euroculture Program has created lots of great opportunities to meet faculty and students from all over the world. A student from the UK who is studying in Krakow will be at IUPUI in the fall, so it will be nice to welcome her to Indiana and probably nice for her to feel like she has a contact there.

The lecture went OK. I talked about my research on U.S. female politicians and then tried to make sense of some of the data I've collected in the Czech Republic from women politicians. I still have a lot of work to do on that front, but it was a good opportunity for me to talk through it. The audience mostly wanted to talk about the 2008 presidential election in the U.S., and specifically about Obama and Hillary, so that was actually a lot of fun. They asked good questions and seemed to be interested, or were at least polite!

What I found most fascinating about the lecture was where it was held. This part of Jagiellonian University is called "the Przegorzaly Castle." If you click on the link you'll see why. It is located at the top of a hill, and is basically two huge buildings--a hotel and an old building that is now a university office and classroom building for the Institute of European Studies. So this part of the universtiy is also rather isolated. Interestingly, during WWII, the building housed pilots for the German Luftwaffa. So, I'm standing in a room talking about women and politics and 65 years ago, German pilots were standing in that same room talking about their next bombing run. That's enough to make your head explode, isn't it?

As a side note, it has done nothing but rain here in Krakow for four days, and it's not expected to let up for a couple more days. When we got to "the castle," we commented to my colleague Marcin that he had a great view from the top of the hill--overlooking trees and a lovely lake. Well, there isn't supposed to be a lake there. That's just how much rain we've had. Streets are flooded, bridges are washed out, and things are overall just damn wet. We'd love to be able to get out to explore this incredible city, but haven't been able to. The oldest street in Poland is located here (1000+ years old), which leads to Wawel Castle. It's called the King's road and it starts at the Barbicon, the entrance gate to the city, and goes straight to Wawel. There is also an old Jewish area, the Kazmierz, where Arthur Schindler's factory was located. And there's apparently an amazing salt mine located just outside the city, where the miners made incredible sculptures and it's now a tourist attraction. So much to see, but high temps of 50 degrees and torrential rains inhibit our sightseeing. But if you want to do a little virtual sightseeing, you can click here.

So kids, that's your cultural lesson for the day. I promise, more food posts coming soon!