Recap with more details coming soon!

As expected, this May Term has been amazing thus far. We have had several early days in Krakow and these long days of walking (and random rain showers) have tired me out. Add talking to my roommates Kelsey and Kallie each night before bed, and there leaves little time to blog! But tomorrow we are taking a train to Warsaw, the final leg of our journey. Our ride will be three hours long through the Polish countryside and that means it's time for Hailley to catch up on her journals and blogging!

So, since I don't want to keep you waiting forever, I'm including a brief recap of what I've seen the past two days. I'll go into more detail in the upcoming posts along with some additional posts about our group and the wonderful people we have met along the way.

On the 21st, aka Tuesday, the group went to Plaszow, a concentration camp outside of Krakow. Unlike Sachsenhausen, nothing remains at Plaszow. It's simply fields of grasses and the edge of the camp butts up to a local highway. There are a few memorials, some ruins, and a stunning statue made of stone from the local quarry. We then headed back to the city and saw a Jewish pharmacy that was crucial when the Krakow Ghetto was around. Our morning ended with a guided tour through the Schlinder Museum whose exhibit focuses on the Nazi occupation in Krakow. Our final destination for the day was the Galicia Museum and speaking with a Holocaust survivor. For dinner, Brian, Professor Keenan, and I had potatoes pancakes and walked around the city before grabbing some delicious Polish ice cream.

Then today was Auschwitz. It was an hour bus ride to the camp. We had a guided tour through both Auschwitz I and Birkenau (the site of five gas chambers and where most of the mass murdering occurred). A very moving and emotional tour which I'll go into more detail in another post. This concentration death camp is actually located right outside the city Oszwiecm. We saw the city and made a visit to the synagogue which is the oldest one still standing after Nazi occupation.

And there you have it! A brief overview so you know what I've been up too. So much more to come!