Commie Bastards.

Nowa Huta steel mill sign.

So I have a confession to make. I am not very good at Polish.

I had my second test today, and I am not sure if I passed. I was able to answer every question, and I had an inkling of what was going on, but I know I made plenty of mistakes. After we were done, the teacher Marek started reading our test answers out loud and yelling at us if we got something wrong. He yelled at me a lot.

The truth of the matter is that I haven't studied as much as I should. After three hours of intensive classes a day, the last thing I wanted to do was go home and study. And after four weeks of intensive classes, I am beat. My other problem is that I am not a total beginner, so I think I am better than I really am. I assumed it would just come easy to me. But like most things in life, I think that in order to be good at speaking Polish, I will have to work at it. My classes end tomorrow, and then I will begin my studying.

Yesterday when I should have been studying, I joined my classmates on a guided tour of Nowa Huta. Originally a city of its own, Nowa Huta was built by the communist government after the Second World War. Our guide explained that most Polish cities--such as Warsaw and Wroclaw--were destroyed after the war--not only the buildings, but the social infrastructure as well. Krakow had experienced devastation in terms of its Jewish population, but its buildings and society remained untouched. The communists saw this as a threat and therefore created this brand new city right next to Krakow as a way to bring in the "working class" and their industrialization ideal into the region.

Nowa Huta has two parts. One is a giant steel mill, which was designed almost as a city of its own, that would employ thousands of workers. The second is the town, where the workers would live. Originally, the town was not allowed to have a church, but after Stalin's death and the communist rule became more lax, the town was allowed to build a church. Afraid they wouldn't have a chance to build another, it is a massive and intricate building. When we visited the church, there was a Wednesday night mass taking place that had more worshippers than some Sunday masses I have seen in the States. (Just an aside, often times I have popped my head into a church in Krakow, and no matter what time of day, there is a usually a mass going on and there is always a full house).

Now that the communist rule is over, Nowa Huta is kind of a ghost of the past. The steel mill is still functioning, but employs less than 1,000 people. Unfortunately, throughout the years, the mill was responsible for much air population in Krakow, deteriorating buildings that had stood for centuries. The town functions as a suburb of Krakow.

I had expected Nowa Huta to be incredibly depressing. I heard it wasn't very safe. My classmate Tobias told me that it was "the Bronx of Krakow," which made me laugh.

Sure, the grey, uniform Soviet-style architecture is a strong contrast to the pastel wonderland of Krakow, but it wasn't ugly. It just looked dirty. There were many trees, flowers and paths, people walking around. The only problem is that there is no culture. If someone living there wants to see a movie or go out to a restaurant, they need to take a 20-minute tram to the city.

After two hours into the tour, I had seen enough. To be honest, there was not too much to see, but yet we stayed and stayed, walked and walked, the tour guide talked and talked. So many questions were asked, so many were answered in a very long, tedious way. People were getting hungry, grabbing fruits at fruit stands and candy bars from newsstands. It started getting dark and cold. But our tour guide seemed oblivious. When we finally arrived at the church with the mass, we walked in when the mass was over and simply sat there for 20 minutes, just looking at the empty altar. What we were supposed to look at for that long, I am unsure.

I finally got back to my apartment 4 hours after the tour started, and I did my best to memorize the future tense, the months of the year, the time, and a hundred other things. So it's no wonder why I didn't do well on the test.

I blame the communists.

The steel mill.

View of one of the steel mill towers.

Where the working class lives.

Building in Plac Centralny, depicting Socialist Realism Architecture.