I woke up this morning and thought it was Wednesday. So you can imagine my excitement when, midway through my second cup of coffee, I realized that it's Thursday.
With that jolt of excitement, and it was a welcomed jolt, I hit the gym and then returned to my room, where over the next four hours I cranked out massive amounts of e-mail, knocked off some writing assignments, and generally prepared myself for re-entry to the US of A.
I did take some time to learn more about Warsaw. More than 80% of the city was destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. One-hundred thousand Jewish people were moved into the Warsaw ghetto and eventually killed, and some 3 million Jews were killed in Poland overall. The article I read called Poland "the Nazi's largest killing field."
I thought about all of that when I went out for a walk just now. It's pretty staggering to think about and makes it even more impressive to see what the Poles have rebuilt.
Nestled in between those non-descript Soviet-era buildings are gems of Poland's past. There's new architecture that is just as modern and prosperous as any other big city, and then there's Palace of Culture and Science that Stalin built -- the tallest building in Warsaw and where I'm going this evening. I read that Poles don't like this building because it reminds them of the Soviet reign. I can see why - it's imposing, it's big, and it looms over the area where I'm staying.
Have a good one, and remember, it's Thursday.