2002-10-24

what follows is a recent letter im making public to keep you all up to date a bit.

"kelli dear

are you checking your email? how are you. just arrived in poland this morning. scott and i got a 'sleep car' on a train. its final destination: Moscow. i felt like i was in a james bond movie, except there were no russian femme fatals, (im sure you'll be relieved to know) . we did bunk with a polish computer programmer, and played a little gin rummy. i barely slept, because my schedule of sleeping is all screwed up. hopefully, we will get some z's early tonight, and go on a tour of Auschwitz or the Salt Mines tomorrow. there is amazing gothic churches here.

also, everything is cheap, cheaper than in prague. a nice room can be got for 4 dollars per person per night.

as soon as we arrived in poland, around 6 am., there were these two guys fighting for our attention to go to their places for the night. we picked the more persistant one, just to get him out of our faces. i mean he was really annoying. his place ends up being a grimy, smelly, run down hovel a few bus stops out of town.

its disgusting, but there is this interesting old dude from Arizona who has traveled the world and loves to tell stories. he is a movie script writer, or so he says. he has a scraggly old white greasy beard, and pearcing bad breath. but his voice is nice to go to sleep to , which is what i did while he told scott stories of living in saudi arabia, in the army, death valley, newyorkcity, hong kong, etc. etc, and his daughter studying mathematics at MIT.

what else?

there are americans here, everywhere it seems. they are loud. scott and i almost never talk to them. there were a few american chicas we met in prague who were cool, we just kept running into them all over the town, and in the clubs.

everybody here drinks beer like water. its cheaper than water, in fact. the czech republic has the highest beer consumption per capita in the world. the first nite here we saw the high school kids (all under the age of 16) get out from school and hit the bars. its nuts..."

im at an internet cafe, these things are everywhere! krakow has three universities in it, and is bursting with 100,000 students. like two and a half State Colleges squished in between narrow streets and cobbled pathways. Gothic churches 500 years old, statues everywhere. beautiful place.

dear everyone, i miss you all and hope all is well with chicago, malvern, new york, and beyond.

-d