Oink Oink

In Warsaw for the IETM Caravan. The group is small and fun, and Warsaw is looking good these days. Walked through the park next to the Theater Institute and the Ujazdowski Castle and watched the leaves changing and falling. It was a relaxed Sunday and I was completely full of pork products.

After a breakfast which included (but which was not limited to) kielbasa, bacon, hot dogs, cold cuts, wild mushrooms, pickles, cheese, egg, etc. , spent the afternoon in a ‘speed dating’ session with different Polish theaters, performers, or performance groups. The one thing that struck me is that Polish artists don’t seem in a hurry to work outside of Poland. I think this is good because it demonstrates they are working here. It’s not because of lack of interest in working abroad, it’s just a lack of desperation.

Lunch came late, after the presentations, and by then my previous pork intake had been eliminated. I re-stocked by eating meatballs, pork loin, cutlet, and some things which could pass as vegetables (beets). We all managed to roll out of the all-you-can-eat establishment and back to the Palace of Culture, where we saw a show of a very proficient theater artist who presented a wonderful and compelling narration of a dimension of his life–the one in which he discovers his grandfather is a communist agent. It was personalized in a really endearing way and illustrated with random images projected behind him while he spoke. Unfortunately, the speaking was in Polish.

Then afterwards, we went for drinks at one of the Palace of Cultures many bars and I realized I had gone at least 3 hours without ingesting pork. Imagine my shame when I realized I didn’t have the stomach space to eat more. I made up for it this morning with my last trip to the breakfast buffet. Ouch.