Monday started out with another fun activity. This week WEASA, the Warsaw Euro Atlantic Summer Academy, kicked off at the College of Europe Natolin Campus. The GMF, along with College of Europe and the Polish American Freedom Foundation, is hosting the event, so the whole office went out to listen to the opening address and enjoy a beautiful lunch.
WEASA is designed to serve as a "jumping off point" for strengthening democratic values and ideas in the Eastern Partnership, EaP, countries (Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) at a grassroots level. This is the inaugural year for the program, and 45 up and coming policy makers, academics, researchers, think tankers, NGO employees, government officials, economists, and people from various other fields have come to Warsaw to participate in a rigorous two weeks program of lectures, workshops, and study visits, in order to further develop their personal conceptualization of democracy, and understand how they can continue to aid their country's development upon their return. Mr. Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, member of European Parliament and Vice-President of the EURONEST Assembly, gave the keynote address, in which he emphasized idea of partnership, and addressed some of the necessary steps EaP countries must take to continue in partnership with the EU. For more on the opening ceremony, you can read the lovely note my fellow intern Matt prepared for the GMF website (http://www.gmfus.org/archives/warsaw-study-tour-gives-students-opportunity-to-discuss-eu-eastern-european-relations-with-senior-officials/).
Following the keynote address, we enjoyed a beautiful lunch on the Natolin campus grounds. It's truly a gorgeous location, and boasts a palace, where the food for our party was set up. We ate outdoors under tents (it felt very Downton Abbey to me), before heading back to attempt so productivity at the office.
The beautiful tents they set up for our garden party lunch at College of Europe Natolin
My college campus had a lot of things, but it certainly didn't have a palace!
The extensive grounds of the Natolin campus include a nature preserve. Isn't it beautiful?
On a walk around campus after lunch, I discovered some lions, which made for a prime Alpha Delta Pi photo-op.
After work, we rounded up everyone who was in the office for an ice cream date. Sasha wanted to show Matt and I some wonderful (and rather fancy) Polish ice cream. It was delicious! I had black currant, chocolate, and strawberry sorbet. The availability of cheap, delicious ice cream may be one of my favorite things about Poland in the summertime!
Tuesday was a workday filled with research and attempts to ready ourselves for events we were hosting on Thursday. The highlight was the office surprising Matt and I with a farewell lunch at nearby Aioli. It was fun to take a bit of a break and enjoy the opportunity to talk in an informal setting. Plus, the food was amazing. I had a French burger, which had pieces of brisket rather than a beef patty. That led to discussions about BBQ and Texas, and essentially plans for everyone to come visit (which I very much hope will soon be realistic, if the US Senate bill waiving some of the restrictive visa requirements for Poles soon goes through).
Wednesday was much the same as Tuesday in terms of work. I'd tried to get some of my fellow American interns to do something Wednesday night, but everyone seems to be traveling or busy. I didn't let that stop me from enjoying an evening out, however. I went back to Borpince, a delicious Hungarian restaurant, and had duck with chorizo chutney and a beautiful Hungarian red wine while enjoying my book. It was nice and relaxing, and a very reasonably priced treat compared to home (it's going to be quite the culture shock on my wallet to leave Polish pricing).
The delicious duck at Borpince
Thursday was Matt's last day in the office, and we certainly didn't lack work! In the morning, former Florida Congressman and current GMF board member Robert Wexler stopped by. He was in Warsaw to speak at WEASA. Due to the day's schedule, I didn't get to go see him speak, but I heard he was wonderful. Congressman Wexler is a very intelligent man, but I cannot get over the context of him in what is quite possibly my favorite episode of the Colbert Report (http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/72021/july-20-2006/better-know-a-district---florida-s-19th---robert-wexler). Don't worry, I resisted the urge to say anything funny yet completely inappropriate.
After the Congressman left the office to head to the Natolin campus, we got busy setting up for a roundtable event. Using Skype and video conferencing, our office brought together experts from Turkey to brief an elite group on the Gezi protests and their potential effects. Though there were a few technological scares before everyone arrived, all went off without a hitch, and it was a very informative briefing and debate on the potential effects of last month's protests. For more on the discussion, you can read my note on the GMF website (http://www.gmfus.org/archives/at-crossroads-how-will-the-gezi-protests-shape-turkey-and-its-foreign-policy/).
Thursday night I was supposed to go to a dinner with Congressman Wexler, but due to low RSVPs, someone from the GMF side had to be nixed (and, as the intern, that someone was me). While I'm sad I missed out on the opportunity to hear Wexler speak, I did enjoy a pre-farewell dinner with Matt in Old Town (I say pre-farewell, because he'll be back for a few days early this week). We went to Molly Malone's, an Irish pub, that, strangely enough, has the best kielbasa I've had in Poland so far. It was a nice evening out, though a bit sad to start to say goodbye.
Friday I was the only remaining intrepid intern in the office. I did some research and started to compile the last of a project Matt and I had been working on. Misha and I went to the Milk Bar for lunch. People started to head off for weekends by the seaside or at the lake district--summer is really kicking in. I took off at 5 and headed home to meet Julie for a night out at the movies. We saw Frances Ha (http://www.franceshamovie.com), which I absolutely adored. It's very captivating and a great story (though, in my opinion, unnecessarily shot in black and white), and made for a fun evening. After the movie, I returned home where I had to joy of attempting to revive my iPhone (which chose my next to last week away to sort of die on me).
The end of my time in Poland is near, even my technological devices know it.
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