Lenin: from Slovakia to Seattle!!!

Yes, it's true...there's an authentic Communist-built statue of Lenin here in Fremont, Seattle. It's actually one of the 'famous sites' to see in Seattle, but I didn't realize it came from Slovakia until this week.

Here's the story: an American who was teaching English in SK (sound familiar?!) shortly after the 1989 revolution was in Poprad and noticed this statue of Lenin which had been toppled over onto the ground during the revolution. This American really liked the style that the sculptor had used to depict Lenin--evidently this is a unique depiction of Lenin because usually he is carrying a book or waving his cap, but here he is surrounded by flames and guns (you can see the guns from behind).

So this American teacher mortgaged his US home to pay to have this statue shipped (I have NO idea how) back to his home in Fremont in Seattle. It's been here since about 1994. Fremont was an appropriate neighborhood to place Lenin bc Fremont has been known for people whose politics on the extreme left end of the political spectrum and who embrace a more radical and eccentric lifestyle. Evidently the few conservatives in Fremont really fought to keep Lenin out of the neighborhood, but I'm kinda glad for this piece of Poprad, SK that's so close to me here!

Note how Lenin is now standing at an intersection with a Taco del Mar restaurant behind him. I'm sure he'd appreciate that!

What's wrong with this picture?

Yes, that's right, there's a bicycle in this tree--and it's actually become 'part' of the tree now with one arm of the tree enveloping the bike! Recently my friend Elizabeth, her friend Michael and I ventured away from the city to Vashon Island. The local people say that years ago someone parked a child's bike on top of a seedling. No one moved the bike, so it actually grew to be part of the tree!

The amazing thing about our trip to the island was, we only drove about 20 minutes away from my apt., boarded a ferry with my car (I'm borrowing a car from a very generous and trusting fellow graduate student while she's in Lithuania doing research for 9 months!) and it felt like we were hours from city life in Seattle.

Michael knew the island well, so he took us on a mini hike thru the woods and onto the beach (a beach full of small rocks/pebbles, not sandy like Florida beaches!) In fact, the whole atmosphere on this island in Puget Sound, off the Pacific Ocean, felt a lot like I'd imagine Prince Edward Island to look. LIke in the Anne of Green Gables books. It definitely did feel like a northwestern or Canadian environment.

Below are some locals at the tea/coffee shop on Main Street. These women meet every Saturday morning here to chat. Don't they look like they live on an island in the northwest with their sweaters and scarves?

And of course, local color with the dogs in the truck!

Polish Presence in Seattle (Polski Dom)

Chicago is not the only American city with a sizeable Polish population. Seattle also has a significant Polish presence, which I've now experienced twice in one week! Last Saturday night I was invited to join some new Polish and Czech and American friends here at the monthly Polish Disco night at Dom Polski (Polish House). Dom Polski is a community center sponsored by Poles in town...once a month they have an AWESOME Polish disco (citila som ako 'doma' na skolsky ples) and every Friday night they serve Polish food (see the menu here...Pierogies/Pirohy--meat/cabbage and potato/cheese and Pickle Soup--uhorkova polievka...very tasty!). My friend who I met in Slovak language class 5 years ago--Elizabeth and I decided to try the menu last night. We were very pleased. And of course we confused the regulars by trying to speak Slovak with them :)

Elizabeth picked up a Polish guy who works in the horse industry here in Washington and I got to talk with a guy who came over to the States in 1983 after causing a ruckus in Poland with the Solidarity movement. He is from northern Poland near Gdansk (Sczeczin) and was a young man in the 1970s and 80s. He says he knows Lech Walesa personally. I believe him. I asked how he was able to escape Communist Poland in 1983 and he said that since he was involved in the Solidarity movement and was one of the loud young people protesting against Communism, the Communists were glad to let him go.

Interestingly, he said he thinks the year that literally changed the world was 1976 when the students, workers and common Polish citizens started working together to fight the Communist system. He says the protests earlier in the 1970s were not as successful because the students or workers would protest, but then a large part of the population would just stand by and watch. Finally, in 1976 they all started working together (with the Catholic Church) to successfully bring down the regime in Poland, which spread to the rest of E. Europe and finally to Russia itself.

I just finished a great book about this very subject this week for my course at the university in "East European HIstory since 1939." It's called "The Power of Symbols against Symbols of Power" by Jan Kubik. It was nice to meet a real person here in Seattle who had participated in changing the world.

Smoking in Seattle and Tent City...

Seattle is a very "Xtreme" city as my Slovak friends would say. I have observed things here that you would never see in other cities in America. For example, the "Designated Smoking Site" on my university's campus. Because Seattle-ites are SO preoccupied with their health and also the environment (which is why they bike to work), they have made a 'rule' at my university that smokers cannot smoke inside campus buildings (of course). They cannot even smoke outside the entrances or exits to buildings, but must stand in the middle of campus in front of everyone in the "Designated Smoking Site." They're kind of a spectacle since they're forced to stand in plain site of all the students walking to classes. You should have seen the looks they were giving me when I risked my life to take these documentary photos for you! Although I'm not a smoker and do think it unhealthy, it does seem to be a bit of reverse discrimination against smokers...

Indeed, smoking is NOT COOL here (although I was surprised to see several young people smoking at parties here when I was visiting last July). Maybe cool, young people only smoke in the summer??? You Europeans would also be surprised to know that there is NO smoking allowed in ANY restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars in Seattle. Ziadne. Absolutely nic. I wonder how such a policy would fly in Europe and who would enforce it???

This is a group of tents known infamously in Seattle as "Tent City." It is an organized group of homeless people who live in tents together in a kind of community which rotates locations around town. Usually they are allowed to live in parking lots of churches or other public institutions. The community is rather 'official' and each member has his/her own 'chores' to do within the community. There is a fire burning in one of the steel barrels. There are also several portable toilets on the property.

The tents are not directly on the concrete but are each on individual wooden platforms that help to keep them dry. And dryness is a problem because it rains so much here in Seattle. In fact, before Christmas I noticed several charities in town asking people to donate socks to the charity. I didn't understand. Why not donate food? But then someone explained that foot infections are a big problem among homeless here in town because people's feet get wet and soggy in wet shoes with wet socks--indeed, it happened to me and it's not nice. So charities in town distribute free pairs of socks to the many homeless.

But I'm told that Tent City is a very controversial issue in Seattle because some people don't like having what they call an 'eyesore' near their neighborhood. What do you think?

large, 'theater-size' classroom & Slovak memorabilia 'shrine' in my office!

kitchen/bathroom

bedroom