Today, I visited the Royal Castle with the International Women's Group, in Old Town Warsaw. As I walked up to meet the group of women, whom I have never met before, I felt a little apprehensive. Here I am in a whole other world seeing sights, people, and sounds that I have never in my life seen before.

Expats can sometimes find themselves in different stages. Such as the first stage when you first arrive and everything is exciting. Earlier in the week I started that second stage an Expat can sometimes go through. It seemed everything was going wrong: I went down a one-way street the wrong way and I dropped someone’s jar of pickles at the store. All of this would normally sound goofy, but here it seemed big at the moment. Everything in the U.S. comes so easily, having been there my whole life. To be thrown in the middle of a completely different place and make your way through can be hard at times.

But with the hard, comes the great exciting adventures! The new culture, the new sights, the new sounds, all different from what I’m used to, are so interesting to live first hand. To see my son go to a school where there are many people from all across this great globe of ours, is awesome! Or trying to communicate to our non-english speaking security guard that we need help getting over a fence, because Chandler kicked the soccer ball over it. (Which was a great time of me playing charades) After I acted out Chandler kicking the ball over the fence, our security guard then proceeded to hike Chandler over the fence.....we made a new friend that day.

So after my crazy couple of days, the Royal Castle tour today could not have come at a better time. The snow was falling hard when we entered, which made the scene majestic. On the tour we first learn that this gorgeous castle was once completely torn to shreds. The Germans totally destroyed and leveled the castle in 1949. The picture said a thousand words.

Like the Royal Castle, 85% of Warsaw was destroyed during World War II by the Nazis. Now you may wonder how does Warsaw look the way it does today if a majority of this city was bombed and destroyed during the war. Luckily, the city had records, architecture drawings, and pictures of the way the city was before the bombing and they were able to recreate the city just as it was intended to be. Not only the city; but churches, homes, and even castles such as the Royal Castle in Old Town were rebuilt.

The castle was not only rebuilt in 1984, but also refurnished. Luckily many of the artifacts were taken out of the castle before it was bombed, stored away someplace safe. But along with some original pieces the castle is also furnished with donations. Donations were given from around the world; both monetary and material objects were given to the polish.

One country that also helped with donations was one you would least expect, Germany. But like our tour guide mentioned, Polish folks and German folks were both victims in the war. Yes, some groups of Germans (Nazis) were the murders, but not every single German was part of that group.

Just like today, we need to know that because of what one group does, doesn’t make that whole culture the culprit.

So, as you read my first blog entry, I hope I have given you a glimpse into a little of the Polish history. When I think of the loss of the castle, I think of the good that came with the bad. I think about the good of countries coming together, creating a sense of community, to help the Polish people rebuild a national monument for a country that loss so much.