I'm going to Raciborz!

Through an array of interesting events, I've been invited to give my Denali slide show at a travellers/mountain slide/film festival in the small mountain town of Raciborz (Rah-CHEE-boze (like nose))

The festival is called Wiatraki
(Click for link to page, and see if you can find me under 'Program'!

Dawid Wacławczyk is one of the founders of the festival, and this is its 2nd year running. The festival is the last weekend of October, and kicks off with the main event being a slide show by Piotr Pustelnek, a major force in Poland's mountaineering history-as he was the first person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest...in winter!? (btw, all 14 8,000 meter peaks in the world ONLY have winter ascents by the Poles!).

I met Dawid at one of my former student's wedding parties here in Warsaw (Iwona). Her and her new husband, Grzegorz (Greg) grew up in Slonsk (Silesia/SW Poland) and all their friends came up for the party. Jill and I were fortunate enough to be invited and once again got to see up close how the Poles like to party (no one's afraid to dance!). Dawid (David) is an avid traveller, and he's giving his own show on trekking in the Himalaya. For my trip they'll be covering my transportation and accomodations-which is fine by me, though I usually get paid for these things, this will be a lot of fun and a great way to meet more like-minded people-though most of them are a bit far from Warsaw (but maybe will have a place to stay with when we go to the mountains in the future?!?!)

The down side is that this is the start of Jill's long week off from school, and half of her family will be in town. They're still deciding what to do for their itinerary, but I'm, of course, trying to persuade them to see my show, then go to Prague, etc. so it'll jump start their trip and get them to see some less touristy places in Poland!

Well, I'm glad I brought my slides with me...but this will be the first time giving a show with a translator.

Yikes! Wish me luck!