Summer Greetings

 

Hello my Friends close by and far, far away,

I have absolutely no idea when I dropped off last time. So, I will pick up on the day I was fired from my last job. Actually I was not fired, I did not get extention for my trial period into permanent position. When I asked why not, I heard – unofficially – your education is way beyond our needs, you are wasting your talent here. I do admit the job in Humanitarium was a major mistake on my side and humongous waste of time and effort.  I live and learn, sometimes, a hard way.

Anyway, I am in the starting point – I mean when I came to Poland I had no job and I was full time mom and so I am now. I knew I will not get permanent position in Humanitarium and I did want to leave.

After I got a lot of time on my hands I started to tend to my kids, husband, dog, house, and a garden. (I try to find a new job in my spare time) My daily routine as a full-time mom looked like that:

• get up at 5:30 am to walk the dog (first time, before I can even brush my teeth), then play with the dog for couple of minutes, check how is the grass growing and other welcome plants,
• wake up kids at about 6:50 am
• 7:00 am count the kids present at a breakfast table (they must be fully dressed, including socks on both feet, to count), round up Kasia from where she is procrastinating at a moment. (Sławek does breakfast for everybody)
• 7:25 am braid Helena 3 feet long braid, first making sure puppy is not present during that process since it is a barking maniac. (I swear Robin – the puppy, can smell strong emotions and then barks)
• 7:40 am use Robin to ensure kids timely arrival to school
• 7:55 am take Robin for a relaxing walk in the nearby forest literary for an hour, it loves running leash free.
• 9:00 am put a load of laundry in
• 9:05 am check e-mail, get lost in the virtual reality with a sudden jolt some time before kids get back from school which is around (look down)
• 12:30 lunch time: kids present Helena and Michał (Kasia decided to take a full time job as a pupil and she gets back around 3:00 pm, she does do her homework in there)
• check on drip drying laundry that I hanged on in the meantime. Hang another load if necessary.
• Depending on a day of the week around 4:00 pm I am tutoring or driving to Wrocław to music academy, after tutoring I seach for a taekwondo outfit and a belt for Michał.
• 6:00 pm ‘ish’ Sławek gets his dinner
• 7:00 pm Sławek feeds kids supper and I take Robing for another walk.
• 9:00 pm I clean the kitchen
• 9:30 pm I take my time to shower etc.
• 10:00 pm I go to bed…

On weekends I drive Helena to music academy on Saturdays and I drive Robin to puppy obedience school on Sunday mornings (after walking him at usual 5:30’ish am)

Puppy school is a blast. Robin takes it slowly because of the amount of time I can devote to him. He started that school when I was still full time working weekdays and weekends (no extras for weekends) and that is why it took him almost four months to use up all of the classes paid for. Usually he was more interested in other dogs than in me. The teacher kept repeating “you must be more attractive for him” Bother I am not attractive for my own dog and I can not  help it, unless … I have a lot of heart. I mean turkey or chicken heart, cooked and chopped. On a positive side I am sure Robin had a lot of fun on those classes and so did I.

Since our puppy is a pedigree, we took him to a dog show. He was the only puppy in sheltie group and he got the highest marks from the judge. I think he really deserved it. It was quite a show to watch him on a ring. Again he was more interested in other dogs than in whatever commands I was issuing to him. If we want to take him to shows we need to train him better. As far as training goes Robin is a clever dog, my biggest success is the “quiet” command  – I demand it when other dogs are barking at him from behind fences – I do not want Robin to bark back (which he did earlier). It works best if I say “quiet” ahead of troublesome places.

That’s the life!

But now we have summer vacation, so my schedule is changed for better because I do not have to wake up kids to deliver them to school.

We have a couple of cherry trees and this year was great for it. We had so many/much sweet cherries branches were bent and I used all of my ingenuity to prevent waste. I swear I lived on them for two weeks instead of lunches but at some point I reached my eating capacity and could not eat them anymore. I canned them, I froze them (and kids who were not so interested in fresh fruit cleaned the frozen ones in two days – the truth is those were really hot days).

As far as summer goes, Kasia has already spent two weeks on a scout camp at the Baltic seaside. She came back without her eyeglasses – she got them in March. When I inquired about it she said “I have them in my backpack” and it was a candied truth. Unedited story was that she fell on a tent peg during night race and knocked off the right eye lens. She scraped badly her shins and lightly her right eye. So, I am very happy she came back with both eyes intact. She did not find that knocked off lens.

While Kasia was on the camp, I was supervising remodeling of one of the bedrooms. The wallpaper was ripped off, plaster put on to make walls smooth, and painted. In addition we got rid off two small heaters and put in a bigger one. I do like the results! The rest of jobs still wait their turn until next summer.

One day I heard on the radio a question “what Poles would be masters at, if such a competition was at the Olimpics?” Quite an interesting question. Some people suggested “holding on to political position for as long as possible”, others “coming up with laws nobody obeys”  and my suggestion is “density of road side signs per meter”  If you ever have been in Poland and was driving you must agree with me that Poland has plethora of road signs and they are repeated as often as humanely possible. Well, maybe that is the place our tax money goes…

Tomorrow we go out for our family vacation for a week.

Have a great summer, write to you soon…

New work…

Hello my Friends,

So, I have this new job – full-time, and I am not kidding, it takes pretty much all of my time.

Let’s start from the beginning – some time before Christmas I made an appointment with HR to take paperwork for my physical, they say come Friday between 12 noon and 5 pm. So, I come at 3:30 pm (and again it is a 20 miles drive for me) go to their office and … they are gone already. Luck. I had Helena and Michal with me so we go to my new workplace. The place is closed for public but they let me in since I am an employee and my kids check the place out in five minutes flat. They come to me and ask “where is the rest of it?” Unfortunately it’s only what it is, so we go home. After Christmas I go again to HR this time around 10 am to have higher probability of finding working people there, I leave over 10 pieces of one kind or another of paperwork, go to the doctors’ office and get the check-up for work. I deliver it the same day. It was one of the most productive days. Then there is my first day at work – Monday January 2nd. I get there at 12 noon, meet my fellow co-workers and we go for job training. The guy asks us if it is OK for us to stay until 6 pm. It is a surprise for all but me, they did not bring any lunch because nobody told them training will be long. I have been already to one of such trainings before on one of the Sundays in December. That one lasted 7 hours, but it could have been done in about 2. Anyway, the guy said six o’clock and we started practicing workshops – making rockets made with film canisters fueled by fizzing tablets, observing the magical color change in red cabbage extract after adding lemon juice or soap, making plastic out of milk. The experiments were not very exciting for me but they sure are for kids. The training ended at 5:30. They told us to come to work at 10 am next day. We sure did come as directed and mostly observed what others (December people) did with kids, around noon a woman named Magda comes and makes a power trip about dress code – no sweaters (despite the fact the place is chilly), no patterned shirts, etc. The guy who was targeted was explaining himself that nobody instructed him about the dress code, and Magda did not have problems with his shirts before. Obviously Magda made a show just for us – January people. Around 5 pm she made another power trip just for us – she comes and says we can not go home at 6 pm because the place is open till seven. I step up and ask her “Could you tell me what is your position here? I know that Kinga is the boss but who are you?” and sure I get an answer “I was hired here on a position but I do something different now.” – “Yes, but it is not the answer to my question.” Then she goes “How did you come up with 6 pm for leaving?” Again me “we are hired full-time, this means 40 hours a week, 8 hours a day. 10 + 8 is 18 and if someone can not do this much it’s his own problem” Honestly I do not know how I got guts to stand up for myself and my January friends but I did. The way they treat you at the beginning is the way they will treat you all the way. From next day on we were not asked to stay overtime. I knew they would not pay us over-time, they did not do it for December people in spite of the fact December guys worked 12 hours a day sometimes.

So this works is great – you can loose as much as 2 pounds per week (I am about 7 pound down after 3 weeks), your learn how to stand up for yourself (example above), how to make allies (instead of team we have “them” and “us”). You learn negotiation – I have contributed to the victory of limiting hours of operation of Humanitarium from 9 am  – 7 pm to 9 am – 5 pm weekdays (it was really slooooooooooooooow after five every weekday). You can practice self control (which I try with varying results). You can also forget about your education, despite the fact they asked for people with degree in Science now we need to forget about it. Last but not least you do not need to worry about skin cancer – we work in a hall without windows so I have no idea what kind of weather is outside.

I feel so cheated and tricked. I left one place where people were fighting (but at least I could use my brain and talk to others there and had a break every 45 minutes) and ended up in this swamp. I do not regret leaving my Vocational school. I am very dissapointed with my current position.

On the bright note our family is now bigger – no, I did not give birth to anyone – we have a puppy! 2 months old male sheltie (sheatland sheep dog) – Robin (From Batman and Robin, since he is so petite). Helena made a web site for him and I hope she will make an English version one day.He is cute and smart. I will keep you posted about his achievements. For now he can do “sit, come, drop” commands, he understands “ick” (“fe” in Polish) and he can find treats hidden under plastic cups. Kita – our 1,5 years old, dominating cat is uneasy about Robin. She growls and hiss at him most of the time but she did not attack him. Which reminds me of the story – Robin sleeps in the living room in his kennel (safety reasons). One night (his third after arrival) I did not close it tight – I did not think he could get out – so you can imagine my shock and fear when I came in the morning and the kennel was empty! I was convinced Kita killed him and stashed up somewhere but I have found him with Helenka’s help, behind a couch sleeping peacefully on Kasia’s quilt. I do lock kennel now.

So, long

Anna

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello my Friends,

Over a  year passed since my last entry. Despite my silence I am alive and well, being  grumpy only when time permits and since I am busy like never before the outbursts of my ill character come sparingly but with great force. Sławek escapes to his parents for such times assuming he manages to predict them with enough time to get paid days off and a ticket to travel across country.

Since my last post I have notices some bright sides and some not so and here they come:

The bright sides:

1. We are under our own roof, we have settled down in Oborniki Slaskie (about 25 km from Wroclaw border).

2. I had a  teaching job as biology instructor at Forestry Vocational School in Milicz which I held for a year and a half.

3. We did survive Helena and Michał’s First Communion and family union caused by this.

4. Kids are past their first year at new school (it was Kasia 4th school and H & M 3rd) and they experience ‘back to school’ to the very same classroom. There is no shuffling kids at polish schools.

The “potholes of life” during that year:

1. The pain of moving out and in.

2. First experiences at work with new pupils and fellow faculty.

3. Getting to know the house

Anyway, I will start with my work – after searching for a job in a big city – Wrocław and failing I found a job in a small town – Milicz.  I was very happy and very stressed out at the same time. It was my first time going back to work since I was a TA, with only Kasia in tow. To make the long story short I have lost about 3 kg (roughly 7 lb) and learned to wake up at 5:30 am to make to my school at 8 o’clock.                                                                                                                                           I absolutely loved my sophomores and tolerated freshmen. I was teaching botany for freshmen and for some reasons they all claimed that botany is lame. I was teaching zoology for sophomores and they liked it. I mean the zoology as a biology discipline. As you know teaching is a two way road. I taught them something and they did the same to me. Freshmen did teach me a great deal of self-control as they blow up a firecracker in the classroom, behaved like a Michael Jackson/Elvis in the classroom, and had to skip the last session every Friday to “catch the bus home.” Freshmen were wild but it was partially my fault. Finally we did make arrangements and it sort of worked out. The Sophomores taught me ornithology. I always thought that I am no good with birds but after teaching them I started to believe in myself and now I am loads better with ornithology.

I have a different job now, I am starting it January 2012. I had to dump school because of the faculty there. You know the joke about Polish hell – you can leave it unattended because the tenants will make sure no one is escaping from boiling cauldron. So, it was the same in that school. I have heard that there is a conflict there but I was minding my own business and getting home as soon as I could without getting involved. Therefore the only place I saw attacks were staff meetings. There was that demented person who always had problems and because of that meetings were really ugly because problems were of personal matters  – basically she was attacking the principal and the way school was handled. This school year a few teachers left, including the demented one, and first two months were fine just fine. Then out of the blue the principal was fired and a new one assigned and the very moment the new one got power she attacked the old one, I mean a minute or two after getting her assignment. I could not stand it and luckily I was offered a new job so I left. My new job is at a science museum in Wroclaw (Humanitarium). It was open December 20th so it is brand new and I am excited about it. I am also worrying what my hours will look like and what will we do with kids when they have time off school. I am sure it will work out. I am just stressed out.

The joys of home ownership – I love it and I wish the house was already the way I/we want it. The house we bought was inhabited but people who lived here were not detail oriented, unfortunately I am, so now we need to fine tune it.

We started with remodeling one of the bathrooms, finishing up the lowest level (laundry room, storage and garage) and putting pavements from the gate to the house. Our garden is waiting for its turn and probably the heating system since the gas heater is going to be in a legal drinking age in two years. Last winter our heater was breaking up on us. At some point we had to live with just cold water for the benefit of working heating system (the temperatures were below freezing) for about 3 days. Not fun at all. Still, survived. Last year we had problem with “fire-proof wood” – in order to use wood in the fire place we had to dry it up by stacking at the heater for a few days. Wood started to burn at about March when winter was gone. I guess we live and learn. This year we bought new supply of wood for the following winter ahead of time.

As for the garden last summer we did have some crops – cherries and sour cherries (which I turned into cherry jam – yummy), raspberries and seven blueberry berries (I mean seven pieces of fruit from one of the bushes the eighth piece was stolen by some bird!).

Kids are doing fine – Helena is still getting her violin lessons and she is really good at it. Kasia started to take painting lessons and she has already painted her first oil paint picture. I am amazed at that it is perfect. Michał is an engineer – he adores Legos (he is doing now Lego technic series), he is also keeping up his tae-kwon-do practices. He is missing his American friends sometimes, so if you have time and remember him please drop him a line. I can give you his e-mail address off my blog.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

I will try to put next update before kids are of drinking age.

 

Love to you all.

Back to School…

Hello my Friends,

How was summer at the North American continent?

It was sizzling hot followed by drenched in rain in Poland. I think we were really lucky to have such a wonderful weather while at the sea-side.

In the beginning of July we went to that Sławek’s cousin’s wedding and reception. It was an international celebration – bride is originally from Taiwan, groom is Polish and they met in Denmark. Accordingly invited guests were also from Poland and Denmark. We had a good time but did not have an occasion to show off our great english. I really liked the wedding reception place, finally someone with a common sense created entertainment not only for adults (who mostly eat, drink vodka, sing obscene songs, and dance) but also something for kids, namely playground. The facilities were gated, so we did not worry that kids would wander off. I think our monsters had a great time with their mates. Kasia will remember that wedding for quite a while because one of the Danish boys kissed her. Sławek’s brother saw it and he warned us that we should watch her more closely… Is it time for us to fence the yard and buy a shotgun already?

After the wedding Kasia stayed in Lublin for the rest of the summer and she had a great time with her cousins and grandparents.

While she was enjoying vacation we were looking for house. I saw all of the houses Sławek had seen before me. I saw one that was formerly farmer’s dwelling,  nice, with a lot of land but far away from train station.Then another one next to a cemetery, huge house (300 square meters=3229 square feet) with a place for pastry shop, but the house took vast majority of the lot it was built on. Then a fancy house with sauna, bells and whistles, then a place I called a house with cherry trees (because such were growing in the backyard) the owners already had a potential buyer who was showing interest for quite a while. In the same neighbourhood smaller house with bigger lot and no garage and finally a spooky house (that’s what my kids called it), new but not inhabited by anybody for the last two years and really cheap. It’s location was sort of weird because it was surrounded by blocks of flats and the road to it was unpaved. But it had a great deck, huge bath room and a garage.

For Sławek and I first choice was that house with cherries, we made an offer but their reply was way higher than we were willing to pay at that time. So, we turned our interest to the haunted house and a semi-detached I saw earlier. Sławek’s dad came to pitch in his advice, we got a contractor to make an estimate on making both housed inhabitable for our family of 5.

In the meantime I have found yet another house – brand new american style townhouse (though located in the village). And here is my cultural shock – when you look for the house in the US the ads tell the exact address and price and so on. In Poland they will list the price and the etc. but you must have a realtor to get the address for you. I was not quite aware of that custom and I liked that townhouse a lot, it was cute as a button, and I wanted just to see it’s location. I am persistent and intelligent, so using photos of the house and aerial photographs that are available on the web (you know which I mean) plus Polish website with really detailed maps that are not available on the first site I found the house. I went there and knocked on neighbour door and asked about the developer and the house and how the things were going. I am getting my info first hand and I like what I hear and here comes the other realtor (mine was somewhere waiting for the sister – in – job because listing was taken from another office and that lady need to show my realtor the house) and she scolds me that I should not have been there without her “clearance.” I look at her in amazement “what do you mean, lady?” Apparently address is a top-secret, subject of trade. To make thing even more weird for me, that realtor fussed at my realtor as well. My realtor had no idea what I did or where the house was. Shocking. Anyway, that townhouse had a garage too small for Ford Windstar so we passed it.

So, our contractors assessed that haunted house will be a quick job unlike the other one we were considering. Sławek’s dad did not like the other house either, it reminded him too much of his own with all the faults his used to have. My problem with the haunted house was that the last document was a building permit (the house was completed and people used to live there), location, and the fact that the first owner was known crook. And that crook part I could not get over with. This way we stayed in a dead point for a day.

I was going nuts because I am really fed up with renting. I decided to call realtor and ask if the “cherry house” was still available. It was, and the funny thing was that the owner of that house called Sławek the same day and asked whether we are still interested or not. At that point we were, next day Sławek went to Oborniki Śląskie and we came to an agreement on a price, July 26 we signed a written contract with the owners, and August 20th we got to public notary and received official document that we are the owners of the house.

The house is nice, does not have a lot of land but enough to enjoy it. We will need to do some work on the house but it is not extremely urgent. We plan to move there September 6th.

Another great news is – I have a job! I am going to teach biology at Forestry School in Milicz, I will have to commute 40 km/25 miles but I am going to work according to my education.

Last but not least, we have kitty, totally black cat (girl) I found it with Helena, someone dumped it on the street when she was about 4 weeks old.

So, it was busy summer that brought some changes in our life.

Now it is time for kids to start new school year at their new school, and for me too but I am going to stand at the other side of the classroom.

So long and all the best in your back to school

She Sells Sea Shells at the Baltic Sea Shore

Hello my Friends!

I just  got back from the Polish sea-shore. Due to Helena’s health problems we decided to ditch school and go to get some fresh air at the Baltic Sea. I made a few phone calls, ake.a little web surfing and reserved a summer-house for 18 days for us. Probably all of the Polish tax return and some of our savings went into it but what the heck, I was so thrifty at my other continent life, we deserve it! I have packed some best case scenario and worst case scenario clothes and all of the kids, kissed my husband good-bye and drove all the way north to Chłopy, 275 miles (443 km). My very first long trip as a driver. Piece of cake! As soon as we got settled in we started to explore. Chłopy is a small fisherman village, we could see fishing boats leaving and coming back on daily basis. Because we got there before the season, beaches were not crowded and clean. Main inhabitants of them were seniors by themselves or with their little grandchildren. Not much of the company for  my kids. But we were not bored, not at all. Every day we were walking on the beach about 2 miles to Sarbinowo. That village was bigger and had more tourists and all of the necessary restaurants etc. needed. Michał was usually walking on the dry sand or was careful not to wet his feet, Kasia on contrary was wet every day, except for cold days. On our way to Sarbinowo we were hunting for amber. I heard a story that you can find amber on the Baltic beach. It must have been truth many years ago, I think about 30 when Sławek went to Baltic with his parents and he claims he found some amber and his little brother did too. We did not find any! But I think we found a tiny iron meteorite it looks like a bit of metal enclosed by stone and you can not take iron out of the stone without breaking it. It’s cool. Another cool find is a WWII Nazi 1 MAI 1936 TINNIE PIN BADGE. Labor Day pin badge.Have a look at both:



Once upon a time, before sea started to work on it,  it looked like that:

When we were going to Chłopy Helena had runny nose, she had some skin tests for allergies and was off her medication because of that. She lasted without ear infection for four days, on Sunday morning she woke me up at 4:20 am and said she has an ear-ache.

All by myself, 275 miles away from home… I found a doctor, and we were lucky because Helenka was seen without waiting. When we got out from the exam room there were about four or five kids waiting in line. A trip to pharmacy and she was set for a week of medication. For the last week of our staying in Chłopy Sławek came so he had an opportunity to go for a check-up to ear and nose doctor. The doctor prescribed Helena another medicine because her ear did not look great yet. Day after taking new medication she complained about ear pain, so we went again to the same doctor and she got another medication on top of the previous one. She is still on it.

During our vacation we made a trip to Rewal and Trzęsacz both are more west from Chłopy. Those two towns are really nice, if you plan your vacation in Poland I recommend it. There are ruins of the church from fourteenth century that was originally built about a mile from the sea shoreline and nowadays it “hangs on the cliff”. This postcard illustrates it so well:

Towards the end of our stay in Chłopy a cat came to us. I think it was female cat and very intelligent, she was not afraid of people and was tame. Kasia was thrilled! She bought a cat food for her and the cat stayed till the end of our vacation. One morning she let us know very clearly what is the purpose of her visit – she came to the empty bowl and licked it, then she purred and rubbed against our legs. When we were putting food from can to the bowl she impatiently started to put her paw into the can and eat from her own paw. It cracked me up.

Next week is a first week of summer vacation for kids. I will be looking at houses again and July 3rd we go again to Lublin, Sławek’s cousin is getting married.

So long, and have a nice vacation.

Rain, Rain Go Away…

Hello my Friends,

Long time no-see!

To pick up where I had left it – we did not make a cross-country trip for Easter… You guessed it – we got sick again. It was a disappointment for our families, a big one as we found out from the phone calls. Anyway, we had been there not so long ago – at the beginning of May. My niece had her First Holly Communion, and since it was during the longest weekend in modern Europe, we hopped in the car and went East. On our trip we missed by a hair a road block in a small town which residents demanded building a by-pass around the town (currently all of the traffic goes straight through the town centre). So, we made it to Lublin in quite decent time.

The first communion ceremony was a little unusual for me because it was on Monday and not on Sunday. My brother explained that his parish always celebrates first communion on May 3rd. It is Polish state holiday and a Catholic as well hence the odd (for me) day. Since I compare everything to my American experience, I must say that I liked much better Kasia’s celebration at St. Mary’s in Foxboro. My brother and his wife were pleased we came. And it was nice.

I have seen my grand-nephew, he is so big now. He is crawling and standing up to get toys from the tables and unlike my own kids he has a giant appetite. I was cracking up when his dad put him in a high chair and his mom was not ready with food in that moment. He made a fit that ceased at the sight of first bowl with spoon. He basically devoured his lunch, no crumb fell on the floor, no drop on his chin. He is a great eater and such a lovely child.

Apparently year 2001 was a favorite in my family for giving birth because Slawek’s niece had her first communion as well but on May 30th. I have to confess I passed on that and only Slawek went to Lublin again. My kids and I stayed in Wrocław but not alone because my other niece came to visit us with her husband. We loved them here. I hope they will come again soon, or we will see them at their place first.

As I mentioned in my previous post we are in the midst of house search. So far I have seen about 15 of them. Firs one was to be build, we could see a similar house that someone bought and the developer said he can build one for us. We passed because Slawek does not want to build a house and I kind-of respect it. Then we saw a house offered by the owner. That one was already built but inhabited by about 10 dogs of various breeds. The owner lead us to the house through a pet shop with all its aromas set on high. She said ‘here is storage, there is furnace and over there is also another space but we are not going to see it. My bitch is about to give birth to puppies any time now. Please go outside and I will lock up dog and let you in through the main entrance.’ We got outside and came back in promptly, the inside was not much better than the basement we just saw. Kitchen was nice and large, living room really big but upstairs was howling for fixing, and that dog scent everywhere… The final nails to the coffin were: leaky septic tank and brick kennels promised to be left behind for us. I blurted we could use kennels as a time out place for our kids and maybe even rent it to others. The lady of the house said the kennels were sturdy, made of bricks, and for sure kids would not have contact with one another. We passed that one as well.

Then we looked at the house that was build American way – you know wood unlike traditional Polish brick. It would be great except for all-electric heating and mold. But it did have a great potential in the back yard, at the moment though moles and wind were hired for keeping it nice. We passed again, …

Since avoiding realtors did not yield the results we turned to them. We did not want to use a realtor because in Poland you pay them a fee (1.5 to 3% of the house value plus 22% tax on that value) and again as a thrifty person I wanted to avoid it. But we have not much of the choice if we want to move in before September this year. Therefore I started an adventure with realtors. First three houses I saw were supposed to be build and finished up inside as well. You know in Poland developer build a house for you, I mean basement, walls, roof he may even put windows in and main door but t but that is all. All other things that need to be done you arrange by yourself – floors, electric installation, heating system, kitchen and bathroon fixtures, painting the walls after putting plaster on them, etc. I spoke with a person that had experience with that developer and I received a fuzzy view of him. Pass…

Two houses in a very small village, peace and quiet,  no shops, no school, no church, peace and quiet, ultimate quiet. First house was way too big for us, the other one bedroom too small. Pass…

Five housed in Oława not bad but all one bedroom too short, but I must admit the very first one I saw was gorgeous. Pass…

Another house in Kąty Wrocławskie nice but it needs changing the furnace and heating system and probably I would have problems parking Windstar in the garage. … pass

I am going to see one house today in the our current neighbourhood. …

As for my job – I was invited to one interview but did not get the job. It was nice to be invited though!

Rain thing – I do not know how is the weather on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean but over here it rains cats and dogs. Odra river is flowing through Wrocław and in 1997 it flooded it very severeley. This year is a little bit (knock on wood!) better but still some parts of Kozanów quarters were flooded due to severe raindrop. We had literary three weeks of downpour. In fact the whole Poland suffered floods of different intensity, what is more scary rain saturated soil and there were some places with mudslides. We had a week of drier weather and now it rains again.

On the sunny side! Helena was accepted to Music School! She had exams last week and it turns out she is musically gifted kid! I am so thrilled despite the fact that she will attend music school after her regular school three times a week and we need to buy a real piano.

All the best to you my friends and pray for us so we do buy a house before September, so we have room for that piano and us.

Six Hundred Facial Tissues Later

My Dear Friends,

Here we are, six hundred tissues later… Last month was brutal I do not think there was a single day when all of us were healthy. Drippy noses, hoarse voices, coughs, fevers, enlarged lymph nodes, sore throat that woke you (me) up in the middle of the night when you (I) tried to swallow saliva, we have been through it all and I want warm weather, sun, and all of my kids in school.

Surprisingly our life here has made some tracks and follows them. Slawek goes to work, I look for work but no work is looking for me. Kids go to school pending health conditions.

As I stated at the beginning we were sick, the worst was with Helena, you know she is my  ultimate queen of middle ear infection. Sometimes she can go through it without any significant symptoms, so this time I was trying to take her symptoms easy. She had some runny nose and was a little warm-ish so I kept her at home, but since she did not improve much after a couple of days I took her to a doctor (that is another track/path I created with all my visits there) and she said that Helena is coming up with right ear infection. We have waited with antibiotics and she only took some sirup that helps with circulation in the middle ear and works as mucus thinner. Still, Helenka was not better and she ended up with antibiotic, she got the first dose and next morning she woke up with bloody discharge from he ear. Well, now I knew that in such emergency you go to the specialist emergency room. So, we did,  and another cultural shock – the laryngologist did vacuum  cleaning in her ear. I must say I was surprised because when Michał had ear infection with rupture of the membrane Foxboro practice did not send us to a specialist. In this Polish case I was seeing a specialist three times in two weeks period. Another path was done by me. Helena got better and all of the kids are attending school.

Did I tell you that Wrocław is probably the warmest part of Poland? Well, it is. Now that I am only 8-9 hours drive away from my home town I can compare how much of the difference it makes in the climate. When I have nice and warm days my folks in Lublin have about 4-5 degrees cooler weather. So, so far we have seen snowdrops in bloom and tons of crocuses yellow and violet-purple. One of the things I like in Wrocław are those crocused lawns. They look so beautiful they lift up my mood. I smile whenever I see them, and I see them a lot, my little friends. I bet my friends in California already forgotten about tulips, right? Here they are just sprouting from the soil. I love Spring’s first blooms.

Another news, I am a lucky winner in local shopping center sweepstakes. I won a pillow that, according to customer service, was worth 80 PLN. I was surprised and puzzled when I got that call. I was very intrigued what will that pillow look like, 80 PLN is about half I spend on my grocery trip to the store and my basket is quite full then. So, what kind of pillow it was? Of-course life is very simple, the pillow is rather usual, no gold threads or embellishments, just pastel blue and ivory stripes about 16×16 inches, zippered, polyester fabric. But hey, a prize is a prize. I am so happy to be a winner. I am looking forward for a bigger prize, though. The grand prize is 10,000.00 PLN and a trip with a stylist to Italy to help you blow that money on clothes, probably. So, keep your fingers crossed for me since I have never been in Italy and my wardrobe could use some style.

Slawek and I have started looking at houses, whenever one of us finds one the other finds faults in it and our mission continuous.

Well, Easter Holiday is coming and we will make another cross-country trip to see our family. I wonder how big is my grand-nephew?

Happy Easter and Spring to all of you. Stay healthy, until another time.

Kasia Turned Double Digits…

Hello my Friends and Readers,

It has been over a month since my last post, so now I have a few stories to write about.

We are almost over the winter break at school, it started February 1st and lasts for two weeks, and I am so ready for my kids to go back to school!

I must say we have one mighty winter in here. The snow I was talking about in my earlier post is still around. I mean covered by about 3 feet of fresh powder and compacted by minus 4 Farenheit that lasted us for about 2 weeks, it got easier on us, and nowadays the temperatures are in the twenties F. Here is a snapshot from our living room window done just after the heavy snowfall. It shows the road we walk to school every day. Of course school was not cancelled due to snow (Kasia was very disappointed). Kids got into snow pants and other winter gear, put their packs on the backs and walked, walked, waded in snow.

Wrocław is rather flat place, unlike my home-town Lublin, so for sledging we went to an artificial hill. It was kind of interesting because the hill is right behind the Aqua Park where they have outdoor recreational swimming pools that are open year-round. So, while my kids were doing winter stuff in full winter gear people in swim suits were swimming in a steamy pools. Just have a look:    Anyway we went there when snow was still fresh and I think half of Wrocław was on the hill as well, including teenagers who were showing ingenuity and used a variety of things to go down the hill. One of them was using top of the skateboard. He did not have a lot of luck with it and he kept saying “because of the snow I can not ride.” My kids were taking turns on sleds. That hill is quite high and has very steep side slopes, not designed for rides unless you want to kill yourself in a painful way. Unfortunately this was the idea Michal had. He was using the gentle side of the slope untill he unexpectedly turned and got on that dangerous slope. My heart stopped, my mind said “oh, no, no more injuries” I covered my eyes and when I opened them Michal was off the sleds safe and sound on the steep slope. I was really grateful to his guardian angel.

As soon as the winter break started Kasia went for winter camp away from home, for a week. She was very excited to be away from us she even wrote a poem (posted on this site in Polish). She wrote it at school in the afercare, it won the “Winter Fun”contest! Anyway we were curious how is she going to do, first time on her own. She went to Szklarska Poręba, about 150 km from Wrocław. She did very well, she did not get sick, did not break anything. She tried cross-country skiing and generally she loved camp. She came back day after her tenth birthday. They arrived sooner than expected because there were good road conditions. Sławek was a little late for her and she called home and asked “Where are you? I am cold.” I assured her daddy is on his way and she said she is going back to the bus to stay warm. It made me think “why is she cold?” The moment she got home I knew why. Somehow she has used all the underwear and hence she put nothing under her regular pants or long sleeve T. No wonder, bare butt and no socks in the low twenties gives you very profound cold feeling and lips in the plum color. Of course she had ski-suit in the bag, but she did not think about putting it on. Now she has a cough, I am hoping it will not develop into pneumonia.

While Kasia was away Helena and Michal learned skating. Helena is better at it but Michał is doing well, too. They liked skating so much they invested their pocket-money and bought own adjustable skates.

Winter from my point of view is educational as well. I learned, for example, that the garage door does not open easily in freezing temperatures and once opened does not close tight. To extract my car from the garage I have to call for help, acting like a helpless woman (that I would never admit being one). The problem with that garage door is raising pavement due to water freezing under the setts. That blocks the door so you can hardly open it and forget about closing it tight, my neighbors assure me the problem will disappear in summer. I can not wait. So with the car stuck in the garage I am back to public transportation for all my shopping and life needs. It is also acting up, the colder and more snowy it gets the less reliable it is.

I got registered with Polish unemployment office, frustrating experience. First of all they told me I need all of my diplomas, most of them were in Lublin, so I got them when I was there for Christmas. When I was getting the information about the paperwork needed I have noticed that there are long lines for those registering. So, on the day zero I collected documents, made a sandwich, took a bottle of water, put knitting project in my backpack, put a shopping bag for groceries, shut the door and went for the bus. In the bus I realized I did not take the documents. When I finally got there, I took a number something like #164 with an uplifting message there are 72 people ahead of you. My California friends does that remind you of DMV? Anyway after 3 and a half hours of waiting (I did almost whole mitten) I was seen by a clerk. She did not ask me for any documents except confirmation of my address in Wrocław, she gave me two sheets of paper to fill in at home, appointment for next meeting, and after two minutes I was done with her. Two hundred and ten minutes of waiting for things that could have been done over the internet. Bureaucracy at its prime. On the following meeting I was asked for the copies of my documents (5 minutes of the clerk time) and two new appointments for which I have to show up or my unemployed status (I have no rights for any money of course) will be cancelled. All of that for privilege to see unlisted job offers. Priceless.

I got acquainted with local orthodontist, private one, for Helena. She is going to use a device for making her mouth bigger to fit all of her growing permanent teeth. I will pay for all of the treatments out of the pocket. State health plans do provide such treatments but first you must do tongue clicking for four months then they will apply for making one for the kid under 12 years of age. I am not kidding about tongue clicking, I went to one with Kasia and Michal and the doctor recommended tongue clicking (horse sound) as an exercise before getting the device. So, my dear kids will do ‘clicking.’ Amazing. The worst thing is state takes a lot of our money to support sick health care system, where there are long lines for everything. We pay, they spend and if we need somethig we have to pay out of pocket anyway.

I hope we all stay healthy! The same goes for you my friends. So long…

Wiersz o Zimie – Autor Kasia

Najbardziej o zimie lubię zimowiska

Gdyż rodzice nie gapią się na mnie z bliska

Zjeżdżam na nartach, snowbordzie, na sankach

A w domu myslą o mydlanych bańkach

Lepiej zjeść tam parę ziemniaków niż zostać w domu gdzie nuda króluje

Gdzie brat bije mocno, gdzie siostra podrapie

Zimowisko to najlepsza rzecz na świecie choć słono kosztuje

Puppy in the National Museum

Hello my Friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrations. I am sure your kids are occupied with new toys and you are stepping back to the office to see “what’s going on with Anna and the gang?”

Well, we survived Christmas with the family and Twins birthday.

But let me start where I dropped off last time. The story with registering our car in Poland went  smoothly but with lots of driving on my side. First, I drove to mechanic to do the inspection. It was Saturday, so traffic was not so bad, and I was driving for about 45 minutes to get there, the last leg of the road was on a dirt road due to construction of fancy new one along the one in description. Still, I made it (I should remember to write “persistent” in my cover letter) the place was open, the inspector came to me and asked if all of necessary adjustments are done. I acknowledged that and then he asked me if I have all of the necessary documents translated. I said I do all but the title and of course I had to get that translated too, so I went back home empty-handed – without inspection. At home I went through all of the papers I was carrying with me to the inspector and … I found the translation. Apparently, when the car was going through customs somewhere in Chojnice somebody did the translation for us. I was not aware of that. But remember I was persistent or determined to get inspection done so I called a couple of places and one of them was still open. Once again I got to the car and drove on. The first place I went to by mistake scolded me for lack of front license plate (that one was stolen during transit) and the guy did not want to talk to me. The second place was very friendly (Fiat dealership on Karkonoska) but they were not authorized to do inspection on imported cars, however they recommended a close by place. I checked that place but it was already closed. So, I said to myself I will start my efforts again on Monday. Which I did – Monday morning inspector from that close by place did not like my car, recommended so that I get all of the adjustment redone and he recommended his friend’s place. I ignored him and went again to my first place 45 minutes away from my home. The inspector I met was the one I spoke with on previous Saturday, he asked me standard questions “Why did you get back from USA? How long did you live there? Are your kids bilingual?” (Of course I went there with all of my children.) Nice man. My Ford passed the inspection without any problems and then the inspector used original title (not the translation) to write-up certification. Next step – RMV or DMV Polish edition. Surprisingly clerks were NICE and HELPFUL and I mean it. Officially we are Lublin residents  not Wroclaw and it could be a potential problem with getting Wroclaw’s license plates but with a statement that we are going to be residents here and not there I was granted a permission for local plates. Ok, I got the plates but there was a slight problem – American plates have holes punched out for mounting them on a car, Polish ones do not. So how do you mount them? I wondered. Well the answer is simple you get sort of frame that is mounted on the car and you slip in license plate into those frames. Great but where do you buy the frames? Here I got creative I went to the close by VW dealership and asked if they sell them, I had no idea where else is a store you could buy them, and I did not have my MA plate anymore. “Ask and you shall get” it was true with me, too. I got those frames for free and now I am advertizing the VW dealership on my American car. Cool.

Due to never-ending, taking turns on being sick with my kids I decided to make a birthday party at home. Slawek was not so hot to that idea “How are you going to put 29 people in our apartment?” Helena and Michal invited twelve school mates for the party and Slawek was convinced that all of the parents will want to stay with their children. It was not what happened. First of all only seven kids came and only two moms stayed with us. Second of all the party was fantastic! I had a theme – Christmas decorations for a craft, Polly Pockets and Thomas and Friends for a free play. I am sure you know about fuse beads – the ones you make a design on a template then iron finished design and all of the loose beads became one piece. So, I gave those for the children and they were mesmerized! At first they had no idea how those beads will hold together but once they saw it they did not want to play with anything else, for hour and a half they were making designs. They were even happier when they found out they are going to take them home. I swear, it was a big hit! The two hours of the party went by really quick. I think Polly Pockets and Thomas were barely played with.

We went to Lublin for Christmas. Of course, Slawek and I had to have a difference of opinion on how to get there. I wanted to drive there in our car, he wanted to take a train or a bus. Finally we made a deal that if the forecast calls for snow by December 21 we will go by bus. We agreed that the train is not a good way of traveling because we may not have a seat for the entire journey, besides I was repeating that the last time I was on a train I was sick for three weeks afterwards. Then Slawek found out that there are horrible delays on the railroad. The forecast did call for snow and icky weather but we went by car. People are the same regardless of the country, so there were so many travellers that we could not buy tickets.

This way we test-drived Polish roads. They are not horrible, all the time! We drove from the west side of Poland to the east for 267 miles (431 km) and we made it in 9 hours (no highways just something like state roads – one lane in each direction). On our way to Lublin we have stopped for brunch at a restaurant in Wielun, little people had french fries and Kasia had pasta with bacon and wild mushroom. The pasta was delicious, the whole meal was about $12. Poland seems to have some bright sides.

Family Christmas was pretty and exhausting. We had a traditional supper on Christmas Eve at Slawek’s family and then with mine. We spent Christmas at my nieces home (half day) and we enjoyed her four-month old boy who is really big now (he was a 10 lb at birth) he is about 19 lb. Big bundle of joy! On Boxing Day we visited three places – it was a marathon and I was glad to retire the next day to cross-stich I brought with me to keep boredom off. As usual my picky eaters were harassed by strange foods offered by grandparents, they yielded only to home smoked sausage and ham(Kasia ate both, twins only the latter). Other than that they resisted everything new. Surprisingly kids did not want to go back to Wroclaw, but they did. Our way back was a little faster despite worse weather, it snowed for the second part of the journey. You do not have to ask who did all of the driving – Slawek. I only took the car out of the garage making half a million tiny turns and then put the car back in there – same story. Still, we made it safely and my husband was glad we drove. I was glad, too. Despite the fact he did not let me drive ; – )

Oh, the big news Slawek and I went for a Christmas dinner organized by his company. Kids stayed with a baby sitter. It was nice evening.

Today Slawek was almost locked up at his workplace because he did not know it is a short work day. Security guy let him out so he could celebrate New Year with his family.

As for the puppy in the National Museum, I saw one when I was there with my family. Strange thing, they barely let the visitors in at the Steward Gartner Museum in Boston, here they let you in for free every Saturday (to permanent exhibitions), give postcards of the museum collections to kids, picture taking is allowed and so are the puppies…

Happy New Year to all of you!

Anna