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

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