Warsaw - Week 1

Thank you to everyone who has left such wonderful and encouraging comments on the blog. We are thankful to be blessed with such supportive family and friends. Many people have said they are proud of me for embracing this adventure. Lets be honest...it is not easy for me! I am not a very adventurous girl, and this trip is WAY out of my comfort zone. I knew going into this that I would get homesick sometimes, and Monday and Tuesday were the first days that I wished that I were home instead of here. Really REALLY wished. I think part of the reason is that Krakow looked totally different from Calgary, but Warsaw does not. It reminds me more of home than Krakow did which made me miss home more. Also, when we were in Krakow we were on vacation and it felt like the end of our eleven days there was a natural time to go home. Instead, we came here and it hit me that we would be here for a really long time. A REALLY long time.

Monday I didn't feel well, but we had to go to the grocery store anyway. If you have ever thought to yourself that it would be super fun to take your 4 young children to a foreign grocery store where you can't find anything, read anything or get any real information from anyone, I would caution you otherwise. By the time we were done selecting all the groceries, I was one grouchy bear. Then while we were in the checkout, Julia and Michael decided to sneakily open a Kinder Egg Surprise that was still sitting on the shelf, which did not make the Polish grocery lady very happy and in turn sent the grouchy bear over the edge. I think if I could have flapped my own arms to fly us home that day, I would have. Since then, we have gotten slightly better at the grocery store, but only slightly.

Tuesday we went to the mall. Yes, the mall, which I generally try to avoid at home. We needed a few things though, so that is where we went. There is quite a big mall about a 25 minute walk from our apartment (http://www.zlotetarasy.pl/en/). We found a play place there for the kids (like a small Let's Play) and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, so the children were happy. It turns out that I don't really like the mall in Poland any more than I like it in Canada. Who knew? The good news is that we found a better grocery store there, got some kitchen things we needed, Gord got some items that he needed for work, and we got a new stroller so that Krista could stop carrying Julia around. It was a relatively succesful trip, but I was still feeling down. That is...

...until Wednesday when we made some friends!! PwC (Gord's company) hosted a lunch for all the families (complete with cotton candy machine) and we met some very nice people. I instantly felt better! They also hosted a dinner that night (with a massive amount of really delicious Polish food) and we got to know people a little bit better. The kids were happy too. Julia was better behaved that day than she had been in over a week. Gord left Thursday for three days away at a retreat, and we hung out with the other families the whole time. I suspect this experience will be a little bit like living in Residence at the U of A (without the debauchery, of course) in that in this type of environment you make good friends really quickly.

Later in the week, we went to a park called Ogrod Saski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogrod_Saski) which is about a 30 walk from the apartment:

This is Julia and our new friend Sienna (6). She is from England. Her mom is part of the coaching team for Gord's course.

This is Lily and Erin (4), Sienna's little sister.

Owen, just hanging around.

While the kids played, Krista tried to brush up on her Polish with our Polish Phrase Book. That is, until the kids asked if they could have the book. Polish boys had tried to talk to Owen in Polish, and when he tried to say "Nie mowie po polsku" (which means I don't speak Polish) the boys started laughing, so he decided to try and talk to them using the phrase book. It all seemed very lovely until we found out what he was trying to say. Owen and his new friend Mia (6) were killing themselves laughing because they were calling each other a toilet in Polish and asking Polish kids if they were wearing bikinis. This, of course, cracked up the Polish kids and helped to improve international relations. At one point, however, Julia got into a fight with a Polish boy who looked like he was about 10 and was twice her size. She screamed "English!" and he would yell back "I don't speak English. Polish!" (in English) and she would yell "Nye, Buster!!" while shaking her finger in his face. Only Julia! I did see her playing nicely with one girl, and when we were leaving the park I asked her if she made a new Polish friend, and she said "Mom, she is my ONLY Polish friend!" Well, duh!

The park is home to this beautiful fountain.

These goofy kids, however, were just passing through.

Owen, Lily, Erin, Sienna, Julia, Michael. Mia (6) and her brother Vinnie (4) are behind Michael. They are from Boston.

The park is also home to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

By the end of the week, I was feeling on top of the world. Well, at least on top of Poland. However, nothing lasts forever, and by Saturday some of us were hit with some sort of flu bug (or possibly bad water, we are not sure). Michael fell first, then Julia, then Lily. Gord, Krista and Owen remain healthy and went to church yesterday and out for lunch afterward. Today Gord went to work, and Krista and Owen went to the mall with our friends from Boston. The rest of us, however, stayed in the prison (I mean apartment), which we haven't left since Saturday. I have spent more money at the iTunes store buying apps and movies to keep sick kids happy than I care to acknowledge. If all goes well, we will go to the zoo tomorrow. If not though, we will stay here...forever...and ever...

Sick!

Hi,

It has been awhile since I last posted anything here. Sorry! We spent the week getting settled and then the kids came down with some sort of bug. So far in our little family, three down and four to go. Hopefully, those four are hearty enough to avoid this plague. At any rate, I hope to post something new about our first week in Warsaw tomorrow, since I won't be going out anywhere! For now, I am off to relax on the couch and watch a movie with Krista.

Talk to you soon,

Carla.

The Krakow Wrap Up, Part 1

I just wanted to show you a few final things from Krakow:

We went on a boat trip down the Vistual River. It was short, but nice.

This is the courtyard of Wawel Castle. We spent two afternoons there, but we were only allowed to take pictures outside. Sorry!

At Wawel Castle, there was this nice statue of JPII.

This is the view from the bell tower of Wawel Cathedral. The staircase was really long and windy and narrow and I kind of hated it. Luckily, Lily didn't like it either so I didn't have to go all the way to the top.

The kids were not totally thrilled with the tour of the castle, but they were happy when they found this huge tree they pretended was a fort, until the security guard asked us to get off the grass!

They also liked this cave called the Dragon's Den.

The cave led to a huge dragon statue that breathed real fire.

There were rocks to climb outside the cave. Who doesn't love to climb rocks?

Gord had his first day of work today. Tomorrow, he leaves for three days for some team building excercises. Hopefully, the kids and I will get to know some of the other families better over the next week or so. We met many of them today at lunch, and they seem like a great group.

Movin' On Up

We are in Warsaw! The flight from Krakow was less than an hour, and we arrived on Sunday afternoon. We thought our new apartment would be nice, but we were a bit worried that we had built it up so much in our minds that we would be disappointed. We were not! Here are some pictures of our journey:

This is Michael the night before we left, clutching his new Krakow dragon pillow.

We didn't have much time for breakfast before we left for the airport, so we decided to quickly buy pretzels from one of the kabillion pretzel vendors in Krakow. The kids got mini pretzel necklaces, which they thought were totally cool.

That is, until we came across a cafe that served waffles over the counter (which somehow magically fit into our time frame)

This is everyone making a W for Warsaw soon after we arrived.

Home Sweet Home!

If you have ever wondered how a family of seven and all their luggage get from the airport to the hotel, the answer is that big van you see in the background.

This is Justina. She is one of the girls that works at the concierge desk in our building. She knows everything about Warsaw, and that makes her my new best friend!

We are on the 19th floor, which means we have great views, but also means that I am terrified when someone goes too close to a window. It doesn't help that apparently people here aren't that worried about safety (except of course, in the case of waterslides) and the very big windows swing wide open with enough space for an adult to easily jump through. I am considering tying everyone to the floor with a safety rope.

This is our bedroom. Love it!

This is Lily in the girls' room. She really does like it. I am not sure what was with the pouty face!

This is Julia in the boys' room. This will be the only time in his life that Owen will have a T.V. in his room! He is more than a little excited.

Michael and Julia in the kitchen. They said it was fully equipped, but it doesn't have oven mitts, a spatula, measuring cups or a peeler. Apparently, they did not consult a mom about which contents to include!

A couch that can fit all seven of us!

We were instantly in love with our beautiful new apartment. However, the part we were most excited about, since we do love to eat, were the 2 bags of food and goodies in the fridge that PwC left for us! Thanks PwC! We love a good snack!

I have more to post about our time in Krakow, but I was excited to show you where we are now. Soon, I will finish up the posts about Krakow and then on to new adventures in Warsaw!

The Salt Mine

Earlier this week we visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine). I was scared to go since I am not all that fond of small, cramped spaces and I had heard that the 380 steps on the way down and the elevator on the way back up were pretty tight. In fact, I was so worried that I couldn't sleep until 2 am the night before. What? I worried myself into not being able to sleep? Hard to believe, I know, but totally true. In fact, there may have been some inability to breath on my part when thinking about it, but lets not dwell on that. I considered not going while we were standing in line, but when I looked around at all the young children and senior citizens around me (some of whom had problems walking) I decided not to chicken out (did you hear that Dana...I did not chicken out! I thought you would be so proud!) In the end, the stairs were easy peasy and the descent was not a big deal. The elevator back up was actually kind of fun.

Now you are wondering why we would visit a salt mine, given that we have never shown much of an interest in the excavation of salt before. But what you don't know about this particular mine is that after working an eight hour shift underground, some of the miners decided to stay and carve the salt.

And, as it turns out, they were master sculptors. My pictures do not do it justice. If I were you, I would check out some pictures online or wait for Krista to post hers. Alternatively, you could come here and see it for yourself. It is truly amazing and you won't be disappointed. In the end, we did learn about the history and logistics of salt mining, which is much more interesting than you would think. However, it was the dedication to and creation of beauty that was most impressive about this place. Julia and Lily have already decided to get married in the mine (which people do), so start saving your pennies for the flight over here.

Gotta love a tour where you can lick the walls!

Totally Random

There are a few things I have been wanting to tell you but they are small so I will lump them all into one post.

1. When people tell you that drivers in Poland are crazy, they are not kidding. Crazy, crazy, crazy!! On our way to Auschwitz, I thought there was a real possibility that the driver would kill us. During that ride, a man from England yelled at the driver to slow down and stop driving like a maniac. Today we actually had a good driver. Krista said it was the first time she actually felt safe while in a vehicle in Poland. We had the opportunity to talk with our driver quite a bit (because it was only our family on the tour) and he explained that Polish people have lived under the oppressive laws of so many foreign governments (Austrian, German, Russian) that they have gotten used to bending the rules, being a bit subversive and not trusting authority which has trickled down to the way they ignore (I say totally ignore, he said bend) the law while driving. Interesting theory, but still scary.

2. Sometimes, the differences between Poland and Canada are good and sometimes they are not. A case in point was our trip to Park Wodny. (http://www.parkwodny.pl/) They had the greatest change room I have ever seen. It was like a gigantic family change room, which was great for us so that we could all stay together. It was totally clean, partly because there were staff who's whole job it was to constantly squeegee the floor and keep it free of those disgusting pools of water, hair and garbage that so often pile up in change rooms. As soon as we paid at the entrance, they gave us each an electronic bracelet to wear to keep track of how long we were there (so they could charge us accordingly), but it also acted as a mechanism to lock and unlock the locker. No quarters!! Love it! Finally, when we were about to enter the pool there was a tap that turned on a spray to disinfect our feet before entering or leaving the pool area. I have never seen the likes of it in Canada, and will forever hold this up as the gold standard for change rooms (Normally change rooms really gross me out. Can you tell??) The kids were totally excited to try out the water slides that they had seen on the computer. And then...

...we found out that you have to be at least 10 years old to go on any of them, even if a parent goes with you. The kids were so disappointed, especially since they are used to going on all sorts of water slides in Canada. They must be killer water slides, we thought. No, no, they were not! Gord and Krista tried out a few, and they said they had to try their hardest to even get down some of them. No speed!

Best change rooms. Worst riding policy. I guess you can't win them all.

PS We did still manage to stay in the pool for an hour and a half, so it wasn't all that bad, just disappointing.

3. There are nuns everywhere in Krakow! EVERYWHERE!! And some of them are young! We play a game everyday to see how many we can count. On our worst day, we only counted 10. On our best day, we counted 48. 48 NUNS!!! I can only imagine that seeing that many nuns on a regular basis would help young girls with their discernment to the call to religious life (you know, as opposed to seeing a nun once a year in Canada).

4. We may be able to count the nuns, but it would be impossible to count the pigeons. There are so many here it is ridiculous. I guess that is true of all the major city squares in Europe, but I have never seen anything like it before.

So many!

The kids helping Krista lure one in for the perfect shot.

They love to chase them.

Careful where you put your hand, or you might get pigeon poop on your finger!

5. We have all started to use more Polish words. Don't get too excited, I am only talking about please, thank you, excuse me, etc. It isn't much, but it is a start. The weirdest thing though, is that I have adopted a Polish accent while speaking English to Polish people. You know, because that will help them understand me! Seriously weird, but I can't seem to stop!