We've Been Downright Boring

I am so glad that we had a couple of birthdays in January to liven things up, or we all might have gone mad. It has been very cold, and according to news reports here, the harshest winter in Europe in over 20 years. We can't say we've been too thrilled to be a part of THAT! But we are thankful to have a nice place to live, a big grocery store 1/2 a mile away and the internet at our fingertips.

We have not been out much at all unless we had to. It was bitterly cold the past few weeks. So we only went out to the grocery store when it was absolutely necessary. On Monday the kids were supposed to go to school and they were all looking forward to it to go somewhere. But when we got up in the morning, the temperature was -10 Fahrenheit. I flat out refused to make our school trek in that weather! My decision was not popular, but there was no way we were going. I think if we had gone out the kids would have agreed with me pretty quickly. It's one thing to brave the elements when it is regular cold, but at some point (and -10 is past "some point" to me) it's just stupid to mess with dangerous temperatures.

The bitter cold has let up somewhat. We contacted the kids' school and the director graciously allowed the kids to come on Wednesday instead of Monday. It seemed almost balmy walking to school in snow and 18 degrees! It really wasn't bad at all. When I picked up the kids it was about 23 degrees, AND it was still light for our entire walk home. Things are looking up!

We have all occupied ourselves by finding and listening to the Jayhawks' games online. That's always fun!

Also, we are up to date with American Idol! We are enjoying season 9 so far. We are a couple of days behind with it each week, but what a treat to be able to see it at all! There was a news story about a dog here that somehow found himself on a sheet of ice floating down the Vistula River. According to reports there were people in town who saw this dog on the river through Gdansk. The Vistula River empties into the Baltic Sea so this pooch floated on out there for more than 30 miles! Finally, a boat on the Sea saw him and he was rescued.

We have been doing lots of school work. I know the kids are tired of it. I know I'm tired of it, too! But we are taking a February break next week. We are taking a nine day trip to Scotland and Ireland, and we have no plans of doing any school while we are gone!

Today it warmed up to nearly 30 degrees so Trey and Abbie were finally able to get out and really play in the snow.

They wanted to build a snowman but the snow did not pack very well today. They may try again tomorrow.

We have come to the unanimous agreement that none of us will miss January in Poland! And while this may have been an unusually COLD winter, the darkness is not unusual. We have added nearly an hour of daylight to the days since the beginning of January, and the difference is significant enough each day that it is noticeable (and very welcome). So long January!

We Are Freezing

It is really cold here in Poland! That is not surprising--it is January after all. But from what we understand this has been an unusually cold and snowy winter for Gdansk. Right now it is -4 Fahrenheit. It has not been above freezing here yet in 2010, and the forecast for the upcoming week does not look promising. It looks like we will be getting an additional 4-6 inches of snow midweek. We have been staying home the vast majority of the time. We are all anxious to get out and do something, but it is really just to cold to be out running around. Ben and Trey found the KU game online last night and enjoyed listening to the Jayhawks win. We're watching a lot of movies, playing board games and doing school work to keep ourselves busy. There's nothing we can do but wait the weather out, so that's what we are doing.

Trey's Happy Birthday

Trey turned seven today. He woke up early and has been very excited all day long. It is very cold here and we just hung around the house all day. Myles came home from work at about 4:00 and Trey opened his presents. He got the movie "Monsters vs. Aliens." He has wanted to see that movie since it came out in the theaters. The DVD we bought is in Polish, but we can change it to English. We could also watch it in Czech or Slovakian if we want. He was very happy when he opened it up.

He also got a couple of transformers and a few new Thomas vehicles and trains. I love that he has not outgrown his love of trains yet. He has a bunch over here and still drives them all around the house.

We went to his favorite place on earth for dinner and he enjoyed his chicken nuggets and french fries! Myles is in the background eating Chinese food from the food court. The Chinese place and the pizza place in the food court put the food on ceramic dinner dishes (totally breakable). You eat your meal and then return the plate to the restaurant when you are done.

We came home and continued the celebration with cake. He made a wish and blew out his candle. When we got home, Trey was thrilled to see that his class had sent him a very nice Happy Birthday email. It was so sweet of them to send that on his birthday. He was surprised and delighted. Trey's is the last birthday we will celebrate here. My birthday (July) is next and we will be home before it rolls around!

It is still quite cold here. It has not been above freezing so far yet in January. We keep waiting! Ben has had to go to school three times this week. He went on Monday for his regular day of school. He and his classmates have been preparing for a British standardized physics test. That test was administered this morning. Yesterday morning he went in for a review session and then this morning he went in for some review as well. Then the test was late this morning. He just went by himself to school yesterday and today which was nice. When they all go I always go with them in the mornings and pick them up afterwards. To get to school, it is a 10 minute walk to the tram, then a five minute tram ride, then a 10 minute walk to get to school. The walking includes crossing a very busy street and crossing working railroad tracks. We've had to stop and wait for trains to pass before. Ben is fine to handle that himself, but I don't want the big kids to have to be responsible for handling all of that with Trey. We will find out how he did on the test sometime in March or April. They reviewed quite a bit so I would be surprised if any of the kids did not do well. And while this test will not count toward any of Ben's studies back home, we decided that the experience of taking it would be good. Also, he will have familiarity with physics when he does take it at Aquinas eventually.

Myles and I went to city hall on Friday to try to get our residency completed. We arrived with all of our paperwork and the lady told us that our landlord has to fill out a form and provide some other documentation regarding ownership of the house we are renting. So we still have that to do, but hopefully that will be the end of our obligation regarding residency. I wonder if we will even get our cards before we head back home in five months! We have not been out and about much since the weather has been so cold. We are really starting to notice that the days are getting longer. It was still light at 4:00 today! That is a welcome sight!

Our Beach

We took the tram to the beach on Wednesday. As we were walking from the tram to the beach (maybe the equivalent of four or five blocks), I was questioning my own sanity. It was cold! But the moment we walked past the line of trees and onto the beach, I was so glad we came.

There is something so tranquil about waves on the shore. We did not have Christmas cards made or sent out this year. I wanted a picture on the snowy beach for our Christmas card, but we did not have any snow before Christmas. So I am considering this picture as our belated Christmas card!

And the unique experience of walking on a snow covered beach is totally worth it. I was surprised to see quite a number of people (maybe 20 or so) walking about on the beach. There was a young woman (probably around 18 or 19) having her picture taken. She was wearing a sleeveless top and skirt. She had to be freezing! We really enjoyed the swans. Here are Natalie and a couple of her friends contemplating the sea.

We took a loaf of bread to share with them. As they saw Natalie walking toward them, they ran at top speed to reach her. They knew she had goodies to share!

They have huge, black webbed feet, and watching swans run is hilarious. At one point they lined up and waited for Natalie to give each a piece of bread--very polite!

Trey was a little afraid at first to let the swans take bread out of his hand. When he finally was brave enough, one swan gave his hand a little nibble! Luckily he thought it was funny and had gloves on. It didn't hurt too badly. This picture was right before Trey fed one himself. I believe this one was the biter!

As we were leaving I took this picture of the kids. We'll come back to this particular spot as the seasons change and take updated photos.

There were large snow drifts in various places on the beach. Ben found this big one and the man vs. nature conflict kicked in. Ben was victorious!

Abbie and Trey took on smaller drifts.

The sun is shining today--that's something we have not seen in Gdansk for a long time. It is forecasted to be sunny tomorrow as well. We are always happy to see a sunny day, even if it is still cold!

January

Well, it is certainly winter here in Poland. But it has not been as bad here as it has been at home, so I will keep griping to a minimum. We have had a few days in the teens, but mostly it is in the 20s during the days and teens overnight.

Myles has been in Barcelona for a few days for a study abroad program with Rockhurst students. He met two fellow Rockhurst professors and about 20 students there. He was hoping for some warm Spain weather, but it was not to be. It was colder there than it normally is this time of year (though warmer than here). He enjoyed seeing some familiar faces, but we are glad to have him back home with us tonight! He came home to about six inches of snow on the ground. Luckily, the temperatures are in the upper 20s today, so it could be a lot worse.

The kids went back to school yesterday (Monday). Here they are walking to school in the morning, and it's still pretty dark.

The days will get longer as the days go by, so heading to and from school in the dark are going to be only memories very soon. Here's how light it was by the time we got to school (about 20 minutes after the first picture was taken).

The kids have been wanting to get out in the snow and play. Ben just couldn't help himself and HAD to throw a snowball. There is enough snow to build a snowman and I think the kids are planning to do that tomorrow. I need to pick up a carrot at the store for the nose, though!

Today we were invited to join the rest of the International School students as they went on a field trip to a wall climbing activity. We met the classmates there, and they had a blast. It was a great thing to do to get them out of the house. We hurried through all of our school work this morning so we could go this afternoon. Here's Ben making his way up the wall.

 

Trey and Natalie are in the middle, making progress. 

 

This picture of Abbie did not turn out great and she was annoyed by that. But I reminded her that the entire previous blog was about her, so she's ok with it now.

Here is Trey confirming all our suspicions that he is indeed a little monkey! 

We've been a little stir crazy so this was a very nice outing, where the kids could play and socialize with their school friends. We don't have much planned for the rest of the month. We'll just be doing school work and getting out and about around Gdansk as we can. Ben and I will continue to try to figure out Geometry. I think we have a good handle on it, but that doesn't mean we have to like it! We do plan to make it a couple miles north to the Baltic Sea to check out the snow covered beach in the next few days. I'm not too worried about missing it...the temperature is not supposed to rise above freezing any time in the next two weeks. We hope everyone is staying warm!

Abbie Turns 12 Today

It is cold and snowy today (not as cold or as snowy as KC, but still). But even with cold and snow, we have had a fun day celebrating Abbie's 12th birthday. She has had a great day! She was off to a great start when she received a fun and unusual purse from her daddy. Abbie LOVES purses and believes with all her heart that a girl can never have too many!

She also is a big Webkinz fan. She has seven or eight already, but the last time she received one was last year on her birthday, so her Webkinz access was about to expire. I have no way to acquire a Webkinz from here, so I enlisted the help of my sister in California. Aunt P put her Abbie cap on, and she picked out the PERFECT one for Abbie--a pink monkey with hearts all over.

She took a picture of the monkey holding a "Happy Birthday" sign and emailed that and the code to me, and she will bring "Lucy" along when she comes to visit us in March. Abbie was over the moon Aunt P, so I am very grateful for your help. Abbie requested nachos for lunch--that I can easily do! Then Abbie and I went shopping for a new outfit as one of her birthday presents. She enjoyed shopping and picking out new clothes. She made a fine choice as far as I'm concerned--look how cute!

She requested what all Gartland children in Poland request for their birthday dinner: McDonald's.

Everyone else met us at the mall and we enjoyed McDonald's together. When we got home we had some birthday cake.

She made her wish and blew out her candles. 

She received a card in the mail from her classmates. They sent pictures of themselves forming letters and the words, "Abbie, we miss you!" She was absolutely delighted, 6-M! She also received many email birthday wishes which made her day today!

Happy 2010!

Last night we went out to see what New Year's Eve was like in Budapest. Turns out it is quite a wild party! There were throngs of people wearing all kinds of crazy hats, masks, costumes, etc. Our kids got into the spirit of things.

That part was fun. Where we ran into a problem was with people who were throwing firecrackers into the crowd. That was frightening. Abbie and Trey were both very stressed at the pops that were coming from every direction. There were so many people it was hard to keep track of everyone. At one point Natalie became separated from our family. Our friends had set out with us and we could not find them either. We were more certain than not that she was with them but we didn't know. It turned out that she was with them and we were able to contact them by cell phone. So our worry, though intense, was short lived, only about 20 minutes. As it grew later, the party became wilder and that's when we opted out. At about 10:40 we headed back to our apartment and watched a live broadcast from Berlin as they rang in the new year. We could see lots of fireworks from our windows and we could hear the people of Budapest partying well into the wee hours of the morning.

Today we headed to a place called Memento Park. The Hungarians had a clever idea for what to do with all of the statues left over from the Soviet Communist era. They took all of the statues and put them in one park. The Hungarians however, need a little help with tourism. This park is out in the middle of nowhere and it is very hard to get to. Here is where the bus dropped us off. It was a little creepy! There's nothing like being dropped off in No Man's Land in Hungary!

The park was really cool...but was a gigantic muddy mess! They gave us bootie things to wear over our shoes. Here are Abbie and Leanne showing them off!

At first we didn't think we needed the bootie things. We quickly realized that we were wrong and everyone wore them! There were all kinds of statues at the park and it is hard to imagine that there was such a Soviet presence here not so many years ago. Here is a giant statue of Stalin at the entrance to the park.

There was an enormous statue of Stalin that was torn down in the 1956 uprising. The entire statue was destroyed except for Stalin's boots. The boots are actually outside and Trey is standing with a replica that is indoors.

We made the long journey back into the downtown area and went back to our apartment for a while. Then Myles and I dropped the kids off with our friends and we went on a dinner cruise on the Danube. Our kids are certainly old enough to not need a babysitter, but we are not comfortable leaving them in a strange city, where they don't speak the language, in an apartment in the middle of downtown alone. So they just hung out with Leanne and the Key family while we were gone. We have had such a great time with all of them since we have been here. (We are the old ones of the group, though--none of them were born in time for the Bicentennial!) The cruise was an hour and a half and there was a buffet and a live string trio playing.

The lights were beautiful and Myles and I had a very nice date! What a great way to start out a new year! We head back to Gdansk Saturday. In the evening we are taking a sleeper train at about 8:00p.m. We will arrive in Warszawa around 7:00a.m. and then will take a different train for five hours to Gdansk. I am looking forward to getting "home" but it's going to be a long trip!