On Thursday, our family was invited to dinner at the home of Myles' colleague, Magda. Several other people from the university and their families were there as well. We knew that the others were bringing dishes for the meal. But when we asked Magda what we could bring to contribute to the dinner, she said that she just wanted to bring our good moods!
Magda lives in a neighborhood that we had never been to before. We made it without a problem to the city center. We go there all the time. They don't live far from there but we had to find the right bus stop and there are MANY of them in the city center. It did not help that it was 48 degrees and pouring down rain as we are trying to find the right place. I had packed up our good moods, but by the time we finally located and got on the right bus they were nowhere to be found! It only took about 10 minutes to reach our stop in Magda's neighborhood. Then it was about a five minute walk (in the rain, over the hill and through the woods) to reach her apartment.
When we finally made it everyone else was already there. There were several kids there. The bigger kids played pool and the younger ones played with Legos and ran around. The food was delicious and the company was wonderful. All of the people there were associated with the university, and they all speak English fluently. They had some hearty laughs at what we thought was unusual about Poland. We complained about the tiny bottles of milk. The largest size is one liter. That's not much milk. We complained about the tiny bags of cereal, and the fact that I have to buy a dozen at a time. We complained about everything tiny (refrigerators, ovens, etc). We complained about all stores closing for minor holidays. They laughed and laughed. By the time the evening was over our good moods had reappeared. The time flew by and we enjoyed the visit.
On Friday, Myles and Ben attempted to make a trip to Stutthof. I have been there when my sister was visiting in March. They want to be sure to make it out there before we leave. I went with them to Old Town because I had an errand to do down there. We saw this sign outside the KFC with a new offer: Mojitos! We did not partake, but what a fun idea having a mojito with the original recipe! And they are cheap, too--5,99 PLN is less than $2.
They ended up not going to Stutthof because by the time they reached the bus station, there was a big gap in the schedule and they would have had to wait for a long time. They ended up going to the Post Office that was attacked on September 1, 1939, starting World War II. Myles will blog about what he and Ben saw there. They are planning to go to Stutthof tomorrow.
Yesterday we joined our neighbors at some property they have south of town. I am a little fuzzy on how this all works, but there is land that is divided up into parcels that is owned by the state. It is two kilometers from the Sea and a stone's throw from an arm of the Vistula River. Ship building and repairing goes on just on the other side of the fence of this property.
People can apply for use of the land. Our neighbors have several little pieces of this land that they acquired in 2004, and they are free to do whatever they want with it for their lifetime. They have built a little house (one bedroom, sofa, tiny kitchen, tiny bathroom) out there. Many people use these parcels of land for gardening. Mariusz and Basia have made theirs a lovely little getaway and they go there nearly every weekend that the weather is nice.
We ran into a little problem when Trey's ball went into the little pond and neither he nor the dog could figure out a solution.
We brought an American picnic with us. We served seven layer dip (always a hit at any party!). Myles grilled up some hamburgers (with a little help from Karol and Ben), complete with BBQ sauce, and we fixed a couple of American side dishes as well.
After we ate we visited and were entertained with music. Karol played and Karolina (his fiancee) sang.
The whole family joined in and sang together.
Then Karol took Natalie's request and played a little Bon Jovi!
It was at this gathering that we discovered that my firstborn baby, 15 and a half years old, is now taller than his Momma!
The kids went to school today. I spent the day sorting things in the house. I have three suitcases completely packed and ready to go and much of our winter wardrobe has already been donated. It is a huge hassle and extremely expensive to ship boxes back to the US, so we are trying to avoid that expense. We are not bringing home anything that is easily available in the US. The reality of our return home is coming quickly!
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