Our First Weekend

On Friday, there was a ceremony at the university to begin the school year. I went with Myles for the beginning of the ceremony. It was held in a very large room two stories up in an impressive looking building. I met the dean of the school of management before it started. He spoke English well and it was wonderful to get to meet him. He told Myles that he was going to introduce him to the audience during his speech. There were probably 200 people in the room. So we sit and before long there is a procession in from the back of the very large room. The professors arrive in the room from the back and they are dressed in full academic attire. The ladies (there were four) had on black robes with gigantic collars and their tams. There were two men; one was the dean. He had on his black robe and then he had a medallion on a huge chain. It was really cool and kind of reminded me of Harry Potter. The other man was the "rector." He had on his black robe and then a kind of animal print fur around his shoulders. Fun to see these differences!

The dean spoke first (everyone spoke in Polish). He introduced several people and they stood up and people applauded. He went on for quite a while. Then he started speaking in English and introduced Myles. He welcomed him to the university and said they were happy that he is there. It was a very nice speech (well at least the paragraph that I understood was very nice). Then the rector got up and spoke. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying. But apparently he was quite funny because the audience laughed quite a bit. He may have even been making fun of us...who knows? I went on home after his speech and Myles stayed and worked.

Poor Trey has been feeling very homesick. I was on a mission to find a playground for him to play and run around. On the map we found a park (called John Paul II Park!). Myles was teaching yesterday morning so the kids and I set out to find this park. We walked and walked and finally found it. Much to Trey's dismay they had one slide and no swings! Though he was disappointed in the playground equipment, the kids did kick a soccer ball around, run and play.

Yesterday afternoon , Natalie and I made a trek to a big grocery store that we have to take the bus to. We managed just fine but there were a few bumps along the way! First somehow we managed to get off the bus a stop early. It was no big deal, we could see our destination so we just walked the extra two blocks. So we are checking things out at the store, shopping away. It was pretty crowded as it was Saturday afternoon. But we were managing just fine. We checked out and then realized that we had too much stuff for our little rolling cart. You either bring your own bags or buy them from the grocery store or don't use any. Many people don't use any at all and put their stuff in carts or backpacks or whatever. I have a reusable bag at our house but I did not think to bring it with us since we had our cart. So Natalie got back in line to buy a couple of plastic (Walmart type) bags while I waited with the groceries 10 feet away. I do not understand what was so upsetting, but the check out lady was very annoyed with Natalie and was saying something in an animated (and mad) way. Finally she took Natalie's money for the bags and slammed her cash drawer shut, and continued to say whatever it is that she was saying. Poor Natalie! Lucky for us though, we have no idea what she said and we still do not know what we did that was so out of line. We will remember to bring our bags with us next time!!! We left the grocery store and headed for the bus stop. We checked two stops and did not see our bus number. I called Myles and asked him where our bus stop was. He told us, we found it and we made it home without further incident!

We have been washing our laundry in the washing machine and then drying it outside as folks do here. This was all very charming for about three days. Now I'm thinking I've had enough of this and I need a dryer. I fully realize that my wish will not come true, but I still think I need one. Yesterday was pretty breezy. At one point we found a pair of Ben's underwear had blown onto the neighbor's fence and a pair of the girls' undies were in their yard. Today was quite windy so we brought the drying rack thing into the living room and that's where our drying laundry is. I certainly don't need any more unmentionables blowing all over Gdansk! We'll put it back outside just as soon as we can.

This morning we went to church at 11:00. Last week, before we arrived, Myles went to a church about a mile from our house. We had planned to go to the same one but as we were walking we saw lots of families walking to a different one (that is actually only about six blocks away). It is St. Stanislaus. Myles had told us that the Mass last week was attended by lots of elderly people and there were very few kids. The church we went to this morning had many families and kids were everywhere. This is definitely where we want to be! Kids read the readings and there was a kids choir. Our next step is to figure out how to get our kids involved in activities there.

The Mass was in Polish but otherwise was very similar to what our family is used to. One difference is that at communion time people just head on up to the altar--I'm used to Prince of Peace when we go in order! Also, you kneel to receive communion and you do not receive it in your hands. They place it on the tongue and the server has his patten. I remember this as a kid. I was probably my kids' age when we switched to receiving communion in our hands. But it was all new to my kids. Last week at Prince of Peace we took a missalette (with Fr. Franks' blessing!) to bring with us. So we read the readings before we went to Mass this morning so we knew the readings for today.

This afternoon we went about two miles north and saw the beach and the Baltic Sea. Really, really neat! It was cool and windy but there were lots of people out walking around. There were a lot of jelly fish washed up on the beach. The kids were very intrigued with seeing them. We walked out on the pier. It had been raining off and on so there was a rainbow. I imagine we will go there frequently and it will be really fun in May and June next year when the kids can swim!

One of our boxes arrived today! That was a welcome sight. I have no idea why it arrived on a Sunday but our landlord brought it over. It looked like it had been through a very rough time! It was pretty squished up. This box had some pajamas, books, blankets, winter boots and clothes. We were happy to get it! There are four more boxes that are supposed to arrive between October 12-17.

We are going to Krakow on Wednesday. We are taking an overnight train, a sleeper car and will arrive at about 6:30 in the morning on Thursday. That should be interesting but it can't be any worse than the overnight airplane flight. At least on the train you can move around, go to the dining car, lay down in a bed, etc. I am really looking forward to visiting the stomping grounds of John Paul II. We are also going to Auschwitz. The girls are reading "I have lived A Thousand Years" (couldn't figure out how to underline that book title) by Livia Bitton-Jackson before we go. The author was taken to Auschwitz as a 13 year old girl. We hope that by reading about a girl their own age who went through hell, they will have a deeper understanding for what happened, and a deeper appreciation for all that we have today. The other thing we are really looking forward to is hanging out with another American Fulbright family there! They have two small kids and we will enjoy storytelling with them.