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!