Palm Sunday

I am having a great time with my sister in town! On Saturday it was rainy and in the low 40s. She was still getting acclimated to the time difference so we had a low key day. We went to our nearby mall and shopped with the girls for Easter dresses. They each found one that they are happy with and they both found new spring shoes to match their outfits. We enjoyed wandering around and visiting. Ben and Trey took the bus and met us at the mall for lunch. Then we came home and hung around the house for the rest of the day. Myles arrived home from his trip to France in the evening.

Daylight Savings Time started for us today, so we lost our hour last night. Pam is extra lucky this year. Not everyone gets to spring forward twice in one year (at home in California two weeks ago and now here)! Fortunately, she is still time confused so another lost hour is not having too much of an effect on her. This morning we went to Mass for Palm Sunday. I had decided before we went to church that we were not going to get palms to bring home. Well that all changed when I arrived at church! We walked in and everyone was holding beautiful handmade palm creations. These are so pretty and we do not have anything like this at home for Palm Sunday.

There were children singing and holding their "palms" (for lack of a better word) up high. Whenever they got to the refrain where Jesus is mentioned, they waved their palms around. It was an impressive and very sweet scene. Well, I could not resist, and we did get one of these creations. Mass started and the priest blessed all of the people and the palms. Then he started down the aisle and all of the people followed him. I had no idea where we were going but we didn't want to miss out, so we followed along. He went out the side door and all of the altar boys and the congregation followed. A couple of altar boys had microphones and speakers physically attached to themselves and were singing.

We made one lap around the outside of the church and then went back in. Everyone was in a different seat than we started out in. We were at the end of the procession so there were no seats left. We ended up going up the stairs to the choir loft and sitting up there with some others who had also lost their seats. The rest of Mass was the same as always. We are looking forward to seeing the Easter celebration. On our way home from church we stopped by the grocery store. There was a guy outside, dressed in a dingy gray bunny costume, holding his bunny head, smoking a cigarette. Wish I had a picture of that!

In the afternoon we took Pam to the small Solidarity Museum and to the memorial for the ship builders who were killed in 1970. We had been there before but it was interesting to see again. Here are Pam and Natalie by the "dominoes" at the museum.

They symbolize the chain reaction that occurred when Poland finally broke free from communism. The rest of the countries that were under Soviet control soon broke free as well. After the museum we walked to one of our favorite restaurants here. It is a Turkish restaurant with really yummy kebabs. It's only kind of Turkish because they also have pizza that the kids love. We saw this cute, little, old lady on the way to the restaurant. She is holding a pigeon that is eating out of her hand. I love her hat, her cane and her intense focus on that bird!

After dinner we had to take a tram and a bus home. As we exited the tram we saw our bus coming down the street. We had to run to catch it, and we did! P is learning lots about public transportation. It is quite exciting! Tomorrow P, Natalie and I are going to the Stutthof Musuem. WWII started here in Gdansk on September 1, 1939. Stutthof was the first concentration camp. It was set up September 2, 1939 and it was the last one to be shut down. This will be a somber visit but I think since we are in this part of the world we are obligated to learn and understand what happened here.