I'm an aunt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so, honestly, how many relatives nearly had heart attacks??? Heeheeeheee. What I mean is that I love being an "aunt" to the Stevenson's three daughters, Abby, Cara, and Becca. Overseas, it's really important to have that extended family relationship, so the other adults are aunts and uncles to the kids here. I love it! This past Friday, Amber and I hung out with our nieces while Sean and Lydia went out together. We had a blast and it was such a blessing to me to get to spend time with them! Kids are great. We played games, played piano, watched a movie, and ended the night with a little goofy photo shoot. Yup, we got them all hyped up and rarin' to go right before their parents returned...I LOVE being an aunt! The only thing that could have made it better is to bring them some obnoxiously loud toys. Next time =)

Does Anyone Know a Good Mime School?

Ok, so first, let me clarify my top ten...there was actually more to that post, but for whatever reason it got cut off. I wanted to add that it hasn't really been THAT cold here, so don't feel too sorry for me. In fact, it's been colder back in Ohio than it has here! Amber and I were just a wee bit bored Saturday night.
So, now that that's all cleared up...
Not too much going on here these days. We finished full-time language learning this past Friday and now will go two days a week until June. So, that means we have the remaining three days of the free for now. Classes just started back up at the University last week (their semesters run Oct-Feb and Feb-July...different) so we haven't been able to start anything out there just yet. We're still waiting to hear back about getting a room reserved before we start publicizing and inviting stuents. It's only our second day without language class, but it's a little weird. We kind of sat around yesterday wondering "ok, what do we do now???" We definitely found plenty to do today, though! We did quite a few different things and had some kind of frustrating language experienes. Living in a different culture is so very...um, different. It's so strange to not be able to communicate with people. I mean, just think about not being able to ask for what you want at a store, so you go for "plan B"; not being able to help people out when they ask a question; or wondering how frustrated the people behind you in line are when the cashier is clearly asking you for something, but you have NO idea what; or just not being able to make "small talk" with a sweet old lady on the bus...it can be SO frustrating at times, and today was kind of one of those days. The sweet news is that at one point in the day when we were indeed in a long line for monthly bus tickets and being asked for something that we didn't understand, a really sweet high school girl stepped up and asked, in english, if she could help. God is good! And, another encouraging experience is that we met our neighbors and they are a couple around my parent's age and he has lived in New York and Chicago, speaks great english, and offered to help us at any time with anything we need...which they really mean in Poland; that's not just an empty offer like it sometimes is in the states; they really expect you to ask them to help out and we're already making a list! =)
So far, I've learned SO much from living in another culture. I think it would be great for everyone to experience, even if it's just spending some time in an "ethnic" part of town or something. I can see how wrong I've been in how I thought about non-english speakers in the states. To be honest, I had some prejudice, thinking they should know how to speak english if they want to live there and thinking less of them because they don't speak my language. How wrong is that?! Sadly, it's the truth. But, here I am, feeling the same way...in a country whose language I can barely speak, totally dependent on their patience and kindness and help, yet knowing that I'm not an ignorant or incapable person. Let's just say it's been a humbling experience, which is probably good =) It's also been, thus far, an amazing time of seeing God's faithfulness day after day. I've been keeping a journal (which grandma D gave me for Christmas) of the things that I've prayed for and seen God do or ways He's provided while I've been here and I looked back through it the other night and I'm amazed. He is so faithful and merciful, even in the littlest things. He has promised to provide for me and to lead me as My Shepherd, so I'll continue to plug along at this language and remember that
" If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans even there Your hand will guide me, and Your strength will support me." Psalm139:9-10

Top Ten "You Know It's Cold in Poland When..."

10) the women here actually wear pants rather than capri pants
9) your language teacher complains that his beard is "frozy" from walking outside
8) you decide you can surely survive a few days without milk because you don't want to go out to the store
7) after your weekly Raid spray, which involves leaving the window cracked for a time, you no longer get hot water in the kitchen
6) even the ice skating rink shuts down for the night
5) the little dogs wear jackets and sweaters
4) Amber says "this REALLY is the coldest day we've been here so far" (even though she says it every day!)
3) the bus driver skips stops (like, perhaps, the one you needed to get off at) to prevent opening the door and letting the cold air in
2) dressing to actually go outside requires: tights, long underwear, pants, three layers of shirts, a hat, scarf, mittens (with optional gloves underneath), two pairs of socks, winter boots, and your coat (and if you fail to put on your boots before all of the outer layers, you can't even bend over to put them on without cutting off your air supply)

AND, THE NUMBER ONE "YOU KNOW IT'S COLD IN POLAND WHEN..."
1) snow begins to accumulate on your windowsil

There you have it. It has been cold

The Agony of Defeat and the History of E-Harmony

So, by now you know my issues with moving these things around! No explanation needed! The mess in the hallway is our frantic packing to move; the picture of the city square is from Old Town Warsaw, which actually isn't that old-pretty much all of Warsaw was destroyed as the Germans withdrew at the end of WWII, it's all been rebuilt to look like it originally did; the picture of the front of the flat in Warsaw shows a man and his three daughters--apparantly the daughters were not so pretty, so he had these very flattering pictures painted on the front of the flat to try to get husbands for them--I think it was the first e-harmony and don't get any ideas dad!!!!; the doughnut looking things are called pounchkis and people eat many of them on Fat Thursday which was yesterday--just like our Fat Tuesday only, um Thursday--the wrapped candies are chocolate covered roasted plums and are DELICIOUS!!-they're for eating every day of the week if it were up to me!; finally, this is the riveting game of Hot Heart---please notice who is taking the picture and ALREADY OUT!!!

Hellooooooo bloggerville!

Ok, so, sorry I've been MIA for a while now. A lot has happened since I last posted. I'm currently writing this from our new flat that we moved into rather quickly on Feb 1. It's kind of a crazy story; the short story is that our landlady was slightly out in left field, we fled under the cover of darkness on Jan 31-with 2.5 hours notice, I might add-remained homeless for a night and crashed at Patsy's flat, picked up the keys to our new flat on the 1st, battled the roaches for a few days-an ongoing battle; Friday is Raid and mop day-finished moving in the 2nd and here we are! It's taken so long to update you all on what's going on because we're having some internet issues, so it's kind of hit and miss, which can be frustrating. All that being said, we are actually in a great flat in a great area of town. My room (I'll post a picture at some point) reminds me of a ship's cabin, so of course I LOVE IT! Also, our living room is ginormous with a whole wall of windows. It's really a great place.
As far as what's been going on here; LOTS! Here's a quick run-down:
*we met with a woman named Ella, who is friends with Sean and Lydia and a professor at the University. It turns out she teaches psychology to education students (which Amber and I both were!) and wants us to come to her classes and invite her students to an English conversation club/Bible study!
*We've learned how to use our new washer which empties into the toilet; there's a hose you have to hook over the seat of the commode while the washer's in use; no kidding
*we met with some men from the church here who want us to be involved in an English conversation club/Bible study with local high school students which will end up in a summer camp in, um, the summer
*we went to Warsaw this past Tues/Wed to work on some things for our VISA applications; for about 45 minutes I was in the USA at the embassy! How fun is that? We also ate at a TGIFridays which was thrilling...AND a mexican restaurant (heaven); went to a HUGE mall; bought some Polish pottery and saw some of Old Town Warsaw
*we met with a woman named Kasia, who works at the Unviversity. A friend of hers is Patsy's landlady and she put the two of them in touch, and Amber and I in turn got in touch with her...I should probably add that she probably thinks I'm crazy. She's a professor of wetlands research (or something like that) so, of course, I had to ask her what she knows about Lake Erie. I am such a dork, but you can take the girl away from the Lake, but you can't take the Lake away from the girl!
*I found out from our language teacher where the largest lake in Poland is and where there's lots of sailing. Still a little brisk for lakes and sailing, but I'll find the train that takes me there this summer!
*we had a super fun Day-After Valentine's Day party with the Stevenson's. We played games, ate heart sugar cookies, and gave out Valentine's. I definitely got "out" just about first every round of "hot heart". Not that I'm bitter.

So, that's Olsztyn in a nutshell. Right now, I'm enjoying the last few minutes of sunlight which has actually shown all day and getting ready to go make some dinner. We are meeting Ola tonight to hang out for a bit, so that should be fun. Tomorrow, Amber and I are meeting the secretary from our language school, named Basia, to go get my nails done. Woo-hoo! She's super sweet and I'm really looking forward to spending the afternoon with her. AND she can translate for me...we definitely haven't learned the words for going to the nail salon in language class. For some reason, Milosz hasn't covered that yet. Odd...I'll let you know how it goes!