Ciao Bella

I had my fill of pasta, pizza, art, history, air/bus/train travel, walking, and hostel stays and am now back in good old Olsztyn. It was tough, but I picked 5 pictures from my trip to Italy (which included time in Rome, Venice, Pisa, and Florence) to post here. (however, if you'd like to see more, you can check out Amber's blog for a slide show...I figured that, since she already did all that work, why re-invent the wheel, eh?) Anyhoo, while these are not necessarily the best pictures taken that week, they are of the things I found most interesting. So, here goes...

Kristin, me, and Amber in front of the Coloseum. It was amazing to see. It's so ancient, it's honestly kind of hard to wrap your brain around how old it really is.

This thing that looks like a sewer hole is actually the hole that Peter and Paul (you know, the guys from the Bible) were lowered into to be held in a Roman Prison. There originally was no other entrance/exit, but they've since added a staircase and built a church above the cell. Again, hard to really wrap your brain around...

This picture shows how there are layers and layers to Rome. This was taken from current street level, but you can see that the original city was about two stories down. They are building another subway line, but progress is very slow since they keep running into ancient ruins that must be first excavated.

This fountain was one of my favorite things of all that we saw on our trip. It's called the Trevi Fountain and it's beautiful. It was sculpted in the 18th century and "marks the end of the 19 BC Aqua Virga aquaduct, built by Agrippa...". The statues are of Neptune and two triton.
Finally, my favorite part of the whole trip was our two days in Venice. Amazing. There are no motorized vehicles...no scooters (which everyone drives in Italy), no cars, no trucks...nothing. Everything and everyone is shuttled in by boat. I fell in love. However, I'd better not get too attached, since the city is sinking at an average rate of 1 cm a year. That's significant. Of course, it was built on top of a marsh! Anyhoo...I loved riding on ferries instead of busses, walking along canals, seeing some beautiful wooden boats, and taking a gondola ride! Our driver didn't sing, but he whistled a little and did wear a blue and white striped shirt. It was just a quiet, peaceful place and I'm so thankful I got the opportunity to experience it. Ahhh...

Now, it's back to the routine, which is good. The students start back in less than a week and we're still putting together some details as far as meeting with students and praying for more opportunities. Please pray that God would open doors and stir a hunger in the students He's calling to Himself.

Tour De Pologne 2007

The girly-girls having a little pre-race fun.

These pictures show you how close the racers came to us. It was awesome to see. You could literally feel the wind from the pack as they went by.

Having said that, I know these guys are some serious athletes. And I respect them for that. But really...as if wearing spandex isn't bad enough...which sponsor chose pink spandex for these poor guys? Really. It's hard to look manly in pink spandex.

This top picture doesn't do this race justice at all. To see all of the racers together was really amazing.

And, last but not least, this is what happens when you are a foreigner and accidentally make eye contact with a clown on stilts. He comes over, grabs a chunk of your hair and ties a balloon in it. Let this be a lesson for anyone else planning to travel abroad...never make eye contact with a clown on stilts. Remember that.

Queen Song Title Goes Here...Can Anyone Guess Which One???

In my previous post I mentioned that I would hopefully have something more interesting to write...and, good news, I do!
A few weeks ago, Sean and Lydia mentioned that there was a bike race coming through Olsztyn. They said it was a race consisting of several stages throughout Poland and was kind of like the farm leagues of professional bike racing and a mini Tour De France. Not being an avid bike racing fan, I said "oh, that's neat" and, although I was interested in seeing it, didn't really think too much about it.
A couple of days ago, Amber and I saw a poster advertising the race and remembered Sean and Lydia mentioning it. And then this morning, as we were out and about running some errands (including a trip to the World Kitchen store to buy refried beans...we had to go back today since we were there last week but someone--who shall remain nameless, but who's name starts with S and ends with ean--had bought them ALL), we saw that they had the streets blocked off and were busy setting up. It was at this point that we began to realize that this whole event is a lot bigger than we had thought. A lot bigger.
It was amazing. I wish I had pictures that could really capture how neat this event was. My guess is that there were about 200 racers and they were f-l-y-i-n-g on these bikes. My little legs would have fallen off I think. Lydia led us to a great spot to stand to watch, right on one of the curves of the route. As the racers came around the curve, you had to pull any and all body parts back away from them road, as I think they could do some serious damage! There were pace cars that had replacement bikes on top of them, a helicopter hovering and filming, tons of film and camera crews, clowns who took joy in harassing Americans and tying balloons in their hair (see pictures above!), and lots and lots of bikes. You could hear that wheels whizzing and their gears clicking as they flew by. It was really amazing. I have no idea who won, or really any of the details of the race. But, it was sure neat to see! Definitely not something I would have thought "Gee, I'd like to go watch that", but I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance!

Hello Bloggerville!

My, how times does fly these days! Actually, for a while there, time felt like it crept by. Our internet was out of commission for almost two weeks, so that put a damper on keeping up with the blog. And, in all honesty, I haven't been very blog inspired lately! Even now, I keep switching over to another tab to Google random things. 'Tis so sweet to have Google back. I mean, how else would I find random information like where to store Tahini...in the 'fridge or in a cupboard?!?! (and, in case you're interested, proper Tahini storage is in the 'fridge). Nonetheless, I'll do my best to give you a brief rundown of what's been going on here the past three weeks...

-I spent the week after the three week tour basically recuperating and trying to get things back in order. That Wednesday, team Northeast Poland ventured out to Skansen, an enthniographic park near here (if you're not sure what an ethniographic park is...Google it!). It was very interesting. We saw lots of old artifacts from this area that actually looked pretty similar to old artifacts from Lyme Village in Bellevue, Ohio!
-We've gotten to meet with three of the girls from the youth camp. We're hoping to connect with some more this week
-It's officially turned fall in Poland. The week my parents were here and the following week were H-O-T! It's a good thing I enjoyed it while it lasted, because it's gone now. It's been in the low 60's and kind of cloudy for the past few weeks. It's also getting dark earlier and earlier. I've already found myself wanting to go into hibernation mode and it's only September and Amber has already pulled out her sweaters and used a Hot Hands packet! It's not good, folks! However, on the flip side, I did buy a new pair of black boots for the winter weather and that's always fun...=) (and, by the way...to my Texas cousins--are you familiar with Fat Baby boots??? They are darling and I'm already planning to buy myself a pair as a "welcome back to America" gift when I return!)
-We made an apple pie...well, actually we made two. The first one didn't turn out great, and since we had 7 pounds of apples instead of 7 cups (ummmm...my bad. Guess I should have looked closer at that recipe, eh?) we gave it another shot. This one turned out great. The only downfall is having to use shortening--which Amber's mom brought over since we can't get it here--and I loathe shortening. I hate the smell, look, feel...ugh, it makes me noxious just thinking about it! Even when I was little and would make cookies with my mom, I hated getting the shortening out. Yuck. Ok, moving on.....
-We had a volunteer team here to prayerwalk and it was great. They are wonderful ladies and I had a great time getting to know them a bit as well as praying together. It was a great week. AND, they brought me a 12 pack of Diet Coke w/Lime, because it's of course way easier to have a 12 pack brought several thousands of miles than to actually slice up a lime and put it in a glass of Cola Light!
-ummm...I am taking Flamenco dancing lessons. I cut my lip real bad on the rose I was holding in my teeth. Just kidding. That's not until week 4, of course.
-I am drying out. I miss the water. I miss the Lake. I miss boats. I've been reading a book called Stormy Seas: Triumphs and Tragedies of Great Lakes Ships and it's kind of hitting the spot. But, this is one of my favorite times at the Lake. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE summer at the Lake. But, having lived there for four years, it's always nice when things slow down, the tourists leave, the weekend people close up their houses for the winter, and the weather changes. I love waking up in the morning and being able to hear the waves pounding and the wind blowing (even from my little house down the street from the waterfront!); I love looking out and seeing grey skies that match the color of the water; I love how quiet and desolate the beach is; I love watching the big freighters come in. The good news is that the Stevenson's recently went to Hel. No really. That's the name of the town, and it's right up on the Baltic. I saw some of their pictures and there was a lighthouse and a commercial fishing fleet and it looked beautiful! I can't wait to go next summer. It's on the list of things to do.

Well, for being blogging uninspired, I sure managed to fill this post up with utterly random nonsense. Thanks for sticking with it and I'll try to come up with something more interesting next time (which I think I can follow through on, as we're leaving for Italy in a week!!!!).
In parting, I'll leave you with the beginning from a song I've been listening to a lot lately--what with the nostalgia for the Great Lakes and all--and for which I'm sure I'll be relentlously teased, especially by a certain friend whose name starts with "T" and ends with "eresa"...

"The legend lives on
from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee"...

Can anyone name that song?????