What to do? What to do?

Amber and Abby enjoying the world's richest hot chocolate.

So, what do you do when pretty much all of the people you are trying to meet are on vacation for the month, you may ask? Well, that's a great question!
Yes, it's true. Things here have been a little slow. The school age children (which would include the kids we normally teach english to in Platyny and Jemiolowo) have been on winter break for all of last week and this week. Rather than having a long break at Christmas, they have a few days off around Christmas, then a two week break later in the winter. Also during this time, the university students are preparing for and taking finals. The way things work here, you have several chances to pass your finals if you don't pass the first time (pretty good deal, huh?!) and after the several weeks of final exams, they have a 2 week break. All in all, regular classes won't start again until the last week in February!
So, yes, things have been S-L-O-W! In general, the pace of life here is slower than in America, but these past few weeks have been exceedingly slow paced. However, it's been a nice time to hang out with my teammates here and there have been some exciting things going on. So, here's a little rundown of what's been going on here:

-Amber and I hung out with Abby, one of our "nieces" here. She just turned 11 in October and is super cool. We got to have some girl time and went to a little cafe and had some yummy treats. I had ice cream, but Amber and Abby had these hot chocolate drinks that are popular here. Now, these are no Swiss Miss powder packet hot chocolate mixes. This is the real deal, as you may be able to tell from the picture. It's literally melted milk chocolate bars and cream! It's intense...a little too intense for me! We also played a game called Farkel (a game of sheer and simple luck, which I never fail to lose at!) and Abby helped me set up my Webkinz site! Do any of you mothers of young children know about Webkinz? My friend Angie got me one for Christmas and it's so cute!
-Amber and I have gotten to hang out with all of our nieces and nephew over the past week. We hung out with the Stevenson girlies last Saturday while Sean and Lydia went out, then hung out with Mikaila and Ethan while Bryan and Stacey went out last night. Theses kids are seriously SO fun, even if Ethan does kick my tail playing ANY and ALL video games! (did I mention that he's 5?)
-Amber and I finished watching all of season 2 of the Office! (yes, I am aware that we are, like 3 seasons behind--but it's a long story!) and season 3 of Deadliest Catch (thank you, thank you, thank you Aunt Barb and Uncle Tom!!!!--and can I just add that I found the official Discovery Channel Deadliest Catch blog? Um...SO EXCITED! I mean, the show's theme song is Bon Jovi's "Wanted: Dead or Alive". It's got to be great, right?)
-We have also watched my very own copy of "Bride and Prejudice"! Woo-hoo!
-Our team had our first meeting of a church service we're starting on Sunday nights that will be in English. We're calling it IF (International Fellowship) and are hoping to reach out to internationals living here and english speaking Poles. Amber and I taught the kids and it was a great time.
-On Saturday, Amber and Patsy and I are headed to Prague, Czech Republic, for a meeting called Ebenezer. It's for all of us in Central and Eastern Europe who have just finished one year living overseas. I'm super excited for it. I've heard that Prague is a beautiful city AND I'll get to see some of my friends from my time in Virginia at training (and meet some new friends). What I'm NOT excited about is the 13 hour train ride that it will take to get there. And as if that's not horrendous enough...the train pulls out of Olsztyn at 5:15 AM (which equates leaving our flat at 4:30). Um, I'm pretty sure I'm not even human at that hour. There is not enough coffee in the world to help this girl at that hour.
-Ok...here's the truly big, exciting news: remember the girls (from the previous post) from Jemiolowo that went to the camp? Four of them met Christ and trusted Him as their Savior while they were there! How awesome is our God?!?!

So, there you have it. That's pretty much what's been going down in funky-town. I hope to have a much more exciting post upon my return from Prague...but no promises =)