Birthday Pictures

This is me (duh-and by the way: sorry you have to see my bare feet!) wearing my new outfit and using all of my new "toys" that my OU girls sent to me. Thanks Jenn, Sarah, Lisa, and Julie! I love you girls!

This is my birthday present to myself...good ol' Tabasco.



These are my presents from Patsy and Amber. Amber had her mom send over the Splenda and the Hemp lotion! And how much do I love Pride & Prejudice?!?!?!

Sean, Lydia, and me ready to dive into the cake!

My nieces and nephew enjoying their meal together at the "kid table".

We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto

So much to blog about, so little time!!! Yes, this is true. Since our internet availability is pretty unreliable these days, minutes are precious, so I'll try to get this out before our internet goes out! So, let's see what's been going on here...
Last week was a week long holiday for most Poles, especially for the students. The first and the third are national holidays (something like Labor day and Constitution Day), so they just decided to go ahead and cancel the whole week of classes! Unfortunately, that meant that most of the girls we've been meeting with were travelling or went to their hometowns for the week. However, we did get to hang out with two of the girls throughout the week and got to spend some time with a friend from church named Ula. It's been really great getting to know these girls better. I know I've said this before, and it seems SO obvious, but it's still amazing to me how people are people. Doesn't matter what language barriers, what cultural differences come up---people are people. Listening to Ula share her testimony about how she met Jesus was so neat, because it's so similar to mine. Different country, different culture, different language, but the same Christ and the same hunger for something that's missing in life. Good stuff.
Anyhoo, this past week has been another interesting week in Northeast Poland. I guess the best way to sum it up is to say that the honeymoon is over. It's no longer "SOOO European" to wait in line for 45 minutes at the Post Office or nearly get pushed off the bus as old ladies get off. It's just plain frustrating and annoying. I knew that this feeling would come, yet it still came as a shock! All of a sudden, living in Poland isn't like the beginning of a vacation, but real, day-to-day life. I think I've come to the point where the reality is hitting me that, in the wise words of Dorothy "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto".
It's also been another holiday week of sorts for the students. The University here hosts a weekend-long party called Kortowiada that starts Thursday and goes through Sunday. There were no classes on Thursday and Friday and there are concerts and fireworks and LOTS of partying all weekend long (kind of like Halloween at OU, but even bigger and without costumes and not in Ohio). Needless to say, we cancelled our study for Thursday night! We may be going with some of our girls to check it out tomorrow night. I'll be sure to let you all know what it's like if we go!
That pretty much sums up what's going on here in Olsztyn. Here are a few odds and ends that you might like to know:
**we picked up our karta pobytu (residence cards) today...how crazy is that?!?! I'm an official resident of POLAND!!! WHAT???
**I had a wonderful birthday, thanks to all of the great birthday wishes!!! Thank you all for the cards, e-cards, and emails. They all brought a big smile to my face. For my actual birthday, I went to language class (15 more to go! woo-hoo!), hung out here at the flat, then went to dinner at a Greek-with-a-Polish-twist restaurant with Amber and Patsy, got some delicious ice cream, came back to our flat to hang out (and open presents!!), then talked to my parents on Skype and opened the package they had sent.
**tonight we had a team birthday for our three May birthdays (Sean, Lydia, and me) at our new teammates' (Bryan, Stacey and their kids Mikaila and Ethan) house. We had an authentic American cook-out with burgers, kielbasa (ok-not so American), veggies and ranch dip, Jelly Belly jellybeans, cake, ice cream, iced tea, and scalloped potatoes. Yum! We had a great time AND I got 6 delicious homemade cinnamon and raisin bagels from Sean and Lydia and an American brownie mix from Bryan and Stacey (are you noticing a trend here...apparently people know that I like food!)
**tomorrow we're having a kid party at our flat. We're having all of our little nieces and nephew over for a few hours for some no-adult fun (I know I'm 27, but I still don't know if I can bring myself to admit it!)
**we experienceed (as in were out walking in it!) our first Poland thunderstorm today. Apparently they're pretty rare around these parts, but the sky put on a pretty good show this afternoon!

So, I think that's about everything! This has turned out to be one looooong post, but if you're still reading, thanks! As usual, I'll post some pictures that go along with this post in another post and completely scramble around the captions.

Random Thoughts...

This is just a random picture of one of my favorite scenes here in Poland...after dinner coffee and conversation with Amber and Patsy. Amber and I have really enjoyed learning to cook here in Poland and have enjoyed having Patsy over frequently to sample our creations (pray for Patsy!). I, of course, love eating the food, but the best part as far as I'm concerned is sitting around after the meal, drinking coffee (and maybe eating a little chocolate) and visiting. I've loved getting to know these two women and am so thankful that God has put them in my life. They are truly a blessing and I am grateful that God knows our needs and has plans to meet these needs before we even encounter them. It's so easy for me to fret and worry about the future, but that's when I need to remember God's promise:

"Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern." Matthew 6:32-33

The more I get to know Amber and Patsy, the more I see God's wisdom and sovereignty in putting us all here together and it encourages me to trust that God is in control and has perfect plans for my future.

"The Lord says, 'I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you' " Psalm 32:8

Warsaw Pictures

This is our fearless "Magellan" getting directions to TGIFridays from Sean. Notice that I was so clearly not involved in the direction process that I was free to snap pictures. I would have been the village idiot who tagged along with Lewis & Clark and said "what are we doing next guys? Where are we?"

Above: New purses!!!
Left: needs no explanation!











OK. This was the sign for the women's restroom in the Warsaw metro station. Ummm...who really wants to look at this sign and think "yeah, that looks like me, it must be the women's room!"

Amber and Patsy and I (that's my hand) shared some kind of turtle sundae thing at Friday's. Yum!

An American in Warsaw

We survived our first ever solo trip to the big city! Amber, Patsy, and I braved public transportation and went to Warsaw together this past weekend. This summer, there will be lots of volunteer teams coming to Olsztyn from the States, and we'll be responsible for picking them up in Warsaw and getting them back, so we needed to go try it out on our own this weekend! It was a great time to get away for a while and enjoy some "American culture". I know, it sounds funny in Warsaw, but I'll explain.
So, we left early Friday morning and caught the train from Olsztyn to Warsaw. It was about a 4 hour trip and was really neat to see the Polish countryside as we travelled. What was NOT cool was the woman next to me whose TWO cell phones continually beeped and buzzed and rang. I promise you I was within an inch of grabbing BOTH phones and chucking them out the window.
We safely arrived in Warsaw and emerged from the underground train station to...utter chaos. We decided that the best plan would be to head over to a huge mall nearby and get some lunch before we headed to where we'd be staying. Simple plan, right? Too bad we couldn't figure out how to get across the street! Amber (who has earned the affectionate nickname of Magellan, although being from Missouri she prefers Lewis & Clark) had all kinds of maps and bus lines and plans for how to get to the important places we needed...what we did not have was a way to cross the street! Needless to say, we found a way and got some lunch (Subway!!!), and found our way to our room. After a cup of coffee, we headed back out to see some sights in Warsaw, then found our way to TGIFridays! (after a stop over at a little Indian shop where Amber and I bought the most beautiful purses)
Saturday was another busy day, including meeting a family at the airport (they've lived in Poland for almost 2 years, but will be moving to Olsztyn this weekend!), hanging out with our friend Joe, going to a huge mall, riding all over Warsaw in trams, busses, metros, and a Fiat, going to the Harley shop (I would NOT make something like that up!), and eating dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. It's so funny, but when you're living in a foreign country, anything American is suddenly your favorite and feels so familiar. I didn't spend a lot of time at Harley shops in the states, but going to this one felt like home.
Sunday, Amber and Patsy and I had church together, then headed out one final time to yet another mall where we did a little other shopping and ate some lunch. Then we headed to the Warsaw train station, caught our train and headed home.
It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to going back again this summer!

The Purse or the Toilet Paper????

This is why I love Europe. To my knowledge, in the States we don't have packages of toilet paper with handles for convenient carrying. What a great idea! Clearly, this is marketed for the pedestrian shopper, which includes us!

The only question is: which to carry for an afternoon out? The purse or the toilet paper? Hmmmm...

(and mom, you will notice that this is a new purse...it was the equivalent of $3! What a deal!)

Friday afternoon we went out to Nowe Kawkowo to do an after school program for the kids there. It was a great time! There were about 12 kids (a lot of the kids left after school...it was a beautiful day, can you blame them? Meanwhile...the teachers were having a meeting at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. How do you think that would fly in the States???) and we had a blast. After we were finished, I got to run around with some of the girls and they showed me their classrooms and their school work. There is a precious girl named Kasia who speaks good English and translated for me. Please pray for her. She's 13 and has been to the summer camp the church has done for the past few summers and is the sweetest thing! Please pray that she'd put her trust in Christ and find her real life in Him.

It was a great time with the kids and the best part for me was a bear hug from a little first grader as we were leaving! I don't know if there's anything better than that.

Easter and Not-So-Wet-Monday

I had to quickly get another post on here to replace the ginormous picture of just me. I just couldn't take it any more!

So, in its place, here are some pictures of Easter and the notorious "Wet Monday", which in fact turned out to be not so very exciting after all. Perhaps because we woke up to snow on the ground Monday morning, it deterred the "Wet Monday" festivities. Whatever the cause, we didn't get to see any action, which was kind of disappointing. I was picturing a song and dance scene from a musical or something, but instead we got this. Notice that there is NO ONE out walking, which is very unusual for Poland. That's how hugely anticlimactic this day was. Nice. (by the way, this is the view from my bedroom window...check out the striped buildings...almost like a Barbie dreamhouse, huh mom?)

We spent Easter afternoon with the Stevenson's and had a great time. We ate yummy food and helped the girls with their indoor egg hunt. The best part of the day came when Becca made Amber her very own pinata. Apparently, Amber's family Easter tradition is to have a hot dog roast and break a pinata (which is often a Christmas-themed pinata that was bought at an after Christmas sale) that is tied to the back of a tractor. She didn't know this wasn't "normal" until about two years ago! So, after hearing this, Becca retreated to her room for a while and came out holding a homemade pinata constructed of construction paper and lots of scotch tape. She ran outside and returned carrying two sticks; one to tie the pinata to and one to hit the pinata with! How funny! So, I can officially say that I've had my first Easter pinata. Good times.

(this is Amber thoroughly enjoying herself and this is me freaking out and waiting for someone to end up with a massive head wound...just imagine my dad freaking out about all of Amber's family running around eating hot dogs and sure to choke...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!)

The Hi-Light Reel

So, I once again apologize for being a bad little blogger. I do actually have an excuse though. For the past week, we've been in a town about 2 hours away from Olsztyn for our Annual General Meeting (AGM). We left on Friday the 30 of March and got back the following Friday. It was a great week filled with meeting new people, talking about different ministries and strategies, hearing from a great Pastor and having times of worship in English!!! The meeting also happened to be held in a fabulous hotel with a huge indoor water park. Nice. The hotel was also in a little town that was on a lake! I got a lake-fix and it was wonderful. One night, a group of us walked down a long pier as it was getting dark. Ahhhhh. It was a great week, but I still feel the effects of the lack of sleep. The good news is, tomorrow is a holiday here in Poland, so our language class is cancelled and we can't leave our flat until at least after noon. Seriously. It's called "wet Monday" and it's a tradition here that young boys and men throw water on women who are walking around outside. Don't ask. I honestly have no idea what to expect, but just in case, Amber and I have been advised to wait it out inside until at least after noon. Up and down the aisles at the local supermarket, there are tons of water guns for sale right alongside the Easter goodies. Like I said, I have no idea what to expect, but I'll be sure to get some pictures!

Since it's been such a long time since I last updated, I'll fill you in on the hi-lights:

*we met with another group of four girls and had a great time; that makes two groups that we've gotten to meet with now and made contact with nine girls all together. Please pray for these girls, that they'd have a hunger and thirst to know God more

*we went into Agnieszka's classroom and spoke with her students; we got to share with several of the classes why we are here in Poland and it was so interesting to go into a Polish school...all I'm saying is that I'm convinced that teachers are the same on any continent. I'm pretty sure I even saw some women wearing clothes from Christopher & Banks =) Check this out though: none of the teachers have their own classrooms, they all meet in the lounge and have little cubbies where they put their things then go to their assigned classroom each period! Can you imagine?!?!?! Oh wait, yes I can imagine...I lived that for four years. Thank God for crates-on-wheels. Hey dad, I think those would be a hot commodity here...think you can get ahold of several thousand of those that mom could find space for in the house??? =)

*we got approved for our VISAs! However, the letter we received stated that we were valid for one year, although we'd applied for a two year VISA. Sean's going down to the office Tuesday to figure it out. Please pray that everything would be taken care of in a simple and quick manner!

*our friend Ula called and wants to be a part of our Bible studies, which is awesome news because, um, she speaks Polish. And we don't.

*AGM was awesome. I don't even know how to sum it up. The one thing I do know, is that it was so refreshing to worship with a large group in English. Knowing this, I ask you to please pray that the Lord would continue to give me the discipline to continue learning this language. Just as I loved worshipping and hearing God's Word in English, the Poles need to worship and hear His word in Polish.

*Since we got home, the keys to our stairwell haven't worked, so we've essentially been at the mercy of people coming and going to let us in...thankfully, Sean came to the rescue today with some WD-40 and we're back in business!

So, in a nutshell, that's the past two weeks. Phew. I'm going to attach some pictures that go along with this post and work on a post about my first Polish Easter. It's been a great day so far and all I'm saying is that I had NO idea the Poles had so much soul...

--the first picture is of the pier along the water that was lined with restraunts and shops

--the next picture is of the bridge we had to cross to get to the pier

--the final picture is the view from our room! how beautiful!

Wow, that Eddie Murphy Sure Can Sing!

I'm uninspired. Really. I feel like I have nothing to blog about. But, in reality, as I think about it, I do have some things to share; some meaningful, some utterly not. So, in no particular order, here goes:

*we found a meeting place right in the center of town and have already held our first english club/Bible study this past Tuesday. We had 4 people come and had a great time! The first hour is topical english conversation and the second hour is an optional Bible study in English. Everyone stayed and we all had a really great time. We're starting another group on Thursdays and have had two people contact us already to tell us that they're coming. One of the two is a man who saw our flyers we posted around campus. To be real honest, I didn't expect to hear from anyone who saw these flyers, and then Peotr (the Polish version of Peter) called! Woo-hoo! Please pray for these students, that their hearts would be opened and hungering to know God more.
*I went and got my nails done again this past Saturday (a week ago) and we spoke Polish for an hour and a half! I was EXHAUSTED afterwards! Now, don't get too excited, there was a lot of pointing, grunting, and looking up words in the Polish/English dictionary. It really wasn't all that impressive, but darn my nails look good!
*Also on that Saturday (see above) we had no cold water in our bathroom. We had hot water and had both in our kitchen, but absolutely no cold water in the bathroom. Considering our track record with water in the bathroom, we were a little nervous! Turns out, it was not working in the other flats on our side of the building (which I found out from the English speaking man two floors below us--God is faithful!) and Amber and I had a slight moment of sheer terror as we heard the water start running again and did a dance of joy once we realized it was NOT flooding our flat, simply coming back on.
*I am currently loving using Coppertone Faces sunscreen as my moisturizer each morning. It makes me feel like it's summer and I'm getting ready to hit the beach. Ahhhh...
*I am reading Jane Eyre right now and LOVING it! It started out real slow, but has gotten so interesting! I have to find out what happens!
*I bought a new pair of sunglasses today. They're my "glam" sunglasses, that I feel like are totally NOT me, but were so fun. Let's just say they have a row of rhinestones on the front. Love 'em! (However, since purchasing them I've developed some sort of funk in my eye...it's all bloodshot and kind of burns. Nice.)
*By the way, that first picture (see previous post) is of the pier in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina (at least, I think it was North, maybe it was South. Mom, a little help in the comment section please!)
*Amber and I are going to our friend Agnieszka's classroom Thursday. She teaches English to high school students and wants us to come in. I'm excited about it. I think I might work on a little song and dance number. Maybe a medley of "My Country 'Tis of Thee/You're a Grand Old Flag/God Bless the USA", complete with an Uncle Sam outfit and the "glam" sunglasses...what do you think?
*There's apparently a European remake of a classic 80's song that's topping the charts here right now. I know you're holding your breath in anticipation, so I will keep you in the dark no longer....that classic Eddie Murphy hit "My Girl Wants to Party All the Time". Brings tears to the eyes. Why didn't that guy make more records? Oh yeah, that's right...talent.
*Apparently, Sunday is the day all of the rookie bus drivers get assigned to work. No joke. It seems like every Sunday to and from church, we get stuck with the drivers who are still figuring out this whole braking process and still labor under the delusion that a yellow light means speed up real fast, then slam on the brakes when you realize that you'll never make it through the light. We all know this is bad enough when riding with someone in a car...try it in a 100 person public transportation bus. We've decided that we'll be pretty good surfers after having to ride these busses standing up. Either that or we'll blow out a knee.
*Did you know that the time change just happened here? Yeah, the rest of you changed two weeks ago, but we just did last night! I love that it stays light longer, but losing that hour of sleep is rough!
On that note, I should go get ready for bed. I told you that this was a (mostly) pointless post.
I will close with this little nugget of knowledge for you: I sleep on a couch. Yes, a couch. This is the norm for many Poles, as it conserves space in flats that are typically fairly small. These couches aren't big, overstuffed couches like we're used to in the states, but more like a blend of a couch and a futon. It's not uncomfortable, but it makes finding sheets a challenge! Dobranocs! (that means Good-night!)

Do you like the new look? Our internet is being fishy again tonight, but for some reason I'm able to get to my blog dashboard, so I got to playing around and...voila!

I've got good news!!! It looks like we have a place to meet with college students and are going into Ella's classroom this Friday to invite them! Praise God! We found a room on the top floor of a building that we can use on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons and evenings for a very cheap price. It's actually a room used for physical therapy, but put up a few chairs and tables and a dry erase board and you've got a multi-functional classroom that you can make some profit from in off hours! I love it! This is definitely exciting news. Please pray for the students we'll be talking to on Friday, that they'd be interested and drawn to attend. We're also telling them to invite their friends, so please pray that the Lord would make any connections there too. This is definitely all new to me and maybe that's part of the great (in an uncomfortable kind of way) thing about doing ministry overseas...it's a continual "new step" of throwing yourself out there and trusting that God is faithful, He hears our prayers, He sees our situations, and cares about our needs. He promises to always be with us and never leave us. There's a continual choice to walk by faith or walk by what seems possible and what seems right and what seems logical (there's also a continual storehouse of grace and forgiveness when I have made the choice to NOT walk by faith). I was reminded today of the verse that says "It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6). I guess that says it pretty clearly...walking with God means walking by faith, but the rewards will be sweet!

In other slightly more shallow news...I got new shoes yesterday! I even asked for my size (a petite size 39) in Polish and she understood. Also, I'm putting some pictures on here that are a salute to the new blog look. Enjoy!

It's a Beautiful Day in My Neigborhood...

I thought you might like to see some of the sights that I see every day here in Olsztyn. These are some of the places that we frequent in our little neck of the woods here.

The picture of the little shop is our local bread store, called a Piekarnia. I love to stop in there and get a fresh sunflower seed roll after language class. The ladies who work there are really sweet and help us with our Polish ordering skills.

The picture of the other store (called Malwa and pronounced "Malva") is our grocery story of preference. Grocery shopping is an ongoing process here in Poland. Since most people don't have cars (including us), you can only buy what you can carry in small amounts. Most things here are packaged smaller, making them easier to carry, but also meaning that you use it up quicker and have to go back to the grocery store! We go several times a week and have a feeling that we're becoming known as the Americans who smile a lot and have no idea what's going on.

Finally, the last picture is of one of the bus stops that we use. Just like in most big cities (So I'm told...oddly enough, Huron didn't have a public transportation system!), you have to figure out which bus to take to get where you want to go, then figure out which stop to go to AND which side of the street you need to be on. Confusing! Fortunately, I came to Poland with the human GPS; Amber's really good at that stuff and LOVES reading maps. (On a side note: I had a teacher in HS who actually made us practice folding maps because his wife couldn't do it and it drove him nuts. Quality education right there.)

So, short of a picture of our language school, these are the places that are pretty much a part of my daily routine here in Poland. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures soon of where we are meeting to hold our English conversation/Bible study meetings with college students. That's a pretty big prayer request right now. We've got a few leads, but haven't found anything definite yet, and the semeseter is getting well underway. We want to start meeting with students very soon but, of course, need a meeting place first! We're waiting to hear from a few different places, so I'll be sure to let you know when we hear anything!

Panera in Poland???

Well, I will honestly say that they weren't quite Panera, but our homemade bagels were pretty tasty! They were a bit of work, but a good Saturday afternoon activity. Did you know that you boil bagels before you cook them? Who knew?! And, do you notice the Philadelphia Cream Cheese we found here topping the bagel, as well as one of my Polish pottery coffee cups. Too bad Amber's mom found "genuine made in Poland" pottery at her TJ Maxx. I guess you really do get the "max for the mimimumski". My next goal is to try to find some good coffee-drink recipes on-line. The word on the street is that the Starbucks head-honchos are talking about expanding Starbucks to Europe. Bring it on.

Details, Details...

Can you find the one tiny difference between these two pictures? Look hard. Get out your eagle eyes. If you noticed that picture 1 has no hose from the washer hooked to the commode and picture 2 does, you're right! AND, if you guessed that if you forget to put the hose into the commode you flood your bathroom, hallway, and create a small lake in your roomate's bedroom, you're even more right! Yes, it's true. No worries though, everything's cleaned up now, Amber's carpet is drying, and the downstairs neighbor didn't have any damage and was kind enough to alert us to the flood by ringing our door bell, pointing, and saying something in Polish that probably translates to "why don't these flakey Americans just go home!"

And the Top 10 Best Things about Living in Poland are... (drum roll please, Paul)

So, since my last post kind of dealt with some of what's hard about living overseas, I've decided to post a list of my 10 favorite things about Poland.



10) The peanut butter!!! If you know me at all, you know that I am a peanut butter fiend...crunchy PB, smooth PB, PB ice cream, PB cake, PB fudge, PB topping on ice cream, PB mikshakes, basically, if it's made with PB, I'm all over it like white on bread...the PB here is really good, it's kind of natural tasting. It makes me happy.
9) Fresh Bread--there is a bread bakery (called a piekarnia)on almost every corner here. You can buy the most delicious rolls made with sunflower seeds for the equivalent of about 30 cents. AND the piekarnia ladies are really sweet and patient with us.
8) Tortilla chips---yes, that's right, tortilla chips here in Poland. The brand is called "Casa Fiesta" and for whatever reason, they taste different here and are my favorite. We have a standing order on Patsy's grocery list to pick us up a bag, since they're only sold at the grocery store near her flat. She's our supplier.
7) Walking--obviously, we don't have a car here and rely on public transportation, however, to get to the stops for the public transportation, we do lots of walking. I have actually enjoyed it during the winter, so I really can't wait for spring! It slows the pace of life down a bit, which I really like.
6) Being an aunt--as I posted earlier, it's great to be an aunt to Abby, Cara, and Becca
5) The history--I love history, and the history here is amazing. I've only really seen Olsztyn and a small part of Warsaw, but I'm planning to get out and see more as the weather gets better.
4) Seeing babies in snowsuits--I think babies and little kids are SO stinking cute all bundled up in snowsuits and you see them all over here. At first, it kind of took me by surprise to see babies out in any weather (when it rains or snows, they literally put this plastic zippered covering over the baby stroller and keep on walking!), but it's just what you do here and, amazingly enough, the babies survive and don't "catch their death of cold"! However, if a child so much as steps across the thresh hold of their home without a hat on their head in cold weather, every grandmother in a five mile radius will quickly come by and chide the mother. They're serious about covering children's heads here!
3) Cooking--there are few frozen meals here, and what few there are are nothing to be excited about SO we've had to get creative with cooking. So far, it's been great. We've made some great meals and have only ruined one pot, and that was making popcorn! I have really enjoyed learning to cook more and am even planning to attempt bagels tomorrow! I'll let you know how it goes.
2) Outerwear fashions--I suppose it comes from the fact that you have to be covered pretty much from head to toe for at least 5 months of the year, but there is a huge array of outerwear fashions here that I love! There are hundreds of styles of hats and scarves and coats and boots you never know what you might see next!
1) Of course, the people-I've met some great people here and have been so blessed by so many helpful, kind, and patient people. It sounds corny or obvious, but people are people. They may speak a different language and have different customs and traditions, but people deal with the same issues and same concerns here as anywhere else in the world.

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!

Old Town is Really New Town...

Ok, so I know I just posted three posts yesterday, but this is really exciting to me (I am SO resigned to the fact that I'm a complete and hopeless DORK!).

We went and toured the castle in Old Town here in Olsztyn today. It was AMAZING! I fully intend to make many more trips to see it even more. It was built in the late 14th century...I mean, they were celebrating the 400th anniversary of this place when America was being founded! That just blows my mind. And how about Olsztyn being called one of the "youngest Warmian towns, its charter dating back to 1353". Whatever.

Anyhoo...this is the castle where Nicholas Copernicus lived for a few years while he was working on his heliocentric theory. There's actually a portion of the wall that still has his charts engraved on it. The actual charts that Copernicus himself worked on. This just blows my mind. If you're as big a dork as I am and are interested in more information, you can go here.

Just wanted to share this with you. By the way, it's definitely winter here. It's a-snowin' and a-blowin'! And, just a bit of random info, parents definitely pull their kids around on sleds here. Not just for fun, but it's really what they do to get from place to place. I love it!

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It?

Once again, I have no clue how to move these things around! So, here we go! Obviously, the picture of the puppets is NOT Amber and I having fun in our flat...that's from Saturday. The other picture of Amber and me and some random man in an advertisement is us at the bus stop all bundled up! You can also check out Amber drying the Stevenson's floor after several moppings, trying to get rid of all the dust from the work being done. Finally, this is a picture looking towards the downtown area. And enjoy the little freebie from me at no extra charge.

Happy Friday!

These were selected by Chuck Norris as his favorite Chuck Norris sayings:
* When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
* Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
* There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
* Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
* Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
* Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
* Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
* Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
* There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.
* When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
* Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
* Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.
* There is no such thing as global warming. Chuck Norris was cold, so he turned the sun up.
* Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.
* Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.
* Chuck Norris gave Mona Lisa that smile.
* Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
* Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost
* Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a DeltaForce marathon on Satellite TV.
* Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.
The one I wish he’d had pick:
* Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. He has never cried. Ever.
* Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
* Chuck Norris and Mr. T walked into a bar. The bar was instantly destroyed, as that level of awesome cannot be contained in one building.

What if Chuck Norris had a mullet????

I feel like I have so many random things I want to blog about today! First of all, I'm sitting in our living room IN THE SUN!!! This is huge. It got really cold Tuesday, but it's worth it! I will gladly take cold and sunny over warm-ish and rainy! I can now say that it is definitely winter here in Poland. I'm greatly enjoying my cuddle-duds and big sweaters. However, do you think that this has changed the fashions here in Olsztyn? Absolutely not. Just watching some of the girls here walk around makes me cold! They're still wearing capris with tall boots, and oftentimes have a few inches of skin hanging out!
Anyhoo, in no particular order, here are some highlights from the week:
**Saturday, we went out to a local village and helped the Baptist church here put on a program for the village kids. These are mostly kids who came to a day camp the church held last summer, so they came back to visit the kids and put on a puppet show, did some songs, had sandwiches (which we helped make...a non-linguistic task!), and showed a video that Sean put together with footage from camp. The kids had a great time, and the principal of the school wants the church to come back monthly and do something for the kids.
**Sunday evening, we had America night. We watched Remember the Titans and ate homemade pizza. Good stuff.
**signed the papers for our new flat and get the keys this Thursday. woo-hoo!
**met with Ola, the woman we met our first full day here. It was good talking with her and getting to practice our Polish a bit, too!
**helped the Stevensons get their house back in order after they had some work done on their house
**bought two boxes of some of the nastiest juice known to man...mint apple! eww! We bought the first box, smelled it, were pretty sure it was fermented, threw it down the drain, bought another box, smelled AND tasted it, were apalled, threw it down the drain AGAIN and realized that it was indeed apple mint juice! Really, who does that?
**laughed so hard on the bus that I hit my head on the pole behind me...ridiculous Americans!
**had the bus doors close in my face, with Amber already inside, and had to watch her and several Poles laughing as the bus drove away...mmmhmmm, good for the pride =)
**and now, I've saved the two best for last: this week, we learned the Polish word for mullet AND found out that our teacher (remember Milosc? He's still hanging in there!) had a mullet when he was little. Nice. And, finally, would you believe me if I said that Chuck Norris jokes have arrived in Poland as well???? It's true. I would not lie about something as great as this. And, might I add, I have seen several Chuck Norris classics playing on Polish televison while we've been here. I love this land. In honor of good ol' Chuck, or Walker as we like to call him, I'm going to re-post a list of Chuck Norris jokes. It's Friday and we could all use a good laugh.

One More Thing, And That's ALL I Need...

Can you tell I have some free time on my hands tonight? I figured I might as well get caught up while I can!
Wednesday afternoon, Amber and I went out to the University where we'll be primarily trying to meet students. Our primary job right now is language study, so we won't begin going out to the University and meeting with students full time until the end of February. However, we can definitely pray, so we decided to head out and prayer walk (which is basically just praying for a place while you, um, walk) at the University, also hoping that we'd get a little more familiar with the University and maybe even begin to meet some people or make some contacts. It was a great time and I wanted to share some of the pictures with you, so you could have an idea where we will be working and to ask you to pray for the students here.

There's a picture of the main gate with the University name on it (pronounced Universitet Varminsko-Mazhurski V Olshtinya)--please pray for the students, that their hearts would be opened and drawn to the Lord and that they'd find the entrance of the One who says "I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).

There's another picture of one of the many dorms on campus--please pray for all of these students in the dorms, that they'd be drawn to Christ, the One alone who satisfies and loves them

Last, this is a picture of a lake on campus. As you can see, it was a dark, dreary day, which seems to be the norm here in the winter--but also seems to reflect the general hopelessness that prevails here; please pray that the eyes of these students would be opened and that they'd meet the Light of the World, the One, True Hope of the world, that they could trust in and know:

"The God of all hope (who) fill(s) (them) with all joy and peace as (they) trust in Him, so that

(they) may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13)

One more thing...

Ok, one more post tonight, to respond to the hysterical comments on the picture post. So, Lori, I love the Polish Pirate Chic idea, but feel like I couldn't pull it off. I think that people would look at me and really think I had something seriously wrong with me. I also have a hair story for you, too. So, yes, we do have hairdryers, but we've both had hair issues here. The first morning we were here, Amber plugged in her international voltage hair straightener, ready to straighten away the humid air frizzies. We immediately noticed a slight burning odor in the air, but decided that it was simply the smell of a new straightener warming up. We had ourselves convinced until Amber actually put the straightener through her hair and we smelled the distinct odor of burning hair...smoke and everything. Yeah, it was bad. There are several sections of crispy hair...any suggestions????

I have had the issue of not getting all of the shampoo out of my hair. I mean really, am I five years old again???? We have this shower-head-on-a-hose thing that barely reaches to the top of my 5'3 head! AND forget good hair once you step outside into the hurricane! Think Flock of Seagulls...

Watch out for Those Blind Drivers!

First of all, if you guessed "Jaguar", you were right! Way to go!

Ok, on to more important news: so, we apparently survived our first hurricane in Poland. No joke. Last night it was really windy (duh),but other than that we really had no idea that there was a hurricane a-brewin'! It was even named: Kyrill. I'm thinking about getting a t-shirt that says "I survived Hurricane Kyrill". You can read more about it here if you have ridiculous amounts of free time and are interested. Now tonight, following in the crazy weather footsteps of Texas apparently, we have snow! It's just a dusting, but it's our first snow in Poland. And now we can be done. It's cold out there!
We just got back from a "team meeting" at the Stevenson's house where we were taught how to file our financial reports and got to eat homemade fajitas! Amber and I made two different kinds of yummy cookies to bring. I have really enjoyed cooking and baking here, which is one of my goals while I'm gone: to learn how to cook! So far, we've mastered omeletes, fajitas, quesadillas, chicken with pineapple and cheese, spaghetti (seriously, this is a fete for me!), homemade cake and frosting, homemade biscuits, homemade M&M cookies (BTW, M&Ms here are fantabulous...they taste a lot more like actual chocolate and less like candy coating), and homemade chocolate chip/snickers bar cookies. Phew!
And now, I leave you with a moment from our language class yesterday with our teacher Milosc (which is pronounced Meewosh, with a long o ):
Background: he's explaining the words for crosswalk and telling us how the green man on the sign means walk, the red man means don't walk; he then proceeds to inform us that we may also hear a beap to alert the blind, at which point Amber sits up straight, with a look of utter shock and "where in the world are we?!?!?!" on her face and declares, and I quote:

"They let blind people drive here?!?!?!?!?!?!"

after which proceeded many minutes of uncontrollable giggling. Milosc is thrilled to have us as his students. Pray for Milosc.

Picture Pages, Pictures Pages, time to grab your pen and pencil....

Here are the pictures from the previous post: clothes drying randomly throughout the flat; Patsy and Rebecca opening gifts; my stellar Pictionary drawing...any guesses???

Ummmm...no clever title here

This past Friday (yes, I know it's now Tuesday!!!) we celebrated Patsy's birthday as a team "family". It was really a good time. We all went out to a great restaurant here called "Hammurabi", then came back to our flat. First, we had cake (made from scratch WITHOUT a mixer and with a gas oven with only number marks for temps---it turned out pretty good, a little dry, but not bad!) and ice cream. Then, Patsy opened her gifts and got a really pretty Polish pottery coffee mug and creamer and sugar holders. She also got some beautiful cards from Abby, Cara, and Becca (Sean and Lydia's daughters). THEN, we played a game! We played pictionary and had a great time. Can you guess what my picture is? I'll give you a hint...it's a noun. Let me know what you think and I promise I'll post the correct answer!
This week has been a busy one so far. We've had language both mornings and a meeting with Sean and Lydia today, talking about what we want to see happen here and things that are going on. It really got me excited to continue meeting people here and get to work on the university campus here. Tomorrow, after language, Amber and I are planning to go to the university to check it out. Then, Thursday we're pretty much free (after language class, which we have every morning from 9-11:15), and Friday we're heading over to the Stevenson's after class for a team meeting and to spend time with a family who will be moving here in March! They currently live in Southern Poland, but will move here and join our team. Saturday, we're heading out to a nearby village for an outreach where we'll be handing out shoeboxes like Operation Christmas Child. Since Amber, Patsy, and I haven't mastered the Polish language (surprising, I know, after a week and a half of language classes!) we've been recruited to make around 200 sandwiches. I can do that!
So, that's what our week looks like. And here's some random things about life in Poland:
--most people don't have dryers; you dry your clothes on the radiators or hanging in the tub
--the fashion for the ladies here is capri pants with tall boots OR tall boots with skinny pants tucked into them...makes me cold just looking at them!
--most stores and places play American music...think Starship and Phil Collins
--Brie cheese is only about 1 dollar! yum!
--we found a new flat! It's great and I love what will be my bedroom because it reminds me of a ship's cabin =)

Funny You Should Ask...

It was SO great to read everyone's comments and offers to send packages filled with goodys! Thank you! I WOULD love it! But, there's just one thing...I don't know my address. No, really. We're all settled into a little apartment here (I'll put pictures on the next post) that is actually pretty nice. It's a great location, right next to a big park, near lots of little shops and bakeries, and really close to the part of town called Old Town (and where the mall is!). HOWEVER, in Poland, everyone has to be registered to an address and, for whatever reason, our landlady won't register us here, but wants to do so at her home address. Whatever the reason, it is definitely on the side of shady. And, for us, we have to be registered in order to get our visas (which we have to have within 90 days or we'll have to leave the country every 90 days and re-enter under a new passport stamp). Our main supervisor in Virginia would rather we don't have to do that, and our landlady says she ABSOLUTELY cannot register us here, so it looks like we'll be moving sometime in the next 90 days. Sean (our supervisor here) says it's normal and this is just a taste of how things are done here in Poland. He and his wife, Lydia, are working on finding us a new flat, we don't have to worry about that part. We'll just have to be ready to move!
So, that's the big news for today! We had our first language class and learned about 20 different ways to say "hello" and "good bye". My opinion of language day one: I like it! It sounds crazy, but I kind of like the idea of learning a new language. I think it will be good for the ol' noggin...or make me even more crazy!

A nice, hot, steamy cup of...butter????

I think I've mentioned before that I have NO clue how to move these pictures around (any help, blogging cousins?), so in no particular order: Amber struggling to open the two locks on our inside door and yet another giant lock on our outside door--which actually opens to the stairwell, not outside and uses one of those old keys

Amber and the Stevenson girls: (L to R) Cara, Abby, and Becca

Amber trying to decide if we're drinking hot cocoa or butter...hard to tell really. It smelled like butter, tasted like butter...Amber found that it came close to tasting like hot cocoa when she added sugar,but mine was already making the big swim down the drain by that point.

And I just realized that there are no pictures of me on here; I'll work on that next time!

Hello from Poland

Greetings from Poland! So, here I am...I don't even know where to start! We got in on Thursday with no problems. All of our bags arrived, Sean and Lydia and their daughters were at the airport to meet us and we were off! We ate dinner at a Polish restaurant along the way (I had pierogies...way better than the frozen ones!). Then, we unloaded our bags at our new home and crashed! Friday we spent the morning unpacking, then Sean took the three of us shopping for groceries and things like that.As we were checking out, we found that our cashier spoke English! We started talking with her and she gave us her name and number (a HUGE deal for a formal culture like Poland) so we could get together and she could practice her English. Then, we had dinner at the Stevenson's house. Saturday, we were up and at 'em pretty early to go with some of the people from the local Baptist church to go deliver shoeboxes filled with gifts from Operation Christmas Child. Amber and I went with a man who speaks English, which was way helpful. (He told us that he would talk and our job was to smile---that I can do!). Then, Saturday afternoon we met up with Lydia and the girls and had lunch in a part of town called "Old Town", because it's, um, old. Really old. Today we experienced our first church service all in Polish. I understood one sentence "David movie niet."--"David said no." Other than that, it was pretty much all over my head! However, there was a woman who came that we had delivered a gift to yesterday, so that's neat!
Right now, there's smoke flying from both Amber's and my laptop. We've been just hanging out and relaxing since church was over. We "cooked" our first meal here (grilled cheese and something that resembled tomato soup), then did some random things.
I've got some pictures that I'll post here in the next post because I'm not sure all of this will fit on one.
Well, I just got back from a little run, so it's time to shower! (and showering here is a story for another post)