It's The Little Things

When I first found out we would be moving to Poland I have to admit I didn't know anything about the country...but I assumed the worst, and that they would be behind-the-times in every way possible. I am happy to say that Poland has proven me wrong, and I am constantly pleasantly surprised by the little things here and there. For example, when I was pregnant with Jack I discovered a nail polish brand called Zoya, which does not contain toulene, formaldehyde, or DBP. I had to order it on-line because I didn't find it in any stores and I certainly didn't ever see it in a nail salon. A few weeks ago I went for a manicure/pedicure and could not believe my eyes when I saw that they had a whole wall full of Zoya colors!!  Unfortunately the manicurist butchered me and made several of my fingers/toes bleed - not sure if it was the cuticle cutting or the high powered buffer that she used (which by the way was very similar to one of my dad's sanding tools that I asked him to use on one of my toes one Christmas, which I quickly discovered should never be used on human flesh...but I digress....)  I really want to go back to this salon so I will just have to find out this woman's name and make sure I don't get her again.

Another happy discovery was in the giant toy store called Smyks, something very similar to a Babies-R-Us. When Jack was a baby I made sure that any plastic pacifiers, bottles, bowls, cups, etc. that I used were BPA-Free. I couldn't ever find anything without BPA in Dublin so I had to have people send me things, or I would stock my suitcase whenever I went back home for a visit. While I was walking through the toy store I noticed shelves of products with big 'BPA-Free' signs on them. I was really happy, even though I don't need to buy pacifiers or bottles anymore - but I did notice some BPA-free food containers in the supermarket so I grabbed a few of those. I guess Poland is more on the ball than I thought! Now they just need to work on this pollution problem - we just returned from a weekend in Copenhagen and when I ran out to the grocery store I could barely breathe when I was outside. My throat was absolutely burning, it really felt like I had my face up against someone's car exhaust. When I got home I walked over to Mike and asked him to smell me because all I could smell was 'exhaust' and he was pretty grossed out. City center is very polluted because of the traffic and most cars I have seen are diesel and you can just see the clouds pumping out of the backs of the cars - but out in the suburbs it's caused by people burning coal (or their garbage). I don't know how we are going to make it through the winter, if I find any of those ER-looking masks you can bet I will buy some - even just to wear in the car because it's awful just sitting in traffic, especially when I am stuck in a tunnel. Something tells me Mike and the kids won't want to be walking around town in those masks, but I'll buy them some just in case : )

Snow!

I know I am falling behind in the blog - we went back for a visit to Dublin at the end of September, then Mike's mom came to Poland for a visit and now my parents are here so I have been busy! Anyway, the other morning the kids were up really early and came running and screaming from Nana and Poppy's room into our bedroom to look outside - everything was covered in a few inches of snow!! They were so excited, we weren't expecting it al all so it was a nice surprise. Unfortunately the kids have very little snow gear since we didn't really need it in Dublin and whatever they had they grew out of. They didn't care though, they ran right outside and were so happy to play in it. Later that day we went to the mall and bought Ava some snow pants, Jack snow boots and both of them winter coats. We just need to find Ava some boots and waterproof gloves and hopefully we will be all set - for them at least, Mike and I are another story. It was SO cold the next few days and my boots really did not keep my feet warm at all.  I think we need to find some sub-zero weather gear, it seems like it is going to be a long winter!

Our white backyard

snowman

Ava with her friends

Residency

We are officially residents of Poland! When we first arrived we had to go to the Foreign Affairs office and apply for residency and to get PESEL numbers, which are sort of like Social Security numbers. Since Mike and the kids have Irish passports they are considered European citizens and therefore because Poland is a member of the EU whatever they had to do to apply for residency was a lot simpler that what I had to do. As a foreigner I am only allowed to stay in the country for 90 days maximum (without a visa or residency card). Thankfully this dawned on me the week before we were leaving to visit Dublin, so I called the woman who was helping us with the registration process and she got me a letter from the Foreign Affairs office to bring with me stating that my application was in process. It turns out they did pick up on my 90+ days here so I was stopped at passport control both leaving and coming back into Poland, so thank goodness I thought of it before I left or I would have missed out on the Dublin trip. Mike and the kids got their cards months ago, but today I finally received mine, which allows me to stay in the country until 2014. I won't even show the inside of it since it is one of the worst pictures of me I have ever seen...but here is the front. Now I just have to remember to carry it with me whenever we travel - I had a similar one in Dublin but I didn't think it was that important because I had a special stamp in my passport that said I could stay in the country for 5 years - but then my wallet got stolen with my residency card inside it so I didn't have it when I flew back to Ireland once and customs officers did not like that one bit and said I could have been arrested (?). Oops.

Mike and the kids think they are really cool because they get to blow through the EU passport lines at all the airports (which aren't always the shortest lines, and they still have to wait for me on the other side!) But because they applied for residency on their Irish passports, they can no longer travel on their US passports which means no more stamps from any EU countries that we visit. Oh well, at least I will have them in mine as a keepsake (suckahs).

A Word About Being An Expat

People often ask me how I handle living abroad - as many of you know, I am the most anxious worrier on the planet. I think a lot of people are surprised that I managed to move to Ireland and now, here I am in Poland leaving many people scratching their heads. I'll admit moving away was hard at first (and this was after moving to another English-speaking country, I can't even imagine the culture-shock I would have experienced if I had moved straight here from Boston!), but the reality is, at the point in life when we moved away, the most important things in my world were my husband and my two kids.  And they are all here with me, so it doesn't really matter where we are living as long as we are all together. I think about being single, or even being married without kids, and having to be moved overseas on my own - now that thought scares the crap out of me. I've met some families whose husbands commute - Dublin to Krakow, Krakow to Switzerland, even Boston to Krakow. Now that to me would be harder than anything I have had to deal with since we've been away.  I know that wherever we end up,  I can always count on three people I can have a conversation in English with, who are always there to go to dinner with, or to go out exploring the sights with. All of the other little annoyances that I've had to get adjusted to are just trivial things that I know I will get used to over time, and so I don't get overly upset about them and they certainly shouldn't be causing anyone to have a nervous breakdown or anything (aHEM!). Don't get me wrong, I have my days where I bang my head against a wall and scream, 'If only we lived in the US this wouldn't be happening!!', but I just have a large glass of wine and life is good again. On the flip side, there are a lot of things that wouldn't be happening to us if we were still living in the US - the kids' passport pages are getting filled up with stamps from all of the countries we have visited. They are being exposed to so many different languages, and they (we all?) will hopefully be learning a new one soon. Recently I went out to dinner and we went around the table saying where we were from - Argentina, Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Honduras, India, and one girl had just moved here from Katmandu. I was fascinated talking to her, asking her how she liked Poland and she was so excited to be living here after not having electricity or running water in Nepal...(OMG). She said her husband has to drag her out of the shower each morning because she just stands there enjoying the warm water pouring out from above.  The other night we were invited to our neighbors's for dinner, the wife is from Denmark and the husband is from Germany. After we ate we sat around the table chatting and the wife asked us to turn over the place cards and there was a little Danish song printed on the back, so the she led the song and we all stood around the table and tried to join in. Kind of silly but I loved hearing about the history of the song and what it meant to this family.  I just feel like I am learning so much about the rest of the world - I know it's not like we are roughing it touring through Africa or Indonesia or anything, but I wouldn't pass this experience up for anything. One of the things I miss when we visit the US is hearing all of these different languages and accents. And now I feel like I have friends all over the world that some day we may be able to visit again after we move back. Obviously it has been hard to be away from our family and friends, and it's hard looking at pictures on facebook of family vacations, or people going to Cape Cod, or pumpkin picking and apple picking - but I try not to dwell on that and instead I think, soon enough we will be back to enjoy all of those things...or maybe not (insert evil laugh here ....)

Thanks Jack

I saw this picture on Facebook and got a good chuckle out of it. And Jack must have a Facebook account, because I posted it last night and for some reason this morning (Saturday) he woke at 5:45 am, which he hasn't done in years. He marched into my room, angrily yelled "MOMMY!!", then demanded that I come sleep in his bed (much like the other weekend morning when he screamed, MOMMY you need to GET UP and feed me NOW!!!" But that was at a much more sane time of 9:00).  My first thought after looking at the clock was that I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep, because usually if something wakes me up it takes me hours to get back to sleep. But really it didn't matter because when I climbed in next to him he just rolled around and talked to me for the next hour until I finally decided to throw in the towel and go downstairs. Thank goodness we didn't have a crazy night out last night. Now if he would just get his days straight and do this sort of thing Monday through Friday when he has to be ready for the school taxi at 7:40 am we would be all set, but instead I am dragging him (and Ava) out of bed kicking and screaming and crying and yelling at me about how I am the meanest Mommy ever for making him wear the clothes that he picked out the night before. Ah, the joys of motherhood!!

More Polish Things

Just a few more things I thought of...

Names - I need to add JoAnna to the list of common names because I am meeting so many of them - our cleaning lady, the new doctor I found, a career/relocation coach working with BBH to help spouses adjust, and even a physical therapist. Aneta is another one, and there are at least two Adas and two Kubas at the kids' school.

Everyone wears high heels - walking through the square (on the cobblestone, I have  no idea how they do it), early Saturday mornings out and about (although the ones I have seen may possibly have been hookers!), even at Tesco pushing a kid in a shopping cart (and the outfit is usually topped off with a really short skirt or short shorts). Did I mention how ugly the shoes are? When I walk by shoe stores I glance in and so far I have not really seen anything that would make me even want to go inside. I am guessing I am going to have to wait until visits back to Dublin or the US in order to do any kind of shoe shopping- which kind of stinks because doing it here would be a lot cheaper. Clothes-wise there is an H&M, Zara and Mango which we had in Dublin so I should be all set- and two of those have a kid section which is good. We do see a lot of Wranglers around, I wonder if there is a store? I remember I used to have a favorite pair of purple cordouroy wranglers when I was in 6th grade, wonder if I can find some here? While I'm on the subject of shopping, I was happy to find solid deodorant and foamy shaving cream for Mike (instead of the gel), two things we could never find in Dublin.

Pedestrians have the right of way- I was used to this years ago, going to college in CT and then moving to Boston- freedom to just walk out into the street with no fear of getting hit by a car. Then I moved to Dublin and as a pedestrian I feared for my life. I need to really pay attention here when I drive around because it is a very pedestrian-friendly city (which doesn't make much sense to me considering the drivers are so crazy) so people really don't look at all before walking into a crosswalk, and I have had a couple of close calls because I am just not used to it.

Businesses stay open late- I love this one. It was on of the things that annoyed me about living in Dublin, most stores closed at 6pm, except on Thursdays when they stayed open until 8 (which isn't late enough in my book). Here they are open at least until 10pm, which makes life a lot easier if I ever have to run out for something after Mike gets home from work. Tesco is open 24 hours, and I saw a few 24 hour pharmacies. Even the little post office in our neighborhood stays open until 9, I couldn't believe it.

Most restaurants serve all-day breakfasts. Another thing we had a problem with in Dublin- taking forever to get out of the house on the weekends, really wanting to eat eggs or pancakes and then having to eat a hamburger or a sandwich instead because all the places we went had stopped serving breakfast. But on the flip side, it's really hard to find sandwiches here, so you win some, you lose some I guess.

Taxis are cheap, but you can't hail one on the street. You have to go to a designated taxi stand, or call one. Annoying if you ask me.

Krakow is a very catholic city. There are churches everywhere, and nuns and monks. The other day I saw a  nun tooling through our neighborhood on a bike and I really wanted to take a picture but I thought I might be struck down by a lightning bolt if I had. I believe Ava is supposed to make her First Communion next May so right now I am in search of an English-speaking religion class that she can go to. Otherwise we will have to throw her into the wolves and put her in a Polish class- which probably won't end up being too difficult for her I guess. She is taking Polish at school twice a week, and the other day she went up to a street vendor and ordered a bagel in Polish- "Dzień dobry. Jeden serem proszę- Nie? Sesam proszę, dziękuję!" Which means, hello, one cheese please. no cheese?sesame then. Thank you!! 

The cutting off is out of control. I think I touched on this in an earlier post, but people love to cut in front of you here. I took the bus the other day and there is a machine on the bus where you buy your ticket. I watched a person get on the bus, stand in front of the machine to buy a ticket, but when he took 1 millisecond to dig some change out of his pants pocket a woman behind him with change in her hand just pushed her way in front of him and threw her change right into the machine. I couldn't believe it, but he didn't seem phased by it at all. This also happened to me at the shopping mall when I was standing in front of the ticket machine looking in my purse for money to pay for parking and I wanted to deck the person. 

They don't use top sheets. I noticed this when we were living in Dublin, more so when we traveled around and stayed in different hotels throughout Europe. The beds just have a fitted sheet covering the mattress, then a duvet (comforter) on top. I hate, hate, hate this, as I cannot sleep without a top sheet. Not to mention it really skeeves me out because i am sure most hotels do not wash the duvet covers after each guest leaves (I know they don't wash comforters that often in the US, but maybe since you can take the duvet covers off they are washed more frequently in Europe? I hope?)...We brought most of our bed sheets with us from the US, but I do remember buying new sheets at IKEA when we lived in Dublin and I was able to find a top sheet- it took a lot of searching but I did find them. But at the IKEA here they don't sell them at all, not even on the website. It was really hot this summer and our comforter was too heavy so I needed a top sheet over me, so I ended up having to dig a mismatched one out of the closet to use on our bed. 

May, June, August, and September are the months to get married. We weren't here in May but the past few months we did notice that every single time we went into the main square we saw a bride and a groom wandering around with a photographer. It turns out any month with an R in it is a lucky month to get married (June= Czerwiec, August = Sierpien, September = Wrzesien).  May (Maj) doesn't have an R in it but has great weather even though it's not a lucky month. So people put their wedding garb on and get pictures taken during the week, and then usually get married that Saturday. One day we saw a bride a groom walking along, and the bride was munching on one of those zapiekanka things while the groom chugged a bottle of beer. Mike and I actually felt sorry for them because they looked all alone and we thought wow, that must have been one boring wedding. But obviously they were just on their way home from a photo shoot.

Dry cleaning is very expensive. I think we used to pay around €2 or less to get Mike's shirts cleaned in Dublin, but here they charge almost 17 pln which is about €4 a shirt. This is the dry cleaner that is in the Tesco shopping center so it's the most convenient one for me to get to (which isn't really convenient at all). The first time there we dropped off about 15 shirts and the woman looked at me like I was crazy. She kept pointing to the price list but I really didn't have a choice. Since then we have found a place that's only about €3 a shirt, but it's right in the city center so the parking stinks and it's really hard for me to get there. I am thinking that I'll just wash the shirts and maybe our cleaning lady will iron them for us, we need to figure this one out.

Everybody smokes. This goes for Europe in general, we have noticed this ever since we moved to Dublin. Fortunately most places have banned smoking indoors (thank goodness, I can't even imagine that). Unfortunately, they can still smoke outdoors. This wasn't as much of a nuisance in Dublin because the weather wasn't really nice enough to eat outdoors at a restaurant . But here we eat outside every time we go out, and we are surrounded by smokers and it really ruins our meal. I still think they should designate smoking sections outdoors well, or even just stop manufacturing cigarettes altogether : )

I'm still confused at gas stations. Most places are full service, and when I pull in the attendant will go over to my gas tank (which is on the opposite side of the car) and just stand there. I mean, he isn't even trying to look into the back passenger window to figure out what I want. So I end up having to get out of the car, walk over to him, mumble in English and then point to the gas I want then get back into the car. I just don't know what I am supposed to be doing, or why he doesn't come over to the driver's window and ask? Weird.

There's lots of hitchhikers here. I see them a lot heading down the main road that leads to a place called Zakopane, which is about 2 hours south of us near the Slovakia border and a big skiing destination in the winter.

I cannot for the life of me find regular lined notebooks. Ava needed some for school and I ended up having to order them from the PTA. The other day I was looking for one to use when I start my Polish lessons but the only ones most stores sell are grids with really small lines so trying to write within the lines is pretty difficult, and then skipping lines just seems to take up too much space. Poland must be filled with lots of mathematicians and statisticians I guess...

Kazimierz

There is a neighborhood within Krakow called Kazimierz, which is the old Jewish quarter. Inside (or next to?) this area is where the Nazis created a Jewish ghetto and forced all of the Jewish people in Krakow to live during World War II. Most of them died within the ghetto or were later killed or sent to concentration camps. Some of the area was destroyed during the war (side note - most of Krakow was untouched during the war, the story I have heard is that a German general who was based in Krakow considered it an important historical city and ignored Hitler's orders to destroy it but I'm not sure if that's true). Anyway, the area used to be pretty run-down and had a bad reputation but in recent years it has been coming around - now there are lots of little cafes, restaurants and bars all over. The area is still pretty dismal looking but I guess that is part of its charm.  One afternoon we took a little walk around the area (Ava wasn't happy because she prefers to be on the main square) and then had dinner. Since then we have been back a few times on our own and have found some good restaurants and fun bars. It really reminds me of being back in New York City (except that everyone speaks Polish!)

The main square - and supposedly to the left is the place to buy the best zapiekankas in Krakow

Ava unhappy with Kazimierz

Jack and his teeny tiny dessert (which ended up being the perfect size for him)

Our table in the back garden

Fortunately for us there was access to a playground right out back

First Day Of School

Well the day finally came that the kids started school. When we arrived in Poland and I knew the kids were going to be with me every single minute of the summer and back then that seemed like it was going to be SUCH a long time - but I can't believe how fast it flew by. Their first day was on that Monday September 3. The night before they were both really excited but once the morning rolled around they were a little nervous. The school is pretty far from our house, at least 20 minutes without traffic, so we signed them up for the taxi service to shuttle them to/from school. They would be in the taxi with 6 other kids from nearby and would most likely have the same driver each morning. At first I was really nervous about the thought of them being shuttled around, but I guess if we were in the U.S. they might be taking a bus to school anyway. The good thing is that I can at least put their car seats into the taxi (are there even seat belts in school buses these days??). Neither of them wanted to take the taxi and I have to admit I was a bit nervous about the first day as well, so I drove them in. I was planning on dropping Ava off first (they are in different buildings) because I figured Jack would be really clingy and not want me to leave and I didn't want Ava to be late, but the security in the parking lot made me park near his building and so I just went in there first. He looked around nervously a little but when I pointed out the play doh table that he had seen at the Open House (and that we wouldn't let him stay and play with) he made a beeline for it and didn't even say goodbye to me. Finally he at least gave me a hug and a thumbs up and off he went. I was in shock! Next we walked into the main building where it was slightly chaotic. There is a small locker room for the younger kids instead of having lockers line the hallway, so Ava went inside and dropped off her bag and we walked into her class. She already knew two kids in her class, Ellie was already there but seemed to be busy with her old friends (she was in the school last year), and Danny from Boston (who is also new) wasn't there yet so she was nervously looking around for him. They didn't have assigned seats so she chose a seat near the girls and the teacher explained that there was a game they had to play while they waited for the day to start, sort of an ice-breaker I guess where they had to walk around and find out different information about people in the class according to the worksheet left on their desks. I really thought she was going to struggle with this, or at least complain to me and act scared and ask me to stay and help her, but she picked up the paper and pencil and quietly started walking around the room. I said my goodbyes to her and then off she went. Wow that was easy!! I think they were just so bored with being at home all day with me (well it's not like we spent all day every day locked inside our house)-so they could not wait to start school. I got in my car and had to fight back the tears. I just felt like they were my two babies, all alone in that big school and I wanted to be there inside with them. I have to admit I was mostly nervous about Jack and really feeling like no one other than me could keep a really close eye on him - there seemed to be too many doors for him to sneak out of or something. 

To take my mind off of this, and because this is all I ever do any day of my life, I headed to the grocery store. When I got inside it hit me again and I had to fight the urge to cry. I just had a big, heartbroken pain in my chest from being at the grocery store without the kids. This was our thing to do all summer! We had fun most of the time, I was amazed by how well-behaved they were (almost) every time we went shopping. I roamed around the store in a daze at first but then finally realized I needed to get my shit together and stop moping around because I had a big list in front of me. When I was finished ( I did it in under an hour - yay! But of course I couldn't find tofu - boo!) I walked out to the car and got that stab in my heart again - whenever we went shopping Ava always wrote down the number and color of our parking spot so we wouldn't forget where we parked. Okay I admit this wasn't a big parking garage and I always park in the same place there so I knew where I was going, but it still reminded me of her and I got sad again. How was I going to get through this day being at home all alone without my two best buddies?? Ugh I was so depressed. But of course the perfect cure for depression is to just get really pissed off, angry and annoyed about something else, so that's what I did. Because I had a certain recipe from The Program that called for tofu, I left Tesco and went on a day long search for the frigging tofu. Because how else would I rather spend my new found freedom than by wandering aimlessly around three giant grocery stores looking for stupid tofu??? I ended up finding it eventually (and the recipe ended up sucking to add even more insult to injury) but by the time I got home, made lunch, took a shower and maybe paid a bill or two I had to go back to pick up the kids. Well that was a fun day - NOT! I had to leave the house at around 3:00 to pick them up (since then I've hit really bad traffic, so if I were doing it every day I would have to leave at 2:45). So after a day or two of driving them I decided, it's much easier for them to take the taxi. It picks them up at 7:40 am, and doesn't drop them home until almost 4:30pm. How can I pass that up - the alternative is me scrambling around trying to get us all out of the door by 7:45 am, then napping/eating bon bons/surfing the net having a super-productive day cooking/cleaning/ironing our underwear/paying bills/organizing the closets until 4:30. I'll see how it goes, if the kids are really unhappy I may have to drive more but I will take advantage of it while I can! Here are some pictures:

Jack heading into his building with his super-sized back-pack, filled with a change of clothes, a snack, and a pillow and blanket for nap time

big boy happy to be at school

Ava's ready too. Although I had to make her leave her dog at home, no toys/dolls/etc allowed in 2nd grade!

Off we go!

In front of her new school. She was mortified that I took her picture in front of all of the students

Ten Years!

Yesterday was our 10 year anniversary. Wow how times flies! Mike was saying, it feels like just yesterday that I was sitting in traffic on 2nd Avenue that morning, when you left me a huge list of things to do and I was almost late. Oops! Well, I had to get my hair and make-up done so I didn't have time for things like getting the place cards, favors, menus, etc  to the restaurant where we had our reception. Ah, the stress relived. Anyway, I was really struggling to come up with a nice enough gift for Mike, 1) because he is really hard to shop for and 2) I have not mastered shopping for things besides groceries here so I had no idea where to even begin to look. I ended up spending the last several weeks going through all of our old photos (that Mike has rarely seen since they are stored on my computer) and putting together a little video for him. It was my first attempt at doing this, and thanks to google and youtube for showing me how to put it all together I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I just wish I had better quality photos from our early years but what can you do. Here is the link if anyone is interested!

10 Year Anniversary Video

I ended up finding him a pair of Polish cufflinks, and he gave me a beautiful ruby and diamond necklace! We went out to dinner last night in the area Kazimierz which is sort of the hipster part of town (more about that in another post). The meal was delicious and we had our own little private table

then afterwards we went to a bar next door and had fun people watching and drinking extra-large mojitos!

 Happy Anniversary to us!

Bobo Test

I saw this in the grocery store yesterday and I had to laugh. Just in case you want to make sure your baby is not a bobo, there is a test for that lol!! This isn't even Polish I don't think so I have no idea what it is. I am assuming a pregnancy test?

Babysitters

Before moving to Krakow one of my big concerns was finding a babysitter as soon as we got here since the kids were home with me all summer and I knew I was going to have to be out doing a lot of errands.  We really didn't know how to go about doing this before we moved here and in reality I didn't even have time to think about it before we moved. So once we got here and we were staying at the Sheraton Hotel we asked them for some leads. They gave us the name of two agencies and we used one of them during that first week, so we could go out and pick up the rental car. They charged 60pln/hour - that's €15/hour (or about $18), a lot more than we paid in Dublin - our sitter there was €8/hr, and the older one who cleaned our kitchen was €12. We really didn't have a choice though. After we got settled into our house I asked around more, and Michal the Relocation Guy gave me two names. One of them said she would be in Ireland until September, and the other one responded so we had her over to the house to meet the kids and they really liked her. She is Polish and she was so excited to be around people speaking English because she said she doesn't get to practice it enough. We used her a few times (she cleaned our kitchen too!) and I was all excited to bring her grocery shopping with me one day to help me out, but of course she ended up getting a new job so she would only be available in the evenings (except Saturday night) and the weekends. Figures! We didn't have any other options, one day I was desperate because I had to go to the doctor during the day so I hired the Sheraton agency but I didn't want to get into a habit of doing that. During all of this a woman that one of my Dublin friends introduced me to sent me a list of babysitters - she is German but lives in Warsaw, I am not really sure where she got the list from but the other day I finally got around to texting some of the girls. I ended up interviewing one, she is Polish and doesn't live too far from us (she's studying in Krakow). The kids liked her and she seemed responsible enough. I used her one night to go for a run (BBH is participating in the Krakow Business Run, a charity 20k relay through the city) so I am doing it with them. When I left I asked her to head upstairs to get the kids ready for bed at around 7-7:15, and that Jack was really tired so he would probably be asleep by 8:00. When I got home at 8:30, the kids were still downstairs playing on the computer and coloring. I was so annoyed!! I mean, maybe if they at least were in their PJ's with their teeth brushed I wouldn't have been so mad. I asked Ava after the sitter left if she had even attempted to bring them upstairs and she said 'yes, but I told her I had one more picture to color so we stayed downstairs'. I know Ava has a tendency to try to get away with things with the babysitters so I need someone who isn't going to let Ava walk all over them. The time we used the sitter at the Sheraton the same thing happened, except we got home at 11pm and both kids were still awake, watching TV.  The sitter said she asked them if they were tired and they both said no so she let them stay up...?! Funnily enough both of their names were Madga, so we won't be using anymore sitters named Magda.  I went back to Michal who gave me the name of another agency but I was hesitant to call them since I figured they would be expensive. Finally I called and it turns out the girl she found us is only 20pln/hour ($6), so a bargain but she doesn't have a car so we have to pay for her cab home (which turned out to be over 100 pln ($32) after we took the cab back from town). When she showed up for the interview she asked me where I kept the first aid kit so I was happy. The kids seemed to like her, they were both asleep when we got home, and she even left little notes of when she brushed their teeth and put them to bed so we were happy. She is a student as well and college starts back up on October 1 so I am not sure how available she will be after that, but hopefully between the 2 we will always have a sitter when we need it. Now if I had only found them months ago, life would have been a little bit easier. Oh well!

And This Is Why I Hate European Shopping Carts

And This Is Why I Don't Listen To The Radio In My Car

Ice Maker Is A Bust

I am SO annoyed - after finally figuring out how to order the ice maker, when I took it out of the box it smelled horrible - like the smell any kind of new electric appliance might smell - gas? plastic? chemicals? When I opened the box I put it on the dining room table and that night Mike couldn't even eat next to it because it smelled so bad. I was hoping it was just a newness thing, so I plugged it in and made several batches of ice with it. The cubes were perfect, not too hard,  a little wet and almost chewy if that makes sense - perfect for crunching!! I figured once I started using it a lot the smell would go away. Sometimes I wouldn't smell it but then other times I would - I washed the inside a few times with vinegar and water as per the instructions. One night we came home and it was pretty hot in the house, I made a nice big glass of ice water to bring to bed with me and when I got up into the bedroom and bit into the cube all I could taste was that smell. YUCK! I was so mad. Obviously I am not going to use it because who knows what kind of carcinogenic chemical is covering my ice cubes now. My bigger problem was how in the world do I find out if I can return the thing. And even if I can, the thing is huge so how much was it going to cost me to mail it back, and how would I even find a UPS-type place to do it. I have noticed that European return/exchange laws are pretty strict, i.e they really suck in that things usually have to be returned within 7 to 14 days. How stupid is that? On a side note Mike once bought me an expensive wallet in Dublin (that I didn't really want, I liked it but thought he spent too much for a little wallet and that it was a waste of money). I tried to return it but he had bought it for my birthday so bought it a few/several days before he gave it to me, so by the time I got to the store to return it and get my money back they wouldn't let me. Things like that really piss me off. It's not like going into a Babies R Us with some Carters clothes you got for a gift that you don't even know if they came from BRU, but you go in and they don't even give you a hassle when you try to return it - without a receipt. Anyway, I digress. It took me a day or so to open the ice maker and then by the time I finally got around to cleaning and using it, then letting it sit for a few days and then using it some more to try to get rid of the smell and then finally deciding to return it, a couple of weeks passed. Finally I forwarded the confirmation email I received after I bought it to Michal to translate to see if he could figure out the return policy. He ended up calling the company and of course, the policy is 10 days. They did say they would go to the manufacturer and see if it could be replaced by the warranty, but I am not really holding my breath. I am so upset, I was so happy with the thought of fresh, juicy ice cubes constantly at my disposal. Bum-mer

Mystery Notice

Earlier today someone rang our buzzer and when I went outside he started rambling on in Polish. When I told him I didn't understand he seemed to walk away. Later when I went outside I found this notice along with a clear blue plastic garbage bag. I have zero interest in spending the time to translate this - anyone care to take a Google translate stab at it? The last time this happened it was the plastic bags we needed for recycling, luckily there were pictures on the bags so I figured out what they were for, and the Polish neighbor/landlord happened to be over that day and used hand gestures to show me where the hidden clear string was to tie them closed. I really do just need a personal translator at my side at all times.

Food

So eating over here is proving to be harder than we thought. As I've already mentioned, grocery shopping takes me forever - partially because everything is in Polish, but partially because I can't find everything I need in one store so I continue to loop around the giant store thinking I obviously missed it. I mean, why is it so hard to find pears and celery and avocados?? And then because I have been to way too many different grocery stores than I care to admit, I am looking for things that I may have found in another store but can't remember. It just gets so frustrating!! So nine times out of ten I leave a store without everything on my list. I really feel like I spend all of my time at the grocery store - or in the kitchen. We have noticed that they don't have sandwich stores or diners here - it's just sit-down restaurants. Which is fine if we want to go out to dinner, but it creates a bit of a problem when we are short on time and want to grab a quick brunch or a sandwich. We really miss being able to run to Morton's or Donnybrook Fair in Dublin on the weekends, to grab sandwiches, scones or pre-made salads on our way out on a busy weekend.  Or stopping into Hobart's on a lazy Sunday morning for some scrambled eggs and pancakes. The closest eating-on-the-run food item I have seen is this sort-of-pizza-on-a-sub called a zapiekanka -they sell them on the street or in bodegas around the city.

 I haven't tried one yet because it's not on our eating program, but it looks pretty tasty aside from the ketchup on top - but there is no way our kids would ever eat this. Someone suggested we try a Subway sandwich shop, I think I saw one at one of the malls, but again our kids won't eat those either. So I am forced to cook/prepare/stress over 3 meals a day, 7 days a week - unless we go out to dinner- and I am getting burnt out! Am I just being a whiner? Does everyone usually cook that much? Maybe I was just lazy and ate out too much before, but it's really hard to do that now. Time to become a master chef I guess!! I know in reality this is a good thing because at least Mike and I are eating really healthy, homemade food now (for the most part), but the kids need a bit more of a selection because I am running out of options for them.

The food is a little different here too - the kids won't drink milk anymore and Ava gave up on yogurt and ham so no more ham and cheese sandwiches. They don't sell those convenient little pots of organic plain yogurt that we used to buy in Dublin, so now Jack has switched to some Danonino flavored ones for kids which I am sure are loaded with sugar. At least he is getting some calcium I guess. None of us really like the chicken either, I am still grossed out by the smell of getting a few bad packages of it, but Mike and the kids say it tastes different. To mix things up a bit I tried making some kielbasa the other night and it looked really good, but it just tasted different - too creamy or something, like we had just killed a pig in the backyard, threw it on the table and started eating it. Yuck! I've made burgers using ground beef and ground turkey and Ava is a huge fan - the turkey is pinker than I am used to, it doesn't really change color and turn greyish when you cook it like it does in the US, so I end up overcooking it to be safe. And I mentioned the issue with getting fresh fish here so unless we want to eat red meat every single night I am thinking that we have to become vegetarians. Which really isn't going to go over well with my kids that's for sure. I am happy to say that Mike has eaten a lot of the meals on our program that I never thought he would eat (Chickpea Curry, Bean Bolognese with Quinoa instead of pasta, hummus and red pepper sandwiches) so at least I have options for us, but again I just don't know what to do with the kids. Even the chicken nuggets taste different, and fish fingers are filled grey fish mashed with who-knows-what-else-because-I-am-too-lazy-to-translate-the-tiny-letters-on-the-package. I remember complaining that shopping in Dublin was so hard, but what I wouldn't give to run into a Marks and Spencers right now, or a Tesco where everything is in English. We are going back to Dublin for a visit in a few weeks and I already have a big list of things to buy while I'm there.

On one trip to the store I was looking for ground cinnamon. After spending way too much time looking for it I finally gave up and asked someone - not sure if she spoke English but I had found a stick of cinnamon so I showed that to her and started shaking it and she figured out what I wanted. She brought me to an aisle with all these packets in it, I am sure I walked by it about 5 times because I was not expecting to see it like this.

On another visit while the kids were in camp, I had extra time to spend browsing aisles that I hadn't spent much time in before. And that's when I found some wheat germ!

And yesterday when I was annoyed because I couldn't find pears, celery and avocados I stopped by this cute produce stand near our house and luckily they had all three. The things that make me happy these days!

The Bear Who Almost Didn't Make It Here

Ava has been patiently waiting for a package to arrive from my dad and stepmother - they bought her a Build-a-Bear that she picked out online for her birthday and I finally got a notice from the post office that it arrived the other day. The kids were in camp for the week so I was busy taking advantage of my free time and getting lots of errands done, happily without dragging the kids around with me. I went to the post office to pick up the package, and while I was waiting at the window I noticed a pair of Jack's sunglasses behind the counter. I realized he must have left them there the last time they were there - I tried telling the woman helping me that they were mine and we left them there last time, but she didn't speak any English. Luckily the woman in line behind me understood what I was trying to tell her so she translated and the post office woman handed over the sunglasses and also one of his little toys he had with him. I guess he isn't too attached to them because he didn't even notice they were missing. After the post office I went next door to the ATM to get some money because I had to then go to the dry cleaners to drop off Mike's shirts and they only take cash. After I got the shirts I went home and noticed how it only took me about a half an hour to get all that done and back to my house. I started getting dinner ready and the kids got home from camp (one of the American moms I met lives near us so I have been bringing her son in the morning and she drops the kids off for me). I was so excited to tell Ava that her Build-A-Bear had arrived - and then it dawned on me, where did I put the box??? I ran through the house - it wasn't in the hallway or in the kitchen or on the dining room table where I usually drop things when I come in - I frantically ran out to the car and ripped the doors and the trunk open - NOTHING! I started to panic - when I got distracted by finding Jack's things did I forget the take the box with me when I left the post office?? Or worse yet, did I leave it on the roof of the car or something?? Oh, how could I possibly not remember what I did with it, it was a really big box! I didn't know how I was going to tell my dad that I lost it either. I went back into the house and gathered the kids up (and the last thing they wanted to do was head back out after they just walked in the door), shuffled them into the car and then went back to the post office. Unfortunately the same woman who gave me the package wasn't working anymore, so I waited in line and immediately asked her if she knew English (I usually just hand over my package ticket) - of course she didn't. I didn't know how I was going to explain what had happened. She called an older woman out from out back that seemed to understand what I was saying but was speaking to me in Polish, something about 'Heller' then pointing outside. I said yes, the package was from Heller - yes you know what I am talking about, so where is the package?  There was an old man standing behind me watching all this and seemed to be following what was going on. I turned to him for help, asking him if he spoke English but he said no, French. When the woman kept pointing outside I asked him if she knew what she was saying and he said 'bank!' and I was like, bank, bank what does that mean?? And then, DOH!!! of course, I left the package at the ATM when I took money out!! I ran next door to the bank (while all of the Polish people in the post office just shook their heads at me like I was an idiot). Thankfully the ATM was inside the front door of the bank and not outside on the street, and thankfully some honest person found it and brought it inside the branch. I went to the guy at the front and luckily he spoke English so I explained what happened and he laughed and went in the back to get the package and handed it over. Phew!! I guess this is what happens when I have a lot on my mind and I run around trying to get things done!

And here she is in all her star-spangled glory. Ava named her Star, she almost called her Americo (I think she had the name in her head because of the Portuguese guy that worked at the juice bar at our gym in Dublin) but I talked her out of it.

Sneaky Chef Is Not So Sneaky

I mentioned a few posts back that I was trying out some new recipes from the book The Sneaky Chef. After all that time and energy it was only mildly successful. I first made granola bars, they don't sell rice krispies here but I found some puffed rice cereal at the organic store and that made them really chewy. The kids ate them but didn't love, love them, Ava said they were too chewy.  They totally broke apart into big pieces but I see on the website that if you halve the oil they will stick together better and can be cut into bars. Maybe I will try them again. A lot of work but at least I got some oats, ground flax seed (I used this instead of the wheat germ because I didn't end up finding wheat germ until a week or so later), and ground almonds into them. Then I made the magic meatballs with the green puree (spinach, peas, and broccoli). I am not sure how the woman who wrote the book actually thought you could hide the puree, because the meatballs were so green! Ava was grossed out at first but she loves meat (I used ground turkey) so she tried them and really liked them - they were pretty tasty, I might have to start making them for myself too. Jack looked at them and pretty much said to me, yeah right you crazy woman, you think I am going to eat that green sh*t?!. I froze them so at least Ava can have them for lunch/dinner another day. Then I made the Brainy Brownies using the purple puree (frozen blueberries and spinach). They don't sell chocolate chips here so I had some leftover Hershey kisses that I chopped up and used instead. I could not pull the wool over Ava's eyes with these because her bionic eyesight spotted the minuscule flecks of spinach inside - but shockingly, Jack loved them and gobbled them up! He absolutely loves chocolate (ever since his first time trying it on his 2nd birthday in Paris, he has become obsessed with it and now when he sees anything brown he automatically thinks it's chocolate). I liked them too, so I froze them as well (not sure you can freeze brownies or how they will taste when I defrost them). At least I know how to get some spinach into Jack's system, even if it means loading him up with some sugar and chocolate to do it. I am sure that probably cancels it out? The last thing I made were the Cinnamon Sugar Rattle Snacks, which were just chickpeas covered in cinnamon sugar and baked in the oven. As you can imagine, they were not a huge success.

Jack took one look at them and ran out of the kitchen. Ava was curious so she tried a couple and said she only liked the sugar coating, but not the insides. There is one more recipe that I bought the ingredients for to try last week, Cheesy Animal Crackers which uses a chickpea puree, whole wheat flour and wheat germ -but I was doing all of this cooking and baking (on top of the eating program) so I got burnt out and I needed to take a break. Maybe next week!

Ice Maker

Yahoo! Thanks to Michal the Relocation Guy coming to our house last week to translate for our new cleaning lady, I sat him in front of my computer and had him help me buy this thing on the Polish Amazon and it arrived today. It's a little bigger than I imagined (and looks brand new but seems a little dirty inside, if that makes sense), but I can't wait to start using it! I wonder what it will do to our electricity bill? I did think it was a bit of a waste since I won't be able to bring it back to the U.S. with me (it's a different voltage), but I learned from living in Ireland for two-years-that-turned-into-four-years - buy whatever it is you need right away because if you think you can do without them until you move back home, you might be waiting longer than you thought!

IWAK

There is a group in Krakow called the International Women's Association of Krakow, it's been on hiatus for the summer since the week after we moved here (figures!) because the expat crowd seems to leave and go back to their native countries, but they have been holding coffee mornings in the square every two weeks so I made it to three of them. There were only about 5 women at each, some Americans but a couple of Russians, Danish, and Belgians too, all various ages so it was nice to meet some new faces and chat with them. A couple that I met have been living here for a bout 5 years, but the others have been a year or two and one just moved here a few weeks ago. It was funny because she was asking where to buy things (cream of tartar for one) and I was telling her where to go, as if I am the expert now. I had the kids with me every time I went so I sat them at a neighboring table while Jack happily colored, but Ava's curiosity would get the best of her and she would bring her hot chocolate over to the grown up's table and want to be in on all the gossip! Once the group is back in action it sounds like there will be plenty for me to do - aerobics/pilates/tennis games, biking club (if I want to brave the streets with my bike, I wonder if they will meet me at my house and show me some back roads because I am terrified to ride anywhere near a Polish driver), book club (if I read any books other than cook books or Christian Grey smut), and some charity events. After a few of the coffees I came away with some helpful information - a hidden parking lot right near the Main Square which was a huge find because we were still parking at the Sheraton Hotel and walking all the way over which was at least 15 minutes with the kids, an iPhone app with the Krakow bus and tram information on it, and I am not sure if I mentioned in an earlier post but my feet started swelling my first month here, and one of the older ladies told me that hers were as well so she started drinking nettle tea every day and the swelling disappeared.  I had heard about nettle tea in Ireland, Ava got stung by a nettle once and I had never heard of them, and then one day I parked the car along some tall grass in Krakow (which seems to be very common here because they don't mow public grassy areas too often), and I think some nettles got me all the way up from my ankle to my inner thigh and I was in pain for hours! I was surprised that it could made into a tea, but I found it in the apteka (pharmacy) here but have only tried a few mugs of it. And luckily it didn't sting going down : )

Park Jordana

Thanks to one of our play dates, we discovered a great park that is near our house. A few people had mentioned it to me, but for some reason I thought it was a lot further away but one of the American moms pointed out that it was near our house. The kids and I took a ride over there one afternoon and spent a few hours roaming around- we found tennis courts, a volleyball net, soccer nets, climbing walls, skateboarding ramps, bouncy castles, lots of different playgrounds and cafes, and an icky little pond where you could rent paddle boats and mini motorboats. The kids were so excited!

A train that rides around the park

The train was loud and bumpy so Jack was a little nervous

There were lots of trees and quiet serene areas

Inside one of the cafes. Everything was in Polish and I didn't feel like trying to translate so Jack got a juice and Ava got some potato chips. I contemplated getting a beer with juice but those wicker bar stools looked very uncomfortable!

Scooting around the park and checking out the statues

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This guy looked like Jack Nicholson and had a bullet hole on him with blood coming from it. Now this picture is reminding me to Google him to see what the story is

Finding the water activities

Having fun on the paddle boats. I managed to get nauseous on them as the kids were in charge of steering and didn't quite master it

happy kids

We ended up going back with two of the American mom's I met and their kids. It was fun but when you have 6 kids ranging in age from 4-11 no one wants to do the same thing!  They had fun anyway, especially going in the balls on the pond, and then rolling down the big hill behind the Wisla soccer stadium. It's a great place to go for a bike ride as well, so as soon as we figure out how to put our bike rack on the car the four of us can dust off our bikes that we bought in Dublin and never rode and head over!

Chocolate Milk

Mom look what we found here!

Freezer

One of the things that was hard to deal with when we moved abroad was the size of the appliances - everything is much smaller (or maybe American things are just crazy big?). Our refrigerator here is a decent size but the freezer is sooo small. I guess it never really bothered me too much before since I never used it much, but now that we are on our new eating program and I am a cooking a ton I am really finding that I need to store leftovers and such in the freezer. On top of the eating program I have also been experimenting with a book called "The Sneaky Chef" - it's about making vegetable purees and hiding them in the kids's food. Jack's eating habits are really beginning to worry me, thankfully I at least found a chewable vitamin that he likes but I just cannot get him (or Ava for that matter) to eat vegetables. Two nights ago it took an hour for him to finally have 4 bites of the grilled pork that I made and it involved a tantrum or two and a lot of tears so I gave up on trying to get the vegetable in him as well. I bought the book a couple of years ago and tried out a bunch of recipes but Ava hated them all - Jack was a baby and it required way too much effort so I gave up, but I decided to dust off the book and give it another try (I also have the one Jessica Seinfeld wrote). Yesterday I made granola bars with oats, honey, rice cereal, ground almonds and ground flax seeds and they seemed to like them. I made a green puree of spinach, broccoli and peas and hid that in some meatballs, Ava loved them (and ate them after she finished her chicken dinner) but Jack had surprisingly eaten his chicken so he didn't want the meatballs. I will try them for lunch today. I also made a purple puree with spinach and frozen blueberries and that will go into some brownies I will be making later today hopefully. Jack loves brownies so I am hoping he will eat these. But anyway all of this is taking a lot of time and effort and most of these purees require storage in the freezer and I am running out of room. Here is a picture of the freezer - the top shelf fits two batches of soup that I made for the program, plus some muffins for snacks, a bag of frozen veggies and a box of chicken nuggets. The bottom shelf fits my ice cubes, two boxes of popsicles, bags of frozen fruits and veggies, a frozen pizza, and a loaf of bread (Mike's favorite bread here is only sold at a store that I hardly ever get to so I buy two loaves and freeze one). And because everything is packed in, if I move one thing everything shifts so you have to rearrange the entire shelf. Pretty annoying.

I was very excited when we first moved in because there is an extra refrigerator in our utility room, but when I turned it on an alarm kept beeping so I had to text the landlord's daughter and she told me the freezer didn't work, just the fridge did. It's a nice bonus to have that extra storage space in the fridge, but I am annoyed because I almost feel like it was false advertising when we looked at the place, thinking we had a fully working extra refrigerator.  Here is a picture of the three extra drawers of freezer that we can't use. I really need to buy that ice maker so I have a little bit more space....