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....

New Friends and New Places

Last week we had a busy week. I am not sure if I mentioned before that an American family we know here (Mike met the guy through work before we moved here, so his wife and I had been in touch on email a bit) invited us over for a BBQ one weekend and another American family was there, whose daughter is going to be in Ava's class. We invited them over for a play date, along with a family that just moved here from Boston (the husband works for BBH). They have two kids, Danny is almost 8 and will be in Ava's class, and Keira is 5. All the kids got along great and Ava and Jack were beyond excited to have made some new friends. We ended up going out to dinner with Danny and Keira later in the week, along with some of the BBH crowd who are here on short assignments. The following day Ava told me that last night had been the best day of her life, and when I asked her why she said because there were so many people at dinner, they all spoke English, and her new friends were there! I guess it doesn't take much these days to excite her. I am happy they have some friends finally but the down side is that Ava asks me about 20 times a day when we are going to see them again!

A different day we had another play date, this time it was with the wife of the General Manager of the Sheraton and his two daughters - one is 5 and the other is 15 months old. He is Belgian but his wife is from Lithuania - we had them to our place and the kids had fun running around in the back yard. THe family has been living in Krakow for a year and a half and live in an apartment inside the hotel. Again the kids were so happy to have more kids to play with, and I am happy to now have four new girl friends : )

Jack and Keira - I think Jack has a big crush on her (don't mind the red marker around his eyes, he was showing off by drawing all over himself). Hopefully his current Irish and Spanish girlfriends won't find out : )

Jack getting crazy with Danny and Keira (he took his shirt off because he got it wet)

Ava and Keira

The rest of the week we spent out and about. I think I mentioned before that Krakow is not known for it's fresh fish. I have been nervous to buy it but was told fresh fish deliveries are made on Thursdays so one day I bought some salmon at Tesco on a Thursday and it seemed fine. Our babysitter is Polish and she told me about a fish market so this past Thursday I decided to try some fish again. The kids were up early - they have been staying up late and sleeping until about 9 this summer, but they were up around 8 - so we all got in the car, dropped Mike off at work and then ventured to the fish market. I ended up having to call the babysitter because I couldn't find it at first, it turns out it was in the parking lot of a big store called Sergos. The market itself was tiny, it reminded me of the place where I used to buy fish when living in Southie. They didn't have a big selection but I was making tuna so they had that and I went on my way. Again, pretty far from the house but I guess not too bad to do once a week. The fish was good but I didn't notice it being any better than the fish at Tesco, maybe if I were using it as sushi I could tell a difference. Ava gobbled it up but Jack refused to touch it - again.

Saturday we ventured out shopping because I needed more mosquito screens for the doorways so we went to another Home Depot-type store near the airport (have I mentioned it takes about 8 minutes to get to the airport from our house? Pretty convenient). When we pulled around the back of the shopping center to park we discovered a huge toy store which obviously the kids were happy about - but I was too because I have been wondering where we were going to shop for Christmas ( I bought most of Ava's birthday presents in Dublin before we moved because I didn't remember seeing any toy stores).  It was called Smyk's, like Smyths in Dublin. They seemed to have everything there so we wandered around for a bit and then took so silly photos. There was an Alma next door so we got some groceries and headed back home.

Yay Smyks!!

Groceries

After going to Tesco every week for about a month, we finally ventured out and found a store called Alma. We had heard about it, but it's in a galeria that is a bit far from us so it always seemed like more a hassle to me to go there, deal with parking, and then possibly having to wander through a mall with my big shopping cart in order to make my way back to the car. We were kicking ourselves for not going there sooner because it is the best supermarket here by far. It's really nice and clean and neat looking and all of the food looks really fresh, and I was able to find some of the things I have been searching for - artichoke hearts, oatmeal, quinoa, hummus and things like that. They even had what looked to be an organic/health section which will be useful. And as an added bonus they even deliver, so I can shop online if I want. Tesco delivered in Dublin but I found that I never took advantage of it, because for some reason I couldn't find 2 or 3 items that we liked online so I figured, if I have to go into the store anyway, I might as well just do it all at once - plus it was right next to the kids' school so it was easy to get to. They have several different Alma shops all over Krakow so I don't have to go that far all the time, we found one much closer to our house but it's really small and hardly has any produce so I always end up not finding things I need.

Outside of Alma, our new favorite store

Oatmeal, finally! If I couldn't see inside the package I never would have guessed that that said oatmeal though

They even had a cigar store inside

Not Alma specific, but all the stores carry these awesome little cans of tomato puree. I always got annoyed by the larger ones in the US and Dublin because I would only ever use a tablespoon or so, and then would have to throw the rest away. But these are almost the perfect size! It comes in little jars too

As some of you may know, I like to keep my kitchen stocked with booze because I am a lush just in case we have unexpected company. Last summer I really took a liking to mojitos and I saw this here and had to try it. I think it translates as 'peppermint and lime', not as good as a mojito but not too bad either. I actually drank it straight the first time and probably could have breathed fire afterwards so now I know to just add a little to the glass and fill the rest with sparkling water  - and crushed ice of course.

The hot dogs here come individually wrapped. At first I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take it off before I cooked it, but when I examined it closely it looked to be plastic so I took it off. Turns out my kids don't like Polish hot dogs anyway, which I know I should be happy about but I am just running out of ideas of lunches for them. I can't wait for school to start and then I will force them to eat the hot meal every day and hopefully get some decent nutrients into them, I have seen some of the menus and it all looks pretty good.

Just a gross thing I saw on the shelf

I am happy to see they love coconut here, I noticed every ice cream store always has coconut ice cream, but I have seen lots of cookies (top left and bottom right), candy/chocolates, and even croissants filled with coconut at the bread store near our house - so yummy! I wonder why it's so popular here?

Polish stuff

Just thought I would share some random Polish tidbits:

• They like to drink red beer, with straws. We saw this a lot when we visited before we moved, and it's not just the women who sip it with straws. It was kind of funny seeing the men do it as well. Finally at one bar the woman ahead of me ordered one, so I just said "I'll have what she's having". Turns out it's just a Polish draught beer, with a cherry/raspberry/strawberry syrup added to it. You order it by saying "I'll have a beer with juice". I figured I would love it, but I didn't really. It reminded me of the time that my Irish soccer friends talked me into getting a Guinness with Blackcurrant syrup in it, like they used to drink when they were younger. Note: Please don't ever try that...

Here is Mike enjoying the local drink. Actually it's mine, I don't think he'll be happy knowing he is on the blog holding a beer with a straw in it

The berry syrup I found in the grocery store. Some of the larger stores have a whole aisle filled with this stuff. I wonder what else they use it for? When we stayed at the Sheraton we had access to the Club Lounge (=free booze) and there was a pitcher of the syrup next to the beer. Weird

• I guess this goes without saying, but they love their sausages.. I found this display slightly disturbing though, the ones on the right look suspicious to me....like mummified weiners

• Cereal comes in bags, not bags within boxes. Extremely annoying, because as hard as you try to not rip the bag when you open it, it always gets ripped. And even when you cut the top off with scissors, if you open the bag enough times it rips and the cereal spills all over the place. Do you know how much I hate the feeling of little cheerios crunching under my foot?? And as you can see, they don't sell 'real' Cheerios here either. Still a big thing I miss from the good 'ol US of A. For a country known for their high obesity rates, it still has the best selection of low sugar breakfast cereals.

• They love basketball. Who knew? I thought it was just an American thing, like football or baseball. I found a huge sporting goods store and I was surprised to see a big basketball aisle.

• There are billboards everywhere. The first few weeks that we were here, I would see a sign for something that I needed for the house but I would pass by it so quickly I couldn't write anything down. But since everything is in Polish, I could never tell which one of the words was actually the name of the store anyway so eventually I just started ignoring them

• They like to keep their kids entertained. In every shopping center we have been to we have found a big play area where you can leave your kids while you shop. And in most restaurants they have some sort of playground/slide/bouncy castle right next to the outdoor seating, and in hairdressers/banks/other places where there might be a wait there is usually a little IKEA table and chairs set up with some coloring books, crayons, and puzzles. Very nice when you are forced to drag your kids with you everywhere

• They park on the sidewalks. I have yet to figure out the rules for this, but if I see a car on a sidewalk and there is room behind it I just park there. So far I haven't gotten ticketed/towed/clamped (knock on wood). I have gotten some evil stares from passers-by, and one cyclist banged his fist on my hood (what was he doing driving on the sidewalk anyway?!) but that's not going to stop me when I need to park my car.

• Polish drivers are crazy. And this is coming from a New Yorker who lived in Boston for five years. They are so aggressive, have zero patience, and just scare me - speeding, driving down the middle of the road, passing when they shouldn't be, tailgating, etc. etc. Maybe I am just used to the slower pace of Dublin or I have become an old geezer, but I get passed on a daily basis driving on the main road leading from city center to our house. And it's a built up, busy area so it boggles my mind when they pass me, and pull over just in time to avoid a head-on collision. Plus Polish roads are not well maintained at all - the shoulders are a few inches lower than the road so if your tire happens to veer off just a little bit I imagine your whole car would fly off the road - or you would do some serious damage to your tires.  I found Irish people to be very courteous drivers (except if they were on a motorcycle, see below). If say, a delivery truck was pulled over on the side of the road partially blocking your lane of traffic, in Dublin the opposing cars would move over on their side so that you both would be able to pass by. But here (which is like the U.S.), there is no way anyone would do that and it's almost like they enjoy trying to run other drivers off the road. 

The other day while driving I had to take a picture of this sign because I wanted to translate it when I got home. To me it's a photo of a ballsy motorcycle rider cutting through traffic, thinking he owns the road, flipping the bird to everyone because he just doesn't give a f*ck about the rules and he knows no one is going to run him over. This is how motorcylists in Dublin drove and it used to make me crazy. Do they have some special license allowing them to do whatever they want, drive whereever they want, not obey a single traffic rule, putting pedestrians lives in danger wherever they are?? Seriously I used to try to run them off the roads because I would get so mad. Apparently the sign says 'enough space for all'. Yeah, I don't think so!!! They can stay behind me like a regular car would have to.

They have the worst napkins! Not sure if you can tell by this photo but I think they are made out of tissue paper. Really not much use at all, especially when trying to clean up after a 4 year old who has chocolate ice cream all over himself. The same goes for paper towels, they aren't made of the same material but definitely not anything close to Bounty - I am going though roll after roll because they are so thin.

• I don't want to generalize about Polish people, but we cannot get over how much they cut in lines. Are they that rude? Or just impatient? It is so annoying. If you are next in line for the ATM, they will sort of gather in a cluster around you and not form a real line, so as soon as you think it's your turn one of them makes a sneak attack from the side and jumps in front of you. It's very bad at airports too - and the other day at the grocery store I was pulling into the line with my cart and a woman yanked her maybe two year-old by the hand and she literally skipped and hopped right in front of me. I was so pissed off, so I have made it a habit of ramming my shopping cart/luggage cart/suitcases, etc. into the ankles of the offenders (which doesn't seem to phase them in the least by the way). 
• When it gets hot, men take their shirts off. It doesn't matter how old they are either - I've seen 70+ geezers do it, in a shopping mall for goodness sakes! There's a/c inside, I was just scratching my head that day. They walk around without their shirts in their hands and I don't even see them hanging out of their back pockets, so it's like they decided before they left their house not to put a shirt on. Last weekend we went to the zoo and saw a handful of bare-chested kids. Not as bad, but Jack sees this and wants to do the same thing. The week it was 97+ degrees here I saw enough disgusting man-boobs to last me a lifetime.
• They hate it when you don't use exact change. If you are at the checkout and your total comes to 22.38 zty and you hand them a 50, they start yelling at you saying who-knows-what in Polish. I just shrug my shoulders and wave my 50 at them and then they roll their eyes or hold their hands up in frustration and then shout something about groszy (grosha - Polish cents) so I'll have to sit there and at least dig out 8 cents or whatever it is they want.
• They don't use checks or automatic transfers here. I guess the check thing isn't too big of a deal since I didn't use them much anyway, but in Dublin we had most of our utility bills set up as automatic transfers out of our account each month. Now in order to pay a bill I have to log into our bank account and do a transfer  - which I of course have to remember to do which I find annoying, because for a lot of the utilities (garbage, recycling, gas) I have already been given the payment stubs for the next 6-9 months and I am sure I will forget something. And in order to do a transfer from our bank account, we need to enter an authorization code that gets texted to us which of course goes to Mike's cell phone not mine so I can only do the transfers when he is at home sitting next to me (and if you are reading this Mike, this is a reminder to go into the bank and switch it to my cell phone number, thanks a million)
• They don't wear bike helmets here, and this causes my kids to whine like crazy when I force them to wear them even if they are just out on their scooters. Ava especially hates it, she is very self-concsious these days and if she sees other kids her age walking around, she immediately stops, pulls her helmet off and tells me she wants to walk instead. Not sure how I get her to understand that she looks beautiful even with a helmet on : )
• It's cheap, or at least cheaper than Dublin - but I think I already talked about that. Ava and I have been treating ourselves to manicures and pedicures because it's only 100 zty, which would be about $30. I think that sounds about right? In Dublin it cost about €75 (over $90) for both, and that was for the most basic you could get - so very little foot soaking, massaging, or scrubbing. We try to drag Jack with us but he gets so bored so I think I'll have to wait until the kids are in school and then it will be my regular outing. There is a very nice Polish girl named Emily there who speaks perfect English so it's nice to chat with her about Poland.
• Some names I have been coming across are Piotr, Konrad, Bogdan, Malgorzata (shortened to Gosia), Magdalena (Magda, I can't help but think of Something About Mary's Magda), and Aneta.

That's all for now!

Interesting Sleeping Habits

I am sure Jack wouldn't be too happy knowing I am posting these photos but I am pretty sure he is not on the blog reading list. He likes to sleep in some interesting places - I think he tries to force himself to stay up with Ava the Night Owl, but then he just collapses. 

Please try to ignore the mess in Ava's room - this photo was obviously taken before the maid got here... 

He had his PJ top on when I left him

Old Wives Tale

You know that old wive's tale saying if you put a wooden stick over a pot it won't boil over? Well it's just a big lie. I supposed I could have just turned the burner down but I wanted to test it out and it spilled over the side (notice puddle on the left). Maybe if the spoon hadn't been there it would have gone all over the place? Who knows. Who cares I guess, but just thought I'd fill y'all in

Basil, Mint and Coriander, Round 2

Is my life that boring that I have to write about my herbs? Yup. I just bought more plants so I'm going to try this again, we have a screen in the window now so maybe that will help. Thinking I brought home little caterpillar eggs on the plants, I rinsed them under some water first but ended up killing the coriander so I had to go buy a third one. This new plant is looking pretty good so we'll see how this all turns out. I know you all will be waiting with bated breath....

Wow, it's August!

When I just posted that last entry I realized it's August 1st already. Time flies!! I remember sitting in Dublin and stressing about what I was going to do with the kids while they were here home with me for 12 weeks, and now it's already August and I haven't done half of the things with them I had planned to do. On the plane to Krakow Ava and I wrote up a little calendar of our Summer Fun Camp With Mommy - each morning we listed exercise and reading time before lunch, then the afternoons were broken down into Arts and Crafts Day, Sports Day, Errands Day, Field Trips, and Lazy Day. Instead our mornings have become grocery shopping 2-3 times a week, running errands, and then every afternoon they play with each other while I do laundry/clean the house/unpack more boxes/organize bedrooms/write on the blog. I feel really bad! The house is slowly coming together so hopefully after this weekend we will be in good enough shape so that I can save the last of the unpacking/organizing for September when they go to school. We had a lot of things in storage in Dublin (mostly baby items) that we had shipped here and it's all out in the garage, so one of my projects will be to go through all the boxes and make sure we are only keeping what's necessary. And then I might replace the boxes with plastic storage bins because I hate the way clothes smell when they come out of boxes that have been somewhere damp. Did I mention that I found out recently that if we use the taxi service to drive the kids to school, it gets here around 7:30 am and doesn't drop them off until around 4:30pm? Wow, I definitely have enough to keep me busy for a while but what will I do with all my time. Actually, who am I kidding, by the time I go to a 9:00 gym class, get home and showered, make lunch clean up the kitchen it will already be 1:00 and then I will only have a couple of hours each day which goes by fast. I am not sure how Jack will be with that new schedule though, that is a looooong day for him.

Ice Ice Baby

I love ice! Specifically, I love to eat ice cubes. The last time I went through this phase I was pregnant with Ava and I drove my coworkers nuts by crunching away on it all day. The day I gave birth I remember Mike excitedly bringing me a huge cup of ice and I couldn't even look at it, so I assumed it was a pregnancy thing. I can assure you that I am definitely not pregnant, as this craving started again over a year ago and will not go away.  I tried googling to see what vitamin or mineral I am deficient in and that causes my mouth to water every time I think about eating an ice cube but can't find anything. I've mentioned it to the doctor but she didn't know either - and of course the dentist told me to stop doing it when he saw some little cracks in my fillings. It is starting to drive Mike and the kids crazy too, when we go out to dinner I steal everyone's ice cubes out of their drinks when they aren't looking. We had an ice maker in our refrigerator in Dublin so I was very upset to find that our Krakow house didn't have one. I have to fill up trays every day and they take up most of our teeny little freezer so I tried going a day without ice but couldn't do it. I turned to the internet because I figured that there must be some sort of stand-alone ice cube maker and was happy to find several on the UK amazon. After reading all the reviews and finally deciding which one to buy, when I hit the purchase button I found out they would not ship it to Poland. Bastards!! They did have a manual ice crusher though, and I was super excited about that because the big ice cubes are really hard on my teeth so I have to wait until they melt a little before I eat them and that gets frustrating. But crushed ice is perfect, small enough to chomp away at immediately and causes minimal damage to the teeth (so I say, I am sure my dentist would disagree). When we were in Mallorca and we were ordering large bottles of water by the pool, they would fill up the ice buckets with crushed ice but would put big fat cubes in our glasses. I tried asking them a few times to put the crushed ice in a glass for me but they never understood. Yesterday my beloved ice crusher arrived in the mail and I am SO happy! It still a pain in the butt making the ice cubes and I am sure I will go through them more quickly now, but I won't complain - this thing is awesome! I even bought a bottle of mojito-flavored rum while I was at Tesco yesterday so I could celebrate (yes I am lazy but a real mojito is just too time-consuming for me to make when I am trying to get dinner ready). Yum Yum!! Now to find that ice cube maker - doing a little research I discovered there is a Polish website that is supposed to be like Amazon, but it looks more like ebay to me. I found an ice cube maker on it, there seemed to be a lot of brand new ones but of course the website is in Polish and even when I tried opening it in google chrome (which will automatically translate web pages for you), it doesn't always translate and there were so many pop up boxes opening when I hit the buy it now button I finally just gave up. Our babysitter is coming tonight so if I have time before running out the door I will ask her to help me...