Wrapping Up 2015

It's that time of year - these past few weeks have been super busy and I am frantically running around trying to get everything done before we leave for Boston tomorrow! I can't believe Christmas is next week. Getting our tree up didn't go exactly as expected and because of some issues with the lights (and the fact that we didn't have a Christmas party that I thought we were going to have last weekend which would have been the ultimate motivation to get it done), it has been a slow work-in-progress. Once I got the lights on the kids were in charge of decorating.  I never ended up finding a mini saw or wire clippers or something to cut the really long branch at the top, but I think it still looks pretty and the kids love it! I am just super disappointed that once again our tree doesn't smell, I guess the ones in the US are special.

I am not sure if I ever mentioned before that I coach girls soccer at the kids' school, and at the end of each season I organize a game against the teachers. The game was Monday after school so I found a place to make cute soccer cupcakes and then after a fun game (the girls won of course!), one of the Polish moms brought in pizza and we had a little celebration.

Then one of the Polish dads gave me this huge bouquet of flowers to say thank-you for volunteering my time, then he had all the girls sing hip hip hooray! to me - I was really touched!!

Earlier in the day my personal trainer (I have been forced to use one since the first two gyms I belonged to closed down!) brought me some bottles of beer from her father's specialty beer store because she knows I love beer.  Cherry, gluten-free, and dark. Yum!!

Then in our subsequent discussion about her father I discovered I am 2 years older than her parents and I wanted to cry. How is that even possible?!

Even though I was feeling some Polish love this week, Poland still managed to annoy me - the lady I bought the cupcakes from runs her shop out of her apartment, so when I asked for her address she wrote 'Gen. F. Nila 9/7'. I searched and searched on google maps for it before finally giving up. Luckily I was going to school that day so I asked one of the taxi drivers who had to drop a pin on the map for me. The correct address is, 'General Emilia Augusta Fieldorfa Nila 9/7'. Really?! I need to find the person who names streets here and smack them upside the head. After I ended up finding building #9, I started buzzing #7 but the lady never answered - thankfully my internet was working (because I always run out of data, have tried several times to increase it with no luck) and I was able to find her phone number and call her, and she told me it was buzzer #9. Makes no sense to me - or maybe she just wrote it wrong. Anyway, the cupcakes were really cute but the kids said they weren't that great. I am not surprised, because Europeans just don't know how to make a good cupcake!! So now I will sign off until Christmas, but want to leave you with a picture of our girl Stella hanging out in the cupcake carrier. We are going to miss her, but luckily she will be in good hands with our housekeeper Asia. Merry Christmas!!

Polish Christmas (Bozego Narodzenie)

Last week at my Polish lesson my teacher Monika taught me all about the Polish Christmas traditions, so I thought I would share them. As Poland is an extremely religious country, it's no surprise that Christmas here is more about family and going to Church, rather than Santa and the commercialized holiday we experience in the U.S.

First of all, they celebrate Mikolaj Day on December 6th, which is when all the kids receive gifts from the Polish St. Nicholas. Mikolaj is not a jolly fat man dressed up in a red suit, and he doesn't leave presents under the tree. He wears red Bishops robes and leaves the children gifts under their pillows or in their rooms. This is celebrated on December 6th because that is the Name Day for Nicholas...name days are really popular here, it's like a second birthday. If you look at a Polish calendar, on each day a different name is listed and that is when you celebrate your name day! Ava's is December 24th, because her Polish name is Ewa, which means 'Eve'. Jack's (Jacek) is July 3rd.

Mikolaj

Christmas Eve here is called Wigilia, and it is a very important day. It is meant to be a day of fasting - some people don't eat at all, but at least they don't eat meat or anything heavy. This is the day when people buy their Christmas trees and decorate for Christmas (and the decorations usually stay up until mid-February). Eating cannot begin until the first star is seen in the sky. The typical Christmas Eve meal starts with a wafer, like a host, that is shared with the family and before you eat your piece you say your wish for your family. You also give some to your animals if you have any, and it's believed that Christmas Eve is the one day the animals can talk! Then the first course is borscht (red beet root soup) with uszka, or little pasta dumplings shaped like ears. The uszka are filled with special wild mushrooms that were collected by going into the forest back in September (how do they know which ones are not poisonous?!). The main meal is carp, which a lot of people buy still living and store in their bathtubs until it's time to cook them! The carp is served with cabbage and dried peas (kapusta and groch), followed by cabbage and mushroom or 'ruskie' pierogies (filled with cottage cheese and potato). They drink a special compote to help with their digestion, since eating a big meal after fasting can cause an upset stomach. It's made with smoked fruits, usually plums or apples, cooked with water and a bit of sugar.  Then everyone sings Christmas carols and attends a midnight mass.

On Christmas Day it's more eating and visiting with families. Presents are also exchanged this day, but it's nothing excessive and the gifts are said to come from the stars or the angels and not Santa.

December 26th is St. Stephen's Day, and is called the second day of Christmas. It's a public holiday so all businesses are closed and no one works, but everyone goes to church again, eats more and spend more time with their families. It all sound like a very nice and Holy time of the year!

Even though we are in Poland, I would never be able to wait until the 24th to decorate a tree. We finally booked our flights back to the US anyway, so this year I wanted to make sure we got everything decorated early so we have time to enjoy it all before we leave. Since most people don't put their trees up until the 24th, it's pretty hard to find a tree in early December, but I found a bunch at the Home Depot-type store where I bought the lights for the house. I threw the kids in the car as soon as they got home from school on Thursday and we headed over there. Unfortunately the trees were all wrapped up in netting. Why do they do this?? It's so frustrating. Of course no one was outside to help, and when we spotted one single tree that was unwrapped I was tempted to buy it, even though it was too short. I decided we might as well attempt to get another one, so I went inside and found a worker who thankfully spoke English. I asked him to unwrap one of the trees and surprisingly it looked pretty good. He told me if we weren't happy with it when we got it home we could bring it back and exchange it. Sounded good to me! Since Mike was out of town on business, I needed the workers to help me bring the tree to the car. Luckily it fit inside and we were on our way. At this point it was about 6pm and we were right next to IKEA so I brought the kids inside to have dinner. Ava got their swedish meatballs, carrot salad and mashed potatoes and Jack got the chicken nuggets and fries. I got some vegetable soup and coleslaw, but everything was pretty gross unfortunately. It was almost 8 by the time we got home and the kids still had homework to do, and it was hard to distract them from trying to decorate everything and focus on their work. They ended up not getting to sleep until almost 10 so it was late night for them. Friday night we tried to put the lights on the tree but of course when I took the lights from last year out of storage, 3 strands didn't work anymore and it was almost 8pm so I didn't feel like going back out to the store. Saturday was a busy day, there was a Christmas event at BBH that the kids and I went to, then since they were dressed up I brought them to a field I had passed by to try to take a good photo of them for our Christmas card. Once I pulled up to the field and got a better look at it though, it turned out it was half mud half newly planted grass and the pictures just did not turn out nice at all. We had to rush back home and eat lunch because then I had an appointment to get my hair done for a charity event that we were going to Saturday night. Mike was due back at 6pm from Dublin, but there were high winds there and his flight was a little bit delayed, which caused him to miss his connection in Frankfurt. I went to the ball by myself, and once I got there and all the husbands found out Mike was maybe not coming they started texting him and I think we all guilted him into coming straight from the airport in his jeans! He arrived after 11 pm but it was a fun (and late) night. Sunday I ran to the store to buy more lights for the tree, I tested out all the packs but for some reason when I connected the strands of lights to the ones already on the tree it blew two sets out - so now I have to go back once again to the store so we can finally get this tree decorated!

All the trees wrapped up

Maybe we should just buy this one unwrapped tree?

Outside lights

Attempt at a Christmas card photo

Jack wanted to go to the Christmas ball as my date!

Finally Mike arrived, better late than never!

At Least We Don't Live In Beijing

I know I have slacked off on the blog a bit, and unfortunately with Christmas just around the corner and the fact that I am scrambling around trying to get some projects done in time for the holidays, I may not be able to post too much, but I will try. We booked our flights back to the US for December 17th, yay! Still not sure about all of our logistics but we can figure that out later. The kids don't have to be back to school until January 7th so we are flying back on January 4th. In my quest to make it start to feel like Christmas, I found a company in Krakow called Homecierge that you can hire to do just about anything for you - go shopping, take your car in for service, walk you dog, etc. etc....if only I had known about them when I first moved here! They are students and it's really cheap, so I hired them to take me shopping this past Saturday to buy and hang Christmas lights on the outside of our house. We don't even own a ladder, and I didn't have a clue as to how to attach the lights to the house anyway and Mike is never home, so it was money well spent. Christmas lights are insanely expensive here, so we just hung them on the edge of the front roof and our railing, not much but enough to get us in the Christmas spirit! We are planning to get a tree even though we are going home, because how does it feel like Christmas without an actual tree? Unfortunately it is very uncommon to find real ones here this early in December. The Polish tradition is to buy and decorate the tree on Christmas Eve, then leave it up  (along with all the Christmas lights) until early February. I have seen some trees wrapped up in netting at a Home Depot type store, so I might have to just grab one and hope for the best. Mike is away in London and Dublin this week, so the kids and I will hopefully buy it and decorate it to surprise him when he gets back.

Anyway, I know I have complained about the pollution in Krakow but the last few days the air has been super clean. I guess it's because we've had a bit of rain, but it's been really refreshing this time of year. This morning I came across this article about the pollution in Beijing and I will have to be thankful that we don't live there, every time the smog in Krakow gets to me!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/beijing-factories-shut-amid-smog-nightmare-094309888.html

Stupid Terrorists

Well it looks like our fun trip to Brussels on Thursday is not going to happen.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34896125

If you had asked me before, I never would have thought Belgium would be a target for terrorists!! I am super annoyed and disappointed, as we were really looking forward to the trip. While we don't want to let the terrorists win by living in fear and never traveling anymore, I don't want to have to deal with the hassle of delayed flights, closed stores and restaurants, and maybe even a cancelled Christmas Market. Not to mention none of us really want to get blown up anyway.... Our friends who live there said school has been cancelled, most of the stores and restaurants are closed, and a few hotels were on lockdown yesterday, so it's best if we stay away! We were able to cancel our hotel room, but are having more trouble with the flights - we want to just change our destination, and maybe go to Dublin or Munich instead, or even just stay in Frankfurt where our layover is - but Lufthansa is not letting us. The only choice we have is to reschedule the dates, or we lose all our money. We can't go next week because Mike is away on business, and the following week is getting too close to Christmas. Plus there is no guarantee that all of this will be resolved by then anyway. Now we are scrambling around trying to come up with an alternate plan, maybe we will just take a drive down to the mountains. We considered driving to Vienna, we have already been to that Christmas market (it was our favorite), but it was 5 years ago and I would be happy to go back. Unfortunately we can't find a hotel room. Ugh, this is a total bummer. I'm really depressed because we have been to a Christmas market for the past 5 years and it's been such a great tradition to get us ready for the Christmas season. Thanks for ruining our holidays you jerks!!

Sushi

Mike had a sort of business dinner Wednesday night and in the afternoon he asked me to try to find a sitter and I could join them and maybe they would go to a sushi place. As it turned out I couldn't get a sitter at the last minute so I stayed in, but I had sushi in my head and decided to try making it at home. I am notorious for seeing interesting recipes on the Internet, saving them to my phone, buying some of the ingredients, but then totally forgetting about them. Months ago I saved a recipe for quinoa sushi so I found the seaweed sheets and the bamboo thingy to make the rolls with, but I never actually got around to making it. Thankfully yesterday was Thursday, the day the organic store sells fresh fish, and I had been in town for the IWAK coffee morning and had bought some salmon. Sometimes if I get there too late they have run out, but this morning they had a nice big piece of poledwica ( polenveetsa) left. I also happened to have a nice ripe avocado at home, and Ava just happened to have made sushi in her cooking class last week so she showed me what to do. I was pretty impressed with my first attempt, I left out the fish so she could try it but after one bite she ran into the bathroom and spit it into the toilet. I added the salmon to my second roll but it did not hold up as nicely as the first and completely fell apart when I tried to cut it up into pieces. Oh well, it was very tasty so I'll have to make it some night for dinner with miso soup and edamame (the only thing that Jack will eat!)

Polish Muzyka

While we were home this summer Mike bought a new iPhone 6 and gave me his old iPhone 5s. I am not so great at understanding Apple devices/iTunes/iCloud etc. so it was taking forever for me to back up my old phone onto my laptop (I couldn't get all the photos to upload onto it). Thankfully by emailing my brother I figured out what was wrong, and finally last month I got everything backed up (I backed up Mike's to his laptop) and was ready to transfer everything over. Of course when I connected Mike's old phone to my laptop I kept getting an error message, and it wouldn't allow me to restore from my backup. ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH! I hate that I don't understand how all of this works. To get around this I figured I could just backup my old phone to Mike's laptop and then try to restore from there - and it seemed to work, until I got into my car and connected my phone to play music - and my library was empty!! I was so annoyed. I spent a lot of time emailing with my brother and surfing the net trying to figure this out, and then brought my laptop into the Apple store when we were just home and they told me what to do but it's a long and convoluted process that I have yet been able to finish. So for the past month I have been carrying around 2 phones, one just for music and one for everything else.  This is a huge pain and I usually misplace the old one which means I spend a lot of time driving around unable to listen to my music and having to be subjected to Polish radio. There are a couple of decent stations but they usually only play good music in the evenings, when I am never in my car. So here is a taste of Radio Polska for you! Sorry I had to use the video function so the picture is very wobbly, but I don't know how to just record and upload sound. Make sure you turn up for volume, and see how long you can stand it!!
I think the last two are my favorite : )

Polish M.D.

I just wanted to share a picture of Mike at work- all Managing Directors of Polish businesses must wear this awesome hat to work. Doesn't he look very distinguished? Hee hee hee 😅

Can't Bear The Air

The day we got back from Boston I ran out later in the afternoon to buy some groceries. I didn't really notice it at our house, but when I stepped out of my car at the store (that is only a couple of miles away) I was knocked over by the horrible smell of the air.  It was so bad that my eyes were slightly watering and my throat was burning . Ugh, it was so easy to forget about the pollution during the spring and the summer, but here it was again in full force. Maybe it bothered me more because I had just gotten off the plane from the beautiful weather in Boston. When I was in the US every time I went outside for a walk I made sure to inhale the fresh air - I guess I never appreciated it before, but now wherever we go I always notice how clean the air is. The pollution here starts around late October, and unfortunately doesn't let up until sometime in April, more on the late side if I remember correctly. It's such a shame, because we really love this city but the pollution has gotten unbearable! I've been saying since we moved here that I was going to buy a bunch of air purifiers for the house, but I never knew which ones were the best, and every time I researched anything it brought me to US websites and I wouldn't be able to use it them because of the electrical conversion. Not to mention they probably wouldn't even ship to Poland. Last summer when we were home I went to see an Occupational and Environmental doctor to talk to her about it, because I am really worried about the effects of the pollution on us. She did some bloodwork to look for toxin levels (everything was normal) and she gave me the names of some air purifiers that were highly rated by Consumer Reports. I have also been accumulating information on the best house plants to keep the indoor air clean. So my next project is to get these air purifiers ordered (and they are not cheap), and then to head out to the garden store and try to see if they have the plants I want. There is a forum on Facebook called Krakow Expats and the discussion lately has been about the pollution. Here is some of the information that was shared.

http://www.krakowpost.com/6285/2015/11/krakows-air-quality-among-the-worst-in-the-world

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150609/1023126610.html

I have an app on my phone that gives the pollution readings hourly, the safe level is 50 ug/m3. The other night measured 323!! It has also caused huge disruptions at the airport, with all the morning and evening flights being cancelled or re-routed to different airports because of low visibility. As I mentioned earlier, we just booked our trip to Brussels for Thanksgiving weekend and the only direct flight option was on Ryan Air at 9 am. I refused to book it because it's too risky at that time of the morning, and as most of you know I despise Ryan Air -for many reason, but the main one being that they made us wait all day in the airport a few years ago when we were trying to get to Dublin before Christmas. All the other airlines immediately cancelled their flights because of the fog, or rerouted them through different airports. But not us, we had to sit in the airport for at least 10 hours before they finally gave in and bused us to a different airport (after we had made our decision to leave and re-book our tickets). Grrr, I still get angry thinking about it.  Anyway, we ended up booking our flights on Lufthansa at 10:45 with connections through Frankfurt, I am still a little nervous about the morning hour but at least if there is a delay Lufthansa won't hold us hostage in the airport all day (we hope).

The smog from our window early one morning

After a few days of the unbearable air, some winds came in and blew it all away. The sun was shining and the air was nice and clean. After hiding in the house for a few days (and asking the school to keep the kids in at recess), we made sure to take a hike through the forest (Ava was at a birthday party).

Here's to hoping maybe the winter smog won't be so bad this year....And wherever you are, make sure you go outside, breathe in the fresh air and be thankful for it!!

#PrayForParis

I am sickened by what happened in Paris, and have a knot in my stomach thinking about what this world is coming to and what our kids will have to deal with in the future. Jack celebrated his 2nd birthday in Paris and it was one of our favorite cities.  We are sending our prayers there, and to all the people throughout the world who are the victims of such atrocities....

Time To Get Into The Spirit

Now that Halloween is over, and Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Poland, it's time to get into the Christmas spirit! In 2010 we went to our first Christmas market and loved it, so every year since we have been going to markets throughout Europe on Thanksgiving weekend. The first year we went to Vienna, then in 2011 we went to Edinburgh, in 2012 to Copenhagen, in 2013 to Dresden, last year we went to Basel, and this year we are off to Brussels! We have heard mixed things about Brussels, I went once for a quick overnight visit when I used to work at Alliance so I didn't get to see much. Their Christmas market did pop up on a list of the Top 10 Christmas Markets in Europe, but our Belgian friends seem to disagree with this. One of my good friends Liesbeth who moved back to Belgium from Krakow over the summer (and whose son Romain was in Ava's class) doesn't have too many good things to say about the city, but we have not been to Belgium before so we want to go, and the extra bonus is that we get to see them! We are also planning to take a train an hour away to the market in Bruges which is supposed to be beautiful. And, Belgium is known for chocolate, waffles, and beer, so who would not want to go there? We can't wait!

Ava has already started playing Christmas music around the house, and the other day a page I 'liked' on facebook uploaded these photos and I just love them because they really made me all warm and fuzzy inside! This first one totally reminds me of the bulbs we used to put on our tree in the house we grew up in on LaGrange Ave. My dad also built a wooden frame to go around our front door and nailed some of the lights to it, added some greenery and hung it up every year.

Last year I came across this old photo of our house and I wish it was better quality because I want to frame it. Christmas was always my favorite holiday and my parents really got into decorating and playing Christmas music so whenever I look at this picture I can smell the Christmas tree and hear Johnny Mathis playing in the background (and see the tinsel sticking out of our cats butts, because they always used to eat it off our tree)!  The other photos are just really pretty and magical. Can't wait for Christmas!!

Poor Stella

Last night Mike and I had plans to go out to a Trivia night at a bar in town. We found out about it from the Elementary School principal of ISK and Ava's Grade 4 teacher from last year who play every Tuesday (and usually come in first place). We went once before and came in 5th place - at least we didn't come in last! Anyway, when I was outside waiting for my taxi (because our house is new and is numbered 42A, taxis can never ever find it so we always have to wait outside)- Ava came out to talk to me and Stella must have slipped out into the darkness without her noticing. When Mike and I came in last night, I noticed that Stella wasn't around and went outside and called for her. I figured if she had gotten out she would be anxiously sitting at a side door trying to get in. There was no sign of her so I figured she must be upstairs sleeping under one of our beds. It was really late so I didn't search too hard and just got into bed and fell asleep. As soon as I got out of bed this morning I knew something was wrong, as Stella always greets me with meows when she hears me get up. I ran around the house looking for her, but I just knew she wasn't inside. I woke Ava and asked if she remembered seeing her last night and she couldn't remember. I ran outside and looked around the house but there was no sign of her so I immediately feared the worst. I put my shoes on and decided to walk up and down the road, very nervous that I might find her poor little body on the side of the road. Still there was no sign of her, so I thought maybe someone had found her and taken her inside. I was coming up with a plan of making LOST CAT flyers and putting them all over the neighborhood when I got back to our house (although I had no idea how I was going to write it all in Polish). I called out for her a few times before I walked back into the garage, and then I heard a faint meow coming from somewhere near the side of our house. Oh Stella!! I ran to the fence, thinking she must be in the neighbor's yard but I didn't see her. Then I realized it was coming from near our car, so I got on my hands and knees but didn't see her anywhere, and didn't understand why she wasn't running out to me. Then she gave out another little tiny meow and I knew where she was - under the hood!! I ran into the house to grab my keys, opened my door and then popped the hood. When I lifted it up, there was the poor girl on top of the engine. Thank God I had not tried to start the car, I was planning on taking a drive around the block to look for her next, but I wanted to wait for Mike to come with me in case we found her body : (  I remember when I was younger there were a ton of stray cats in our neighborhood, and one of our neighbors told us how they started their car one morning and unfortunately had killed one of the strays that had climbed inside to keep warm. We were so happy to have found her, she ran into the house, at some food and then didn't stop drinking water. She has a cut under her eye, but it doesn't look like she got into a fight, but maybe she sliced it climbing over a fence or trying to get out of the car. Poor thing! I feel terrible that I did not try harder to find her last night, but now maybe she will think twice before trying to run outside!

All tired out from her adventurous night

Her boo boo

Back in Krakow

Hello again. We got back from Boston on Wednesday, a day later than planned. We were booked on the Monday night flight, arriving in Krakow on Tuesday morning. Monday was a holiday in Poland so the kids didn’t have school, so they were only going to miss Tuesday. On Monday we spent the day packing and at the mall shopping for last minute things of course! So due to our time crunch and the fact that I misplaced the luggage scale at Nina’s house, we had no choice but to just  load all our things into our suitcases and hope for the best (normally, we weigh them all to make sure they are the allowed 23 kgs, and if anything is too heavy we stuff it into our carry ons, mail a box back home or we run out to TJ Maxx to buy another suitcase! ). Our flight was at 8:20 pm so we had a car service booked for 5:00 so we could get there nice and early and have time to eat something, seeing as none of us really eats the plane food. I was a bit optimistic this time though, as I had remembered to call ahead and order kids’ meals and a vegetarian meal for myself. We left Braintree around 5:15 and zipped right into the airport, there was no traffic and no lines at the check-in desk. Surprisingly the woman did not care that ALL of our bags were overweight – score! There was a bit of a line going through security, but it wasn’t too bad and we were sitting in the airport restaurant a little after 6. We had some chowder and a beer and finally we were all sitting on the plane and ready to go. Ava had lready started watching a movie and Jack and Mike were on the iPads – of course my TV screen was not working and I was hoping it was just because we were still on the ground so I was just nervously flipping through a magazine as I usually do.  After a bit of waiting the pilot came on the PA and told us that they were having trouble getting one of the engines started, but that they would keep trying and he’d update us soon. WTF?? I really wish he had not told us that.  I immediately sensed a panic attack coming on (a wave of heat shooting down the back of my neck, then around to my stomach). I tried to remain calm but really, who the heck wants to fly 8 hours over the Atlantic with an engine that might be faulty?? I was so scared. After a little while the pilot updated us and told us they still couldn’t get it started so maintenance was coming out to have a look. At this point my hands were shaking and I was starting to hyperventilate. I knew there was no way I could stay sane on the flight if they got the engine running and took off. It reminded me of the time when our flight from Dublin to London was struck by lightning and we returned to the airport to have maintenance look at the plane - finally they let us off the plane (Thank God) and were directing us to other flights but I told Mike we had to go home because there was no way I was going back in the air (sorry again Claire and Don!!).  Jack had to use the bathroom so we got up to head to the toilet. On the way back the flight attendants were standing at the top of the stairs (the bathrooms are downstairs on the long-haul Lufthansa flights) so I asked one of them if the pilot was able to actually get the engine started, would it be safe to fly? They assured me that there was no way the pilot would fly the plane if it weren’t safe, and that they wouldn’t go up if it wasn’t safe either. I headed back to my seat and tried to remain calm but it just didn’t work. I found myself praying that they would not get the plane started and we would have to be let off. I knew this would be a total hassle for us, but I just did not know how I was going to cope if it took off. ‘Thankfully” about an hour later the pilot said they couldn’t get it started so the flight had to be cancelled. I honestly don’t think I was the only one to breathe a sigh of relief, as it didn’t seem that too many people around us were annoyed by this news (except the one girls at baggage claim who was in tears). At this point it was almost 3 hours after we had boarded the plane – when I nudged Jack and told him it was time to get off, he was really confused because he thought we were in the air! It was 11pm and they told us that they were short on hotel rooms, so anyone who lived locally should go home and there would be a person in the terminal handing out taxi vouchers. Or if we didn’t want to wait, we could just take a taxi home and submit the receipt for reimbursement the next day. We got back into the terminal and it was a bit of a mess because there were only 3 people to help all 250+ people getting off the plane. We didn't really feel like hiking all the way back to Braintree with all of our overweight bags, but we heard someone say that it would be a 3 hour wait to get a hotel voucher and the crowd around the man handing out taxi vouchers was huge, so we collected our bags and jumped in a taxi and went back to Braintree. We got back to Nina's at midnight, exactly 7 hours after we had left!  When we got there Mike called Lufthansa and got us booked on the same flight for the next day.

The next day the weather was gorgeous – about 70 degrees and sunny. We didn’t want to leave! Mike had spent a few hours the previous day in the Apple store getting the screen on his iPhone fixed (someone stepped on it at a conference he went to), and he discovered on the plane that the phone wasn’t working correctly anymore so it was a plus that we got delayed because he went back to the Apple store and ended up getting a new phone (of course this took several more hours!). We ran a few more errands that we didn’t have time to do the day before, and then had the car service pick us up at 5:00 – again. Of course this time there was traffic, but once at the airport there were no lines and thankfully we had the same woman check us in and she didn't charge us for the overweight bags again. Yeah!  We made our way back to the same restaurant and had more chowder and beer. I ordered a different kind of beer because I didn’t want to jinx us... I was still a little worried that we were about to get on the same plane from the day before, after they had duct-taped the engine or something. But when we were boarding the flight, I recognized the  man who took our tickets from the day before and I said something like, let’s hope we don’t sit here all night again! And he told me not to worry, that it was a different plane. Whew!! After that it was smooth sailing, we took off on time but the annoying part was that our special meals had been cancelled and since I didn't hink to call and book them again, we didn't get them (although this has to be done 24 hours in advance so I wouldn't have had time to do it anyway - super annoying!!).  The flight was actually a bit short – I don’t mind long overnight flights because they give us more time to sleep – we had the kids turn the lights out around 11pm, Jack fell asleep immediately, Ava took a bit longer and for some reason I could not sleep. Which is unusual because I never have trouble sleeping anywhere (one time after college I sat on my bedroom floor to tie my shoes to go out for a run and fell asleep on the floor. My friends used to call me Sleepy Kara....) Anyway, Mike had booked us premium economy seats which were really nice and spacious and it almost seemed like we were in Business Class – but the seats just were not conducive to sleep – they were too big and I was next to a window and I usually like to prop my pillow against the wall to get cozy, but there was too much space around the seats so I couldn’t get comfy. I dozed on and off for a few hours and after an uneventful transfer through Munich, we arrived in Krakow at around 12:30 and were back to the house about 1:30. We decided not to take naps so we forced ourselves to stay awake, had a early dinner and then hit the hay.  We noticed that our house was super cold - before we left I had turned down the heat, I turned it back up when we got home but by dinner time we were all still freezing. I decided to translate the message I had seen on the thermostat and realized it said ‘no flame’ or something like that. Whoops! We were all dying to take showers but unfortunately we had no heat or hot water.  I called our savior Michal who then called the landlord who happened to be out of town. Michal was home alone with his little boy so he said when his wife came home he would head over. He got to our place around 9 (( think we all had fallen asleep by then) and ended up just needing to press a reset button on our thermostat. Well I could have done that!! I felt terrible.  The water never heated up enough for us to shower  that night, so we all had to go to bed with dirty plane germs on us.

We all had trouble getting up the next day, but thankfully we had heat and hot water again so we all took nice long hot showers, but I didn’t get the kids to school until 12:30. They were late the following day too – jet lag stinks coming home (unlike when we go back to Boston, and we are all awake and ready to start the day at 7am!).  This week we are still struggling to wake in the mornings, but luckily tomorrow is a holiday (Polish Independence Day) so the kids don't have school and Mike doesn't have to work. 

Ava has only managed to empty the contents of her suitcase onto her floor

I am still trying to get back into some sort of a routine but I just feel blah. When we were in Boston I bought the books 'It Starts With Food' and  'Whole 30' in anticipation of starting a new eating program. 

http://www.amazon.com/It-Starts-Food-Discover-Unexpected/dp/1936608898

Mike and I have been feeling gross lately, and I have not been able to lose the weight around my middle that I gained after my surgery last December so I was up for something new. When I flipped through the book in the store it seemed good, but now that I have read it I am not sure how practical it will be for me. It’s pretty heavy on meat, which I haven’t really been eating any lately. It also doesn’t allow beans or legumes, something I have been eating a lot of. It also list walnuts on the bottom of the list of beneficial nuts – the exact opposite of some other things I had just read. There’s so much conflicting information out there! Anyway, I am still going to try it and maybe I will discover that the beans and the walnuts have been the source of my bloated belly!! Because of the jet lag I haven’t really been hungry for my usual meals anyway – I have hunger pains but when I look through our house there is not one thing that seems appetizing to me. 

For some good news, my foot seems to finally be getting better. I was still limping around the whole time I was in Boston and I wasn't able to get an appointment with an orthopedist so I just went to a walk-in clinic in Falmouth to make sure it wasn't broken or something. The doctor there said it could be stress fractures, but there's no treatment for that - or it might be  something called metatarsalgia (inflammation around the metatarsal bones) and gave me a prescription for prednisone. I was a bit disappointed because I knew I wasn't going to take a hard steroid like that - I considered it for a bit because I was really desperate and down about not having been able to do any exercise in over 3 weeks -but in the end I was afraid of the side effects so I never took it. I did go to Walmart though, and bought a scooter so I could scoot around our neighborhood, keeping my bad foot on the scooter. It was hard work! And still kind of hurt my foot anyway. I also had a visit with a naturopathic cancer doctor (more on that in another post) and asked for his advice. I had seen him in the summer and he did some bloodwork and noticed that my immune system (specifically, my natural killer NK cells) were really low, so I have been taking supplements to boost it up. I had read that one of the side-effects  of the prednisone was to suppress the immune system, so I asked him about it and he agreed that I probably shouldn't take it. He recommended a supplement that I could take to help inflammation, and told me to put my foot in steaming hot water for 3 minutes, followed by 30 seconds in ice water, and keep alternating that 6 times. I did it a few times when I was in Falmouth, and then a few times already in Krakow and have been taking the inflammation pills religiously and yesterday was the first day that I walked without a limp - hallelujah!! It still hurts a bit when if I don't have shoes on and I am not ready to run or anything yet, but I am SO happy to stop limping because it was screwing up my ankle and my back, and now I can at least get back to the gym and yoga. Unfortunately I will have to pass on Monday night soccer games for a bit longer, but hopefully it won't take too much longer to fully heal (fingers crossed).

October Break

The kids are off from school next week so we are heading to Boston tomorrow - yay! They are really excited to actually go trick-or-treating again, and it will be great to see everyone and be back at our house in Falmouth. So, if I am MIA for a while that's why, we aren't getting back to Krakow until November 3rd but hopefully I can update once we are there. Bye!

Turmeric

Last week I started coming down with a cold, so on top of the fact that my foot is still not better  I was feeling pretty miserable. I have never been a big medicine taker, originally because I just didn't like how it made me feel (I had to take a taxi home from work once after almost passing out after taking a prescription for a cold I once had), but lately it has been more about not wanting to put chemicals in my body, so I have been really into trying to use natural remedies. You know, "let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food".  I have been reading lots of articles about how great turmeric is for you, especially to treat inflammation in the body. Sounds great - nature's own advil! My foot was in so much pain and my sinuses were starting to get really stuffed up so I was willing to give it a try. Surprisingly I was able to find actual turmeric root at the organic store. For those of you who don't know, it looks like this (forgot to take a picture of it before I cut it up).

I prefer the fresh root to the powder, but it stains everything - I need to wear gloves if I cut it or else my fingers turn bright orange - and it completely stained my juicer and the brushes I use to clean it. Oh well, at least it's a pretty color. So once I started feeling sick I juiced it with some lemons and oranges, then added coconut water to make a turmeric tonic. I don't love the taste of turmeric but this was citrus-y and refreshing so it was easy doing down. Then I made a turmeric tea and drank it once in the morning and once at night - hot water with lemon, some Manuka honey and powdered turmeric with a dash of cayenne pepper. This one was pretty tough - it probably would have been better with fresh turmeric because I did not like the consistency of the powdery water - blech. But it was warm and soothing so I did my best to drink it all.  I really wanted it to work but unfortunately I did not notice any amazing differences in my foot pain or swelling. I did manage to kick my cold and the morning after I felt completely energized and so much better. Unfortunately the feeling wore off and by late afternoon I completely crashed and had to take a nap. My sniffles did go away after a day or two and I am back to normal now, so I am not sure if it was all the turmeric or my other natural weapons when I feel a sickness come on - I swear by these things, elderberry syrup and a Winter Wellness formula I discovered in Ireland so now I have to order it online, or make Mike run to the natural store whenever he is in London or Dublin. They have kids versions too and as soon as I hear Jack start coughing I give it to him and so far it has yet to turn into anything major (knock on wood).  Ava hates the taste of the Wellness formula so it's more of a struggle with her - but I like them too so it' a bonus. Here's to hoping this routine keeps us healthy this winter!

Turmeric tonic

Turmeric tea

Elderberry syrup and Winter Wellness Formula

Corn and Driving

Speaking of Fall, we live near a couple of corn fields and at the end of the summer we took a lot of bike rides past them. We bought the kids new bikes last year but our old neighborhood wasn't very good for bike riding because there were too many giant hills and it was too close to major roadways. Our new house is in a somewhat better location with not too many hills, but there are no bike lanes so we are forced to ride in the road and this scares the crap out of me. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but Polish drivers have absolutely no regard for human safety when they drive. They are the most reckless drivers I have ever seen in my life, and I am seriously scared for my life when I am on the road. I tried running on a main road once and will never do it again because I had to jump into the bushes twice. They drive SO fast, all the time - around corners, through quiet neighborhoods, past a woman pushing a stroller waiting at a crosswalk, and on the highway they are insane. The speed limit I think is 130 kph (about 80 mph) - of course I don't know this for sure because there are no speed limit signs on the stretch of the highway that I drive back and forth to school on - and no its not part of the unmarked autobahn from Germany. I am usually running late so at times I am going 140 kpm (87) - and every single time I am in the left lane, a car approaches behind me doing about 200 mph and tailgates me to the point where I can't even see their headlights in my rear view mirror anymore. The first few times this happened I literally thought the car was going to bump me to try to tell me to get out of the way - seriously??? Do they not know how incredibly dangerous that is? Obviously they never had a driver's ed teacher tell them 1 car length for every 10 miles per hour! It is definitely standard practice and usually there are about 4 or 5 cars in the left lane all tailgating each other doing 90+ mph.  I have never seen so many accidents before either - I usually see at least one a day, mostly just fender benders but sometimes I have seen bad ones. The other day there was one on our small quiet street, the front end of the car in the back was completely smashed in so I am assuming the idiot was flying down our little road and didn't notice the person backing out of his driveway. It gets me so mad. And when the kids on their bikes are involved, it scares me even more.

Anyway, there is a loop around our neighborhood that goes about a mile and a half and that's all we usually bike (white-knuckling it while the cars blow by us). One day I finally decided to stop at one of the corn fields because, well, they were full of corn, and what is better than corn on the cob? Ava wanted no part of it, but I convinced Jack to grab an ear so I could cook it for dinner. I figured it would be the best corn on the cob ever since it was freshly picked. I am not sure if any of you have ever tried to pull an ear of corn off of the stalk, but apparently it's really hard! Jack struggled while I kept a lookout, but unfortunately he couldn't get it off before a car drove by and I didn't feel like getting off my bike (I don't have a kickstand) so we left empty handed.   A few weeks passed and I always wondered why no one was ever out in the fields doing anything - I was really curious as to how one gets all those ears of corns off anyway. But unfortunately the weeks passed and the poor stalks grew browner and browner and no one ever did anything. And here I was so nervous that someone would catch us stealing a piece, I should have brought a knife and cut off a whole basket full. Oh well, we'll just have to do it next year!

Jack ready to get down to business

The corn is still there....

 

All dead now : ( What a waste of corn!

Excitement

I guess my life is pretty lame if these are the kinds of things that are exciting me these days. First, I found liquid vegetable stock!!! For 3 years (actually more than that, since they didn't sell it in Ireland either, but I could usually find some at the local butcher) I have been using bouillon and hot water to make stock, which just doesn't taste the same. Or if I had some spare time (which was between infrequent and never), I made my own, which always took forever and I never quite got it right. Plus after I made it it would usually end up getting pushed in the back of the fridge and then I would forget about it and end up throwing it away. That is, if I didn't forget about the smelly chicken carcass and have to throw that away first.

Then next I found a dish scrubber that you can fill with dish soap! Another thing they don't sell here, so I have been ordering them from Amazon UK. I just happened to have run out of my last replacement sponge when I spotted this in our local scary-looking grocery store, which has been surprising me lately by having things like the chestnut flour they never sold in Ireland, or Ava's favorite raspberry jam that I have been searching high and low for. It's the little things....

Fall and Snow

So my darn foot is not getting better, and I am getting more and more frustrated. I am pretty sure that the fact that I keep walking (limping) on it every day is not helping, but none of the doctors suggested wrapping it, getting some sort of boot, or using crutches. I drove by a medial store the other day and am seriously considering buying a pair of crutches, because I think I would feel so much better if I am not putting pressure on it every day. On Monday I saw a physical therapist for my back issue and she said she can do some work on my foot, but it is too inflamed right now so I am supposed to be staying off it for 3 straight days so the swelling goes down. Yeah right! And I need to ice it for 10 minutes 2 times a day. I have been able to ice it twice a day usually, but staying off it entirely is impossible!! I don't understand why it's not even feeling slightly better. And now I am starting to go stir crazy because I have not been able to play soccer, go to the gym, or go to my yoga class (I can't even bend my toes!). The one positive is that it is giving me time to write in the blog! 

So enough whining...Monday we had a nice surprise - snow!! As you know I don't (can't) watch the Polish news or read the papers, so my weather forecasts consist of me checking my iPhone each day. There was a snowflake listed for Krakow on Monday, but I just assumed that meant it was getting cold. Someone at school mentioned that they had heard it was supposed to snow Sunday night into Monday, but I figured it would just be a dusting. So imagine my surprise when I woke and went into our bathroom Monday morning and saw snow on our skylight! The kids were SO excited, as it snowed all day long and they were able to play in it when they got home from school. I'd say we got about 3 inches, but unfortunately (fortunately?) it has all pretty much melted. Good thing, because Jack has outgrown his snow clothes (he doesn't even have a winter coat!) so I need to get out shopping ASAP. Oh yeah, I can't because of my friggin foot! 

**I give up on trying to post photos in the correct order. Whenever I add a caption it moves them around and makes me insane. Sorry it's hard to follow**

The trees weren't ready for the snow. It reminded me of the year that it snowed in October back home and caused all the trees to droop onto the power lines and no one had power forever

Mike making a new friend at Sports Day

Mike even had to shovel

Ava learning how to cheer

The kids' Halloween snowman, almost melted the next day

While the snow was fun, it makes me miss the four seasons. I remember when we first moved to Poland I was so happy to experience a real winter and a real summer again, something that Ireland didn't have. I didn't even notice that Poland hardly has a Spring or a Fall. Just a week or so ago it was about 75 degrees, and now snow! I really really miss those crisp, Fall days with the colorful leaves all around. I miss apple picking and pumpkin picking and Halloween and Thanksgiving and all those fun Fall activities you can do in New England.  We did get a dose of it last weekend, it was Sports Day at school and the weather was perfect - a nice chilly day, sunny and not too cold. The kids had a soccer game and then the Polish (American) football team the Krakow Kings came and gave some demonstrations and played a flag football game and even brought some cheerleaders. Some of the American dads were laughing because they could throw a football better than the team...but still it was a perfect Fall day. But, with the snow comes the winter, and with the winter comes the disappearance of the sun and the pollution....ugh. To get me in the Fall mood, I did a workshop with one of my friends who is a floral designer. She helped me a bit, but I think it came out pretty good for my first try. The kids didn't believe I made it!

Mystery Foot Ailment

A week ago Sunday morning my right foot suddenly started hurting. Ava had had a sleepover Saturday night so I had to run to the store Sunday morning, pick her up from her sleepover at noon, then drop her for a play date at another friend's house. Then after her play date I was taking her shopping for some new clothes since we didn't get to do too much shopping this summer. By the time we made it to the mall I could barely walk. I had no idea how it happened, so I was wracking my brain thinking of what I could have done. That previous Wednesday I went for a run on our treadmill, something I hadn't done in a while. I was running intervals, so I sprinted as fast as I could for 30 seconds, then jogged for 90 seconds, then sprinted again and did that 8 times. When I finished my foot felt fine, so it made no sense to me that it would have started hurting on Sunday? Friday and Saturday I went for a hike in the forest, but it wasn't too treacherous and I don't remember slipping or anything. I also wore a new pair of boots with a heel on it Friday night, but again my foot was fine on Saturday. It was a mystery!  By Monday it was really bothering me, so I made an appointment with Dr. Ted and he sent me for an x-ray at the Military Hospital. He said he was on his way home for the day so he would meet me at the hospital to read the results and speak to the Head of Radiology who got me the fast appointment. When I left Dr. Ted instead of going straight to the hospital I made a pit stop at one of the organic stores because it was right next door. It only took me 15 minutes, but I had to hobble back to my car and by the time I made it to the hospital I saw Dr. Ted pulling into the parking lot (he is hard to miss because he drives a big 'ol Hummer!). I have to say I was really happy to see him because I had just been standing there totally clueless as to where I was supposed to be going. I don't know why I had thought it was going to just be easy to walk in the front door of the place and immediately know what to do - the hospital was made up of several buildings spread out over an entire street, more like a college campus. Of course all of the signs were in Polish and I have yet to cover medical terms in my lessons (although it would probably be a smart thing for me to start considering the amount of time I spend going to the doctor). Dr. Ted wasn't sure where to go either, but he stopped a few people and asked and we made it to the radiology department. I knew I had to pay first, so while the receptionist took my passport she was explaining something to Dr. Ted and I could tell he was getting annoyed. When we left the counter he took me down the hallway and knocked on a door - it turned out it was the Head of Radiology's office, who he had called earlier to get me in. They spoke in Polish and then Dr. Ted told me to give him my money and he left - apparently in order to pay we had  to walk back out to the street and to a completely different building and then return to radiology. Ridiculous! I guess Dr. Ted asked Mr. Radiologist if someone could run over for us, since he had a bad heart and walked with a cane and I had a bum foot. Mr. Radiologist ended up going himself and came back about 20 minutes later. We then had to wait in the hallway outside of door #2 for the x-ray. There were about 15 people already waiting and I started to stress that I was going to be late for a meeting I had a school a couple hours later. Thankfully Dr. Ted told me that Mr. Radiologist would take me first, which he thankfully did. It was a quick x-ray and we waited about 10 minutes afterwards for the CD and Mr. Radiologist told him all the bones looked normal. I am not really sure how I could have broken a bone without knowing it anyway, but I guess it was smart to get the x-ray and rule it out. Dr. Ted arranged for me to meet with an orthopedist on Thursday, but could only get me in at 4:00. This is a terrible time for me because the kids get home from school at 4:15 and then I have to make dinner, help with homework, etc.  But I didn't want to reschedule it because my foot was really hurting. I considered having the kids let themselves in but I was nervous that my appointment might run late and I didn't want to leave them stranded at dinner time. So my plan was to pick them up from school at bit early and take them with me.

Thursday morning when I got up I thought I was either going to puke or pass out because I was in so much pain. I could barely hobble around to get the kids ready for school, but I managed to get them out the door and take a shower because I had my Polish teacher coming to my house at 9:00. I had my lesson and had a bunch of errands I needed to run and things to get done around the house, but I just could not stay standing up for more than 10 minutes at a time before my foot started throbbing and swelling up. I sat on the couch icing my foot and ended up falling asleep for a bit. When I woke and realized what time it was, I hobbled upstairs to get ready for my appointment but I felt so sick and was in so much pain I didn't think I would be able to drive, let alone go to school, run in to collect the kids from their classes, drive to my appointment,  then take them to dinner afterwards. So I skipped the appointment and called Dr. Ted to ask if I could get in for Friday. Thankfully another doctor was able to see me Friday morning, and his office was closer to my house. Of course when I was getting into bed Thursday night, I ended up throwing my back out so Friday morning was the worst I felt. I was now in pain everywhere and could hardly move either of my legs, so there was no way I was driving anywhere. Mike ended up having to cancel some meetings and drive me to the appointment - we had been once before and it really is the most delapidated building we have ever seen (well, maybe that first pediatrician visit when we first moved here was a bit worse). The doctor looked at the x-ray and then did an ultrasound (man did that hurt), and it turns out I have a couple of really small tears somewhere (muscle? tendons? ligaments? this is what happens when I don't understand Polish) on the top of my foot, at the base of two of my toes. I told him I did not remember hurting it but he said it could have been something as small as wobbling on a rock - and he said you may not remember, but your foot does! I couldn't help from giggling every time he referred to my toes as fingers - in Polish 'palce' means both fingers and toes, so they get confused. But anyway, at least I sort of know what is wrong now - he sent me away with a number of a place where I can buy a special insert for my shoe to prevent this, a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, instructions to ice it 10 minutes a day as much as I could, and a prescription for physical therapy.  I was able to do a session right after the appointment (I was loving the efficiency of all this!), so they hooked some probes to my foot for electric stimulation I think it was, then afterwards she called it 'kryoterapie", and brought over a big hose that shot out freezing cold air. Interesting. I can't say my foot felt too much better afterwards, but the doctor was at the counter when I was leaving and had me book myself in for PT for the next 7 days. Hopefully this will fix my problem because I am not sure I can deal with having to sit on the couch and not be able to walk or do any of my exercise classes again next week. I wanted to ask him for crutches but thought that would be a little much - although it would make my life much easier because after this appointment, Mike and I had lunch and I dropped him at his office. I was able to drive but then I had to go to another hospital for some blood tests and I couldn't park very close so it took me a good 25 minutes to walk each way, and I was in excruciating pain. And I am sure my walking on it every day is not helping along the healing process, as it is getting more and more swollen. I just wish I know how this happened! At least I have some cute company to lay on the couch with