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

Soccer

 We don't live too far from two 'football' i.e. soccer stadiums for the local teams Cracovia and Wisla. They happen to be big rivals, and the Cracovia fans are known to get violent and I believe a fan was killed in the stadium the summer we moved here - I don't (can't) read the local papers or watch the Polish  news so I am not sure exactly what happened. But, whenever there is a game involving these two teams it's always a big deal. I drove by the Cracovia stadium the other night and tried to take a few pictures but it was hard to capture the feeling. There were probably 20 riot vans lining the streets and the riot police were out in full force. It's a bit scary to be honest. We were told that the Wisla fans are much more civil and it's a better game to take the family to, so one afternoon we went to one of their games. It was a lot of work to get there - first you have to buy a special fan card in order to be able to buy a ticket to the game - and everyone has to be there in person. So, this can only be done on a Saturday when the kids aren't in school and Mike isn't at work. We ended up just going early to the game, waiting on a big fan line, and then had to go back outside to wait on an even bigger line to buy tickets. When the guy helping us with the fan cards noticed Mike's Irish rugby jacket that he was wearing, he asked him if he played rugby (a lot of people think he is an American football player too). Mike said no but I am not sure the guy believed him, because he told us we didn't have to wait in the ticket line and instead he would run out to buy the tickets for us. Of course they didn't take credit cards (this happens a lot and is a total PITA), so we had to go outside to drive around to find a cash machine, but the guy gave us his number so once we got back to the stadium he ran into a back room to get us tickets. It was nice to get the mistaken VIP treatment! It was a fun day and even the kids enjoyed it, but since there was no score Mike declared it another really boring soccer game.

 

At the Wisla game

Are You Fluent Yet?

After living here for 3 years you would think I would be fluent in Polish by  now, but unfortunately that is not the case. After we moved here I had to wait a while to begin lessons, until after Mike's firm got up and running (he was the only one in the office at first!) and they interviewed firms to offer lessons. We moved here in June and I think I began lessons with Cam, the wife of one of Mike's colleagues, in October. We met with Kasia twice a week, once in Cam's house and once in mine. Things were going well for a while but then we didn't seem to be really learning a ton - Kasia taught us a lot of grammar and not so much conversational Polish which is what we needed. Trying to go to the post office, the dry cleaner's, the vegetable stands, etc. where they don't speak a word of English was completely frustrating and made me dread going out shopping and running errands.  After we moved back to the US for 6 months and then returned to Poland, I felt like I had forgotten everything. I signed up for a 2-week intensive course to get back into it - 10 days from 9-12 and it definitely helped me get back into the swing of things. I really liked the school so I decided to begin private lessons with one of the teachers there, so I started going for an hour and a half twice a week with Monika. Even though I found it completely frustrating, Monika never talked to me in English and at the beginning of each lesson she made me tell her in Polish what I had been up to since the last time I saw her. If I ever had a question she would only offer explanations 2 or 3 different ways in Polish, never English. I really struggled with this but I guess it is the best way to actually learn how to speak a foreign language. Plus I think I took it more seriously since I was actually in a classroom and not in the comfort of my living room. One time she had to call me on my cellphone and I was actually shocked to hear her speaking English! Unfortunately after about 6 months Monika stopped teaching at the school. It was nearing the summer so I decided to take a break, but once we got back to Krakow in August I texted her and was happy to find out that she could give me private lessons if I wanted. So now we are back to meeting twice a week at a local coffee shop. Polish is SO hard but I am glad to be back to lessons because I really really want to learn how to communicate with people because it is so frustrating when I can't. Before we moved here I was under the impression that many more people spoke English than they actually do. The kids go to an English-speaking school and Mike works with a lot of Polish people but they all speak perfect English so I am really the only one who needs to know how to speak it. When we were young my parents sent us to German lessons at their German club and I remember thinking back then that German was so an impossible language to learn (because I never learned a thing!) - little did I know that Polish would be so much worse. When we first started using Asia our cleaning lady, we learned that she had lived in Germany and could speak a bit of German.  Whenever she tried to talk to me I found myself telling her speak in German because it was easier for me to figure out what word she was saying and then put it into Google translate - because when you hear a Polish word, it is almost impossible to figure out how to spell it! For example, Wroclaw is pronounced Vratswov, Lodz is pronounce Woodge, dziesiec is pronounce juh-sinch etc. etc.  Or if you want to say 'with', it's just the letter 'z' (because yeah, that's logical), so I get confused a lot because I think the word they are trying to say begins with a z so I get totally thrown off - and usually they are speaking so fast, 'firing words out like a machine gun' as one of my Polish friends put it, that it's totally impossible for me to understand any more than one or two words of a sentence. This morning I was pretty proud of myself because I received a phonecall and the man did not speak a word of Polish and I understood what he was saying. I knew he was a courier who had a package for me, and that I owed 200 Polish zloty in customs tax (more on this later). However, I was positive he said he would arrive at 1 pm, but it turns out he was on his way over so when he arrived 15 minutes later I had no cash on me. I frantically searched though the kids' wallets but only found 160 pln, so I asked the guy if I could drive to the bank down the street and get 100 pln. Although in reality I spoke more like a caveman to him (Me! drive! bank! need 100!) but he just laughed and nodded his head and followed me in the car.

I do most of my shopping at the organic stores and a lot of the products are German, which despite never learning any German, has proven much easier to figure out: blaubeere = blueberry (the Polish word is jagoda), karotte=carrot (Polish is marchewka), honig=honey (Polish is miod), mit apfelmus= with applesauce (Polish is z jablkowy sosem).... Of course they usually slap a big Polish sticker over the German words so this doesn't always work for me. Sigh. I do not understand at all why a dentist is called a 'dentysta", yet a dentistry office is called 'stomatologia'.  There are so many of these offices scattered around that I always thought Polish people must have lots of stomach issues. Or when I was shopping for something at a sporting goods store and the clerk said he would go check the 'magazyn' for what a needed - so I assumed he was checking the catalog and I would have to order it. But 'magazyn' actually means 'warehouse' or 'storage room', so he came out of the back with what I was looking for. And then there is some weird rule where you have to change proper names based on the verb in the sentence (or whatever the rule is) - so every day I drive by a huge billboard of David Beckham in his undies (not intentionally, I swear) and it calls him "Davida Beckhama". Huh?? Speaking of billboards, there are SO many around (one of the things I think makes Poland ugly - that and all the chain link fences, and the grey and delapidated Communist-era buildings everywhere) - but it helps me to practice my Polish while I am driving. Yet if I don't know a word I can't always stop to google-translate it (and forget trying to remember the word to type in later - too many consonants all thrown together).  When we first moved here there was a word 'myjnia' that I saw everywhere - come to find out it means wash, posted on signs for car washes. But to this day whenever I read it I hear in my head 'MY NINJA!' and I just can't get it out.
In very rare instances Polish can be easy, like when the Polish language inventors got lazy and just decided to throw a  'y'  on the end of words. Like, komputery, zippery, chipsy, legginsy, ha! Or when they feel like making life easy for us foreigners and name a tennis court 'korty tenisowe'. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen too often but it does make me giggle when I see it. I will keep trudging along, but unfortunately I am not sure I will ever be able to master the language.

Buda

The other weekend we watched a friend's dog for them, they only needed us to watch him for the day on Friday, but the kids were at school and really wanted to hang out with him so I said we would definitely keep him for a sleepover.  His name was Buda and he is a Visla and was SO sweet! I wasn't sure how Stella would react, but apparently he is afraid of cats so he kept his distance from her. He had tons of energy and especially loves to play fetch with his tennis ball so he kept me busy most of the afternoon. Luckily after he fetches the ball he tosses it back, so it bounced a little and after I while I was able to start kicking the ball back to him because it was killing my back bending over every time to pick up the ball!  After a couple hours of playing fetch I needed to get some work done so I sat typing at the computer and he kept coming over to me and putting his head under my arm and resting his head on the table with the ball in his mouth - he was too cute! When Mike came home he sat on the couch and Buda kept coming over and dropping the ball in his lap, staring at him and wondering why he didn't get up to play with him. The kids fell absolutely in love with him and were having so much fun (thankfully they didn't tire of playing fetch!) that we asked to keep him for another sleepover on Saturday night.  They definitely did not want to give him back on Sunday but his family was missing him. Now the kids are begging us for a dog, we would love one but it would just not be practical to get one here with the amount that we travel. It really made me miss Reilly, but it also made me remember that it's like having another child in the house. We told the kids that we would get one when we move back to the U.S. so now they are counting down the days! My vote is for another Boxer, Mike wants a Golden Retriever or a lab, Ava originally was set on a Pomerian or a chihuahua (ugh!) but I think after having Buda she definitely wants a bigger dog. I don't think Jack cares one way or the other! Maybe we will leave the decision up to Stella : )

This is as close as they got at first - also a good shot of our non-existent back yard : (

Waiting for me to throw his ball

Finally getting curious after a day...

Relaxing in his bed

Passed out on a Saturday night

Ava was in heaven!

I have seen dogs stretch like this, but when I looked out of the window he was just hanging out in this position

Eventually Buda and Stella got a little closer.....