Home-Made

There are a few other things that are different in Krakow. For example, it's almost impossible to find vanilla extract. While in the US I usually bring several bottles back with me, but this year I forgot. I use it all the time so this is a problem. Fortunately I came across a recipe for it in one of my cookbooks (100 Days Of Real Food if anyone is interested.) It never even dawned on me to make my own! And it's super easy. All you have to do is add a vanilla bean to vodka and wait two weeks. Okay, so it can't be a last-minute rush job, but mine has been sitting for over a week so when my next bottle runs out I'll see how this works. It's definitely not the same consistency, but it smells yummy so it will be an interesting experiment.

I also can never find fresh coriander, and I tend to use it a lot - in recipes but also juicing in the mornings because it's a great detoxing green. There are only two places I have ever seen it - one of the organic stores, and one of the vegetable stands that has the worst parking so I pretty much stopped going there last year. This year I decided to buy a lot (it goes bad so quickly) and freeze it in an ice cube tray with a little bit of filtered water. I'm not really sure how well this will work for my juicer (guess I would have to defrost it first?), but it should be okay to throw into soups or cooked dishes. We shall see.

Come to think of it, buying any kind of fresh herb is hard here - I like the bags or packets that are at the grocery stores, but they don't sell them here - instead you have to buy the actual plant, and I do not have the slightest green thumb so I end up killing them all the time. And for something like basil, I end up using the entire plant for one portion of my pumpkin seed pesto, and it takes too long for the plant to grow back with enough leaves for another recipe.  I do see coriander plants at Tesco, but they are impossible to keep alive. Asia our cleaning lady laughs at me because it seems that every week she is here she is throwing yet another herb plant in the trash. She said her friend has huge coriander (kolendra in Polish) plants so she will ask her what her secret is.

My last basil plant

The other thing I am making a lot is almond and pistachio nut milk. I gave up dairy last year, and I had seen a recipe for pistachio milk and have never seen it in a store (even in the US) so I made my own and it was really yummy. The annoying thing is that it takes about an hour to shell 1 cup of pistachios, so it's super time-consuming. I can find tiny bags of shelled pistachios at the organic store, but they are kind of expensive and I have to buy so many to make milk it just doesn't seem worth it. They sell almond milk in cartons here, but since I have been making my own, the boxed ones taste too gooey and fake to me. It's also really easy, just 1 cup of nuts (almonds need to be soaked beforehand) to 4 cups of filtered water, whiz in a blender and then strain through a nut milk bag (I bought mine at Whole Foods, but cheesecloth or a regular mesh strainer will work too). Mike and the kids won't drink it straight, but I always use it in their smoothies or if I am cooking/baking and the recipe calls for milk, they never notice the difference ; )

Adjusting

The kids and I went went back to the US on the 4th of July - we didn't actually mean to go on this particular day, our flight was on the 3rd but for some reason we were delayed getting out of Krakow and we missed our connection to Boston. We landed in Frankfurt (one of the big things we miss not living in Dublin - no direct flights to Boston!) about 15 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. None of the Lufthansa flight attendants made any kind of effort to make sure we made our connection - I thought that's one of the things they do, aren't they always holding flights for those last minute passengers?? They basically told me to just go inside and make arrangements to stay over, but I wanted to at least try to make our connection. I grabbed the kids and we sprinted through the airport - which is no small task, Frankfurt Airport is like a mini city -encountering some crabby Lufthansa workers along the way ("can't you see how BUSY I am?!" When I tried to ask which gate was the Boston flight). We came screeching around the corner only to be met with the pitying looks of the two people at our gate....I was hopeful because I could still see the plane sitting there on the runway attached to the bridge, but they told me they had already shut the plane door and for security reasons they were not allowed to open it. Oh man! I was so annoyed, I mean really, hadn't our flight called ahead and told them that a woman with two young children would be there in 10 minutes? I tried to beg but then I thought, it IS the 4th of July, there are terror alerts in the US so maybe it is fate that we missed our flight - maybe it's going to go down over the Atlantic and I shouldn't make too much of a stink to get on the plane!! Not that it would have made any difference, but I gave up and had them show me the way to the ticket counter to be re-routed on another flight....the following morning.

When we got to the customer service area there was a HUGE line. I saw an attendant at the front so I went over him to ask him if I really had to stand there in the line. He was very patiently trying to explain to a middle-aged Indian woman that she had missed her flight and the next one out to DC was not until the following morning, so Lufthansa was putting her up in a hotel so she had to follow the exit signs to leave the airport to get to the hotel, stopping first to get a new flight. I have to give the guy credit for not losing his patience with her, I think she was obviously nervous that if she left the airport she would not be able to get back in to make her flight the next morning. As I said it is a huge airport, so I think she was also nervous that she wasn't going to find her way to the hotel. I just stood there waiting my turn, and when the Indian woman finally left I laughed at the guy and said I guess you are going to tell me the same exact thing and I need to follow her? He said yes, we could choose to stand there in that huge line, or just go out to the front of the airport to the arrivals hall to get re-booked there instead.  I asked him if we could maybe get on a different airline's flight that night but he said all flights to the US had already left (Really?? It was only 6pm). There was no way I was waiting in that long line so the kids and I started to make our way to the arrivals area. It was a bit confusing, but after a while we got to a point where there was police tape up and they weren't letting anyone through. Oh great I thought, terrorist activity, just what I need!! But fortunately we only had to wait 5 minutes and then they let us through (not sure what the hold-up was though). While we were standing there we came upon the Indian woman, so I stood next to her and said Hey, you found your way here! I told her we were headed the same way because we had missed our flight too and I honestly have never seen a look of more relief before! She happily walked with us and we found our way to the re-ticketing line where they put us on different flights and gave us vouchers for the local hotel - I was disappointed to learn that the hotel was on the other side of the airport and not in the city of Frankfurt, since we were stuck there for the night I thought it would be fun to hang out in the city since I had never been there before. The Indian woman was in the line next to us and when she got to the counter I heard the attendant tell her, Miss I'm sorry but they are going to Boston, and you are going to DC so you can't be on the same flight! But it turns out our new friend just wanted to make sure she was sent to the same hotel as us, which she was. So we made our way outside to wait for the hotel shuttle which took forever, then got checked into our hotel. She asked if she could have dinner with us and I said no problem. Apparently Jack had not heard this, because when we went to our room to drop off our things and got back to the lobby, he saw her sitting there and when I started to walk over to her he said "What is she doing here and do we have to eat with her??". Ugh, I need to work on this kid's manners. It turns out her name was Suzy, she lives in DC but had been in Prague with her husband for a work thing and they had to take different flights home for some reason. She missed her connection but he did not - so he was on his way back to DC and didn't even know that she was stuck in Frankfurt. She was nice enough but the kids were not very interested in making new friends - during dinner Jack needed to use the toilet while Ava was up at the buffet, so I got up to bring him - while inside the bathroom I was thinking that Ava wouldn't know where we were, so she'd just have to sit and make conversation with Suzy. When we left the bathroom of course there was Ava standing there waiting for us. I guess she really was not into making conversation with poor Suzy. We had a quick dinner and then went back to our rooms ('Mommy we don't have to share a room with Suzy do we??  asked Jack).  We did make arrangements to have breakfast with her the next morning and then to take the shuttle back to the airport together- I think our flight was a lot earlier than hers, but she didn't care and just wanted to come with us.  We said our goodbyes in the airport and she thanked us for keeping her company. We exchanged email addresses, as we were walking away Ava said "you're not ever going to email her, are you?". But I was happy that I helped poor nervous Suzy!

We spent 6 weeks in the US, we were hoping to spend most of it in Falmouth but we were having work done to our house and unfortunately it was not quite ready. Mike flew back 2 weeks after us, and then after that we were so busy with the house that the summer just flew by. For some reason coming back to Krakow was much harder for me this time - I think because we were in our Falmouth house, where I had my own bed and dresser and brand new kitchen that I loved, and I felt like we hardly had any time to really relax so I wasn't quite ready to go back to Poland. We left on the August 16th and arrived on the 17th (and Stella our cat turned 3 on the 18th!). The kids started school on the  25th so this gave them (us) a good week to get adjusted back to the time difference which is always difficult to deal with coming this way. The kids were pretty excited to get back to school, I was worried about Ava because 3 of her good friends left Krakow over the summer so I wasn't sure how she would adjust. But, she did just fine and met a new American girl in class and had her and an old friend from last year (who she declared is now her best friend) over for a sleepover that first weekend. Jack wanted to wear his suit and tie for the first day, so he could look just like Daddy going to work - he had it all laid out the night before, but of course he changed his mind that morning and had a complete melt-down. I thought this was going to be the year of no morning battles but I guess I was wrong. Eventually I got him into his suit. He loves his new teacher but asked me if they made the school day a lot longer this year - which they didn't, I think he just does a lot more work this year!

Once the kids got back to school and I was getting back into my routine, I realized some of the things that I had a hard time dealing with not having here. The first, being the pay at the pump feature ot the gas stations. Why, oh why have they not figured this out in Poland?? It's 2015! Do you know how annoying it is to have to go inside and wait in line to pay for your gas?

It was also really hot once we got back to Krakow, and I was dragging with jet-lag those first 10 days or so. As I was out running my errands, all I really wanted in the afternoons was a nice iced coffee. But no, they have not figured this one out in Poland yet either!! Not only do they not sell iced coffee, there aren't even any coffee shops you can just pop into while you are out, like Mary Lou's or Dunkin Donuts etc. There is a Starbucks here, but it's in the gigantic mall so it would take me over 15 minutes to park and then walk into the mall to get to. And, even though they have iced coffee on the menu, it's actually a blended drink (like a coffee smoothie) so you specifically have to ask them to just make it with coffee and ice cubes (and this takes 5 minutes of broken Polish trying to explain). And then they don't have pre-made cold coffee, so once they add ice to the 'iced' coffee it instantly becomes a gross lukewarm cup of blah.

Lastly, the other thing I really miss is the option to get cash back and every single store you go into. There are few things I absolutely hate doing in life - one is stopping to get gas, another is stopping at an ATM to get cash (and looking for a toilet while I am out...and unloading the dishwasher...). I always forget to stop, or there isn't one near me, so being able to get cash while out shopping is a huge bonus. Unfortunately they have not caught onto this concept here either. Thankfully there is an ATM sort of near our house, so it's just a matter of me remembering to stop.

Despite all of this, we are all happy to be back and are getting settled back into Polish life : )

Here We Go Again!

I know I have tried this before, but I really really want to get this blog started again! For the first few years in Ireland I was pretty good at keeping up, and when we moved to Krakow I got the blog printed and bound into two big books and I'm so glad I have it, and that the kids will have it to look back on since they were probably too young to remember it all (we left Ireland Ava was almost 7 but Jack was only 4).  So, now that it has been THREE YEARS since we have been living in Krakow (yikes!), I figure it's time to get started again! I have good intentions and I have lots of things I mean to write about, but sitting down and finding the time has become really difficult. I am surprised, because I have so much more free time than I did in Ireland, so I don't know where the time goes. The kids leave for school in the taxi shuttle van at 8 am, and don't get home until after 4. I usually spend my days out shopping (which takes forever here), at Polish lessons, at the kids' school, at IWAK (the international club) events, at the gym, or oh yeah doing fun household chores like cooking, doing laundry, the dishes, etc etc. So I am going to promise myself to try harder to write this year because I really want to be able to have something to look back on - maybe that means spending a little less time on Facebook, which I guess became a faster and easier way for me to share our family happenings, instead of sitting down to write about everything, then it taking forever to upload pictures to this blog. I saw that there was a Blogger app for my iPhone, so hopefully that will help to make things easier. But I get sucked into all the different crap articles that pop up on my Facebook feed and can't help reading them all!! So, bear with me as I try this again - even if it's only my parents and maybe Aunt Karen who will be reading, I will keep plugging along! : ) 

Let's Start This Up Again

So I decided it was time to pick up this blogging thing again. We just had our 2 year anniversary of moving to Krakow, on June 3rd! As many of you might know, we have been back in Boston since early February, I will get more into that in my next post. Right now Mike is here with us, he was been back and forth since then. We decided to take a mini-vacation while he was here, since the kids and I are staying with Mike's sister Maureen and Mike stays with his mother so we haven't really been together just the four of us in a while. We decided to go up to New Hampshire and stay in a place called the Red Jacket Inn, where Mike used to go when he was a kid. The hotel has a waterpark inside and Storyland and Santa's Village are nearby so we figured it would be great for the kids. We booked the trip during the week since we had plans over the weekend, and we weren't really too concerned with the kids missing school. The morning we were leaving I decided to look online to see if I could find any coupons for Storyland - only to discover it was only open on the weekends  - GAH!!! I quickly started looking up all nearby attractions and guess what, they were all closed too!! Oh boy this is typical of our luck. Mike thought we should just stay in Boston for a few days instead. The weather forecast wasn't supposed to be great in either place so we eventually decided that if it was supposed to rain all day on Wednesday at least we could hang out in the water park, plus there was a 10 day cancellation policy for the hotel so we couldn't get out of it without losing money. Tuesday happened to be a beautiful day in Boston so we decided to drive in and do a duck tour first, and then head up to NH. We loaded our stuff into the car and drove in for the duck tour which was nice and the kids enjoyed. We had a late lunch then jumped in the car, it was around 4:15 pm so typical of Boston there was a ton of traffic and  it took us over 4 hours to get there instead of 2 1/2. Once we got to the hotel Mike and the kids stayed in the car but I ran inside to check in and find out where to park. When I asked what time the water park opened in the morning, I was told IT WAS CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE!!!!! OMG I couldn't believe it. The woman said we should have gotten an email but acknowledged that a phone call would have been better. We were livid and Jack burst into tears when we told him there was no pool to swim in . At that point it was too late to turn around and go back to Boston so we ate dinner in the hotel and made the decision to drive back to Boston in the morning. We booked a hotel in town, making sure it had a pool at least and it was indeed open, and headed back after breakfast. We arrived in Boston, had lunch and then hit the pool for a couple of hours, then walked next door and had a nice dinner at the Chart House. In the morning the TV was on and there was a commercial for Storyland and I thought Ava was going to throw a shoe at the TV. All in all it was fun just to be together, and the kids always love staying in hotels! Here are some photos:

Jack being silly on the boat

Dinner at the Chart House

Jack sneaking into the hot tub after we told him he wasn't allowed in it....

View of Boston Harbor from the pool deck. Unfortunately it was a rainy day

Enjoying the view on the Duck Tour

Family selfie in New Hampshire

Getting hugs at breakfast

Playing tic-tac-toe for cookies

Ava driving the Duck Boat

Jack's turn

Selfies on the boat

20 Years

On November 9th (2012) Mike celebrated 20 years working for BBH. That's quite a milestone I must say! His office threw him a little surprise party and he was really surprised! I was in on it of course, so that morning I had to call his secretary to let her know that he was on his way. When he walked in the entire office was waiting for him when the elevator doors opened - I wasn't there to witness it, but people said that they have never seen him so speechless. They sang to him in Polish, decorated his doorway in red and white balloons (the colors of the Polish flag, but also the BBH colors!) and had a big carrot cake for him. He was really touched! I wrote this on facebook, but I am so proud of him for all that he has accomplished - when we arrived in Poland he was the first employee of the Krakow office, and that day almost 200 people were celebrating. Good job Macker!!

The crowd waiting

Surprise!!!

The cake

It's The Little Things

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

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

Snow!

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

Our white backyard

snowman

Ava with her friends