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