Byłam na spacerze z psami.

Today's title is courtesy of my friend Magda. She took pity on me and tried to teach me a few Polish words. This phrase means, "I was walking with the dogs." And that's what we did yesterday, and it was great. I'll get to that later. The only reason I remember how to say that is because she wrote it down, phoneticized it for me, and coached me through it several times. Still the only word I remember is psami (dogs).

I have several pictures to share from the past week, so click the link below to get started.



First, I thought we'd start with some snow pictures.

Yes, this is similar to another picture; but I like the rolling hills of snow here.




Aww, someone loves someone else. The snow here was probably at least calf deep, but it had so many different layers that you wouldn't go all the way down to the ground.




Not an uncommon sight. I don't blame people for just leaving their cars buried til spring. It's really nice living in a place with public transportation.




Those giant heaps of snow came mostly from the roof of the Tesco. I'd walk by and see men shovelling it off, or emptying tarps of it out onto the parking lot. This part was roped off, don't worry. It's a good thing they did that, because two days later came a thaw.




See that man?




I've told some of you about this — neighbors' patio furniture covered with feet of snow. It looks weird and I like it. Sorry for the crooked picture.



Early one afternoon, I looked outside. There was a round white ball in the sky. "It's the moon," I thought, ignorant of the fact that it was about 12:27 p.m. But the longer I stared, the more my eyes stung, and I realized it was the sun. Yes, I am an idiot; but also you can't blame me because I hadn't seen the sun in ages. So of course I had to take a picture, in case I never saw it again.




The sun's appearance that day signified the beginning of a thaw, so I took an icicle picture before they all went away. Things are thawing out quite nicely, but due to how much snow there was, it'll be a long time before it's all gone. As I said earlier, it's mostly just gross right now.





February 15 or 16, Kaylin invited me to go to Real with her. It is an enormous grocery store and it kind of frightened me at first. There I bought vegetables, raspberry tea that is the best thing ever (it's just like drinking melted hot raspberries), and a flower.



I took her outside for a photoshoot. I've grown quite attached to her. She is my cat replacement, I guess. I've taken to greeting her and telling her goodbye, general conversation and stroking as well. It's very, very sad. The flower is wilting now, which is also very sad. But I will still keep her around.



Which is worse, being a crazy cat lady, or being a crazy plant lady?



One day, I went to Centrum. I forget what for. There are always vendors, beggars, people handing out fliers, and performers in the areas around the public transport stops in Centrum. It's nice to see the performers, but I don't usually stop. This guy was different, though. I don't know what he is but he looks like a gypsy. He played incredible music and sang with a strong voice full of fire and the world. I gave him some money, took some pictures and some video. I have no idea what he was singing about, but he gathered quite a large crowd. I hope I see him again sometime.







Now here are a couple of English club pictures. I forgot to send out the reminder e-mail last week, and felt really bad because no one showed up for a while. But people eventually trickled in. That night the topic was Technology. (Tonight it's going to be Adam Małysz, the Polish ski jumper who just won two silver medals.)


Clockwise from Left: Wojtek, Wojtek, Marcin, and Kaylin. I was in this group as well.


Clockwise from Left: Ala (2nd Woytek's wife), Krystyna (hidden), Kasia mama, Kasia, and Susan.



Are you tired of pictures yet? Well have some more.

The outside of The Sensitive Barbarian — terrible picture, but taken to remind myself. This place was great.


Taken inside Costa, where we ended up after SB.


Taken later that night. The snow piles were maybe hip or waist high.



Home group in my barren apartment. Clockwise from left: Susan, Gosia, Przemek, Kasia, Monja. Here everyone is getting Monja's new number. I think this happens a lot...


Also at home group... I was just so happy to have people there.





Now for yesterday, my outing with Magda. She had to go to a town outside of Warsaw in order to feed her boyfriend's dogs at his father's house. The town is called Podkowa Leśna. It is a garden city, surrounded by forests, and its name means "Horseshoe Grove." (Las means forest, I also learned.) (You should really click on the links in this paragraph, to see other peoples' pictures of the place.)

First, I wanted to show the Brentwood people some of the new bus decor.

It is, of course, Zygmunt's Column.


Now I was very excited about this day for many reasons. First, of course, it was going to be great to see Magda again. Secondly, it would be good to get out of the city. And third, I was very eager to see some puppies. I couldn't wait to spend time with dogs.

So here is who greeted me first. Tymoteusz (AKA Tymon) is a 6 year old malamute. Friendly, joyful, energetic, beautiful.




SO excited to go for a walk.


The first 15 minutes or so, he could barely be contained. He just wanted to mush.


This dog did not like ours, and I thought there would be trouble.


Here is a mid-talk picture of me with Tymon. That other tail you see is Koka, a 10 year old Cocker Spaniel mix.



We went on a nice walk through the forest, where Magda tried to teach me some other words. Niebo means sky, which I think I can remember, because in Spanish nieble means fog. Different, but it gives me a link, and that's how I learn. Drzewo is tree. I won't remember that. I had to look it up just now.

After the walk, we went back to the house. It is a very nice house. Part of it was built in 1920, and it has original doors and windows, high ceilings, etc. Part of it was added onto, but is faithful to the original style. I could live there. Magda had brought some banana bread she made, and we had raspberry drink and banana bread to warm us up.




Here is finally a picture of Koka. She was so cute and sweet, and let me love and pet her, but she didn't want her picture taken.


And finally, here is cute cute Magda in her house shoes, trying to hold Koka for me.



Magda is a beautiful, intelligent lady, and I had a great time yesterday. I hope we'll have lots of chances to hang out during the next couple of months. I invited her to English Club tonight, and I hope she comes.

Can you believe I've been here for like 2.5 weeks? I sure can't. I feel like the ball is only finally starting to roll. But that's all I will write for now, because it's 43 degrees outside (!!!), and I want to have some iced tea (by choice, it's not sweet — sorry, The South) and get some sun before it goes away again. Thanks for the continued prayer and support. I have more pictures I didn't upload, so I'll post them in a few days.

Warm flower love,

Chelsea