Wiosna

Spring. Yes, it has been something like a month since I last posted, and I am sorry. The weather has been so tricksy lately. You get a day where you need to unbutton your coat to walk around comfortably, and then a few hours later you have a snowstorm. This has happened 2 - 3 times that I can think of, and I was not expecting that at all. “That's March in Poland,” they say. But these past few days have been really glorious. I even bought a spring jacket (on big sale — they must have been like me, thinking that spring was never actually going to come), after having walked around rather comfortably all day in just a long-sleeved shirt. There's been rain, clouds, and sunshine. My bazie (pussywillows) are sprouting and rooting. I keep my windows open. Spring really is the best because it is so full of hope. I will miss being here for the beautiful Polish summer, but spring here feels like you've earned it.

So what else have I been up to? Well, I'll have to look at my pictures to remember. You can look too. This post will be very image intensive, just to warn you. You might want to set aside 2 - 3 hours to absorb it all.

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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.

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Bardzo Brudno

That's one phrase I know myself, thanks to my laundry machine. (It's in Italian, translated to Polish.) "Very Dirty." It describes the current conditions outside. The last three days or so have been quite warm (that is, above freezing). I'm very cold-natured, but even with just one or two degrees above 0C, I felt renewed. I even got hot walking around outside. It was really nice at first, but now the snow is melting. I know it's part of winter, but when there's this much snow in the first place, it doesn't take long for things to get disgusting.

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Internetowej!

This is kind of meta or something, but I wanted to share that my home church wrote a little article about me in Poland on the Kairos website.

Read it and enjoy. Some of it is exclusive!

And I posted a new post a few hours ago, so make sure you don't miss it.  :)

I'm going to bed now.  Dobranoc <3


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Rozwiązanie tymczasowe.

A temporary solution, I think that says. Susan is letting me borrow her point & shoot camera, and I should have my replacement by the end of the month. A man coming over from the States has agreed to bring it with him, so I don't have to pay for int'l shipping, or duty taxes. I'm very excited.

I also have some pictures from Malaysian Food Night, thanks to Kaylin. I took a few of them using her camera, and she is very kindly letting me use some of hers too. I'm going to mention which ones are mine; assume the rest are Kaylin's. (Some might be Susan's too; I don't know.) Anyway you can assume the best ones belong to K.  :)  Click the link to read more.

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Nie rozumiem po Polsku!

Seriously, it's starting to annoy me that I don't know any Polish. I went grocery shopping today (which was, apparently, really stupid of me. I've never been in a grocery store that busy before; not even before a Tennessee snow storm) with a specific list of things to buy. I found most of them, but the things I wanted most — dill, and a can opener — were nowhere to be found. I couldn't tell where the spices were for a long time. Then, when I found a few, I realized I didn't know what dill was called. But I did something very ingenious: I went to the large seed packet display at the front of the store, found the picture that looked like dill, and tried to figure out which word on the front of the packet was the important one. (Turns out, it's "koperek.") Despite my best efforts, I still didn't find any dill. Now, this is Poland, so there's GOT to be some. I just didn't have any idea where else to look. Add to that the fact that I seemed to be the only one in the store willing to get out of anyone's way, and... well, I've never been so stressed grocery shopping in my life.

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Przeszkoda

An obstacle. It is this: My camera is broken.  :(

It is the only digital camera I brought. My darling, beautiful Canon G9. I have ordered a [used] replacement, but it has to ship to my USA address first. I'm not sure when I will receive it. I have a couple of fun film cameras, but they're pretty specific — a fisheye, and a four-frame — and so I'm not sure I'll use them on a daily basis.

I feel very crippled without having a camera on me at all times. This is what I get for trying to pack light, I guess.

Anyway... I'll still post updates, but they won't be as fun to look at. I should have another content-filled one by Saturday or so. Until then, hope you are all having a great week. (I am still doing a bad job at sleeping normally, which is why I am updating at 2 a.m.) Dobranoc...


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