i swear we work sometimes

i know what you're all thinking... "dont those 2 ever work?".. well, we got back from England, only to find out we worked 1 day and then had the rest of the week off because the kids were still on holidays. so, off to the mountains... and yes, there are mountains in Poland, it only took a 8 hour train ride and a bus ride to get there...

the trails were pretty cool, very different, as some would wind their way amongst heavy evergreens, and others were up in the open with the howling wind almost knocking you over.

there were these crazy rock type things that were amazing.. the ones at the top of the mountains were plastered with snow.. you can see kc in the top picture to get an idea of how huge they are

on our second day we bought these crazy carpet type slides that are just the size of your butt, it was so much fun sliding everywhere.. we are still a bit sore though... getting old i guess

these clumps of snow are actually trees that have been blown over and caked with snow, and in the background is the highest peak, where you can get warm beer and kielbasa and of course bigos! it is very rare to see the peak as 300 days of the year it is cloudy.

the weather can change alot on the moutain, on our first day, it started out really sunny, and then as we hiked to the top it started to get cloudy, and made everything seem really erie. at times we couldn't see anything, it's a good thing that we have borrowed bright jackets from some friends! Below is the map of the national park, there are lots of youth hostels that you can spend the night at while hiking and it is close to the Czech border.

kc doing his best "rocky" impersonation... ok, hope you enjoy the pictures, that might be the last exciting ones for awhile as we have to work now. We love to hear your comments...and if anyone wants to visit our offer is always open.

to England for some brown sugar

Ok, there was more to it than that…but our backpacks sure were heavier on the way home, signs of being spoiled I guess, from our brown sugar and whole wheat flour (which are impossible to find in Poland), to a game of “Scrabble” and new music and books.
(Chris making me pose for a picture in Poznan on our way to London)

We flew with this super cheap airline called Ryanair, and that in itself was a bit of an adventure. They have this system of boarding where no one has assigned seats, but its sort of a rush seating deal (the Poles love this). It took us awhile to catch on seeing as every announcement was in Polish, but we managed to find a seat. The other strange thing was that when we landed everyone started clapping… it made it seem like they were surprised that we made it safely???
(the green grass of Cambridge, that you're not allowed to walk on)

But England was great. Awesome to see familiar faces again (our cousins Tim and Chandra for those out of the loop), to be able to understand signs and what people are saying, (although sometimes when you have to listen to annoying peoples conversations on the train it made us wish we were back in Poland where we couldn’t understand anything).

Looking at all of our pictures, most of them seem to involve food, which we think is kind of funny. From the sausage dogs, world famous “chelsea buns” from Chandra’s work, sticky toffee pudding, apple cider, fish and chips, beans for breakfast to the crispy crème donuts.

(the most exciting part of our trip to London)

We spent a day in London. And a day was enough. I guess 12 million people really is a lot. Laughing at the palace guards walking around was one of the highlights, and seeing an Islamic rally at Trafalgar Square was pretty interesting. The buildings were amazing though, so huge and well kept, but the swarms of tourists was sometimes a bit crazy.


But we’re back in Poland now, and were greeted to some colder weather and falling snow this morning when we woke up… ahh, its great to be home, at least we have our brown sugar and flour…

goat's milk anyone?

we went to one of our friends place last weekend.. and yes, they had animals. lots of horses, dogs, cats, a ram, and even a goat. so chris was showing off her farm girl skills...

Last weeks photos

bird's eye view of the river in Torun
judging plays at the English meeting
Casey's perspective on Bigos
and more Bigos....
the long process of making Bigos

Greetings from Poland

The weather has started to warm up so we are now able to type without our fingers freezing…okay that was only a joke, our apartment is very warm. But, the weather did take a small toll on us, and KC is just getting over a sore throat. There was a couple days last week that he couldn’t even talk, so I had to teach some of his classes for him. I think that I looked after him pretty well, but I don’t think that he will be drinking tea in the next couple of weeks…I made it for him a little too much!

This week I decided to take on the challenge of making Bigos…I just wanted to see if I could do it…I asked a lot of people the strategy behind it and I got a variety of answers such as, it tastes better if it’s burnt a bit, reheat it a couple times, use fresh cabbage with sauerkraut, freeze it. So, I followed everyone’s suggestions and I think that I made a pretty good pot of Bigos. It took me about 5 days in total to make it!

A highlight of the week was being on a jury to judge English plays put on by Elementary and Junior High schools in the area. They were all very well done, and most of the students had their lines memorized, which is pretty impressive as English is not there native tongue. The plays ranged from snippets Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Pinocchio all with there own humour added in. We meet lots of friendly people and have been invited to visit some more schools to talk to students.

Our schedule has been becoming a little busier and we haven’t found as much time to go and feed the birds in the park. We have been teaching at couple of factories in the mornings and we have even figured out how to use the bus. Okay, hope all is well and think of you often. Thanks for the prayers.

Love Chris and KC