Missouri in Mazury

Customer service in Poland is always something interesting to compare to that in the US. In a lot of ways, it's improved considerably, but as an instructor once quoted the French as saying, it leaves much to be desired. Two examples. My brother, his wife, and her dad were visiting last weekend and we wanted to have a good ol' American BBQ. Except for hamburgers, because beef in Poland, at least this part, isn't used that way and when it is, it doesn't taste the same. We also added in some kaszanka (blood sausage), because when in Poland, do as the Poles do. And kaszanka is delicious. But we needed corn on the cob. Luckily, we have a Tesco, which features a lot of foods that "typical" Polish stores don't have (it's a British store). Tesco had corn on the cob, A grabbed it and went to check out. Unfortunately, he couldn't actually buy it, because it wasn't in their system. No corn on the cob. Fast forward to their visit. It was HOT. For...

First of all, if you had told me 10 years ago (or even less) that I'd be excited for my little brother to visit, I'd call you a freaking lunatic. But, that's how it goes, I guess, and here we are: me, excited to have my brother and sister in law (and her dad) visit in a few days. Three sleeps and they're here. That's what I get for living in a village in the middle of nowhere. And I'm actually excited for my little shit of a brother to visit! You would be also if you lived in this village, though, trust me. As I told him, I'm mostly excited to see his reaction to my MIL speaking Polish to him and laughing at her jokes, which he won't understand, because it'll all be in Polish. My mom recalls our Polish wedding, when my MIL was chatting away for a while, and then brought my mom to "chat" with her sister (all in Polish). My mom can say "jesteś dupkiem", "dzień dobry", and "do widzenia" (kinda). This is gonn...

A's nieces and nephews range in age from 18 to 5, and most of them are learning English. Most are also really shy to speak English around us, because they're afraid to make mistakes. I always tell them this story to try and break the ice, hoping that they'll see mistakes happen and it's not that awful. I mean, can it get worse than this? Story One: Poop. First, some vocabulary: Głowa (gwoh-va) - head Gówno (goov-no) - shit This was way back when I started learning Polish. I was visiting a friend for the weekend and had a headache. Instead of telling her that my head hurt, though, I informed her that my poop hurts. I don't remember the rest of the conversation, but I'm guessing it was interesting. Story Two: Sputnik. For the longest time, I also thought everyone here was weirdly obsessed with the Russian satellite. Everything was Sputnik this and Sputnik that, even though the rest of the conversion was not space-related. I finally asked about i...

I don't actually live in Mikołajki, but it's close enough that I think I can still call this past weekend a "staycation". We are in a converted Prussian schoolhouse that now has six apartments; one apartment is empty, one is ours, two are neighbors, and two are brothers in law and their families. My MIL lives a mere 3 minute walk away. Needless to say, I sometimes need to get away. Last weekend we stayed at a cousin's husband's parents' guesthouse on a lake near Mikołajki. The only downside was that the weather decided to suddenly become cold and rainy (whereas the previous week had been in the upper 70s and lovely). Poland . We headed out Friday evening after work. As soon as possible! There was some sleeping in the car on the way there and we had to take some drastic measures to ensure the light wouldn't be in our eyes (he covered his face, not us). I recommend visiting Mikołajki, especially in the off-season. It's probably prettie...

The first thing I have to confess is that I've never read Jane Eyre . In all honesty, descriptions of the book have seemed boring and overly romantic. I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time just two years ago (and have since read three more by Jane Austen), so I really should probably give Charlotte Bronte another try, especially after reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I got this book, because there was a kind of "chain letter" going around Facebook where you'd basically swap books with strangers - I had done this type of chain once before when I was about 8, but that was with bracelets and it didn't go so well. In this Facebook book exchange, I've so far gotten six books and this is the second one I've read of them. I had another Jasper Fforde book on my list of books to read, so I was really excited to get this one in the mail. I had another book to finish, so I wasn't able to start on this one immediately. The Eyre Affair ...

Spring has arrived in Mazury officially (it's been at least a week of good weather, I call that official)! You might even say that summer has arrived, since this weekend reached a high of 25C/77F, which is basically a Polish summer. Here are some things you can enjoy during a Mazurian spring: 1. Scenery! 2. Mosquitos and mosquito and fly poop all over my monitors (thanks to living in the Masurian Lake District!) 3. Lakes (thanks to living in the Masurian Lake District)! There's more, like BBQs, dog poop everywhere, etc., but I won't post pictures of that. One food item that was present at our most recent BBQ was this thing: Which led me to the conclusion (although it's been obvious for a while) that Poles will make sausages out of ANYTHING . This particular sausage, I had just assumed it was a white sausage - a meaty one. The descriptions says "nasza kiszka ziemniaczana" - so something with potatoes, but I disregarded tha...

This weekend is "Majówka" (my-OOV-kah) in Poland. It is essentially our American Memorial Day weekend, except that May 1 is Labor Day and May 3 is Constitution Day, but it's also celebrated with BBQs and trips to the lakes (all the Varsovians are up here in the Masurian Lake District for the weekend). Side note: we bought B some new t-shirts on Friday and I noticed yesterday that one shirt says "festival dates" and underneath "3TH". Oopth. May 2 falls in between, so it's also usually taken as a holiday. B's preschool was supposed to be open today, but when we took him in they informed us that too few kids were there, so they were closing also. Awesome. For the first time since September, the weather is actually also really nice. And I'm inside. OH MY GOSH. My windows are open, but I can see into the garden where everyone's having BBQs and I can hear the music (disco polo, obvz - here's a sample of disco polo , the best of 201...