Our neighborhood

This is the outside of our apartment complex.  Our apartment is on the top floor in the center (with the satellite dish on the balcony).

We have several small stores on the ground level, including a meat market and bakery.
Our local grocery store and the post office are a half block away.

There are several bus stops within a half block of the apartment.

The buses vary considerably.  Some are relatively new and clean.  Others clearly date back to Soviet days.  The green one on the bottom is a "tram" bus and is electric (wires attached above the bus to the power lines).

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Adam and Delaney. I (David) took Delaney who started at 8:30 and Carolyn took Adam who started at 9:40. We rode public transportation and the bus that Delaney and I took just happened to be yellow, and was of Soviet era. In the afternoon, Carolyn and I went together to pick up the kids. Delaney was done at 2:30 and Adam at 2:15. On the way, we spotted a Hummer H2. Go figure. I think our return bus driver was trained as a NY city cab driver. Craaaazzzyyyyyyy!



The kids' schools are right next to each other.  This is Adam's school.  The Gymnasium (middle school) and Liciem (high school) are in the same building.  His classmates all have the same class schedule, so the whole group stays together throughout the day (except at the end of the day when the choose separate physical education options, and when the have different language classes). He has 2 guys in his class and about 12 girls.  He reported that computer science was weird because his teacher didn't speak any English (although his classmates do), private Polish lessons were fun and he has a lot of vocabulary words to memorize as homework already, math was fine - they were able to access his geometry book online and work from there.

 

 Delaney's school is directly next door to Adam's.  She was greeted the morning with shrieks of delight from the girls in her class.  (She's about 6 inches taller than all of them!)    

Laundry

We have not really figured out our washing machine, although we are using it.  I've translated every word on the machine without further enlightenment about how it works.  We put in our laundry, turn knobs and press buttons until it starts running.  We let it run until it no longer makes any noises, then take the laundry out.  Its cycle is slow - turn clockwise two turns, pause, turn counter-clockwise two turns.  Repeat for 1 1/2 hrs.  The washer and dryer cannot run at the same time without tripping the circuit breaker, so its a time consuming process.  No real complaints though.  We're just happy to have the convenience here in our apartment! We are all taking extra care to make sure that the clothes we put in the wash really need washing, which means wearing most outfits twice.  -Carolyn

Birthday meal

Carolyn fixed me a wonderful birthday meal - beef stew, local bread and a cake that is currently in assembly (see previous post), washed down with a STRONG DWUSŁODOWY. I was too busy enjoying it to take a picture, so here is one from a few days ago where she fixed Italian chicken, cheesy noodles and green beans.
Earlier, Delaney and I went back to the Le Clerc for cake mix and a few odds and ends. It was a nice father/daughter outing. Now the kids are watching two newly purchased videos, Shrek Everafter and Despicable Me. Tomorrow, school begins for both of them, so early bed time tonight. -David

Happy Birthday David!

Today David celebrates his birthday.  We haven't done anything special, but I'm getting ready to try to bake the cake mix he brought home...Can you follow these directions?

 Hopefully it will look like this when I'm done!  : )

 

It turned out ok.  Not bad for having to figure out how to measure 125 g of butter from a tub, and use 2 lyski (spoons) of milk (teaspoons or tablespoons? - doesn't matter.  I don't have either in the kitchen), and mix on high for 5 minutes (ever try to whisk cream by hand for even 1 minute??)

Polish / English

We were told that very few people in Lublin speak English and that seems to mostly be the case.  The exceptions have been the teachers we met at the kids' school, the University faculty, and a cashier at the Tesco grocery store.  My elementary Polish has sufficed for the grocery clerks, taxi driver, and bus ticket vendor.  I'm still reviewing Rosetta Stone lessons each day trying to absorb and hold on to more vocabulary, especially verbs (give, take, hold, sell, bring, go, turn, etc.)  It will be very interesting to see how fast the kids catch up once they are emersed in school.  Our landlord speaks the perfect amount of English to converse with me and help me develop my Polish.  He'll say about 5-10 words in English, then lapse into Polish for several sentences, then switch back to English again.  I catch some of what he's saying in Polish, then the English helps fill in the blanks that I missed.  -Carolyn

Smoking concerns

Although we've been warned that Poles smoke a lot, it has not been a problem for us at all.  Our hotel didn't allow smoking.  The car we were in on the train didn't have anyone smoking (not sure if it was allowed or not).  The few restaurants we've been in did not have anyone smoking, nor the taxicabs.  Perhaps we've been lucky...perhaps new anti-smoking laws are in effect?  -Carolyn

Winter fashions

We anticipated that we might stick out a bit here, you know...the obvious Americans.  However, several people on the street have approached us asking for directions, so we apparently don't stick out too much.  We are not, however, entirely stylish.  Based on my observations,  I have the fashion sense of an old lady.  I don't have skinny jeans tucked into knee-high fashion boots.  My sturdy LL Bean stompers and warm corderoy slacks are quite comfy, but are only worn by people 60+.  Oh well.  I'm not trading in my comfort for style at this point.

Its fun to see the little kids around town.  Everyone under 5 is dressed in ski pants.  I guess they figure the kids will be into the snow and crawling around, so they are prepared.

Everyone, including teens, are bundled up well.  Scarves are a standard clothing item for men and women of all ages.  Most people wear winter hats and gloves as well.  Adam, who refuses to wear his coat (or hat, or gloves), sticks out like a sore thumb.  He does have long underwear, a long sleeve shirt, and a lined flannel shirt on, so I don't think he's freezing, but he still looks out of place. -Carolyn

Continued shopping lessons

We ventured out again today for more food.  It seems like we eat it as fast as we bring it home!  We are slowly laying in some additional stocks of food so we have a few days when shopping is not required.  (Tomorrow is our first Sunday and we don't know what is open...) The challenge is that much of the food has no preservatives, so what you purchase you need to eat relatively quickly. (This is not a bad thing, but requires new shopping habits).  We're slowly getting some less perishable items to use now and then.  There is a huge variety of nuts and dried fruits available.  There are canned foods, but these are of course heavy to carry.  I've been hunting for bread crumbs to cook with and haven't had any luck yet, but today I found some saltine-like crackers that I think may work.  Its kind of fun to see where some of the food comes from.  The oranges are all from Spain, and every store (even our tiny corner one) has lots of kiwi fruit from somewhere... -Carolyn

View from our windows

It's a bit gloomy here in the winter, lots of overcast days.  So when the sun breaks through its a great thing! (The downside is that when the clouds clear, the temperatures drop considerably.  UV comes through the clouds, but gets trapped under the cloud cover and keeps things slightly warmer.  Clear sky = cold).   I took advantage of the sunny afternoon to take some pictures out of our apartment windows.  Our apartment is centrally located in the city.  The region is hilly and we sit at the top of a hill looking North (being in the top apartment provides additional elevation). This is the view out of bedroom windows.

This is the view from our living room windows - facing South.  You can see our bus stop directly across the street to the right side of the photo. (sorry for the reflection - consequence of the sunny day!)

Although we have quite a few buses that travel up and down the street, they are pretty quiet (electric powered).  I expect when the weather warms up and we open the windows, we will notice the traffic more. -Carolyn

The cold

Our whole family packed well for very cold weather.  So far we haven't had to use our heaviest gear.  The daytime highs have been around 27-32 F (-3  to 0 C).  The winds have been light (a real change from Kansas!)  I wasn't sure that the apartment would be heated well, so we were prepared with very warm jammies and layers of clothes, but the heating system has (mostly) worked very well.  All of the large apartment complexes in Lublin are heated through radiant heat from hot water running through pipes in each room.  The water is heated centrally in the city and then flows through large pipes to each complex. (Individual homes are headed by natural gas from Russia.)  After taking a luke warm shower yesterday, I wondered if something was wrong.  Our radiators were cold to the touch too.  Our landlord confirmed that there was a burst pipe down the street and brought us some extra blankets for the night.  We didn't really need them, however, because we are on the top floor and the insulation must be pretty good.  We didn't suffer at all and the heat was back on again the next morning - yea hot showers! -Carolyn

Adjusting well

It feels like we've settled in a bit.  While Delaney and I were waiting for a bus yesterday, she said out of the blue "Lublin is just like Wichita".  I asked "how so?"  She talked about there being cars, and people, and stores, etc.  In a way she is so right.  There are lots of similarities, but as adults we tend to look at all the differences and remark on them. Hmmm.  -Carolyn

Law suits and responsibility

We've experienced several activities that caught our attention by their distinctness from the US...Whereas Americans tend to be lawsuit happy and any harm that occurs is someone else's fault, in Poland it appears that you are responsible for the consequences of your own behavior.

At the Science Museum, they had a "spinner" (like a Merry go round that you sat inside with chest high walls) where kids could throw a beach ball and experience the coreolis effect.  Just benches, not individual seats, no seat belts, no list of rules, no safety talk.  The operator would periodically slow it down so kids could swing open the gates and step in or out.  He told kids to sit down several times, but other than that they just played as they spun around. Wild.

At the local pool, there was no lifeguard on duty.  No one to monitor our usage of the waterslide.  No one to keep young kids from belly flopping into the 3 ft deep hot tubs.  Just some signs that said what the rules of usage were.  You'd never see this in the US!  It was kind of a pleasant surprise. -Carolyn

Swimming fun!

Mom and I went exploring today to find the swimming pool.  We took a bus right outside our apartment and 7 stops later we were there.  We couldn't quite figure which door to go in (it was a large building), but we followed our noses and found the pool (Mom says "plywalnia"). You can learn  A LOT from watching other people...
People were checking their coats, so we did that.  Then they took off their shoes and put on flip flops and stood in line to pay.  Since we didn't have flip flops, we just took off our shoes.  We got to the ticket stand and they lady gave us wrist bands, but didn't make us pay.  We watched the people in front of us and saw them touch the bands to the entrance turnstill.  We did the same thing.  There were lockers in the dressing room, but we couldn't figure out how to use them.  A lady showed us.  Pick an empty one and use your electronic wrist band to open it, then lock it - cool!  We saw the sign below as we entered, but didn't think much about it.

Tak = yes, nie = no.  Mom laughed and said that men had to wear speedo suits.  We showered before going in like everyone else, but before we could get to the pool, another swimmer stopped us and gestured to our heads.  We had to have swim caps!  Mom went back out to a little shop we saw at the entrance and bought us both caps.  Mine is a beautiful pink!

We finally got to go in.  It was so much fun!  They had a fountain, a bubbly pool (not hot), a swirly pool (like a lazy river but smaller), two hot tubs, and a long water slide.

 

I'm not old enough to sit in the hot tub at the YMCA at home, but there was no age limit at the pool.  We swam for about 2 hours and finally left because Mom wanted to get home before it got dark.  We changed back into our clothes, gave our wrist bands back to the lady at the desk and went to put our shoes back on.  The lady called something to Mom.  Suddenly Mom realized what she was saying - we needed to PAY, not just turn in the wrist bands.  Mom had to dig out every coin in her purse to cover the cost after buying the swim caps.  You have to pay by the hour - that's why we didn't pay when we went in.  Its a good thing we didn't stay any longer! -Delaney

Reflections

The buses here are a combination of new and modern (bendable and non-bendable per Delaney) and old Soviet era diesel or electric (old, utilitarian, functional, and manual transmissions - makes me think of Ralph Cramden). I like very much the idea of "if it works, keep it".
Adam and I ventured back to the E. LeClerc for some more supplies. For a 2L bottle of Mountain Dew, Adam was willing to carry back on the bus two 6L bottles of water. We are drinking only bottled water as the water here has heavy metals in it. O.K. for a short while, long term not so good. We ran out this morning and I used tap water in my coffee, the taste was poor.
Carolyn and Delaney went to the local swimming pool to scout it out for tomorrow's possible outing with Julia, our landlord's daughter. Expect another post on that. -David

Bus passes

Carolyn and I obtained our bus passes today. 340 PLN each (about $120 u.s.) for a 150 day pass. If you buy a ticket for one way each time you ride, you pay 2.40 PLN. The kids will get passes once they are issued student i.d.'s. Once again I thank God for Carolyn's language gifts, they made the process much easier.

On another note, I was reading a post about Bob Gannon, a private pilot who has flown around the world two times. His statement on traveling says it all:

“If you truly want to see the world, then get over your ideas and prejudices and be happy with the process,”.

-David

Bus map hero

David is my bus hero!  Today we took a different route to the kids school that was much easier and quicker thanks to David's curiosity about the bus routes.  After our 25 min, 13 stop, trip to the kids school yesterday, he got to wondering if there was a faster way.  Today we took a different bus that did not require crossing a busy street to the stop, only took 10 mins, and 7 stops!  I think I won't have any problem letting Adam and Delaney travel this route on their own from time to time. -Carolyn

Kids school

Visited the kids' school today and met Delaney's and Adam's teachers.  Both were very nice and spoke English well.  Delaney is in a primary classroom with 16 other children.  School from 9 - 2:00 with 3 afternoons of extracuricular activities included in the school fee.  She picked swimming, dance, and art.  Here is a picture of her with her teacher (Pani Dorota - Ms. Dorothy)

 
Adam's schedule is crazy - no such thing as a block schedule.  Every single day is different, with varying total hours for each course.  Math is 6 hours a week, Spanish is 2 hours a week, Biology is 3 hours a week.  On several days he has free hours where his Polish peers will be taking a course in Polish.  Four of his classes are private tutors.  He's scheduled for 2 hours of Polish tutoring, but has requested several more hours if possible. He also has some elective choices at the end of the day.  They apparently do much of their  PE at a large athletic center downtown at the end of the day. -Carolyn

Beautiful snow

If its going to be cold, there has to be snow to go with it (in my opinion!) Maybe we'll get enough to try out our new sled soon! - Carolyn

My great helper

There appears to be little systematic snow removal from city sidewalks, but generous sprinkles of sand are applied.  This leaves all of our boot very messy when we come home, so we've instituted taking shoes off at the door.  In order to keep our hard wood floors clean, we bought a swifter mop yesterday.  Delaney was eager to use it and helped mop the upstairs last night. (The owners had the floor waxed before our arrival.  It looks beautiful, but all of us have slipped down several times.  We'll be glad when its a little less slippery.)  

Long awaited - apartment photos

We are all extremely happy with our accommodations!  We live on the top level of the apartment complex (4th floor-no elevators).  Our landlord lives two floors below us.  The first picture on the left is our front entry way (the apt is two stories, the main entrance in on the top level.  There is a "back door" on the lower level).  To the right is the living/dining room.  The large window faces south and lets in a lot of light during the day.  It overlooks a main street, but is not noisy at all.  There is a small balcony just off the living room on the left side (not visible).  The second door you see on the right from the front entry is the kitchen.  

 The kitchen is pictured below on the left.  Note the remarkably large refrigerator!  The stove is gas with 3 of 4 burners that work, and 2 of 4 grill tops that hold pots (makes for interesting usage).  It has a dishwasher, but since we only have 6 sets of dishes and have to wash after each meal, we're just doing them by hand.  Plenty of cabinet space. The master bed room (below on the right) and bath are to the left of the front entry.

There is a large tub and a shower (no enclosure).  You have to be a bit careful when showering, but the gigantic tub is wonderful!  The stairs lead down from the front entry way to the lower level and the kids rooms.

On the left is Delaney's room.  Plenty of drawer space to store the treasures that she is always collecting.  On the right is Adam's burrow (and yes, he is burrowed under the covers).

 

The kids have a bathroom with a second shower on the lower level.  There is also a washing machine, and remarkably - a dryer!  We put in our first load today.  We obviously need some further instruction because we ended up dumping water all over the floor when we opened the washer.  I expect we'll probably air dry many of our clothes since the dryers are not very efficient.

I'll take some pictures from the windows in the morning so you can see what kind of view we have. -Carolyn

My shopping hero

We came back home with the kids after our first bus journey, then David ventured out in another direction to the Tesco (another food supermarket) with a list of food items.  We are slowly stocking the kitchen, although with having to carry it all by hand on a bus, we are augmenting our supplies slowly.  David combed every aisle of the store multiple times attempting to read and decipher pictures on packages of food items that look very different from what we are used to.  At one point he called me and spelled out words on different spice packages;  I typed them into Google translate and we got what we needed!  (Pictures of different spices with green leaves weren't very helpful - although the onion was identifiable).  The odd thing is, all the spices come in little paper packages like taco seasoning, not in separate shaker bottles.  I'm sure a store sells spice containers to transfer the opened packages into, but we haven't found them yet. -Carolyn

Day 5

Its so hard to believe we been here just 5 days!  We continue to make adjustments to our new conditions and get comfortable with our surroundings.  We set out on the bus today as a family (Carolyn got tickets for everyone from an automatic machine).  We all visited the local mall that I saw with my host yesterday, and had lunch there (pizza - tasted good).  Then we journeyed on to the kids school (just to locate it, we have an appointment to enroll tomorrow), and went to the Real store where we got a few more household necessities.  By the end of the trip, Delaney was developing a blister with her snow boots, so it was good we were headed back.  Delaney is missing home the most at this point and had a bit of a melt down this evening.  I'll be glad when she starts her classes and makes some friends at school.  Its hard to give her the attention she craves and get a household established too. -Carolyn

Shopping around Lublin.

It was a a busy and productive day in Lublin.  David and I started the morning with an extended visit to our local grocery store to investigate all the unfamiliar items on the shelves.  Our final assessment - we won't be eating well if these are our only options, but enough variety to get us along in a pinch (ie the next few days as we get bus passes and find out where the supermarkets are located).

After lunch I was picked up and taken to the University to be introduced to the Int'l Relations faculty.  As they continued their meeting, I stepped out to walk the streets around the University.  I found an automatic bus ticket dispenser (1 ride and 24 hr tickets only, no long term tickets); I spoke with a bus employee who gave me the address where I needed to go to get long term passes (to be a destination in the near future); and I found the equivalent of a Walgreen's for some needed toiletries.

After the meeting, the department head took me to a store called "Real" (German-based) that is a bit like Walmart with some notable exceptions.  The shopping carts require a 2 zloty coin deposit in the handle in order to disconnect them from a chain of baskets. (When the basket is locked into the chain again, the coin is returned).  Inside the store I found the kitchen aisle and started putting pots into the basket, but an employee took them out again, explaining something to my host.  She proceeded to weigh them on  a scale and put a price sticker on them.  We repeated this for my skillet, my plates, my glasses, my pairing knives and...well, you get the picture.  Very odd indeed.  We proceeded to another aisle and I added cooking spoons and tupperware to my basket without the need to weigh them.  As I checked out, there was another discussion with the cashier.  My host explained that she could charge my credit card in zloty or euros, which did I want?  Since our bank charges the same fee for int'l transactions, I figured it didn't matter...I was just surprised euros were a choice since Poland is not in the Euro Zone yet.

Our final stop was the Galleria Mall and an excellent delicatessan called Alma.  My host just wanted me to see one more shopping option for the future.  We stopped at a Czecolada (sweet shop) and my host bought some Polish chocolates for Adam and Delaney and we headed back to the apartment. With some cooking utensils on hand, dinner was better than last night!  -Carolyn

Art

Q: Do you know what all of these pieces of art have in common?

A:  They decorate the walls of our apartment!  Can you say "eclectic"?!