1 Month Today!

OUR SON!

Today marks my 1 month stay in Poland. I can hardly believe it has been that long! This has to be the fastest/most life changing month of my entire life! Since I have been here a month, I thought it would be fun to list some of my "Polish Moments" with you. These are strictly some things I have noticed about the the Polish customs/lifestyles here in the large city of Warsaw, since I have been here. Please keep in mind that none of these are facts just observations from an otherwise "ignorant" foreigner.

1) Keep a close eye when walking on sidewalks and crossing streets. Why? No one has licenses and road rules are not "entirely" enforced. Sidewalks are considered extra parking spaces (I have this on video and will upload it soon) and speed limits are strictly there for decoration! Unless you cosider 70 mph on a 30mph stretch of road fun, I wouldn't recommend driving or even riding in a car. Our car trips just about caused me to have a nervous breakdown. James jokes about their four way stops called round-abouts. A car is supposed to stop before it makes it's way around, but usually it is a "horn honking, step on the gas" moment to see who can get in front of who before the car on either side does. It's CRAZY!

2) Apparel:
Women-I usually feel like my clothing doesn't fit in as most women here wear a skirt or sundress (young women short, and older women long), fancy top (wish I could find some like that), and about 1-3 inch high heels. It is surprising how stylish everyone is considering most have to walk about 1 mile to get to where they're going. Another funny obrservation is that many women (all ages) have dyed red hair! My mom tells me everday that she thinks the older women look poorly upon her for wearing shorts. James jokingly said to her to "Wear a mini skirt, get your hair dyed red, and put on three inch high heels! Then you'll fit right in!" All I can say about the shoes is "OUCH!"

Men-Usually suit and tie, or those who are casual wear kakis (short or pants) and generally a button down shirt or polo. Once again, very stylish. I did read that dress in Warsaw is usally very professional. However, there are always exceptions!
We have also noticed how some Poles (older men) seem to be rather "free" when it comes to dress. In the parks it is perfectly acceptable to sun bath in minimal clothing. On more than once occasion we have seen men wearing nothing but underwear sitting on a park bench soaking up the rays, while reading the paper! We even saw one man whip out his shorts, take of his pants, put on his shorts all on the sidewalk in front of us! NO! We did not take any pictures!

3) If you ever visit, bring all the medicine's/health items you need because here they are hard to find. We visited several stores in search of certain health items and all we could find was a small (very small, maybe 3 foot) section of some tylenol or aspirin products. I could hardly believe it! In America we have about 4-5 aisles of cold medicine's, allergy drugs, etc. Here all you get is 3 feet! I was told that you need to go to a pharmacist for almost everything! Strange huh?

4)Always wear a smile! For some reason, the people here always seem to be in a hurry and many don't smile. I read that they can seem "cold"until you talk to them and then they'll warm up to you. I have found this to be true. However, to a foreigner like myself, this can be very intimidating!

5) Bring ear plugs! For those of you that know me and where I am from, I am essentially a country girl. Galesburg can hardly be considered a large city! Here we are living in a 15 story apartment building (1 of many) and the traffic never stops. I know that it is minimal compared to Chicago or New York, but still it is very noisy all the time! Because we have no air conditioning, we leave the windows open all night. I'm not used to the city noises like cutting the grass (we have a small park right accross the walk) at 6:45 am or dump trucks collecting trash at 5:00 am! Let me tell you, there is nothing like waking up to the smell of "fermented trash" blowing through your windows!

6) Bring your dog! Almost everyone has dogs! Dogs go everywhere with Poles! We even saw a few in the mall today!

Please don't get me wrong! There are many good parts about living here during this month and Warsaw is a great, beautiful city! I love looking out my window at the tall buildings on the horizon, especially at night! It's beautiful! Warsaw also seems to be very clean with many manicured, spotless parks! It's buildings are beautiful and it's history is amazing! This city/country has been through so much in the last century! I am looking forward to the next three weeks as we plan to take some tours and learn more about this amazing city. Our goal is to learn as much as we can about Poland so that we can build up BJ's heritage box.

On another note, BJ is doing well although I think he really misses his daddy. James went home on Wednesday so that he could get back to work and manage the house and bills. The first night I put BJ down without James there was very rough. He cried everytime I tried to put him down! I knew it was because his daddy was gone because BJ has always gone to bed just fine. We allow BJ to talk to his daddy daily on our webcam. I'm not sure if it's helping as BJ seems to be very confused when he sees his daddy on the computer screen. It is cute though because he tries to touch James' face with his fingers! Hopefully BJ won't forget how much he loves his daddy when he finally gets home!

My parents are enjoying their time here as they have stayed busy getting to know the area. We plan to visit more parks, take some tours, go to the zoo and hopefully a waterpark! Might as well live it up while we're here!

Thank you again for your love and support!