The real world officially started today when Craig headed to the office for the first time. Let's bring everyone up-to-date on what has transpired since I last posted and then we can talk about the "real world" as I now know it!
In no particular order:
1) I was upgraded to first class on the leg between Minneapolis and Amsterdam so the food was better, the wine a little better and the seat fully reclineable. Ahhh...poor Craig back in row 40. We were both upgraded on the third leg from Munich to Wroclaw so I don't feel quite so bad about hogging first class for the longest leg of the flight.
2) We had no problems getting Oliver on-board the KLM leg from Amsterdam to Munich. We were a bit worried about weight and size restrictions. I do have to say all the headache and heartache trying to get all the correct paperwork was for naught. Not one person ever bothered to ask about the dog. Maybe it was the great carrier I had him in - everyone thought it was a suitcase. At any rate, I will get the pet passport so I don't need to sweat those details anymore.
3) We already had our first guest. For those 3M folks accustomed to "safety meetings" we held the first Wroclaw meeting with Rich Heichert! He was in Poland for some other 3M work so he took the train from Krakow. What a fun night that was!!! I am thankful I did not partake in some unusual Polish custom of drinking a shot of vodka and putting the empty shot glass upside down on your head! I will post pictures - seeing is believing!
4) Rich was kind enough not to mention the smell of my clothes!! As luck would have it only three of four bags showed up so I wore the same clothes Wednesday through Sunday morning! Remember one of those days was roughly 20 hours of travel!!!
5) I'm glad Craig is an engineer since running appliances in the apartment takes an advanced degree! Luckily, most of the instruction manuals were in English; however, the washing machine (and combination dryer) was in Polish only. It was quite a scene with both of us sitting on the floor trying to figure out. We washed the first load for a total of 2.5 hours!!! I think we may have it down now!! Let's hope anyway!
6) We had our first shopping excursion! It felt like we were in the store for hours. The biggest challenge was finding margarine - I almost brought home yogurt until a kind lady pointed us to the next aisle! We also bought lunch meat. 500g is a pound. We wanted 1/2 pound - or 250g. I couldn't remember how to say that big of a number and Craig hasn't gotten that far in his Polish lessons so we gave the puppy eyes and told her to stop when it looked about right. I'm still not sure what meat we bought. We think it was ham! I have since refreshed myself and can say 250 - probably won't need to for awhile but I did learn something.
7) On Sunday we spent the day trying to find the quickest route for Craig to get to work. The city is full of bridges and we believe all of them are under construction! During our adventures Craig ran a red light, swerved to get out of the way of a tram and made a left turn from the tram lane! Not to be outdone, I was nearly hit by a tram on the way to the market today. Never walk against a red light without looking both ways!!! But at least I could have said 250!
8) For those of you wondering what to get Craig for Christmas he will need a "man bag"! In Poland you are required to carry your car registration on your person. If it is left in the car and something happens to the car it basically becomes a "too bad so sad" situation. The paperwork, coupled with the unusual keys to the apartment make it impossible for him to use the traditional pockets. Right now he is carrying an NWA travel pouch they gave me in first class (not to rub it in)!! Seriously, we have two keys to the apartment and one of the keys looks like an old church key. It is roughly three inches long! It might hurt if you sat wrong! The door to the apartment has not one, not two, but three deadbolts along with one other locking device for nighttime. We live in a secure building with 24/7 security at the front desk so need to worry about our safety - at home at least - i.e., tram crossing!
9) Still struggling with this whole separate blanket thing but will get used to it I'm sure! We have had no problems sleeping - probably exhausted from trying to understand Polish all day!
I'm sure there is much more to report but I don't want to bore you all to tears! Next up...Cindy has to return something....more to follow!
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1 comment:
Finally reading up! Unfortunately, I decided to take a peek late, and wow, have you written a lot! I like what I'm reading though. You're like me in liking to give a lot of fun detail, so I feel like I'm actually there. I promise to read the rest soon. I obviously have a lot to read! The pics are hilarious btw, lol.
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