Weekend Update

wow..what a beautiful weekend here in Wrocław! I sure hope this run of incredible weather is indicative of the months to come! There are no excuses for not getting outside (but I do still seem to find them periodically...)!

Saturday night we discovered a cute, little wine bar not far from the Farmer's Market. It is housed in a three-story tower of sorts. I'm not sure what its original purpose was but we do know it was built in the 1500's. Each of the three floors can't be any larger than the square footage of my living room/kitchen area of our house in Oakdale. They serve a menu of Mexican style food. Much to our surpise there was no broccoli or green beans found buried in our food as was the case at our last attempt at Mexican food in Poland!! They plan on having a Super Bowl party there on Feb. 3. We spoke to someone who stayed up until halftime last year (3:00 a.m.) and decided we would not attend. It seems the game is played without commercials (bummer) and with Polish commentators. If I want to see the came bad enough we will record it from Slingbox (thanks again to Erica and Michael for the gift of American TV)!

We wandered into town on Sunday to catch the big carnival in town. It was called "Po raz 16-ty Finał z Głow - dla dzieci ze schorzeniami laryngologiczny". It is a countrywide fundraiser for underprivileged children's healthcare. There was a large musical stage, food booths, tons of balloons and a real carnival atmosphere. There were literally thousands of people there. It was fun to see how the Square could be so transformed. I will download pictures later this week so keep checking back. The highlight for us was the Polish Reggae band called, Maleo Reggae Rockers. I couldn't understand a word they sang but the dreadlocked young people surrounding us certainly seemed to be entertained! The band honored the crowd with a well-received encore! Based on the dancing I witnessed it is clear my ineptness on the dance floor would not cause undue embarrassment. All they seemed to do was hop up and down with arms raised in the air. Craig was inwardly happy I was holding the dog or he would have had to hold me down to keep from hopping, er dancing! Oliver was once again a hit. I saw several people taking pictures of him and others not shy about coming right up and petting him. Too bad I am clueless about what they are saying to him. They may be telling me he is butt-ugly so put a bag over his head!! I smile kindly and hope they move on without thinking we are rude by not engaging in conversation!

Yet again we had a unique experience at the grocery store. As we were leaving the check-out lane we set off a store alarm! Polish security strolled to our "buggy" and began to check our receipt against the items in the cart. The culprit???? Brace yourselves....it was the pork roast!!! Evidently meat is an important enough commodity here to justify security chips in the packaging! After deactivating the meat Craig was able to pass quietly through the sensors. I think the guard thought I could speak Polish so I nodded and said, "Tak" several times so as to not blow our cover!!

Now, to put this story in perspective. Craig has a co-worker who is probably in his early to mid-30's. He shared a story about growing up and having the Russians distribute meat vouchers to the Polish citizens. They had limits placed on them based on their ethnicity. His Grandmother could speak Russian convincingly enough to not have limits placed on their family. He did say he had to learn enough Russian to speak to her in the market - talk about not blowing a cover???!!! I find it utterly amazing that someone that young has memories we would find unheard of in America! We truly take our freedom for granted!

It is that time again...I have to run to the Post Office to pay our satellite bill!! That never ceases to amaze me!! Stay tuned for the outcome!