YSA (Young Single Adults) in Warsaw, Poland

My first taste of teaching in Poland...

This is a group of some of the Young Single Adults who live in and around Poland who came to Warsaw for the weekend. They are wonderful young adults....and I get the blessing of teaching and working with some of them.

This last Sat. I was asked to teach a class to the YSA group on "Weathering the Storms of Life...and Staying Strong in the Church". The 2nd speaker cancelled the day before...so my class ended up being almost 90 minutes! There was great participation throughout and I felt all went well.

It is truly amazing...though a few of the young adults spoke English...most did not and I had a translator next to me the entire time. Our languages are different...but the true messages and principles we shared are not...these are great young adults!

How lucky am I to be one of their religion teachers...once a week they will come to the YSA room (at the building where we meet for church) and have a religious lesson, hang out, eat and enjoy being together!

Our First ...Dinner Guests

Yesterday I spent the day preparing for our first dinner guests... Kamila Komarnicka and Alex Modzelewska. They are two young single girls who attend church with us and are my Visiting Teachers!

They are delightful young ladies and they speak English too!

They arrived a little after 6pm while a summer storm was coming down. Mark had arrived home a few minutes earlier and went out to meet the girls and escort them down to our street and home. Here we are just prior to beginning our meal.

Here is our oven...it is small, electric and more like a computer! I usually select "conventional cooking" and plug in the nearest equivalent C. temp. I'm baking cookies in this oven...and the closet temp. to 375 F. is 190 C. It's not exact but close.

My "first" cookie made in Poland!

I felt like a scientist...trying to determine if the temp., time in the oven, or ingredients were just right. They ended up being fine...still need to work on the timing though...they don't taste like they do in Texas...but with practice I'm sure they will get better.

I made home made chicken pot pie as in the picture taken prior to being baked. I wasn't sure how this would turn out either....

We had success! Home made chicken pot pie, tossed green salad, wheat rolls (not home made :)) and chocolate chip cookies with Polish ice cream for dessert! Yum!

The food was good and the girls enjoyed it. My favorite part of the evening though was having people here in our home with us. The girls stayed about 3 hours and had a long journey home. They each traveled 45-50 min. in order to get to our home...we were grateful!

We are constantly learning our cultures may be different but we are so much more alike than we are different! We had good food, great conversations and wonderful company!

A Polish Holiday....Monday in Wilanow

This past Monday was the public/religious holiday "Day of Assumption"...as a result, Mark had the day off so we went exploring in the area of Wilanow (an area of Warsaw south/east of our home) ...this is also the same area where I found the Polish pottery shop last week.

On public holidays, all stores, shops, malls and businesses are closed... so no pottery shopping on this day, but great fun in learning, eating and exploring in a new area of Warsaw.

We took a bus ride here and our first stop was to eat lunch (restaurants and transportation are opened)...we ate at a small outdoor restaurant called Milanovo... a pizzeria and cafe. We split our delicious entree of meatballs, and vegetables in a light cream/cheese sauce.

We are learning to pronounce the names of the streets where we visit! We are learning that the names of many streets are named after former rulers and kings from Poland's history. I am happy to say I can pronounce the above name...:)!!!

With most meals we order "water" (with no gas/carbonated)... I just learned this day that each time we order "voda/water" we pay for it...not free as in the U.S.

We passed this large church after lunch. We noticed while eating many people passed by with flowers...here they are in line to enter the church. We think it is part of the holiday celebration.

Throughout the city people sell many things...at this time of year selling fresh berries (blueberries/raspberries) is very common. Also, at the far end of the picture you will see

heads of large sunflowers...you see these everywhere.

A customer selects a sunflower head then will just pick out the seeds and eat them.

We headed to the Wilanow Palace for the afternoon. This was the summer palace for the king. This was the residence of the same king whose palace we toured on my birthday located in "Old Town". He wanted something a bit understated and away from the hustle and bustle of the city life.

This palace looks like a palace...but the decor is simpler compared to the residence palace in Warsaw. In side are numerous portraits, arts and decor. We were grateful for the English headsets we had... we stand out as tourists in the above pictures!

Here are a few pictures from inside...the first king to reside here..

A beautiful tiled blue/white room...reminds me of all the beautiful Polish pottery we find here.

A statue of the first king that lived in the Wilanow Palace...

We saw beautiful pictures...this palace was the home of a number of families and 200 years ago it also became a museum...the family wanted the arts from past collections to be made available to the public...

Here we peek outside and see part of the magnificent gardens...

If you know Mark...he loves raspberries...this is the "Raspberry Room"...named for the color on the walls.

For a number of years, with the help of family and friends, I have collected small thimbles. Here we find a collection of old Roman urns...a "collection" of the Polish monarchs!

This saying inscribed on the tiled floor means "free for everyone"...when part of the palace became a museum, the purpose was to "enlighten", cultivate and share the arts from collections in and around Poland.

The rooms were beautiful though much simpler than the earlier palace we saw. We enjoyed hearing the names of monarchs, kings and families...as we are challenged to pronounce so many Polish words around us.

We come outside to the gardens which surround the entire palace...they are so beautiful!

We would love to have gardens like these...sans the mosquitoes! A few statues scatter the gardens in addition to having statues and busts on top and around the palace roof.

There are thousands of plants, hedges, and roses...we wonder who maintains these gardens.

After leaving the palace, we stop and purchase raspberries for ourselves...yummy!

Mark...picture says it all!

With all that walking and learning we were ready for dessert...if you notice the blue sign behind me "Kim's"...this is the small pottery shop where I purchased my few bowls last Friday. It's a small shop but what a great selection they have inside!

Another picture of my pottery purchased last Friday... I was thrilled it came from the city of Boleslawiec...this is where most factories are located.

To celebrate 6 weeks together in Poland...we treated ourselves to desserts at E. Wedel (a dessert shop)....

Look at this great dessert Mark ordered...it is raspberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream and sweet treats...I ordered apple pie and ice cream ... yummy though different than in the states.

We thought it quite humorous that we split our entree (healthy food) and we each individually ordered our own dessert! We had a great day! Loved being together, learning and enjoying being outdoors.

We think we will return and just might venture here on our bikes the next time!

P.S....As we walked to our bus stop we saw across the street a "Golf Pro Shop". We thought of Jamie...there must be a driving range or golf course near by...we will have to check them out sometime.

A Visit to... the Warsaw Zoo

I recently finished reading the novel, "The Zookeeper's Wife". The setting was Warsaw, Poland during WWII and is based on a real couple (if you guessed the zookeeper and his wife, you're correct!) who protected over 300 Jewish people in the zoo during the German occupation. I was ready to take a trip to the zoo and walk the grounds of this great true story!

Our Saturday began with rain, but we ventured out on the streets of Warsaw and headed towards the zoo...we rode the Metro, a tram and then walked...
Me and Claire (a co-worker of Mark's working here from Scotland). To say "zoo" in Polish, say the word "saw" but put a "z" in place of the "s".

This zoo is absolutely beautiful....like an enormous green, lush park! We walked for 3-4 hours and saw most parts of this beautiful site in Warsaw.

Our biggest challenge was being able to understand what we were seeing and where the animals were located. We saw a few of these signs throughout the zoo...would you believe the graphics are all stickers?! And the words...all in Polish!

I thought for sure we would be seeing a "Panda" after seeing #1 above....no...not at this zoo...#1 above stands for education, development and management of the zoo. You might be able to figure out #3 and #19...

As we walked the zoo, we all felt that we could be anywhere in any city at a zoo...until we saw the signs and heard people talking around us!

People here respond to the wonder of these beautiful animals with "oohs, aahs" and laughter just like in the U.S.

We were impressed with the large enclosures for most of the animals...these exhibits would not have been here during WWII but just walking the grounds made me appreciate the

story I read even more.

The building in the background was being renovated...who knows maybe this building was here during WWII?

We found this interesting European sculpture that has nothing to do with zoos...but we thought it was fun to stand by and get a picture.

We were hungry after our trip to the zoo...we walked across the street to the Praski Park and found a place selling hamburgers. These hamburgers were huge and Mark was impressed that I ate the whole thing...I was hungry!

We exited the zoo from the front entrance and practically circled the entire zoo before finding our tram stop...this was the "never ending" path we walked on .

We had a great afternoon visiting a fabulous zoo!