Warsaw, Poland

I spent the last few days of my trip in Warsaw which was really kind of like coming home. It's just comfortable.

Highlights include:

• having Ewa meet me at the airport
• walking around Old Town, eating DELICIOUS donuts, and reminiscing my first day in Poland on a cold drizzly day late November 2005
• staying with Nasa and meeting the lovely Dorota
• having fun with Ewa and Robin and getting soaked multiple times since it wasn't ideal weather
• lunch with Emily and Erik 
• going to the grocery store and Tesco (remember I wrote about how much I liked them here? I love them in Poland too.) 
• geeking out at the Warsaw Ghetto walls

Pictures are as follows:
1) Ewa and me on the Stary Rynek (Old Town Square); 2) view from Nasa's apartment, see the Tesco? I was itching to get there. serious; 3) ghetto walls; 4) Lazienki Park and the Chopin statue where we got caught in a serious downpour; 5) Donuts by Nowy Swiat. My favorite besides Chata in Bydgoszcz; 6) meeting Erik and Emily (who is the former Sister Jakobsen) for lunch before they drove north; 7) with Dorota and Nasa after church, picture stolen off Facebook

It was the most wonderful weekend and I couldn't help walking around thinking that I could definitely be an expatriate and live in Poland. 

A Few Things

this has nothing to do with the post. its just a silly picture.

1. I made my bed this morning. No that's not what was awesome. Actually, you know it is. I'll keep that as number one.
2. When I was making my bed this morning (shocking I assure you), I found a spider. A spider that was probably the size of a nickle (don't worry, that includes the legs), crawled across my duvet and over my pillows. Ew. I slept with a spider.
3. I'm looking extra good today because I got four, yes, that's right FOUR, catcalls this morning on my 15 minute walk to the metro.
4. I was running late today (hence missing the bus and having to walk to the metro instead of catching the bus) and so I didn't get breakfast. Found a bagel on my desk after my 9:00 meeting and a note from Lisa. I love working at the same place as friends.
5. Water spilled all over my desk. Well, I guess the water didn't spill on its own. I knocked water bottle across my desk (avoiding my phone and keyboard luckily) and spilled water all over. But that means the mess that's been on my desk is two things. One, it's now wet, and two, it's now somewhat organized. So I'm thinking it might have actually been a good thing.

In memorandum

 

Montgomery (Monte) G. Fish and Fireball F. Fish inhaled their last breath of tap (whoops) water August 22, 2011. The impact of their lives, although short, was felt by many.

Monte and Fireball began their lives in a large tank accompanied by many others. After a bucket of 50 ping-pong balls and proud owners, they were brought home to Fort Scott where they swam together, ate together (we think) and lived happily together.

Although the cause of death has yet to be determined it is believed lack of interest in food (starvation), tap water, or lack of the nightly ballad via the Gold MagicSing are the prime causes.

Monte and Fireball were preceded in death by Punkin Chunkin and MacDaddy who’s starvation led to premature death.

They are survived by their loving and proud owners, Jessica Payne and Lisa Carrier. For those wishing to pay their respects and serenade Monte and Fireball onto the next life, Memorial services will be held at Wednesday August 24 at 9:00 pm before flushing.

St. Petersburg, Russia

I've always wanted to go to St. Petersburg. So when planning the trip, I really struggled with using all the vacation I saved up for the year, or missing out on St. Petersburg. Obviously I chose to use up the vacation.

St. Petersburg is huge. So big that we were exhausted from all the walking we did. The metro isn't very convenient either, unless you're right off the stops, and we weren't going to be able to figure out the buses for the 48 hours we were in the city. But we managed to get a feel of the city and we've all decided we'd only come back with a Russian speaker. But that's just us. In order to avoid a marathon post I'm just going to post about my favorite things we did: Church of the Spilled Blood and the Hermitage. We also went to the ballet (Swan Lake) and went to the Modern Russian History Museum (or something like that). 

We loved the Church of the Spilled Blood and it was probably everyone's highlight. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and we spent a good amount of time admiring the mosaics. Yes, every inch of that church is mosaic. I could literally do an entire post about the mosaics because I loved them so much. I won't. I'll just leave you with a few.

On the second day we went to the Hermitage, the giant art museum and former palace of the Romanov family. The building was a gorgeous green, white and gold on the outside and the inside was so ornate with its gold leafing. I think I've seen a lot of art so seeing the state rooms was definitely more exciting than seeing paintings.

I feel like St. Petersburg, and Russia in general are a mystery. Let me know if you have any questions. I will tell you this though, my Polish did not help one bit. No one understood me. I would catch words here and there that I recognized, but knowing words like: good, yes, no, please, and numbers do not really help you understand anything that's going on. Any Russian speakers want to take me back?

County Fair

I always like going to the fair. I think it brings back the 14 year old in me when we used to go on the bracelet day and go on as many rides as possible. I always got sick. The Montgomery County Fair is one of the best I've been to (except the one time when I went to the Oregon State Fair to see O-Town, yes, that's mock-able, but that was mostly fun because of O-Town and the fact that my best friend got hypnotized, but that's another story). So we went to the fair. We hit up the Demolition Derby (highlight), then saw the animals, went on rides, got fried Oreos, and won fish. (Except I didn't really go on the rides because I decided I'd decline getting sick for the evening.)

But really, I love the fair. And I'm wondering what that says about me?

PS. Doesn't Lisa look so happy about her fish? She can't take her eyes off it! Also, the two fish David is holding? Yeah, they didn't make it through the weekend, that's what will happen if you don't feed them. But Fireball (Lisa's) and Montgomery (Jessica's) are swimming happily in the fish bowl in our basement.

Morning Commute

This morning I ran to the bus. Literally sprinting the entire way.

When I was about half way there when everyone was loaded on the bus. I thought he would drive away. I hoped he would stay. He shut the doors to the bus. I waved my arms frantically. And you know what? He didn't drive away. He just waited.

It was so nice of him.

When I got to the Crystal City metro stop today I saw my train on the platform, I ran down the escalator and slipped in between the metro doors just as they were closing. I must have had a satisfied and surprised look on my face because a lady on the train raised her eyebrows a bit and smiled.

This story has a happy ending. Nothing bad happened the entire commute. The huge group of tourists blocking my path to my next train moved out of the way and poured into the car in front of me. And the escalator was working at my final destination. I remembered my badge for work and remembered all the things I needed for the day.

The whole point of telling you about my commute is to tell you about the best part. The best part of my morning commute, is when I actually stop reading whatever book I'm totally engrossed in. And look up while we're crossing the Potomac river. Looking out across to Washington D.C., seeing the Lincoln and the Washington Monuments, looking down the river to see Georgetown and the National Cathedral or just taking a moment to look at the sky. And this morning there was a beautiful sky, and I paused and snapped a picture:

I'm going to venture to say it's going to be a good day. 

Helsinki, Finland

I thought Helsinki was a really cool city. It never really had a Medieval past so the city is pretty modern. We loved Stockman's (the grocery store I posted about here) and the open air food market and were subsequently attacked by seagulls at the market while eating our breakfast there one morning. (One seagull actually took part of a pasty right out of my dad's hand!) We enjoyed the ferry ride out to Suomenlinna, the fortress that protected Helsinki for years. Since my family had already seen a fair amount of Helsinki the day I arrived we took it easy and didn't re-see things. But we did make sure we hit up McDonald's (not really, we got in late and everything else was closed or too expensive for seven people); the LDS Helsinki Temple; and obviously Suomenlinna.

 

My dad must be explaining how the cannon works. I was preoccupied:

I really liked Helsinki.

Tampere, Finland

Cami wanted to be in Tampere for church on Sunday, so we met my brother-in-law Michael at the bus station where he caught a bus from the Helsinki airport. Tampere was the last city Cami lived in and the place where she really wanted to make sure we saw her friends. We drove by her old apartment, and the lake it sat next to; climbed a tower to see the lakes on either side of the city; and had dinner with a cute older lady Cami was friends with and had fun with Maria hanging out with us the whole afternoon. Unfortunately for us Tampere had the worst weather the entire trip and it was the only day we probably could have gone swimming in a Finnish lake.

Happy Family

Today I got yelled at by a homeless woman. 

It really took me a second to realize she was talking to me because she was yelling ridiculous things. 

Things like, "I don't support your lifestyle!" 

(How does she know I'm Mormon?) 

"You shouldn't be raising children!" 

(Well, I don't have kids, but I think Mormons make great, loving parents.) 

And then I realized this is what she was looking at:

And I realized she thought Lisa and I were partners 

and that we must be raising two darling little girls together.

Let me clarify. I am straight and I am open to dates with MEN ONLY. 

And these are Lisa's nieces.

Today Lisa's sister, Traci, asked if we would watch the girls while she picked up some things for work. We happily agreed because 

1.) We love Traci and 

2.) We love the girls.

So we took them for lunch and ice cream before returning them to their mother. 

Unfortunately about three minutes after leaving us, Traci's car had other plans for her afternoon. And those plans involved two FBI Security guards and a kind stranger pushing the smoking car across Pennsylvania Ave. Yep, the car broke down.

While Traci called AAA and her husband, and Lisa metro-ed home to Arlington for her car, and roommate Katie met her at the metro with her car so she could drive back into the city to save the day and so Traci could get home, 

I took Leah to the Natural History Museum:

The car will be fine. And hanging out with kids is always a good way to spend the day. 

And I guess I always have a back up plan...

Kidding! But let me remind you, I am:

1.) Open to dates.

2.) Men only. 

3.) I am open to dates.

Things That Make Me Happy

Well, things that are making me happy today:

1. I just found out it's Nation S'mores Day. I love marshmallows. And chocolate. And graham crackers. For awesome, really awesome, s'mores inspired recipes go HERE and HERE. I'm drooling. Well, not really, but PRActically.
2. Best thing in the morning when it's deathly hot in the metro and I'm trying to keep myself from melting away is when the train goes really fast through the station and the draft makes it extra windy. I like to close my eyes and let my hair blow all over. It's really satisfying.
3. The fact that Liz and Mark have a blog! West Side Walkup. Go there. Now. I'm obsessed.
4. I'm going to see The Help tonight!
5. And finding this picture of me and my sister Rachel:

Vaasa, Finland

As we drove into Vaasa we stopped at the ruined Medieval part of the town. All that was left were the walls of the church. I love walking through ruins. When we got to the city center, we tried to go see a movie but found out the tickets would be about $20 per person. Not worth it. So we went to the grocery store, got bread, cheese, yogurts, juice, fruit and ice cream and watched a movie on TV instead. Thank goodness all the TV stations are in English with Finnish subtitles. It made it really convenient. I feel like a chunk of time spent in Vaasa was walking around. We hoped to pop in the churches in town but none of them were open. We walked through the streets and along the river and stopped to watch part of a soccer tournament. The little kids were so cute and fun to watch (we actually took a bunch of videos, but I find it strange and creepy to post a video of strangers children, even if they probably won't ever see the videos). Then we drove out to see the archipelago and islands before heading off to Tampere.

Rauma, Finland

After Turku we moved onto Rauma, a cute little city on the east coast of Finland, where the buildings are beautifully colored and the people apparently speak Finnish a little differently (but not that anyone but Cami could tell...)