Dzień Kobiet

Today is Dzień Kobiet or in English, International Women's Day. Google knows it (it's on their google header for the day:

But did you know it? And I'm assuming like 99.9% of the people who read my blog are women so I'm letting you know. 


I had never heard of Dzień Kobiet until my mission. We went out to eat for lunch and I remember my companion and I were handed flowers. I had no idea why we were given flowers, so I asked and was told it was Women's Day. Then I looked around and saw all the women in the restaurant had flowers. 


Why don't we celebrate this in the US? I think we should. We could all use a little more validation in our lives.


On a more serious note, yesterday at work in honor of today they were showing a film called Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It follows the Liberian Civil War and how instrumental the women of the country were in convincing the men to have peace talks. Many of the women interviewed in the film won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for their non violence. I keep thinking about the film and I highly recommend seeing it if it's ever an option.


Anyway, HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY all! I hope you treat yourself to something nice. New earrings, frozen yogurt, flowers, or all of the above.


POST EDIT: I just finished reading Leymah Gbowee's speech after she won the Nobel Prize. (She was the organizer for the women of the Liberian Civil War.) And it's such a great speech. Read it HERE.

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. 

Expatriate?

I'm in Warsaw. It's my last night in Europe, I catch a flight back to the US tomorrow after church. And, tonight as I walked from the grocery back to the apartment I'm staying at I reflected on the day and thought I'd share.

Reasons I'd be a great resident of another country:

1. If I need to ask a question and I'm not quite sure how to say it I can just say "I'm learning Polish" or: "Oo-chee sheh pole-ski-egg-o" and then ask the question. People are 1,000 times nicer when they feel a little bad for you. And then they're kind of excited that you're learning their language. And I don't have to tell them that I did technically learn and speak Polish fluently five years ago...
2. I totally visit the sites of the city and love walking down their beautiful streets BUT I also like being in the residential areas. I like walking down the street to the grocery store, taking the bus to and from the city center and riding the metro. I like city living. 
3. Grocery stores are awesome and there are tons of them here. I have lots of different options of so many awesome foods. Today I went to three different ones. And yes I bought food at all them. (Some food though is to bring home...)
4. I like to pretend I'm a local and only disappoint myself when I have to tell the person that I don't know what they're talking about or that I didn't understand. This happened and to me three times today, and then I started busting out the "I'm learning Polish" line.
1. Met up with friends for lunch. I didn't understand what the guy in the line was asking me. I had to say, "Sorry I don't understand, I'm trying to speak Polish but my first language is English."
2. When I tried on a lovely skirt in Zara (side note: why is Zara always so much better outside the U.S.?), the girl asked me to put my bag on a scanner to make sure I wasn't stealing or something. I had no idea what she said, finally I busted out my, "I'm leaning Polish line". She laughed and said something to the affect of, "Oh! that makes sense, I couldn't figure out what was so difficult to understand!" I felt stupid but she was cute and nice and made it so much better.
3. I saw that if I'm not from the EU I can get tax free shopping and tried to ask the lady
    what that meant and when I couldn't explain to her what I wanted I just appologized and used "the line" and she was all nice and sweet and explained it slowly. 
4. I'm totally a local.

This post is getting long and it's totally boring, and if I didn't have Nasa's computer to use it wouldn't exist. And I have no way to get phone pictures or camera pictures onto the computer so you're just going to have to settle for this googled image of Mr. Gyllenhaal instead:

via

Why him? Because he was a large subject of a conversation last night between the girls here. Half in English and half in Polish and lots of gasps from my new favorite Polish ladies (Dorota, i Nasa i tez Ewa, ale zawsze bedziesz ulubiony,)
I'll post more when I'm home and settled.

Czesz! (see, I'm also good at mixing in the country's jargin in with my every day language...)

P.S. It was really hard to stay in Warsaw when all I wanted was to go to Bydgoszcz with the rest of all my friends this afternoon. I kept thinking how I could legitimately take off another day after already being gone for 10+ days. I couldn't. I'm coming home.

Tłusty czwartek or Fat Thursday

Today is Fat Thursday in Poland. The Thursday before Lent begins. And they make donuts, delicious, fresh, tasty donuts all over the city. And I want is a warm pączek (pronounced pon-check) with raspberry filling. (Not a rose filled one, I feel like I'm eating perfume.) Or maybe a chocolate one. My last year in Poland we ran into the elders at the best donut place in town. You can tell we were really happy:

And that is the only photo documentation I have of Tłusty czwartek. Half open eyes, half my companion's face, chocolate covered lips but big smiles. It was a GOOD donut. That place was so good. So good in fact that I just had to get a picture out in front before I went home:

Gosh I look dorky... But what I wouldn't give for a hot pączek or hot drożdżowa from Drożdżowa Chata. Mmm!

I Love Poland

If you've been following the tragic events that took place in Poland on Saturday, you will know that the President, his wife and other prominent members of the government passed away in a plane crash. Today I got a lovely New York Times article sent to me from Ewa. And because I love Israel/Palestine and love Poland, it only made me love this article more.

Thanks Ewa!

PS--My neighbor over here just mentioned Poland in an important speech. You can read the whole speech HERE. (Paragraph's two and three are the good ones about Poland.)