It's soooooo hooooot!

(The title has been intended to be read in a whiny voice.)

Let me tell you somethin', it is so hot today. I was sweatin' within one second of walkin' out my door. And I look extra sweaty too because my face sweats. A lot.

Exhibit A:

Yep, that's a picture of my sweaty nose. Who sweats on their nose?? Who takes a picture of their nose??

Today I made two choices while gettin' ready for work. The first affected the second. The first choice was a stupid one (wear a backpack) the second was a wise choice (wear a white shirt). Had I not had on that white shirt I most surely would have had a visible sweaty back. It's almost laughable that I picked up a gray shirt and considered wearing it for about, point one seconds.

Now, it has been 90 minutes since I first walked out my door this mornin', eating an egg in a basket that Debbie so sweetly made me, and my hair is now finally starting to dry. I've already gulped down two full bottles of water, I'm dreading the trek up the street to go to the bank*, and am not actually looking forward to a weekend without a pool. It's going to be miserable!

On a much cooler note, I borrowed my sister's ice cream maker last weekend and have yet to return it.** Soooo, we made Avocado Gelato (Iron Chef competition), Blueberry Frozen Yogurt (with fresh picked blueberries) and Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream. We are literally obsessed*** with it.

Have a lovely weekend ya'll! Stay cool. And yes, I wrote ya'll. You'd think I was from Texas or somethin' but for some reason, maybe the heat, I felt like most of this post was written with a southern accent. Now read it again with a twang.

*someone stupid (me) somehow had their debit card stolen (or picked up off the ground when the stupid person (me) didn't actually get the card back in their wallet) and treated a stranger to lunch, gas, and groceries before the bank suspected unusual activity and put a stop on the card

**You might not get it back till you ask for it Jess...

***something else I'm obsessed with: Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake and their history of rap. Part 1. Part 2.

Post Edit: Check this puppy out:

I should have stayed home...

Polo

 
On Saturday we went to a polo match at the Great Meadow Polo Club. We watched the first match on the grass on our blankets (without the wine and picnic like everyone else around, oops). The second match we found spots to stand and watch on the opposite end of the arena. It was way better to stand on that end because we could actually see the match! We even had to back away from our spots a few times because the horse and rider were so close. So close in fact that I got a mini mouthful of dirt when I screamed cheered as they galloped past.

picture courtesy of the lovely lovely Laney

I definitely want to go again, but next time, bring along a picnic! 

P.S. #3 in the black? He was really handsome. But obviously no William, or Harry, or Harry + William.

Snapshots from Finland

Pictures are from Turku Castle, a ferry ride around the islands, Rauma, Vaasa, Tampere tower overlook and Helsinki.

 All taken on my phone. 

 

Pictures from camera to come as soon as I get on the ball and put them on my computer.

 Can you tell which pictures were taken late at night and which ones weren't?

Take a guess, I'll tell you next time I post which ones were taken after 9.

 

 

p.s. very top right hand picture? check out my mom in the background. shhh... don't tell her I pointed it out, but we got our posing from her.

8 hours later

And I'm still thinking about the end.

European Trip Breakdown

view of Finland from the airplane

So, you might be wondering how the trip was organized. Here is the breakdown:

• June 28: flight to Chicago; flight to Copenhagen.
• June 29: flight to Helsinki; meet family at Helsinki airport; drive to Turku.
• June 30: Turku; drive to Rauma
• July 1: Rauma; drive to Vaasa
• July 2: Vaasa; drive to Tampere, pick up Michael
• July 3: Tampere; drive to Helsinki
• July 4: Helsinki; take cruise ship to St. Petersburg
• July 5: St. Petersburg
• July 6: St. Petersburg, cruise ship back to Helsinki
• July 7: Helsinki; flight to Warsaw
• July 8: Warsaw
• July 9: Warsaw
• July 10: Warsaw; flight back to Washington D.C.

Here are a couple maps (with all visited places circled) for your convenience:

Cities visited: 7
Family members: 7
Family members missing: 1
Seats in car: 9
Flights barely made: 4
Flights taken: 5
Shuttle buses shouldn't have made: 1
Medieval Fairs visited: 1
Naps taken by me: 0
Magnum bars eaten: 4
Churches visited: 9
Mormon churches visited: 2
Night skies seen: 3
Rain showers caught in: 3
Russian dance performances seen: 2
Good dance performances: 1
Books read: 5
Hungarian phrases learned: 3
Times Harry Potter was mentioned: unknown
Posts to be written: a lot

I have lots I want to share and I'm trying to figure out how to organize to make it easiest to read and to enjoy. I am struggling being home. Don't want to be at work. Don't want to eat American food. Don't want to unpack. Don't want to find a new book to start (any suggestions?).

The thing getting me through today? Knowing Harry Potter is coming out tomorrow. I am SO excited!

Grocery Stores

I'm back! And at work, having arrived last night at 2 am (delayed flight) and surprisingly wide awake at this hour (it's almost 11:00 Warsaw time and even later in Helsinki and St. Petersburg, maybe I won't really suffer from the jet lag! I didn't on the way there!). Anyway, I've decided that I will just post about individual things about my trip for a couple reasons.

1. It will make the trip last longer in my head.
2. It will be much easier for you to read than to have crazy long post that would take you 20 minutes to get through when you really only have about 2 minutes to read it, so you will just blow through the pictures and be annoyed that the post was so long. 

So this is obviously a win-win situation.

First item on my list? Food. One really great reason I love Europe? Their grocery stores are gorgeous! Well, not all of them are, but the grocery store in the basement of Stockman's (it's like the Harrods of Finland) in Helsinki was the best, most glamorous grocery store I've ever been to. Even better than Whole Foods (and I find that just a wonderfully aesthetically pleasing experience.)

 I really could have gone there every day. Wait! We did.

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.