The house has one room done, and things I like (and do not like) about our house.

I realize that I never did a good job of posting photos of our Colorado house, so I'm trying to do better this time. (If you want to see more photos of our house in CO, there are still a ton on Zillow from when it was up for sale.)

Matthew's Room! 

Indeed, we have one room complete!  A couple of weeks ago we hung the last few pictures in Matthew's room, so his room is officially done.  Much of the rest of the house is *almost* done, again just some pictures need hanging, etc. Why aren't we done? Well, first of all finding things like rugs and new curtain rod supports (for Emmy's room) isn't always easy when you have to figure out what store carries them, how to buy and what sizes they carry since European sizes are different. Having time to shop for them is not always easy. (Read: almost one year old who gets into everything!) The walls here are mostly solid concrete/brick, so drilling into them takes some effort, and we are also trying to be intentional
about where we place things so we do not put a lot of holes in the walls.  Charles has not had any days off since he started work, we really missed having a long labor day weekend. Those long weekends are invaulable, not just for travel, but for extra time to recharge and get things accomplished! But we will get there!

His room is the smallest of the bedrooms, but works just perfect
as a nursery. 

People ask me a lot "how is the house?" and "do you like your house?"  Yes, we do like it! There are lots of things we love, but as with any house, there are lots of things I find very challenging.

We live in a part of town called Pogodno, which is an older part of town. My understanding is that this area of town was not damaged much by the bombings during the war. In fact, our house was built in 1900 by a German architect. Our landlady told us that the land behind our house (we look directly onto two other houses) housed his large gardens. I wish I could see photos of that! 

Closets are not common in every room, (our room shares a
walk in with Emmy's room), so we have a Army wardrobe
 in Matty's room for closet storage. That is what you see
on the right in this picture. Also, we love the little built in shelves
on the left side behind the door. 

We love the location. We are close to two tram stops, a 10-15 minute walk from the Pogodno market. The market is sort of like a farmers market, there are several fruit and veggie vendors, but there are also bakeries, butcher shops, a pierogarnia (pierogi place), a smokehouse that sells smoked meats, and other small shops that carry various goods. There are a few other little shops around there, though not much we have explored yet (there is a home store I want to check out). There are a couple of little grocery stores/bodegas I can walk to if necessary.  There are a couple of playgrounds a short distance away. If we are up for a longer walk, we can walk to the big park that I posted a couple of pictures of previously. Park Kasprowicza, and other restaurants in town. I do wish there were a couple of restaurants we liked closer to us that were more walk-able. If we are to walk to where most of the places are that we want to go it's at least a 30-40 min walk, so we usually take the tram at least part of the way. It is not too far for Charles and me, but gets a little long when we've got to get back for bedtimes and such.

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Other things I love include:

• The storage! We have a big pantry, lots of storage in the mud room, and a great storage room in the basement. There is also the workroom for tools, and lots of garage storage. Really, it's more than we could ever use! I do wish there was a designated linen closet, though, so I'm having to be creative and using some of the shelf space on Emmy's side of our shared closet for sheets and I'm planning to organize a space in the little "extra" room where we have two Army wardrobes for out of season clothes and Charles' uniforms to store towels.

•  Having a eat in kitchen.

•  Built-in storage in the dining room and living room (well, the living room cabinet is not built in but it stays with the house so I'm pretending it is a built in). 

• The big dining room. It is almost too big! I don't like carpets under dining room tables with kids around, but we are going to have to search for something because we need something to absorb sound. 

• The bedroom size is good. The rooms are a good size (Emmy's room is huge!) 

• Having a guest space and bathroom. 

• The laundry room. It is huge! It also has a lot of space to hang clothes to dry (since most Europeans do not use dryers). I do wish we had a laundry chute, though, there are a lot of stairs and it is down in the basement. 

Things I do not like:

• The front gate does not have a remote control.  Everyone has a fence in front of their house with a locked gate. There is an intercom with a buzzer, so someone rings the bell, we answer the phone (there is one on each level) and then buzz them in. The buzzer opens the gate and the outside front door, the glass door you've seen in the photos.  And then we have a gate with a padlock for the driveway, so in order to drive anywhere we have to unlock the lock, open the gate, back the car out, and lock the gate. But, our car is rather large, and the street is narrow. We do live in the older part of town in the city, after all, so this is really inconvenient. If the driveway from the gate to the street was longer, this would be a little easier, but alas. The previous tenants looked into having an automatic opener added but the cost was going to be something like $6,000, so we'll just have to learn to deal with it. Leaving your gate open is like inviting someone into your yard, so I'm trying hard to make sure it is closed, this is just hard with quick trips, say, to take Emmy to and from school.

• The kitchen. I actually hate the kitchen. It is pretty big, this is for sure, but the layout is super awkward. I do not have a much less counter space than I had in Colorado, and we have a huge pantry. But there are no upper cabinets. And I just cannot figure out a good way to organize things, I don't have a good flow down. This is frustrating for me, I love to cook and it does not inspire me to cook. I'm sure I will figure it out, but it is difficult. 

• The sink, dishwasher, oven, and stove. Pretty much all the appliances I hate.  The sink is very shallow and the faucet does not come up very high, so washing dishes is difficult. The dishwasher is hard to load and does not do the best job of cleaning sometimes. But, we have a dishwasher, so for that I'm very grateful. The oven and stove are electric and have push buttons to turn them off and on. This means it is super easy to accidently turn them off, which happens frequently in the process of cooking a meal. The stove is a flat surface, so I worry constantly about scratching it and keeping it clean. The oven is TINY. I knew that European ovens were smaller, but my goodness a 13x9 barely fits. It is also very inconsistent in it's cooking and the instructions are in Polish so I'm not totally sure how to use it. Haha. 

• The upstairs bathroom, on the level with the bedrooms, does not have a shower, so Charles and I have to shower on the main level, which is right by the front door. The shower is a corner stall with plastic doors, which are hard to keep clean with the hard water, and they are curved so it is harder to squeegee them. And since they are clear, all our shower stuff is on display for all the guests to see when they come over. 

• The hard water. Man, it is really, really hard and mineral filled. We have a water cooler and a service to deliver the big 5 gallon jugs, but I use a brita filter to filter water for cooking, etc. When I made jelly for the first time I used tap water for the canner, and the jars had this powdery film on them from all the minerals in the boiling water. 

• Doing laundry takes forever! The washer is smaller and takes a long time to do a load, so washing clothes takes a long time. I've yet to be completely caught up. I think I really need to get in the habit of doing at least one load a day in order to stay on top of it. Plus, getting everything from the upstairs to the basement and back up makes it more difficult, especially with a little dude who likes to be where Mama is and can't climb stairs by himself yet. 

So there's a little bit about this house! We have tons of space for guests, so come visit and see it all for yourself! 

Two Months into this adventure

Hello friends and family

I realized that two months ago yesterday we arrived in Poland. I keep getting a lot of questions so I will try to answer a few of them here!

We are doing well! I kept waiting for the inevitable culture shock to really hit me and cause a meltdown. It happens, I remember it happening to me when I studied abroad. I remember trying to prepare students (and their parents for the phone call that would ensue) when I was a study abroad advisor, surely it was going to happen when we moved overseas with two children and a dog!

Oddly enough, it hasn't happened. Sure, there have been a few tears and lots of frustrations. The middle of the 2nd week is probably the closest I came to that moment, I was feeling pretty isolated and lonely, but we met Katie and as we knew, things would improve. We are still adjusting, I'm not sure when we'll feel like we really "belong" but life here is good.

Charles is enjoying his job, at least as far as I can tell. He may have a bit more insight, and for security reasons we'll never discuss what he does (or specifically where we live, etc.) in any concrete way. Working with NATO is a big adjustment, and this unit has three framework nations (most NATO units have one and a couple have two) so you have three countries "in charge," and we'd been prepared for how this can make things take forever to happen.

We are enjoying getting to know people from all over. We have new friends who are Danish. Well, he is Danish, she is American, but they moved here from Denmark. Their daughter is a grade ahead of Emmy but they are great friends and play together during their breaks (I'll post more about her first day of school later) and have a lot of fun. Emmy also has a friends from Slovenia, China, Germany, Poland, and Latvia (I think, it may be Estonia, I'll have to ask her).

The language is still a big hurdle for us. Some days I just don't feel like having to deal with the interaction. Last weekend we went to Berlin for the day (I'll also post pictures about that soon). Katie and I went to the train station on Friday afternoon to, as they say in the military, to Recon the situation. We needed to figure out tickets and the time table in advance. I knew we needed to do this to avoid the frustration the next morning, but as we were leaving, I just did not want to go. I knew that it was unlikely the person selling us the tickets would speak English (she didn't) and I was tired and grumpy and I just did not want to deal. But I sucked it up and we went, and we came home knowing what time the train left and with a ticket in hand.

Turns out there was a lady in line behind us who spoke English and she stepped up and offered to help interpret. We have google translate on our phones, and that can help you get by, but in the moment a live person is so much easier.  Most younger people speak English, they are required to learn it in school, but a lot of them are shy about their language skills and embarrassed to speak it with you. I am often self conscious about my Spanish skills, especially the older I get and the less I use them. I think living here has made me realize that I need to worry less. I hear people who speak English as a second or third language all the time. Few of them speak perfect English, and I'm not sitting there judging them, so why would anyone else be doing the same of me if I speak Spanish? Most likely the are not. And I am SO grateful whenever anyone who does speak English steps in to help.  So, friends, if you speak another language and you hear someone struggling and you speak their language, don't be embarrassed to help. Your little bit of Spanish or German or French could be a lot more English than they speak and your help could make a huge difference, and they will be grateful that you tried, even if you cannot fully help.

Also, if you see someone who is new in town or is a tourist in your town, have some grace. Smile, be friendly, be gracious. Southerners are known for being welcoming and friendly, I love (and miss) that about the South.  But the little bit of news we get is inundated these days with images of immigrants who have been forced to leave their homes, and I see some nasty comments regarding "illegal aliens" and people who are not like us. You don't know their story or why they are there. I just moved here with most of my "stuff" and my family and had people to help us get settled. I had a house waiting on me and money in the bank. No one would leave home with nothing but the clothes on their backs to face a dangerous and uncertain situation unless what they were facing was better than what they were leaving. I cannot even imagine. I don't know what some of the people we encounter think about me. Clearly they quickly know I do not speak Polish. Sometimes that frustrates people, I've gotten a couple of unpleasant sighs when I say "Nie mówię po polsku" (I do not speak Polish).  I'm not trying to get political, nor do I expect that many of you are encountering many people from other countries on a regular basis, but this is certainly an eye opening experience for us.

Our house is more or less set up. We still need to hang a few pictures, and as we live in the space we see where we need to rearrange or reorganize a few things.  I need someone who has an eye for design to come help me figure out what to hang in the dining room. It is big and it echos! We need something to absorb some sound! The guest room/office and the garage/workroom are the last big projects we need to work on. We have no guests definitely scheduled (yet...better make your plans, we are only here for two years!) but we want to have that space comfortably prepared soon. The only room that is "done" 100% is Matthew's, so I'll post some photos of his room soon. I have about ten different post topics I'm working on or have in my head! We have a new baby-sitter who is Polish but lives in the U.S. and is home for a few weeks for weddings (her sister was married this last weekend and her brother gets married in late October) so we get to take advantage of her free time and need to earn some money while she is between jobs in the U.S. I'm going to have her coming a few days a week for the next couple of weeks so I can really focus on some of these projects. I will feel better when the house is as "done" as I can make it, and it will help me get ready for the fall party we are having for Matthew's birthday.

I'll close this out with some random things I've learned in the last few weeks...

• It is really hard to cook without a knife.  And in some cases, it is hard to cook without a can opener.
• In a pinch, a moving sticker is a good substitute for tape.
• Havarti cheese makes an excellent accidental substitute for Monterrey jack or cheddar on nachos/tacos.
• We really should have bought a tape measure that has yards and meters on it. If you're moving to Europe, go ahead and get yourself one.
• I'm not really a fan of duck. Emmy, however loves it. 
• I thought grocery shopping with the kids could be stressful, man I had no idea! 
• I have been reminded of how wonderful public transportation is.
• Wine helps. Sometimes, it helps a lot.

Polish Pottery Festival in Bolesławiec

On Saturday, the 22nd of August Katie and I took a rather impromptu trip to Bolesławiec, a city about 3 1/2 hours from here. This is the city where the famous Polish Pottery is made, and they have a big festival every August. We'd read about it on a blog both of us have found, Never a Dull Day in Poland, which is written by another American who lives in a city not too far from Szczecin, but I'd mistakenly thought it was in the spring. Fortunately, Katie found out it was coming up and found a hotel at the last minute. Charles said he knew I needed a little time to myself and he was happy to stay home with the kids, so Saturday morning we hit the road! (Friday night was a gathering at general's house for dinner with all of the U.S. families, which was fun to meet the rest of the folks we'd not had a chance to meet yet.)
Bonus: the Never a Dull Day in Poland blog posts about the festival last year that I linked above include a ton more photos than I took. I was really looking a lot more than I was thinking about taking photos, sorry!

We didn't arrive until early afternoon. As we came into town, we first saw one of the big pottery manufacturers, Artystyczna, and they obviously had quite an event going on at their place! We could tell there were some food vendors (maybe free food, too, I am not sure, we did not ask  but others were offering free food so I bet there was some, we know to take advantage of all of that next year!).  We decided to drive around and scope things out a bit. We wound up at a restaurant nearby, since we were starving, but it was very crowded. Later we realized this is the restaurant that other American mentions on her blog as her favorite place to eat in Bolesławiec, so we decided to try again later. We walked to a food truck by a grocery store nearby and grabbed some lunch and used the restrooms at the grocery store, then walked back up to Artystyczna.  Wow, there was a lot of pottery!

I decided I was just going to look take some pictures and think about what I would use most. I do not have any plans to buy a whole set of dishes of Polish Pottery, but I think it would be nice to have some since we live here! A lot of military folks fall in love with it when they are living in Germany and buy tons and bring it back with them. I cannot tell you how many times we heard "oh you can buy pottery!" when we told people we were moving to POLAND.

We shopped at the outdoor area, and at the regular shop there and Katie bought a few pieces. As we were leaving the indoor/permanent shop, we met another couple from the U.S. who live/work at Grafenwoehr. and they told us some of their other favorite places to go. We headed just a couple of blocks away to another manufacturer, then through town to another big one, Manufaktura, just as the rain was beginning to fall. Alas, this one was closing, so we decided to come back first thing in the morning.

Katie and I both liked this unique pattern at Artystyczna, but when she tired to buy a piece, she was told it was not for sale (it is the Anniversary pattern), yet all the pieces had price tags on them. We were super confused. 

Mini muffin tins at Andy's

We drove back out and headed slightly out of town towards where our hotel was located. Andy's was located out that way, so we stopped by to see what they had. This one definitely caterers to Americans (they all do in some ways, but this one really seemed to, in my opinion, since a lot was in English) and they also free food, music, etc.  Here, I bought a honey pot (I've been wanting one for years!) and a soap dispenser and mug to use for dish soap and to hold my sponge and scrub brush in the kitchen. 

Then we drove to our hotel to check in, henceforth to be known as "I thought my friend was being kidnapped by a Polish dude".  As we came to the hotel, we realized a wedding was going on in the restaurant by the hotel. We did not see a front desk or obvious area to check in, so we stepped into the restaurant to ask. No one spoke English, but we quickly got the point across and she pointed to Katie's name on printout tacked to a bulletin board with our confirmation. Yay! So she began talking and I gathered she was telling us breakfast (which was included) was back in that room the next morning during certain hours. Not sure what those hours were, but we got the point. Ha! Then she took us back
outside, key in hand, presumably to show us to our room. Instead she knocked on a window of the building adjacent to the restaurant, where we'd figured our room would be. An (apparently) shirtless man opened the window, and after a brief exchange emerged wearing a shirt. We'd heard the word "auto" so we assumed he was supposed to show us where to park, since the wedding was going on and there were a lot of cars. We were trying to tell them "no, we just want to find our room and then we are going to dinner" but when you don't speak Polish, this was not working out so well. After a minute, we figured out he wanted us to get into the car with him. But no, he just wanted Katie to get in and I think for me to follow? At least this was our best guess, so I ran to my car, but while backing up and turning around in a tight spot, they disappeared up the block, and I'm thinking "dude, please come back with my friend!" I drove quickly up the block, and finally saw them in the next block, and the dude was gesturing for me to park in a grassy lot beside another building. I finally parked and he showed us to the door of this building, where apparently our room would be. Our best guess is that they just bought this building and have renovated it for extra hotel space. The rooms were done, but the outside is still  in the process of its facelift. He showed us that our keys opened the outside door and we think he told us to be sure we locked it back when we came and left. The he bid us adieu, we got our luggage and went in to find our room.  It was an interesting 10 minutes, to say the least. No, I didn't really think my friend was being kidnapped by a Polish dude, but we were both definitely confused for a bit and our adrenaline was pumping! Haha.

The room only cost us about $50, and well, you get what you pay for. The festival is big and most hotels were full, so we were grateful for this one. It was new and clean, but very sparse. There were 3 twin beds, a small bathroom (complete with exposed wires for an additional light fixture!), and a small towel on each bed for us. There was a small built-in with a TV above, a small table and that was about it! Not that we needed more, but next year we'll make reservations in advance somewhere else.

Yum. Bigos for Katie and a potato pancake with goulash for me. 

The we went back into town to dinner at the first restaurant we'd stopped by earlier in the day.  It was about 8 pm by now and much less crowded. We started at a table outside, but moved inside after a bit because it cooled off quickly. The food was amazing. The brought us smlac (basically lard with bacon in it) to spread on some delicious bread. Then we had fabulous pierogi (the ruskie - Russian- ones, with cheese and potatoes, one of my favorites), and Katie had bigos, a cabbage dish was a yummy, slightly spicy sauce and kielbasa in it. I had what I think is called placek po zbojnicku with gulasz, a big potato pancake with goulash. It was amazing.  It is probably my favorite dish here to date. I have had it at another restaurant here in town, and I will keep looking for it on menus as we try new places! Anyways, looking back at Never a Dull Day in Poland, her blog has a lovely post about this place, and she says it is one of her favorite places she has found in all of her time in Poland. One of my friends said they called it (when she lived in Germany) the Cracker Barrel of Poland. I need to ask her more about that, I'm not sure if they meant that as a compliment or not.  While it looked sort of touristy, the food was really delicious and very authentic. At least as far as I can tell after a few weeks here! (So Lauren, if you are reading this, you can comment and tell me if you meant that as a positive or not, haha).

First time using my new muffin tins to make muffins. Perfection!

Stuffed from our wonderful dinner, we crashed at our hotel and we were up and at 'em the next morning for more shopping. After an ok breakfast and a confusing "check out" in which Katie was unable to pay with a credit card, or receive a faktura for the VAT (we get the 23% tax back on most everything we spend in Poland, I'll explain that one later), we were off.  We stopped by to see if Andar's a small pottery maker that we'd heard about, was open, but alas they are closed on Sunday so next year we will try to get there earlier in the weekend. Next, we went back to the pottery place that was closing when we'd arrived the previous afternoon, Mauufaktura. I ended up buying a few small gifts here, Christmas ornaments for the kids' stockings, and some muffin tins. I discovered my muffin tins do not fit well in my oven here, and so I figured, why not! Katie has had Polish pottery and she said it cleans up really well, and I knew it was all dishwasher safe.  I hate scrubbing out muffin tins, so I figured if these bake well and I can throw them in the dishwasher without worrying about them rusting, this would be a huge bonus.   Well, I've used them several times now and I LOVE them. Muffins bake nicely in them, and they clean up so much better. Plus, they are pretty! 

Manufaktura was offering free soup if you spent more than 100 złoty, but it was only about 10 am at this point and we were not quite ready for lunch, so we decided to head into town to find the street festival. We'd driven close to it the day before, but had not actually seen where it was set up. We found some parking and started following the crowd. Sure enough, we soon came upon it! We'd not expected it to be so big! There was a flea market section that went on and on. (Yes, we'd read about it on the other blog, but it had been awhile and I'd forgotten she'd mentioned how many vendors there were). 

We strolled around for a good couple of hours. I ended up buying Emmy a teapot, creamer and sugar bowl, and two teacups and saucers for her new tea set. She misses her "Waldorf" kitchen from her school last year and some of those toys, so we'd talked about packing up some of her kitchen items and gathering some new items for her to play with. She prefers to use my bowls and utensils that are "real" and bigger, so I thought this would be a special first addition to the new kitchen. I got everything at a discount so it was affordable. I figure next year (or whenever we go back) we can pick out a couple more teacups and saucers to go with it. She has loved playing with it already. 

It was after Noon, and we knew we needed to hit the road, so we started walking to head back to the car, hoping to find a vendor selling kielbasa or something hearty to eat before we left. We were both starving, and we kept seeing waffles and ice cream and other sweet treats, but we think the more lunch type items just weren't open yet. I've been told that most Polish folks eat a 1st breakfast, a 2nd breakfast, a later lunch and then supper, so I think that since it was before 1 pm, they were not serving lunch maybe? We saw some tents that we think were grilling meats, but they had covers down in front of them still. Maybe we just never made it far enough, but we kept on. There was a little restaurant in the park near the car, so we stopped in since we knew we'd need a bathroom break. They had burgers and a few other things, but came to find out their water was broken, so there was no restroom for us to use, they only had burgers (which would have been fine but we were jonesing for another item we'd seen on the menu outside) and if we wanted fries (which Katie really did) we'd have to wait 30 minutes. We took this as a sign to keep walking, so we got in the car and decided to go to the grocery store we knew was on our way out and just use their restrooms and grab some meat, cheese, and bread and eat on the way out. After a bathroom break, we were heading in to shop when another lady came up to us. She was American (and in town from Germany) and heard us speaking English. She had been asking around in search of jumper cables for and hour, with no luck. I had them in my car, so we took her up to where she and her friends were parked and gave them a jump. So, maybe our inability to find lunch before that was so that we could help them out! But, we were still lunch-less and decided to drive on. We came to a gas station that had a restaurant (many of them here and in Germany do, at least along the autobahns) so I filled up and Katie went to find food. She saw kielbasa advertised and so she got chips and waters in the gas station portion, and while I paid for gas went to the restaurant part for sausages to go. Except she was then pointed in the direction of a little hut out back. Really, HOW HARD IS IT TO FIND SOME MEAT IN A BUN!?!? So we trekked out there and were met with success, finally! We quickly ate our $1.50 kielbasa and bread and mustard, then hopped back on the road. 

We had decided to stop in Poznan on the way home, about an hour total detour. That is the closest Ikea in Poland to us, and I was wanting to find a rug for the play room, and Ikea is always a good place to shop!  Our detour was not met with a successful rug finding venture, but we both walked away with a few items for our homes. We were both extremely tired by this point and ready to get back. The drive home was pleasant, the sunset put on a glorious show for us. We stopped for a quick dinner along the way and were home by around 9:30. The kids were in bed and Charles was happy I was home.  He got a taste of what it's like to be alone with them all day long for two days! 

It was a great trip and I enjoyed having a quick girls weekend. I love my kiddos, but it was good to recharge! It is definitely something we could all come to next year, too, and spend more time enjoying some of the factory tours, face painting, and other family friendly activities the manufacturers offer, not to mention all that the street festival has to offer!

Here are a few more random photos I snapped. 

Bonus photos: Matthew helping me make muffins the first time I used my new muffin tins, the weekend after the trip. Hopefully he will love helping me in the kitchen as much as his sister does! She did help me, too, she had had enough and was off doing other things by this point.

Around town in August

Here are a few photos of things we've seen/done around Szczecin in the last few weeks. I am way behind, I know! Our darling Matthew is a delight, but I do not get much done during the day with him around and into everything!

Saturday, the 1st of August, before we went over to our house we spent some time exploring more! We first went over to the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle. We'd heard that there was a theater series of plays for children on Saturdays during the summer. Alas, it was only during July and since it was August 1st it was over. But we did walk in the museum part and saw some paintings, armor, and the crypts of several Pomeranian Dukes. Since my good camera is on the fritz and the lighting was bad, I do not have any photos from inside, and I cannot seem to locate any photos from the outside other than this one, but never fear, I'm sure we'll be back! In fact, we were back recently (that's another post) and I believe I took a few photos of the courtyard then.

Looking back towards the castle

 After the castle, we went back to Haymarket Square in Old Town to go in the City Museum.  (I previously posted pictures of this area.) Emmy really loved going into the museum.

Front of the Old Town Hall

Hard to capture a good photo, but you can see the windows appear to be tilted. They are! We were unable to talk to anyone in English, but it appears the whole building is leaning slightly. Very odd! 

Another view of the back of the Old Town Hall/City Museum

I cannot remember now what this building is. I'll have to go back and look at my tourist map! It is one of the 40 stops on the Szczecin walking tour. 

Looking from the pedestrian bridge back towards the Brama Portowa (one of the old city gates). The river (and Old Town) are behind us and the Baslica is to our right.

First time on the tram! We did it! 

We love public transportation! 

Walking down the street to our house.

Monday, Aug. 3rd we met up with Zuzanna, the baby-sitter for the former occupants of our house. She was very lovely and we enjoyed meeting her and she showed us around Szczecin a bit. We walked quite a long time, all the way from the hometel to the Town Hall, the huge green space and park behind it, to the Rose Garden, and then to a tram stop to head back to the hometel. It was a lovely afternoon!

Walking towards the current City Hall and the big park behind it, Park Kasprowicza. 

Emmy loved Miss Zuzia! She went to the U.S. to spend a couple of months with her fiance's family, but we look forward to her coming back so she can baby-sit! 

Some pretty sculptures along our walk past the park. 

The Rose Garden, which we now know is pretty close to our house! 

Tram riding pros.

Chicken and spices flavored chips. They were...interesting. 

Saturday the 15th of August we went exploring a bit with Katie. We drove to the other side of the river, to an area that used to be used by companies at the port. There are a lot of old warehouses and equipment there. There is an effort to turn this area into a destination with shops, restaurants, etc. There is a marina being built for private boats that will soon be complete, and more. We came across this restaurant with an outdoor seating area and we needed some refreshment, so we stopped for a bit. 

Emmy taking a photo of her fancy ice cream treat. 

Pedestrian bridge...to nowhere! The building behind us is still under construction, we are not sure what it will be. Part of the new marina is to the left. 

You can see the Embankments with the government buildings in the background. 

Looking back the other way to the area being redeveloped. The building in the center houses the restaurant, where we ate outside, and there is a gift shop, gallery, and some other offices inside. 

Katie and Me, with the Embankments behind us. The buildings in the background are still original buildings. They were spared by the bombings during the war. I've heard two stories, that they used the embankments as a landmark so they knew where to bomb the port area to destroy ships and shipments, and also that they planned to use the government buildings for heir headquarters so that is why they were spared. Either way, the city is lucky to have these lovely original buildings, two of which are government buildings, and one is the Maritime Academy. 

Being silly after supper one night. 

On the way home from dinner a couple of weeks ago, I snapped a photo of this pretty area in town. I took a photo so we'd remember to come back and check out some restaurants here. The symbol of Szczecin is in the stone in the foreground. 

Emmy and Charles, walking down our street. 

We moved in!

Rags overlooking her new territory from
the garage.

So I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, fully intending to upload pictures and then post it, but that has not happened. Turns out moving into a big, old house in a foreign country with a baby who is into everything and a first grader who asks 500 questions a day is rather exhausting. Go figure! So here is what I wrote on the 14th with more to come very soon...promise!

Another week in Poland has passed. We have been here for 4 weeks now, a full month on Sunday! It is hard to believe.

We moved in last Thursday and Friday, the 6th and 7th. I wrote a long email to our parents and siblings on Thursday night I will post at the end of this if you want to read how that day went. Here's the short of it: a little over half was unloaded into the house on Thursday and were able to sleep here Thursday, and the rest was unloaded and unpacked on Friday.

The last week has been long and tiring, and we are still not done putting everything away. Part of this is hindered by the fact that we are still missing our unaccompanied baggage (UAB). Yes, that's right, the "early" shipment has still not been delivered. It is now 3.5 weeks past it's required delivery date. We did find out last week that it was still sitting IN COLORADO.  Turns out there is a document they were waiting on for customs so that they could put it on a plane. A document that, first of all, no one told us at any point (much less when we packed out) was needed. And second of all, we've had a copy of this document in our possession since a few days after arriving in Poland. Sigh. So Charles sent that over and the shipment was flown to Warsaw on Monday, but there is still some delay with customs. It is increasingly frustrating. Matthew's crib is in that shipment. Our knives, can opener and other favorite and frequently used kitchen items are in it (since we expected to have it first). (Note, we did finally receive this shipment on the 20th, THANK GOONDESS!)

Anyways, so we don't have all our stuff, so part of me knows as we organize that still a more things will need to be put away.  Plus, this house is a very different layout than what we have ever had before. The layout is more broken up than our last two houses, which is fine, but the rooms are bigger.  Much bigger! The living room is about 21 feet across and the ceilings are at least 11feet. It is a big, old, beautiful, but very quirky house.  Military families have to be good at making furniture, curtains, etc. work over and over again in different spaces, but sometimes (almost every time you move) there are new things that you have to buy because spaces are different.

This house is all hardwoods and tile and because the ceilings are so high, it is very loud. I've been anxious to get carpets down and curtains hung to help absorb some of the sound, and make it feel more homey. But, the curtain rings for the kids' room and our curtains are in the UAB. I also always love to get pictures hung up as soon as possible, but most of the walls are solid brick. We are going to hang things, but we want to have to put in as few holes as possible, so we are trying to be very intentional and get things arranged first.

I also think I was a bit slow to, say, set up the kitchen, because I wanted to be sure I was happy with it. I pregnant with Sara Hawley and feeling very sick when we moved into our CO house and there are things about how we unpacked I never liked, but I never had the energy to reorganize it. Of course circumstances are totally different, but I think I have also wanted to be sure we were mostly happy with it. Sounds weird, maybe, but I think that has been on my mind.

One of the many arrangements the living room went through.

We have rearranged the living room (or the salon, as Emmy likes to call it - which is what the Polish movers called it) like 6 times and we are still not 100% happy, but I think we're going to live with it, we have to try to work with what we have! But if anyone is good at interior design and wants to come fly out and help me, be my guest!

Here is our new dining table.

We did find a table for the dining room that we both like and we paid for it today and it will be delivered next week. We left our other dining room table in storage since it was my grandparents', along with the china cabinet that goes with it. This dining room has a lovely built in  for storage and display, as well as a large piece in the living room that stays in the house. The dining room is very large so we hope this table will work. It is more rustic, something we could use as a kitchen table later on.

We also found a small round table for the kitchen. It has a nice little eating nook but needs something small and round. It is ordered and should be here in a couple of weeks, along with a bench we an use in the mudroom/entry way.  In Polish culture you take your shoes off when you come into the house, even when you are visiting someone, so we want a nice bench that we can use, as can our guests. The mudroom (as we are calling it) is wonderful and large, but because it is the only way into the house (besides through the garage in the basement) we have to keep it neat! We even bought a little pack of inexpensive slippers to leave out for guests.

We borrowed a car last weekend and were able to do some looking for furniture and do a few errands. Charles had to go to Berlin on Saturday to pick up a new couple arriving that we were assigned to sponsor (long story, but we were not very well equipped to sponsor someone so soon!).  My car arrived this week (yay!)  but we are not registered yet (boo!). However, we do have insurance coverage in Poland (this is all also a very long story) so we are able to drive it, we are just doing so sparingly. Today we had a sitter scheduled for the afternoon so I could have some uninterrupted time to finish up some projects. I find I start things and get distracted (imagine that!) and don't get to finish. Anyways, the midday I found out that tomorrow is Polish Armed Forces Day and all the stores and most restaurants will be closed. We had planned to spend at least part of the day going back to order the table and do some shopping. Charles came home after lunchtime to go to our hometel to fix issues with our receipt.  He ended up staying home and he and I went out and did the shopping today while the sitter was here. It was nice to do that alone!

Lots more coming soon!

Email to the parents' the day we moved in...

Hello all, 

We just climbed into our own bed for the first time since June 14th and it was pretty incredible, especially after a long day. 

So I know some of you were wanting an update so here goes...

We were scheduled to have Household Goods delivered today starting between 2&3 pm. Our new friend Katie had told us that when hers came, they unloaded it all and then returned to unpack the next day. We were advised to have them unpack EVERYTHING because they will not return to pick up boxes and paper later, like they will in the U.S., so getting rid of it would be difficult. 

So, we went into today anticipating that might be the case, but just in case we left the bare minimum at the hotel with one suitcase ready to be picked up. We spent the morning packing up and then around Noon the TMP (the unit's vehicle, I have no idea what that stands for) driven by one of the NCOs came to the hometel to pick up our bags. Charles took everything and Rags and headed with him to the house. I waited with the kids in the lobby for Katie (our new friend) who had coordinated borrowing one of the LTC's extra vehicles for the weekend for us since they were going down to Graf. Sweet. So when she finally arrived (she was later than I thought) we put the kids' car seats in and headed over to the house. 

Katie hung out with us and we all snacked on cheese, crackers, meats, fruit, etc I had stocked up on at the store the day before. (Side note: taking the tram to the store with the 2 kids and then bagging groceries -you have to bag your own here-with a sleeping baby strapped to my front and the other child whines about having to go potty and then taking the tram to the house carrying said groceries is not an adventure I wish to repeat.) 

Charles was about to drive her home so we could keep the car when the movers arrived. So she just headed home and we said we would meet back up later. 

They had un-crated 5 of our crates and loaded them in a smaller truck, easier to navigate on the narrow streets I guess. Andrew was in charge and he had led the crew that unloaded Katie's stuff a couple of weeks ago. (To her 5th floor walk up, I almost died walking up there twice on Sunday.) She had told us he was great so we were glad to have him. He speaks good English and he and one other member of his crew had driven with our stuff from Warsaw. The other 4 guys are local. 

They unloaded it all and it went pretty fast. They showed up around 3:15 or 3:30 and were done by 4:45. They headed back to load up the rest. The driver was anxious to return to Warsaw. 

In the meantime we took the chance to check out the rooms and rearrange a few things, get the furniture that was in already where we wanted it and clear a space for the beds. It was nice to have the break! I attempted to order pizza from a place called epizza that someone told me you could order and pay in English online and they would deliver, but that did not work so I texted Katie and she went and picked up pizza from a place down the street from Charles' office. It was good pizza, more NY style than anything we have had, we will get pizza from them again.

First meal in our new house! 

Anyways, so the guys returned, but could not get the last crate plus a little on the truck. The driver wanted to leave, so they asked if they could unload to the garage and then go grab the rest and then put it where it goes. We said yes of course. Katie got there with the pizza just as they were done and about to leave again. I offered them to eat it hot, but they had to run. So we had a picnic the 5 of us in the living room. Matthew seemed very happy to be in his own high chair again and even fed himself some. 

They returned and Charles and the kids took Katie home and I stayed to direct items to the proper rooms and to mark down the numbers. (Each item is number on and listed on and inventory so we have to mark them off as we go to make sure it all makes it). 

They got that unloaded, then found all the pieces to our bed (which took awhile) and got our beds put together. They were very kind to make sure that all was done. 

Andrew had left Warsaw at 5 am so he was exhausted and they had to go take the crates off the truck still, so they left about 9. They will be back at 8:30 tomorrow to take everything out of the garage and move it into it's proper place. Then they will unpack.

So, so far so good. Everything is wrapped in brown paper (except the boxes) so it takes awhile to get it all done. You should see the pile of paper. But they are very fast and we are quite happy with them. 

We are not very happy, however, with the condition of some of our items. The movers here are appalled by the condition of some of our items. Nothing is destroyed (well, Emmy's mirror for her dresser is completely broken), but lots of things have some damage. The brass lamp that was in the basement that I specifically asked them to put in a box is all messed up at the switch, just to name one thing. Sigh. This never gets easier. It is just lots of dings and dents and scratches so we have to document it all. 

Our unaccompanied baggage, we learned yesterday, is still in Colorado. Oh yes. They needed an employment letter from NATO translated into English in order to get the customs forms. Guess what? No one had told us or asked for that when we loaded, nor since we arrived. Charles has had just such a letter in his possession since the day or two after we arrived here. So he sent it over, and today he was told that it will be flown to Warsaw and delivered as early as next Thursday. Fingers crossed. Andrew said he is making a delivery here next week so maybe he will get to drop it off.

So there is our very long day. The kids are in bed and let's hope everyone sleeps all night. I am off to dreamland myself. 

We had lots of damage, Emmy's dresser mirror was one of the casualties.
Most of it was fairly minor, there is just a lot of it. 

We tried this living room arrangement...

...and this one. And finally wound up with the sofa back under the big window.

And for fun, here are some kid photos...

Emmy reading us a story before bathtime. Matthew playing with the bidet.

Picking plums. We have plums, quince, and some other fruit we are not sure what it is in the backyard.