Dzien Dobry!

Dzien Dobry or “Jane Dobre” ! This means good day or good morning in Polish. As you can see, this is one of the many challenges with trying to speak Polish. Nothing sounds the way it is spelled and vice versa. Some other examples:

Please or Prosze is pronounced “Proh-sheh”
Thank you or Dziekuje is pronounced “Jane Koo Yeh”

Yes is “tak” and no is “nie.” At least that sounds the same as the written word.

We have been here now for 2 weeks and this is pretty challenging. I think that my brain has made so many new connections that it has gained some new brain cells. People ask me if I’ve explored the city. I have been out around my neighborhood, to the grocery store, some restaurants, the park and mall, but touristy areas I have yet to check out. Why not? Because moving to a new country is very different from vacationing in one as you will see below.

In addition to looking up words in my Polish-English dictionary, I have spent the last week relearning metric conversions for distance, weight, volume, and temperatures. Time is on the 24 hour clock more commonly known in the US as “military time.”

Despite making a grocery list to include Polish translations for what I needed, grocery shopping still took us about 3 hours this past weekend which felt more like an 8 hour work day. On Saturday, which is when we went, it was a madhouse. This is also complicated by the fact that for the Polish the concept of personal space is lost. I have been told that due to the years of Communism here, they are used to waiting in line and getting very close to the people in front of them to avoid people cutting in. I don’t know how accurate this is. It is definitely cultural, but very annoying to my American need for personal space. People will get right in front of you while you browse and don’t even excuse themselves.

Everything seems to take longer. When you pick out produce, you have to take it to a counter where it is weighed and a sticker is placed on the bag that states the price instead of the scanner weighing it at checkout. When you checkout, there is no one to bag groceries for you either. We are so spoiled in the US. Once we are done with checkout, we have to go to guest services to get a VAT receipt. VAT or Value Added Tax is added to practically everything you buy in Europe and can be as much as 22%. Luckily, the Embassy reimburses us for VAT, but we must secure the receipt first. In a way, it is like a monthly savings account since you get lots of cash back every 6 months. By the time we finished shopping on Saturday, we all needed naps and some aspirin.

In regards to the language, the first week, I had no clue what Thing 2 was eating except for the picture on the food jar. They have Gerber here and a German brand called HIPP. Nestle is big here and their NAN formula is widely available. I tried to transition Thing 2 to this formula on Friday but failed to think about one big problem – how much formula to how many ounces of water. Everything is in milliliters and in Polish. The scoop is also much smaller. I was thinking how much different can it be. She takes about 8 ounces 3 times per day and in the US it is 1 scoop per 2 ounces. So I was giving her 4 scoops. Well, I took the can with me to Thing 1's school for a translation and it turns out that with this formula it is 1 scoop per ounce. I was giving her 4 scoops and it should have been 8. Well, she was very hydrated, but not getting much nutrition. I guess it’s better than if I had given her too much and strained her kidneys.

Driving here is scary. The roads here are awful and I hear that in Warsaw it is better than driving in other more rural areas. Some roads are still dirt roads. Cars squeeze tightly next to each other. They tailgate and cut in front of cars kind of like they do in the USA only the driving resembles that of a NYC cab driver. If driving is scary, walking is even more daunting. You have to be very careful when you turn a corner because cars turn very fast and may not notice you are standing at the curb or walking up the street. Other than this, it is pretty safe to walk around the city.

Thing 1 started his new preschool this week. The International Preschool of Warsaw (IPW) http://www.preschool.pl is located in a 4 level town house. He has done better than I could have hoped for. His teacher was very welcoming and apparently had talked to the kids about Thing 1 arrival. They were very friendly to him and by the end of the first day he was already talking about his “friends.” He already has a few girls flirting with him in the mornings. He is oblivious to this although he likes to play with them. He is definitely enjoying himself.

The children are multiethnic. There are some American kids, Polish kids, German kids, Austrian Kids, Danish kids, and Korean kids. Some of them are not fluent in English, but I think their parents enrolled them in this school in hopes that they would pick up English. The classes are small and there are 2 teachers per class. Each floor of the school houses a different class. Their curriculum includes science, math, Polish culture class, music, art and drama class catered to their level of understanding. For example, last week for science, they talked about the weather and seasonal changes since autumn is in full swing here. For drama, they pretended to be autumn leaves. In Polish culture class, they learned some colors in Polish and some Polish words. Music and art are similar to what you would find in the US. They were learning to write letters and numbers as well just as Thing 1 has been this past year.

Not having a car yet, we rely on taxis and bus transportation. I mostly take the taxi to take Thing 1's to school and walk everywhere else. The Cat in a Hat takes the bus to work. Some of the Cat in a Hat's colleagues pick us up to take us to the stores or to social gatherings. I still miss my car. I don’t like depending on other people to take me places even if I pay them to do so.

I registered with the local “Mums and Tots” group http://www.mumsandtots.com. They have about 160 members from all over the world and have activities everyday of the week mostly for children under 3, but they are starting a preschool playgroup in November. I’m waiting for Thing 2 to get over her cold before I take her. We thought she was getting better, but I think Thing 1 brought something home from school last week because he was also coughing and had a runny nose. Now, they both have the same cold. The weather may have something to do with it as it has gotten much cooler in the past week. The high was in the 60’s with a low in the 40’s this week and very windy which made it much cooler. By next week, the highs will be in the 50’s and the lows in the 30’s. The kids have already started wearing their coats and Thing 2 looks like an Eskimo in hers.

We got our Armed Forced Network (AFN) box connected. This provides us with programming from the US a day after it airs there. They have a family channel that has all the shows Thing 1 enjoyed back home. This is great because I was getting really tired of watching the same taped shows over and over. They connected the box on Friday and after it loaded we had the channels but no sound. The Cat in a Hat bought some video cables to reconnect the box and now we have sound, but a black and white picture. We have to try to figure this out. Our DSL connection may take weeks because one of Josh’s colleagues arrive in late August and he still doesn’t have his. Polish TV is interesting. They seem to have Polish versions of shows that we are familiar with. For example, they have “Deal or No Deal” and Super Niania (Supernanny).

While people and establishments are kid friendly, many places are not equipped for their needs. For example, I couldn’t even find a high chair in the mall food court to feed Thing 2. The baby changing areas were locked and I have no idea where to get the key. There was a sign above the door which I took a picture of so that I could translate it later. I think it will tell me where to get a key. It’s like a scavenger hunt.

Not as easy as it looks kids! I'm sure we will adapt soon though!