Baltic Sea, pancakes and donut day:)

It is March 2014!  How awesome is that?!  Time marches on and spring is in the air!  Even here in Poland people have spring fever.  There was a guy in the coffee shop the other day wearing shorts!  Now - I'm not a big fan of jeans and jackets etc but it was even a bit cold for me to be wearing shorts.  But I say bring on spring!  I saw some pictures from Sacramento and trees are in full bud etc etc - oooooh....it looked so pretty!  Not quite yet in Poland but I'm looking forward to experiencing spring in this beautiful, historical country.

Life is going along; work at the shop is busy and learning life in Poland is going pretty well.  Last Thursday was 'donut day' here in Poland...aka 'fat Thursday'.  Thursday instead of Tuesday...ok!  Ash Wednesday is coming up this week and I would like to go to a service here so I've asked if anybody working at the shop is going.  We shall see!  It would be interesting to me.

Bob was up in Poznan this past week for work and of course that was great to see him.  It is crazy to me how close Bob/Co/Josh are now and how often I get to see them!  I think I am a bit spoiled...going for so many years 6,000 or more miles apart.   Josh has a choir festival/performance deal over his spring break and he invited me to go as well!  It is in Prague...only 5-6 hours drive from Poznan.  Do you think I'm going?...yes!  Really cheap to get there on a bus and then staying in a hostel - can't beat the price for a couple days.  So that is coming up in mid-March.  Should be a good, new experience.  Bob, Michael and I were there 15 years ago for about 24 hours but this time hopefully we can explore a bit more.  Woo hoo!  I'm excited.

Oh yeah...Bob and work - we drove to G'Dansk for the day (4 hours from Poznan).  There is a Sweet Surrender shop up there but it is currently closed so we went up to check out the property etc.  It is a small shop - but set up nicely and right down the street from an apartment that is owned by the Nazarene organization as well.  So that was interesting.  And...G'Dansk is on the Baltic Sea so we got to go there...and I HAD to put my toes in...brrrrrr it was cold!  Awesome experience.  Had lunch on the water front in the old town area...it is a major port city of Poland and so they had this old ship loading area that was built in 1455!  Amazing.  (See side picture).

Saturday there is an American pancake breakfast/Bible Study at the coffee shop so I was there.  Actually I went in a bit earlier to do some month end stuff (can't get away from it apprently!) so I stopped by Starbucks on my way.  Well, others came in and saw my Starbucks cup and one lady said 'you brought wood to the forest'!  I love that idiom...that's a good one!  It made me laugh.  So where am I sitting on this sunny Sunday writing my blog?....yep - Starbucks :)!!!

Speaking of idioms; I led English conversation this past week on Wednesday night!  The shop was really busy and Marybeth (other volunteer) helped on the bar (waaaay faster than me) so I got to talk with some Polish folks.  Great time - there were 7 people there so it was a good size and it went fairly well I thought.  We end with idioms so that is why it reminded me (in case your are wondering).

This may sound like a silly thing but I'm getting used to the money here...the bills are easy...they have big numbers on them with 10, 20, 50 etc but the coins are my challenge.    Polish money is called zloty and groshen instead of dollars and cents.  So when you pay for something and it is 5,15 (commas are used instead of decimal points) and digging for those 15 groshen takes me a while.  And yes...if I pay with 20 zloty I am always asked for the 15 groshen.  So it goes.

I got my tram pass for Poznan!  Also may sound silly but it is sooooo much more convenient to just jump on a tram and go instead of having to make sure I have tickets and punch them once on the tram etc etc.  It's awesome:).  Sure came in handy last weekend when the church had a progressive dinner and we rode the tram to our last stop which was at Sweet Surrender for dessert, coffee, tea etc.  Good times!

The situation in Ukraine is still very tenuous...the Russians are stepping up their game for sure - even bringing in troops 'to keep peace' and busloads of Russian people to present to the media that people in Ukraine are pro-Russian.  Craziness.  The East is more pro-Russian than the West but still it is skewed.  It seems that BBC News has updates that are staying fairly consistent with what I hear from friends in Ukraine.  Please continue to pray - for peace, consensus and integrity.  It is a tough road when going against such corruption.  The President that was impeached is in Russia and collaborating with Putin is what I understand.  Not good.

Well...I think that is about it.  I suppose March being here means that June is going to come sooner than I think and I have no plans as of yet.  Ethiopia does not seem to be coming to fruition so we will see what happens.  I will be in America from June 10th for a couple months for sure since I have a family reunion at the end of July but not so sure after that.  Poland is certainly an option to return but I'm just enjoying actually being here for now.  I am trusting the future to open up like it did for me last October!  Appreciate your prayers...that I can 'not worry about tomorrow'.  Life is good and yep - you know it - God is waaaaay better and I trust he knows my 'tomorrow'.

Comments

  1. What a life you're living there! I didn't realize you were only committed there til June, it's gone so fast. How wonderful to just be going with the flow and seeing what life has to offer as it comes - good for you!

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