letusgive!

Happy birthday to sister Phyllis!  On a whim last night I face timed to Mom/Dad and they answered (a miracle) and then I saw Phyllis as well; she had been in John Day for a couple days.  So that was great to see her face, hear her voice and be able to wish her happy birthday!  Late last week I think it was, I was able to Skype with my sister Susan so now I've seen and talked to my immediate family all within the same week - woo hoo:).  My Dad has knee replacement surgery on Tuesday (April 1st) so that was good to chat with him about all that going on etc.  He is ready for much less pain in the near future!  Mom is doing very well - she got a great report on her follow up appointment a couple weeks ago so now she plans on helping Dad with his re-hab on his knee.  My parents are awesome. I'm sitting here at the river today; beautiful spring day here in Poznan!  People are out boating, running, walking, biking, bar-b-queing...all good. So since ...

Old Town Squares - I just love them!  There is a very pink church off the old town square of Poznan (Fara Church).  It was started by the Jesuits in the 1600's...was demolished in the 1700's and rebuilt again.  It is now considered a 'city' church and it has a huge pipe organ.  So every Saturday at noon there is a concert there and I have gone a couple times now.  The church is absolutely beautiful!  HUGE marble columns on each side leading up to the alter area so it is very awe inspiring.  The perfect thing about this church?  I went today with a girl from the shop and her boyfriend!  After the concert each week is an opportunity to take a tour - of the crypts, the upper level of the church and of the sacristy...where the priests get ready etc.  It was excellent!  I enjoyed that very much....it was a cold, windy and rainy day so what a perfect day to be inside.  We have had spring like weather this week so to have a rainy day...

Here I am at Poznan Glowny (means 'main' and say it with the 'w' as a 'v' of course!).  It is right by the main bus/train, thus the reason for 'glowny'.  There is a mall right here and it has everything...really.  My backpack fell apart this past week and that was noooo good - so I headed to TK Max (nope...not a typo...not TJ Max here).  Sitting outside Toys R Us sipping on a fruit smoothy from a little kiosk thing since my cold seems to keep coming back!  Yuck.  My next stop is the Piotr and Pawel (Peter and Paul) grocery store.  Cooking up a bit of chicken for dinner tonight...yummm! This past week has been great - and I did get to go to an Ash Wednesday service at a church here in town.  Ada from the shop took me with her so that was awesome.  The priest put ashes in my hair...not with oil and not on my forehead or hand.  Ada said he spoke of the oil in his homily or sermon but they do not use it.  Ash Wednesday - the ashes us...

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 w...