Sunshine and Life Threatening Experiences

Yesterday was sunny, warm, beautiful... basically perfect. At this time of year in Poland, such days aren't abundant.

 My mom and I napping in the sun.

Gramps in the hammock

The fams chillin on the lawn. We couldn't manage to get a photo in which everyone was paying attention and no one was getting licked by Grom.

 

As mentioned a couple of days ago, I am supposed to be leaving for Rome tomorrow, but my flight will likely be canceled. Still, the strip from Poznan to Rome now seems to be clearing, so I am still not entirely sure what will happen. I am still not expecting I'll leave tomorrow... but what if?! I am unpacked, to say the least.

In other news, today I was walking back to my aunt's house and a neighbor's dog was barking at me. There were two children in the yard.. probably 6 or 7 years old? Anyway, one of them opened the gate, I don't know if she opened it because she was trying to go outside or because she is the devil's spawn, but in any event, the dog came outside, continued barking at me and then jumped on me at which pointed I screamed at the top of my lungs, it kept barking at me, I sort of kept walking but was afraid he was going to jump on me again/BITE MY FACE. Note: this dog was pretty big. The owner came out and I don't remember if she said anything or what she said but I was like "YOUR DOG JUST ATTACKED ME."

Anyway, I am alive, all my limbs are in order. From this experience I will probably take away another phobia. Who would have thought there exists a means of death or injury that I had until present not even considered?

Grandparents' 50th Anniversary!

So today was my grandparents' 50th anniversary and celebration. It was short but sweet, and I got to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen in several years. Here are some photos, this post goes out to those who have been trying to piece together my family tree, all zero of you.

 Grandma

My grandparents with one of their many floral acquisitions

My aunt Wanda (pronounced Vandah) and uncle Igor

Grams looking slightly sinister

Cuties

  

A laptop! Joining the rest of the family in computer addiction.

 

Me, my cake chin, and my grandma

My cousin Martyna and her boyfriend Nacho breaking out the Champagne

My grandma and great aunt

 

Singin', with Grom in the middle.

  

Cake/pie options

 

Cheesy close-up

 

Food porn

  

My mommy!

Cutting the cake

Standing outside my aunt's house after saying goodbye to the fams that only came in the for the day.

In other news, the big, stupid volcano explosion that happened in Iceland might mess up my plans to go to Rome on Tuesday. I can't decide if I should buy a ticket out of Poland for London, in case this ash cloud doesn't blow over in a few days.

Here is a "lolcat" I made about it

TTFN, Ta ta for now, hoo hoo hoo hoo!

Okonek in 3 megapixels or less.

Today I had lunch (the biggest meal of the day) at my grandparent's house. I brought my aunt's shitty camera along and took some photos, mostly of my walk back to her house--I opted to walk instead of getting a ride back with her. This isn't the most riveting bunch of photos but eh... it's Poland.

Soup, disembodied finger.

 

My grandma told me to take a picture of something "pretty, like this." Feel free to abstain from commenting on this one.

 

Grandpa getting his patriot on...which he isn't.

 

Grandparents' garden, not much growing yet, but many preparations!

 

Gottem!

 

Cloud

 

Fence

 

Insert your own obvious caption

 

 A few blades of grass make their way through the asphalt!

The end.

Update from Poland

Phewf.

My travels have overall been really great, and I have quite a few stories I want to share with you, but I am still waiting to do a majority of that when I can upload photos. I finally have consistent internet access, but being the frazzled human that I am, I left my digital camera in Paris. The good news is that Hannah has it. The bad news is that I left it in Paris... and that I therefore only have about 5 photos of Berlin taken with a disposable camera, yet to be developed. Luckily other members of my travel entourage also took photos.

Here in Okonek, my aunt has a digital camera from 1987 so I might be able to take some photos of what's going on, which probably won't be too much since the forcast is COLD. I've experienced three days total of actual warmth this entire trip. My body feels all out of whack in this semi-permanent winter state the European continent seems to be in. My mom is getting to Okonek on Tuesday and other relatives are coming down next weekend for my grandparents 50th anniversary fiesta. Gonna party hard, Jamiołkowscy style.

As most of the world now knows, this morning a Polish government plane crashed, killing about 96 people (the numbers vary based on the source, that's the most recent I've heard). The President, his wife, a bunch of members of parliament, most of the top military officials, eight priests (or bishops or something? are there multiple bishops?), and a bunch of other people died in the crash. Most of the politicians were from the same party. I am not sure if any other country has experienced such a drastic, unintended, wipeout of a significant portion of its government.
I awoke this morning at 10 at my friend's house, to a conversation her and her other friends were having about how the "president died in a plane crash," when I got up there still wasn't much news about it--just a couple of articles in the Polish media. I went on the New York Times and they didn't have anything on it at all, and then a few moments later just a headline, "Polish President Dies in Plane Crash."
Afterwords we watched some news as the story slowly unfolded. People's reactions seem to have similar themes, including "why is the government still flying that old ass Soviet plane?" and "why the hell would they jam pack so many important people onto one aircraft?" The answers to those questions remain largely unknown. "Only in Poland..." is the general reaction. My friend's parents told me that there had been news stories in the past about how the President had gotten in a tiff with a pilot because he 'demanded' the pilot land, and the pilot was like, 'nah, shit is dangerous.' So they seemed suspect that a similar scenario may have taken place.
The media coverage here is nauseatingly religious. Not at all surprising since 95% of the country is Catholic, but not everyone is super observant. The reaction has been compared to that of the passing of John Paul Dos. On my train ride over I saw a lot of Polish flags hung outside of people's homes, and I wondered if there were more than usual or if I'd just never noticed. Apparently it was largely a reaction to the day's events. The whole response to it has made me wonder how America would respond in such a situation, and I feel that it would probably be quite similar, perhaps a tinge less on the Catholic front.

Anyways, I arrived at the train station in Okonek today around 5:30 and was greeted by my grandpa which was awesome! I love my grandparents, my grandpa loves making (sometimes mean) jokes at the expense of others... runs in the family, I suppose? My grandma is less likely to take a straight-forward jab at you but is also quite sassy. made chicken noodle soup and one of my favorite dishes, kotlety mielone (don't feel like explaining, so just google it if you feel so inclined) with potatoes--and the potatoes here are unreally DELICIOUS. My aunt made cake... it's going to be a good 10 days.

To add some insult to injury, I thought I'd share some of the ridiculous memorial prof-pics that are coming up on the Polish facebook-meets-classmates.com website.

Runner up

Wait for it...










Wait for it...

So maybe I am a terrible person, but I kind of had to.