Flexibility is the name of the game.

I am yet again the slow poke in keeping up with my blogging and for that I apologize. In my defense, I'm in Poland and having too much fun to slow down!

So - as my title says, flexibility is the key word for today. We were surprised to find out a change in our luggage requirements for a future flight we have within the European Union; we must each lose one suitcase. With four women, this is a challenge! As I sit here and type, my fellow teammates are upstairs organizing and repacking. Our first hosts in Warsaw are coming to our rescue though. We will be shipping a few boxes of personal items to them to hold until we arrive back there in 2 weeks. As we've been learning over the last few weeks, our host Rotarians are amazing and they continue to be by helping us.

We had another presentation tonight with one of the Krakow clubs and as all other clubs have been, they were a fun and energetic group of people. (I unfortunately do not have the pictures from the meeting so we will pass along at a later date.) Tonight's presentation was quite funny for a few of us because their club meets in a very popular tourist restaurant... complete with traditional era costumes, singing and dancing. We learned this in the middle of Laura's speech as song broke out in the restaurant and drowned her out. She was a champ though and kept on going even though Sheri and I (yet again) broke out in a fit of giggles.

Because I haven't been diligent in my posting, the below pictures are out of sequence but these are some of my favorites. Do wizdenia for now!

More pleasurable impressions

I feel so behind in keeping you up-to-date. So I'll just go forward. The girls have done a fabulous job letting you know everything. Since it has been a long 4-day weekend here in Poland, surrounding May 3rd's Constitution Day (their Independence Day equivalent) we have had the chance to explore a little on our own for each of the four days. Megan is well on her way to recovery after her bout with a vicious cold - and I am halfway there. Here are a few pics from the last few days. One of the girls at Wawel Castle and one us with Cracow in the background. We also had a surprise flag presentation at the RC Krakow President's manor in the country after a kielbasa cookout. Stay tuned for more ...

Polish Consistencies

Sheri and I are keeping a rough list of things that are (or have been) consistent for us throughout this trip. Here are a few of my notes:

• Tasty treats! Mmm. Kielbasa, peirogis, lody, bread, bigos, amazing soups and on and on and on.
• Riding (or driving) in cars here is like playing "chicken" constantly with every other driver on the road.
• Crossing the street is like playing frogger.
• Friendly, welcoming hosts with a sense of humor, warm heart and undefeatable spirit.
• Tasty beer and vodka!
• Roads that rattle your teeth loose... even the "super-highway"! (that's a joke you'll have to come to Poland [soon] to get! :)
• Toilets that flush like a hurricane. Our new saying is "nothing flushes like a Polish toilet flushes!"
• Extremely firm beds. Sheri has termed them "Springform Masonry"... the brand may catch on some day!

We're still talking about the "food" post... hopefully, we'll get pictures and descriptions up someday soon-ish.

Stay tuned to our adventures!

Headed to the mines

It is Sunday morning and I'm taking a quick break from the morning ritual of getting pretty to post a few words here. See? That's how much I love you. I am sacrificing eyeliner and lip gloss so you can hear more about our days. Its all about you, dear reader. But it is endearing. ;-)

Today we are headed out to a salt mine and museum. We've been warned that the descent is something like 372 steps down into the cold, Polish bedrock. It should be quite fantastic and at least at the end of the experience there is an elevator. We weren't quite as fortunate at the silver mine last week. Maybe 25 meters down and 18 or so meters back up a narrow winding stairway.

Descending into the ground has actually been something that occurs with frequency on our trip. We've been in tombs, mines, dungeons, jails, and even an underground lair. Yes, I said, "Welcome to my underground lair..." as we walked in. Easy punchlines are hard to resist.

Well, my time with you is up, dear reader. To make up for the meandering topic this morning, I will leave you with a few of my favorite photos from the trip thus far. These are all ones from my camera and available for viewing at Flickr. And yes, I know they are teensy resolution. I'm shooting huge and the originals take too long to upload.

OH! And before I forget I'm so excited about tomorrow. It is my vocational day and I get to visit two Chambers of Commerce. Which is where I work in Oklahoma City. Can't wait!

Photos:

Wawel Hill - Krakow. May 2nd

Wawel (Vavel) Cathedral on Wawel Hill in Krakow, Poland. May 2, 2008.

Yesterday, we had a charming outing to the Krakow-suburbs\countryside viewing centuries old churches, walking through a charming cemetary and singing with our RC Krakow hosts. RC Krakow is an all-male club, but they brought their wives along, and we had a wonderful time together. They sang happy birthday to me in both English and Polish versions and toasted me. It was lovely!

We sang Oklahoma to them.. Yes, I feel sorry for them too! :)

Our host also had a cat, and I petted him all afternoon. I hadn't realized that I missed Makenzie so much until I could hold and pet another cat. Then we took a stroll through the woods and found a sweet little puppy. Oh my. I'm so animal crazy! At least Megan got goo-goo about the puppy too. Too bad there were boys in the park that she belonged to; I think we may have tried to bring her back with us!

We're 13 days into the trip. We have 17 days left. It feels like we've only just arrived, and that we've already been here a month. Homesickness is finally starting to kick in for me...I knew it would right around 14 days, so no surprises there! I may have forgotten just how long a month can be though! haha.

Anyway, thank you to everyone that remembered my birthday. It was lovely to log into my email and see that I'm not forgotten, even so far away.

Please keep checking flickr for fun new pictures, we promise to update as often as possible!

Stay tuned!

That 70's Team jump in the Polish countryside outside Krakow

That 70's Team jump in the Polish countryside outside Krakow
Originally uploaded by crymsenllb

Check out flickr for more fun and favorites!

And now we Krakow

Yesterday we arrived in Krakow and checked into a hotel, courtesy of a local rotarian. The day was spent unpacking, napping, and in the evening we took a little (5 mile) stroll through various parts of the city, including Old Town.

Last night was also Laura's birthday and we treated her to an evening of Zubrowka iced apple juice and McDonald's. Actually, I think she bought her own fries because Danna and I were trying to figure out why our Happy Meal had Arby's fries in it.

Today we spent the day touring the real countryside. It was all farmland and tiny villages with ancient churches. We ended the day at the home of a rotarian that he purchased back from the Polish government 5 years ago. During ww2 it was taken from his family, who was a duke and duchess. The house was about 400 years old. Incredible!

Tonight we are back at the hotel and trying to use the free internet connection in the business center to get caught up on all our correspondence, photos, etc... Tomorrow we should actually have a whole new batch of photos from the trip AND a hidden video of my favorite catch phrase. Please stay tuned!