Adventures Here and There

Night View

2012-02-13T22:27:00.000-06:00

I teach a Global Health Issues class that meets on certain Monday evenings. Late this afternoon, we started to get a bit of snow. When I walked out of the building at 9 PM tonight I saw we had received just a dusting of snow, but that was enough to create special stillness that seems to come with new snowfalls.

In the evening light, I saw how beautiful was the New Main Building on campus.

This view particularly took my eye because in my class of 18 students, I think they come from about 10 different countries ranging from the Philippines to Nepal to Kenya. Just what university life is like in the early 21st century.

Just Ducks!

2012-02-08T17:50:00.001-06:00

I took a walk along the river this morning around 9 AM. The world was very quiet except for some very noisy ducks.

Oh were they talking! I don't think it was a complaint about the weather. Rather I think they were discussing their fool comrade who was remaining behind by about 100 feet, wondering why he or she couldn't keep up with the rest of them!

February brings wonderful events, such as eating my evening meal with sunshine coming in the window! We've made it that far towards spring. Now as I write at 5:50 PM it is not totally dark!

Winona's Polish Museum

2012-02-07T10:03:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I visited friends in Winona, MN, and they made an opportunity for me to visit the Polish museum there. This museum's collection is largely objects, books, and photographs people brought with them when they immigrated from Poland.

The people who came here are largely Kashubian, and Winona has a sister city relationship with Bytow which is one of the unofficial capitals of Kashubia. In the mid-19th century workers were recruited to come to this area to work in the lumber industry. Areas of the Minnesota territory were covered with forest. As the trees were cut, the logs were floated down the Mississippi to the lumber mills in Winona.

The museum is housed in a re-purposed warehouse building.

The artisan work for the remodeling of the warehouse includes this fine work in the floor.

The connection to the lumber industry is maintained with this fine fireplace.

This fireplace comes from the President's office from one of the large lumber companies.

Here's a nice view of one of the rooms in the museum.

Here are some objects that caught my eye.

Someone's lovely old books. (Sorry for the light reflection in the display cases. Did the best I could.)

Above is a sample of Kashubian embroidery.

This is a chest made by an immigrant family to bring their medicines to the United States. Seeing it alone doesn't give you a perspective about size. Think large lunch box for the size.

The above photo is far from good, but the best I could do of a painting such as I've not seen before. The flag has dates written on each of its panels that tells one this is about the Partition of Poland. The caption on the painting best translates to Poland in Leg Irons (Chains). Certainly this was a treasured object of some immigrant to the United States, and I'm glad it now is in a safe place.

The museum holds many small banners and medals for Polish cities. I picked this for a photo because one day, much to my surprise, I found myself in Nowy Targ.

And of course one thing that would have been packed for the trip to America is a special vest and blouse. The sign on this exhibit said the vest is of the style from Poznan and the blouse is Kashubian.

The museum also has some old maps. Our visiting party included another woman from Winona who was born in Poland. We found a Polish map displaying post-World War I Poland. She was able to show me the area in which she lived as a child. This area now is in Belarus. Over lunch she shared her memories of the start of World War II when she was six years old and her memories of living in Warsaw during Uprising when she as 10 years old. I'm very blessed to be trusted with these memories and insights.

Hope you enjoy this little bit of Polish immigrant history.

Ice Castle History

2012-01-31T17:34:00.000-06:00

On Sunday when my daughter and I walked to Rice Park to see the ice sculptures we got to Landmark Center before it opened. Yesterday with the temperature around 40 degrees (+4 C) -- amazing for Minnesota in January -- I couldn't stay indoors all the time. I took the walk back.

On the way I saw a couple lovely winter scenes.

Last year all of this would have been covered with snow, for by this time last last year we had received 55 inches (1.5 meter) of snow.

At the Landmark Center there is an exhibit of models of previous Ice Castles although during World War II they got much smaller and were called Ice Palaces.

Here's a photo of the model of the first one, built in 1886.

It was 106 feet high and it's foot print was 180 x 154 feet.

It must have been so much fun in 1886 that another was built in 1887.

The horse and wagon beside the model for a later 19th century Ice Castle reminds us that transport was different in those days.

I found the one below a bit poignant.

This one was built in January 1941 before our world turned upside down in December 1941. I thought about the happy people walking through this Ice Castle without the knowledge of what the next 4 years would bring. And yes, I do know that the world of others had been turned upside down almost two years before January 1941.

Above is a late 20th century Ice Castle, this one built in 1992. This castle was constructed on Harriett Island, just across the river from where I live now. It was part of the festivities for the 1992 Super Bowl which was played here on January 26 that year.

Walking out to Rice Park I found my guess from Sunday was correct. Good thing we went that day to see the ice sculptures for they surely were melting. However, the weather was just perfect for this guy.

People were having fun sticking pennies on this figure.

Snowplow Contest

2012-01-29T14:49:00.001-06:00

The Winter Carnival includes an Autonomous Snow Plow Contest. The goal appears to be to create a remote controlled snow plow. This event features students from several colleges and universities.

The scoreboard reveals that the students earn points by presentation of the design and well as by how well it actually works on the course. This would be a great invention. How nice it would be to make the snow plow work by remote control!

Don't forget to see the ice sculptures in the post below!

Winter Carnival

2012-01-29T14:20:00.002-06:00

It's Winter Carnival time in Saint Paul. The "urban legend" about this goes something like this: Sometime in the late 19th century a New York City newspaper referred to Saint Paul as being a frozen Siberia. That led the city leaders to create a festival to demonstrate there is life in winter in Minnesota and in Saint Paul.

My older daughter and I went to Rice Park this morning to see the ice sculptures. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for temperatures well above freezing, and I thought if we didn't go today we might not be able to see them! (Update on Monday, January 30. I was right -- the sculptures are melting fast.)

Here's what we found.

Perhaps the detail in the photo is not good -- this is a polar bear bowling -- thus Ice Bowl! Without something to give perspective it may be hard to understand how big this is. The polar bear is at least 6 feet tall.

This is Lion King. Perhaps this scene came to the mind of the artist because the Lion King musical is being performed again in a theater in Minneapolis. (It actually previewed here before going to Broadway -- many, many years ago.)

I can only call this one Ice Horses or perhaps it should be Ice Pegasus.

And here truly is an Ice Bar!

Across the sidewalk from the Ice Bar is a tent with musicians from the McNally School of Music. It amused me that the song being performed was Walking in Sunshine. Well, I guess we were walking in sunshine, but it seems like a summer song, not right at the place with an Ice Bar.

One side of the park is lined with a wall. I couldn't find any way to get a good photo of this long wall because the adjacent side walk was lined with food trucks -- yes, that phenomenon has hit Saint Paul.

The wall in done as a checkerboard with historical photos in a vinyl inset.

The first photo below shows an Ice Castle. I'm guessing this one is from the year in which Minnesota hosted the Super Bowl. I can remember three Ice Castles since I have lived in Minnesota. I've seen two and the Super Bowl Castle is the one I missed -- so that's the reason for this guess.

Above is a downhill evening race of some sort. I've heard stories about how there used to be events such as this from the Capitol area down into the business area. I'm guessing this photo comes from the late 1930s. Now with a freeway between these two areas, such things never happen.

On each side of the ice displays carvers were still busy.Here is a photo that shows some of the steps.

I think this Ice Sculpture event is quite unique. I know one city in northern China does the same thing. Does it happen elsewhere? Hope you enjoy.

An Expedia Experience

2012-01-26T19:04:00.002-06:00

I have been having successful luck with making international flight arrangements with Expedia. I am going to Romania in May on a Global Volunteers service trip. I need to be in Bucharest on a certain day by 3:00 PM and leave two weeks later on a certain day not earlier than 2:00 PM. My original reservation was a flight from Minnesota to Amsterdam, leaving on Thursday evening and arriving in Amsterdam on Friday morning and then departing for Bucharest on the next day. My reverse trip follows the same pattern, up to Amsterdam on a Saturday and then home to Minnesota on Sunday. I have a perfect hotel reservation at an on-site airport hotel in Amsterdam on both ends of the Romania trip.

Today I got a phone call from Expedia about 10 AM my time explaining that Czech Airlines, the company that had my intra-European flights is making significant changes to its schedule and that I needed new arrangements for the flights between Amsterdam and Bucharest. We talked a long time on the phone making a new plan, one I wasn't happy about, but could live with. Then I went to work and in a meeting for several hours. When that was done I looked at the e-mail with the new arrangements, taking me to Paris and then Bucharest and each time on the wrong dates with some wrong times for the schedule I must maintain to be part of a Global Volunteers team.

So first I went back to Expedia and found there is a perfectly good flight from Amsterdam to Bucharest, even though the first agent was telling me I had to go on 7 PM flight and spend a night in Prague before flying back.

So I called Expedia and told them all the problem. I spent 45 minutes on hold after telling an "expert agent" what I wanted. Then the phone went dead. I called back but in the meantime looked at e-mail and found, to Expedia's benefit, that someone had tried to call back on cell phone except it was right beside me and never rang, nor does the phone show a missed phone call. Maybe my present office is in a "dead" spot, but I was later able to make calls out on my cell phone, so I'm assuming they should come in. (And in fact when I was on my land line phone --story below -- trying to call Expedia again, my cell phone rang, so I don't know what happened to this call back.)

So back on the phone with yet another person explaining this over and over. They just couldn't seem to get the idea to leave my Minnesota to Amsterdam flight alone and find me another flight from Amsterdam to Bucharest. Then after 17 minutes of this the phone call was disconnected again.

In a few minutes Expedia called me back and said the disconnect was their fault. After 11 minutes of begging, the agent finally agreed to cancel my whole itinerary with them, rather than "trying to find you more options." I'd been trying for "new options" with various people for over an hour, and that's why I wanted to cancel and just do the new reservation myself. Finally the agent relented and agreed to cancel my flights and did send a confirming e-mail saying the money would be refunded without any penalty.

I went online and booked one ticket to and from Amsterdam for my desired dates, and then booked another ticket for Amsterdam and Bucharest and back. This took me about 10 minutes! Unfortunately, this new reservation cost me at least $200 more than the original reservation.

The Expedia agents just spent too much time "trying to find new options." I have no idea what method they use. I find their web site user friendly and informative. Perhaps the Expedia agents should use a better information system than "trying to call the airline."

Winter Shadows

2012-01-22T11:51:00.000-06:00

Yesterday just around noon, I went out the door for a walk, mostly with the word, "should," on my mind, as in "you should exercise." Yet, as often happens, the world out the door delivered a wonderful surprise of winter shadows.

Here is how the fence along the river created beauty.

The recent cold days have produced just enough ice on the river to support the light snow fall. The shadows produced by High Bridge arch intrigued me.

The final photo above shows some structures in the back ground. These are private boats up on shore for the winter, covered with blue tarps.

Hope you enjoy this glimpse of winter weather in Minnesota.

Visiting the Eagle Center

2012-01-21T13:04:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday, when the weather was much warmer than the temperatures shown in my previous blog entry, my older daughter and I decided to take a trip to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN. We traveled there primarily on the east side of the river, using Wisconsin Highway 35. Wabasha is about 75 miles down river from where I live in Saint Paul.

As one drives down the river, there one finds Lake Pepin. Lake Pepin is an area of the Mississippi River in which it become very, very wide. This change is due to the Wisconsin River entering the Mississippi. The Wisconsin River moves faster than the Mississippi and when the water hits together, silt is dropped. Over the centuries this has created an under-river dam which forces water back on the Mississippi. Rather than become deeper, the channel becomes much, much wider. Here is one view of Lake Pepin from the Wisconsin side.

The river is frozen enough here, even in a somewhat warm winter, that it supports fish houses -- couldn't get a good picture. There were a number of pick-up trucks parked in the same area where I stopped. People walked out to the fish houses-- the ice is not thick enough to support driving a vehicle on the ice.

Above is a picture I took later in the day of Lake Pepin from the Minnesota side of the river.

We arrived in Wabasha about 11 AM so our first stop was for a bite to eat at a charming coffee shop.

The National Eagle Center is located in Wabasha because this is an area where the river stays open over the winter (see above). Thus, eagles can hunt for food all winter. This is also the start of a protected wild-life area on the Mississippi River so the eagles are quite free of predators-- particularly the human kind! There is also plenty of wood land that can provide shelter during winter days.

The National Eagle Center is a private organization. It is not a federally or state supported facility. Income comes from admission fees, donations, and grants.

One feature of the Center are displays about how eagles have been an icon for nations for a very long time. This goes back at least to Roman times. We see this icon carried on in flags from Europe.

We see this icon than coming along to the United States with European settlers where it met with the respect that the American Indians have for the eagle, so it should not be a surprise it becomes a symbol for our country.

One story I had never heard before was about Old Abe. Old Abe was sent to the Civil War by Dan McCann, after Mr. McCann had been refused for military service.

As the poster shows, Old Abe went into many Civil War battles. After the Civil War he lived at the Wisconsin Capitol building, but was displayed in Philadelphia during the Centennial Exposition. Unfortunately, he died in 1881 when a fire swept through the Wisconsin Capitol.

Our 101st Airborne Division owes its heritage to the 8th Wisconsin Regiment. That is why this Division is known as the Screaming Eagles.

The Center has 5 resident eagles, all there because they have some injury that makes it impossible now for them to survive independently in the wild. One is Golden Eagle -- the type of eagle found in our western states.

The others are bald headed eagles. We think of the word, bald, as meaning no hair, but it is also a very old word for the color white. Now that helps to make sense about why these are called bald eagles. Below is a video showing a bit of the eagle, Columbia. She was hit by a car along a Wisconsin road where she was feeding on a deer carcass. When she was sent to the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, it was found she also had some lead poisoning. Getting injured actually saved Columbia's life, for she had only an early case of lead poisoning and could be treated.

The audio on the video is incidental and not really part of any message. I included this video primarily so all can assured these are really live eagles and not simply a stuffed bird!

I learned eagles are particularly vulnerable to lead because they have the capability of breaking down and digesting lead sinker or lead shot. The lead immediately moves into the blood stream at very high levels, causing death in a very short time.

Outside the Center is a statute commemorating Wapasha I and Wapasha II. These were highly respected American Indian chiefs in this area. Wapasha II granted permission for European and Americans to settle in the area now called Wabasha. Wabasha was founded in 1830 and is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, towns of the west bank of the Mississippi River.

We surely enjoyed our visit to the Eagle Center and recommend it for a visit.

January Winter

2012-01-19T14:51:00.001-06:00

Two weeks ago -- see January 5 -- I was writing about January Summer. Today, January 19, I can say something about January winter.

My car allows me to select displays in either the U.S. or the metric system. I've been setting this feature on the metric system to help me learn the "cold" temperatures. I know what 28 or 32 C are -- but I didn't have a good frame of reference for the cold temperatures because I usually am not in a place where I need to use the Celsius system in the winter. Yet, the kids I teach in Europe in the summer ask me about cold, so this year I'm learning.

Here's what my display showed this morning in the underground garage.

And oh what a luxury it is to have an underground garage!

Here's what the display showed when I got to work. This drive takes about 5-6 minutes.

A conversion table I found on the Internet tells me -23C is -9F. Anyway it was cold, and a cold walk from the parking lot to the buildings because the university is located on top of a river bluff and the wind does blow up there.

One news commentator asked why are we even talking about cold weather -- this is statistically the coldest week of the winter.

This year it's just so strange to have cold weather such as this when there isn't any snow. Here's the view out my window this afternoon:

If you have time, look back at my blog entries for January 2011. You will see much different views. But thank heavens, Minnesota is a place where the sun shines most of the winter rather than having day after day of clouds.

Watching Bears

2012-01-14T19:18:00.001-06:00

My older daughter and I went out to a movie late this afternoon. We saw Joyful Noise -- great music within this movie, but that's not what this posting is about. On the way home we were listening to Prairie Home Companion on Minnesota Public Radio and Garrison Keilor decided to call Dr. Lynn Rogers to inquire if the warm Minnesota winter is causing any confusion for the bears in their dens. Dr. Rogers was excited to announce that one of the bears is about to bear cubs. Now there's a sentence that will confuse anyone who reads English as a second language. You can watch the bears from anywhere via web cam. Go to www.bear.org and if you want to see the new Mama click on Jewel's bear cam. You can see this at any time of the day because the bear den is lit with subdued light .

Bears may not be what others associate with Minnesota. By the time one gets about 50 miles north of the Twin Cities, there are signs in the rest stops cautioning visitors to dispose of their trash correctly so it doesn't attract bears!

One of the funniest stories I've heard -- a work colleague was describing camping with his father somewhere in northern Minnesota. During the night something rolled into him and had quite a body odor. He thought his father really needed to find a shower. That is, until next morning when he walked around the tent and noticed the indentation in the soil next to the tent and realized he had been snuggled next to a bear for most of the night!

Update on January 22 -- Jewel delivered what is believed to be two cubs on this date. The web cam is still there, but the video from January 22 may be found on You Tube.

Crashed Ice

2012-01-12T20:47:00.004-06:00

Update: The finasl of Crashed Ice being held on this evening, January 14, will be broadcast on NBC sometime on January 21.

Today I had a meeting in Minneapolis and in driving back from it debated which freeway exit to take. Decided to take the Marion/Kellogg exit. Big mistake. I ended up in the traffic jam associated with Crashed Ice. I forgot it started today.

Never heard of Crashed Ice? It's a fairly new sport and this is another event sponsored by Red Bull.

Here is the city promo video for it.

I'm not going -- the crowds are immense. And due to the warm weather we've been having, the event planners had to refrigerate the track to keep it from melting. Today the weather changed -- great for Crashed Ice -- not good for a long walk. The temperature all day was around 12 F (which I think is about -12 C -- hey that's an easy one to remember). And the wind is really blowing -- up to 40 mph -- which makes it seem even colder. I'm planning some different activities for the next couple of days!

Museum Weekend

2012-01-08T19:18:00.002-06:00

My daughter was asked to help with a funeral on Saturday afternoon, and so asked me if I would take care of my younger granddaughter while she did that. We walked down to the Science Museum. It was mobbed. I guess I usually go there on a weekday and didn't realize how crowded it would be on a Saturday afternoon. I'm a member there, and so it was just a case of getting our admission bracelets.

In the hallway outside the museum my granddaughter noticed a poster advertising a pirate exhibit coming up and called the pirate a monster. Then inside the museum she looked above and saw a pterodactyl skeleton. She called that a monster too. I told her it was a special kind of dinosaur, not a monster. Later in the museum she saw a skeleton of a cat, and proudly pointed out a "dinosaur" to me. She enjoyed jumping on the musical stairs. She liked the polar bear display -- a six foot bear didn't bother her one bit, but she was frightened of fur and animal skins on a table. Rubbing rocks was a good idea. Above she is enjoying working with puzzles. Then she asked to see the "duck book." In the book she found a frog and enjoyed making frog noises. Then she told me told frogs were green, and pointed to my sweater and told me it was frog green. She was right. Perhaps the best exhibit was a display of objects (now thoroughly cleaned) that had been found in the waste water treatment plant -- in other words, things that had gone down the toilet! Each is given a fun scientific name. My granddaughter said "pacifer," but the the label for this object is pacificus infantus! I'm most amused by a set of dentures. Losing them must have spoiled someone's day.

Today I went to The Museum of Russian Art.

If you think this building doesn't look very Russian, you are right. It is a re-use of a church, built in the 1920s in a very Spanish style because that type of architecture was a particular favorite of the then pastor. When the church outgrew this space, it became a puzzle of what to do with the building. Turning it into this museum is a wonderful idea. The large spaces provide wonderful display areas.

I wanted in particular to see the exhibit related to Ukrainian artifacts. Years ago in Los Angeles I had seen a display of Scythian gold and wondered if this would be with this exhibit. Yes, it was. The photo below shows some of it.

This display begins with pottery from the Trypilian culture -- from about 7000 BC. This group of farmers and craftsmen and women -- because I bet women made some of this pottery-- made beautiful pots for their every day storage needs.

There is also a display from Cimmerian culture -- by this time bronze was known and so the objects are bronze. I was intrigued to learn that the Crimea area of the Ukraine takes its name from this culture.

As things go more modern -- only 400 BC to 400 AD, I found two little bulls' heads. They are very much like the bulls head motif seen in Pecs.

I'm enjoying what I find that is the same and what is different between the various Central European countries.

Two levels of the museum right now are devoted to the work of Oleg Vassiliev. He is considered to one of the most prominent members of the non-comformist art movement that came to fruition in the time between Stalin's death and the collapse of the Soviet Union. This group of artist broke from Soviet realism which demanded a display of ideology in art; the non-comformists tried to produce art that portrayed different ideas or messages. It is a real treat to have the Russian Museum in our community because we can see things such as this so easily -- and art that never before has been on display in other parts of the United States.

I particularly liked the above painting, titled A Misty Morning, Prokrovsk Boulevard. It made me think of walking on the Szetar in Pecs. Vassiliev is a very prolific and talented artist -- doing everything from these paintings to illustrations in children's books. I also enjoyed a series of engravings, too, called Moscow Metro. These are totally in black and white and show scenes one might see in a subway system. I don't think I would have enjoyed or understood these engravings like I did had I not ridden the Budapest Metro so many times. A great afternoon at the TMORA!

Where I've Been

2012-01-06T21:56:00.000-06:00

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

Thought I had done a lot of traveling, but there still is a lot of the world to explore!

Before and After

2012-01-06T19:43:00.000-06:00

I got a new car in October, but kept that news out of the social media because I wished to surprise people for the next few weeks. With a new car comes the moment when there is a "ding" of some sort, usually when someone bangs a car door into your car in a parking lot. I put all the protection I could think of on this car, including service to fix little "dings" like that.

Well, the first "ding" was a big one. On December 20 I was in the midst of the Christmas shopping and other preparations. I had been to the library, to the Good Will, and done some shopping and decided to finish the afternoon by going to Lund's to get some groceries and also another box of Christmas cards. The traffic was terrible, stop and go, stop and go, and now after 5 PM it was very dark. All of a sudden I found myself driving into the rear of the car in front of me.(In the middle of the night after this event, I woke up thinking: I never saw the brake lights. I truly think the car's brake lights didn't work, but after the event there was no way to prove that.)

We found a safe place to park after the Big Bang (I do like the TV program by that name, much better than hearing one!) snd exchanged information. I finished my shopping and got myself home.

Here's how the car looked:

Notice the hood now doesn't align with the rest of the car.

I left a message with my insurance agent the evening this happened and was in the office early the next morning. You can see the front of the car didn't look too good.

I elected to use a different body service than I have before, and I'm so very glad. Everything for fixing it went very smoothly. I took it to the "car hospital" on December 28 and got it back yesterday.

Here's how it looks now!

When I took the wrecked car for the estimate, the man helping me laughed and said, "You managed to do this with only 1801 miles!?!" Then he pointed to the frame around the front license plate and said, "Do you see that frame with the dealer's name?" Yes. "Well, when you get this back it will be just like a new car only you won't have that frame." I told him I certainly could live without the license frame -- and he was right -- The car even smells like a new car. This is the most I've ever smashed up a car in more than 50 years of driving. The insurance agent was quite nice, and I can't say enough good words about the body shop! They even took it to their mechanical shop and recharged the air conditioner. Oh, and by the way, while the impact bar was kaput after the Big Bang, it did it's job. No one was hurt in this accident.

January Summer

2012-01-05T15:49:00.000-06:00

In my December 6 blog entry I showed the snow covered bench on the nearby overlook for the Mississippi River and noted no one would be sitting on it very soon. Well was I wrong!

Here's how the bench looked on January 2 and there is even less snow today, a day when the temperature is showing to be +8 (Celsius), 46 (Fahrenheit). The snow out the window looks as if it is March and spring has arrived.

Yesterday during a walk I thought the river really looked like a summer day.

The tiny bit of ice in a quiet place looked very scenic.

I liked how a nearby fence on some steps to a condo were glistening in the late afternoon sun. The glow comes from water, not ice.

Now why am I speaking about yesterday and a couple of days previously. Well, I came back feeling happy after a nice walk and cappuccino and found my laptop had blown up while I was gone. It appears the battery has died, but I think there is something wrong with the operating system too because it will not operate well using electrical power directly.

I tooled around on the Internet for a bit and found battery failure is quite common with the type of computer I had, I explored ordering one online, but decided instead to go shopping. So this blog entry comes from a brand new computer. Got home around 7 PM last evening and started the process of re-installing all the necessary software. Tomorrow I will tackle the old laptop to see if I can recover and move some necessary Word files. Life stays exciting -- but I'm very grateful that in the midst of this I wasn't dealing with snow and ice at the same time.

The Technology Generation

2012-01-02T14:52:00.000-06:00

My daughter and the grand-kids stopped by for a few minutes. They came prepared. My daughter brought her laptop so she could ride on my Wi-Fi and work on Facebook for a bit. My little granddaughter had her cell phone.

My grandson had his nose glued to his DVD player.

My older granddaughter had her was enjoying using her I-Touch on my Wi-Fi, too.

The art of conversation certainly has disappeared during the past decade.

Snap, Crackle, Pop!

2012-01-01T19:19:00.000-06:00

When I looked out the window this morning I found a small bit of snow had arrived. All I had noticed during the night was the howl of the wind.

This is the type of snow that makes the railroad tank cars look as if someone had dropped cake frosting on them.

No need really to plow for this small amount of snow, but the temperature was just right for turning it to a form of crunchy ice. Every car that went by on the street below my window produced the Snap, Crackle, Pop! So that's how New Year's Day was celebrated in this corner of Minnesota.

Finding Poland in Minnesota

2011-12-30T19:18:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail which among other things announced there is now a Polish grocery store in NE Minneapolis. I headed off there today to find it. I quickly learned there is a huge difference in location between Washington Avenue N and Washington Avenue NE. Finally found the right address and knew I was at the right place even though it looked very nondescript.

From the Facebook page for the store, I knew that the sign from the store had been stolen on Christmas Eve.

Inside it's really a piece of Poland.

I was walking from aisle to the next when I noticed a woman carrying a shopping basket. The first thought in my head was that I goofed up in forgetting to do this. Then I remembered I was in Minnesota and I could act like an American while shopping!

You know it's a genuine place when you find kisiel.

I didn't buy that -- in fact I won't even consume it in Poland even when trying to be very polite and culturally appropriate. This is simply not a "food" that an American can appreciate!

Here's what I did bring home. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm very happy to find the juice!

Inside the store I really felt like I was in Poland. No one was speaking English. When I checked out I said, "Dziekuje" and the young man replied, "Witamy." Now that has me stumped!

This store is located in a very good neighborhood for its intended clientele. It is one block from Holy Cross Church, the principle church for the Twin Cities Polish community. Also in the same neighborhood about one block away are also the Ukrainian Catholic Church and a Maronite Catholic Church.

I came home to find a holiday card from one of my Polish students. And earlier this week I found a question on Facebook from another Polish student to whom I have taught English asking me to explain the idiom, easy-going.

It's 132 days until I leave for Romania and now 172 days until I'm on my way to Poland. Love traveling!

We're Havin' a Heat Wave

2011-12-26T19:17:00.000-06:00

--- a tropical heat wave? Today I decided to brave the crowds and go to IKEA to see if I could find a floor lamp. The one in my bedroom went kaput last week, and since there isn't a ceiling light in my bedroom I do need a light of some sort. I've had my car monitoring information set to metric so I can learn the "cold" temperatures in the Celsius system. However, when I got into the car the air temperature was 10 Celsius, hardly cold. I thought it was because my car is parked in an underground garage, but the temperature stayed there -- it really was 10 Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit here today. This evening I learned I learned this temperature broke a record set in 1936 so it is the the warmest December 26 I've ever seen -- and the odds are the warmest I will ever see. Life certainly is easier when one is not battling snow and ice.

Happy Kids

2011-12-26T16:24:00.000-06:00

We had our family gift exchange on Saturday, Christmas Eve Day, since Christmas fell on Sunday when my daughter and the grandchildren spend an extensive time at their church. The kids had a great day.

Here's my little granddaughter all dressed up like a chef.

And now playing nurse:

My grandson wanted a portable DVD player very much. He go lucky. A couple of Sundays ago I took some of the Global Volunteer country managers shopping. They are savvy to the U.S. ways, asked me to stop first for a newspaper so they could get the shopping coupons. Later in the day I was looking through the various ads before putting them in the recycling bag and discovered a very good player was on sale that day at Target so back shopping I went. I got the very last one available in that particular Target store. He might never have received this gift had it not been for the GV country mangers!

My older granddaughter spent time with me in Poland this past summer. She discovered some lotion there that she really liked. She asked, "Will you get me 100 bottles so I will have enough until you go back to Poland next year?" I set my goal for 10 and it took shopping in Warsaw, Siedlce, and Kielce to acquire that many. Often this lotion would have an empty shelf. We were not the only ones who liked this particular blend.

My older daughter and I spent a quiet Christmas Day. It was lovely!

I'm Dreaming of a Brown? Christmas

2011-12-23T21:42:00.000-06:00

Here's another view of the river bench. It looks a bit different than the photo in my blog from December 6.

There is a bit of ice in the river in areas where the current is slow.

Strange weather!

Sister's Catechism -- What Happened to the Magi's Gold?

2011-12-22T22:45:00.005-06:00

Today I did my walk down the street, up the elevator in the Science Museum Parking Ramp and then on to the Ordway Theater. I attended Sister's Catechism -- What Happened to the Magi's Gold? I didn't know exactly what to expect and when I looked at the program I was further confused. There was no listing of characters or scenes in the program. It turns out that is basically a one-woman show and the audience is part of the cast.

Sister made a couple of ladies in the audience take tissues and cover up their cleavage! She chided those looking at their programs and not paying attention to the "lesson." People were given "prizes" for good behavior!

She inquired about the first names of the Virgin Mary's parents. One man popped off the names and then later easily provided the given names for the three Wise Men. When asked if he had attended Catholic school he answered, "Yes, nine years of H*ll."

As the program developed Sister explained she was a great fan of Forensic Files and so wanted to solve the mystery of what happened to the Magi's gold by recreating the scene and the considering motive and opportunity. To re-create the Nativity scene, audience members were recruited and then dressed in the best clothing that one could purchase from the Good Will -- not just clothing -- robes for Wise Men were made from drapes and table clothes!

The mystery was solved, but I'll not tell. You will have to figure it out for yourself.

Here's a bit of the finale:

At the end of the performance "Sister" came back on stage to discuss the need of retired nuns who have no means of support because the Catholic Church decided, for many years, not to participate in the Social Security program. She said she would be out front with a bucket to collect for two groups of sisters. And she was -- the bucket looked as if it was decorated by school children.

I had checked my coat, and so paused to look for the claim check. I had tucked the plastic token into a pocket of my wallet and it wasn't there. I thought perhaps it had dropped out into my purse. I looked and looked and couldn't find it. Decided just to go to coat check to see what they could do. They laughed, and said, "Do you mean this coat?" Turns out somehow the plastic token had been found on the floor and turned in by one of the ushers.

Polish Solidarity in Minnesota

2011-12-14T18:07:00.000-06:00

About two weeks ago a notice came from the Minnesota Polish-American Association announcing there would be an exhibit about Solidarity at the State Capitol. Today is my first day of holiday break so I took off for the Capitol, not realizing it was raining -- an unusual occurrence for Minnesota in December. I was lucky to get a parking space right in front of the Capitol.

The rotunda is decorated quite beautifully for the holidays. I wondered how to find the exhibit and it was right in front of me.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. It covers the two years of 1980 and 1981.

Here are photos of photos that took my special interest.

This photo, by Boguslaw Nieznalski, shows people looking into the Gdansk shipyards while a mass is being said for the striking workers. The faces are so haunting. On this day of despair could they ever have believe the Poland we know is 2011?

This photo shows Anna Walenlynowicz, the worker who was dismissed at the Gdansk Shipyard, and whose dismissal was the apparently the straw the broke the camel's back. I have heard about her, but never before have I seen a photograph of her. (Sorry, I didn't get the name of the photographer.)

The final photo comes the Ursus factory in Warsaw.

This shows Lech Walesa addressing the workers. This caught my interest because as a child in Iowa I was familiar with the Ursus tractors. I didn't know where they came from until I went to visit one of my former students who now lives in the Ursus area of Warsaw. When I went there the first time he explained to me that the Ursus tractor factory used to be there and I was amazed for we had always thought the Ursus tractors came from Russia. (This photo was taken by Tomasz Listopadzki.)

It is quite unusual for such an exhibit to make its way to Minnesota -- everyone is hoping more Polish exhibits will come here.

The Capitol is a very beautiful building; that will be a topic for another time.

Unusual Perspectives

2011-12-11T19:41:00.000-06:00

This is a collection of unusual perspectives which came into my life in the past several days. Above is a picture of the central plaza of my university's area. The snow now makes it look different. Also I was on the upper story of New Main so I saw the area from a different perspective than ground level.

I walked down the street again to the Science Museum area and took the elevator up to the business district level. I walked out on the plaza by the museum and got this lovely picture of the river just at sunset. Here I'm seven building stories above my usual perspective of the Mississippi River.

The reason for the walk was to go to a couple of ticket offices. Here is a perspective of Rice Park as framed by the overhanging arch in front of the Ordway Theatre.

But here's the one that really surprised me.

Look carefully to the left of the red brick house in this photo and you will see the moon. I don't often see this out of my northwest window at breakfast time!

When Will It Snow?

2011-12-06T13:57:00.001-06:00

Some time in late autumn this becomes a common question: When do you think we will get snow? I always say I know exactly when. I know the date that Global Volunteers is bringing in the country managers from around the world for the annual training event. That's when it will snow!

I have made 5 trips to the airport picking up country managers from Poland, Romania, China, India, Greece and Peru. The first three evenings only two of them were here, so I went to their hotel each evening and took them somewhere for an evening meal. One of the early arrivals was the country manager from Tanzania. When he arrived he was so disappointed because there was no snow. The second night we got a dusting of snow to delight our Tanzanian guest, and then on Saturday afternoon, just as if someone turned on a switch, the snow began to fall. It always surprises me that some of these visitors look forward to seeing Minnesota winter.

I took a walk early on Sunday morning and found some delightful scenes. We received 3-4 inches of snow where I live and the snow arrived without any wind. Thus, surprises were everywhere.

Won't sit here for awhile!

Reflection of High Bridge in the Mississippi River

Beauty!

The posts are wearing their snow caps

If the construction wasn't done, it is now!

Even a fence glows in the winter

From Yesterday to Today

2011-12-01T10:41:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning I took a walk, enjoying the warm weather -- at least warm weather for Minnesota -- and admired the colors of the autumn grass.

Today the same type of grasses look like this:

A resident a bit down the street has replaced a Thanksgiving themed flag with an image of the North Wind.

This was a bit hard to photograph because the north wind was indeed blowing!

I've been intrigued about a small construction project down the way.

Yesterday I watched the dig:

The idea of to dig a trench deep enough that one is level with the place on which I was standing when I took this photo. There is another implement digging a trench from the wall over and under the sidewalk. I'm still puzzled about the purpose of laying pipe through this trench. I can't decide if it is to carry water or small pipes to carry electric cables.

Today the upper level is being repaired to return it to normal.

I'll go "snoop" tomorrow and see if I can figure out what the purpose of this project is. Hope you enjoy this view of life along the river.

International Welcome

2011-11-30T08:39:00.002-06:00

People who read my blog regularly know that I volunteer most of the summer in Poland at language camps. I do this through Global Volunteers. Yesterday I picked up the country manager from Poland at the airport and took her to the hotel where they will all be staying during the next couple of weeks for their annual training event. When the hotel manager saw the arriving person from Poland she came out from her office and walked around the reception desk to give the country manager a big hug. I was so delighted. It made me think of when the cleaning ladies who work at Reymontowka came to my class the first day to give me the three kiss Polish greeting. I was so very happy to see that a warm and welcoming greeting happens on this side of the ocean too!

Recently I was at a conference related to study abroad and the speaker related related how as a young woman she traveled on her scooter from Japan to Amsterdam and found "the world is full of dangers and delights." The world is unfortunately full of people who wish to cause trouble and anguish but also full of people who extend friendship, hope, and peace.

Christmas Lighting

2011-11-26T19:56:00.005-06:00

This afternoon we walked down the street and across the road to the entrance of the Science Museum parking ramp and then took the elevator up the 8 stories to the city level. We headed to Rice Park for the Christmas tree lighting. Rice Street has been called one of the most beautiful parks in the United States. I have always thought so, and it's nice to have one's judgment affirmed by an outside source.

It is one city block square and surrounded on all four sides by very beautiful buildings. To the north is Landmark Center. This building started in 1901 as the Federal Building, held everything from courts to a place to become a citizen to a place yet to file a land grant. There is sort of a joke that Saint Paul still has such a beautiful building because it was too slow to do urban renewal in the 1960s. Now the building holds museums and non-profits.


Landmark Center

To the west is the Ordway Theater.

To the south is Central Library.

On the east is the Saint Paul Hotel, but I really never got a good photo of that today. In the summer there is a beautiful English garden in the front of the hotel. Now the garden is full of Christmas trees. Here is my older daughter by one of the trees. One can tell that the wind was blowing just a bit!!

We also saw Santa

and horse carriages

and smelled the Kettle Corn

Elena really enjoys watching ice skating but the TV today was all football all the time. So she was happy when we found the ice rink and found a skating exhibition as part of the opening of the rink for the season.

We went into Landmark Center mostly to warm up a bit. Oh, the noise! Lowe's was sponsoring an opportunity for kids to make a Christmas ornament. The sound of about 50 children hammering was quite something.

Back out into the park we saw singers and dancers and then finally the tree lighting. If you listen carefully, you can hear the countdown. The tree was donated by a St. Paul couple. This must be a tree that no longer fits the yard or field in which it is growing. You can glimpse it -- look for the blue tree - but enjoy the fireworks, too.

Above a picture of the tree taken from in front of the library. Altogether there are 20,000 LED lights in the park. It's quite a display.

Walking back home we found a hard north wind blowing in our face. We decided to walk on the river side of the buildings to see if they could block the wind a bit. It was dark now, for it was a bit after 6 PM. We met a woman walking two dogs and suddenly she said, "I know you." Turns out to be one of my former colleagues from the my time at the Minnesota Department of Health.

An interesting afternoon!

November Night LIght

2011-11-25T18:18:00.000-06:00

We started out for a 4:45 movie and then remembered we planned to watch the Holidazzle Parade on TV this evening, so we headed back home. Instead we drove to Mears Park, also called Lowertown Park now to see the lights. I thought after business hours on Thanksgiving Friday it would be easy to find a parking space.

Here's a video too.

Hope you enjoy a bit of the holiday lights. Here they last until the end of the Winter Carnival in early February. Helps to make the winter nights of long darkness a bit more fun!

November Light

2011-11-25T15:48:00.002-06:00

November is often a dull month in Minnesota. The colors are just brown, black and gray, and everything looks dull and it's the cloudiest month in Minnesota.

This year we hare having unusually warm weather. Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, was the warmest Thanksgiving Day since 1990 with temperatures here in the high 50s (13 as measured in Europe and elsewhere). The first snow fall has all disappeared.

This morning was cloudy, but by late morning the sun appeared and my daughter and I took a quick walk along the river. The November light brings wonderful water reflections.

Walking downstream we admired the reflection of the Minnesota Showboat in the river.

Walking upstream produced this beautiful reflection of an arch of the High Bridge. People who visit me often look at this bridge and say, "How do the cars get up there?" It's quite deceptive but obviously both ends of the bridge are on ground level. The bluff on the south side of the river is much higher than the bluff on the north side of the river -- the real river buffs refer to these as the east and west side. Going downstream the right hand bank is always called the west, no matter what direction it really is! Thus, the suburb immediately to the south of St. Paul is called West St. Paul, and that area still within the city limits of St. Paul is called the West Side.

My Window View of the World

2011-11-23T19:30:00.000-06:00

I spend hours in front of the computer both evaluating students' work as well this semester designing and revising courses for the spring semester. Out my window I see a small pond and I drive by it every time I leave. I noticed it was very low, since we have had a very, very dry fall season. The warm weather today got me to walking in that direction -- and on November 23 -- I went out in my shirt sleeves, no coat!

Notice on the left hand side where you can see the dark bank, how low the pond has gotten. This pond is designed to catch rain water and to keep it and pollutants it may carry from going directly into the Mississippi River. During the summer there is a fountain in the middle. This keeps the water moving and prevents this from becoming a breeding area for mosquitoes. In the distance is the business district for Saint Paul.

On my way I admired the flower pots now decorated for the holiday season.

I also noticed how Mother Nature has decorated for the season.

Signs of Change

2011-11-22T12:14:00.000-06:00

Winter is trying its best to creep in. On Sunday my older daughter and I walked to the Science Museum to see the IMAX film about the Amazon. When the film was done we were exited in the cafe area. The following view caught my eye.

No one will be sitting here for awhile. But I will be doing that next year when the weather is warm. i didn't know this area was here.

Early this morning just after dawn -- which really isn't that early this time of year -- I took a walk to see how the world has changed since we had a bit of a snow fall.

The stick fairy has been out. For those of you who live in warm areas -- these sticks mark the edges of sidewalks and help the snow shoveler know where to shovel when all is covered with several inches of snow.

I also enjoyed seeing how the snow fall outlines the steps in front of the pavilion on Harriett Island.

Spotted a flock of ducks here this morning, just seemed to be hanging out. Maybe trying to decide if it's time to fly south.

The Signs and Shapes of Academia

2011-11-19T06:21:00.003-06:00

On Wednesday evening I attended a short event at the Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota. This is an annual event, but held this year later in the fall semester than usual. That occurred to me when I recalled 2 years ago we had to hunker down while a huge wind/hail storm blew over -- a strong enough storm that storm warning sirens were blowing. This November day was much too cold for such a weather system to develop.

So I saw a different view -- the contrast of the dusk sky through the high wall and ceiling n the Main Hall of this building.

Yesterday I attended a workshop for the faculty in the entire MNSUC system, held at St. Cloud State University.

More interesting shapes -- the workshop was held in a building called the Atwood Center. This is a rather ugly 1960s style building built when concrete construction was the latest fad. The inside of the building, however, is warm and inviting.

I saw signs of two interesting ideas almost right next to each other as I walked to the meeting room. First a sign -- Foot Washing-- caught my eye. I realized a place was set aside for those of the Islam faith to prepare for prayer. Immediately to my left was a table for the Secular Student Organization -- a brochure about atheism caught my eye.

In the meeting room I enjoyed this window design:

Walking around during a break I came upon an interesting sculpture:

I was quite surprised when looking at the tag by it to learn the artist was an elementary school class!

These shapes probably caught my eye because the outdoors is all brown -- we are having the driest fall in about 50 years-- a balance from the wettest one last year that led to the fall Mississippi River flood.

Time to enjoy new views such as this (also from the Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota):

Now I just have to let this day develop to learn if tomorrow I can show white stuff -- that is snow.

Sunrise to Sunset

2011-11-15T16:46:00.000-06:00

I woke up about 4:30 AM and had breakfast done by 5 AM. By this time in November it is dark outside yet. About 6:30 I decided to go for a walk and captured a view of sunrise.

The light was perfect for reflections in the river.

A pole in the river used for anchoring barges made an interesting reflection.

In only a couple of minutes it became apparent there was more light. Here's another interesting reflection in the river, looking across to Harriett Island. The bridge like structure is actually an area for summer concerts and events.

After a busy and very long day, since it started so early, I'm about to go out for what at work is called "Impromptu Fun Night." But before I leave here's a view of sunset as it looks about 4:35 PM in my part of Minnesota.

The sun is glowing under the High Bridge.

Geese at the Spa?

2011-11-13T18:25:00.002-06:00

I have papers to read from one course and for some reason this group of students are the poorest writers I've had in the 10 years I've been teaching at this University. I decided to take a walk as a bit of a break from reading and commenting on these papers.

I was surprised to see a flock of geese floating along in the river. I counted almost 50 in the flock. They were not eating; they just appeared to be taking a Sunday break in their routine. Is this the goose equivalent of going to the spa?

In the background one can see the University of Minnesota Showboat. The house is dark now -- no shows until next summer.

Those geese could have taken a city tour in the limo I found parked outside the door.

Haven't seen one this size since I lived in Pecs and watched an entire women's basketball team come out of a limo.

Early November Scenes

2011-11-11T17:37:00.001-06:00

Not much excitement in the past few days. The Minnesota world is moving towards a season change.

One big activity is removing the fallen leaves. Here's the lawn service working and on another day the city came and swept the streets. It's best to get the leaves removed before they get mixed up with snow, particularly on the streets.

One early evening when I headed out for a walk the moon was so big over the river that it was easy to get it's photo.

Had to go to a meeting in downtown office building so walked one morning. My route takes me down the street about 4 blocks and then over to a place where I can enter the parking ramp for the Science Museum. I take the elevator up 9 floors and then I'm at city level. I was surprised on an early November morning to see the tourist trolley right outside the door.

And I was correct. As soon as the Halloween decorations went down, the Christmas decorations went up. These are at Target.

I made the announcement at work about retiring yesterday. I was most surprised for being congratulated for this! One wise friend told me not to retire until I knew what was the next thing. I do, and I'm looking forward to contributing to the world, but having more freedom, too!

Happy News

2011-11-07T11:18:00.004-06:00

The news reached the U.S. about the emergency landing last week of the LOT flight from Newark. Today on my local news I learned the pilots have been awarded Medals of Honor by the President of Poland. This is well deserved. I felt a relationship with all of this because I have flown many flights across the ocean with LOT. We had a discussion, surprisingly, about this in one of my classes and I told my students I wasn't the least surprised about the success of this. Polish people are brilliant at dealing with problems and now their interaction with technology.

Now about Noise in the Night. The very good maintenance man for our building appeared at my door this morning and got the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide monitors all back into working order. The carbon monoxide monitor needed new batteries and one smoke detector proved to be defective. What an experience! I hope if they ever break again they pick a weekday to do when help is more readily available than for Sunday staffing.

Noise in the Night

2011-11-06T17:26:00.001-06:00

I was awakened at 2:15, just after we made the change back from daylight time by a monitor going off in my bedroom. At first I thought something had happened with the systems when the time changed. Then I thought it was the smoke alarm, a signal of a low battery or something like that. I shut the bedroom door and spent the rest of the night on the living room sofa. The sound was coming loudly every 15 seconds!!! With nine foot ceilings I had nothing in the apartment that would give me enough of a lift to take care of the problem.

Thankfully, I slept again for awhile When I awoke I left a voice mail about the problem morning and then called back to the building office at 12:15 after staff had arrived. I was assured someone would be by in a few minutes. When no one had shown up in 2 hours I went over to the office and found there was only one person working and she was very busy with prospective renters. She told me she would have someone fix this very quickly.

My daughter arrived about an hour later. She took the smoke alarms down and the noise continued. That's when we discovered it was the carbon monoxide monitor making all the noise. We took that down and changed the batteries and it still made noise. So now one smoke alarm and the carbon monoxide monitor are lying on a shelf waiting for maintenance help. There are many people in the world truly suffering so I tried not to feel too sorry for myself with the noise every 15 seconds -- noise I could still hear with my Ipod on and ear buds in place!

Woodwinds Adventure

2011-11-03T09:04:00.001-05:00

I had to go a late afternoon meeting yesterday at a place I've heard about, but have never visited.

Here is the delightful view I found when entering:

In the photo above you can glimpse scenes in the stair railing. This same railing guards a walkway on the second level all along the atrium. Here's a view of the one of the railing scenes:

Out the window is this lovely view:

When I got to the meeting room I selected a seat near the window so I could enjoy this autumn view:

So where was I? At a hotel? At a conference center? No, at a hospital!

This is Woodwinds Hospital which takes quite seriously that individuals have a body, mind, and spirit. Click here for more information.

Imre Makovecz

2011-11-02T14:28:00.000-05:00

In looking at my blog statistics I find some arrive here after searching for Imre Makovecz buildings. I tried the same Google search and never got to my blog. However, from of all places ,Ghana News, I found the sad news that Makovecz died in September. It is one of the blessings of my life to have learned about his work and seen some of his buildings while living in Hungary. Click here to find more information about his work and life.

Decision Time

2011-11-01T16:28:00.002-05:00

I received some very disappointing news at work on Monday, right at the start of a week that has held other disappointing and distressing information from a volunteer activity I do too. The only thing I can say is that's good to get it all at one time and then move on!

I came home Monday after being upset and decided the most constructive thing to do would be to take a bit of a walk. So out the back door on the river side of the building and look what I saw:

I spied this coming downstream and wondered, "What's this?" So I waited until it got closer. Remember Monday was Halloween -- is this a steamboat dressed up for Halloween? The only thing I can figure out is perhaps equipment and supplies are being transported downstream where a new bridge is being constructed.

Here's a close up:

I've never before seen anything that looked so "messy" on the river.

The outdoors brought me some beauty too. While the leaves are fast disappearing, this one was there:

And I walked down a different street than usual and found this lovely rain garden.

Because we are so very close to the river, there are many areas like this to hold the rain water so it doesn't just pour into the river bringing along all the by-products of car traffic and other unwanted things from the street. These spots bring a lot of beauty, too.

Now for the decision -- I have been trying to get a bit of reduced work schedule, but that request was denied -- so I hit the computer last night and wrote a memo announcing that I would simply retire. For awhile I couldn't imagine not working, but now I'm beginning to wonder why I want to put up with all the office politics and some of the inequities that are going on.

I printed the retirement memos out last night and got up at 6:30 this morning. I was in the office with the sealed envelopes pushing them into office boxes by 7:05AM. Then I went up the road to a Panera restaurant and had breakfast. Remember it's still dark at this time. (We don't change to standard time until this weekend.) I love this place; it's wonderful to walk in and get some good food and sit by the fire.

So that's what I've been up to!

Last Day of Autumn?

2011-10-30T19:11:00.001-05:00

My older daughter and I took a small trip today to the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge. I had attended a conference near here this past week and realized we had not visited for quite a long time. On a Facebook page a person said this day smelled like snow.

The sky today definitely has the "blue" look of November. This view is from an overlook over wetlands for the Minnesota River. The river begins on the very western border of Minnesota where the border has a bit of a bulge to the west. It flows rather than a half circle going quite far south before it curves back north to join the Mississippi River about 4 miles upstream from where I live. The water that comes in from the Minnesota is what has caused the most recent floods in this area.

We did see a bit of bright color.

The museum has two very interesting banners. They are huge -- perhaps 100 feet wide by 30 feet high.

Here is a part of one. It looks like it is made from pixels and you are right.

Above are some of the "pixels" for this banner.

Here is the banner in another area:

And here is a part of the bird's leg:

We did a short walk outside. These weeds below are quite ready for wind or birds to carry the seeds about.

We have one day of October and then it's November, the dreary month in Minnesota. By December the weather is much colder but we get sunny, blue skies. The trick for November is to stay busy! With my schedule that's not a problem.

Halloween

2011-10-29T14:48:00.001-05:00

Somewhere yesterday I heard two adults give each other a final greeting: Have a happy Halloween. I'm trying to figure just when this turned into such a major holiday. I heard recently that it has become even more an adult holiday than a children's holiday. Looked around on the net and found an estimate that more than $6 billion would be spent on Halloween decorations, costumes, and candy.

Everything turns to pumpkins everywhere.

I found these outside Kowalski's grocery storm on Grand Avenue.

Target decorates for Halloween --

but probably on Tuesday it will turn to Christmas overnight.

There are as many greeting cards for Halloween as for Christmas or birthdays.

I thought perhaps Halloween celebrations aren't as modern I thought when I found this book display:

but I'm thinking perhaps the Christie book instead has a new cover for the 21st century.

Two memories emerge as this time of the year. One is the very memorable 1991 Halloween blizzard when we got 28 inches of snow. Because the streets were very warm -- the weather had gone from summer to winter in about 24 hour -- all of this snow turned to glaciers on the streets. It took road graders rather than snow plows to remove it.

The other -- my younger daughter was enrolled in Spanish Immersion School. The School had Amity teachers -- young university graduates from other countries. One of the Amity teachers taught a lesson as Dios de los muertos. At the next PTA meeting one parent complained about this, saying she didn't want her child to be exposed to Satanic practices. The Amity teacher burst into tears and the rest of us sat there with our jaws dropped, quite literally, recognizing this to be important holiday and commemoration in other cultures and there is nothing Satanic about it. . Finally some got themselves well enough together to tell this parent that if she didn't want her child to learn about other cultures, she had certainly enrolled her in the wrong school.

Love the Credit Union

2011-10-26T17:40:00.000-05:00

I've been with Affinity Plus Credit Union ever since it had a former name. I always feel sorry for people who do their financial work with a bank. A bank exists to make money for the shareholders. A credit union exists to provide financial services for its members and that is huge difference. Some of my fellow Fulbrighters had bank charges for using their credit or debit cards while in Europe. The only charge I got was when the Fulbright office wired money to my account.

Last week I needed a document in association with a former car loan. I knew it probably existed somewhere in my apartment, but just where was that box since my move from a house. Rather than going crazy trying to find something, I simply stopped by the credit union and explained my problem. In 10 minutes the staff there provided me with the information needed, plus the signatures on it were notarized so that there was no question about whether it was an official document.

Last evening I went to an event at the Minnesota History Center. Before it started I went to the Museum Shop as was delighted to find a puzzle that is a map of the United States. The ones we have at Reymontowka have been used and loved too much and new ones are needed, and actually this kind of puzzle is hard to find. When I went to pay for this, I realized my debit card was missing. I thought for certain I'd left it in an ATM on Monday evening. While getting some cash things dropped out of my wallet and I was certain that distraction caused me to forget picking up the debit card. This morning I went to the credit union with my sad story. We verified that no one else has been using the card. I was also told that since I had not removed it from the machine, the ATM would suck it back in and destroy the card. I walked out from the credit union with a new card in about five minutes. I really hate to think what might have happened had I had to go to the one of the banks in this community.

Where's the water in Europe?

2011-10-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

While walking this morning I happened upon this colorful fire hydrant. Suddenly I remember fire hydrant turning up on a vocabulary sheet while teaching English in Poland this summer and having the kids quite puzzled about what it was. That weekend I went to Kielce and while walking around I tried to figure out what firefighters used for a water source in Poland. I'm quite certain I never saw a fire hydrant in Hungary either. Might I have translated somewhat correctly about a plate in the street that can be opened? That was my guess about where firefighters might get a water supply. Send me a comment. It will help me teach English next summer.

Colors of Autumn

2011-10-22T19:06:00.000-05:00

A walk in the late afternoon revealed many beautiful autumn colors.

This summer flower was found showing its face in a courtyard in a nearby condo complex.

These long stalks I think are mullen. My mother used to gather these and spray them gold and use them in winter holiday decorations.

Gold is a real autumn color.

And so are red leaves.

While walking I also found a sign of spring. Readers of this blog will remember stories of the Spring 2011 Mississippi River flood. My walk was on a trail that was totally flooded when I left for Hungary in late April and still not ready for walking when I left to Poland in mid-June. Today I noticed the fence which showed the height of the river on this trail by the mud left behind on the fence.

Enjoy!

Walking Along the River in Autumn

2011-10-21T09:11:00.000-05:00

I took a walk along the Mississippi River right back of my apartment just about sunset. Interesting things are to be found.

One is pretty bush coming into bloom, shown here next to the native grasses. It is unusual to find pink blossoms in fall.

Here is a photo that shows the flower more closely.

We have had some very windy days and that has blown away a lot of leaves with some of the trees now looking like this.

Just how windy can be shown in the video below of the roses trying to hang on.

I heard a sound and turned to see some bike riders whiz by. It's a short video because they were truly flying!

As I turned to walk back to my apartment the sun was now on my back. I noticed how long the shadows are this time of year.

This looks funny because the wind was blowing my coat open, thus the triangle shape.

Hope you all enjoy these views !

Walking around Wood Lake

2011-10-20T20:47:00.000-05:00

My older daughter and I recently took a walk around Wood Lake. Wood Lake is in the suburb of Richfield, a suburb immediately south of Minneapolis. The entire lake is part of nature center, and just one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, but we know there are more. Wikipedia says that are 11,842 lakes that are 40,000 square meters or more (Americans-- that's 10 acres).

Our views were beautiful.

About half way around we encountered this wonderful little bouncy bridge.

On the north side of the lake we walked through a bit of a forested area. I found the sunlight on the trees to be interesting images.

We've not yet had a hard freeze in this area, but flowers are becoming fleeting. Thus, we enjoyed these brave little flowers. Where I was raised we always called these Brown-Eyed Susans, but I'm sure they have a more formal name.

Hoe you enjoyed this stroll around Wood Lake.

Sharing the weather

2011-10-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

The image above comes from the weather blog maintained by Minnesota Public Radio. For many years I kept the temperature from my home city in Minnesota next to the temperature for Siedlce, Poland on my computer. I marveled how many times the temperatures were the same or within 1 or 2 degrees. After doing this for a couple of year I went to book signing by Mark Seeley, a climatologist at the University of Minnesota. In response to a question from an audience member, he said we have a weather system that rotates around the Arctic Circle. I could understand that abstractly, but this photo today really helps one to see how this might be possible.

Now the similarity doesn't always work. Last summer while I was freezing in Poland the weather in Minnesota was setting heat records!

Back to the photo above -- it shows the snow in Siberia. The weather blog writers say there is evidence building that shows that the October snow falls in Siberia have something to do with the cycle of cold weather we will get in Minnesota in the winter. Thus far, we don't call October winter!! That means late December and early January when its really frigid due for one reason to the shortness of the days and lack of sunshine to warm the world here.

Thank you, thank you

2011-10-16T19:42:00.000-05:00

Today my blog passed 7000 page views. I thank all of you who have found my words worth a bit of your time.

Seasons of the Year

2011-10-15T21:44:00.000-05:00

Here is Minnesota we have a saying, "There are two seasons: winter and road construction." My Polish friends tell me they have the same one.

It's a little heavier than usual. with the construction of light rail into St. Paul.

I took this picture today from a park overlook of the intersection of University Avenue and Robert Street. This is about one block west of the Capitol Building.

Yesterday I took the photo below of the construction for the 4th Street Station.

It is quite obviously taken through the car window. Was I doing something even worse than texting and driving? No, I was stopped at such a long stop light that I dug into my bag for the camera, took the photo, and put the camera away all before the light changed.

International Conference at Home

2011-10-10T19:50:00.000-05:00

I'm attending the 2nd International Public Health Nursing Conference, being held here in Saint Paul.

It is being attended by public health nurses from 15 countries in addition to the United States and by public health nurses from 22 of states.

The title of the conference relates to the idea that our societies around the world need public health nurses more than ever but public health nurses are quite invisible to the average citizen or the political decision makers.

We heard a wonderful presentation by a public health nurse from Norway -- with an Irish accent since that is her birth country -- about her interviews with nurses, clients, and policy makers about what public health nurses do. This speaker had an interesting technique. When she came to place where she wanted to summarize and then move to new part of her presentation, she put up a picture of her home in Norway --- way, way, up in the northern part of Norway.

She said this photo is taken from her bathroom window in April:

The second morning presentation was given by two public health nurses from Madison, WI, about their Health Equity team and the work they are doing to reduce violence and revitalize neighborhoods in the Madison. Their work amazed all of us, even though everyone in the audience knew that there is much more to nursing than working in a hospital and passing medications.

I've been enjoying seeing professional colleagues I've not seen for awhile. They all ask if I'm still working. One participant, bless her heart, approached me to say the class I gave her provided her with needed skills to be an excellent public health nurse. Readers of my blog may know I'm having a stressful semester with all the courses I have to get ready for spring semester. Nice to get a comment like my former student gave me. Another former student said, "Oh, I was hoping you would be here."

This evening they all went out on the Jonathan Padleford. I decided to simply walk out the back door and wave at them.

Lower Landing Views

2011-10-08T19:07:00.000-05:00

In my last blog I wrote about how noncommercial the river looks out my door. That's because I live at Upper Landing where there really isn't much boat traffic.

About a mile downstream is the Lower Landing. The views there are a bit different.

I drive by this area every time I go to work. It is fun to see what may have appeared from the last trip. For the last couple days there have been four tow boats moored there. A couple are obviously doing maintenance -- my clue was the open paint cans!

Here is a close up of the Sierra Dawn. It is owned by the Admiral company.

I think the coiled ropes on deck look like art. This afternoon 4 members of the crew were sitting out on deck in the late afternoon sun. I asked them how they were enjoying Minnesota summer, since again today the temperature is in the lower 80s, (26 C).

Every day like this is one less day of winter!

Oh Poor Me!

2011-10-05T19:54:00.001-05:00

That may need a bit of "translation" for those of you from other countries. This comment really means the opposite, that I have access to something quite wonderful.

Here is the view I see these mornings over breakfast. The autumn colors are coming in quite beautifully. This view is over Shepard Road and over two sets of train tracks. One would never know! Right now we get just a glimpse of an old brick house up on the bluff. When the leaves fall off the house becomes more prominent and I still have a great view.

This evening I went for a walk about 7 PM. Now the darkness is coming at that time, but the temperature this evening was still close to 80 degrees ( 26 C for those of you measure temperature that way).

Here is one view of the river this evening. In many ways it is surprising how wild and noncommercial the river is at this point.

And another. There is a building in the upper left of the photo with a blinking light. That is the 1st National Bank building. For many years it was traditional that the color of this light told one the weather forecast. Now it simply blinks in red, keeping the traditional a bit alive.

Hope you enjoy a little bit of Minnesota autumn.

2theloo -- who knew?

2011-10-04T04:33:00.000-05:00

Looking at my blog stats I see someone got there by searching for 2theloo. I was amazed by these in the renovated Warsaw train station. But whoever hit my blog caused me to search more, and I find this is a new business from the Netherlands. Who knew?

Carpathian Festival

2011-10-03T14:38:00.001-05:00

From an e-mail from the Polish-American Minnesota chapter I learned about a Carpathian Festival being sponsored by the Minnesota Hungarian Association. I ordered a ticket and went to a dance festival on Sunday afternoon. It was terrific!

The web site for the Minnesota Hungarian Association says this is the first Carpathian Festival in North America. There are multiple events for the festival and now I bummed out that I have a work commitment on Tuesday night because I'd love to go the historical "archeological" dig at the Minnesota History Center that is part of the festival.

But let's get on with this wonderful event. The MC for the program introduced that the theme for this event was culture through the Carpathians, going on to note how country boundaries move and one country's cultural group is suddenly found in another country. Speaking of culture in this manner, he said: " it ain't simple; complexity is wonderful." He is referring to how all the Carpathian culture mixes through many of the countries, and in fact, my first sentence illustrates the complexity -- learning about something the Minnesota Hungarian Association is doing from the Polish-American Minnesota group. Also cultures from one country may be in another country, particularly if one is looking at Hungarian culture which has significant populations in Transylvania in Romania as well as within Slovakia.

But let's get on with the fun -- and first -- all the videos have music. You may wish to adjust the audio on your computer.

A musical group- Duvo Ensemble-- played alone and also provided music for many of the dancers. Their music is terrific, much better than the sound I could capture in the videos below.They played one song at the very beginning and then moved to the side of stage. I never got a good photo or video of them, but hey! you've got their web site if you want more info.

The first dancers appearing were the Lipa Slovak Dancers

The above dance features just two men. What I didn't know until today is that some of these male dances were designed to recruit soldiers for the various armies. Below is a view of the greater group of dancers from Lipa.

We next went to the Ukraine for music by the Ukrainian Village Band. This group was founded in 2006 and specializes in early 20th century Ukrainian music. The combination of instruments provided an entirely different sound. If this music is associated with the Carpathian basin then it must be from western Ukraine.

The next group, the Videki Hungarian Dancers gave us yet another sound. Their performance featured music from Magyarbod, a Hungarian town now in present day Slovakia. It features the polyphonic sound associated with some Slovakian music.

This group was followed by Pal Mlinar and Katalin Korosi Mlinar. This couple specialize in dances from this region. The MC explained they are so skillful that they now improvise rather than choreograph their pieces. I'm guessing they live in Hungary since Pal has a Hungarian Facebook page. They danced several times during this show, but the one I liked best was the Roma dance below.

I had heard about the group, Dolina Polish Folk Dancers. I didn't realize how wonderfully talented this group is until I saw this performance. Dolina has been around for 62 years and their director has been working with the group for 30 years and it shows! They are super.

The MC explained that in conjunction with the theme of the Carpathian basin that Dolina was presenting dances from the Beskid. Mountains areas. The MC was of Hungarian origin and I enjoyed seeing him stumble over the Polish words in his introduction of this group!

The Dolina performance began with the men displaying their skills.. As soon as I saw them I recognized they were dressed as the mountain culture, but it is a little different than how men dress in Zakopane. One difference I noticed is that the hats do not have sea shells. And if a reader is curious about why men's hats in Zakpane have sea shells add a comment and I'll explain there.

And here is one with the entire company. I had staked out a seat in the very front row of the auditorium so I could get good pictures. Unfortunately, so had a professional photographer who didn't care at all that he walked about during the performances. In the video below he crosses for a moment.

Dolina was followed by the St. Paul Czech and Slovak Folk Dancers. This group began in 1962 and work to keep alive the Bohemian and Moravian traditions -- cultures that were located now in the boundaries of the Czech Republic. The MC noted dances such as the waltz and murzuka came from these cultures, and much did to my delight, he noted also the polka comes from this area. So many people in the United States think this is traditional dance of Poland, and it's not.

The final performance featured all the dancers and musicians joining together to celebrate Uncle Lajos's Namesday. It started with a group of men celebrating and enjoying slivovitz. Then women came to present flowers and finally all began dancing! A celebration with a celebration of Carpathian music. What a wonderful afternoon.

I could tell I was in a bit of Hungarian culture because of the calls of Bravo! during some of the performances and the group sort of did the rhythmic clapping that is used in Hungary, particularly, to call for an encore.Hungarians have a unique way of doing this.

And minds in blog land think alike. I had thought about saying that if you liked these dances to perhaps look back on my blog from the dance festival in Pecs in 2010. And today in my blog stats I see someone already has -- saved me the trouble of going through the blog and looking for the date: April 30

Hope you enjoyed a bit of trip to Carpathians!

Lovely Saturday

2011-10-02T10:35:00.001-05:00

What does one do on a lovely Saturday in the autumn? Work! About 75 of us gathered for a special seminar on the health care costs, health care reform, and the impact of those two concepts on business and the economy in the United States. All the presentations were very good and now it appears I may need to revise the final module in the Health Policy class for spring semester -- a task that may be a bit difficult because that is one of the files that disappeared during this past week's computer meltdown. (However, I may have found a place to get into the back-up files -- for awhile I kept getting a message I wasn't authorized to do so, but made it last night. Since I'm the only person who uses this particular computer I fairly puzzled about not being authorized to get into my own back-up files.)

We had lunch, a speaker, and then a panel discussion in the Great Hall at my university. This has two story windows that overlook the St. Paul skyline and the Mississippi River Valley.

After the event concluded I walked outside on the balcony and took a couple of photos.

This one faces north and catches a corner of the library building. Seventh Street is shown at the bottom of the picture.

Here is the view we enjoyed during the luncheon events. One can see a bit of fall color, but the peak has not yet hit this part of Minnesota. Last Saturday I had lunch with former colleagues from the Minnesota Department of Health. One used to travel the entire state and she remarked that one thing she missed was seeing the color change from north to south. She said, "Now I only get to see what's out the door at home."

All the Bad Stuff in One Day

2011-09-29T12:28:00.000-05:00

Last evening my home computer got hit with some malware. I knew that using system restore is the thing to do, after having the same thing happening when I was in Hungary. But the system restore didn't work quite right and I lost a lot of files. I got back three critical ones between 4:30 - 6:00 AM this morning -- that should give you an idea of what kind of night I had.

Then I went to meeting this morning and found some of my favorite courses may be cut out of the programs. I spent 6 weeks (no pay, volunteer time!) in the summer of 2009 creating one of the courses, and now we are cutting it out! The Dean asked if I was upset and I said it was a $25,000 course, because if I had had more time that summer I could have sold my house a year earlier and received more money for it. The only thing I can say is that is nice to have everything bad on one day.

Walking Adventures

2011-09-28T20:24:00.000-05:00

The blog has been quiet for awhile because I was certain no one wanted to hear complaints about my immense workload. Little by little some things get done.

Today I had a meeting in downtown Saint Paul, so I decided the best thing would be to take a bus to the office and then later take the bus again to the meeting, saving a huge parking fee. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk to a bus stop now. I walk about 5 blocks to a place where I can cross Shepard Road and the rail tracks. From there I enter the parking ramp for the Science Museum, take the elevator up 9 floors which takes me to the top of the bluff where the downtown area is located. From the Science Museum it is another three blocks, one of the blocks being walking through a lovely park.

After my meeting in the early afternoon the route needed to be done again. The first thing I saw coming out of the building where I had the meeting was a bit of the new light rail track.

I kept walking towards the Science Museum and came upon a lovely view of the river framed between two buildings.

Near the Science Museum I saw a sure sign of fall or autumn as it is called in proper British English!

And in the Science Museum a sign of science!

Can't figure it out perhaps? It's a pterodactyl skeleton in the ceiling of the lobby area. The parallel lines are glass inserts in the ceiling.

It was indeed a lovely day for walking about, almost too warm for walking when dressed a bit professionally.

First in the Nation

2011-09-18T21:49:00.000-05:00

The above video is about a new profession, Advanced Dental Therapist. Many of my colleagues worked long and hard hours to make this happen. As the video ends you will see this type of health professional exists in many other nations.

Here a Turkey, There a Turkey

2011-09-18T17:39:00.001-05:00

No they aren't on Old McDonald's farm. My older daughter and I went out to do some shopping this afternoon. About a one minute drive from my apartment we came upon a flock of wild turkeys. We are quite used to geese everywhere here, but seeing flocks of turkeys is still a bit unusual. But we weren't done. On our way back to Saint Paul we saw a second flock of wild turkeys in the lawn of the Fort Snelling Officers' Club. Didn't have my camera, but even if I had it, there still would not be photos as these sightings were in places where one could not stop for a photo anyway

A Teacher's Work is Never Done

2011-09-14T20:39:00.000-05:00

Looking at my blog stats caused me to see why someone looked this week at my posting from November 9 last year. I went back to that and found I was writing about doing hard work then on revising two course for Spring Semester knowing that would "make next year easier." Well, here's to report that plan didn't turn out.

The two courses I worked on last fall have to be done all over because the textbook publisher brought out new editions of the book associated with these courses. One of these has to be revised, too, to satisfy both master's and doctoral requirements at the same time. And I've inherited a course for spring semester from another faculty member. She agreed the online web site needs to be revised, and in addition I've had to figure out how to do many, many activities differently because the number of students has increased by 50%. And at this same time I'm also trying to develop a totally new course for spring semester. Life did not get simpler.

At work we try to practice what we preach to students -- that nurses need a self care plan to deal with the difficult work they do. Today at lunch we were talking about this a bit. I said my plan was to try to keep my stress level down low enough that I wouldn't take it out on anyone else!

And the students I will have in the "inherited" course in spring are in my fall course right now so it is 50% bigger too than it was last year.

And I just took a burned apple crisp out of the oven because I didn't set the timer. I kept working on the computer waiting for the timer to go off. Well it doesn't go off if it is never set! Oh, well, if not more damage from stress than burned apple crisp, it won't be too bad.

Mundane?

2011-09-13T17:55:00.000-05:00

Two things for today. For most of the time since I've returned from Europe my toilet has been "gurgling." I finally got around to calling the property manger and getting a work order put in, but then not much happened. This morning I decided that if no one had contacted me that I would stop at the office and see the status of my work order. The sound has been annoying enough that I've been up in the night pulling the bathroom door shut. Wouldn't you know!?! This morning just after my shower when I was wrapped up only in a towel with a toothbrush in my mouth, someone began knocking on the door. I told him he would have to wait a bit. I went to work with the bathroom occupied by maintenance workers. This evening in the garage one was cleaning up the floor after taking out all the recycling for this week. He stopped me to say that a gasket needed replacement. Finally silence again!

And perhaps also mundane -- today I committed to working one more academic year. Right now we are without a contract, and probably won't have one by the date of October 1 when I would have to put in a letter. So I'm going to wait to see what the retirement options are in the new contract we get. I'm doing so much course revision for spring semester that I want to stay around and teach some of those classes!

An Evening Walk

2011-09-10T22:09:00.000-05:00

My older daughter and I went for a walk along the Mississippi River, just out the door, at the time of the early evening when there was still sun, but the moon was appearing and the lights were coming on. This is beautiful time.

The river boats were nicely framed by the open doors in the "head house" associated with the grain elevator museum which is a few steps down river from my building.

I also got a bit of nearly full moon in the sky with its reflection on the river water.

And finally here's a video of one of the tour boats coming into the dock

Love living where three steps from my building takes me to such beautiful sites.

Dusk

2011-09-05T20:05:00.000-05:00

The past few evenings the view out my window has been splendid with the clouds. Enjoy the view.

Skate Barge Weekend

2011-09-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

We've been hearing that the Skate Barge was coming and Friday afternoon it showed up. The Skate Barge is the idea of avid Twin Cities skate boarders who decided they'd done about everything possible on the river except skate board. Finally they pitched this wild idea to Red Bull who said yes, maybe because Red Bull had such a great experience withe Flugtag here in 2010.

When I was driving home on Friday afternoon I practically blinded by bright lights from the barge. The angle was simply wrong as one came driving down the hill towards the river. I parked in the garage and then walked down to discover some one was shooting video and that's why the bright lights were on.

Saturday I walked down the trail to watch a bit of the action.

The barge left this afternoon bound for the Quad Cities area. It ends up in New Orleans in early October.

Minnesota Nice -- One More Time

2011-09-03T10:08:00.001-05:00

Today's issue of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press (and the photo above was copied from there) has an article about one of its reporters taking a Bhutanese family to the Minnesota State Fair. This family is from an Nepali ethnic group that were expelled from Bhutan, lived in a refugee camp, and have been re-settled in Minnesota for only about two weeks.

At the fair they tried the rides, ate the deep-fried foods that seem to be found at every state fair these days, tried the Sweet Martha chocolate chip cookies -- maybe unique to Minnesota, and looked at the animals.

In the cow barn the mom from the family picked up an empty soda bottle and explained she wanted to collect from calf urine for a Hindu naming festival. Everyone there said the animals were too old. So they went to the Miracle of Birth -- a special exhibit where animals are being born all the time. The vet here said this type of collection could not be done at the state fair. She, however, took information from the family and will go to a farm and collect what they want, freeze it, and get it sent to the family. Minnesota Nice usually means helping people for everything from giving directions to giving a hand to shove a car out of the snow. However, I think this vet moved it to a new dimension.

Adventure with Minnesota Nice

2011-09-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

I stopped at Target this afternoon to pick up a couple of things to do better storage in one of my closets. I got out to the car with a big set of drawers and thought I'd put the bag of things in first. I reached for it and there wasn't a bag. I realized I had left it at the register. I had the sales slip in my purse so headed back to the store after loading the storage drawer unit in my car. When I got to the register where I checked out, the attendant looked at me and said, "I'm so glad you came back. We tried to call to you, but you got away too quickly." How so very nice!

Then when finally back to the car I realized the car next to me was ready to leave, so waited at the back of my car rather than going between our cars to enter mine. The man in the other car waved for me to go ahead.

Often people say Minnesota Nice is gone, but it seemed alive and well today.

Planning More Adventures

2011-09-02T08:27:00.000-05:00

My new passport arrived yesterday, so now I can have global adventures until 29 Aug 2021. That does seem like a very long time from now!

However, I have one more adventure started. In May I will be going to Romania again, but this time to a slightly different location, Barlad. I didn't realize how close this was actually to Targu Mures, where I went in 2010, until I got some Romanian guidebooks yesterday. My goal is to teach English in a school in Barlad for two weeks. I'm very glad to say I'll be trying to help Barlad because it doesn't get a single mention in the guidebooks that I have located for Romania. It is a very good example of the places that Global Volunteers works -- where they are invited and where there is a shortage of skill and labor, but where there are local people who know what they wish and dream to achieve.

Construction Adventures

2011-08-29T22:50:00.001-05:00

All of us in Saint Paul are coping with construction adventures for the building of light rail into Saint Paul. This is to open in 2014, so we have yet awhile to cope. The above photo comes from 4th Str.in Saint Paul and was sent to me via an e-mail from the Metropolitan Council. I happened onto the same scene today and was surprised to see the tracks in place.

There is work going on too to renovate the Union Station. Part of this work closed Sibley Street, which is the uphill street I use to go from the river front to downtown Saint Paul and then to work. This street was to be open by September 1, but the April flood with the continued high water all summer delayed this project a bit. Meanwhile I have to take an alternate route that is much more congested and most importantly takes me by the intersection with the Xcel Center all the time. This is where many sporting events take place, the most recent being the national woman's gymnastics meet. It is hard to turn right on this corner in congestion with many "lost" pedestrians at the same time trying to cross the street.

It will be good when it's all done. Many are opposed to light rail, but the first part has ridership beyond the wildest expectations.

Blog Readers This Week

2011-08-27T18:13:00.002-05:00

I love using the Stats button to see who is reading my blog, and am amazed and humbled that anyone is reading it at all. This week the two main groups are from Poland (42 readers) and the US (41 readers). There are 6 readers from the UK and 2 from Russia. The stats button shows 1 reader each from Switzerland, China, Germany, and Hungary.

If you read this entry, I'd love a comment on where you are from and anything else you would share. Thanks for the readers!

Summer Days

2011-08-22T21:19:00.000-05:00

We have had two days of absolutely perfect summer days. Last evening I went for a short walk along the river trails, the first time I've done this since my return from Europe. The temperature was perfect with just a slight summer breeze. Splendid!

On rhe river I saw some enjoying a canoe ride. Hard to believe this photo comes from the middle of a major American city.

Others were coming home from a day on the river and returning their boats to the small marina across the river.

And some were doing work.

The flowers around the building are in their glory too.

Part of summer days is the fresh produce. Once on Polish Forum I read the European viewpoint that "only the poor people in the United States eat corn." I dissented, explaining how good is corn on the cob and everyone eats it!

Today I found this in the grocery store:

And turned it into this, which when joined by a hamburger sandwich turned into a very American meal after weeks and weeks of Central European food.

Corn of the cob on Polish Pottery!

First Week Home

2011-08-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

I got back to Minnesota about 10 PM a week ago, with minimal trouble getting through the Chicago airport. I spent Sunday sort of recovering from jet lag, and got myself out Monday to get my nails done and also to get mail from the daughter's home where it had been sent while I was gone. On Tuesday I went to work for an All College Meeting and also began to sort out my office a bit. My office was moved while I was away this summer. I've yet to organize the files and get the pictures hung on the wall. On Wednesday we also had a faculty meeting.

On Thursday I attended the University President's convocation and then the all university picnic. Came home for awhile since my granddaughter was staying with me to make certain she was doing OK. Then in the late afternoon I drove to Stillwater to the Northern Winery. Many of us along with husbands met for a dinner and wine tasting there.

This winery runs as a coop -- getting grapes from growers as far north as Rice, MN and as far south as Viroqua, WI along with grapes from growers to the west of the Twin Cities in Carver County.

Wine is aged in various ways. Here's a photo of the oak barrels. It was fun to look at them and see labels from various places in France and Minnesota. Also the word cooperage is not one we see much anymore.

We had our dinner on a deck along the St. Croix River. The weather was picture perfect as was the river.

It occurred to me that I have done wine tastings for two years in row in May in Hungary and in August in Minnesota. It has been a wonderful 18 months of travel between Central Europe and Minnesota.

Classes start next week, but right now everything I do in online -- but boy I'll be working this semester because two online classes for Spring Semester have to be revised to new edition of text books, one is totally new and so has to be created from scratch, and a 4th is new to me so I have to get up to speed.

But that hasn't stopped me from starting to do internet searches about next summer's travel plans.

End of Summer Adventure #2

2011-08-15T07:25:00.000-05:00

Our language camp ended on Friday night. Camp always ends with a program by the students. This one was no exception. The students presented T-shirts and a card to their English teachers and each group provided a short English presentation. These ranged from dancing the Hokey-Pokey to doing a poem in both English and Polish to singing songs. In between the dance classes presented their final routines.

Then the program ended with a theater production which combined all the skills of the camp -- music, dance, and English. But the theater teacher said the most important outcomes the campers would be demonstrating were cooperation and teamwork! This production centered around a pirate theme. One part of it that I enjoyed in both rehearsal and then at the final program was the Drunken Sailor song.

Following the program everyone goes to the bonfire area for kielbasa (which is actually the name for sausage with there being 50 or 100 kinds of sausage that have individual names -- think how we use apple in English -- yes, it's an apple, but then it's a McIntosh or Honey Crisp -- etc.) and the final goodbyes and signing of shirts.

The campers all leave with their families and suddenly it is very quiet at Reymontowka.

We left at about 8 AM on Saturday morning. We had good luck with traffic and encountered very few road construction delays. The LOT check in line was long when I got there, but I was going through security by 11 AM or so. The flight left Warsaw nearly one hour late and got to Chicago about 45 minutes late. The line at passport control was the longest I've seen in Chicago, so it was about 5:45 when I ready to head for my flight to Minnesota. I thought I'd surely had missed the 6 PM flight, but it turns out O'Hare had been on melt down for the whole day, and my flight was 2 hours late. I got over to the Terminal 1 and got into the McDonald's line. I heard a woman say she had been trying to get out since 2:30.

The flight I was on was slightly delayed twice and changed gates once. The flight was full of families with babies and pre-school children, the kids not enjoying all the delays any more than the adults. Finally on the plane and I dropped off to sleep along with most of the passengers. I woke up during the flight I think because the sound of the engines had changed somehow. The lights in the plane were off, so I couldn't see my watch to determine if we were landing or where we were in the flight.

I looked out the window and saw we were flying on a cloudless night and rather low so I could see the lights from all the farms and small towns in Midwest America. Here's what I saw while we were landing over the Twin Cities:

Wish I was still helping with the language camps, but my other life has to take precedence now for awhile.

Love These Kids

2011-08-12T08:43:00.000-05:00

Our language camp is drawing to an end and this morning my wonderful students gave me a card.

I surely don't know if I'm the best English teacher at camp, but I surely did enjoy teaching this group of students. They worked so hard and did everything I asked them to do. They are just at the point of putting together all their vocabulary and turning it into verbal and written sentences. I have to go home tomorrow morning -- wish I could stay as we are short of native speakers for the next camp. If you want to learn more about working these wonderful kids, I urge readers to check out www.globalvolunteers.org. There is such a huge need for English classes here and in other countries.

Wonderful Evening

2011-08-10T01:00:00.001-05:00

Last evening a delegation from Hudson County, NJ, arrived here at Reymontowka. These folks are making their first trip to Poland and came here because they are establishing a new sister county relationship with the County of Siedlce. The students royally welcomed these Americans as you can see in the video above.

They went on to reprise the Polish night presentations. Then they presented a bit of the "pirate show" they are preparing for the program for their parents on this coming Friday night. The program concluded with the students dancing YMCA, Cotton-Eye Joe, and Electric Slide. The visitors enjoyed these presentations greatly.

With the visitors and the county officials we went then to the skansen (museum) area here on Reymontowka for dinner.

Here's what we found when we arrived there:

We had a wonderful dinner of Polish specialties. A good time was had by all as evidenced by the photo below.

The delegation left with happy hearts, but also with the intention of raising funds so they can send young adults here to be English teachers in future camp sessions.

Learning about Jan Karski

2011-08-08T08:50:00.000-05:00

On Friday afternoon I took the train to Kielce in south central Poland. On Saturday morning I began walking about and found this monument to Jan Karski. It would have been a good trip if this was the only outcome.

See about his courage and work during WWII here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski
He is certainly an unsung hero of World War II. More about my adventures in Kielce as I have more time.

It's Polish Night Again

2011-08-05T05:42:00.002-05:00

This is my third Polish Night for this summer. Each is different, depending upon the students and the director. This one began with an orientation to the geography of Poland.

This was followed by a drama presentation of the Legend of Lech, Czech, and Ros. With very simple supplies the drama teacher did a wonderful job of presenting this legend. Below is a video showing the portrayal of the White Eagle.

Following this the kids sang Kocham Cie Polkso. I really enjoy this song every time I hear it. I had helped the drama teacher with some of the translation for the program, so we are becoming good friends. She tried to explain this song to me and said she would translate it for me. I told her with a copy of the lyrics, I think I can translate it myself. Not that it will translate literally. I've been around Poland enough that I can appreciate this song very much.

Then they of course danced the Polonaise

After this they danced. In their rooms many were up to midnight. I have a room of students next door to me and could hear the laughing and giggling. Thus this morning, I had a tired group of students and didn't push them too hard. We ended our morning playing a game called Traffic Jam. Each person becomes something such as a car, truck, train or airplane. Then we sit in a circle with one less chair than the number of players. The person in the middle gets back a chair by asking two types of transportation to change places, or makes everyone move by saying, "Traffic Jam." I think they had fun with this today. I'll do in again at other camps with kids this age.

Now I'm off to explore Kielce over the weekend. The first time I've really gone off by myself and so I can do what I want. It's maddening to go traveling even for a day with people who have a different agenda. I want to see things -- not spend all my time shopping!

Dancing to Learn English

2011-08-03T09:47:00.001-05:00

We have finished our third day of teaching English. I really have a great group of students. They do everything I ask and want more. After class today, two of the girls came to the door of our workroom and called to me, "Lori, do you want to learn more Polish?" So I'll work a session into each day from now on for my Polish lesson.

Today we did the fourth hour as song and dance. Can you learn English through dance? Indeed. Hope this video shows how that works:

And here is Cotton Eye Joe:

Back to creating lessons for my wonderful students.

Summer Language Camp 3

2011-08-01T09:39:00.000-05:00

Language camp #3 has started and it's a very nice change. In the first two I was with Americans who were a bit difficult -- who would say negative things about Poland -- made me wonder why they would bother to come to a place they didn't like -- or wonder why another country is different than the United States. My rule is: If you want a place to be just like home, stay home!

This group of Americans are interested in the Poland culture and history. They enjoy trying new foods, and they are much easier to get along with. One got bitten by a mosquito on her eyelid and had a terrible reaction, a very swollen eye, but she didn't complain. She only asked me to help her pour the coffee yesterday morning because with one eye she had faulty depth perception. Other Americans have seemed affronted that there is real life outdoors. I thought what part of camp don't you understand? While we stay in a very nice manor house, we do spend time outdoors and the outdoors world does have insects and frogs and roosters that crow and dogs on neighboring farms who bark!

I have a very nice group of students too. They seem like sponges wanting to soak up as much English as they can. All in all I'm enjoying these last two weeks in Poland.

Second Week Adventures for Language Camp #2

2011-07-30T09:58:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday already and I've not said much about the second week of the language camp and do need to write it about it now for the third language camp of my summer begins officially tomorrow.I have been busy this week with activities from about 8 AM to 9 PM each day and then going off to the work room to plan the next day's classes. That didn't leave much time for writing a blog.

Last week we usually taught two classes and then joined altogether for another two classes doing things such as presentations about states or countries in which we have lived, leading songs, or doing dances such as the Chicken Dance or YMCA.

Earlier this week some of us went to Treblinka. This is always a moving experience. We shared time at the memorial there with high school age young people who may have been doing a Jewish Poland tour or perhaps were doing a Jewish camp experience.

This concentration camp was totally destroyed by the Nazi forces. What is there now is a representation done entirely in stone.

A visit begins with an audio presentation. The video below shows the simplicity of this and includes only the introductory music.

The photo below shows what the gravel pit looks like today. This is a place where people were forced to work 12 hours a day with little food and frequent beatings.

I was thinking that nature is reclaiming this place of horror and trying to again to make it a place of beauty. Then I turned around and saw the butterfly.

We returned to camp for a different kind of evening. The campers presented Talent Show #2.
The video below shows the final act: the camp director and the sports director doing their Johnny Cash routine.

Another afternoon we went into Siedlce to the museum that holds religious art. This museum holds an El Greco painting which was found about 40 years ago in a nearby church attic The director of the museum does a tour ahead of viewing this painting to explain how to "read" the old paintings for their symbolism. Placing the painting into content truly does make the seeing the El Greco more meaningful.

Thursday afternoon I was invited to the home of a camper/student I've known both from the Reymontowka and Zakopane camp. He and his family provided us with a lovely afternoon of great Polish food and a tour of their lovely farmstead. On the way back to Reymontowka we stopped at the farm of one of his grandmothers. She asked if we would like to taste the milk from her cows. So we had a cup of wonderful icy cold milk. At my student's home his father had given us cranberry vodka. I doubt I'll even again have an afternoon when I have both cranberry vodka and fresh cow's milk!

My student is on the left, next his mother, then two volunteers from Kansas City, and finally I'm on the right.

And how could I forget -- we also had camp weddings this week. Someone told me this is a Reymontowka tradition, but some of the university students here working as counselors told me they had seen camp weddings in other places, too.

The first time I saw this, my jaw did drop. Now I enjoy all the fun. The video above shows one of my students getting "married." The funniest thing this year was the boy that turned to his "bride" and asked, Prosze(can't do the Polish alphabet right in blogger) -- meaning he needed to know what her name was!

And then came last night, the Final Program. This began with all the campers singing.

This was followed by a theatre performance with a theme of tolerance.
Next all our groups did an English presentation. Here is a video of one:

This group sang Farmer in the Dell. However, regretfully, my camera seemed to pick more of the ambient noise than the music.

Presentations were quite variable. One did the Sponge Bob song.

My group sang the Bingo song along with one verse of This Land is Your Land using places in Poland.

After the program we all went to the bonfire area for kielbasa.

This morning we had breakfast at 6:30 and then took volunteers to the airport. In Warsaw we went to two hotels to pick up new volunteers who had arrived earlier this week. Language Camp #3 begins officially tomorrow.

So that's what I've been doing. Hope you enjoyed hearing about this.

Weekend Adventures

2011-07-26T12:49:00.000-05:00

It's Tuesday already and I'm just catching up with the weekend adventures. On Saturday we left at 9 AM for Kazimierz Dolny. This is one of my favorite places. I was looking forward to walking around the rynek and having a drink of something in a sidewalk cafe. Instead when we got there the bus kept going and took us for a walk in a ravine.

This may be interesting but definitely isn't as high on my list as enjoying a time in a sidewalk cafe. When we returned to the rynek we had only 20 minutes there. Then we went for boat ride on the Wisla. I did enjoy that. It was very relaxing and I've never before had a chance to take a ride on the Wisla.

On Sunday three of us took a day trip to Warsaw. We had to take the train to Warsaw Centralna because of track repair being done on the tracks in the smaller stations. People often complain that this train station is not very attractive. Right now it is under significant renovation. One of the signs that really amused me is this:

Once inside one stall I found the wall painted with a huge graphic of a mouth.

I could not get far enough away in such a small area to take a photo of the whole thing. And I think it's the first time I've ever taken a photo inside a toilet stall. On the other hand, this may be the first time I've ever found anything worth a picture inside a toilet stall!

Our goal was to start with the film about the Warsaw Uprising shown every day at the history museum in the Rynek. However, when we got there we found the building was closed for renovation. Many areas are being renovated in anticipation of Euro 2012.

Instead we walked to the monument honoring the children who fought in the Uprising. Then we headed back to the Royal Castle. On the way I found an interesting clock:

I really enjoyed seeing the Royal Castle. It is has been 7 years since I have visited it. I don't know if I'm remember wrong or if more has been added. I remember the rooms as being somewhat empty, and that is not the case now.

Above is a photo of the Great Hall. And below is one of the King's bedchamber.

After our visit to the Castle we stopped for lunch in a sidewalk cafe in the Rynek. Then we headed for the Tomb on the Unknown Soldier. From there it was time to return to Warsaw Centralna and our train ride back to the Kotun. We got sprinkled on a bit as we left lunch, but the rain quickly stopped. However, it began again while we were in transit. We got soaked to the skin in the short walk between the train and the van that came to get us. I'm not certain I get that wet in the shower! Very nice weekend!

Bollywood in Poland

2011-07-24T00:41:00.001-05:00

On Friday night we went into Siedlce to the Bollywood/Hollywood Restaurant. This is operated by two of the Polish English teachers with whom I've worked during language camps. The restaurant is beautiful, Indian design inside, every detail perfect.

My photos taken during the night light within the restaurant fail to do it justice for the beauty that is found inside, but hopefully will give you an idea.

Everyone in our large party ordered something different and everyone raved about the quality of the food on the way back to Reymontowka. One volunteer wishes to say on Monday morning when we all meet before classes that the samosas he had at the restaurant are the best he's ever had. I enjoyed my entree, but particularly liked the mango lassi. I've had lassi other times and have not been impressed. This one was exquisite.

In the early evening-- before 10 PM, there was music by a DJ and also at intervals a live group called Two Plus One.

What great fun we had. Some in our group stayed for the later evening and came "home" to Reymontowka about 1:30 AM after enjoying the dancing into the wee hours.

For anyone in Poland, this is definitely what we in the states call a destination restaurant -- a place one drives only for the restaurant. It is well worth any trip or effort to get there.

Polish Night

2011-07-22T09:24:00.001-05:00

At every language camp in which I've participated the campers present a Polish Night experience for the volunteers. This camp is not an exception. The children practiced very much to present a wonderful Polish Night experience. And this whole program is done for just we volunteers. The program began with the Polonaise.

Another part of the presentation featured one of the talented singers.

I always enjoy very much hearing Kocham Sie Polsko. I've been around Poland enough both in travel and in experience to enjoy the lyrics to this song and I also like the spirit of the song.Regretfully, I didn't get very good audio of the song. But you can see the enthusiasm of the children in the video below.

The video below is a complete change. It's the kids dancing YMCA after they were done with their Polish night presentation.

After the program we were invited to a party with all the Polish staff. This featured very special Polish dishes and of course, vodka. One of the counselors taught me the good trick of drinking vodka with apple juice. That makes all the difference!

Here is a photo of the wonderful food for the reception.

Here is a photo taken by one of the Polish members of our group here. I found this photo on my Facebook page this morning.

It's me on the left, next is Anna -- one of the counselors for the campers, and then on the right is Ula -- Camp Director. I've worked with both of these before and it's always great fun to see them again.

Talent Show and Field Trip

2011-07-21T15:43:00.000-05:00

We teach four classes each morning and then have to do prep for the next day. However we find time at language camp for some special activities, too.

One traditional activity is a talent show presented by the campers. This talent show featured singing, dancing, comedy, and art displays in the big tent and then we moved inside for the piano performances. Here is a photo of two boys who presented piano solos.

And here is a video so you all can hear how well children of this age can play piano.

When the piano performance was completed we sang together various versions of Brother John, known by other names in other languages. One group sang it in English and another sang it in Polish and then we sang it all together as a round.

When the concert was completed , it took these two boys only about 30 seconds to turn it from a concert area to a place for a chess game.

Today we went on a field trip. First we went to a nearby open air museum. This old manor house was quite "devastated after the Second War" and has been restored by a professor from Warsaw. The house itself is used often for movie productions when an old house is needed, for this house is 268 years old!

The professor has also brought other buildings on site as a way to preserve them and show what life was like at another time in Poland.

The guide explained that the house shown above is an example of a house for a wealthy family. We know this because it is large enough as to require three doors.

From here we went to Liw to see the old castle which now is a museum displaying weapons. This structure was build in the 1400s to protect what was then the most eastern border of Poland. I was here two years ago and was surprised to see a whole new exhibit area attempting to describe the archeology research in the area.

This particular case captured my attention because the caption said one seldom finds gold objects when doing digs, but here are some.

If I understood correctly, the pottery below dates from the second century.

Next entry will be about Polish Night. Watch for that tomorrow!

Summer Language Camp 2

2011-07-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

I have begin the second language camp for this summer and it's my 12th language camp in Poland. (I've done three school programs here, so I'm on my 15th Poland program.).

I have a class of students who are primarily 10 years old, 5 boys and 5 girls. I'm just beginning to know their personalities and abilities. However, teaching in challenging, because I'm beginning to see the effect of Poland having English language classes earlier in elementary school and the students are coming to us at a higher level, and it takes much longer to prepare lessons.

Last evening was to be karaoke night, but the microphones were not working right, so the camp director took this chance to start the preparation for Polish night later this week by teaching the kids the national Polish dance. It was fun watching the expressions on the faces of the boys when they realized they had to hold a girl's hand. Least a reader misunderstand -- they were not happy. Girls are still ugh to most boys of this age group.

Today after teaching the 4 classes, we went into Siedlce to meet with the deputy governor for the county. The County of Siedlce is the official host for our Global Volunteer program. Here is a photos from that event.

I am second from the left and the Deputy Governor is 4th from the right, wearing a green suit.

After the visit here we did a bit of walking tour of Siedlce. Here is picture from the oldest church in the city.

This evening the camp activity was initiation of the new campers. They had to take off their shoes and then put on a blind fold. Their first task was to stick their hand into a pan of water and then remove a pine cone. Secondly, they had to walk along a path of pine cones, finally reach a king and queen. They had to kiss the queen's ring and then take a spoonful of medicine, which I found was raspberry juice. Here's a video that shows some of this fun:

Lazy Saturday

2011-07-17T01:19:00.000-05:00

By the time I went to bed on Friday night I knew that one of our volunteers coming to Poland was having flight problems. She couldn't get out of MSP due to severe thunderstorms and so was on the 9:50 PM flight from Chicago rather than the 5:00 PM flight. That meant she would be arriving in Warsaw in the mid-afternoon rather than the early morning and so I didn't have to be up early to meet the plane.

However, I woke up with the sunrise about 4:30, went to the computer and found my granddaughter had arrived back in Minnesota safely. Waking up like this is one of usual patterns, so often I go back to sleep for the "second shift." I woke up again around 9 and got organized enough to go have the wonderful breakfast that is served at Hotel Jan Sobieski.

Went upstairs to my room and began to think about how I'd get here next year when my arrival would coincide with Euro 2012, not a good time to find a hotel room in Warsaw for adjusting to Europe time before starting the language camps. Did some dreaming and exploring on the Internet about coming through Iceland again, and this time spending a few days there.

Checked out of the hotel and wandered down the street to a Rossman to look again for the lotion that my granddaughter discovered here in Europe and said, "Could you bring me 100 bottles so I have enough to last me until the next time you go to Poland?" We had purchased three bottles of this lotion at this store on Thursday night and the shelf was still empty for this one on Saturday morning. I'll have to keep looking for a few more bottles to bring back.

I then stopped at a Coffee Heaven and got a cappuccino and enjoyed reading a book and drinking coffee for about an hour. Then I went back to the hotel to be more on hand for being picked up for the ride to Reymontowka.

I went into the Hotel garden. What a little jewel in the city.

Found a shady bench and continued with my nose in a book. I think this is about the first lazy Saturday I've had since some time on April. When the message came that Mary's plane had landed (and I love having a Polish phone so I can text) I went back into the hotel and got my baggage out of storage and waited for the van to arrive.

We had a slow trip from Warsaw due to heavy traffic and road construction.

Upon our arrival we were greeted with the salt and bread ceremony.

We sat down to an evening meal almost immediately, but then quickly got up when we heard the Polannaise being played as part of a wedding going on here.

We enjoyed watching the reception line through our dining room window.

I toured the new volunteers around Reymontowka and then Mary and I went for a walk along the country roads. A perfect lazy Saturday.

Blue Day

2011-07-15T15:19:00.002-05:00

Yesterday my granddaughter and I flew from Budapest to Warsaw. We had a 2 hour layover in the Prague airport.

Here is my granddaughter just relaxing after we had a sandwich. in the Prague airport. And she thought for once there should be a picture of grandma-- often I have nothing to prove I'm really in Europe and perhaps the picture at the left doesn't prove that either.

Here is Naj while we are the gate waiting to board. Notice how she has found out how to keep her Ipod Nano charged while in transit.

We got to Warsaw, checked into our hotel and my granddaughter begged again to go home. Not that she wasn't enjoying herself, but July 15 had been her first planned day of return and she was anxious to get home to see her friends -- there is nothing more important when one is this age.

She sent her mom a message on Facebook about this idea. Meanwhile we walked to a nearby shopping center for of course more shopping and also had an early evening meal.

By the time we reached Warsaw sunset we had her a reservation home for July 15.

So this morning I took her to airport and she took LOT 1 to Chicago. As I write she is just about to land, and now the fun begins-- can United manage to fly the connecting flight for the last hour to Minnesota? (Addendum: Hurrah! A few hours later after writing this original entry I got the message that she arrived in Minnesota without any difficulty.)

It really seems strange to be alone again. I almost cried when I hugged her good-bye. She begged me not to cry or she would too.

The weather outside seems to match my mood.

Now for the other Blue Story. This afternoon, I took a taxi to the Blue City Shopping Center. What fun!

This is a beautiful place, very modern.

TK Maxx takes up one concourse area. In the states this is called TJ Maxx. I have no idea why a change in one letter for the Poland store. In fact, it took me an hour to notice there was a K rather than a J in the name. This is most definitely a TJ Maxx store -- layout and products same as in the states. However, the products have some different origin. For example, I picked up a bath towel with an interesting print and found on the label that is had been made in The Netherlands. I tried Google for an answer and found TK is the version also in the UK. Maybe that's where the European version started. TK in the UK is a bit catchy! Much better than TJ in the UK.

I went here not to shop, although I did find some lovely jewelry. I went here to meet my first Polish student, Bartek and his wife and little son. We met at the children's play area because that was an easily identified place from reading the web site. Then we had a lovely evening meal. Afterwards we went to a nearby park to let the little one play.

This little one is surely going to keep his parents busy. He is 18 months old and already quite an athlete. He does, however, seem to have a bit of sense of when he is getting himself into trouble and pulls back a bit from danger. He also could find every mud puddle around the park left by the recent rains!

I enjoyed seeing the park and visiting with my friends. What a lovely evening.

More than Solidarity -- A Thousand Years of Hungarian-Polish History

2011-07-13T08:37:00.000-05:00

The National Museum in Budapest now has this exhibition. This seems right for me! As the program says: "How can two different people become such friends...St. Laszlo was born in Polish territory...Louis I of Hungary is recorded a joint ruler of the two nations...Hungarian Transylvania prince Istvan Bothori became one of Poland's most popular monarchs."

This exhibit starts with manuscripts, gold and silver coins, artworks, music, and verse from the late 800's and continues to the time now.

The poster above is outside of the museum.

I enjoyed the exhibition very much and learned a great deal.

Here's a photo of an old flag from a celebration of some sort.

In more recent history, there is an exhibit about the uprising in both Poland and Hungary in 1956. Below is a photo of photo of blood being sent from Poznan to Hungary after the Hungarian uprising. I also remember this uprising because it was on my birthday.

Last year is Poland I met a wise Polish man who told me that Poland and Hungary are brothers! That is right for 1000 years!

A funny thing happened on the way to the shopping center

2011-07-12T14:58:00.000-05:00

This is not a funny thing really! My granddaughter had a 12:00 appointment at a nail shop at the West End Center. When we got there the shopping center was locked up and the guard at the door told it the shopping center had received a bomb threat. My granddaughter was disappointed but understood. We went to the nearby McDonald's which many people call the most beautiful McDonald's in the world. It is really beautiful. We ordered food and when we got to the table I realized by sandwich was not on the tray. I went to the line and waited until until I got to the front. The attendant was waiting for me and handed me the sandwich. I went back and said we were having the day when nothing goes OK.

After eating we walked back towards the shopping center and found it still locked. So I suggested we take the 4/6 tram to the Mammut again.

This time I got a photo of the interior.

The information desk told us there was a nail shop and after walking around and asking questions for about 15 minutes we finally found it. They gave us an appointment for 15:00. That gave us two hours to do something else. After buying some more clothing I said I needed two things: a cold drink and then a book store.

Here's my granddaughter in the bookstore:

She took a lot of time picking out a book.

Back to the nail ship and it took nearly two hours -- so I was glad I stopped at the bookstore first. This was a rather posh salon so I could also entertain myself looking at what else was going on. There was also a computer to use, but it had a Hungarian keyboard. It took us a awhile to figure out to the @ sign off the V key so one could sign in at some the sites.

After the nail appointment we went to a Subway at my granddaughter's request. She said she liked Hungarian food better than Polish food and I pointed out she really hadn't eaten much Hungarian food, as she seems to be subsisting on french fries and white chocolate bars!

The weather has been better now than on Sunday when a temperature record was set. If I could be running around in the evening, it would be great. I may come back again next year alone and enjoy the city again.

Morning Walk in Budapest

2011-07-12T03:23:00.000-05:00

I have never been to Szabadsag Ter in Budapest. My understanding is that Szabadsag translates to freedom or independence and nearly every Hungarian city has a street or square that contains this word.

My interest in getting there now is that the U.S. Embassy in Hungary recently posted some pictures of a new monument in this Ter on Facebook. So I took off a bit after 7:30 and arrived there around 8:00. I immediately felt like I had found a typical Hungarian place for everywhere I looked there was beauty. In front of me was a beautiful building.

And behind me was a typical beautiful Hungarian door.

My major reason for going here was to see a new monument to Ronald Reagan. I was surprised to find it as a full figure for the Facebook picture had led me to think it was a bust.

Nearby is a kiosk from which one can get information.

It is clear that Central Europeans give Reagan a great deal of credit for their ability to break away from the Soviet bloc. When I mentioned this monument while yet in Poland, I received this comment: "Oh yes, he was very helpful to Poland, too." It is hard now to look back at the time of 1989 and remember just what all happened that ended up changing the world.

In the Ter I also found a monument to Harry Hill.

I had to come back and look him up. Hill was the Commander of U.S. forces in Hungary after the close of WWI. He is credited from preventing the Romanians from arresting the Hungarian prime minister and also credited with saving the holdings of the Hungarian National Museum from being removed to Romania.

A very nice morning walk.

Budapest Adventures

2011-07-11T14:19:00.000-05:00

Traveling with a teen means ear buds, Facebook, and shopping! This morning I went to the Fulbright office to meet the coordinator for the Americans coming to this country. Her daughter, the same age as my granddaughter, does the same things! We had a nice visit.

Meanwhile my granddaughter was sleeping in. Shopping got her out of bed. We went to the Mummat (probably spelled wrong) shopping center and had a good time. Back to the hotel for a rest in the mid afternoon. Then I got her going to Heroes' Square.

From there we went to dinner. Good pizza.

This place will stay on my list for any other time I come to Budapest. The pizza is good!

Moving to Hungary

2011-07-10T15:46:00.001-05:00

On Saturday we among the lucky to sleep late at language camp at Zakopane. Pani Dryktor took us to the airport in Krakow since our plane didn't leave about 15:30, while others were leaving at 9:55. We flew with Czech Airlines first to Prague and then to Budapest, arriving into our hotel about 7 PM. We ate a quick evening meal and then crashed to sleep.

It was quite a change to move from the unusually cool and rainy weather of Zakopane-- days when we had seen temperature numbers such as 10 to an evening temperature of 35 in Budapest.

This morning we took a tram ride to the newly named Szent Kalman Ter (used to be Moskova Ter and everything there is in the process of being re-signed to the new name). Then we took the 16A bus to the Castle area on the Buda side. It was so hot that we spent a very limited time sightseeing.

We then went to the West End Shopping Center. What would a teenager like better than shopping? And besides it is air-conditioned! My granddaughter got a few things off her shopping list.

We came back about 2:00 and retreated to the air-conditioning of our room.

In the evening we enjoyed a wonderful dinner right here in the hotel. My granddaughter is reviewing pasta with shrimp in every country she visits -- and finding all those dishes very good. She also enjoyed the black olive spread that came with the bread.

After the sunset she was in a mood to go somewhere, so we took the Metro to Batthany Ter to see the Parliament from the Buda side. This square also has some beautiful buildings which are lit to show their architectural features. It was a good evening field trip.

P.S. Later I learned that this day temperature set a record, the hottest July 10 in 90 years in Budapest!

Language Camp Finale #2

2011-07-10T15:32:00.000-05:00

Our language camp program included one group performing We Will, We Will Rock You.

This group was taught by Sylvia who came from Santa Cruz, California.

The program ended with students presenting their thanks to both the volunteer teachers and the Polish teaching staff who had accompanied them on this trip and arranged all the cultural and recreational opportunities.

Was I there? Yes, but blogger will not process the video from my group. Hope you enjoyed the others.

Language Camp Finale

2011-07-10T10:08:00.132-05:00

Our language camp ended on Friday evening with a celebratory program.The student groups each presented a short program and all of them elected to sing a song or songs.

First to present were the group of students taught by Tom who came from Santa Cruz, California. American readers will surely recognize this song.

Another group was taught by Frank and his great-nephew, Spencer. Both of them come from the Green Bay area of Wisconsin.

Two groups joined together for their presentation as they had been taught primarily together by Jackie and David who come from Washington, D.C.

Please see Language Camp Finale #2 for another video.

Bingo Adventure

2011-07-08T02:07:00.000-05:00

The weather continued to be rainy, so we volunteers were asked to arrange some type of evening event for the campers on Wednesday evening. One couple had brought a very portable Bingo set up. So that became our evening activity. This proved to be the first time many of the teen campers had ever played Bingo. It is a good teaching exercise for hearing numbers in English, and also it continues to remind the learners that the letter I is pronounced I not E.

One volunteer also did a craft activity with students who chose that option.

This activity continued until about 8:30 PM. When I came back up to my room I saw something quite unusual -- sun on Giewont!

It did prove to be a sign of a change in the weather. More about that later.

Adventures Required for Bad Weather

2011-07-07T01:38:00.000-05:00

The weather continued to be awful, making out door recreation unpleasant, but more importantly dangerous. It is not possible to do something such as climb Giewont under these very wet conditions. Therefor our Polish host developed a plan to do something indoors.

We were all in the lobby gathering to board the bus by 8 AM on Tuesday, when our usual schedule is only to have made it to breakfast by 8 AM.

We drove into Slovakia about 2 hours, and while riding we scattered ourselves out among the students so they could continue English conversations. We went to the Demoanvska Jaskyna Slobody cave. (Again I can't write all the letters correctly in the name using the word processing service within a blog.) As one of my colleague volunteers said, "This is a world class attraction." Carlsbad Caverns in the United States is the only other thing I can think of that is of the same scale.

Here are a couple of photos:

After our cave tour we drove a short distance to a mountain resort area. The plan was to take the chair lift partly up the mountain and then hike, but alas the lift was not operating because of windy conditions.

So the guide decided we would go to the nearby town of Lipvotsky and tour the market area. Oh, problems again. Tuesday was a national holiday in Slovakia and so nothing was open!

We did however find a concert and enjoyed some of that.

After these adventures we headed back to Zakopane and went to the bowling area. This is in the new Hotel Bukovina and as one of my students said, "...is very modern."

We returned to the hotel about 7 PM, hungry! The hotel staff had obiad rather the kolacja, and were most grateful for a good bowl of soup to start the evening meal.

Continued adventures later. Must run off to a meeting.