The summer of surf . . .

Some of you may have heard of the hospitality exchange site, couchsurfing.com, by now. It has been written about briefly in a past entry in the Chronicle, detailing the exploits of those crazy tuxedo travelers.

The month of August in Europe is probably the peak of the travel season. Thus, I have seen a definite upswing in the number of requests to stay on my couches. After the aforementioned penguins, there was a nice couple from New Zealand, Dan and Anna, on their way to Ukraine for a month. They hung out at the flat (maybe I should think of some cool nickname for my place?) for five days while waiting for their visas from the Ukrainian Embassy.

At the same time I was hosting the Kiwis, two lovely French girls, Angeline and Isabelle, came to stay on the other fouton. I learned a lot about French culture, including the fact that teachers in France only have to work (be in front of students)15 hours a week! Fantastique! Also, the country has approved a smoking ban in all public places starting next February. Doesn't everyone think of the average French citizen as someone enjoying a glass of wine and a cigarette at an outdoor cafe on a breezy summer day? And of course, they would be wearing the requisite beret : )

Last week, two fun-loving Swedes, who were the polar opposite of each other came to stay for a couple days. Jerker (the J is pronounced like Y) and Rony were taking a week holiday in Poland and their first stop was Warsaw. Jerker was a clean cut mechanical engineering student, and Rony is not. Rony had a smooth shaved skull, was covered in tatoos, and had a nasty habit of chewing snoose. But, he was a helluva guy who's devotion for his favorite Swedish death metal band, Skitsystem, knows no bounds. In fact he had etched the names of that band and another into his forearm. I'm thinking this display of fanaticism would at least be good enough for backstages passes or a a free Skitsystem fan club membership. When I get back to the states this winter, a heart with "Manilow Forever" is going on my right buttock.

Next, came a couple of girls from Munich, Alissa and Coco. They were entering their last year of high school and at the tender age of 18 were willing to take the risk of staying with this creepy old guy in Warsaw. What parent thinks this is a good idea? I suppose it's just the fact that I have a very trustworthy looking face, right?

Welcome to 6th Grade . . . don't make me angry!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of school here at ASW. I'm feeling pretty good about it since I don't have my head firmly entrenched in you know where after living here for a year. With age comes experience and wisdom, right? So you'd think I'd know better than to go out and get a nice shiner the weekend before school.

Old habits die hard and it seems I still like to tackle people with my face during rugby matches. Oh well, this might give me an air of intimidation on the first day of meeting my new kids. But I am also fearful of what my face will look like after this weekends Capital's Cup tournament in Vienna. Three matches in one day could be a risky proposition in maintaining my rugged ugliness. Wish me luck in not coming back to Warsaw looking like a raccoon!

Goodbye summer . . . we had some good times.

The author returns to work this week, reinvigorated from a couple months traveling back to the states to see family and friends. It certainly was a busy couple of months crisscrossing the world from Warsaw to Boise to Coeur D'Alene, back to Minneapolis, up north to Hibbing then home again. Whew! I think I'm experiencing jet lag symptoms just from writing that sentence.

Summer started off by landing in Boise to celebrate Hash #1000, the weekly run of the Boise Hash House Harriers. This is a wonderful group of finely conditioned athletes who combine drinking with long distance running. For a detailed description of what this is all about, go to www.boiseh3.org If you see some debaucherous pictures of a guy who looks similar to me, that's just my double Matt. He's a real fun guy to hang out with, but I was constantly getting mistaken for him back in Boise.

Around 26 (the exact number escapes me) of my friends from the aforementioned "running club" competed in the Ironman Coeur D'Alene triathlon this summer. I was lucky enough to venture up to picturesque northern Idaho to cheer them on. Most of them were first-time entrants in a race like this so there were a lot of jangled nerves that morning when high winds kicked up white capped waves on Lake CDA. Some had done zero swimming prior to entering this crazy test of endurance so to see conditions that test even the most skilled of swimmers certainly had to tighten a few sphincters. Check out the vid from the local news that morning. Gotta love youtube:


Anyhow, to make a really long story (and day) short, everybody came through with the proverbial flying colors and finished the race. It was emotional for all since they had worked so hard for months to accomplish this monumental feat. Now, the thoughts of "What's next?" are flying through post-race conversation. I know I was a bit envious of seeing them come across the finish line. It's tough to train over here on the roads of Poland without taking your life into your hands, so it could be awhile before I figure out the logistics of doing a triathlon over here. However, there is some hope since the school just hired a new counselor who has done Ironman before. The addition of a training partner just may roust me off the couch and onto the road.

Well, I'm going to continue this entry later since it's been a couple weeks since I've written. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention how great it was to spend time with "the two cutest kids in the world" my nephew Griffin and his new sister Lauren. The picture above was taken at my brother Paul's house and gives you a good idea of what most of my time in Minnesota consisted of: quality time on the couch.

Okay, this has the potential to be one of those lengthy entries so I'll cut it short and pick it up later . . . for now. Thanks for reading . . . do zobaczenia!

My first Polish wedding . . .

I wrote the following back in June, but didn't want to publish it to the web without pictures. This was also the first time I had done any driving in Poland, beyond commandeering my boss's car for a quick trip to the clinic. I'm sure that Aldona's sister's (gramatically correct?) car still bears impressions from my white-knuckle death grip on the steering wheel.

The road that leads from Warsaw to Minsk and onto Moscow is like taking the traffic from a typical U.S. interstate and putting it onto a two lane rural highway. There are a lot of goods that need to be moved from Western Europe into Russia. Throw in the fact that in the last 10 years the average Pole has acquired the income to purchase a vehicle and you have the ingredients for disaster, er, I mean, adventure.

When passing the endless parade of lorries (read: hulking trucks that can squash a tiny Peugot) it's necessary to straddle the centerline as oncoming traffic drifts to the shoulder to avoid the impending collision. How I ended up driving is another story unto itself. Okay, pretend you have traveled back to the second week in June:

Last weekend was certainly a great way to spend my last few days in Poland before heading back home. One of my friends from couchsurfing.com, Aldona, invited me to be her guest at a wedding in the town of Białystok. This is the largest city in northeastern Poland near the Belarussian border. It's also home to the medical school where Aldona studied before moving to Warsaw for her apprenticeship.

The wedding was held in Białystok Cathedral, an impressive gothic structure in the center of the city. The church was half full at the beginning of the ceremony but by the time mass had ended, it was filled with old folks queuing up for Saturday evening mass. They would just shuffle down the center aisle disregarding the fact that there was a wedding going on around them.

After pledging their lives to each other, the bride and groom waited in the reception line to receive flowers from everybody who attended the ceremony. Flowers are a big thing here, and seem to have an attachment to every tradition. I'm guessing that Poland is one of the biggest consumers of flora in all of Europe.

To the reception we went, where the happy couple kicked it all off by consuming shots of vodka and breaking the glasses in the street. This certainly foreshadowed the rest of the night for me, as it seemed for every four place settings, there was a bottle of the local spirit, Palace.

The evening was a culinary gauntlet of soups, salads, meats, and confections. Oh, and did I mention the vodka? There is a delicate line one walks when mixing this much food with the obligatory excess of alcohol. In no way do I endorse this practice but when in Poland, you must adapt to the culture. But a few rules must be strictly adhered to:

1. No mixing, this means no beer or wine of any sort.
2. Only drink when a toast is made, which means about every 15 minutes.
3. Drink plenty of juice, which is also provided in ample quantities.
4. Eat, eat, and eat some more! When that 7th course is served around midnight, there's no point in watching your waistline. Just loosen the belt a notch and dive in.
5. Never underestimate the effect of exercise on your metabolism. Translation: Dance your ass off! The band was hired to play for 12 hours, until 6:00 AM. Amazing stamina!

Okay, now return to present day August and wipe the sweat from your brow. Summer's almost over for all of us. Only 10 more days of freedom for this guy, but I'm filling them up with visitors. I recently had my sixth grade teacher, Doris Kolodji,her husband and three kids make a visit to Poland. What a cool experience to be 21 years removed from her class and have the pleasure of hosting her traveling circus. I will include some pics in a future update.

Thanks for reading! And hello to JoAnne Guillaume in Duluth, MN!

True confessions of a blogging slacker . . .

It's been a busy summer, full of fun and travel. Back to the states for about 4 weeks and then to Spain for a couple weeks. Finally back in the comfort of my flat here in Poland and feeling a bit more motivated to write some random anecdotes about life. For those that have the Chronicle tucked away in their bookmarks and check in on me from time to time, I offer my most heartfelt apology for how damn lazy I've been. In a couple days, it will have been two full months since my last entry. The fact that I haven't written is pure bollocks! You can tell I've been spending an inordinate amount of time with Brits. For those not familiar with the word, it roughly translates to the quintessentially American term "bullshit".

I've blocked out Sunday for an all out writing marathon. My typing teacher back in high school, Mrs. Burritt would be quite proud. You can look forward to details about my first Polish wedding (not my own)and a death defying journey driving the Polish highways towards Belarus.

Anyway, lots to write about. Hope I didn't lose any readers because of my lack of ambition in the last few weeks. If I can't entertain you, maybe these two guys who are staying at my place this weekend can. Check out their website, www.tuxedotravels.com They are traveling from Hong Kong to London clad in tuxedos and found a place to stay with me through couchsurfing.com Enjoy the campy vids of them journeying through Asia. And as always, hello to Nate's mom in Spokane!

Thanks for reading!

In a fog, I will blog, on the city of Prague . . .

Dzien dobry everybody and happy Monday. The last few days have really felt like summer as the end of the year culminating activities take place. (that's good educratic jargon) Last Friday, we took the kids on a walk to nearby Powsin Park and played games all day long. The afternoon ended in an all-out water balloon fight with me on the ground fearing for the life of my camera as the kids mercilessly pelted me. Fortunately, the camera survived and I escaped with minor bruises and grass stains.

Notice, how my blog has become extra super duper fancy with the addition of slide shows. Here's a few pics from our two spring field trips.

After finishing such a tough day of work, it was on to a culminating activity of a different sort. A friend of mine here at ASW is getting married in a couple weeks, so we flew to Prague for a bachelor weekend. It was considered quite tame by the standards of other "stag" parties, as the Brits refer to them. We didn't dress up the guest of honor in a Flash superhero costume, floral print dress, or sherrif outfit with requisite posse. But these were a few of the characters we encountered as we wandered through the square. As anyone who knows me can attest, I love a good costume as much, if not more, than anybody else. But the supposedly dignified and refined subjects of the Queen take drunken debauchery to new lows in Eastern Europe.

Most of our waking hours were spent eating giant plates of hearty Czech food (think Minnesota State Fair, i.e. fried cheese and all kinds of meat) and quaffing what some claim is the finest tasting beer in the world. Who am I to disagree with them given the beauty of the surroundings in which the suds were consumed? You could sit me in the middle of Prague square on a sunny day in June with a can of Old Style and I would declare its superiority over any other suds. The beauty of both the city and ecclectic mix of people are unrivaled.

This coming weekend I've been invited to a wedding in the Eastern Polish town of Białystok. I will be the token foreigner and I've heard traditional celebrations of matrimony are legendary in this country. Wish me luck on making it past the first couple courses!

Enjoying the long weekend?

To all my American friends out there, I hope you are enjoying your three day weekend. Take the time to remember all those that have given their lives in the service of our country. Just like we have to remind kids every year what the true meaning of Christmas is, don't forget why we observe Memorial Day. I'm not one of those "USA, USA!" patriots but take some time to cue the Lee Greenwood, please.

Speaking of the good ol' US of A. Your president will be making a 3 hour stop in Poland to hang out with "the ducks", Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski. They'll no doubt be talking about a way to get me to pay federal income tax back in the states. The U.S. Treasury needs that money to fund visits like this, which according to one Embassy parent, requires 200 people for security and 10 armored Cadillacs for transportation.

It's been "hotter than blue blazes" here, as my grandma would say. What does that mean, anyway? A blue flame is a relatively cool burning flame. Shouldn't it be hotter than orange or even red blazes? Nevertheless, it's been almost 90 the last few days and air conditioning is a luxury few can afford.

The seniors at ASW have graduated and Saturday night one of the more affluent families had a big party for their son. I should've dressed up and crashed it since they flew in British pop star, Jamie Cullum, to play at the celebration. I don't know how much it cost, but I'm betting he didn't have to fly to Warsaw aboard RyanAir.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes last week. Turning 33 was quite uneventful. Some friends from work organized a bike ride from tent to tent on the way home from school. There are a lot of these outdoor patios between ASW and my place. Despite spending quality time at quite a few of them, my bike and I remain in one piece after the journey.

Only 19 more day until I'm back in Boise. Does anybody have a cruiser I can comandeer for transportation while I'm there? I'm jonesing for some quality time at Parilla Grill or Opa. Hope some of you folks back there have a few days off.