journey back

so i'm finally an U.S. citizen. hallelujah!

my way back to poland was an adventure in itself. first of all, i got to pretend to be jason bourne. since i changed my legal name and got my new U.S. passport, it didn't match my ticket name. so i had to whip out my old Korean passport and use that instead whenever i boarded the plane but took out my U.S. passport whenever i went through customs. yes, the thrill of a double life.

and then, i got the worst possible seat on the flight back to amsterdam. where, you ask? right next to the bathroom, not behind, not in front, but NEXT to it. what kind of ridiculous design is that? as we are boarding, this guy decides to take a dump in the bathroom. when he came out, oh Lord have mercy. me and the guy next to me look at each other and open our eyes open wide as to agree that we are indeed sitting in the worst place. and few seconds later, all the passengers start to gag and gasp as the nasty fragrance travelled further. and some outspoken passengers start to demand from flight attendants to do something. the flight attendant was a hoot, too. she was like "what, this is disgusting! who did this????" she goes in the bathroom and screams "what the hell!!!" she then comes out, grabs the air freshner and says to the passengers around her "wish me luck" as she extends only her arm into the bathroom and sprays it 'til we're gagging from the unnatural floral scent. . . . this was the most unprofessional but hilarious action i saw from a flight attendant - only in US airlines, i tell you.

so the rest of the trip consisted of me getting up to close the bathroom door whenever someone left it open - actually me and this other guys took turns. . . . i couldn't believe how many people actually left without making sure that the door was closed. i mean, c'mon, etiquette 101 please. at one point, i was so sick of it, i grabbed one lady's arm and said "can you please close the door" and sure enough the one time i spoke out, the lady goes "but someone else is going in..." sheesh.

so needless to say, i'm glad to be home. some of you have asked if my kids missed me. i have the most resilient children in the world. i didn't speak with them for the first couple of days, since i was afraid that it would trigger somekind of a meltdown. what was i thinking? they were having so much fun with joe's parents, i don't think they barely noticed that i was gone. when i finally saw them over the webcam, the first thing that came out of makayla's mouth was "mommy, show me my camera! show me my watch! did you get the m&m's???" (i promised to get her a camera and a watch for her birthday...) and ethan was just munching on his grapes barely saying "hi". at least i know that they will survive anywhere. oh, and some have suggested that children often act tough when their parents aren't around and have a mini-breakdown when they actually see their parents. when i arrived, my children gave me a huge hug and said "is my camera in your bag??" and ethan goes "chhhhh-chhh-o-co-lat???" go figure.

Loving Amsterdam

we're in holland now visiting joe's parents. i wasn't too crazy about amsterdam before, probably because i visited here the first time after paris - and paris, I LOVE..... but this time around, coming from a small city krakow, i'm loving the diversity and craziness of a big city like amsterdam. and also dutch are the best creative designers around - everything here is so design oriented, it's so fun just walking around.

we visited this place, proef, which means tasty.... such an interesting place. it's only open on the weekends, and they are primarily food design place. i think they must make money doing catering and magazine/book work. food is very simple but uses the best ingredient of everything and is so fresh and yummy.

cappucino that mak is trying to drink. haven't had a decent coffee in a month - soooo good....

me and joe's sister, wing kiu.

sandwich and polenta. notice the little container inside the sandwich - it's roasted pepper sauce. everything is served on a wooden cutting board. i thought polenta was like pasta but it's this cous cous thing. i'm not a fan of cous cous but this was extremely good. mmmmmm.

check out this spread. unbelievable cheese and salami.

our dessert. almond cake with white chocolate frosting. cooked prunes with mascarpone cheese. in the background is mak and wing kiu's boyfriend, tony. makayla LOVES tony. she's attached to him at the hip. poor guy, he had to feed mak and himself the whole lunch.

there's only one table indoors. unreal, i don't think they mean business. but there are many tables outside but it rains quite a bit in amsterdam so i don't know what happens when it rains.....

amsterdam continued

we also checked out papabubbles. i think they only have stores in tokyo, london and amsterdam for now - maybe new york. they make these really instricate candies. they also do custom work so you can have them insert company logos or do wedding favors by putting in your names. really cool. if i had a company or another wedding, they will be making my favors!

ethan loving his lollipop. i think he was a great advertisement while we were there. the owner gave us some freebies :) thank you!

for those who are wondering where my other child is (since i got this comment like where is makayla? why are there only pictures of ethan?) she is sleeping in the stroller so she didn't get to see the candy store. poor girl. no need to worry. she got enough sugar later on.

mak and ethan at work

after watching many street performers earning money in various ways, mak and ethan figures out a way to earn a few extra zlotys.

photo diary

mak's birthday dinner. ethan's hand going straight for mommy's plate.


posing at the famous statue in middle of the square. makayla is right now watching street performance. bunch of guys breakdancing.

horses admiring mak's new toy bird.

great thing about Poland #1: hey, it's still europe, it's charming. this is the view from one of our favorite restaurant. notice the couple in the picture, they were just looking at each other, oogling, cuddling, giggling. funny thing about europe, everybody is in love. everywhere you turn, couples, couples, as joe's boss' daughter who visited said "everyone here is TOGETHER, no one's just friends." something must be in the water.

come visit! krakow is the next venice! did i already mention that krakow is the next prague??

makayla feeding the pigeons.

"ethan holding a dog and an apple" by mak 2007. limited edition. in fact, it's already been erased by ethan.

care package numero uno!! i mean, jeden.

i jumped for joy when joe came home today. i always jump for joy when joe comes home but today, my jump was higher than usual. why? you ask. it's because i got my first care package from my bestest friends!!!! thank you ~ i love you! look at all the goodies i received. magazines, displine book, candles and swiffers!


look at these beauties.


i'm in love with my swiffer.

but i was completely guilt ridden because i will be returning to the states in a week. why? you ask. i'm getting sworn in as U.S. citizen, baby!! oh yeah, i gotta tell you guys how nervous i was about taking the citizenship test. did you know that there was three branches of government? just kidding, i knew that! but there were many many things i didn't know. like who said "give me liberty, give me death" - i mean, do you have to really know that to be a citizen? anyhow, i did pass the test with flying colors, 10/10 baby!!

but the tricky part came later..... the guy who was interviewing me looked over my paper and said "it says here that you want to change your legal name to [my korean name] Jeremy [joe's last name]- it's like you're trying to convince someone that you're a man." (note: i'm not writing my legal name to protect myself :P) he continues, "looking at your korean name, i can't tell if you are a female or a male and then i look at your middle name and now i know that you're a man!" I went on to tell him that how everyone knows me by Jeremy and it has to be included in my legal name, blah, blah, blah. so he goes, "I have an idea, how about including a woman's name in your middle name?" At that time, i felt like i couldn't say no - or i would be denied my citizenship. So, on the spot, we began to brainstorm women's name to be part of my LEGAL name!! He goes, "how about Jennifer, I don't know any men named Jennifer..." He was super helpful but i was panicking. I then decide that i could be an "MJ" - so we go with M names - he lists, "Martha, Mary, Matilda" - no, no, nope. we then move to "AJ". . . believe me, this is not how i pictured myself picking out a name. sooooooo, drum roll please, my new legal name after my swearing in is.....

[my korean name] ANNA JEREMY [joe's last name]!!!!!
has a pretty ring to it, doesn't it? My interviewer was so satisfied with the name, he went on to say "You'll thank me later." It was so awkward because i had to sign couple of papers right after with this full name and boy, to give up the signature you had with you since college, that was difficult. anyhoo, call me AJ, Anna, Anna J, AnnaJer, whatever suits your fancy!

See you soon,
Anna Jeremy

good weekend

ellen, you ask how i can find the time to blog? when you have a completely empty social calendar, you can find alot of time to blog ;P

we had a pretty good weekend :) we had someone come out to jump our car and we got to drive for the first time!! the freedom, it was awesome!!! though we only went grocery shopping and ikea. on sunday, i met two separate missionary couples church planting in krakow. it was so cool to talk to them. one of them was a really young couple - early or mid 20's - they just started a coffee house to reach students and young families. i'll be sure to check check check it out! the wife was like "hey, we should hang out sometime" and i was like "heck yeah, joe will be watching the kids so i can come explore the city with you!!!" thank you, honey!

the other couple had two children and pregnant with the third. she is due any minute, and we were all nervous for her about delivering in krakow. apparently the hospitals here are not quite like the ones in the states.... i'll just leave it at that.

our first drive in krakow. apparently this country has the most number of signs per kilometer. i believe it.

we had lunch with the pastor and his wife after church at this local joint. unbelievable amount of food and it was good :) oh, notice i'm wearing a jean jacket, it is not that warm here.

ethan enjoying his potato pancake and beef stew.


ethan protecting his ketchup from daddy's fries.

we had a funny conversation with the pastor. we asked him how we can ask for ketchup. he said it's "ketchokowa" and the wife started to laugh and we finally caught on that he was joking. i then said "are you sure it's not ketchupski?" it's true, some words i've seen, you just ask "ski" at the end!! when mark kim found out that we are going to poland, he started to call me "jeremy moonski" - i thought it was kind of inappropriate but he was not far off - kudos, mark!

child play

what is the saying? idle kids are up to no good? oh, there's no such saying? well fine, i made it up but it's true. my kids have been mostly hanging out at home, or at joe's co-worker's house or at the park. we have tried many different plays but when they are left to their own, they end up doing one of the following.
1. makayla magically takes off ethan's pants and let ethan chase her around screaming "my ppppaaants, my ppppaaants" - when i discover ethan all of sudden in diapers, i know that's what happened.
2. makayla plays baby with ethan and the helper. she makes the helper be the baby and forces her to lie down while force feeding all kinds of toy food. mak lays out the blanket and sets up elaborate spread and gets extremely upset if we move one little thing.
3. plays "we are girls" with ethan. joe's favorite. (not - i'm surprised that he gets bothered by this sort of thing, i thought that he was much more evolved than that!) ethan volunatrily puts on many hair clips and entertains makayla endlessly. i would say this is ethan's favorite activity at home.

makayla proud of her handiwork.

ethan dressing up his doggie just like himself. miss katie, we miss you!

did i already tell you that we received our car - but the battery died? so it's awkwardly placed in our driveway blocking anything else from entering our house. man, our car looks ginormous in this country. i'm so scared about driving - people here drive kind of interestingly. shall we say, selfishly demanding? in our many taxi rides, i've encountered many situations where i was like "what the &*%$?" people just don't budge. for example, you have to enter this kind of narrow side road to enter into our development. we are on a taxi getting out of the road and this lady comes right in. it's so narrow that only one car can pass at a time. she could have easily waited by the entrance - but NO - that would be too logical. she just marches right in and demands our taxi to back out until she can make a turn. the taxi backs out about 10 yard to let the lady go where she needs to go. this kind of thing happens ALOT! i'm getting nervous about having to back out in my big car in these narrow roads. no doubt i would put many scratches and nicks along the way. oh yeah, and did we tell you that we had to pay about $4000 for taxes for bringing the car? oh, yeah, deposit - we apparently get it back if we bring the car back. sooooo $4000 for shipping and $4000 for taxes, do the math, never bring a car internationally. and ofcourse, did we know any of this before? we got about 50 different version of what could happen and this was what we got. nice.

oh yeah, joe did say, you'd better start saying some good things or people aren't gonna visit. . . . ok, ok, ok, that's for next time. i'll list all the cool thing about poland. mind you, i haven't done anything cool other than unpacking. but there are things i like and people i really do like :)

we miss you!

found some pics on the computer that i never sent to our friends. enjoy.

our other child, ellie. she still thinks we live next door. come visit soon!

mak and incredible hulk joy. this seems to be one of the favorite activity during our playgroup - putting pull ups on ones head. who can wear this style the best?

chloe who managed to match her outfit with the pull up?

or alyson who donnes it like a french beret?

church

joe savoring every bite of his rice, egg and kim. we're rationing our korean food so he gets half a sheet of kim a day. we're thinking of making a journey to warsaw - they apparently have a chinatown and a "great" korean restaurant. we'll see.

the building where the church is held. it looks kind of run down and really it is. feels just at home, like we're in west philly :)

the nursery - looks pretty good in the picture but the blanket they throw on the floor is about 100 years old, so are the toys. though ethan didn't hesitate to put some in his mouth - i had to contain my "NOOOOOO" - didn't want to appear germaphobic and snobby..... a typical american....(oh yeah, did i tell you guys that i'm going to become a 'real' american soon?) makayla was coming in and out - one time, she came over, touched one of the gates - stuck out her hand at me - there was a dead spider on one of her finger. at that point, there was no containment, just a primal scream.

sushi adventure

ethan patiently waiting for the bus - we're getting really friendly with the public transportation. and taxi.... our car is here but the battery died. we need to replace the battery, get polish registration and license. oh yeah, while we were waiting for the bus, two drunk polish (i guess i can stop qualifying everything as polish - i mean, you know i'm in poland, right?) men walked by and said "sayonara" to us. nice. our first somewhat race-related comment! we haven't gotten any ignorant comments so far, just lots of staring from young kids. i should one day throw a karate chop and say "hi-ya!!!"

buying a washing machine - the owner told us that the current washing machine works, we found it to be true if you are washing one towel at a time. soooo to keep me from having another meltdown, joe kindly agreed to buy a washing machine. but no dryer..... most europeans don't have dryers, yeah and asians too. oh, i miss you my duet dryer..... we have to hang dry our clothes and ofcourse it's so wrinkly i have to iron underwear. i told joe that we have to hire someone to just iron clothes for us because that'll take all day.

here it is, our polish sushi makers. yesterday was joe's birthday and to celebrate - we went to the old Jewish district to get some sushi. i was secretly hoping that it was run by a Japanese person and find out where they get their supplies. i could have busted out my japanese and win some affection - but unfortunately no asians in sight. it was a quaint small joint, good service and nice plates. oh the tea was good too.

what do you think? it doesn't look half bad in the picture. the tuna was more pink than red and the amount of rice in each roll was unbelievable. the rice was sooooooo sticky, we had to chew it so much. it didn't taste bad but the rice was way too overwhelming. joe and i just kept chuckling b/c our cheeks were filled by the rice and we couldn't talk. we ordered 4 rolls but got full by the 2nd roll b/c of the rice. i told joe, "we'll come back when we're really really desperate."

This is what i'm talking about!!!

our yard, if you look, there's a stray cat in front of mak. note: stray cats in poland are vicious. kids and joe wanted to feed him and i refused - i shooed him away - he returned while i was doing the dishes. he jumps on the ledge of the kitchen window and hisses at me and scares the crap out of me. it was like a hitchcock movie..... he also returns dinner time - how in the world does he know?

all our boxes - hooray!

our helper, agnieszka. she is a delicate musician trying to earn few extra bucks. boy, she didn't know what she was getting into by watching our kids. she doesn't have any experience with kids.... all i hear when i'm unpacking upstairs is "ohhhhhh, edan..... ohhhhh, edan....." poor sweet agnieszka. hope she won't be traumatized to have children....