zakopane

Yesterday we did a day trip to Zakopane. it's a famous mountain resort in Poland at the foot of the Tatras mountain. the other side of the mountain is Slovakia and alot of tourist come from everywhere to ski here. the town is quaint and what i exactly pictured european ski resort to look like.

Tatras mountain. you can see the snow still up on top.

the restaurant where we had lunch. traditional polish cuisine.

they served us bread with what looks like lard with bacon bits. i was too grossed out to try but ethan didn't hesitate to take a good lick from the spatula.

makayla enjoying her bread with lard while daddy looks like a poster boy for polish zywiec beer and invisible children.

our staple polish dish we order: potato pancakes with goulash.

the town is also known for wooden architecture like this one.

and like this one. quite charming.

there are alot of grilling stands like this with kebabs and kielbasas.

waffle standi'm not sure if this is just decorative or they just rip it out of the string and serve it to customers....our dessert. yum.
okay, so we know about 10 people in the whole country, right? we ran into 2 separate couples at zakopane - what are the odds?? one of them is a missionary couple we met a while back at church - she just had a baby in poland and that experience is a story in itself. and the other couple is magda and nick in this picture. magda is helping us to get our polish residency. it was so wild to hear "hey, joe? jeremy? don't we know you???" twice in a foreign country, in a strange city! it was a welcome surprise :)

finally, a routine.

yes, danielle - there's definitely a viable business opportunity with my new tofu venture - the way that my japanese friend's eyes sparkled when i told her about it, man, it's a goldmine! now, don't you want to share in this million dollar opportunity? i know you do, come on over, baby.

anyhow, apart from slaving over the stovetop in making 50lbs of tofu everyday, i have settled into a pretty nice schedule here. did i mention that i have a cleaning lady and two regular babysitters? and I LOVE THEM! i actually found that people here are easier to trust for some reason. they are LOVELY. the cleaning lady doesn't speak english but we get by with various hand gestures and man, she cleans!!! she seems to love ethan as well. she always grabs him and says "super! super!"

one of the babysitter is an older lady who used to be a music teacher - she's a natural teacher - she seems to want to teach ethan about everything! one time, ethan wanted to get carrots out of the tupperware, i just handed it over to him. she then takes it away from him and says "wait, wait" and goes to show him how to open the tupperware (it has these side things where you have to click it open) - open and close, open and close. finally, ethan loses his patience and starts to scream. it's hilarious. joe's so happy that ethan is getting taught since i'm not doing any of that. i mean, he'll learn once he goes to school, right?

the other babysitter is younger college student. she's been working with ex-pat families for about 10 years now, so her english is excellent and super experienced with kids! she actually thinks ethan is so easy to watch! it's true, she's only seen him in the mornings so far, when he's energized and ready to play - we'll wait and see, her evenings with both the munchkins are coming up shortly.

oh i digress, so here's my schedule. mak is at school from 7:30 - 4:30 - can you believe it??? our day starts at 6:45 - i can't even begin to tell you how painful that is to everyone involved. i also have my sitters come daily for 3-4 hours so i can do: quiet time, crafts, exercise, polish lessons, household errands, plan for family devotion time. (mind you, i have not started any of these things because i'm still organizing the house.... but i wanted to put it out there so you guys can ask me how any of these things are going :P - please, don't ask me too often)

monday - cleaning day. ethan and i just chill trying to avoid getting in the way of thorough cleaning. we can hop over to tracie's house (the other american family at joe's company) or just wrestle all day long.

tuesday - kid's club - kind of like gymboree run by international moms. i'll take a picture of the dreary environment where we try to stimulate our children.

wednesday - women's bible study - run by a missionary who's been here for 18 years - eclectic gathering of native polish women and international women.

thursday - free day. i'll probably hang out in the city with my new found friends!

friday - playdate with other american women. i'll tell you guys more about these two other american family we've met - i really like them!

so that's it. pretty good, huh? i'm still looking for a polish tutor and plan to contact 2 korean women who's apparently dying to meet other "korean protestant" - when my japanese friend told me that, i couldn't stop laughing. who actually says that? but anyway, i guess i fit the bill so we shall see if that goes anywhere.

my next agenda:
1. learn to make kimchi now that i've discovered napa cabbages. stay tuned for step-by-step on that one. (yanghwa, i'm waiting for yours so i can just follow your directions!!)
2. contact my fellow korean protestants.
3. get tick shots for my children.

on the next post: (this is to remind myself....)
1. my adventure to a malaysian food store
2. makayla's school picnic
3. new friends.

have a great week!

voila! tofu!

1. soak soy beans for 8 hours.

2. make soy milk using soy milk making machine.


3. bring soy milk to a simmer for 10 minutes and add nigari to coagulate the milk. this is the tricky part, if you don't add the coagulant at the right temperature, it won't coagulate.

4. depending on how firm or soft you want the tofu to be, you vary the amount of the nigari.

5. you place the coagulated soy milk in the tofu mold and press it with 5-10lb. weight. here we are using crushed tomato cans.

6. let it sit in the mold for about 20 mintues and there you have it!

you can soak it in the water, store it in the fridge. as long as you change the water everyday, you can store it for up to a week.

joe has thoroughly enjoyed the process and loves drinking fresh soy milk. we'd better be making tons of soy milk and tofu to recover the cost of the machine and the shipping!!! i told my new japanese friend here and she was thrilled that i will be providing with her with fresh batch of tofu here and there! in fact, our neighbor was totally intrigued by it as well. she loves soy milk but it's actually very expensive to buy here so she's considering purchasing the machine as well. we gave her a batch of fresh soy milk today so we'll see what she thinks! apparently it tastes a little different than the commercial ones you buy in the states.

tofu horror continues

ever since we arrived here, we've been on the hunt for tofu. we haven't found them yet. in fact, we ordered tofu making kit from the states and plan to make our very own tofu. however, it's stuck in customs so the detailed account of how we would make tofu would have to wait. yeah, and we have to find soy beans. i will be a korean Nigella Lawson before out 3 year stint is over. anyhoo, joe came home one day really happy to show me something. "I found tofu!!" he says. skeptical, i glared at the two different packaged tofu he brought home. hmmmmmm. it does say tofu, it has a picture on it. how come it's kind of flat and don't have to be refrigerated?

behold, what it looks like inside!!!

i'm sure i dont' have to tell you that we were too scared to try it and it went straight to the trash. . . . the other one he brought didn't look as bad. so joe decided to give it a try. i made miso soup for the kids and joe insisted on putting the tofu in. being the genius that i am, i took out almost all the soup and left one serving in the pot to cook some of the tofu - so that i can give it to joe and spare my kids the agony. oh, how i wish i video taped him taking the first bite!!!!!! his expression was priceless. he made all kinds of frown and proceeded to quietly spit out the tofu and threw away rest of the miso soup. darn you, tofu!! wasting my precious miso ration!! he said that words couldn't describe how nasty it was. . . . we are eagerly waiting for our tofu making kit.

rough week

makayla started school this week. little did i know that it would stress me out to no end. i posted that i was afraid of what would break me - well here it is - driving in narrow roads. i always hated driving. hated. i always told my friends that if i had all the money in the world, i would hire a chauffer and a florist.

what was i thinking for not signing up for a school bus service for makayla? the drive there takes about 40 minutes (15min if no traffic and no construction). the school is located in the boonies - outside of the city where the last 5 minutes of the drive consist of a winding road where it's suppose to be one way but insisted on being a two way. so if there's a car on the other side, one of you has to veer toward the grass or who knows what.

first day, as i was swerving to avoid an oncoming car, i hit a ditch and totally scraped underneath the car. the second day, joe was driving and he hit a pot hole so deep i hit my elbow and knee hard that i couldn't speak for a minute out of anger and frustration - ofcourse not at joe but at the road.... the third day, it was pouring rain and as i entered the small road, i see a gold VW in a ditch, tilted 45 degrees and unable to get out. great ~ that's going to be me in couple of days, i thought. i later find out that VW belonged to a new American family - this poor lady was standing in the rain waiting for help. the school is so used to having people get stuck, the guard has all kind of equipment to get the car out of a ditch, a hole and cow dung. is that a good thing or not?

hallelujah! i just heard from the school that makayla could ride the school bus. Thank the Lord. now all i have to worry about is mak's safety and her emotional stability. please pray that she'll adjust to riding a bus with bunch of older kids. . . . poor girl, she has to suffer because b/c mommy is too chicken to drive in a foreign country.

so i mentioned earlier that everyONE has a dog in this country. or at least it seems like it - in our neighborhood. and not those little hollywood dogs but big, scary, hairy black ones. one day i was walking my cleaning lady to joe's co-worker's house, we ran into two of these dogs wandering in the street. ignorance is bliss, i tell you. my cleaning lady, statia, was so scared, she kept wanting to turn around. i was like "it's okay, i think they are owned by someone..." so we proceeded without a hitch. couple of days later, my neighbor tells me that she was bit by a big dog when she was jogging - and since the owner kept denying that it was her dog and refused to get the dog tested, she ended up having to go through the whole rabies shots. . . she was so sick from those shots. later i took the kids for a walk in a stroller. and sure enough, we saw those two dogs far away. this time, they looked so dirty and unkempt. i turned around and started to walk as calmly and quickly as possible. i turned around to see where they were, and they were running full speed toward us. i was soooooo scared! i was mumbling "LORD HELP US.... LORD PROTECT US." and started to imagine what i would do if they attacked any of us. then when it reached us, another dog in someone's yard started to bark at the two dogs and provoked them further. i had to stop moving for a second... the two dogs started to get all excited and started circling around barking at all the dogs in the neighborhood. hoping that they are now distracted, i just quietly started to walk again. THEN, makayla and ethan started to bark at the dogs!!! "ARRRRG, WOOF WOOF" "RUFF RUFF" - are they crazy???? don't they see the dire situation we're in????? i started to whisper loudly - you know what i mean? "SSSSTOOOOP IT, SSSTOOPPP, no barking! no barking!"

it was comical since we arrived home safely - thanks to God, and we haven't taken a walk since then :)

more holland pictures

joe's mom bought the kids a cutest souvenir. slipper clogs.

holland has the best chinese food. this is my favoritest (i know how to spell, alright?) thing to eat when i'm there. this is a huge scallop still on the shell, with vermicelli noodles, lots of garlic, green onions and some kind of sauce. it's soooooo good, i'm salivating just thinking about it. yummmmmmmm.

ethan likes to sleep posing. so camera conscious, this boy.

mak at madurodum - it's a miniature holland. they have all the landmarks so if you don't have time to look at the whole country, just stop by here. if you look carefully, you can see ethan being squished behind mak. hahahahah.