Mysteries in Krakow

The first day of 2008 started off interesting.

Joe and I decided that we need to be more intentional about teaching our children Korean and Chinese. So we started the day with a good intention of expanding our kids' language skills. Whenever I spoke to them, I tried to speak in Korean and English. and then Joe would talk to them in Chinese. After about an hour of this madness, Makayla broke down and all of a sudden started to sing really loudly in Polish. This was our cue to stop overloading their brains. She then proceeded to tell us that she is Polish American, mommy Korean American, daddy Chinese American and ethan just American. talk about identity crisis. this should deter us from moving to another random country but we shall see.

There are many mysteries when you live in a foreign country. Partly b/c of language barrier, partly b/c of our ignorance but some things are just plain mysterious.

Oh, before i talk about that, i wanted to ask - is it totally rude not to accept those little things people give and throw at you on facebook? i just don't want to have gazillion applications on my page so i end up not opening it or whatever you have to do. for those who send me thing, it's appreciate it but never gets on my profile page :P but do give me things, i just know that you thought of me. . . . oh, and does it totally drive you nuts that i weave in and out of using capital letters?

Mystery #1 Balloons shrink at ridiculously slow pace here. When we use to get trader joe's balloon in the states, it shriveled by 2nd or 3rd day, if not popped on the way home by Ethan. However, the balloons we got here from McDonald's lasted, no joke, 2 months. It was kept in the kids' playroom indefinitely so we had to actually pop it. hmmmmmmm.

Mystery #2 Eggs are sold unrefrigerated here. This freaked out one of my American friend here to no end. She would talk about it every time we got together - she would joyously share that she discovered a supermarket who would sell them refrigerated. It didn't freak me out so much but it did make me concerned to see stacks of eggs 5 feet high - "how long has this been here?"

Mystery #3 We received this mysterious letter one day. Full of dates and different street addresses. We obviously couldn't figure it out so we thought it was some kind of road construction schedule. That was our guess. When we finally asked Joe's co-worker, this was the answer we got. "The mail tells when the neighborhood priest will visit to bless your home. Jesionowa is Monday, January 7th, starting from 15.00. "Gather your whole family if possible ... prepare a cross, candles, [kropidlo], and holy water. If you don't have holy water, tell the minister who precedes the priest. Shut off your tv and radio. Children should prepare their catechism worksheets." Joe's co-worker is quite a jokester so we were both like "he's kidding, right?" but it was confirmed by our babysitter asking us "so when's the priest coming to your house?" what is a catechism worksheets?????

To end, i would like to share why Mak will never enter the American Idol. WARNING - lower your volume, especially if you're at work!




Translation: "hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon..."