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.