Easter in Poland!

Hello friends and family! Sorry I've been MIA lately. Believe it or not, I've actually had to do real school work the past couple of weeks! But don't worry, I'm all caught up until next Wednesday and have a few spare moments to update you all at LEAST through Easter... So, for Easter weekend, my roommate (Magda, for those of you just joining us) invited me to celebrate with her family in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. It's a "small town" about 90km SW of Krakow. I was a little hesitant about what the weekend would be like because Magda had been very vague about what to expect aside from reminding me again and again that her family wouldn't be able to speak English with me. So basically I was going into the weekend expecting to entertain myself with books and such while Magda got some QT in with her fam. Which I was totally cool with. After all, I was gonna be in Poland, eating homemade Polish food. That was sweet enough for me! Fortunately, the weekend was so much more than that. I might even go as far to say that it has been my favorite weekend in Europe so far. But I'm getting ahead of myself... So, Friday morning came and the plan was to leave as soon as possible. The problem - I didn't have my passport. Certain things required me to mail my passport back to the consulate in the states where they would affix my visa, mail it to my parents who would then mail it back to me. According the UPS, my passport was due to arrive in Brno sometime on Friday and as soon as it got here, Magda and I would pick it up and head to the train station. On Friday morning, I went to track where my passport was only to find it was in Prague and the expected arrival date had been changed to Tuesday. Problem. I thought (hoped!) that maybe the website was wrong and Magda convinced me we should wait until at least 5 to see if maybe it would just show up. So we waited. And it never came. The decision came down to: 1. Wait until Saturday to see if it might come then 2. Stay behind in Brno while Magda went ahead to Poland or 3. Go to Poland passport-less. As much of a risk as it was, we decided to brave it and headed to the train station. (Luckily I didn't hear the story of my korean friend who was detained in the Polish police station for 5 hours while he waited for his friend in Brno to bring his passport to Poland and rescue him until AFTER we got back) We were on the train and off to Bielsko-Biała by 6. I won't give you a play by play of everything we did in Poland, because that would be kind of boring. Instead, I'll give you the recap of my favorite parts: -Magda's parents - I honestly couldn't tell you their names (Magda wouldn't even tell me!) but they were so wonderful! As it turns out, her dad was able to speak English enough to entertain me with endless stories of family vacations, fun stories of little Magda, and some of his more exciting adventures in life. He was so funny and very fun to be around. I laughed a lot. Her mom was so great too. She couldn't speak any English (though by the end of the weekend we both had learned a good bit from each other of Polish and English) but she was so loving and made me feel right at home. She also fed me VERY well (I had to remember whether I was in Poland or back in North Carolina with the Banfields for how much they were feeding me!) :) Which brings me to my next favorite part: -THE FOOD. I ate SO much good food. I am not exaggerating when I say - there were VERY VERY few minutes that I was awake and not eating. Let me just give you a little idea of what it was like: On Monday morning, I woke up around 9:30, well before Magda and Conrad (her "little" brother) I was showered, packed, and downstairs by about 10. Somewhere around 10:02, Magda's mom had placed a huge plate full of meats, cheeses, breads, and cucumbers in front of me (typical breakfast for these parts of Europe) I willingly ate everything she gave me (since I had just woken up, you know) and drank the first cup of tea she brought. It was probably around 10:45 by the time I finished my meal. Around 11, Magda woke up and came downstairs. By about 11:02, both Magda and I had bowls filled to the brim with homemade chicken noodle soup (Magda's favorite, and I completely understand why) I was not very hungry, but it smelled so good, so I ate it all. After we finished, Magda and Conrad and I headed to the church for mass. We were gone from about 12-1:30. At 1:30, we came back to another heaping bowl of chicken noodle soup. Again, I ate the whole bowl, thinking it would be our lunch. Wrong. It was just the appetizer. As soon as my bowl was empty, it was traded out for a heaping plate of mashed potatoes, veggies, sauerkraut and some sort of mystery meat (magda wouldn't tell me what it was - but it was so gooD!) By now, I was comPLETELY full and wondering to myself how in the world I was going to force a whole meal down. I knew I couldn't refuse it because for 1, Magda's mom didn't speak English and wouldn't realize I was turning it down because I was full, not because I didn't like it and 2, because she had prepared it especially for us and I hate being rude and turning someone's hard work down. So, I determined to finish all the food I had been given. It took me about 75 minutes (no joke!) but I did it. And when I finished, I literally thought I was going to vomit (I know, that's gross. but its really how i felt) As I was trying to find a position that wouldn't make me hurl, Magda's mom came by with a big bag of chocolate, insisting I have "JEDEN! JEDEN!" (One! One!) She's so sweet and so I HAD to take it. You can probably imagine how good I felt after that piece of chocolate. And that's not even the end. It was about 2:30 and we had just over an hour until we were planning to head to the train station to come "home." I knew if I had stayed awake, I would be fed more (or at least given tea) so of course I took a nap. I woke up to Magda's mom handing me a family sized carton of yogurt and a silver spoon. Guess what I did. I ate that whole thing of yogurt. haha. It was great, really. The food tasted so wonderful so in the long run, it really wasn't a big deal that I had to eat so much :) -Visit to the mountains: -Watching home videos of Magda and her family :)

Magda and her parents singing a Polish song in the car on the way to the mountains :)



-Did I mention the food?? -Easter traditions!! In Poland, it is tradition to throw water on each other on Easter Monday. When I woke up, Magda's mom sprayed me with perfume (she's too nice!) and her brother poured water on me. I felt like a part of the family :) Overall, the trip was really enjoyable. I loved getting to know Magda's family and really do hope to go back again someday (Magda DID tell me she would babysit our kids while Sam and I visited Auschwitz, since I didn't get to do that due to my lack of a passport) Magda and I had great quality time being friends and not just roommates, which was so fun. It was so sad when we had to leave, I really could've stayed there the rest of my time in Europe. When we got on the train and gave her parents hugs goodbye, none of us had a dry eye. It was so sweet. I really love Poland. :) train ride home. we had sweet aisle seats :)

a little bonus video for you. :)