The Great Flood - The Wisula at it's Worst

The beautiful flowers and lush surroundings of Lazienki Park came as a result of a wet spring.  This has been a winter and spring of record snow and rain.  The saturated land and heavy snow pack have combined with unprecedented rainfall to produce the biggest floods in over 100 years in Poland.  Poland is influenced by a few major river systems that drain into the main river artery, the Wisula.  The river runs from the southern boarder and empties into the Baltic Sea in Gdansk.  No City along its course has escaped the effects of its high water.  Thousands have been evacuated and the Poles have pulled together to fill sand bags and help each other out. (No Pun intended) 

Two of the adjacent pictures were taken from a bridge near our apartment in New Town in Warsaw.   The water level on the bridge piers is up about 3 to 4 meters from normal height.

We live well above the river and, it appears that for Warsaw, only the low-lying suburbs have been affected. We are happy to see that the majority of Varsavians have not been impacted.  However, many of the smaller cities have been significantly affected.

A walk through the city this afternoon found many visitors and residents enjoying the warm spring day.  On our drive home from Church earlier this afternoon we were pelted with grape sized hail balls.  Ten minutes later the sky had cleared inviting all to come our and risk another exchange with Mother Nature.  We accepted the challenge and found ourselves with hundreds of others enjoying a relaxing afternoon with the cool freshness that a spring storm brings.  

The sidewalk cafes and shops on our street were filled with families and young people standing in lines to enjoy Poland's delicious lody (ice-cream)  I will put it up against any ice cream we have found anywhere in the world .  So far it is at the top.   Tomorrow we head to Italy to enjoy the sights and flavors that are famous to that region.  However, we have become very fond and proud of our Eastern European home in Warsaw with all of its customs, quirks and color.  Rome's offering will have to be over the top to topple our current favorite.                                                                 

Even before the movie "NIGHT at the MUSEUM," Warsaw made it into real life experiences for Poles.  This year on May 15 all museums and art Galleries in Poland were staffed and opened all night (or at least until 3:00 a.m. we heard from one teen) so in this way we celebrated David's birthday (along with watching Robin Hood at a nearby theater with Polish subtitles. An easy BD present from Lisa as David likes R.C. movies)  People came out in droves and made it quite the evening.  Old Town with its numerous museums and gallaries was filled with people who were enjoying the social novelty offered for free to all those willing to venture out at the late hour.  It is really a neat event.  We took a couple pictures which didn't turn out too well, so we snapped these during daylight.                                          

 Lisa is standing in front of Madame Curie's museum which, "chronicles the life and work of Madame Marie Curie, a Polish chemist and physicist, winner of  two Nobel Prizes and pioneer in the study of Radioactivity."    We learned this online, because the film is in Polish!  It is about 4 or 5 blocks from our apartment.  It was packed to the brim during the Night at the Museum.

David is in front of the entrance to the Old Town guard towers that resemble those that once stood as a main entry to the gated and walled city.  A door that we pass by frequently, but didn't realize contained a museum about the walls, had a long line which we joined to tour the passage-way where we could see out the tiny windows shown in the picture. That night "if these walls could talk" seemed to tell the story from old drawings and maps of what previous walls looked like.

As we finished our walk we passed a few areas near our home that speak to the charm that is Europe.  Lisa is standing in a narrow street that is sometimes referred to as Hostel Alley.  It has two youth hostels that invite the young back-packers that migrate throughout Europe in all seasons.  Every high school graduate's dream, footloose with a backpack traveling to the major cities of Europe. 

The final photo is of our favorite little gathering place.  It is New Town Square in Warsaw.  It is just a few blocks from were we live.  In previous blogs you can see this square in the different seasons.  My favorite photo is the Winter scene.  However, the serenity of this Springtime setting is a close second.  We love the restaurants that surround this peaceful part of Warsaw.

Saturday in the Park

May 8th was a somewhat warm Saturday, which made this the nicest day for a stroll in our favorite--Lazienki Park. Missing the Spring flowering trees of North Carolina, this was the closest we've seen in Warsaw. People said to wait until the end of April to see flowering trees, but we may have waited a bit too long, as one young sister missionary said there were Magnolia trees. Hard too believe they could thrive in the cold climate of Poland.

Still there were some beautiful trees last week. Monday morning we had sloneczna pogoda (sunny weather) and I ventured to the mall wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt. But by afternoon it was pochmurna (cloudy) with some rain. The rest of the week weather was similar and I didn't leave home without a jacket and an umbrella that turned out to come in handy several days

The picture above was actually taken a couple weeks before.

Announcements from America!

A couple Announcements from Across the Pond:




Lauren and Aaron were excited to find out yesterday (we called first thing this morning as there is a 9-hour time difference) that she's expecting a......drumroll please......

BABY BOY!

   CONGRATULATIONS Lauren and Aaron who will become parents with the birth of this baby boy around September 17.  And of course for us that means we will BECOME GRANDPARENTS!!!!  We are so excited that they will be starting to raise a family and are residing near where we lived in Portland, Oregon!  Of course we will be returning for the birth of our GRANDSON and will enjoy many visits to the Great Northwest in the future! They are thinking of naming him Logan David--getting Lauren's Dad's name in there--isn't that sweet! 

Also, by way of announcements, our daughter Lindsay who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been much......

ENGAGED with/to Diego!!!  (last names eliminated for privacy purposes since this isn't a private blog)  Diego is also a student at UNC Charlotte. They both love student teaching, Lindsay in art at Ardrey Kell, and Diego in Engineering at the University.  Diego is a convert who was baptized last fall and they are looking forward to a December wedding in the Columbia, South Carolina Temple.  Speaking of Colombia, that's where Diego is from, and he and Lindsay will visit his family in Bogata this summer!

Needless to say, we have lots going on in the states with our kids these days giving us exciting things to plan for when we visit more frequently the second half of the year!   We're happy for our children as they celebrate their recent news!!!

Happy 30th Wedding Anniversary, David!

 On April 19, 1980, at 11:00 a.m. in the Salt Lake Temple we were Married!!!!

Hey, it’s 12:04 on April 19, 2010 and David and I have been married for 30 years!!!  That’s 10,950 days!  Impossible to count the numbers for things like how many movies we’ve seen, dinners we’ve cooked together, etc., but since 30 seems like such a momentous number and we’ve had some extraordinary experiences, I’ll try to name a few…say 30 things we’ve done together, many with our children, because out of those 30 years we’ve spent 27 of them with them. So here are a few memories of adventures we’ve had:

1.  Going on a bike ride before having children while living in King Henry Apartments, thinking after buying bikes for ourselves that life just doesn’t get much better than this.

2. Being the first couple in my family to buy a king-size waterbed and convincing a few sisters and husbands that waterbeds were wonderful so they bought them as well.  (Then being the first couple to get rid of ours!)

3. Buying a pop-up tent and taking our four little ones camping.  For some unexplained reason I got the reputation for being a non-camper (I admit I didn’t like the moldy smell of our used pop-up but was thrilled to support everyone else on their campouts!) oh and I did carry a vomiting child to the bathroom in the middle of a cold, dark night!

4. Taking our four children on a steep hike down a trail to Crater Lake because I wanted to touch the lake and then taking turns carrying Lindsay and Adrienne back up afterwards.

5. One hot, summer day when our kids were bored you built a rope slide in our backyard in Springfield, Oregon, and for several hours you assisted our kids and lots of their friends in “flying” across our backyard.

6. The time we took our kids cross-country skiing and skied about 500 yards where we stopped so you could set up our gas stove and heat chili and cocoa.  More important than trying to master staying up while skiing down hill was being the envy of other athletes who wished they had come so prepared.

7. Documenting our children’s lives with a video-camera in which you managed to capture sweet memories of our children laughing, playing, singing and showing off just a little bit for the camera.

8. The many planning sessions we had for Family Home Evening when we discussed options, planned and adjusted our schedule as we weekly updated our much anticipated East Coast Trip the summer of 2001.  So many laughs were shared as important moments such as, “Tonight we need to decide if we want to go to Philadelphia or Gettysburg.” The reply, Philadelphia, so you said “well I think we ought to go to Gettysburg, which was recommended by …”  By trip end we were Civil War buffs, Nate continued to chant, “Dad, look at that gun!” (a comment he heard in the Smithsonian that stuck), renting the two Buicks because it was “cheaper” than a van, Mom getting lost with Neverlost’s help in NYC, seeing some wonderful Church history sites and visiting friends at the highest roller-coaster in the world at the time amusement park, and learning that you really shouldn’t go on roller-coasters!

9. Being present at the most wonderful moments of my life--welcoming our babies!  With Lauren—“she has her eyes open already,” After  Nate, “I’m not feeling well. I think I need to go get something to eat.” With Lindsay I grabbed your ears and said, “stop making me hyperventilate, breath with me!” and after Adrienne, “what does our mailman look like?”

10.  Snorkling with our kids in Lanikai, where we swam with the flora and fauna many a quick morning or afternoon, the real reason we were willing to pay a huge mortgage to live in Paradise.  

11. Demonstrating a love of animals with heroic deeds such as once picking up a large turtle that was caught in tide pool in Maui and trying to resuscitate Magellan (our one-year-old cat) who unexpectedly had a stoke waking us one night.

12. Hiking up Teotihuacán with our kids and my parents and running with the Bulls in San Miguel DaJende (okay, that last one I didn’t know about until after the fact.) 

13. Discovering, while picking up pies for Thanksgiving dinner, that David has been more than occasionally pausing on the Food Network and proved he’s quite the gourmet finishing the dishes I started with delicious and artistic flair!  Forever after sharing in kitchen cooking for large, and often small, events!

14. Taking Adrienne on the Father/Son campout along with Nate as a reward for being potty-trained.  Ok, I wasn’t on that campout but after the difficult time we had in reaching that milestone, I needed the reward as well!

15. Working a deal with your employer to help ease the pain of having an empty-nest by accepting a job in Poland where we get twice weekly Polish lessons, and lots of time spent on adventures like deciding last-minute to go on an overnight trip and after deciding we’d had enough aggressive driving on country roads turning around and going home—we’re flexible like that!

16. Driving to the Outer Banks several times to make sure each of our children gets a chance to see Lighthouses and where Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flights. 

17. Going to Myrtle Beach with a couple kids who wanted to see the ocean then spending most of the time playing miniature golf because the beach was boring. 

18. Getting Mothers Days off to a great start with the ritual of playing the recording of our little kids singing “Mother Dear I Love You So,” and then working hard to make sure I had a day off. 

19.  Making your famous chocolate pancakes.  Famous after I sent in your recipe for a special Valentine’s Day feature in the Longview, Washington newspaper and they sent a photographer and reporter to our house who wrote a story about how I knew mornings would be wonderful once we were married after you kicked your roommates out one morning shortly after we got engaged so you could impress me—which it did!

20.  More than a few Saturday mornings going out for breakfast at Boots and Kimo  in Kailua for banana pancakes even Jack Johnson would wait in line for.

21.  With your fluent Spanish and adventurous nature you hired our own tour guides to take us on a snorkeling tour off the coast of Puerto Viarta for a catered boat trip!  No large tour group crowds for us—and cheaper rates too!

22.  Setting up a tent to “camp out” in the back yard and showing up in our bed after the kids were soundly asleep.

23. Remodeling our kitchen, then a bathroom, then building two fences, another kitchen and even installing a kitty-door to name a few handy-man projects.

24. Making many a birthday special by continuing the tradition of making artichokes for my birthday along with a few other delights like steak or shrimp cocktail.

25. Teaching each of our children to drive a car, because that was YOUR job.

26.  Singing with Lindsay and Adrienne in their teens and above years on road trips. 

27.  Watching many a chick flick such as “Titanic” just to spend time with me, not to mention, “Pride and Prejudice” and “Anne of Green Gables!” 

28. Sharing your Papa Son story and “I Comma Zimba Zimba Ziya, song at many a campout with family or scouts.

29.  Joyfully serving as a bishop twice, even though knowing the second time what kind of sacrifice would be required.

30.   Believing what you said with these and perhaps other “Davidisms,”  “you love those you serve and you serve those you love,”  “do hard things,” and “if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

A Presidential Tragedy

Yesterday morning we were shocked at the news as we started our day. Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed along with his wife, several top military officials, and the head of the national bank when their plane crashed near Smoleńsk. There were 96 on board including many prominent polish leaders. As you probably have heard, there were no survivors.

Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski took over as acting president . The Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the country would hold two minutes of silence at midday today for the victims. Russia has declared Monday as a day of mourning.

Kaczynski had been traveling with the Polish delegation to Russia for the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers in Katyn during World War II. Kaczynski had been President since December 2005. Elections must now be held within 60 days. There is going to be a huge gap in public leadership in Poland. Needless to say, this will be a difficult week for the country as it sorts through this tragedy

Lisa and I ventured out down the street to join with thousands of Poles that came together to an evening mass at their local churches. We live close to some of the most historic churches in all of Poland. The one shown in the photo is famous for a number of reasons. To name one, it is the site for the signing of their new constitution.

We stopped briefly (we could not pass) and listened to a sermon and choir music.

A Warsaw Easter with Watering Day

We woke up to church bells ringing, fireworks and cannons (really?) on Easter morning at 6 a.m! All weekend long we've noticed an increase of pedestrians trailing past our apartment to the ancient churches in Nowe Miasto and Stare Miasto.

Since it was General Conference for us LDS folks all over the world we could've slept in (the first session, recorded from Saturday, began at 2:00 p.m.) but there were things for Lisa to prepare in the kitchen: potato casserole for 40 and a recent favorite tradition--morning glory muffins. Without muffin tins, they were "muffies," tasting just as good.

No longer kids' Easter baskets to fill, Lisa filled chocolate eclairs and cream puffs (baked the night before) instead and then hauled in one large white basket (purchased on our shopping spree Friday just for the occasion) to church on Sunday to enjoy with a few members (45-50.) Not bad for our first Easter being just a couple again!

David was warned that grocery stores are closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday in celebration in this predominantly Catholic country, so we "celebrated" Frantic Friday making sure that we had purchased enough ham, whipping cream, potatoes and treats for Sunday Dinner.

Our friends the Hardings (missionary couple) were in complete agreement that a last-minute thrown together pot luck at the church would be better than trying to squeeze a traditional Easter Feast in between conference sessions. The missionaries were especially grateful to have a few favorites--ham, funeral potatoes and some Easter candies. Also, the "inner bunny" in me enjoyed packing some Easter candies in the bottom of the basket to surprise those still eager for treats after finishing off the baked goods.

We lounged for hours Monday morning in a post carbohydrate coma, choosing to watch The Titanic movie, before heading out to capture these pictures. Hope you enjoyed your Easter weekend as well!

From wikipedia we learned that post-Easter festivities involved a week-long secular celebration, but this was reduced to one day in the19th century. Poland, celebrates Watering Day also called Easter Monday.

Since David (as well as many employees) had the day off, we set off Monday afternoon with the camera to capture this Polish holiday. It is celebrated, "dousing other people with water which traditionally had been blessed with holy water the day before at Easter Sunday Mass and carried home to bless the house and food." We only saw a couple people chasing each other with spray guns, but we saw lots of people carrying ice cream cones. With malls closed, many folks strolled in and out of churches and in lines for ice cream.

Much like April Fools for us, people play jokes "watering" others when they least expect it. We were warned by the security guard on our way out the door Monday afternoon, to watch for water being sprayed. The only spray we had during our walk and metro/tram ride was from "heaven water," as Piotr put it when we arrived home slightly wet, but invigorated, from the exercise.

Not only did we benefit from physical exercise, but from exercising our faith we feel we have been and can continue to be showered with heavenly living water!

Marching into Spring!!

Ok, so it sounds like the only thing we talk about on our blog is the weather! True, that we haven't taken pictures of ourselves doing our day-to-day activities--thanks for the interest though Chelsea!

So, this picture is of missionaries who we had over at our place a week ago last Sunday. Missionaries play a big part of the lives of the members in our small branch in Warsaw. We enjoyed feeding them after District Conference. Two of them finished their missions last Thursday. They are all wonderful missionaries!

On a walk last Friday afternoon when temperatures were in the 60's we passed by a portion of the wall that remains from the Warsaw Ghetto. In several areas of Warsaw you will still find the sections of the walls that were built to imprison thousands of Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

We saw a number of monuments as well that serve as reminders of the heroic efforts of the citizen militia that gave their lives to reclaim the city. The Warsaw Uprising is a very well documented and powerful story of the faith and conviction of the Poles. It didn't have a very happy ending for them at the time. However, in retrospect it serves as an important source of pride and symbol of their will to be independent and free.

On our walk we passed by the Krasinskich Palace. It is one of the many palaces that were built in the 1600s by the wealthy Magnates that held all the power and influence in the region. Now it's used as part of the Polish National Library. Speaking of books, there are some great books to read about the golden age of Poland and the dominant presence it had in Europe at that time. One that was loaned to me a week ago is "The Polish Way" by Adam Zamoyski. I read his book "Chopin," last month and appreciated even more after listening to some of his music.

Last Friday's major quest was to walk to the Holy Cross Church where Frederic Chopin's heart is supposed to be interred within a column. (Because so much as destroyed in WWII there are those who doubt it's still there) I was so excited to learn, after reading the book about him on a trip to Gdansk, that the VERY first day I googled Chopin to hear some of his music it happened to be his 200th Birthday--March 1!

I have enjoyed listening to some of his pieces in the days and weeks since! Some of my favorites are Yundi Li plays Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 and Yundi Li - Chopin "Fantasie" Impromptu, Op. 66. If you've listened to those two pieces on youtube, don't stop until clicking on Chopin's Funeral March. The beginning is certainly morose and familiar but the middle part is breath-takingly beautiful! No wonder the Poles adore Chopin!

Here's what Chopin and I have in common: he used to cry when he heard his mother play the piano and my older kids would also cry as babies when I got out my violin!! Ok, crying for different reasons so I put my violin away for decades. But, I brought it with me after Christmas vacation, so I spend some time almost every day playing it without any complaints (yet) from our neighbors! If you're a fan of Chopin, check out my favorite Chopin arrangement for the violin: Jacobsen-Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

While David works 10 - 12 hour days, I keep a rather leisurely schedule studying Polish, playing the violin, forcing myself to exercise to a DVD, having folks over for dinner (we found out that Polish people eat way less than we do--at least one couple we had over did) going on quests such as searching for addresses of those I visit teach along with my partner who guides me through tram and bus routes, and lots of walks, especially to a mall where today I found a nice Springy green sweater on sale--great because clothes cost more in Poland! Lots of reading books! Also skyping and staying in touch with our kids. Hey offspring, send us some of your pictures and I'll share your news!