The day began with an interesting breakfast of toasted kaiser roll topped with ham, cheese, tomato and dill pickle. It was actually quite good. There Was A nice stout coffee chaser and all the dill pickles you could eat.
Aneta's recipe for dill pickles is very interesting. It has salt, water, garlic and dill seed but no vinegar or pickling spices. She makes it in a crokery urn that sits out on the kitchen counter. No packing the cukes in jars, no worrying about whether or not the lids sealed properly -nothing but pickles floating in brine. They are delicious.
Ania was in a real mood today. She pitched a fit at breakfast that was a real hum dinger. She is definitely in the terrible twos and spoiled rotten to boot. She is mad at me most of the time because I pretend not to know what she wants when she screams "aah waaa" and points for me to pick up her spoon she has just pitched to the floor. Taking a page out of my daughter-in-laws parenting book I find myself saying, "use your words, Ania, use your words.". She screams at me in frustration but today she used three words, Boppa, TaTa, and Bye-bye - all to communicate with me. She is teachable but stubborn as a bull dog on the end of a tug-'o- war rope.
She went to her Boppa's house today and Aneta went to work. She dropped me off at the new shopping center where I wandered aimlessly for three hours. The fashions here are beautiful and they have many of the same stores as you find in major shoppings plazas across America. I found an iSpot for Apple Products and almost scored z keyboard for my iPad but was talked out of it by the clerk who told me the iPad two wouldn't stand up in the dock because it is thinner. Of course they didn't have the one for the iPad two so I continue to struggle with this virtual keyboard.
I felt very independent shopping by myself with no language helper. In one store a young woman graciously asked me in Polish if she could help me find anything. I said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Polish."
She responded in flawless English, "Oh, well then, may I help you find anything?". Then she flashed me a big warm smile.
At the Chopin Cafe I read the signs describing flavors of semi-soft ice cream (Gelato in Italy)and, having decided I had Correctly interpreted one sign to say, "sweet cream" I asked if it was sweet cream. The clerk said, "no."
I said, "what flavor is it ,then?"
She said, "humm - milk flavor."
So I ordered a scoop and it was indeed sweet cream - my absolute favorite and delicious to boot!
A scoop of ice cream was about the size of an American meatball - hardly enough to get a good taste! No wonder everyone here is so slim and trim.
Aneta picked me up and we ran a couple of errands for her work delivering shock absorbers from one side of town to the other. Then we picked Ania up and returned to the flat, where I thought I might get a nap. No such luck. Right after we arrived Aneta's in-laws arrived for a visit. We were eating lunch: freshly baked white bread with - guess what - ham, tomatoes and dill pickles! We had tea, some nice French pastries Aneta picked up at the mall, and tried to have a conversation in Polish and English. Very difficult. I wish I could pick outs individual words in the Polish language but I can't. My language translator is great for laughs but doesn't help much with conversation or translation. For example it threw Ania's "spelling" on the floor instead of her "spoon" and it is even more ridiculous in translating Polish into English.
We got a surprise visit home from Witek tonight and the evening has been spent dealing with Ania's latest injury (she fell and hurt her leg), bathing Ania and now they are trying to get her to bed. She had a long and tiring day and missed her nap, which didn't improve her mood any.
I think we are all looking forward to bed tonight!
Linda
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