Polski Log, Stardate 03142005

Well, our first week in Poland is complete, and we're having a blast, though we are still adjusting to our strange new surroundings. Melissa survived her first week on the job, and Dave managed to survive the new apartment without being eaten by any of our odd European appliances. Our favorite features of our new apartment are:

The gated community feeling, the pool, our hot-tub sized bath tub, our heated tile floors, our heated towel rack in the bathroom, and our really cool fridge that blends into the cabinets!

Things we don't like? Our small bed... um... our sheets on the aforementioned bed that come off in the middle of the night (including the fitted sheet)... and... um... the bed.

After a week in Poland we have somehow managed to avoid eating any Polish food whatsoever. Which is not to say that we're avoiding Polish food, we just seem to get invited out for international food. Last night, we had Spanish Tapas (complete with a flamenco dancer!). The food from the grocery store is cheap, and VERY European. We love being able to get French camembert for 3 PLN, or Złote (pronounced Zwhoa-te).

Around town, we've been to the 'old town' which is the only part of the city that was reconstructed after the war, and today we went to our local mall. A MALL in Europe (!) complete with a Nine West, a movie theater, and a food court (Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and Sbarro Pizza). Other then the ridiculous number of American fast food joints, we were very happy with the mall, and feel like we'll be able to get anything/everything we want while we're in Poland.

Gidget has a new hobby: she's started collecting carpet fibers from all of the new carpeting in our apartment. Everytime we brush her we pull out enough carpet fiber to weave a new rug (in addition to enough hair to construct a new cat). We've tried to encourage her to store her collection in a small drawer that we've designated as "Gidget's Drawer," but she seems to prefer to carry her collection around with her in her tail. At least she's generous, she shares a little piece of her collection with us everytime she comes into contact with anything.

So our mission this week is to seek out new forms of DSL and Cell Phone service, and to look into buying a car so that we may boldy go where many others have gone before!