Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!  In our house, 'holidays' like this are "craft-only" days where we make a craft or card but don't purchase anything. (We have a beautiful collection of awesome cards made for one another over the years. Great souvenirs  easy to pack or easy to store -- physically or electronically.)

Emma and I made this Valentine for her Daddy, using an idea I got on an craft site. There are so many fun things to make with kids, aren't there? I thought this was a fun way to get a handprint of Emma.  (She has long fingers like her Great-Grandpa.)  The ribbon is the same length as her 'wingspan' fingertip to fingertip. (I made the card by cutting out hearts from old wrapping paper.)

A class set of Valentines

Last year, I made these Valentines for my students.  I do love a good craft project.

Two Ex-Soviet Cities: Warsaw vs. Kiev

Have you been to Poland yet?  Most people traveling to Europe tend not to see Poland as a "must-see" location -- granted, if you're going to Europe for the first time and only have a week, I can see why you would leave it off.  Fortunately, I'm married to a man who knows Europe well (he lived there for five years) and has many good buddies from Poland.  For us, Poland is a much-loved destination.

Stare Miasto

I first visited Poland in the summer of 2004, visiting Warsaw and Krakow with a few side-trips into the surrounding forests. Warsaw is an enchanting city.  One of my favorite places is Stare Miasto (Old Town).  In reality, 'Old Town' isn't that old.  The entire city was completely leveled by the Nazis in World War II (in retaliation for the Warsaw Uprising, where the city did it's best to oust the Nazis after years of occupation and oppression).  After the war, the Soviet Army took control of Poland and reconstruction work began.  Warsaw's residents wanted to recreate what had been destroyed, so they gathered old paintings and photographs from wherever they could, using those images to build new buildings but with the old facades.  (One funny story: about 200 years ago, a painter was having a bit of fun and put a monkey in place of the old gargoyles on his building. Also in fun, the people decided to go ahead and put the monkey on the building while they were reconstructing it, so it, like the others, would match the paintings they'd found. Why not, right? A bit of whimsy is never out of place. Especially after such devastation ) Walking around Old Town, you'd think you were in a place that was over 200 years old.  But really, it's only about the same age as our parents!

Side note: Krakow, on the other hand, really is old.  Home to Wawel Castle, this ancient city was spared during the war because it was used as headquarters for the Nazi secret police.  As a lover of old buildings, I'm glad about this.  The castle, the old church, the Cloth Hall (market place) and the Bell Tower where, for centuries, a trumpeter would alert the town if invaders were spotted -- it's all still there, still original and beautiful as ever.  (If you love old children's literature, you might know the Newberry Award book The Trumpeter of Krakow, a fictional tale of one such trumpeter.)  Look this place up on your Google Images and you'll see what I mean.  It's delightful.

deli delights

Wherever you go, you'll find good food in Poland. In the summer, fresh fruits and vegetables are abundant and used in everything they make. I'm especially fond of their raspberries, full of flavor and often harvested from wild berry patches in the woods. Lovely little mushrooms in all different shapes, fresh pickles of every kind (my mouth is watering just thinking about the pickled cucumbers), made quickly in just a few days, steeped in light-flavored vinegar. Grain-crusted breads and delicious apple pies. And the meats!  Gorgeous sausages, pates, fennel-steeped head cheeses, spiced hams... a trip to a deli is my favorite lunch-time outing.  Of course, you also have plenty of the soups and winter fare most people associate with Polish food: borsch (beet soup), zurek (sour rye soup), bigos (Hunter's stew), dumplings... it's all here.  And did I mention how nice Polish people are?  Really, it's refreshing to visit a place where people are genuinely polite and welcoming, happy to help a stranger, sociable with neighbors. 

Warsaw: Stare Miasto's Castle

Wikipedia's photo: Palace Kultury

We've seen a lot of changes in Poland over the years as it's definitely experiencing an economic rise.  Old cars are almost all off the streets, new buses from Germany offer comfortable rides around Warsaw, roads are newly-paved, train stations are being upgraded, new shopping malls covered in glass reflect modernity, jutting out between the old Soviet-style concrete buildings still in use.  I love that Warsaw is moving ahead with all of these changes while still holding on to some of the past.  One symbol of this is the Palace Kultury, a gift to the people of Warsaw from Josef Stalin.  It's the epitome of Soviet architecture: tall and pointy, slightly ugly, frilly and ornate yet made of concrete. (Our Polish friend tells us that Stalin offered a menu of possible gifts to this city and the man in charge of choosing the gift opted for this building... instead of, among other things, a metro system.  Perhaps he should have deliberated a bit longer.)

smalec

For us, going to Warsaw is like a trip home.  We love seeing our friends there, and the city is familiar. Michael, who lived in Warsaw for a year, tells me stories of different places as we walk past them.  He's excited when we see a little food stand selling food that looks kind of sloppy and unappetizing (but tastes "pretty good, surprisingly") -- a memory of eating quickly between classes.  I prefer to visit in the summer when the days are long and we can spend the evening outside a cafe, having a drink with friends while Michael practices his Polish, eating appetizers like pickles or smalec (bacon pieces in lard) spread on fresh bread, (one of those delicious foods you know you shouldn't eat - and wouldn't normally - but do because you're in Poland for a week and it's freshly-made by someone's grandmother. Or something like that.

Old concrete block meets new glass-clad style

In the Spring Break of 2012, we decided to visit friends in Poland before their upcoming relocation to neighboring countries.  It was just as wonderful as always.  This time, though, we came from Kazakhstan... the way I was viewing Warsaw was different than the way I'd viewed it before.  This time, I noticed how clean it is.  It seemed even more friendly than I'd remembered.  More modern.  More green.  I loved walking in the park around the statue of Chopin (he was from Warsaw), where, in the summer, pianists play free concerts of Chopin's music.  I loved seeing old buildings with blue skies behind, hearing birds chirp, getting greeted on the sidewalk by pensioners carrying their groceries in reusable bags. Getting on clean buses that ran on time ("look -- there's even a schedule!").  Certainly, perspective can enhance one's experience of every new place.

Kiev:

matriochka (nesting dolls)

I'm glad I had that memory of Poland in my mind when we stopped through Kiev, Ukraine on the way back to Almaty.  Unlike Poland, which seems to lean more towards becoming European, the Ukraine seems either to want to be more like Russia... or can't decide which way it wants to go and ends up stagnating with indecision.  We had many, many interactions with extremely unhelpful workers at the airport (the most un-navigable, inhospitable and confusing airport I've ever been in -- I've been told it's being updated, thank goodness).

Orthodox domes gleam in front of a blue sky

Fortunately, it wasn't all bad.  We had a guide meet us at the Kiev airport and she took us around her city for five hours (we had a long layover and decided we'd like to see the city).  She showed us the old town.  We had some good food (pirogi!).  And I've never seen so many amazingly-ornate, lovingly-restored and beautifully-decorated Orthodox churches.  There are some beautiful sites to see in this city. Kiev still has a great deal of the old Soviet architecture in place -- in my opinion, they aren't advancing nearly as quickly as Warsaw -- but some change is occurring.

cathedral mural

Unlike Poland, it seemed like Kiev was still using the old Soviet plans to make new buildings -- though we did find a few new constructions with some modern flare. Not pretty, but more modern! I'm not sure who would opt to live in those concrete monstrosities -- they're not going to win any competitions for beautiful cities of Europe. (The only benefit to living in those buildings is that you won't have a view of it out your window.)  I'd like to think that even Russia is moving on from these designs, but I've not been there yet and can't say for sure. Again, I think this inability to modernize is due to the fact that there is a lot of disagreement with the people about which way they want to go -- leaning towards Europe, or towards Russia (something our guide lamented about often).  Seeing as they are right on the border between the two, it must be hard to decide.  I'll give them another chance to 'wow' me soon enough... but not too soon.

But I will be back in Poland as soon as I can get there. Anyone know how I can get a job at the American School of Warsaw?  That would be sweet.  Of course, I'd have to lay off the smalec.

Baby Food and Freezer Tetris

Peas, carrots, pumpkin...

I've been making baby food!  Pretty easy, just time-consuming.  I put them into these baby-food jars (which I saved from the food I bought). Turns out, though, that I had no idea how to seal them!  Fortunately, a friend filled me in on the process.  It's more complicated than I thought.  Oh well!  I ended up just putting it into ice-cube trays, letting them freeze and then putting the cubes into a freezer bag. An ice-cube-sized portion is about perfect for a new eater, so this all works out for everyone.

Freezer Tetris!  A mother's favorite game?

But I think I might be saying "I'll just freeze it!" a few too many times.  Check out this freezer!

Good thing I love Tetris!

Blue Sky Interlude: Snowy Day

I'm not usually a lover of snow, but I have to admit that it is sometimes very beautiful.  I took this photo in November after a snow storm (it's the view outside our front door). You can see the brightly-colored slide of our little play ground (we live in a gated community, so there were only a few pedestrians about). The snow was still white and the branches of the trees were delicately frosted. Unusually, the sun came out and the sky cleared up. Emma and I went outside and took a walk -- her first snow fall. I sang "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and took photos of her surrounded by the heat of her breath. And then we went back into our warm house and played with her owl puppet.  Now that's my kind of snow day.

Dusty Village, Almaty

Honestly, I think I should change my home address to "Dusty City".  I'm pretty sure I live in one of the dustiest places in town.  Almaty is already pretty dusty as it is:  in 2007, this city was in the top ten "most polluted" cities in the world.  Fortunately, it has improved over the years... but it still appears on some lists for being "dirty".

To me, it's really only the winters that feel polluted.  In the summer, the air is clean, skies are blue, the mountain-tops are lush and green, flowers bloom everywhere and the street-sweepers keep up with the demands (we live right off the dusty step, and all of the winds carry sand here -- it hits the mountains and settles here).  In the winter, however, the city cranks up the heat.  And that heat is powered by burning coal.

An autumn view from our old apartment --
the smoke stacks in the distance chug to life.

Let me explain.  In most of the countries I've been to, everyone has their own water heaters.  In Kazakhstan (as well as most former-soviet nations, I'm told), water is heated in a central location and piped into everyone's houses.  There are pipes under the roads for hot water, and separate pipes for cold water.  If road work is going on, you might not have hot water for the duration of the work since they have to shut down the hot water line.  Even worse, sometimes you have no cold water for the same reason. I say "even worse" because it's easier to live without hot water. Without cold, you can't run your washing machine or flush your toilets.  We can fill buckets and keep them by the toilet, but, honestly, do you want to steep in hot water the contents of your toilet bowl?  I thought not.  And try taking a shower with scalding water!  It's easier to heat up a bucket of cold water than to wait for a bucket of hot water to cool down.

The line on the horizon where layers of pollution meet.

The smoke stacks outside the window
of our old apartment start their winter duties.

So, in order to create enough hot water for each neighborhood, you'll see smoke stacks chugging out black coal dust as the fires burn. The skies turn gray and you can literally see a line in the air where the car exhaust fumes meet the coal-dust-laden air.  It's astonishing. Fresh snow on the ground will turn black and greasy within a day. On top of that, some people with very old houses still have a "banya" -- a sauna-like room with water heated with a wood-fire, used for steaming and cleaning themselves. Sadly, the banyas in our neighborhood seem to be powered with burning trash, old tires and whatever else residents can find/afford.  We have a lot of these old houses around us, so, it's more dusty here than in our old place. (After the baby was born, they moved us into a lovely little house near the school. It was bittersweet: we had a cozy apartment on the 8th floor, above the noise, with a gentle breeze and a view of the steppe on a clear day.)


Here in my little house, I have to dust twice a week to keep up.  I have to use soapy water to clean and not just a static cloth because it's not dust -- it's soot.  And even with mopping and sweeping, my socks become black with soot. In the bedroom, we have a humidifier that doubles as an air filter.  We have to vacuum out the air filter regularly or it starts to sound like it has emphysema!   I can only keep dusting and count the days until spring arrives. 

Our beautiful school campus in June:  clear blue skies and snow-capped peaks.