Red Zone

For the summer, Poland has divided up the country into red, yellow, and green zones. Krakow has remained green most of the time, which has led to a mirage of safety and care-free socializing. Last weekend, all of Poland moved to a yellow zone, which means masks on when outside, a 10pm curfew for restaurants and shops, and limits to attendees in restaurants, on public transport, and at personal or public gatherings.

As of yesterday, Krakow became a red zone. Stricter capacity limits, 9pm curfew, no swimming pools or gyms, and no weddings. Breaking the rules could be fined up to 30,000 PLN (~7,500 USD). This is accompanied by increasingly rainy weather, the start of smog season, and some light flooding. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem as daunting as the start of the last wave. Maybe I'm being too blasé with the ordeal by keeping my social engagements and continuing to go out for restaurants but I would like to enjoy some part of living in a European city this fall. 

Well, I don't haven any particular fun stories from the week, but there are a few fun cultural and language differences I've been collecting that I'll share here.

• Greeting a group of people, even just acquaintances "my friends"
• Someone told a story where the character had to call "nine eleven." 
• Babie lato literally translate to grandma summer but is the Polish equivalent of "Indian summer." Unfortunately, I don't think we will have any second waves of summer to pair with our second wave of pandemic this year.
• October is also the end of the "holiday season." The first time I heard that term I assumed Polish people are just very advanced planners but "holiday season" refers to the summer months that people take vacation.
• In English we might shorten "good morning" to "morning." Germans do it, too- "Gutten morgen" can be just "morgen." "Dzień dobry" would never be just "dzień." 
• Wedding rings are worn on the left hand rather than the right hand. I've heard that it used to be on the right hand and you would only move your ring to the left hand after your spouse died. During the wars there were so many deaths that left hands just became the common place. 

Well sorry for a boring one this week.

Trying to catch a walk between the downpour to see the fall colors. 

Morning light plus have cloud layers makes it a little hard to capture the changing leaves. 

Flooding on the Vistula due to the incessant raining. 

The flooding was  right below Wawel Castle. 

Found some carving pumpkins for some indoor fall fun. Mine is supposed to be wearing a mask but instead just looks really surprised. 

One week later, the pumpkin developed some mount mold and had to be tossed rather than turned into a pie. 

Mushrooming

As a kid I LOVED fall. It was my favorite season for a lot of reasons: going back to school and seeing my friends every day, the smell of leaves, cooler weather, puddle jumping excursions, and of course my birthday. Autumn was also the gateway to winter- ski season! My first bout of seasonal depression was in 8th grade when we moved from Germany to New Mexico. Depression is an exaggeration, and typically when people talk about seasonal depression it's due to a lack of sunshine, but I was so disappointed that New Mexican September, and even October, did not feel like fall. It just was just a slightly cooler version of summer. There's no concern about limited sun exposure when you live at 32 degrees latitude! That first year I remember Dad driving us to Cloudcroft for the first time and I made such a fuss about how much of relief it was to see the changing leaves and smell the smells of fall that were missing in the more deserty Las Cruces.

I got over my initial distaste of the the desert, but I did move to Bellingham, WA for college, which regularly ranks as the US city with the least amount of sunshine in the year. Twilight was based in the Pacific Northwest for a reason! In Bellingham I was introduced to the medical condition S.A.D.- seasonal affect disorder. When others complained about the rain and gloom, I cheekily claimed that I had eagerly elected 300 days of rain over 300 days of sun each year. I should say that those numbers are not at all supported by a quick Google search.  

It was only in my final year at WWU that the persistent gray started to sink into my psyche. I remember walking across campus through another day of fine mist and thinking "I can see why this might bother people." Every year since then, it's gotten a little worse, and about two years ago I started to admit to myself that maybe I do suffer from S.A.D. Surely the public accounting busy season schedule doesn't help; it's a real bummer to arrive at the office before the sun rises and then leave after it has already set. Because of the long working hours (including on the weekends) I don't even get the chance to fully appreciate the joys of fall and winter.

Despite now living in sunnier Krakow, this year my winter woes hit an all-time high. Somewhere around early May I started to get concerned that we were approaching the summer solstice, which meant that the days would start to get shorter. Clearly future-tripping about the forecasts seven months in the future is a problem. Surely there was some fear about missing out on summer because of Coronavirus restrictions; although I was working shorter work days at that time I wasn't able to leave the house and enjoy those extra hours. As I've written before, Cameron and I did a pretty good job of making the most of our summer, yet I've been lamenting the onset of fall just the same. 

There is, however, one very special thing to look forward to in the fall (besides my birthday, of course). In both Washington and Poland, autumn is mushrooming season! 

For a long time, I didn't even like the taste of mushrooms but I think my love for foraging helped me to develop a keen appreciation for finding wild fungi. It probably started when I took an ecogastronomy class in college, then Cameron got a mushrooming book, and now I am the proud owner of a mushrooming knife. While mushrooming is a wonderful pastime among the granola community in Washington, it is a far more wide spread and serious activity in Poland. 

In the months of September and October, millions of people head to the woods in search of edible mushrooms. There are many varieties that can be found in Poland, but there are also a fair share of poisonous look-alikes so novice mushroomers are encouraged to buddy up with a more experienced guide. If you are a novice mushroomer, it's also pretty unlikely that you will happen across an edible patch anyways since those who are serious about the search are likely to scope out their patch very early in the morning and by no means will anyone share the location of their favorite mycelium purely out of the kindness of their heart. Many families have been passing down mushroom spots for generations- longer than the US has even been a country. 

As I'm sure is the case anywhere, there are a few hundred poisonings and a few dozen mushroom-related deaths every year. After all, there is a species called "death cap" that is common in the Polish woods. To preemptively avoid mushroom-related admissions, I've read that many medical centers will review your foraging hordes for inedible varieties. Vendors must also have their goods checked before they can sell them to the public. 

The mushroom species are pretty similar between Washington and Poland, and there are a few that I would confidently eat if I came across them (boletes, chanterelles, lobsters). That being said, I am happy to rely on the work of others. During these early autumn months produce markets are filled with mushroom booths. Dozens of varieties are available and make up a lovely collage of brown, white, yellow, and orange. The rest of the year there are still vendors selling farmed varieties, and you can often also find dried or pickled options from the previous year's harvest. Last weekend we got a few large handfuls of a small pretty orange mushroom for 15 złoty (~$4 USD) which made a really tasty vegetarian stroganoff. No, stroganoff is not a traditional Polish meal but you can have local mushrooms in traditional Polish pierogis, bigos, sauces, and soups. 

When I go out to the forest, I have no expectations to find edible mushrooms. Instead I seek out interesting mediums that I can incorporate into my foraged art projects. Even with a broader search interest, due to popularity of mushroom hunting and the mysterious nature of mycelium, no one is guaranteed to find mushrooms when they go out searching. Even those who are willing to wake up at 4am and go to a remote woods can't guarantee they'll find anything, so those who are out on the hunt need to prepare themselves to be satisfied with a nice forest walk as a consolation prize. 

The joys of mushrooming only lasts for a few weeks. At best it expands from September to early November, so it can't be the permanent cure to season-changing woes, but I do think that going outside and getting intimate with nature helps delay the S.A.D. I'm able to re-appreciate fall knowing that the cooler, moister weather is bringing these tasty and surprisingly beautiful fun guys (get it, fungi?). 

Mushrooms are so beautiful and varied. I love the colors and textures. 

Stary Kleparz is the place to go for any fresh local produce. 

Fresh mushrooms and dried mushrooms are available right now. 

Turkey tail! 

More mushroom art. I love the big shelf fungi but I need to figure out better ways to use them in my art. 

Mushroom stroganoff. It tasted better than it looks!

Once you start looking mushrooms are everywhere!

These little pokers looked so cute!

Some finds from one of the produce stands today. 

One Year

As of today, October 4th, Aackle has officially been in Krakow for one year. When I walk around the city, I still am giddy by how charming it is and I'm even happier that I've cut our my little space in it. Reading back to my first blog post from Poland (9 October, 2019) it seems that my life today could have been predicted to a T. For example, on day 1 in this city I had already started networking with a director at Pwc; now that man is my coach and team leader. It's really fun to recount what my goals were for myself a year ago and realize that I actually have been pretty successful and achieving them. 

Clearly, getting a job was the top of my priority list. "Job" felt like the direct path to friends, culture, and purpose. Thanks to beurocratic delays it took four months but now I have the exact job I expected to have–working as an auditor for a public accounting firm. I admit it's not my dream job, nor did I ever expect it to be, and I look back to my days as a housewife enviously, but it has filled my days. I enjoy going back into the office on occasion and having a group of people to gossip with and my manager likes to teach me new Polish phrases to express my frustration. Most importantly though I learned that it's not having a job that makes me happy and it's quite freeing to realize I don't have to make work my only priority. 

Not that work was every my only priority. Making friends was also high on the list and I laugh at the ways I went about it at first. Why I thought that going to a startup brainstorming event would lead to friendships, whose to say. Through the aid of women's groups, expat groups, Bumble BFF, work, and friends of friends I've found myself it the lovely situation of having too many friends. Last night to celebrate (and to have an excuse to use all of the mattresses in the house) I had some friends over for a sleepover. Going to dinner is one type of friendship, but if you are willing to hang out with someone for 16 hours and sleep in their house that's a good friendship. 

Learning Polish was another goal I gave myself, and probably the only impossible goal, but honestly I'm quite pleased with myself. Look back through old posts I remember the garbled sounds I made when trying to order obwarzanek or zapiekanka. Now I can even write them without having to look up how the words are spelt! I am nowhere near fluent, or even conversational, but I'm really please that I typically know the most important words to get my point across. Yesterday, Cameron and I went shopping at Stary Kleparz, Krakow's oldest operating marketplace, and I felt like a Polish couple- I was requesting tomatoes and mushrooms and paying with exact change while Cameron collected all of our purchases.

Yesterday's outing also included a stop at a new bubble tea shop and an art store. Round trip it was probably an hour of walking. Although I glanced at my phone for a directional reminder occasionally I know I could have gotten us to these places on my own accord without too much back tracking. I really wanted to know my way around the city, and even though I'm not always confident, I generally feel like I have a general sense of where I'm going and I always know which way is home. I even feel good about public transportation and will quickly change my mind about which tram route if I see a different number pulling up to the station. Of course the true test would be to show off the city to others, but that wasn't a possibility this year. Fingers crossed travel restrictions are (safely) lifted next summer!

The root of all of these 'goals' was a strong desire to fit in. I wanted others to think I was a local with a normal Polish life. I know that is an impossibility, and I've shed some stress now that I'm not longer striving for that. Although I still appreciate the amazement on my Polish friends' faces when I order a coffee in Polish, there is a freedom being able to go up to the counter and also ask "what do you recommend" in English and not feeling guilty about that. I love my little life in Poland, and I love it even more knowing that there's only one year left. Since it seems I'm unexpectedly good at predicting the future I would like the universe to know that I expect to start loving my job, all of my American family/friends will visit next year, I'll be able to travel to Georgia/Sweden/Ireland before we move away from Europe, we will go skiing in the Alps, and Cameron will find his equivalent of my women's groups–it's going to be a great year!

It's not a sleepover unless you have pizza! 

I went to a food bazar with a friend and waited in line for about 25 minutes to try this very tasty grilled scallop.

This is one of the churches closest to our new flat. Over the last year I've gotten a lot more comfortable walking into churches to check out their interior beauty. 

Stary Kleparz was full of late season produce. Everyone knows that the best produce isn't in the grocery stores but at the kleparz.

For my local friends, check out Bubble Kingdom! They are right off of Planty and really tasty!

https://www.bubble-kingdom.pl

I wasn't positive I was translating this add correctly, but I was almost certain (and later verified) that Brzyd Ola is the Polish version of Ugly Betty.

Karta Pobytu

Imagine the DMV: lines, chaos, maybe some tears, a general feeling of droll and dread. Add in a foreign language and that's about what it's like to visit the Ursząd Wojewódzki. 

In order to stay in Poland beyond November (when our current visas expires) we are applying for a three-year temporary residency permit, a karta pobytu. There is a 13-page applications (that needs to be filled out in Polish, of course) which is accompanied by about eight appendices. My final printed application package sat about three centimeters thick. After printing everything in triplicate I needed a large grocery bag to lug it to my Tuesday appointment.

I had little say in the appointment date. I send an appointment-request email with all of my key information and waited. If any information is missing you don't get a response, but if your email is properly constructed then within a few days they will respond back with your appointment date. Cameron was lucky- he was granted a day last week when we were on holiday but I have to take a few hours off of work on Tuesday morning. 

I was nervous going in. I wasn't just walking into the unknown, but I was walking in without one of the keys documents. I requested it from my employer about a week in advance, but despite express mail it didn't arrive in time. For safety reasons, they have everyone wait outside the building. It was a little chaotic. Although they had sections cordoned off for lines most people were just massed in a clump. After observing the situation for about ten minutes I attempted to explain to the security guard that I had an 8:40 appointment. He shuttled me inside, asked me to disinfect my hands, took my temperature, and then I sat in another room. 

From what I could tell, there wasn't much order inside that room either. There were three of us sitting in the waiting area and as one employee finished up with a customer they would shout out to us asking what we were there for and what time our appointment was. I was thankful that the man I was assigned to spoke English. He moved very quickly and seemed intimately familiar with the plethora of stamps in front of him. His hands were a wizz flipping through application pages and applying stamps and signatures to each. Every few pages he would look up at me and ask to see the original ink-signature versions of each document included in my application. 

He seemed unfazed when I said I did not have my Appendix 1; I would be able to turn it in later. I asked about taking fingerprints but since the machine was down it didn't need to happen. He handed me a slip of paper, which I assumed was confirmation of my application submission, and sent me on my way. Only after I left did I realize I forgot to ask for a stamp in my passport, which essentially is the pivotal part of this process and proves I'm legally able to stay in Poland while my application is processed. 

Two hours after I got home my missing document got delivered- cholera! After working with HR and sending emails to the Ursząd Wojewódzki I learned I could come by appointment-free between 16-19 on a weekday and then on Saturday there was an open house that might offer appointments for getting a stamp. I did not get one of those appointments because, as I learned when I went in for the second time on Thursday, my application did not have a case number assigned to it yet. 

Thursday was a much more nerve-wracking situation. When I arrived at 16:10 there was over 100 people waiting outside; some were in lines and some were clumped up, presumably waiting for an appointment. When I found the right line I think I was probably #50 so I sat down on the curb and worked while I waited. Every half hour or so it seemed like the security team handed out tickets to the first ten people in line and then fifteen minutes later those people were brought inside and the rest of us would lurch forward to fill in their place. 

I waited for over two hours until I was near the front of the line. Maybe if I understood Polish better I would have been able to get inside sooner since periodically they called out fo particular situations. Once I finally made it in it was similar to the first time. There was another little holding zone but I was called over to one of the desks after about five minutes. I handed over my missing document and the confirmation paper I got the first time, but the man behind the counter didn't seem to know what to do with them. He was just as surprised as I was that I didn't have a case number and he wasn't able to take my fingerprints or give me a stamp either. 

In an attempt to make me feel better, he told me that if I were pulled over by the cops and my legal status were to come into question I wouldn't actually need the passport stamp; that's just a formality that makes people feel better. I am one of those people who wants to feel better! He also said that probably I would get something sent to me in the mail with next steps but if not I could call in 10-14 days to see if a case number had been assigned yet. Basically, I left feeling pretty pessimistic that my missing appendix would find its way to the rest of my application. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

This mega building is filled with the paperwork and bureaucracy. 

Sitting on the curb waiting for 49 other people to filter inside before me. 

Finally at the front of the line. The security guards are very serious looking with miliatry-style outfits. 

This is what I found inside- mega DMV vibes!

Drinking with the Locals

It's probably no surprise to you to hear that Polish people like to drink. Wódka is the national drink, but from what I've seen beer and wine are still the common daily drinks. One of my favorite things to see is people setting out for an adventurous day (hiking or kayaking) and enjoying a beer at 9:30 in the morning. 

That being said, drinking is done socially. I had five friends over Friday night for a wine night and quickly learned that it is bad luck to pour refill your own glass. Of course that led to jokes about the disadvantages of living alone and lots of people making it very obvious when their glass was empty. Looking back, I think this is also why no one accepted my offers of drink and food until the full group arrived. 

This was marketed as a wine party, but I still was surprised when everyone brought a bottle of wine, plus I already had two. Seven bottles of wine for six people seemed excessive, but over the course of seven hours we got through six and a half of them– o boże! Only one of the seven bottles was a dry wine, everyone else brought sweet or semi-sweet. Of the seven, five of them were red. Despite this, I was asked to put all of the bottles in the fridge. Maybe it's just my lack of wine education but for now I shall think of chilled sweet red wine as a Polish thing. 

As we drank, we also ate, and sang, and cheered– "na zdrowie!" We cycled through party music from Poland, Ukraine, and Russia as we drank Georgian, Modovan, and German wine. Food wise, I made spanakopita (which my friends kept referring to as spinach baskets) and Cameron had baked cream puffs, which were of course a big hit. He only got to enjoy a few though since he had been banished to a bedroom during this time, but that didn't stop him from periodically texting me for things or to remind me to keep quiet. It wasn't a problem for us, but I actually have since learned that there is a noise curfew at 10pm; luckily we didn't hear any complaints from neighbors!

Overall, I feel very pleased of myself. I'm now officially in my late twenties but there was no hangover for me; I think that might be a sign that I am officially welcomed by Poland. 

Never pour your own wine!

Singing and dancing to some well-known Polish party song that I've never heard of. My favorite new song of the night was My Słowanie.  

A game of fishbowl always makes its way to my parties. 

The reason there are clothes all over the couch is because we also had a clothes exchange. I'm going to another swap meet today because I've realized I have way too many things. Hopefully I leave with less than I walk in with. 

Aisha after Dentist

I was too busy to write last week. I have been very busy: we moved flats, I've had some big demands at work, I'm putting to gather my temporary residency permit application, and yesterday was my birthday. With all of that going on, naturally I'm going to talk about the dentist. 

To put it out there, I almost always have cavities when I go to the dentist despite having pretty good oral care. I'm typically in the habit of having a dental check up every six months, but this year with the move and Coronavirus I've fallen off of my routine. That's not to say I wasn't trying! I called Lux Med (the medical provider) in May and was told they were not doing non-emergency appointments. I called again in early July and then again in mid-August before I got an appointment for 10 September. 

Lux Med manages all sorts of medical care coordination and there are about 15 locations throughout the city. When you make an appointment, you can specify if you need an English-speaker provider and if there is a particular doctor you want to see. If you don't have a preference you get booked at whichever facility has the next available appointment. When I called for a dentist appointment, they asked me "what type of dentist appointment?" I didn't really know how to answer that question so I said a check up and a cleaning, and was informed that those are two separate visits. Since all of the hygienist were fully booked, I only made the checkup appointment.  

The Lux Med facility I was booked at was about 40 minutes away by bus and located in a big office complex. After checking in at the receptionist desk, they send me to wait outside room 27 to wait. I was early so in the 20 minutes I was sitting there someone else got called into the room and was sent back out. Before I got called in they had me fill out a page-long medical questionnaire with the basics: do you take any medicine, what are you allergic to, are you pregnant, etc. 

When I was asked into the room, there was nothing unique about it. It had a set of cabinets, the dental chair, and a small desk with a computer. It looked like the base of every dentist office I had ever been in. Both the dentist and her assistant were fully masked up, but what I could see of her eyes and hair my guess is she was about my age. She started by going through a list of Coronavirus questions before sitting me in the dentist chair. 

It was very quick. They gave me a cup of pink liquid to rinse out my mouth with, and then the dentist quickly surveyed each tooth and called out numbers to her assistant. She then gave me a mirror and pointed out the dark spots on my teeth, which was kind of neat. I asked her about a sensitive tooth and she took an extra look at it and was able to tell me I was probably brushing too hard and in the wrong direction. Before swapping me out for the next patient, the doctor sat me down at the computer again and looked to see if my insurance covered an x-ray and fillings for all three of my cavities. Since it did, she signed off on a paper prescription for the x-ray and sent me on my way. The whole ordeal was less than 15 minutes, and I was a little miffed that I had bused 40 minutes for this.

I also didn't know what to do with my x-ray prescription. Was I supposed to call and make another appointment 3 weeks later? I went back up to the receptionist desk and I was pleased when they sent me to another room in the facility. As I waited another person came by and asked me what time my appointment was, and I truly didn't know; I was worried I maybe misunderstood when and where I was supposed to be. That guy got called in, and then about five minutes later he left and I was called in as his replacement.

The x-ray machine was awesome! As I stood with my chin resting on a little plastic bench the machine's arm swooshed around my body. It was way quicker and more comfortable than the other x-ray experiences I had in the past. This was definatley the highlight of Polish medical care! The radiologist informed me that if my doctor was within Lux Med then they would have access to my x-rays tomorrow, and if not I could come by next week to pick up my x-rays. 

She sent me on my way, and I once again was left not knowing exactly what to do next. I stopped by the receptionist again to set up my next appointment for the cavities. There wasn't anything available next week (which I have taken off of work) but she had an appointment available the next day. 

Friday I returned and was directed to the neighboring door to where I was at on Thursday. I was surprised to see that the receptions were different from the day before, and from what I could tell the assistant for dentist #1 also was different. When I was welcomed into the room, I surprised the dentist and assistant by announcing I only spoke English. The assistant was shocked but the dentist nodded and said "it's ok."

I didn't have to go through the Coronavirus questionnaire and although the same cup of pink liquid was sitting next to me I was not asked to use it. The dentist started off by asking me which cavity I wanted to fill in. I was not expecting that question, and I immediately responded "can you do all of them." That shocked her and she looked down at her watch and said "oh no, I don't think we have time for that. Just one." 

Not sure how to respond, I told her to fix the worst one–it's not like I have a favorite cavity. She took another look and said that since they were all surface-level cavities if I didn't need anesthetics then she might be able to do all three. That's fine with me! I really didn't want to have to come back for two more appointments. 

Leading up to the point where she started drilling holes in my teeth, there were some things that made me nervous. For one, this dentist looked to be nearing her retirement. Then, when she was checking her tools she could not get one to spray a consistent stream of water, it seemed to only mist. Her assistant couldn't figure it out either so she left the room to find a replacement. During that time, the dentist accidentally started raising my chair and could not figure out how to get it back down again for a solid minute. The assistant returned and the new tool head didn't fix the water problem, so she left again to grab a different woman who promptly showed that my dentist simply was pressing the wrong button.

Finally, once all of the equipment was set up the dentist set up my chair. She pulled the head rest back in a strange position and then kept the chair in the upright position. It wasn't wholly uncomfortable until the dentist started pressing down on my tongue which clogged up my breathing. The rest of the procedure was pretty standard to what I've known before. She drilled all three holes and then directed me to rinse with the pink liquid. It was strange being able to explore the holes with my tongue, but then putting down the filling putty and drying it out with a UV light was the same. The clean up was also normal, but there's a little bit of residual filling on the side of my teeth. 

Overall it was not the best dental experience I've had, but it also wasn't the worst. When I was retelling this story to some friends back home someone argued that this is an example of why the United Sates will never move to universal health care. Yes, it was a little odd and impersonal, but it was fully covered by my health insurance and it got the job done. In Poland, many people do choose to still go to a private provider if they want a more intimate experience, but I don't feel any need to pay for something that I can get for free.

The outside of the dentists' doors- day 1 and day 2. There are probably about 50 rooms at the Lux Med facility I was at and they all look pretty much the same. 

They had me fill this out at my first visit. Aft fist they gave me a Polish version but when they saw me using Google Translate to interpret what I was signing they found an English version for me.

There weren't very many other people in the hallways while I waited. I wasn't sure if that was because it was mid-afternoon on a weekday, if the dentist wing is just typically infrequently attended, or if people are choosing to avoid non-emergency medical care right now. 

Also, we move! This view is accessible about a block away from our house. 

Of course a move mandates a stope at IKEA. We probably spent 2-3 hours in the store and these kiełbasi were very appetizing afterwards. IKEA even had a vege version. 

Also it was my birthday, and of course Cameron's baking skills were put to the test. He made a layered meringue with coffee, hazelnut, and chocolate flavors. 

To celebrate we had a picnic at the botanical gardens with about ten friends. 

Kayaks and Pride

 I've had a long week. I'm working overtime and I'm trying to fill out a bunch of legal paperwork (residency permit, drivers license application, and a new lease). Yes, we decided to move apartments, which is very exciting but it also adds one more thing to the to-do list. With all of the busyness I didn't have much going on mid-week, but yesterday was a nice change. 

The Toastmasters went on a kayaking adventure yesterday. Normally when the term "adventure" is applied to a group athletic activity it is hyperbolic, but it was actually pretty apt in this case. In the introduction our kayak guide told us we would need to duck and climb and scoot–not the typical cushy river float. He also was sure to tell everyone that once you were in the kayak, you were in for the full stretch; there aren't any places along the river that you can get out with your kayak. 

We started walking down a pretty steep dusty hill to get to the river edge (well, more of a large creek) and everyone paired off into twos to embark down the narrow steam. Almost immediately there were some bumper boats going on and backwards floats. As was pre-warned, there were a few sections that necessitated getting out of the kayak and pushing, but many people were wearing street sneakers and jeans. Even Cameron, the kayaking expert, couldn't navigate us away from every obstacle.

For a three hour float, it was really fun! My favorite was when we had to climb over and hover on top of a fallen tree while our kayak was pushed below it. At the end we had to paddle upstream on the Vistula for a short way and then were welcomed at the end destination, the Nowa Huta Yacht Club, with coffee and candies. Let's just say I ate a lot of candy...but I found a new favorite–Ukrainian Minky Binky caramels! In addition to sweets, there was also some typical grill foods and wine. As can be expected with the Toastmasters, the food was paired with some speech-giving games, and Cameron even volunteered to stand up and give a speech! In my opinion, he did quite well, but being a native English speaker is definitely an advantage.

It was a fun day, and after six hours in the sun (and a week of overworking) I was tired, but yesterday evening was also Krakow's Pride parade, and I felt an obligation to go. There was a lot of people there, and many varieties of striped flags I had never seen before. I was glad to see how well-attended the event was, especially knowing the anti-LGBT position of the current government. It was a little scary when a small (~200 people?) parade marched around the main square shouting homophobic chants not long after I arrived. Luckily that didn't last long, and there were a lot of police officers monitoring the situation. 

Not knowing Polish, I wasn't sure what was going on most of the time. There was a small stage and a few speakers/crowd ampers and a bit of a production pulling out a long (~10 meters?) rainbow flag. At one end of the plaza there was a drum circle going, which I didn't realize was covering up the sounds of anti-LGBT protesters. Eventually, maybe an hour after we arrived, the crowds started to mobilize into somewhat of a parade and my friends and I shuffled along. It a very slow moving (only half a block in the first 30 minutes) but it was long—it took up two sides of the square and was at least 10 times as long as the anti-pride parade. 

I know it sounds like a lot of people, and it was, but I should be clear, everyone was wearing masks and it felt really nice to see so many people showing up for human rights. 

Starting our adventure on the Dłubnia river. 

Say "hi" to the Toastmasters. We were all huddled up because we had to climb one-by-one over a fallen log. 

Cameron giving a speech to the Toastmasters. 

This was early on in the Pride event and not nearly as crowded as it got, but once the parade got started this made a nice visual (used somewhat like a Chinese dragon). 

This is a good sum of how things are going at work.

Just kidding, but this snip from a recent training made me laugh.