Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year faster than ever. 

One minute it was summer, then Halloween, and all of a sudden Thanksgiving was on us.  Did you know that November 22 is the earliest that Thanksgiving can be?  Well, that's when it was in 2012.  I figured that one out all by myself, using math.  For all you non-Americans, Thanksgiving is always the 4th Thursday of November, so when November 1 is a Thursday, Thanksgiving is on the 22nd...and that's the earliest it could ever be.  EVER!!!! (said in a dramatic voice).  So here's a 5th grade test question: What's the latest date that Thanksgiving could ever be? 

As you know, I love Thanksgiving.  But I actually stress out about it a lot in Poland, because it's so difficult to find a turkey here.  Unless you know where to look.  Which I don't.  2 years ago I got lucky and stumbled upon one buried at the bottom of a freezer in the 7th shop I checked.  Last year Kamila found the turkey for me but kept the location a secret and threw away the key (I think she forgot).  This year, I was back to square one because the first two options didn't work.  Naturally I checked all the usual suspects for turkeys, but nowhere that I had been before had any.  I thought I figured it out when I checked the website www.befsztyk.pl and they said they had turkeys.  I called the English hotline (that's what they called it), and tried to order one.  The problem was that they had fresh turkeys only, and they were arriving on Wednesday, just in time to cook them on Thanksgiving day. So this was perfect!  For celebrating on Thursday.  Not on Thanksgiving Sunday, like we were. 

I searched online for how long you can keep a fresh turkey in the fridge before it spoils, and most sites recommended 2-3 days max.  Here's some more math for you: Fresh turkey Wednesday + 3 days = Bad turkey Saturday = Sick people on Thanksgiving Sunday.  So that wasn't an option.  I tried to make room in my freezer to store a turkey, but the shelf in the middle of the freezer is frozen stuck and couldn't be removed in time.  I asked the guy at the shop if he could just put the turkey in the freezer for me, but he said "sorry, they are fresh turkeys".  "So can you freeze it for me?".  "No, they're fresh".  I don't know if that meant he has no freezer to put them in, or if he was telling me that they're not frozen, so stop asking about frozen ones. So I gave up and the search continued.

Luckily one evening Igors texted me saying that he saw a huge flock of frozen turkeys at the Tesco by his apartment.  I went out there to look for them, but when I got there, I searched high and low and didn't see any turkeys!  In my head I wondered "Does Igors even know what a turkey is?".  It turns out there are 2 Tescos next to each other and I was in the wrong one.  I went to the one down the street and found it....the ark of the covenant, the fountain of youth, the...freezer of turkeys.  It was beautiful.

I thought I'd never find you!

 

Mmmmmmm, turkeeyyyyyyy

In the end, there were 19 of us for dinner, plus a baby and a dog.  It was like a real family dinner!  Ken brought his mom, who was visiting from Brooklyn (she lives just a few blocks from where I used to live in Park Slope), Lizzy came just a couple hours after flying back from her Thanksgiving in the US, Alan came after a very not low key 2 day bachelor party in Krakow, Julia from a business trip to Kazakhstan, and Juan from his apartment 5 minutes down the road.  So I guess everyone really wanted to be there.  It was simply great. 

 

Lasagna made by an Italian should be part of every Thanksgiving meal

Dinner tables are overrated

 

Cyprian loves Thanksgiving!

While we were eating, Ken made a presentation about the history of Thanksgiving and had everyone read a page out loud.  It was like story time, with everyone listening intently, then the story getting passed around to someone to read the next page with a different accent: Russian, Latvian, Scottish, English, Romanian, Italian, Polish, American, Brooklyn, Australian, and Ecuadorian/British.

 

Story time with Lizzy - whatever she's saying must be really interesting

I wanted to go around the room and have people say what they were thankful for this year, but when I finally put the last dish on the table (the carved turkey), it was like a pack of wild hyenas surrounding a buffalo carcass.  It was not a pretty sight, and I didn't want to mess with people's hunger, or I'd risk my hands getting eaten off.  I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed their food (twice or three times).  We thought about waiting for Alan (the last to arrive) to finish his dinner before going for dessert, but he ate for at least 2 hours, so we wouldn't have survived.  And Basia was walking around with an empty plate for her pie for 20 minutes, trying to give me the hint.

I had to convince them to let me take this picture before they tore the food up

As usual, I brined the turkey overnight and made stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and pumpkin pie.  But the meal was not complete without the contributions from everyone else.  We had various salads, vegetables, sweet and french potatoes, chicken, and some very traditional Thanksgiving items like quiche, lasagna, and pierogi (all awesome!).  (As a side note, did you know that seafood was actually part of the original Thanksgiving dinners?  If you don't believe me, just ask WiKENpedia).  We washed down our meals with pumpkin martinis, and a lot of wine.  And Ewa made a pecan pie even though she has never made or eaten one in her life, and it was really good!

 

Pecan and Pumpkin pie - Ken also made a pumpkin pie but it looked much better than mine, so I will not show it to you

The night was full of good food, lots of laughs, funny stories, dogs and babies, and was generally a wonderful evening.  Just like I said last year, this could be my last Thanksgiving in Poland, and it was a great one to end on, if that is indeed true.  But it's also sad to think about at the same time, because dinners like this should come more often. 

 

Even Abby the dog wanted to pass out after a big meal!

I get so nostalgic about Thanksgiving that I read through my posts from the last 2 years.  Feel free to take a look and see how my apartment gets smaller every year: 2010 and 2011.

Cycling around Kazimierz Dolny

Several months ago, Ken brought up the idea of a group trip to Kazimierz Dolny.  You might remember that Ken and I had tried to arrange group trips in the past, but those turned out to be Bro-mantic trips to Berlin and Bratislava by ourselves.  Those were a lot of fun, but we wanted to get a bigger group going this time.  So Ken proposed the idea to some of the guys on our Triathlon Club to go out to KD for some biking, running, walking (and drinking), and this turned into the biggest group yet: 20 people!

We got really excited because the weather forecast was around 15-18 degrees C (about 60 F) and sunny for the entire weekend.  We really couldn't have planned a better weekend if we tried (just to give you an idea about our luck, there was a snow storm on the following weekend!).

 

 

Beautiful weather for an October weekend (the next weekend it snowed!) 

Ken's girlfriend, Marta, arranged the hotel for all of us, and basically we took over the entire hotel.  It was a nice place, in the middle of the town, with its own restaurant and bar (if you can call it that).  Any, it was perfect for us.  It even had free bike rentals (is it still considered a rental if it's free?), which is what we were planning on doing. 

The tricky part was getting there.  There was no direct train, but a few people had cars and some took the bus.  A few people wanted to ride their bikes as well.  I honestly didn't want to ride my bike, but because of the lack of any other plan (and for some reason, nobody begged me to ride in their car with them - what a shock!), I decided to ride my bike with Igors.  We didn't ride the entire way - only Aussie Mark was crazy enough to do that (140 km).  Instead we took the train most of the way there, then rode for the last 40 km.  Ken joined us as well, and it turned out to be a really nice ride, except for my butt felt like it was about to fall off at the end.  I don't know how people can ride for so long without their butt actually falling off.  It hurts, unless you have buns of steel I guess (or you are used to your butt getting a lot of contact with hard objects...).

 

Trying to keep our butts from falling off along the Wisła

 

 Riding uphill

Everyone showed up to the hotel at various times on Friday (and even some on Saturday).  We congregated in the hotel restaurant/bar/reception/lobby/entrance (it's all the same thing), and as people arrived, we welcomed them as if we hadn't seen them in years...even though we had just seen them the day before or earlier that week.  I guess it's just the excitement of being out of town that makes it more fun to greet/hug/kiss people when you see them.  Except when you're hungry and there's a pizza in front of you.  I didn't get up for the people who arrived while I was stuffing my face with Hawaiian pizza. 

Then it was time for the Kazimierz Dolny night life.  And by that I mean we went to the only bar that was open.  When we got there, it was as quiet as an abandoned library during a holiday break (that's supposed to mean that it was very quiet).  This changed quickly, as we all entered and caused a bit of a ruckus. 

On Saturday we had a great day of biking and sightseeing around KD, through the trails and around different sites.  Ken led us to caves, open fields, canyons, etc (he even unknowingly led us to a bar, and a few of us thought it meant we should go in for a beer, rather than follow the group - nobody told us not to!). He does a good job of remembering places he's been before and leading us on efficient tours around so we didn't have to plan anything (Or think.  Or have the chance to form our own opinion).  It was a great day, until an unfortunate accident.  Khalida fell off her bike while riding on the road and hurt her arm. She had to go to the hospital, and a few others joined her to keep her company.  In the end she survived, with a smile on her face (and vodka in her hand), and we all got to sign her cast...so maybe it was worth it?  :P

 

Monument in the cemetary 

 

Kinda reminded me of Napa Valley

 

All of us crammed into a cave

 

In the main square

Later that evening we went to a Jewish place for dinner.  Remember the last time we ate at a Jewish place (in Lviv)?  Well, it was almost the same thing (except in KD the staff was nicer).  Over half of the menu was unavailable; the only stuff left was really strange.  Some people say that it's a sign of a good restaurant when they run out of certain dishes, but I see it more of a sign that management sucks. Literally the entire page of entrees was unavailable (except the liver, surprise surprise).  Maybe they just don't care if you walk away unhappy, because it's so popular and they know people will keep coming.  We all ordered random side dishes, soups and salads.  My food was actually really good (mushroom soup and a side of groats - not exactly a gourmet meal, but I was satisfied).  It was not picture-worthy, because I was disappointed I couldn't have my top 3 choices.  I hope this isn't a common theme for Jewish restaurants, especially since I'll be in Israel in a few weeks!

 

This is hot chocolate, basically a mug of fudge.  Awesome.  

 

Dusk on the Wisła 

 

Dog on the Wisła

 

I don't even want to know what this is

 

This is red herring. Which should mean it's actually NOT red herring. But it is.  Isn't it?

For some reason we were all in a singing mood, and allegedly (we don't take responsibility), our neighbors next door were complaining about the singing while they were trying to sleep (Igors, Martins and I shared a room).  I don't buy it, because one of those neighbors, Aussie Mark, joined us for singing the next night.  We blasted "Aweemaway, aweemaway...in the jungle the might jungle" all night, in the hotel room, in the Jewish restaurant, on the streets, and in the toilets.  It was quite jovial, like a wedding party...all of us laughing and singing and acting like we owned the place.  I have to admit, it was good fun. 

We brought the party back to the hotel (there was nowhere else to go), and hung out in a hotel conference room the rest of the night, playing charades, singing, and laughing harder than I had in a long time.  It was great night, and since most of the hotel was our group, I don't think we bothered anyone (except for the worker girl who yelled at Olga for dragging around the hotel's vacuum cleaner).

The next day Ewa's friend Ania had us over to her vacation house for lunch.  She hosted us, even though she didn't know us, and it was a great lunch, great weather, and so relaxing.  At this point, I didn't want to ride my bike back home...but unfortunately we had to.

 

Napping on the lawn of Ania's summer house

The quote of the trip came at lunch, when a couple of the guys showed up, not sober, and asked Aussie Mark (who was promised a ride home with them with his bike): "Question (slurring).  Can you drive a car?"  They were definitely not in a condition to drive, so Mark got really excited because he didn't want to ride his bike back.  But about 10 minutes before us bikers were about to leave (without Mark), the guys told him "Nevermind, we're staying over night.  In this house!" (that would be Ania's house, whom they didn't even know, and who didn't know they had planned to stay there).  So a saddened Mark unloaded his bike from their car, put it back together, changed his clothes, and joined us for the ride to the train.  In the end, the guys didn't end up staying overnight; they got Patrizia to drive their car home....so actually, Mark could have gone with them!  I'm sure nobody reading this even cares about this story except for poor Mark (the other guys don't even remember it).  But I'm telling you anyway. 

On the way home we rode the shorter way...only 18 km to Puławy, and caught the train back to Warsaw.  It was pretty painless in the end, but my butt started to hurt from sitting on the bike seat for 70+ km on the weekend.  I can't imagine how guys who do competitive racing can sit on their bikes for 3 times that amount (like in the Ironman triathlon).  Butts aren't made for that.  

Overall, it was a great weekend with great people, the town was really cool, and I got some good exercise. Here's looking forward to the next group trip.

 

Goodbye, Kazimierz Dolny

 
ps.  Mom - don't worry about all the alcohol references here...it wasn't that bad

Guest blogger: Poland and Prague, through the camera of Meg Sullivan

The following was written by my dear friend Meg Sullivan, who visited from Chicago with Robyn in October 2011 (yes, it's been a year). Special thanks to Meg for finally finishing her blog post! I hope this entry will convince more people to visit me!!

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It’s only taken me a year but I’ve finally completed my blog recapping Robyn’s and my visit to Prague and Poland. I’ve decided to document our trip the best way I know how… through pictures. Here is a Top 15 list (in no particular order) of reasons to visit Tristan in Poland.

1. Tristan is the best tour guide a person could ever ask for.

Even in my hometown of Chicago, Tristan would plan amazingly fun things for me to do (most of which I’ve never done) when I’ve lived there all my life.

2) It’s not often that it is completely acceptable to sexy pose in front of castles, churches and other historical sites.

A year later and I still haven’t figured this one out. It’s must be an Eastern European thing but women feel the need to do the ‘sexy pose’ in front of landmarks where us Westerners might consider it inappropriate to do so.

Obviously we weren’t very good at the sexy poses

3) You can fight with castle guards that make the infamous drunk girl “duck face”

4) There’s countless beautiful churches, castles and bridges but there’s also really unique (weird) stuff like this…

5) You might get to be in a Grolsch beer commercial

I’m still on the lookout for my commercial debut but at least we have the pictures to prove it. Also, I’m still not sure why the cameraman asked Robyn and me to act out a seen from Jaws but I guess we’ll do anything for 15 (more like 3) minutes of fame.

6) You get to meet people from all around the world

On our visit we met people from all over the place. Tristan had a party and I felt like I was at a United Nations meeting (with a lot more Vodka). You know what’s even more fun than just meeting people from other countries, coming up with stereotypes for them. What’s also fun is reading aloud Polish words with American pronunciations. While it may me us sound like ignorant Americans, it still makes for a good laugh. Jackie Jest!

 

Vampires from Romania

 

Italians that use over-the-top hand gestures

 

And giggling Japanese school girls? 

7) You will drink some of the best beer and vodka you will ever have.

 

I still dream about the most delicious beer I’ve ever had. If someone can ship me a keg of this Staropramen, I’d be most grateful. As for the harder stuff, most of you probably don’t know but I do not do shots. While visiting Tristan, I DID SHOTS. And lots of them. I can only guess it was because of the really GOOD vodka.

 

8) Vodka is the same price as water and soda

 

Enough said 

9) You’ll get the opportunity to add more “jumping” pictures to your collection. If you don’t have a collection, it’s a perfect time to start. 

Based on the lack of air, Robyn is just starting her collection.  

 

It only took about 10 attempts to get this picture right

 

I also could use a little more practice since I went down hard a half a second after this picture was taken.

10) You can meet friends of Tristan in Prague and go to a local bar (without Tristan) and it will seem like you’ve known each other for years.

 

As a result, you may throw up in aforementioned local bar with your new best friends you met just 3 hours prior. I’m not sure if this picture is pre or post puking event. I’ll let you be the judge.

11) Maybe not as cool as some of the other points but you will learn A LOT.
This is an area of the world that has such a great amount history and I think it’s important for everyone to experience at some point in their life. There are some great sites to see and museums to visit. While not the most uplifting, they are very powerful.

 

Oh wait, that’s not an educational picture. How’d that get in there? 

 

There we go. All of that’s carved out of salt people. Salt! Amazing! 

12) You will meet some of the kindest people you’ve ever met in your life and a lot of them have some really great stories to share. 

 

A big shout out to Pavla, Martin, Michal, Irina, Jessica, Cristina, Natalia, Patrizia!! I somehow don’t have a big group picture to share. 

13) It’s just plain beautiful

 

If the 4,000 pictures I took in my week in Prague and Poland don’t convey that point, then I don’t know what will. 

14) The food!

While I had to be adventurous at times (since I’ve been known to have a cowardly palette), I was never disappointed. I still miss pierogi and PierogiWorld by Tristan’s apartment. While I know that’s not what it’s called, that’s what I will call it forever because I think it was the best pierogi in the world. Also as a side note, to date, the best Thai food I’ve ever had was in Warsaw so there’s that.

Robyn actually finished everything on this sword/piece of wood. Ok, maybe not. 

I was too full to finish my pierogi but I couldn’t leave it…so I took it with me. In this napkin. In my pocket.

15) Tristan is a really really great friend and Poland is not an expensive place to visit so GO VISIT HIM! I promise you won’t regret it!

Yes, that’s bird poop.

Spartans in Poland

10 km race?  In October?  Running half-naked?  Sure, why not?

And that's basically how I came to sign up for the 10 km "Biegnij Warszawo" (Run Warsaw!) race in October 2012.  But this wasn't going to be just any race.  I decided to join Spartanie Dzieciom, a group of Polish men and women who run in various races around Poland dressed as Spartans.  The reason?  Because it's awesome.  And also to raise awareness and money for charities supporting disabled children in Poland (that's important too).  Of course, WITC was also there (and in full force, with nearly 40 people running), but 4 of us from the club decided it was still warm enough in October to run half-naked, just like they did in Sparta. 

Spartanie Dzieciom has been featured in the news, and they usually attract a lot of media attention during the races.  They're even allowed to start the race at the front of the group, because of their mission.  I don't think anyone is worried about a Spartan actually winning the race, so moving to the front doesn't give them any advantage.  They run in marathons, as well as shorter runs, all over Poland, and all dressed like Spartans.  Of course, I'm not doing the marathons, so 10 kilometers it is.  

 

WITC Spartans

 

Andy, Ewa, Karolis and I decided to join the group a couple months back.  We paid a "joining" fee, which paid for our uniforms, race entry fees, as well as a donation to the cause.  In each city the group races in, they give some support to disabled children in that city.  There is also a website where you can donate, but it's only in Polish.  If you'd like to donate something, just let me know and we can figure it out!  It's been a while since I was involved in a charity race (like American Cancer Society Relay for Life), so it was great to join something like that again. 

The biggest shock about the whole process was receiving our "uniforms".  When the guy passed me the "pants," I actually thought it was one of the arm-bands, because it was so small and only had material on one-side.  Nope, it was the pants.  And in this case, I mean it the way the British use it (i.e. "underwear").  There was no back side to these so-called pants!!!  Basically it was a fancy leather thong.  When we asked what we should wear under it, the guy motioned around his downstairs area with his hands, then shrugged his shoulders and said "nothing, really".  I almost asked for a refund. (But is it weird that I am wearing these pants as I write this?  It makes me feel more Spartanese).  

On race day, the 4 of us met with the other Spartans, put our self-consciousness aside, and changed into our gear.  We immediately had to run from the changing area to meet WITC for our WITC group picture, in full Spartan gear.  We got lots of looks during this little jog, but it helped that the staring faces were smiling and excited to see us, rather than pointing and laughing, like they did in elementary school.  It also helped that our helmets covered our faces and our capes covered our butts. The group has been around for a while and already has a good reputation in the running community in Poland.  It's funny how quickly I went from self-conscious about the outfit, to proud of it, in just a short amount of time. 

 

WITC team photo

Back with the Spartans, we proceeded to find a remote location to practice the Haka dance (which we had to perform multiple times before, during and after the race).  If you're not familiar with it, the Haka is a war ritual famously performed by New Zealand's rugby team, as a way to intimidate the opponent and get fired up (it's "famous" if you know what Rugby is, and know that New Zealand has people who play it; not just sheep and hobbits).  We couldn't watch ourselves during our performances, but I'm pretty sure we're just as intimidating as these guys. 

 

 Haka'ing

Generally, Biegnij Warszawo is a really fun event.  I believe it's the biggest run in Warsaw, with around 12,000 people participating this year.  That's a lot of people running 10 km.  And everyone is dressed in their cool, black mandatory BW racing tops.  Everyone except for the 40 individuals dressed in red robes and golden armor (and except Ken, since he was wearing his white WITC top...so scandalous!). 

Before the race, we marched through the crowd, to the front of the starting line and performed the Haka for everyone.  Unfortunately, our "clothes" (if you can call it that), do not have pockets for my camera, so I have no pictures of this, but I was able to find some pictures that others took.  Here's a video of us taking a break from the run and performing in the middle of the race.  The view is obstructed, but you can see a bit.  

 

Get out of our way, we have spears!!

Waiting for the race to start

There's also a short video of us running here, which was on the Polish news. 

The run started, and we were off...running two-by-two, as if running into battle.  The shield and spear weren't too heavy (only about 40 kilos), but it was the fact that my arms were in the same position the whole race that gave me a bit of a cramp in my shoulders.  Just kidding about the weight, by the way, the shield and spear barely way 1 lb combined.  Anyway, I think we looked pretty awesome (although with a bunch of new people like us, we weren't as crisp or 'Nsync as we could have been).  Everyone that ran past us smiled, and many tried to talk to us, or take pictures of us while they were running.  A few guys took selfies with their phones with us in the background...while racing!  We did a nice, easy pace, finishing 10 km in 1 hour 5 minutes (with 2 stops for more Haka dancing along the route).  The group did some marching chants that I never managed to figure out the words to, but it must have been inspiring, because after each time, the runners around us would start clapping and cheering...again, while racing!  It was awesome. 

 

Spartans running into battle amongst the black-shirts

After the race, we performed the Haka a couple more times, took a "victory lap" around the track, and posed for pictures with fans (people really asked us to take pictures with them!).  I think they were surprised to see an Asian-looking face under the helmet.  Maybe they've never heard about the Spartan-Hun student exchange program. 

Overall, it was a very fun experience, and I look forward to more races next year.  I don't think I'll manage a full marathon like this (I don't know how they do it in this gear), but I guess I'll never say never.  It's great to be a part of it, for such a great cause, and it's nice to know that we're raising more and more awareness around the country.  Now we just need some help in raising the money (hint hint - see link at the beginning of this post). 

Here's the Spartan's website, also only in Polish, but you can see how official the group is!