Kupić choinka

Ah, now my first purchase of a Christmas tree.  We've been planning for Christmas for the past month and have been busy buying bombki, gifts etc. and preparing for my sister-in-law coming on the 20th.

We bought the choinka from outside the supermarket near Duracza.  It was surprisingly cheap for a 2 metre tall tree and they have an ingeniuos way of packing this using a pipe.

Carrying it back was a pain -- not that it was heavy, just bulky and difficult to get a grip.  However we got it home at last and now to hang the Bombki

Travels to Piwniczna, Kosarzyska, Łomnica, Stary i Nowy Sącz

Just back from 10 days hiking and sightseeing in Piwniczna-Zdrój, et al

We took a train to Piwniczna via Kraków, Nowy Sącz and then from Nowy Sącz took a taxi to our noclegi, Pod Kasztanami which is on the Rynek square in Piwniczna.The food there is good -- heavy góral stuff!  The staff is friendly (it's a family run noclegi) and the bed are very nice.  I would recommend them to all (have given them a good review on tripadvisor

And the hiking routes were wonderful.  We went to Kosarzyska, Łomnica etc.  The weather was nice -- around 15 C.

We then came to stay a couple of nights in Nowy Sącz with a school friend of the wife's and dropped in on a lot of her ex-neighbours and school friends.  Spent about 2 hours in Stary Sącz which is quite enough to see all there is to see here -- just a beautiful Cathedral and another nice Church and you're done, the rest of the town jest brudne.

W Nowym Sączu spotkalismy się z starzymi sądsiadkami żony i kolegami szkolimi.

On Saturday we decided to spend a couple of hours in Kraków on the way back.  It's always a beautiful city to stop in and have a look around.

New course at University of Warsaw and I got a job

I completed course A2 and have now joined B1 in the regular course at the university.  This is a different sort of class with different students -- working students and the classes are twice a week for 2.5 hours each day.

The average age of the class has jumped from 19 to 29 and we have a more serious atmosphere.  Bruno (the Bolivian engineering Masters student) is with me again.  It's good, he's a nice guy and I've invited his girlfriend (a teacher at Polonicum) and him over for obiad.

Besides him we have a Russian lady, a Ukrainian girl, an Australian lady of Irani origin, a Vietnamese lady, a Vietnamese girl, a Romanian lady my age, a German girl (studying to become a Lutheran pastor -- now that's funny, I asked her why would a person come to study Lutheranism in this most Catholic of all countries and she said that the Lutherans here are far more religious than those in Germany.

Oh, and I got a job -- went for the interview a week ago and they asked me in this week again for a follow-up interview and I got an offer.  I'm going to take it and join on the 8th of November (we're going on a mini-vacation to Piwniczna from the 30th Oct to the 7th of Nov)

Moving house to Zgrupowania Żmija -- moving the stuff

I must be crazy.  Wait, I am crazy.  I decided that since I've still not started my job, I can move our things from Kredytowa to Zgrupowania Żmija by public transport.  After all we have a direct tramway (35) from Świętokrzyska to Piaski and a nearly direct bus (180).

That was tiring -- we have a lot of things, makes me scared -- will we end up like our parents with a whole bunch of things?  Reminds me of the Jerome J Jerome bit in Three Men on a Boat where he talks about people loading their boats in the journey of life with way too much luggage and urging us to throw it all out and live free.

The furniture got delivered already and we had a send off for the sister in law who's off to Japan for a year.  Now the wife has plans to invite a new bunch of people each weekend to show off the house, ah, women.... :)

Moving house to Zgrupowania Żmija

ok, so now the house will be ours, but only by the 6th of September.  Then we've got Pan Sylwester (who did up the wife's Poli Gojawiczynskiej flat some years ago) to do up the place.

We're going to just paint the place and also remove the bidet and put in a second toaleta in a corner of the bathroom (two toilets is always a good thing).  I have spent the last month searching for furniture, mostly at Centrum Handlowe Marki, Leroy Merlin etc.  I think we've chosen the best tables, sofas, beds etc and surprisingly the best were about mid-price range.

Getting lamps and kinkiets were the biggest pain.  Women have very definite ideas about what they want and well I agree with the wife that a lot of the kinkiets etc. are just plain ugly.

We still haven't decided on the side kinkiets for the bedroom.

We got a lot of my wife's stuff from her sister in laws in Torun (she had moved it there before coming to Bombay last year) and also my sister in law's bicycle (yay!).

Yesterday was the wedding anniversary and we went for a nice podwieczoraj at park Łazienki followed by a walk in the park and ending with mass at the parish we got married in (MBK Polska on Gdanska).  Nice coincidence was meeting the waitress (who was at our wesela w restauracji Pod Gigantami) at park Łazienki. She seemed to recognize us.

We ended the evening still at Kredytowa (we wanted to celebrate it in our own home, but that wasn't to be).

Got the house! Moving in on 6th October

Finally got the Kredyt and everything done. That was a nightmare.  But it's done now and the Notariusz has done his initial stuff

I'm very pleased with the kurs intensywny.  Ja myślę że uczyłem się dużo w zeszłym miesiące.  And we're learning the Polonaise.  I just discovered how diverse the crowd of students are at the course -- we have lots of Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Belarussians, Romanians, etc. Europeans, plus lots of Japanese, a chinese girl, an Indian (me!), Bolivians, Ecuadorians, Americans, Australians, Canadians, Brits, even an Ethiopian.

The Polonaise is fun, very decorous.  I tried to learn the mazurka, but no, it's not for me!

Decided on a house, now to get the loan

We decided to get the Zgrupowania Żmija house and have bargained for the price and it's just in our affordable range.  The beauty is that we don't have to do any reconstructions -- the house already has all the fittings in the kitchen and bathroom.  All we need to do is paint, get furniture and get rid of the bidet in the bathroom (why do people have these things??).

Getting the kredyt from OpenFinance is crazy bureaucracy.  Luckily we have some cash in Bombay that I've transferred.  We'll need it to pay the deposit and the initial amoount, but the paperwork is still maddening.

Oh, and I took Niuniuś, our little chomik (hamster) out for a walk ;-P actually, just to drop him off at Ursynów as we are going to be in Toruń for the weekend of the 31st

The classes are going great.  We are learning quite a lot.  The movie selection seems strange -- very arty and I hate art films, especially the depressing ones that they are showing us which seem to give the impression that Poland is a horrible place and Warsaw is a den of violence, which is it not.

Searching for houses!

We are still looking for houses.  I've seen a dozen and I am fed up.  Only three look promising: the one at Zgrupowania Żmija which may be too far from town, then one at Generała Zajęczka (bathroom is too small) and one on ul. Tolwinskiego (not nice but cheap and close to ul Poli Gojawiczynskiego)

First day of Kurs intensywny na Uniwersytecie

The first day of the course.  We all packed into the Bibliteka Uniwerystecie on ul. Długa and the leading Prof called out the results.

I was pretty surprised that I wasn't in the beginners groups or indeed in the first 10 (they started with those who knew the least Polish).  I was in class 11 lead by Pani Dorota.

Quite surprised I was (to paraphrase Yoda!).  W mojej klasie jest Boliwijanczyk, dwa Rosjanki, jedna Hiszpańska, jedna Niemczyka, jedna Francuszka, jeden Włoczek i ja.

One of the Russian girls is the one that was copying during the test.  She seemed very lost during the lecture and kept asking everyone in Russian something!

Starting language course at Warsaw University

Thanks to my sister-in-law, I signed up for the Summer intensive language course at Warsaw University.  This is from the 2nd to the 31st of August, 5 days a weeks, 4 hours of classes a day and 4 hours of culture (dancing, music, films, workshops etc.).

Seems interesting.

Today they had a test to evaluate how much one knows about Polish.  It was difficult!  The participants seem to all be Erasmus students from different countries and most are Germans or Russians/Ukrainians/Belarussians.  Quite a few people with some Polish backgrounds (mother/father/grandparent from Poland) and from the US, Australia, Bolivia, Ecuador etc.)

There were a couple of Russian girls who were copying during this test -- that's kind of silly as the test is to see where to place you, so if you copy, you're going to get to a class that is way too advanced for you.

Results are on Monday

Warsaw sightseeing

The past couple of days I decided to wear out my shoes walking about Warsaw.

First I walked down through Stare Miasto and dropped in at all the Churches -- after a point they seemed alike, but I found out that the Benedictine Church near Barbakan has the last mass on Sunday at 21:30.   Very important to know!

Then I took a walk down past the old Jewish ghetto side to see the Pomnik Bohaterowi Żydenski and try and recreate events from the book Miła 18 (found out that it's not miLa but miŁa).  The ironic thing about this is that on the site of Miła 18 there is now a branch of Deutsche Bank.  Not very politically correct.

The most moving monument is of the Poles who were taken to Siberia (Monument for the Fallen and Murdered in the East). I then walked through Powązski and to Cmentarz Tatarska.

Then yesterday walked down Nowy Świat to Muzeum Narodowy and Muzeum Wojna Narodowy (the War Museum which has impressive 17th century armour), then past Łazienki, the Sejm, park Ujazdowski, the Japanese, Korean etc. embassies and up past the road by the Vistula.

Oh, and I've been going to the Gold's gym at Wilanów which is quite impressive (I have a free travel pass from my membership in Bombay).  The journey is quite long - it takes about an hour from Krakowskie Przedmieście.

A week in Warsaw

So, a week is over, we're still staying at Weronika's cousin's apartment on ul. Kredytowa.  This is a nice convenient location as it is right next to Metro Świętokrzyska and centrum.

The day after I landed, I slept 12 hours!  And it is warm over here, about 34 degrees celsius. On the 8th Weronika took me to see houses for the mieszkanie we are to buy.  Of course, she took me to the nicest one that she liked first (ul. Zgrupowania Żmija) which has a blue kitchen.  I like the house, but it seems quite far for me, however I don't really know Warsaw well enough to say that and it seems beyond our budget range, but let us see what happens.

So far I've been seeing houses, sleeping, surfing the internet, relaksuję ;-)

I like Warsaw, it is quite a green, wide open city.  Not crowded, quite small and has a strange architectural mixture.  All in all, quite nice

Moving to Warsaw

6-Lipiec-2010

So, I've sold my motorbike :( , car, quit my job and moved out of the apartment to Mum's house for two weeks , have shipped a lot of books and now I'm on my way to Warsaw to see my beautiful wife who I haven't seen in 6 weeks (I miss her!).

Not sure what to expect, but life is about changes.

When we moved to Bombay last October, it was nice for me to to have to decide, but well, I knew it wouldn't  work -- Bombay is too warm and too different for Weronika.  We talked about it and she initially thought of  Canada, being English speaking, but she's too much of a Polska patriot to be happy there, so Poland really is the only option.  And I like the country, it has a sense of history and life and it's Catholic -- so culturally not alien for me.

I'm worried about getting a job -- I've never been without work so this will be a new experience for me.  I think I'll take the time and learn Polish.  It seems like not too difficult a language, but then I've only done some amount of an online course!

First post

So, the wife and I have decided to move to Warsaw.  I'm going to chronicle this on the blog and talk about life and generally bore people ;-P