Almost 6 months now....

Wow, has time flown by.  I only realized late last week that I have been in Poland for almost 6 months now (March 15 will be 6 months exactly).  And things have gone largely as I thought they might.  My goal for the first 6 months was mostly just to settle in, feel comfortable with daily life, try and learn some Polish, and generally feel confident enough in my new environment to branch out more and try even more new things.

I haven't learned as much Polish as I hoped.  I'm just now getting to point where a few phrases and words are coming naturally.  And my vocabulary is not even close to what I hoped.  But I'm at least starting to feel like I'm making a bit of progress and not just drowning in a sea of new sounds and concepts.

I've slowly explored more the city than just the area between work and where I live, and am looking forward to  Spring and Summer when I should be able to get on my bike and explore even more of Poznań.  And as the weather warms up, I hope to finally begin travelling more in Europe.  There is still a lot to try and experience in Poznań, but I feel like I have a better idea of things that will appeal to me and where things are.  And again, to not be so overwhelmed with the differences and total lack of knowledge.

In general, the Poles that I met have been very nice and welcoming.  My co-workers are great.  And the few other expats I've bumped into have been nice to chat to.  I'm doing a bit more socializing, but my normal working hours (usually 11am or Noon to 7-8pm) do mean that I really don't do much during the week.

Among the few downsides so far:

• My winter allergies seem significantly worse here than they are in California.
• The selection of fruits and vegetables is a lot less than what you get in California.  It does make you realize how spoiled we are there with nearly year-round access to almost any fruit or vegetable you like.
• I have not been able to find a chiropractor anywhere near me that speaks English, so I haven't been to a chiropractor since I left.  The only chiropractor I have located is about 45-60 minutes away (by a combo of tram and bus) and when I called, no one spoke English.
• Living in an apartment has all the downsides I expected and remembered.  :)
• I haven't found a decent massage therapist yet either.

But honestly, all of those are relatively minor taken in the greater scheme of things.  So I can't really complain.  I just hope the rest of my stay continues to get even better.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Snow, snow, snow......

Well, it has warmed up (-1C today!!), some moisture arrived, and we have had snow for the last few days.  This afternoon we had a particularly heavy batch come through and I snapped this picture out my balcony door.

This was about 2pm, so it normally still be pretty bright out.  And that's not fog, that snow.  Lots and lots of big, flaky, soft snow.  If it persists tomorrow, I'm sure the kids will out with their sleds.

As always, you can click on the picture to see a larger version of it.  Have a great day!

A Nice Sunday Winter Walk (6 pictures)

So after last nights frustration over the neighbor's party (which did go to 2am), when I woke up this morning and realized that it had warmed up outside (it was only -7C, instead of the recent -17C, and it's amazing how big of a difference that really is), I decided it would be a great day to go for a walk.

I had heard about a large swimming pool complex that opened up back in October out near Malta lake and decided to go find that place and look into whether I would want to go swimming there sometime.  So I hopped onto jakdojade (http://poznan.jakdojade.pl/, it's a great web site) and figured out that if I hopped onto the #6 tram, I could ride it all the way out to the far end of the lake and then walk back home.

It was a nice walk and I grabbed a few pictures along the way.

Apparently, apartments can suck anywhere...

I had hoped that with more people (I'm guessing) living in apartments here in Poland, that maybe people would be a little more sensitive to issues such as noise and generally try to not be a major pain to the other people in their building.  But either was I completely wrong I just happened to be unlucky.

Ever since my new neighbors moved in just before Christmas (they own the apartment right across the hall from the one I am renting) I have had the unfortunate luck of having to listen to music blasting until after midnight on many weekends, and a party every other weekend or so where the music goes on until 2am usually.

It's basically everything I hated about apartments growing up.  Except that now I have no idea what the cultural norm is (for all I know, on Saturday's your expected to be able to be loud until 2am) and even if I was inclined to go complain, I don't speak enough Polish to communicate with either them or the folks at the security desk to see if their are rules about that sort of thing.

Maybe I should just buy a stereo system and every time I think they are getting too loud I could point the speakers at their wall can crank Metallica, Megadeath, W.A.S.P, and other heavy metal to hopefully get my point across.  It would certainly be different than the Adele and other pop and dance music I am otherwise bombarded with.

And yes, I know this whole rant makes me sound REAL old.  What can I say.  I'm turning into the crabby old man who lives next store to Beavis and Butthead.  =D

May your weekend be quieter, and more enjoyable, than mine.

Looking for my inner MacGyver

It's been a bit cold here in Poland (and Eastern Europe in general) lately, and I've been having an issue where my bedroom for some reason is much colder than the rest of my apartment.  So much so that I've had to start wearing socks to bed because even under my double-layer of blankets, my feet would freeze during the night.

So after a bit of investigation I came up with three possible factors.

First, there is an air vent in my bedroom closet that was letting a bunch of cold air in (no AC here, just natural ventilation via vents), so I shoved a plastic pillow-case bag up against it and used a box to hold it up.  I hoped that would block most of the cold air.  That helped a bit, but not nearly enough.

Second, the heating radiator in my bedroom is directly under the window (as I believe they should be).  Unfortunately, the window has a large stone lintel that runs completely under the window and sticks out several inches beyond the top of the radiator.  I noticed that the lintel was actually warm for the part above the radiator, but very cold just a few inches in, and guessed that the stone was absorbing a lot of the heat from the radiator.  So I went out to Praktiker (the hardware store) today on my day off looking for some reflective film my co-workers said I could find that people put against the wall behind their radiators to help reflect the heat back into the living space.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find that, and I couldn't find anyone who spoke English at the store.  So I dug out my inner MacGyver and came up with this:

If you can't tell, that is a car windscreen sun reflector that is wrapped around the stone lintel and down slightly behind the radiator.  And because I wasn't sure that would reflect the heat fully, or hold up to the heat of the radiator, I then added a long sheet of aluminum foil along the bottom of the lintel as well.

I have to hope it works, because the last option is that the radiator in my bedroom is not putting out as much heat as it should be which will mean calling my landlord to arrange to get a maintenance person out to see if it has air trapped in it (which reduces the hot water flow, which reduces the heat).  And if that doesn't work, the last option is to buy some painters tape and some clear plastic and just tape off the whole window, hoping to prevent any cold air from infiltrating.

But in the meantime, I also bought a small electric heater to help tide me over.  =)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

My daily trip to work

One of the people I know back in the US asked what it was like living without a car, and how far I had to travel to work.  That conversation triggered a memory of another co-worker who during a past "day in the life" presentation during a group meeting showed a presentation of their daily trip to work.  So I figured I'd do the same.  Click the "Read More.." link below to see the rest of the pictures.

First step is head out the door of my apartment.  There is an elevator on the other side of the pillar on the right, but usually I duck through the door you see on the right.