Our first attempt and failure at public transportation

Since we got to Gliwice, we have been walking everywhere! There is a mall about 25-30 minutes away that we've been to a couple of times, the kids park is a 20 min walk, we walk everywhere. We'd take the bus but not speaking the language and not wanting to risk a fine has caused us to avoid it. So, on Saturday we decided to take the train to visit Auschwitz. Online, there are a couple of websites that you can see train schedules and therefore plan your day. The website said that the train ride would take 3 hours including a 1 hour layover in Katowice. The website was WRONG!

We thought great, 3 hours there, about 3 hours to tour Auschwitz, and 3 hours back. It was a full day, but no big deal. We headed out to the train station, bought our tickets. They totaled 20 zloty- 7 bucks for the both of us. Calem is still young enough, he doesn't need a ticket. The lady at the ticket counter (no english) says there is in fact the change in Katowice and is nice enough to tell us which line our train is on. The tickets are so confusing. They don't say a time or a line or anything. We board and in the first 2 minutes of the ride a ticket checker started chewing us out because we didn't have a ticket for Calem. Apparently even though there is no cost, you still need a ticket. We just acted dumb (which we are) and he finally gave up.

We get to Katowice about 45 min later and find out that there is only one more train to our destination- 4 hours later. We were stuck. So much for our 9 hour day! We spent those hours walking around the city. We finally boarded the train and we were finally off! Once we get there, we look to see the times the train goes back- and there is none. There are only 2 trains per day, one at 6 am and one at 2:30 pm and we had taken that last train. We thought though that we could probably find a bus back and would go that way. With the worry of getting home on our mind, we visited the grounds. I'll share more of that in a different post.

We only had about 3 hours until the museum closed, so we made it in time to be able to see everything. We wanted to go in a tour, but we were too late for any of that. We did a self tour- saving us about $25-$30. We ran into one of the english speaking tour guides and he said the information desk at the museum could tell us which bus to take, so that kind of put us a little bit at ease.

When the park closed and we went to the information desk about our bus back to Katowice, the lady looked at us with wide eyes and laughed in our faces. Not the reaction you are wanting after a full day. So now what? We had 3 options. 1. Take a bus to Krakow which is 1.5 hours in the opposite direction and hope to get a connecting bus or train to Katowice and then the train to Gliwice (about 5 hours). 2. Stay in the hotel across the street and leave on the 6 am train back home. 3. Suck it up and pay a taxi.

We paid a taxi. 150 zloty later (50 bucks) we were in Katowice waiting for a train back home. Our cabby was pretty nice and was more than happy to drive us all the way back. So by the time we got home it was almost 10 pm. Ugh! What a day! I think Colby is

more than a little apprehensive for our upcoming travel to the different countries.

So much for the Amazing race....

Here are a few pics of Calem's first train ride:

Here he is, our little monkey! Of course sitting still is not an option.
Colby trying to entertain.
Checking out the scene.

Stuffing his face with treats. Treats always work- for a while.

We found a park!!!

Yay! We went on a family walk last night and ran into a park! And it had a playground! Now I don't feel like I have to be so hovering. I have been super paranoid about letting Calem get too far away from me. With a mixture of feeling helpless (no speaking skills and nowhere to turn to) and Calem's internal "street magnet", I have become a hover-er. Now, I can let him run and run and run. Ahhh! It feels good!

So this playset is kinda scary. Not that it's rickety or anything, it's just made for bigger kids. Luckily Calem thinks he's an acrobat and doesn't mind stepping on just rope. I'll have to get a pic, it kinda freaks me out, but he has only fallen once on the plank bridge.The first little while, Calem didn't know what to think of the kids. He is usually VERY social, but just when he starts understanding words, we yank him out of the U.S. and now he is quite confused as to why they are talking so strange. Today- he got over it.

Another Family Adventure

So.... we are at it again. It seems like every couple of months we get to go somewhere new and experience cool stuff. Graduate school has been awesome (for me especially). Colby has all sorts of opportunities that take us all over and I am loving it. It's hard work but it will be worth it.

In the last year as a family we have been to San Diego, Vancouver, BC, Hawaii, and IF. We've been lucky enough to only have to pay for my flight, so it doesn't hurt our wallet too badly. Now we are in Gliwice, Poland (pronounced like gli-vizza, as in pizza). It will be a 5 week trip so it is by far longer than any other trip we have taken. I am really liking it here even though I can't understand a word and there are very awkward moments.

Gliwice is on the southern border of Poland and very close to the Chech Republic border. Also, Dresden, Germany is only 4 hours away by car. I'm pretty sure I know a little guy that must have been named after that town. :) Anything cool about Gliwice? It is not a tourist town at all. Things seem pretty quiet, although it is a pretty big town (200,000). Streets are very narrow. There is not a highway at all around here, only two lane roads. So driving would be pretty stressful.

Gliwice has a famous wooden radio tower. During WWII, Nazi's staging as Polish people and invaded the radio tower and said hostile stuff about the Nazis, making it look like there was a rebellion against them. So, the Nazis in "defense" took over Poland. Auschwitz is about an hour away.

After the war, it was under communist rule until 1989. I can't believe this was a communist country so little time ago. Things seem really nice here and walking down the streets and looking at the buildings, I wonder what it was like 20 years ago. The people that Colby works with (especially Anna- she's local) lived under communist rule and then she got to see things change. It pretty much blows my mind.

We are living in student housing. It is small. BUT, Calem has his own room and there is a crib in it, so I can't complain too badly. When Anna emailed us and said she had made a reservation here for us, she said the kitchen had a washer in it. I thought cool, that means I can wash clothes, or maybe even a dish washer. NOPE. It must have meant a sink. There is a sink, a hot plate, and a half fridge. We don't have any pots, pans, cooking utinsels or anything like that. Anna was kind enough to bring over eating utinsels. That means we have been eating sandwiches like crazy. And that's about all we have eaten. Oooh except for cereal- I found Nutella filled cereal squares. That has to be the best thing in the entire world.

Wow, this is a long post. I'm guessing it is because the only person I can literally talk to is Colby, who is gone most of the time, and Calem and lets face it, all he says is UH!

Colby and Calem walking on the sidewalk by our home.

This is the student housing behind me.

With no highchair and nowhere to put one, we have gotten good at improvising.

Bring on the Spring

I CAN'T WAIT for the warm weather to come because:

1. that means the semester is OVER and we have actually survived Colby's LAST semester of classes (no he's not done, but at least no more classes!)

2. less laundry ( I will be sending Calem outside with only a diaper)

3. Running outside...or at all (I have been intimidated to run this year for some reason...it may be the last run I did was a marathon about killed me)

4. Grilling and eating outside (a lot less dishes to do) 5. Being outdoors (We all have the worst spring fever in our small place)

6. Gold Hill in Mink Creek ( to get away from it all!)

7. More time on the farm


But for now I guess I'll have to endure the next two weeks
And the approaching snow storm. BOO!

Now for a random pic...

Back to Normalcy....for now

Much to my relief (and of course Colby's), Colby's PhD qualifying tests are done! For the last 2 1/2 weeks, he has had his nose in his books ALL. DAY. LONG. That means he would only stop for food and a little gym time. But now they are over and I couldn't be more excited. We just have to wait for the results. If all goes well, they will be done and over with! Whew! Now he just has to write his thesis and defend it in October. But for now, this weekend, we are going to enjoy a little break.

And he's off!

For the last couple of weeks Calem has been trying to crawl, but just couldn't figure it out. He would scoot both back legs forward and then do a superman dive to see if he had gone far enough to reach whatever he was trying for. Over and over again he would try and after quite a few attempts, a lot of grunts, screams of frustration, and reaching fingers, he would finally get it. Take a look at the inch worm .



About a week ago he finally was able to put it all together, and he's off! He is getting pretty good and getting into everything. He seems much more content and that makes my life so much easier! I would much rather chase him around than have him ornery because he can't reach anything. Of course I say that now...I am very good at eating my words. That may actually explain the recent couple of pounds I seemed to have acquired. hmmmm.

Here he is crawling.

ATK test launch

We went to Promontory this morning to see ATK test their Ares rocket. It was the first one I ever saw and it was pretty cool. There was an actual countdown- T minus 10..9..8..7.............. And then it lit up and you couldn't hear or feel it for probably 10 seconds and then the ground, including our car vibrated for the full 2 minutes. It's crazy to have so much power concentrated in one place. Here is a pic.
This pic is obviously one I didn't take, but this one is from Colby's phone.
Even though we were pretty far away, it was still pretty dang cool. On our drive home, we saw some environmental company's cars on the side of the road with tarps out on the ground. We thought that maybe they would be able to collect some of the debris that would fall from the massive smoke cloud. Then- we thought it started raining- nope. Our car got covered by crap falling out of the sky until it was like trying to drive looking through frosted glass. Crazy. I would hate to live close to the test site just for that reason. It's too bad there have been so many layoffs and budget cuts for ATK.