The Block is Hot

Poland's in a little bit of a summer heat wave, and I am loving it.

One thing gets me though:  all this time, I get countless inquiries as to why I'm living in Poland?  "Why Poland?"  they ask.  I usually reply, "Well, where else would I live?  Poland's a beautiful country."  They say, "Well, you could go to Spain."
"Spain?  What's so great about Spain?"
"The culture, the food, but mostly the climate.  The weather is warm all the time.  Poland is too cold for me."
And then, I shit you not, they start to bitch endlessly about how it's too hot (80-90º).  They go, "Oh, this weather is terrible for me.  Ach, it's awful.  Too hot!!!"  They complain about the warm weather in Poland, but ceaselessly talk about how great the weather is in Spain and how Poland is too cold.  When I bring this to their attention, they say, "Typical Polish."
Yes.  Yes it is.

Oh, and they put the AC on in the winter.  Can you believe that shit?

A Most Glorious Spring

Spring has sprung in Poland.  It sprang over a month ago at the end of April.  There were balmy, sunny days in the high-sixties with a slight breeze.  You could walk outside in a T-shirt, but not sweat (and no bugs!)  For one night in the beginning of May, we had a snowstorm.  It howled and everyone was impressed, but left no snow on the ground.  Hopefully, it killed off all the bugs, so black flies and mosquitos will be significantly less pesky this year (one can always hope.)
Now, it's raging into full-on summer.  I've just come inside from the glaring sunshine (reading on the balcony.  I have Kapuscinski's Imperium.)  Coming inside and letting your eyes adjust is something actually rather strange.  It's as if you're wearing sunglasses inside, everything is unnaturally shade.  Then, as the pupils dilate and open up, everything becomes more clear.  The human body is such a neat and wonderful thing.

The noueveau-style of apartment blocks with rooftop terraces and gardens.

Enjoying the sunshine.

The lilacs!  Oooooh, the lilacs.  Heavenly they are.  And this spring they are out in full glory.  Each bush is weighed down under the bunches upon bunches upon bunches or wonderfully scented lilacs.  I often pick them at work and welcome anyone to smell them.  Sometimes, I compose poems and verses about them.

Lilacs come in a variety of colors and scents.

The lilac bunch up close.

The bushes are filled with them.

Forget-me-nots.

Snow Time!

(NOTE:  This post was partially transcribed during my hiatus and is now edited and posted.)

Being no stranger to snow (and actually loving it dearly) I always enjoy it when the fluffy white stuff descends upon the city.  It sometimes happen, like this past weekend, when snow overstays its welcome.  

Anyway, this past winter definitely started out strong.  There was snow in November, the temperatures were plunging, and it looked like it's be a long, bone-biting winter.  Now, as someone who has lived in apartments that were in flagrant disregard of inspection and livability laws, I swore that I would never go cold through another winter.  My two last years in school were defined by being hungry and cold.  Oh, so cold.  It wasn't just that the electric heating was never on, and when it was it drove the electric bill upwards of $300, but the general lack of calories made it all the worse.  These days, with free heating, I walk around in my boxers in my apartment.  A howling blizzard may be roaring outside, and the icicles might be growing ever larger, but I sweat sitting down—that's how warm I am.

A 'well-plowed street'.

The winter, however, had not turned out as I had hoped.  By mid-December the snow was in retreated and the horrible reign of thirty-degree temperatures began.  It was more of a muddy brown Christmas than white.

Snow did come and go, but one thing I noticed was the general lack of plowing on Warsaw's minor roads, driveways, and parking lots.  It seemed up the commuters themselves to hopeless grind away rubber in attempts move (I did lend a hand to a struggling truck.)  This, of course, is all part of Poland's on-going war on tire treads.  They won't give up until ever vehicle is rolling around on dangerously bald wheels containing less rubber than a Durex® Ultra Thin Fetherlite®.  (Just a quick note: what a creepy way to spell feather light.  Fetherlite just looks poorly constructed, and I usually go for quality and pride of workmanship in this area.  It's not a purchase to downgrade just to save a few bucks.)

My snowman. The snow was so powdery soft.

The snowy park at night.

What winter turned into: a hazy, slushy world.

Besides the unplowed roads, the sidewalks were left as slick sheets of ice.  Coming from an extremely litigious country, where poking yourself in the eye with a screwdriver is an actual financial option, I was surprised by carelessness of the city to leave such horrendous walkways.  (NOTE:  Some law firms actually employ people to map every single crack on the sidewalks of New York, which are then submitted to the city.  The city can claim that if it doesn't know about the damage on the sidewalks, it can't be held responsible if people trip on them.  So, these mappers make sure that every crack is mapped, just so they can claim that the city knew about the cracks and did nothing (and makes the city financially liable when someone does trip on a crack.)  What a wonderful solution!)  Crampons were necessary to navigate these icy walks of terror.  In some places, sand was scattered or workers with wooden shovels hacked and shoveled the ice, but only on the most heavily trafficked of sidewalks.  Others were left gleaming and treacherous for the less nimble.

Practically a lawsuit in the making

I was a little disappointed with the winter, but then again, I shouldn't complain.  The US got hammered (bummer I wasn't there.)  Plus, I totally missed out on skiing.  Well shucks.  Anyway, spring is here and I have to finish planning my Easter menu.  Plus, I hope the frosts end early this year so I can get my zucchini and watermelon in the ground as soon as possible.

There was snow

Season Change and First Snow

I'm used to the season slowly fading into each other.  The four seasons are each distinct, but they shift rather gradually.  Here, they shift immediately.  In September, I woke up one day and the air temperature had dropped fifteen degrees and the trees were shedding yellow leaves.  Then, these past few weeks there was an abrupt change from 55-60º days to days in and below freezing.  Last night was the first real snowfall.  Wednesday night, it snowed a little, bit it only stuck around on people's cars.  It's like someone flipped a switch; the changes were so sudden and swift.  There was no melding of the seasons, just one morning it was summer and the next it was fall.

The final harvest of the year.

After many weeks (months really) of procrastination, I finally cleaned up on the balcony.  My glorious jungle, my main achievement of the year, my proudest monument, had wilted and died.  I was harped on constantly because I didn't want to clear away the scraggly tomato vines the covered the place.  I finally buckled down and cut out the vines, clearing away what fruit still clung to them.  The tomatoes are placed in the kitchen, and probably will be made into a sauce (most likely for gnocchi.)

But the snow is here (about an inch or two) and I can say I am pleased.  I hope it sticks around for Christmas, because I do love a white Christmas.  I, and many other Varsovians, went for a Sunday afternoon walk in the woods.  The trails had mostly turned to mud, but if you walked on the virgin snow it gave that satisfying scrunch.

People trudging across the fields in Kabaty.

For the season, I thought I would share a nice little tune called Shchedryk, better known (in Anglo Countries) as Carol of the Bells.  It's actually a Ukrainian New Years Carol that was given new lyrics (the original lyrics are about a sparrow flying in and wishing the master of the household a lucky year.)  Eastern Slavs don't really celebrate Christmas at the same time as the Western (due to a different liturgical calendar).  But Christmas isn't the main holiday of the season, New Years is.  It's as if the roles were switched: Russians and company are visited by some Santa (Father Snow or whatever) on New Years; they get presents then and the main celebration takes place of Christmas, which is a scaled down affair.  It's not just that they have Christmas in January, it's also that the Soviets tried to stamp out religious holidays and promote more secular ones instead.  Regardless, below is a very nice carol.

Autumn Fall

Like a switch has been thrown, it's autumn in Poland.  One day I woke up and the trees had changed color and lost a great deal of leaves.  The weather turned damp and everyone walked around stylishly bundled up.  Also, I can tell it's fall by the 600% rise in interest in people seeking out English lessons.  It's like clockwork.  Every start of October and February, there's a rise in people asking for lessons, and all those lessons (and interest) cease in June.

The seasons move quick here.  Summer didn't fade into fall like I was used to; it just shifted gears and dropped twenty degrees.  I meandered about in Kabaty to tramp through the leaves (I love to skip through huge piles of fallen leaves and kick them about.  Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds.)

The growing seasons are weïrd in Poland.  For instance: right now there are no more squash in the markets.  That's right.  Squash.  I'm used to squash disappearing half-way through November, not the end on September.  It was absurd.  The markets are mostly empty now anyway; all the farmers have packed up. There are plenty of apples for sale, and that's fine with me.

Also, the colors don't change a lot like in the northern states and Canada.  My falls have always been vivid with red, yellow, orange fireworks of leaves changing.  We used to hike up a mountain and look out to see a carpet of exploding color.  Here, leaves change a paltry yellow and drift to the ground where they rapidly turn brown.

Plane Crash: After Effects: Memorial Plus Volcanic Ash

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (try saying that five times fast) has erupted, hurling plumes of ash into the sky. The ash has caused the cancellation of more than half of the EU's flights, and a great deal of transatlantic flight. The skies over Ireland, the UK, and Scandinavia have become virtual no-fly zones. Today, at around 9 AM, the cloud apparently nudged into Poland (near Szczecin.)

This ash plume is cause of some concern for Poland, since it may cause the cancellation of world leaders' plans to pay their respects to Kaczynscy on Sunday. The Poles were even mulling over delaying the funeral if Obama could not make it.

Volcanic ash is notorious in its ability to clog airplane engines (car engines have air filters, which make them less susceptible.) Mount St. Helen's eruption caused cancellations across the northwest, and volcanoes in Alaska routinely cause cancellations for Alaskan Airlines.

Volcanoes aside, there is still an uproar over the choice of the Wawel as a burial place. Facebook groups such as, I want to be buried at the Wawel, and, We Want a National Stadium Built on the Wawel (how retarded is that group?) have tens of thousands of members. The decision to bury them there basically came down to the Catholic Church, which usually throws its weight behind PiS, which in turn claims to be the party representing the Catholic Church. Oh, and I still don't care either way, but I think it's rather shameful the way that people are literally taking to the streets over this. Honestly, I think Kaczynscy being buried at the Wawel is a political move, and that it would be better if he was laid to rest in Powazki in Warsaw. Kaczynski was from Warsaw and probably should be laid to rest here as well. BUT, I can see that he might want to be buried in the Wawel. That's just my two cents.

Tomorrow, Saturday, there is a memorial for Lech Kaczynski at noon at Plac Pilsudskiego. There is a general prohibition of alcohol in Warsaw until 6 PM and all public transportation will be free. I'll be reporting on it and will write more about it tomorrow.

Wiosna Jest Radosna!

Spring has sprung! The weather has turned from slightly chilly to down right balmy, and I am kind of loving it. I do enjoy winter, but it's great to get the plants on the balcony for some full sun. The surprising thing was how quickly the weather turned; one week it snowy and wintery, they next week it was full-blown short season.

The time change helped too (spring forward.) A full week after the US went forward, Europe did as well, which meant that for a week we were only five hours apart. This can cause problems: I keep my computer on EST, so while I was doodling away on something I thought I was late for a lesson, only to realize when I got there that I was an hour early. I was fortunate that it worked out, but whatever. Plus, now I can get up early for the sunrise and have a later-setting day.

Actually, I can't wait for the botanical gardens to re-open.

Pre-Spring Whiteout!

The snow is coming down thick here and has reduced visibility substantially. It's not terribly cold outside and I don't expect this wonderful stuff (I'm a big fan of snow) to stick around very long.

The thing is, I wasn't here for most of the winter, which I heard was terrible by how cold and by how much snow they got. When I came here, it was near 60º and balmy; what was left of the snow disappeared within forty-eight hours of my arrival.

Anyway, here are some shots.

Right before I entered hyperspace.

A cozy warm feeling.