Ever since I met Michal at school in 2007, he has been talking about an epic journey around the world. When he married me, I figured he gave up on that dream, but I should have known better.
I signed us up for the river run on Saturday. I was supposed to unlock the bathrooms, since we've been having issues with our weekend Gates Guy for the parks, so I cycled down to the Marina a bit early. There were already many people gathered under the bright blue sky; moms with strollers, the entire high school wrestling team, old people, young people, and one man in a diaper and wings, with a bow and arrow. Michal showed up two minutes before the gun. He was late, he said, because he was looking for his other glove, and did I know where it was? Of course not. He had one pannier on his bike with water and an extra coat, since he would be cycling to Hood River after the race. He's crazy. He's really serious about cycling as much AS POSSIBLE. But, at least this meant that I would be able to keep up with him during the run; he would be saving his energy for the following bike ride. I was able to run the first 2 kilometers. We passed the wrestling team, including their coach w...
Yesterday I read Sarah Brady's blog for the first time. She's a wonderful writer, and she hits on the questions that I'm wrestling with. She admits that she feels a little guilty when her host family gives her the master bedroom and piles trays of food on the table made specially for her. I know that we will find incredible hospitality when we go south. I'm just not sure that we deserve it. When was the last time Michal and I brought home a hungry traveler off the streets of The Dalles?
Today I correctly spelled "man" in Polish. (thanks Duolingo) Since I've learned the language mostly by ear from Michal's family, my spelling is atrocious. Polish has several additional letters with accents and dots and stuff. They have three forms of the letter 'z'. Whew! mężczyzna = man The first word I learned in Polish was zaba (frog). I still do not know how to type on this keyboard and make it produce the dot above the z. Corresponding with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law is actually easier these days. I type my message into Google Translate, and it gives me the Polish version. Then I copy-paste it to an email and they understand me perfectly. When I meet with them for face to face conversations, we won't have the convenience of typed translation. I usually do well enough in communicating with my Polish in-laws. They all took English in school, and so between our broken languages and hand gestures and context, we manage to get our points across....
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