As The Crows Fly

When we became pregnant, we spent hours discussing names for our child. I wanted to pick something that would be easily pronounceable in both English and Polish. I liked old-fashioned family names, and nature names. We agreed on “Forest Bogdan” for a name if it was a boy, and “Maria Rose” if it was a girl. Both names were easily pronounceable and readable in both languages.  Exhausted after giving birth, and simply grateful that we had a healthy baby boy, I made no protest when Michal asked if we could put the name Bogdan first. It was Michal’s father’s name. I knew how much it meant to him.  And so Bogdan Forest Kawka was named. The name itself is ancient slavic, from the words “God” (Bog) and “Given”(dan). My American mother was delighted with her first grandchild. What are the nicknames for Bogdan? She asked.  Bodzio is the common Polish diminutive form, and I spelled it for her phonetically “Bojo”. And so we called our son Bojo. He was a good baby! Then around age 1 ½...

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....

 Having just completed a backpacking trip with my dad on Mt Adams, I had the privilege of seeing some of his genius up close.  Here is Mike's stove with its windscreen. Do you recognize what it is repurposed from? It's a dryer vent! Of course. Papa is an expert at refitting things to make them work better. He is a lifelong repairman, like his dad before him.

I have been hesitant to write anything about my life because I'm feeling so dang privileged right now. And I don't know if anyone wants to read about my life when they're struggling to deal with pandemic lockdown and smoke AQI off-the-charts and police brutality. ...While my biggest struggle was deciding which pair of shoes to pack for my upcoming transatlantic flight. But some kind friends have reached out and asked for an update, so here it is! Michal and I quit our jobs and sold our house in Klamath Falls in August. I am now living in my parents' basement in The Dalles while Michal bicycles across the Pacific Northwest .  In a few weeks, we will hop on a plane and fly to Poland, where we hope to live for the next two years... or maybe more?!? What's In A Name? As I contemplate our move to Europe, one of the issues on my mind is language, and more specifically, names. When I got married, I took my husband’s last name. I didn’t want to at first. I didn’t like the s...

 It has been nearly ten years since I updated this blog.  now that we are planning to move to Poland, perhaps I'll get back to it...