Recap of July, 2006

Today is Sunday July 30th and it’s been 2 weeks since I returned to Poland and a lot is going on. Here are some miscellaneous ramblings from afar.

Had my first really big “Polish flat party” last Friday. The Polish version of a flat party is when someone offers up their apartment (flat) as a place to meet and everyone brings their own food and drink. Makes it kind of easy on the host. So that’s what I did when I invited my training class of 31 people and my training staff to my flat. Most of the class showed up so I had about 40 people there at one point. We had the music blasting and people dancing in the living room. It was a warm evening so the balcony was filled with people.. Then around 11:30 p.m. someone announced that we were walking over to the Market Square to go to a Salsa dance club so off we went. At 1:30 a.m. I left leaving a good number of people behind. All in all a fun time and one I would like to do again. (FYI … the apartment was not trashed. But I did have a lot of glasses to wash on Saturday.)

(The guy on the left is my friend Jim Montague. He wanted me to write that he was "dancing" and does not always look like this. Jim is from Hernando, Mississippi (via Memphis). Need I say more?)

My friend Ranae Owens of Franklin, Virginia was here on business for a week. The last time I saw her she had just started dating Heyward Owens and now she is married, has a cute 11 month old boy named Walker and a new job as an Inside Sales Rep at I.P. Needless to say we had a lot to catch up on. Her visit started out with a tour of the city provided by my friend Kinga Raczak. Kinga is a wealth of knowledge of Krakow and its history. We started at the Barbican made our way along the Royal Way, went through the Market Square and ended w/ a tour of the cathedral at Wawel Castle. A great 3 ½ hours that brought the city to life for the six of us. Since this was my third official tour of the city I am now qualified to lead them for others.

Went to the wedding of my friend Gabriella to a Canadian named Leon. It was held in the St. Stanislaw Cathedral on Wawel Hill and it was a beautiful ceremony officiated by the priest at my church. One of my co-workers, Renata, sang the Ave Maria. She is a trained singer and it was beautiful. The Mass was in both Polish and English which made it much more enjoyable. Gabriella sure was special to have had her wedding in the cathedral where the Polish Kings and Queens were crowned.

It's been very hot here. Two Saturdays ago it hit 95 degrees F. Now, for many of you that might not be as hot as where you live but for a place that does not have a lot of A/C is was very hot. It was so hot that some of the employees came to work early because their flats did not have A/C. And everyone was complaining about not getting any sleep. But the heat wave has passed and it will be in the 80s by mid-week.

And finally, Toni comes to town in August and you know I am looking forward to that.

That's all for now.