As I mentioned in an older blog, this is my first Christmas away from home. As difficult as I thought it was going to be it hasn't been all that bad. In fact, I'm more anxious about Lele coming to visit and counting down the days until her arrival than I am thinking about not getting to spend Christmas at home. The night of the 23rd the team organized a dinner together at Hotel Bachus, the hotel I stayed in over the summer. It was nice to see everyone off before my Polish teammates took off for home in various regions of the country. Before the dinner I was expecting some kind of traditional prayer considering the time of year, which there was but to my surprise it wasn't so much a prayer but a tradition they do of giving thanks much like we do in church before receiving the body and blood of Christ. They take a piece of dried bread, the same bread at mass, and approach every person sitting at the table and wish them holiday greetings, good health, best wishes, etc... It was something I had never experienced before and something I really enjoyed. Being in another country away from home it's nice to be welcomed with open arms and share traditional experiences such as this.
Furthermore, having a break from my routinely repeated schedule actually has me wondering what to do with my time. Granted I have a lot of time on hand anyway, yesterday Uros and I spent the day at Galeria Baltyka shopping, eating, and just hanging out. No planned schedule and just few ideas of how to spend our day. After we spent a good 4-5 hrs there we went to the Cinema "MutliKino" and watch the movie "2012". For those of you back home you know 3 days out of the week I can probably be found in a movie theater. It literally made my day to go to a movie and enjoy the atmosphere. On the 45 minute drive home I learned the phrase "Best wishes and Merry Christmas" in Polish. Yes, it took me the whole 45 minutes to learn how to annunciate the words.
I spent Christmas Eve lounging around and watching movies all morning. I stopped by Cafe Aruba to have a coffee and wish everyone that worked there a Merry Christmas. When the afternoon rolled around I ran to the grocery store to pick up some groceries and while there Uros and I decided we wanted to try and make a trip to Malbork to see the castle. Unfortunately for us, the castle was closed for the holidays but it was still a great site to see and gave me a chance to check things out a little bit before Lele gets here. That night, Uros, Mitar (another teammate) and I watched 40 year old Virgin, classic comedy. It wasn't "the Christmas Story" but for my first Christmas away from home it will do. After that I called my family before I went to bed and fell asleep on the couch watching them make tamales.
Christmas day was pretty relaxing. I woke up around 11am, turned on my Christmas music playlist on iTunes, had Cheerios for breakfast and watched a few movies until my family woke up so I could watch them open their gifts via Skype. Later that day Uros and I went to Cafe Aruba for some traditional Polish Christmas dishes, compliments of the owner Peter.
Although Christmas wasn't my ideal way to spend it, I was satisfied with the way it ended up. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and I wish everyone a healthy and Happy New Year. I miss you all back home. Until next time................................................................ Love
"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud
