I had a good little laugh today. It was the first in a while I think.
I went to get a personalized metro card since its a new requirement. (Yay for new/ changing Polish laws) Often they will have guys on the metro checking for valid tickets, and if you dont have one, you pay big time. Anyway, the guy checked mine as I got off the metro...I go get my card...10 min later I was waiting for the metro and the same guy walks up and checks my card again...I was slightly stunned because he had literally JUST checked it. ... so Polish. AND, since I happened to have my brand new personalized card in my hand that he barely noticed, he started to walk away, turned around and asked for BOTH cards this time - checks my name on my current, valid (non-personalized) card against my new, photo-id and everything card that isn't even activated yet. Then he lets me go...WOW
Also, when I was walking back to the metro after getting my card, there were 2 guys standing in the hallway and one of them says "czesc!" as I walk by. It's an informal "hi" - in a kinda flirtatious way and I had no clue what to do. I just kinda kept on walking and didn't say anything. That was definitely a first.
After all this, I decided since I was only 1 metro stop away, I would go to Starbucks and get a coffee and sit for a little while - to think, to relax, to just enjoy a few minutes with a cup of coffee and sudoku. I was enjoying my bagel and window-side seat. I watched people walking by, waiting on trams, etc and just relaxed. For a moment, I could slip into my own "coffee heaven" and back into the world of coffee shops I love so much. Now, granted, Starbucks is not the ideal of my little heaven. I prefer local shops to chains, but considering they aren't that popular here, I have to settle for Coffee Heaven, ISpot, Starbucks and Empik Cafe - all chains.
I've only seen this once or twice here, but one of the workers walked outside with mini promo cups of hot chocolate and an entire tray was gone in like 2 seconds. She came back in, got more and walked out right before I did... before I even reached her -only a few yards from the door - the second tray was almost gone when an older man hurried up to her and was like COFFEE!? its free? ohhh, yes, please...
I just had to laugh because it was so opposite of what I had just seen in the metro! Where down stairs, a guy is standing at the only exit checking and double checking cards...and then right upstairs, capitalism being embraced at its fullest. Something's free!? Leave it to Starbucks... slightly ironic considering they are one of the most expensive coffee chains I know of!
Sadly though, it was back to Polish reality when I had to wait 30 minutes at the post office to get a package my parents sent me. There was only 1 person in front of me too! Oh well. At least I laughed today.
On another note, I'm so TIRED of it being white outside! The piles are almost my height now! They have no where to put the snow, so they just scrape it to the side, pile it up and keep piling. The sidewalks get smaller and the snow has only gotten deeper. sheesh....can I come back to the South now? lol. I want warm! sun! no snow! There's been a rhythm here - it snows, they scrape it to the sides and put down sand, the snow gets dirty, it snows again covering all the dirty snow with fresh white stuff and it starts all over again. fun. When will it end?
this is outside my apartment complex. The paths are slowly being cleared with a cool snow blower thingy. :)
The astronomical clock in the Old Town. The characters move on each hour and its got sections that tell you which month/ season, day (by names) and of course the hour and minutes.
One of the things we did this summer was help at a kids camp in a neighboring town. A father and son came from the States to help teach the kids American sports. We taught them baseball, kickball, ultimate frisbee, disc golf, etc. On the last day, the kids went to a local castle for the day. The theme was fairy tales, so they acted out their stories on the castle grounds. The kids had a chance to dress up in baseball gear and/or football pads. I took portraits of whoever wanted one.
At least the end was rewarding! A dip in cold glacier water will certainly numb any pain in your feet. So, off came the shoes...then the socks... followed by an "OOOOHHHH!!!! that's cold!"
Not only did we have a relaxing time at the lake, but we had a few "cultural moments" too. It's not uncommon to see women hiking in their bra, bikini top, etc. and men in just shorts. Well, apparently one guy was quite hot...and I turned my head in time to get a full, bent-over shot of his olive underwear. My teammate, Joe got the best shot expressing the situation I think. My face says it all. We laughed for days at this!
84 year-old Wladsylaw Mazur was shot 3 times, twice in the neck and once in the arm. He worked in a machine shop in Warsaw before the war. Recalling what happened, he explained that he laid very still at first and they thought he was dead until they noticed he had moved closer to a puddle of water. After shooting him again, they left. Still alive, somehow he managed to crawl to a place where he was rescued. As his brother had always told him, beautiful nurses took care of him until he was well and then transported to Flossenburg concentration camp in Germany for 8 months. Mazur made his way to Italy and eventually England where he met his wife and lived for 4 years before moving to the USA in 1951 where he lives in New York to this day. 
Talking with this man made the walls of the museum come alive. I've always walked down the streets of Warsaw's Old Town with some understanding of what had happened so many years ago. To hear it from the lips of someone who survived was a treasure I will hold to for many years.
It only got better that week. We drove home in time to see the sunset over Warsaw. I didn't have my long lens with me, but the tall building near the center is the Palace of Culture and very much in the heart of Warsaw's center. It was a "gift" from Stalin, showing his power over the people.
Now for some fun stuff. The group worked in the Jewish Cemetery clearing off gravestones so they can be photographed and documented before the jungle of weeds and trees grows back up around them. The cemetery covers over 70 acres (33 hectares) of land. The longest stretch of Ghetto wall still stands, separating the Jewish and Catholic cemetery. A bunker and tunnels in back sections were used to enter and exit the Ghetto. 
But, this is what struck me most this time. These are photos of the most harmless yet most interesting of the bugs and icky things we found in the "back 40". I sadly discovered that ticks like me, that snails make sad crunching noises if you accidentally step on them and that orange slugs aren't as gross as they are fascinating.
The light hit just perfectly after clearing off the stones. Then you get some beautiful images.
At the end of the week, we took the group to Treblinka and to Sucha - the Wood Architecture Museum. This is of some of the buildings at the museum by a lake where some guys were fishing. It was quite relaxing after visiting such a hard place to see like Treblinka.
On their last night, we went back to Old Town for some last minute shopping. I grabbed a cup of coffee and started people-watching. The evening grew darker and things got interesting. I noticed spotlights not normally there but didn't think much until we were bombed with poems on bookmark type flyers. Thats when we noticed the red mood rising.
It's the best I could do but you can actually make out the shapes in the moon when I pull it up a little larger.
After catching the moon, I photographed the flyers falling into the Old Town streets. One hundred thousand fell; red or black with poems in Spanish and Polish on the back. Warsaw is the 4th city to take part in The Bombing of Poems. Cities that have experienced ariel bombings in the past have taken part in this. We found something about it on facebook explaining the event. Here's a link - it's in Spanish, but there's a few videos of the event. I was right there near the flame throwers. 