(Mostly) Shopping and Food Bloopers

The first day we arrived in Poland, we bought some paczki from Lidl. (Lidl is a small grocery chain that originated in Germany and is a competitor of Aldi) We were so excited to see that the paczki that I have made at home is just like what they have here. That is a treat that we will be happy to eat often while we are here, and though I do enjoy baking them, right now I can have one without putting in all the work to make them. :-)

Paczki purchased in Poland

The second time I stopped to go to Lidl for a few things, I had our translator leave one of the boys and I at the store while he took the rest of the family home.  I forgot that at Lidl, you have to have a zloty (worth about $ .26) to unlock the cart.  You get the coin back when you return the cart after shopping, but I did not have any zloty on me, only American coins.  The American trying to unlock a cart without the coin must have been very amusing to those who were watching me.  Then Cole and I were walking around the store trying to hold all the things I needed to buy. By the time Sasha came to pick us up, we were holding quite a bit.

Very important if you want
to shop
with a cart at Lidl

Polish Zloty

Yesterday some of us went to a Tesco (similar to a Walmart, but the one I went to this time is smaller and pretty much has only groceries) and Lidl to shop for the week. Because I cannot read any of the labels, I am slow in my shopping and grocery shopping becomes interesting because I am unfamiliar with what items are available that I am used to buying.  Our Lifeline representative here has been very helpful, but we have had some very comical moments.  I like to bake and make things such as biscuits, bread, and pizza dough from scratch, and for this trip, I had several baking items on my list.  One of those items was shortening (Crisco).  For several minutes, I tried to explain what I was looking to buy.  He put the item into Google translate, and the translation/definition that came back for shortening was "to shorten". LOL  When we finally were on the same page about what I was looking for, I found out that they do not have it here anyway.  Another item that I struggled to describe was baking cocoa which we did find at Tesco.  Yes!

I discovered that a bottom part of the our refrigerator gets really cold.  I bought everything to make tacos, had the meat cooked and ready to go, and went to cut up the tomatoes.  I found out that the lettuce was frozen and the tomatoes were hard as baseballs.  Have you ever thawed tomatoes or lettuce?  Yeah, not very tasty.  Guess what we did not have for dinner that night....

Did I mention that we are cooking on an induction stove?  Yay for You Tube because this was another "first" for us that was interesting for the first couple of days.  It takes a little getting used to to not be able to take the pan off the burner without the burner turning off.  Since the pan and the burner work together to heat the contents of the pot or pan, using the right pans is important for this type of cooking as well.  The way it works is really interesting, but it is not the same as cooking on gas or an electric stove top.

I was really concerned when I saw the oven temperatures for the first time.  They only go up to 300*, and I thought "I am not going to be able to cook much very quickly in this for long".  The joke was on me, for I finally realized that all the temperatures are in Celsius, not Fahrenheit.  It was back to my handy iPhone ap to make conversions.

We have tried a new food - currants.  They are pretty sour, so eating them plain it ok, but they would probably make great tasting muffins or syrup.

Currants

We have still been keeping close to home over the last few days, so there is not much to write about our activities, but we have spent lots of time on the outside trampoline ( I think everyone here has one in their yard; it is like a swimming pool for folks in the south.), going for walks in the neighborhood or to the local store for smaller grocery items that we run out of, playing with balls outside, coloring, Play Doh, drawing, playing in the sprinkler if it is not too cool, and whatever other activity we can come up with to keep a very active three year old busy.  We forgot what it is like to have such a whirlwind age in the house; they never stop moving!  We did walk to the park last night and today, about a 15 minute walk, and will probably do that again regularly.  Between the time it takes to walk there, play, and walk back, it is a big help in breaking up the day.

Panoramic photo of the park

We had our second visit today with the social worker from the National Adoption Center which went well.  She is easy to talk with, and we feel that it was a positive time.  Because it is not in Warsaw, she will not be present at our court date, but she does need to write up how things are progressing with DD, and her report will be included in all our court documents.

Thank you again for all your prayers throughout this process.  We appreciate all your support.