krotoszyn, polska.

it was a hell of a long flight. somehow the sun set and then rose again without it actually ever getting dark, but it sure was pretty. we flew over greenland and lots of fluffy clouds. i got no sleep. germany and poland are pretty from the air, lots of forests and patchworked countrysides, and poland’s got its trademark red clay roofs everywhere you look. our luggage stayed in frankfurt for a while, and my cowboy hat’s probably going to be there for eternity. i didn’t get sick though and my shoulders are no longer sunburned and it’s wonderful here but i also forgot my jesuit directory with everyone’s addresses and gosh i’m awfully far from home. the hardest part is leaving.

we’re sleeping in the same room we always sleep at my grandparent’s house. this is a crazy old house, they live on the entire first floor of a little red brick three-story building. it matches the high school right next door where my grandparents used to both teach art and my mom and her sisters went to school. they lived here for almost as long as my mother is old, and it doesn’t seem to have changed much. it’s quiet here. i can’t imagine how it is when it’s just the two of them.

my grandma’s doing a lot better and my grandpa’s a joker, he tells me stories and talks about history and says silly things all the time to make us laugh. he’s already planned out a couple of photographic projects for the two of us while i’m here. natalia’s taken over doing the dishes, and entirely of her own accord. it makes me a little sad that they’re getting older. my aunts and uncles are all incredibly nice, they’re taking care of us well. my cousins all grew up. i’m the oldest after my brother but i think they’re all taller than me. good kids. i haven’t been here in six years.

poland, though… it’s a whole ‘nother world. krotoszyn is is your typical small town where people stop to talk to each other in the town square while they’re doing their shopping and there are old men in suit jackets bicycling down the sidewalk and you can always run into some distant relation or the occasional nun out for a walk. the girls are all tall and tan and thin and fashionable and gorgeous, the guys all seem like gentlemen. the buildings are all so old, the place has such a history. there are more cars now than i remembered and people drive more and they’ve got a supermarket now and everyone’s got cell phones and a ridiculous amount of channels on tv. apparently the times, they’re all a’changing, and everywhere they’re trying to keep up.

my grandpa put us straight to work, painting a four-faced shed at a cabin they have out in the country. he’s taking it upon himself to completely renovate the place because we’ll be staying there when the rest of my family gets here. and they are constantly feeding us here. feeding us until we’re full, then cramming some more of that really rich polish food in there. oh, polish food. lots of creams and cheeses and meats and breads and sweet things with tea, always with tea. it’s always “eat, eat…” and they watch you to make sure and i left my backbone at home, so i’ve been utilizing various plans to keep from having to eat meat here, including distraction of the grandparents in quite a few different ways, sneaking hunks of meat to natalia, and eating really slowly to make like i’m full and can’t eat another bite. yeah. polish people sure can pack it away, though. it’s where i get my elasticity of the stomach.

i love my grandparents to death but seriously, i am terrified of getting old. i made up my mind that as soon as my kids start coming over to do the dishes for me or help me make my own dinner or telling me i can’t do things or if i get some sudden urge to start spending my days in bowling alleys or something, i’m taking off to spend the rest of my retirement skydiving and hiking mountains and bungee jumping at which point i may get a heart attack but what a way to go, right? and i don’t even like roller coasters. hey, let’s not ever get old, okay?

i miss you guys a lot. all y’all. a lot, you know. i hear it’s pretty hot out there, and i keep thinking of how nice of a night it must be back in portland and how gorgeous the beach must look and how great it was to go swimming in the ocean that last day home. oh man.