walking dead

many people are familiar with the series, the walking dead. i hated the show at first and i still have a love-hate relationship with it. i don't care for gruesome anything, but somehow i've gotten reeled in by the sheer determination to cheer the few unbitten humanbeings left in the world on. i have been forced to watch it with my husband because he endured all 3 seasons of downton abbey with me...which for the record, he loved! this doesn't seem like a fair tradeoff, but not everything in marriage is always fair. anyway, our plan was to spend our downtime watching the 3rd season in our hotel room, but instead we have somehow been bitten by a similar disease ourselves. we are now walking zombies resulting from the infamous ailment known as jet lag!

after arriving at our hotel, we had sometime to rest before going to the grocery store to stock up for the week. i didn't know how important that rest would be until later. we were also told not to sleep too long because it could mess up our sleep schedule. apparently, they don't know me very well because after having 2 children 10 years ago, i'm still not caught up on my sleep! it will take years of sleeping to catch me up and, "ain't nobody got time for that!"

it felt like i blacked out, but chad said i slept for maybe 3 hours. meanwhile, he was on his computer preparing work stuff.

we met his co-worker downstairs and headed out to the store. 

now, chad and i were born and raised in texas. this state is huge. i think 4 polands could fit inside. people use their vehicles to get anywhere and everywhere. it doesn't matter if it is super close or if the weather is perfect, we feel it is more convenient to drive there especially if you are going to the store. most people i know get their groceries a few times a month and try to buy in bulk when you can.

this lifestyle seems very strange to people over here. to them it is more convenient to walk to the store everyday in order to have fresh food. a mile or 2 is considered very close no matter the weather.

i have realized that the obesity epidemic that hovers cities like ours in the usa would be cured with this type of lifestyle change. we have come to the conclusion that maybe 1 out 50 here are overweight compared to the 1 our 5 back home and i have yet to see someone extremely obese! 

working for a general surgeon, i see patients with this condition daily! Where are all the fat folks here in Poland? they are getting more exercise during their commute to work than the typical daily recommended amount suggested by most family doctors.

they are also getting the "beloved" universal healthcare that many people back home think will cure all their troubles. but maybe knowing that they will not be able to see a surgeon for 6 months encourages them to take better care of themselves...i don't know. i highly doubt it. i still think it must be all the walking and fresh food that puts them in a healthier category versus my people back home. they can only carry a small amount so they eat less.

Anyway, after our nap we met chad's co-worker, stacy, downstairs and walked to the nearest "wal-mart" or "target" type store. it is called real (re-ale). it feels like a long walk and is a long walk in my opinion. but the locals feel different.

once you are in there, it is very easy to get lost. there are a few restaurants including mcdonald's and a nice cafe. there is a place to change your money over to zloty, polish money. 3 zloty = american $1. there are clothes and shoes stores inside as well. 

we were only shopping for food and water, but we were still confused by all the labels. sparkling water is very popular around here and chad nearly got some by accident. their milk is sold in small bottles and 2% is the thinnest variety you can get. chad purchased chips, but even their flavors are very different. the cheese pringles are not cheddar cheese, but swiss cheese instead and the sour cream and onion flavor is changed to just onion! they are both gross to me, but chad seems to like them! i don't think there is a chip chad won't eat :-)

all their milk and cheeses are very creamy. 

this was the largest single bottle you could buy at the store.

once you choose your items, you must then head towards the check-out. this was very scary because the ladies working at the check-out are no-nonsense kind of ladies. they sit on stools by the cash register and seem military in their position. One made me put my cart up back which is in the opposite direction and then basically took over paying for chad. they do not have free shopping bags, of course, so we had to gather our items and bag them ourselves.

after shopping, we stopped off at the cafe for some coffee with milk and a tasty doughnut that stacy recommended. she was a lot of help to us today. after the short break, we then ventured back carrying our heavy groceries all the way to our hotel room.

without any sleep...we are pretty much walking around like zombies ourselves.

afterwards, we had dinner with stacy at the hotel's restaurant. it is very nice and they serve beautiful dishes! the food was awesome! we enjoy sitting at these low booth-like tables for dinner. monkey and dog enjoyed meeting stacy and dining in this fancy schmancy restaurant.

 

chad ordered the pork tenderloin and i had some delicious red pepper soup.

 as tired as we were, we were still very hungry...they must have been symptoms from the jet-lag bite!

  

after dinner, we went back to our room and stayed up to skype our children back home. by now we had been up for at least 30 hours and we were both exhausted. but as many parents know, kids don't care if parents are tired and i felt we needed to let them see us and i wanted to see them as well.

 

the two of them had just gotten off school and were back home. it was around 4:30-5pm their time and it was approaching midnight again for us.

the call was worth it because we learned that our oldest daughter, camille, got assigned a solo part performing in her very last spring concert. she was hopeful to get a part during tryouts, so this was exciting news! my youngest daughter, carigan, shared about the fun she had during her water balloon fight that her class won during a charity competition.

we did our best to stay awake during the call, but afterwards we crashed and the dead were then walking no more!