Off to Poland 4-08-13

We finally got everything packed and hoped our luggage didn't weigh over 50 lbs. each.  We were excited to get on the plane and head east to France and then on to Poland.  The flight was long and tiring.  When we got to Warsaw, we went to get our luggage and one of Wayne's was missing.  We had to go to the baggage claim and without being able to speak Polish, it was quite the nightmare.  We didn't have the address of the Mission Home or President Nielson's phone number so we told the person at the claim desk (hoping he would understand) that we would call them back when we got to the Mission Home.  We were also hoping that someone was still waiting for us outside because it was taking so long.  When we went through the doors to the outside, there stood Pres. and Sister Nielson.  It was good to be able to talk to someone that understood you. 
They took us right to the Mission Home and had dinner waiting for us.  We went right to bed after dinner.  It was 6:00 pm.  Here is a picture of the room we slept in our first night in Poland.

The next morning wasn't any better.  We just could not adjust to the hour difference.  But we had a wonderful breakfast.  Elder and Sister Hutchinson from the Mission office came over and gave us keys for our apartment in Wroclaw and some other information.  The Elders that were the Assistant's to the president met us also and gave us a GPS and our phone.  President Nielson told us to go to Lodz first and meet with the Senior Couple there for a couple of days.  They would tell us what our duties were.  So the President handed us the keys to our car and the GPS and said to go.  WOW were we scared.  The GPS took us right to Lodz where we met with Elder and Sister Lloyd.  They were so nice.  Here is the Hotel we stayed in in Lodz.

And here is the chapel for the Lodz branch.

 

Elder and Sister Lloyd took us to the grocery store and told us what and what not to buy.  Here is the store and what we saw.

Everything is in big boxes.  The milk is in a box on the shelf.  (That took some getting used to.  It doesn't taste like milk either)  Everyone drinks juices here.  They are pretty good.  Some crazy combinations though.  You can't drink the water here, so we have to buy bottled water also.  The fruit and vegetables come right from the farms, so we have to let them soak in water and clorox for 10 minutes.  Even the eggs have to be washed.  They don't have any prepared foods like Hamburger Helper, so everything has to be cooked from scratch.  I didn't realize how much I had used things like that.  It's a whole re-learning process.  And since we don't know polish, it's really fun trying to figure out what we are buying.  There are no packaged meats.  You buy everything from the meat counter.  I am one of the lucky ones.  We have a freezer in our apartment, so I can buy for a week instead of going every day.  

 

Next the Lloyds showed us around the city of Lodz (Wooj).  It is very dirty in some spots.  Arturo Rubenstein was born in Lodz, so we had to get our picture taken next to him. 

 

The picture above is of "P" Street.  It is the longest street in Eastern Europe and there are restaurants and stores on it.  Everyone goes to "P" Street for everything.

 

Remember the picture above of the Hotel we stayed in.  It was a beautiful hotel.  The picture below is from the back window in our room.  Quite a different sight. 

 

Well our two days were up.  We plugged in our GPS and headed for our city of assignment,  Wroclaw.  It was a 3 1/2 hour trip.  We didn't know what was awaiting us, but we were excited to get there and get started.