Spring is here

Dzien Dobry!

If the hadnt have set about an hour ago, at 3 o clock, I would thin it was April. Today I went out on an errand in a light jacket and short-sleeved shirt and wasnt the slightest bit cold. Am I in Poland or Malibu? Well, actually, the eternal gray reminds me that this is not in fact Malibu, but I still do like the warm weather.

Today we painted our walls orange, and it looks quite nice. It was a close call, as the paint we were originally going to use was not in fact orange but a light pastel hideaous peach that induced vomiting; luckily we were able to darken it with some pigment to get a nice color. Weve got some touch up left and clean up (ugh) and we should be ready for a housewarming party on Saturday. Fun fun.

I guess Danny and Jenny and Co are back in Seattle, hows that going? Hows work? Wed love to chat with any of you online; the problem is we do not as of yet have internet at our place, so we are on infrequently and at weird hours, mainly the morning for y'all.

I love the pictures, Jak was such a cutey that last night, no?

Tommy, still working hard? Classes started yet? Any girls :)?

So it turns out we have a land line phone that works; feel free to call it anytime. With Skype it should cost you 2 cents a minute, and Im sure you can find phone cards for that price, so yall have no excuses. I also have a cell phone. Here are all our numbers:

(0048 is the code for Poland; from the US I think you do 011 + 48 or some such thing, Im not sure; or you can just type it into Skype directly like I have it)
Home Phone: 0048426363036
My Cell Phone: 0048696599275
Agata's Cell: 0048608356066
Agata's Mom's House: 0048426365404

Monday I earned my first Polish zlotys, from a girl who wants 45 minutes a week conversation practice. She speaks well but slowly; I quite enjoyed it but feel I need to try to make it more productive, as shes paying me quite a bit. In half an hour I will be working with one of Agata's students; and we finally got some printer ink so hopefully soon I will distribute my CV around town and see what turns up. We have more than enough money to get by and even save without me working, but I think it would aid my sanity and acculturation to have something to do outside the house.

With my research, it appears that this fellow on whose work I have been relying heavily has just published a book on my research topic, so my task is now to read that and figure out where I need to go in light of this development. My main dilemma is finding an angle or a framework or a question for my research into contemporary Polish history that would make it interesting to both Americans and Poles, which is hard, because Americans don't know anything about it and thus just dont care and for Poles its too recent and everyone has lived through it and so its not apparent why they would need me to talk to them about it.

Love you all and love hearing from each of you,

TQC