Poland

Poland rules. We are so pumped to be here. We have recovered from post flight HIV and had a great weekend last weekend. We went to Old Town Warsaw and walked past the Presidential Palace and many other historical sites. There was a cool exhibit on the Polish Soviet War of 1920. There was a huge mural of Marshall Jozef Pilsudski facing off with a huge, red mural of Lenin. We also went to the top of the Palac Kultury i Nauki, the highest building in Warsaw and got a good view of the city. The Palac was a "gift" to the Poles from beloved Stalin. He died before it was finished. Supposedly Stalin sent his stooges to study the Empire State building in the design phase. Then on Sunday at church, I blessed the sacrament and said the blessing on the water. I think I did OK. The mission president was there and was impressed with my Polish. He's been here two months and is still learning. After church, we sat in Lazienki park and listened to a Chopin concert. It was awesome. A beautiful, crisp sunny day (Mom's kind of weather) in the park with some dude jamming Marinda's favorite composer under the shadow of this enormous statue of Chopin. Poles love Chopin and Copernicus, both of whom are Polish according to Poles, though that's disputed. Emily would break the silence and yell "Yayyy!" and clap after every number. I go to school with a Chinese dude and 30 Poles. Great guys. I spend most of the class with a "duh" look on my face, but it's getting better. Today I made it to class for the first time without getting on the wrong bus and/or train. One of these days, I'll probably wake up in Moscow. We listened the the Estonian Minister of Defense talk on cyber-security today. Pretty cool. Our house is fantastic for any of you that would like to visit. We have a guest floor (full bath, bedroom walk-in closet, etc). Come whenever, but the weather is already starting to turn crappy. Cold and rainy a lot. Love you all.

Ben