Random quotes

..."The pendulum of change often swings from one extreme to another, and reactions can result in overcorrection."
"The yearning for holiness is not at odds with the desire for relevance. For while holiness sets us apart unto God, it is God who calls us into the world."
"Always tell the truth, that way you don't have to remember what you said." - Mark Twain

Ok, let's see now....long time, no post. Ahh, what happened since last time? Lots of things, but I only have a few minutes to type, so this will have to be short. First of all, Polish class is over! I enjoyed the class, but it's nice to have more free time.
Second, Maria and Ria had a minor car accident. Fortunately, no one was hurt badly. Ria (Maria Wadel will hereafter be known as Ria) was uninjured and Maria is almost fully recovered from her bangs and bruises. Unfortunately, the faithful Fiat met it's end. (more on that to follow).
Lastly, we (Leroy, Maria, Ria, leroy's sister Joanna who is currently visiting Leroy, and I)are going to the city of Wroclaw tomorrow for a two-day visit. If you don't know anything about wroclaw, don't feel bad, but just read up on it. It has some fascinating, although somewhat sad, history. (For the record, and so you can impress people, the pronunciation of Wroclaw is Vro-tswahv:)

Good ol' social networking

This is not original with me. In good blogger fashion, I stole it from another blog:) Pretty succinct, huh?

Cars

We vs'ers have two small cars to drive. The girls drive one, and Leroy and I have the other. Both of them are Fiat Maluchs and I think they have about 25 horsepower. Think of it this way - "How many horsepower does you lawn mower have?" There's a chance that it's output of hp exceeds that of our car. These cars even have chokes! This is not American driving! Think Geo Metro on a diet:)

Ever see a car engine in a wheelbarrow? This is the entire engine and exhaust system from the girls Fiat. The exhaust system was pretty much shot, so Leroy decided to tear it out and get it fixed. So one evening last week, we took the engine out. Fixing the exhaust became somewhat complicated, but the engine is ready to put back in, and before long the girls will have their car back.

Who would want a smart car when you could have a Fiat?
This is our car. It dates from the late 80's sometime, so it's not exactly ritzy, but I really enjoy driving it around:) It has a bit of a temperament, but I think that lends it a bit of character, as well.

Well, today marks the halfway point of Polish class. One-and-a-half more weeks to go! My vocabulary is slooowly growing, but forming sentences is still a real challenge. "Do I say czy, jest, or ile here?" Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself. Imagine somebody in America practicing over and over how to say run, walk, stand, hello, goodbye, etc. Lots of basic words that even two year olds know can be a challenge for me to pronounce. In quite a few ways, learning a language puts a person on the level of a baby. When you want to say something, you have to frantically search your vocabulary for the right words. And even then, it comes out very simplistically and sometimes isn't what you wanted to say. I guess it helps me to think more about what goes into a language and not take so much for granted.

After that depressing paragraph, I will now offer words of encouragement:) Even though it is hard work, learning Polish is fun! It is satisfying to be able to communicate better with people. I can now read a menu in Polish (at least most of one). I recognize more words on signs. I can turn to all the Scripture references in church. And of course, my repertoire of hand signals is increasing:)

This is us at Wazienki(spelling is not correct) Park in Warsaw today.
Maria Zimmerman, Leroy Schwartz, me, and Maria Wadel are the current four Vs'ers with AIM.

"Let's start at the very beginning..."

We (Maria Wadel and I) arrived in Warsaw, Pl on July 31. (That already seems like a long time ago). Since then I've been settling into life here. I live in a town called Marianka, which is on the outskirts of Minsk Mazowiecki, which is a fairly decent sized city.

This week I've been attending a Polish language class in Warsaw. It's a three week class and runs from 9:30 to 2 every week day. This means that I'm in class for about 4 hours a day. Usually about a half hour before the class is over, my brain is so full of Polish that I wonder with trepidation when the steam is going to start coming out of my ears!

Hello World!

I sit pondering the seriousness of putting my words and pictures onto the internet for all to see. All the flippancy I had about starting this thing is gone. Oh well, here goes. There's at least one good thing - the URL mattgingerich wasn't taken:) I am going to try to update this blog as consistently as possible. Having said that, if you want to razz me about not posting, send me an email, don't put it in the comments:)