and then there was Poland....

I made it to Poland yesterday. I visited two different projects and several farms at each project. It is all kind of running together now. However, I do remember being licked by a cow, making a six year old boyfriend, picked an apple from a tree and ate half of it before sharing it with a horse, and seeing a 2 day old calf. Not bad for my first day in a country. Oh, I don't know the six year old's name--we didn't get that far and he was supposedly shy.
My day started at 8am with breakfast and then I went outside with my luggage in tow to wait for my ride to Poland. I didn't read the information correctly (email) and my ride was supposed to be there between 9-9:30...and was delayed about 10 minutes by fog. So, I basically stood on a Slovakian street for over an hour. The country director walked by the hotel on her way to work and so she joined me....and then caused a fiasco for my Polish colleague in all her worry about where he might be. O well. We loaded the SUV and off we went. Oh, and we went. We reached 95 mph at one point...(I asked). Did I mention that we were on two lane roads and going up hills and around corners and such? Did I mention that its not odd to find tractors on these roads....slowwwww moving tractors....anyway....
We got to the hotel around 7:15pm and I was delighted to find out that internet was available in my room....without having to hijack wireless through an open window! Yea! My room was about the size of a single dorm room and had a twin bed. Ironically, the bathroom was almost as big as the main room. After some internet phone calls and instant messaging with Ep and my mom, it was time for bed. Oh, I should mention that Kale sent his first instant message. My mom put him in her lap and before she could push the keyboard out of the way, he started typing. Not sure what he said, but it involved a lot of m's and j's. :)
Now, back to going to bed....it was like sleeping in a dorm...you could hear everything. If I could understand Polish....I would have been able to understand every single word my neighbors said. As it was, I finally fell asleep to the sound of a very heated conversation (which lasted for hours) between two men and a woman next door. Oh, and maybe there is an elephant that was in the room above me? Whatever it was, it had some heavy things to drop on the floor.
I wasn't ready for my alarm clock to go off this morning. But it did....and maybe thats ok, because they are doing construction downstairs in the hotel....apparently right under my room, so I wouldn't have been able to sleep much longer anyway!
Today, we are off to the east...to visit another project (pigs) which should be interesting. Then, we will drive way west and go to Krakow for some "down" time. Piotr (Peter) had promised that he will do his best to show me the main sites. I am kind of excited about that. I will have seen enough farms by then!
I hope to have internet in my hotel in Krakow...but again, I never know until I get there and get hooked up...
The rest of my journey is the following:

• Eventually to Krakow today and spend the night
• Wait on Rafal (director) to arrive by train and then he will drive us back to Poprad, Slovakia. Piotr will get on a train back to Warsaw. Wish me luck, Rafal likes to drive fast.
• Spend Sat, Sun, and part of Mon in Poprad.
• Leave Poprad and visit project site on our way to Rushnava and have dinner that night with project holders.
• Tues, Wed, and half of Thurs will be project holder meeting.
• Friday morning, at 2am, we will travel to the airport so I can be there by 3am to check in....and my flight leaves at 5am.....and off across western Europe and the Atlantic I will go.
• I will arrive in Little Rock around 4 or 5 pm on Friday....which will be between 11pm and midnight here....so that will only be a 21+ hour day. Yippee!

Ok, gotta run....much love to everyone. Kisses and hugs to Kale and his da-da...and mema-nana too. I am off to explore more of Poland!