motherland.

This year's Christmas I spent in Warsaw, Poland with my extended family. Not only did I have to stay hungry to consume the gargantuan amounts of hearty food that my precious grandmothers basically forced fed me, but I had to switch my brain from English/Italian mode to Polish. Despite the unnatural consumption of pierogis, kielbasa, and various pastries, and the cheek-pinching reunions, it was lovely to spend the holiday surrounded by the people I see once every year to two years.
I survived the Siberian -15 degree climate, I experienced first degree fish murder and gutting (I refused to eat the victim to my relatives' dismay), and I got some financial advice from my eleven year old cousin who already has an early retirement fund.
It was a miracle I wasn't caught by the police dogs at the airport considering the amount of dried mushrooms I was transporting.
Now I'm back in America and things are surreal, surreal, surreal. But I'm happy, happy, happy, to be back in my old stomping grounds. I'm still awaiting my reverse culture shock.

Happy New Year!

(The couple in the picture frame are my beautiful parents - 20ish years old!)