Festival of Colors

Every year that I have lived in Utah County, I have wanted to attend Festival of Colors. (It is in Spanish Fork at the Hari Krishna Indian Temple. It is a celebration in which, In India, Festival of Colors announces the arrival of spring and the passing of winter. The festival breathes an atmosphere of social merriment where people throw their worries in the wind.) But every year something always comes up and I can't go. This year, however, was different because I was able to take Michal with me to experience this!

When we arrived we bought ourselves some chalk and waited around until it was time to throw our chalk on one another. We sang and danced and chanted with the thousands of people there celebrating and enjoying this annual festival.

When everyone starts throwing the chalk, it is so hard to breathe and there is so much in the air, that you can't even see the sun. Everyone said it smelled bad, but I thought it smelled like flowers.

Here is what we chanted and danced to:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

I even ran into some of my friends that I went to the Jerusalem Center with. It was sure fun to see them and hear about all of their adventures.

(Someone came by and dumped a whole bag of chalk on Sean's head that he looked like he was from the blue-man group)

However, the best part of all was that I got Michal to come with me! He said he would come on me if he didn't have to get dirty at all... well... as you can see... he sure did get dirty! But I think that secretly he had a lot of fun! I'm really glad he came along and was such a good sport.

A little bit of everything.

Random Thoughts:

• I got Photoshop. I have been wanting to "enhance" and "edit" my pictures from Paris before posting them, but I can spend hours and hours on this website and still have no clue what I am doing. I think that I need to get a Photoshop for dummies book. Or hire someone out there to teach me.
• Why is it that I run 2 to 3 miles every other day and still can't manage to lose a single pound this whole year? I've actually gained one pound since January 1. And why is it that when I went to Europe and walked everywhere that I went and ate crap all day long... i managed to lose 4 pounds and then gained it all back coming back to America even though I tried to do everything the exact same way.
• I love the beehive councelor in my ward. (I am her advisor). She really inspires me. She has so much faith, has so much patience, and so much love! I believe that's the reason why I'm in the ward is to learn from her... so I'm grateful that she helps me to be a better person.
• I learned how to crochet. I took pictures... don't laugh...

Whenever I used to think of crochet, I would think of my great-grandmother who was restricted to her rocking chair. My mom used to make me visit her, but I just remember that her house smelled funny. I hope that by learning how to crochet I can break this memory and think of my own accomplishments instead.

• I really want a piano. Really, really, really bad.

Here's the plus....

... I get to play and it relieves so much stress and is so healing and so fulfilling. I can't tell you how much Imiss playing the piano. I even have dreams about playing the piano...

Here's the not-so-plus...

... they are heavy

... I want a new one (not happening...too expensive)

... a Clavinova would be nice. a CLP or CVP 300 series... GH or GH3 model.... only it's a new technology toplay and sound like a real piano. You can easily move it... it's easy to store, transport, etc... but... once again - it's still pricey... and I don't have that kind of a budget with the jobs that we have...

Any suggestions? I'm open to possibilities.

• Why is it that around some people I feel like I am the "life" of the party and everyone laugh's at my jokes... but at around other people, I feel like everything that I say is so dumb, so I just keep quiet. Confidence can be so hard, yet can come so easy. I wish I could be the person that makes other people feel confident and good and comfortable around me so that they can be the best person they possibly can?
• Why does my nose hate my glasses so much? I love my new purple glasses that I got in Poland. The only thing is that my nose hates them. How do I know that they hate them? Because I break out like CRAZY where my glasses rest on my nose.
• We are selling Michal's car this weekend. I have been begging him to sell it since we got married... and now that he has actually decided to do it... why do I hesitate about going through with it? That one has really stumped me!
• I need a new hairdo - any suggestions? I am open to ANYTHING right now... so throw it out there.
• My brother helped me fill out my bracket for the NCAA tournament. I have no CLUE about basketball. I don't really like watching the sport at all... it's boring to me... they run from one side to the other and throw something in a basket and half the time it looks like they tripped over their own feet and a whistle gets blown, everything stops and then starts all over again. BOR-ING! Anyways... secretly since my work is doing a contest for whose bracket wins... I am kind of excited to know who gets eliminated to see if I win. Actually, to see if my brother wins (I told him i'd bake him cookies and I'd keep the grand prize of a scooter they are giving away). But I wish that they could just do all the games in one day so that I don't have to wait. I really hate waiting. I like to watch Survivor and the Amazing Race, but I can never complete a whole episode because i look up on Wikipedia who gets eliminated or voted out before the show ends (since it airs an hour earlier for Central Standard Time)... saves me a lot of anxiety knowing who is leaving. I always thought I wanted to be on a reality TV show, but man... have you seen how bad they have TRASHED the people on the bachelor/bachelorette lately. Maybe it's just that show. I wouldn't want people to make stuff up about me and see it on magazine covers at Wal-mart. It happens at church and that is already bad enough... the whole nation... I think I would just want to buy all the magazines so no one would have to see them, but that would defeat the whole purpose because then the magazines would think that they were making it big... when it was just me they were annoying.
• I wish that my Husband loved to play games instead of watching youtube videos about Trains at night. I couldn't think of something more boring to watch... but he loves it.
• I think that all the songs on the radio are dumb right now. I hate to admit it, but I agree with Michal on this one and they all lack talent. I have decided to pull out old CD's and re-live some great memories. They remind me of so many of my friends and family.
• St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays because you can dress up and look like an idiot and totally get away with it. You just blame it on the holiday. I learned how to play Scotland the Brave, on the bagpipes, in time for St. Patrick's day... Only one problem... St. Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland and converted many people there to the Catholic church. So how does the song "Scotland the Brave" have anything to do with the holiday? I don't know what I was thinking.

I believe that for now... these are all my random thoughts...

Our Recent Adventures

As most of you know... Michal and I recently took a trip to Europe where we were able to visit his family. Michal left about a week before me, as I was not able to take as much vacation time from my job. I quickly joined him in Berlin and we traveled to Wroclaw, Poland where I spend the next week meeting all of his friends and family. It was really nice to see where Michal was from and understand more about him and his past.

Food...

One of my absolute favorite things about Europe is the food. I love it! Every time we passed a PIEKARNIA (Polish Bakery) or CUKIERNIA (Polish Cafe), I begged Michal to go in and check out the different desserts and check out the various breads. I always had to try one without leaving. Above I bought all of those treats for about $4 USD. Now, in America... it probably would have cost me about 4 times that much. And the other picture above Michal made me try a special danish called MAKOWIEC. After trying it he told me that it had miniscule amounts of opium in it. There was also all the good homemade polish meals that I had there. Michal's Mom made us the best dinners and his grandma made us traditional Polish BARSZCZ, USZKAMI. I had BIGOS and ate so many good polish desserts at people's house. The most popular by far is this "torte"

As I ate this I asked if it had any Chocolate in it... (of course, Michal translated) and they replied to him saying "No, only Cocoa." Which is Chocolate, but being a missionary I have learned to eat many things that I never liked, Chocolate being one of them, so I ate this as well.

Michal's cousin Adam & Agnieszka Laskowski had us over for dinner several times and made incredible food. It was so delicious that I wished I could put away more. Agnieszka is such a good chef that she even has her own bakery where she makes tiny cookies. She sent us home with 6 boxes, but by the time we got home... there were only 3 left to share with friends here. They were my favorite... in fact I almost asked Michal for some more of those cookies for my Birthday, but I knew that it would be too much of a hassel to get them here and that they wouldn't arrive on time. Here are a few pictures of me visiting their bakery.

One thing that absolutely threw me off is that a Kitchen-aid mixer in Poland costs over $1,000 USD. This time it is 4 times as much in Poland than in America. I was surprised, but it made me realize not to take my mixer for granted.

Friends & Family....

Michal's family was so kind to me. I could communicate with them at all... but they were so kind to make me feel welcome and included. Big shout out to you guys and a big huge "DZIEKUJE"!!!

Michal's Grandma

Me & Michal's Mom

The Laskowski's

* I met a few others cousins in Michal's family and many other friends he grew up with and friends from church... I just don't have pictures of them.

Sites...

Here are my favorite pictures of Michal's city...

More to come about the rest of our trip in Europe... Including Berlin and Paris!