The work-week tends to go by quickly and now most traveling takes place from Friday to Sunday, either for a few hours or sometimes overnight. Monday-Friday I just do daily activities (going online for various Internet surfing - email or blog reading or looking at articles, tweets, or Facebook - or reading whatever book I am on now - in this case, about to begin Snow White and Russian Red by Dorota Maslowska after enjoying The Help by Kathryn Stockett - or doing yoga and whatever else may come up), which sometimes includes working on lessons in Hurra!!! Po Polsku 2. In other Polish education news, I am also considering going to an adult enrichment world language class for Polish when I return to school for the fall (I assume it will be weekly on Monday evenings for a couple of hours over about six to eight weeks; I will have to drive away from campus to attend classes at a high school since this is community - not school - related). I feel that working on my Polish in these ways, plus doing work one-on-one with family or watching Polish programming online or on TV, will help me continue to work on the language now that I am not nearly as immersed as I once was only a few months ago.
Furthermore, connections to Poland are also tangible when my family does come upon a Polish good store somewhere here in the US, where we buy up and goodies we find. We've had some hours-long trips (Renaissance Fair, going to nearby lakes and flea markets, visiting nearby cities such as Rochester or Ithaca) that sometimes allow for bits of Polska: seeing a Polish food stand (or item) at a market or fair, stopping by a Polish deli for magazines, meat, and surowki.
This weekend, I went back to Albany for the first time in about a year or two. There was some seeing of familiar places (Wolf Road area, Crossgates Mall for the newest/final Harry Potter film in IMAX 3D, Colonie Center Mall, Central Ave, UAlbany area, etc.) and visiting Cooperstown (National Baseball Hall of Fame, some of town, a cider mill [http://flycreekcidermill.com/], and the Ommegang Brewery [http://www.ommegang.com/]) after stopping in Sharon Springs to see Beekman 1802 mansion/grounds and the Beekman Boys' mercantile in town (http://beekman1802.com/). Staying for more than a day meant eating out (seafood, diners, and Thai) and enjoying hotel amenities (fitness room and pool mostly since the Pay-Per-View had issues). There was a planned trip to stop at a Polish deli near Albany, but it was unfortunately closed for a few days when we had wanted to stop by (it was supposed to be open on Sundays and, for some reason, was not).
Coming up trips include seeing a Yankees game (maybe stopping by some Polish areas of NYC, such as Greenpoint in Brooklyn, or in the Poconos area at a Polish store [http://www.annapolishdeli.com/] before spending some time in the Scranton area), going to Vestal for a Spiedie Fest & Balloon Rally, maybe finally making it on the Tioga Central train [http://www.tiogacentral.com/], possibly going to New Jersey (Clifton and/or Atlantic City), and trying to make it to NYC for a few hours to see about begin the process of my dual citizenship with Poland at the consulate.
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