National day in another nation

Our first visit to Nowy Kleparz (New Market) was entertaining for all involved, particularly the proprieters of the small produce stall at which we spent roughly half the GDP of Borneo. It's been over a year since I've been in the position to regularly speak Polish, and so asking for vegetables and fruits whose names I couldn't remember involved much charades, clumsy approximations (watermelon as "the big, green, round thing behind the cabbage"), and audience participation. Laura, Jen, and I explained that we were shopping for a party, but the male proprieter insisted we were simply having Polish class :). We have plans to return to the market often.

The Wroblewskiego Triumverate (that would be Laura, Jen, and me, as opposed to the four Girls in Kasimierz, the other half of the group) hosted a Fourth of July party for the program, and it went better than any of us could have hoped. I had felt torn about celebrating the US's "national day", as Europeans understand it, in another country, but I went with the assumption that groups of travellers are allowed to celebrate national holidays together as long as they aren't obnoxious about it. Besides, the process of buying all of the food, attempting to make hamburgers (and berry shortcake, and sangria, and crudite, and...) with the options and limitations found in a foreign country was an educational experience in itself. I think I can safely say a fun time was had by all.