Poland on Google Street View

I have been waiting for this for some time now-Poland on Google Street View.  Google started photographing all over several major cities in Poland for the past few months to have the Street View feature available on Google Maps in time for the Euro 2012.


Check out Maps.Google.pl


Also, Google Mapa Polska


And an article on thenews.pl about Poland on Google Street View


Try typing in an address in one of the four cities featured:  Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan and Wroclaw.  Let me know what you think!

Happy "walking"!  I plan on "walking" around Wroclaw first with the children, retracing our last trip there and checking out other areas I've gone that the children have not yet had a chance to see.  Hopefully, this will become yet another tool for me to inspire my kids to feel like Poland is also their home.

Na razie...



Edit:  It looks as though you can walk around Lodz as well.


Disclaimer:  I am not compensated to share this information, I just found it interesting and worth sharing with you



Related Posts:

Teaching Children About Poland (an interactive website from the government of Poland)

A History Book About Poland, pre World War I

My Older Daughter's First Trip to Poland

Wordless Wednesday: An Autumn Day Stroll

We went for a walk in Old School Forest Preserve...

I wonder what Poland looks like right now. 

Na razie...

Wordless Wednesday: Adam & Eve and My Daughter

Picking up my daughter from Catholic school a couple of days ago, I looked in her folder and was ready to compliment her on her artwork when another parent saw this:

 

He is a new parent to the school and frankly not my type of person.  He looked at the picture, said in a slightly hushed voice to me, "Adam and Eve were black?"  He grimaced a bit like it was something a bit odd, glanced at my daughters kindergarten teacher and walked away.

His tone and expression told me he thought one of the following:  "What are they teaching kids here?!", "Adam and Eve were white, not black!", or "Your daughter is weird".

I waited until we got home.  My two daughters had overheard him and seen his expression and I did not want some random person having more influence over my daughters view of life than I do.

I opened the folder at home and beamed at all her work.  Everything had a smile stamp or this "very Nice!" sticker on it and was done perfectly.  I complimented her on each piece and she smiled proudly.

I held this art in my hands last.  I asked her, "Sweetie, I love the way you colored in the lines and used your crayons to really make this picture look realistic.  Can I ask you a question?"

She nodded.  "Sure, Mamo."

"Why did you color in Adam and Ewa (Eve in Polish) black?  It's not wrong, I'm just curious."

She glanced at it, shrugged and said, "That's the skin color crayon that I found."

I nodded and said, "And you coloring in their skin color as black is perfectly fine because...." and I trailed off so that she could finish the thought in her words.

She looked at me with a smile, "Because some people are black!"

I hugged her.  I told her, "That's right.  Some people are black, some people are red, yellow, white.  We are all different, aren't we?"  She nodded and told me about a song they were learning in school that celebrated this and talked about different skin colors.  Jesus Loves the Little Children*.

I had another thought.  She may be in Catholic school and I may want her to find comfort in believing in God if she chooses to, but I wasn't going to take history, fact, and genetics and human evolution and science away from her or her sister. 

"You know, nobody from the time of Adam and Ewa is still alive.  We have no idea what color they were."

"So, they could have been black?" my daughter asked.

I nodded, "They could have been any color for all we know."

She started playing with the Smurf doll her little sister handed her.

I patted her back, hung this on the refrigerator, and told her, "This is your artwork, you can make it any way you want to."

Because it is her art work.  Not that man's. 

She sees that the world is full of different people and that none of us is better than another based on appearance.  I want her to know that.



*Lyrics to Jesus Loves the Little Children

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.




Na razie...

I Sense Spring

Winter has always dragged me down. 

I change.

I change from an optimist who smiles at everyone constantly (it's rather contagious, I have to say) to becoming grumpy and suffering from cabin fever.  Even the kids notice it and I try to explain to them that Mama prays a lot during Winter and why.

This year was harder because last winter, I was living on the East Coast and suffering through a freak blizzard last winter.

We moved to the Midwest and are living on the flat Prairie with no respite from the wind and an unceasingly bitter cold which I had never really suffered through before. 

And it felt like it would never end.

I literally began to feel like I was living in some sort of frozen tundra Hell.

And I wasn't really alone in my suffering.  People I interacted with were also becoming more snappish and short tempered.  Of course, that in no way encouraged any sort of comraderie with others.

Until...

A couple of weeks ago, we had almost 60 degree weather and it was heaven sent.  Since then, it has been cold but I will take an average of 30's and 40's over just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit any day.

I have been desperately keeping my eye open for signs of Spring. 

Birds have been singing in the Dawn lately.

We have been going on walks more lately.  I am used to hikes.  There is a huge difference.  Hikes leave me feeling as though I exercised and conquered something, even if it is a small rocky hill.  There are no hills here. 

So, instead we go on a walk.  Still, I relish the walks because they are walks through Spring.

I saw a little fly come in through the front door and land on my hand...

At a local meadow which was originally a pond, mating pairs of ducks and geese were eating nonstop what I believe was algae...

At a local park, I found green moss growing...

I saw what looked like pussy willow leaf buds to me and tried to take a picture but the squealing wiggling excited toddler in the baby carrier wouldn't allow me to focus the camera properly.  I think she could sense the Spring and the moisture in the air as well...

We combed a local beach for interesting rocks and found fossils since the temperature was finally bearable...

We even found a "seeing stone".  Do you see any fairies in it?  My older daughter walks around with it looking for the fairy folk all the time now.  I think it's time to look for old Polish stories about ghosts and spirits...

When I step outside, I smell earth and grass outside, a sure sign of Life. 

I am only wearing my East Coast winter coat unzipped instead of my knee length down insulated coat with 5 layers underneath. 

When I step outside and feel all this, I look up to Heaven and just smile.  I'm sure He knows why I am smiling.  Finally...

Between all this and Paczki Day yesterday, I know it's Spring and that God was hearing my desperate prayers for an end to this long miserable lonely Winter.  I hope you can feel it as well!

Na razie...

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Amidst Preparations for Wigilia and Christmas...

The last few days have been filled with cleaning, baking, and cooking.  Mostly baking cookies (it seems as fast as I am baking them, half keep dissappearing right after my husband enters the room, hmmm). 

Thankfully, my husband went to the local Polish store a couple of days ago to buy premade Polish foods we can eat while I am baking all these cookies.

Todays lunch... Meatballs in Polish Dill Sauce...

alongside Ruskie Pierogi (Pierogi filled with Potatoes and Cheese) which I fried in butter...

Yummm...  Now, on to finishing my older daughter's Christmas wish list (my younger child will be happy with a box and wrapping paper still at this age).  Where do you find the goose that lays gold eggs, a live purple cat, and a Polish Princess crown?  Wish me luck!