I could say that I decided to be good and not get my MilkyWay Midnight which I get only when I go to the grocery store. 
I was hesitant to try green tea. I was happy with my black tea. But green tea has more antioxidants.A recent study has shown that women who drink four or more cups of Green Tea per day are up to 80% less likely to get cancer. 80% is a massive number! As far as I know there is nothing else that can reduce your chance of getting cancer more aside from quitting smoking. With such powerful statistics we would be crazy not to increase our tea intake.
The main antioxidant polyphenol in green tea, known as Epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG, stimulates the body to help burn calories. Dr. Weil recommends drinking a few cups of quality green tea every day.
Meanwhile, I missed listening to music in the bathroom. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and but the cheaper alternatives were either clunky or just plain fugly.
Today is the first day of spring break. It looks like it is going to be one expensive week and we are staying home.
Two weeks and his new shoes are breaking. And it's all his fault. Andy likes the sound his shoe makes when he drags the toe. Eventually the side cracks and as he continues, the sole breaks. This photo is from the first pair he broke years ago. He would get in trouble then be OK for the next pair or so. Then he would do it again. Even after wearing sneakers all winter, he hasn't figured out that he shouldn't do that. Two weeks is the quickest he has ever managed to break a pair.
I will not buy him birkenstocks anymore. Besides the cost, they take too long to ship from Germany. So we looked online and he chose a pair from Lands' End. These are Trekker Slides and I like that the toe is protected. And we did luck out a bit as Lands' End had free shipping. (They seem to have it a lot lately.)Nopp is from Thailand and she had been visiting her family before the trip. She flew from Bangkok to Poland. She said the flight was so full that some people actually stood for the entire flight! I guess flight regulations don't apply to eastern block countries.
Nopp brought a suitcase full of toilet paper. Bless her! She gave a roll to Teré and one to Lori and said that was all that they get. The rest was for us. Yay!
The Polish students had arranged for us to take meals in the school cafeteria. Our first meal was Fat Tuesday. We walked into a large nondescript building and then past the bathrooms. Oh god! What the hell? Was this an outhouse? Oh the smell! We quickly walked upstairs and thankfully the smell did not follow us.
The meal wasn't bad. Typical Polish fair, pork, potatoes and over-steamed vegetables. I think their was even some dessert. We figured this would be OK.
You know what comes next, don't you? Ash Wednesday. I got up early and went walking to go to church. The Church of the Black Madonna happened to be pretty close. I walked in to the dark church to find mass already taking place. In fact, mass just continued from one hour to the next. I hung out in back because I'm shy.
The floor was covered in straw. Huh? Well, it wasn't completely covered but mostly in the aisles. I guess it was cheaper than floor mats. The place was pretty crowded and there were not enough pews. Many people were standing. When it came time to kneel (I always felt that mass should be called Catholic aerobics; stand up sit down, stand up, kneel...) people knelt on those dirty floors! Um, no thanks. Call me sinner. I got my ashes and left.
Do you know that on Ash Wednesday, good Catholics are supposed to fast. Now, Catholic fasting is not the really fasting. It means no snacks, and two small meals that together do not equal the third. OK, not a problem since we still hadn't figured out breakfast yet. We all went to the cafeteria for lunch. Oh no. Cabbage soup and the driest bread known to man. That was it.
We found that the hotels had good food and pretty cheap for us. We went there for dinner. There was one hotel we favored over the rest, The Forum. They had a cheap side and an expensive side. The meals were similar but the cost was double in the expensive side. On the cheap side, there were only waitresses. On the expensive side were waiters. We learned to ask for ice for our cokes. When we first arrived, our salads were cole-slaw. As the weather got warmer, we started getting iceberg lettuce. We never tried the beefsteak tartar.
Realizing that Ash Wednesday would be lacking in food. We went back to the cafeteria on Thursday. Walking past the sess-pool and up the stairs, we realized that was Fat Tuesday was a celebration in good food. What we got that day was one step about Ash Wednesday. This wasn't going to work. After trying to eat another scary, unfulfilling meal, we would have to walk past the raw sewage smell and hope that our meager lunch stayed in our stomachs. We went to talk to the Polish students.
The Tent by Margaret Atwood