Earn Your Bread

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the home of one of the rowers I live with. I was excited because his family has a house outside of the city and they live in a very rural area. It's somewhat hard to say exactly where he lives, because when I asked him the name of the village, he sort of paused and said "Well, I guess we are in the area that falls under Wyrza . . . oh and that stream right there is called the Orla, so I guess we are in Wyrza nad Orla." To give you a better idea of the isolation of this place, we drove out of Bydgoszcz some 40 minutes and then while we were driving down the highway, we suddenly turned off onto a dirt road that just went straight off into the distance not towards anything in sight. But after about 20 more minutes, we came to his house, which stood by itself on a large expanse of land, next to a stream and a pond behind.

We came at night so I didn't have a great chance to explore everything, nor did I the next day. We both woke up early and went to help his dad who builds houses. We drove out to the site and I spent the day lifting building materials and handing them to the contractor. Highlights of the day were definitely the two coffee breaks and coming home where my friend's mother had made us a huge spread of food which the three of us very quickly consumed. Oh and of course for the job my friend's dad gave me some sweet construction work clothes: I got to rock a sweet pair of overalls. But mostly I enjoyed the day because I got to be outside. Part of the reason I came to Poland is because I wanted to experience cold weather, and although it will be getting colder, it was just above freezing that day and despite that, I stayed warm. Of course, stopping for those coffee breaks did help to warm me up!

The next day didn't offer me much rest either: my friend's older sister raises and trains horses, and my visit happened to be during the time of the week where the stables are cleaned. Or shall I say, when I got to clean the stables. Despite the hard work and awful smell, it was a great experience. Following the cleaning, I got to completely brush and clean one of the horses, and it was great being that close to the animal. I even got to saddle up and do a little riding. And of course, Polish hospitality was again served in the form of a great spread that night for dinner.

The weekend I spent in Wyrza nad Orla was one of the best I have had here in Poland. I got to do a little work and see the beautiful country-side. The trees and landscape were beautiful, and I really enjoyed seeing the horses and being able to go up and be close to them. The trees here are really beautiful, and most of the trees were turning color, if not already shedding their leaves. I am really enjoying watching the weather as it changes from one season to the next.