wonderful poland

hello friends,
so much has happened here in krakow i can't even begin. we spent our first few days at a christian retreat place to get a little rest and work on dramas and do some painting and grunt work. it was incredibly green and beautiful, like all of poland that i've seen. there was a weekend seminar type thing going on with many polish christians so we got to eat meals with them and interact a little between their classes etc. it is a little awkward because my polish is next to none and i'm a little shy about talking to people but there are a few on the team who are ice breakers and fearless in initiating conversation so one meal i began talking to a man named marek and we discovered that we both speak german so he warmed up to me and we talked and talked then we had an evening service, which was great to sing american/australian (krysty-wink/wink) worship songs in both polish and english. God's presence was thick that night and it was a lovely service. so i wanted to talk more to marek and his wife kristina so i got to after the service. we spoke in german and scott joined us so he spoke, um, german too:) no but it was incredibly wonderful to talk to them. they told us their stories and how they came to Christ and we shared ours and there was just such a warm, well, gemuetlichkeit, as they say in german, between us.
i have met so many warm, wonderful people. christians mostly, but my favorite part by far has not been christians that we met. we went out our first night in krakow to see what there was to see and we walked by a few young people who had a dog. scott nudged me and told me to ask the dog his name in polish. i was like "no." and one of they guys said in english, "his name's ______." i forget the name now but it's a cartoon hero's name he told us later. so we began chatting and it turns out one guy, arthur is interested in native americans so we started talking and we all were chatting so they said "we want to watch a boxing match, do you want to come to our flat?" so we went with them and listened to records and drank tea and talked until 2 in the morning. i wanted to stay longer. i think most of us did but we had church in the morning as it was. they had invited us to a bonfire tomorrow night so i'm hoping that will come to pass. it was absolutely wonderful. they all spoke good english, but somehow in passing someone told this guy, sebastian, that i spoke german and i began speaking to him and his eyes widened and warmed incredibly to me. i saw it in his eyes. he had lived a year in germany and was excited to speak it. i was excited too. we tried to meet up with them last night at a cheesy polish rock concert of a band called vu vu, but couldn't find them amongst the thousand or so people swooning to these buttrockers. it's amazing that europe is so far ahead in fashion and so many things, but in music they just seem to be stuck in the 80s or something.
we got lost yesterday after church. scott and kim and i went separately to a church and the rest of the group went to another church. i spoke russian/polish to an old man but couldn't get what he was saying so i tried english to a young man but in his frustration he asked "ach, sprichst du deutsch?" so my german is proving very useful here. this morning, too, in the cafeteria, i talked to the waitress bc she had a question about our paying. curtis just told me they got a golden mastiff named Maximus Aurelius Xerxes (the greatest golden ruler) M.A.X. quite a name, i'd say. man how long can i go on this blog? oh well. we had an outreach in the park today. scott sang and we did a drama and testimony then we met w two students from an english class tonight for icecream. things here have been great. i really, really like krakow a lot. the people are wonderful. i don't know what else to say. i'll appreciate your prayers and i love you all