Where have you been?

Here are a few more of the Christmas photos. This one is of my girlfriend's mother passing out the presents.


Here is her father inspecting one of his gifts.


Here is my girlfriend and her father inspecting our new microwave oven!


And finally one of my girlfriend modeling her new sheep pajamas and sunglasses. I want to thank my mother and my sister-in-law again for sending us such super gifts from America.

Again, OC_Photography would like to wish everyone a very Merry Holiday Season. In Poland, as in America, there is usually a single description of a 'traditional' Christmas but in practice every family does something a bit different. I have pieced together this 'traditional' Christmas from discussions with my students over the past month and it goes something like this. The Christmas season starts on December 6th with the celebration of "Mikołajki" or, roughly translated into English, Saint Nicolas Day or Santa Day. This is a celebration of Saint Nicolas' 'Name Day' in which he will bring people a small gift, usually a piece of chocolate placed under their pillow.

We move forward to the 24th which is unquestionably the most important portion of the three day Christmas celebration. During the day people are supposed to fast in preparation of the evenings celebration. Most people don't actually fast and many will simply go to work like normal. The fast is broken by taking Sacrament as a family just prior to the evening feast. "Wigilia", Polish for Christmas Eve, is spent with family and consists of the meal, openning presents, and usually ends with Midnight Mass in church. The meal, tradationally, should consist of twelve courses (for the twelve Apostles) and contain no beef, pork, or any fowl - it should only be fish. Its not just any fish either, but a special fish (and from the title of this post you know) - its carp. This is a bit strange especially because no one could really explain to me why carp and not, say, tuna. It is also common for no alcohol to be consumed during the Christmas Eve meal because it is bad form to show up to Midnight Mass drunk.

After the meal presents are passed out and opened just like in America. As I said stockings are not too common so these don't factor into the 'traditional' celebration. Finally, at midnight, people will attend church. This, as far as I can tell, is a common practice for Catholics everwhere.

On the 25th and 26th there are more or less more feasting with family. Drinking is common on the second and third day of Christmas with Vodka naturally being the drink of choice. It is not uncommon for people to stay home on the 26th and simply rest and not feast/drink. This day is less of the religious holiday and more about taking it easy and getting another day away from work.



We spent the the 24th and 25th at my girlfrfiend's parent's flat in Bemowo, an area of Warsaw. In the above two photos you can see everyone who was present for Christmas Eve. In the top photo you can see my girlfriend sitting on the left hand side surrounded by (from left to right) her grandfather (mother's father), cousin's husband holding their new baby girl, cousin, mother and father. In the lower picture I stand in for my girlfriend. If you look at the table you can see the bowls of carp in gelatin. Yummy...

OC_Photography wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We don't actually discriminate here so Happy Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule or whatever else you and your family celebrate. We will be enjoying a traditional Polish Christmas with my girlfriend's family. Over the next week I will post photos describing a few Polish holidays.


One question I have naturally been receiving is "What do the decorations in America/Poland look like?" Actually they are pretty similar. Christmas trees, mistletoe, wreathes, stars, crosses, angeles, etc. One difference is the American use of stockings, Poles don't, as a general rule, do stockings. There are not too many individual homes in Warsaw, mostly large blocks of apartments, so lights on houses are not too common either. We have in-door lights, paper snowflakes, and a little Christmas tree in our flat. Here are some photos of my girlfriend and Kobra decorating our tree.


The translation of the Polish version of "to decorate the Christmas tree" is "to dress the Christmas tree". That sort of implies that the tree was naked before you put on the decorations!


Kobra was pretty intersted in the tree and the blubs. I think this was his first Christmas with a family so he was pretty excited about the strange things going on. He is a pretty well behaved cat so we only needed to yell at him three or four times to leave the tree alone.

When the tree was first decorated he was super intersted. "It smells nice, taste nice, and if you hit the red things they swing," he said. "Is this a new toy for me?"

See if you can keep up with me on this post. Anyone ever seen the David Lynch movie 'Blue Velvet'? Fantastic. Especially the line where Dinnis Hopper's character says: "'Heineken'? Fuck that shit. Pabst, Blue Ribbon!" I saw the movie in college while I was a big Blue Ribbon drinker so it was especially funny to me.


Man, I hate the smell of cigarrette smoke. And kissing a woman who smokes reminds me of licking an ashtray like this one. Sexy huh...


Like many beautiful place where mankind goes the California desert is full of trash. Why is it so hard for people to pick-up after themselves? An extreme example happens twice a week in the little village where I live. There is a 'farmers market' down one of the main village streets and afterwards the street looks as if a plastic bag/cardboard box delivery truck has exploded. I can't understand how people could be so irresponsible. It is even more unbelievable that the city authorities allow it to happen - if they can't pick-up after themselves then they shouldn't be allowed to have the market.


While speaking of trash it is difficult not to think of President George Walker Bush. What a cunt. How could anyone so thoroughly screw up all the good will America had shortly after the September 11th attacks? He even pissed off our own Intelligence community who now release reports just to make him look the fool. Well done ace. I wore out my International Terrorist shirt but if someone wants to send me one for Christmas its still not too late. ;)

This photo really reminds me of the desert. A gas can, some WD-40, and a beer. I can almost smell the burning oil from the two-cycle motorcycles. I got my camera pretty late in the game and only have a few pictures of motorcycle riding (actually just the broken motorcycles) so this picture has come to represent that feeling for me.

Landers is an interesting place. There is nothing in the way of industry or jobs and many of the people who live out there are basically the fringe of society. Take my friend for example. He is not really [insert your adjective of choice] but just doesn't fit into the 9 to 5 rat race mold. He is more comfortable racing across the desert in his dune buggy at, say, 4AM on a Monday morning than he is sitting in some office working on at a computer. And he is not alone. Another guy I know who lives out there never even tried the office thing. He worked in construction in LA but then moved to Landers to get away from all the people. Now he takes odd jobs and does his best to support his semi-crazy wife and their child.


Another story I heard was about all the drug abuse that goes on out there. My friend told me he has seen several people walking down his street talking to themselves. In the city this would be no big thing - the person probably has a hands free headset for his phone. But in Landers, where the houses are miles apart and the heat can be unbearable, its strange. Picture some unshaven guy with long scraggly hair and dirty jeans shuffling down a dirt road in the middle of the desert mumbling to himself. Sure, maybe his car is out of gas and he IS talking on his mobile. But chances are just as good that he is tweaking and has no idea where he is or where he's going. But in the desert it doesn't matter...

Here are a few photos of my friends house. Outside he has a bird bath while inside there is an old fashion stove for heating.

The San Gorgonio Pass is home to the thrid largest wind farm in California. Where the hell is the San Goronio Pass you ask? Well, its directly between LA and the deserts I have been talking about so every time I drive out there I pass through the fields of over 2500 wind turbines. Its near Palm Springs which I know some of you European types have been to. This picture was taken near the Landers end of the fields.

I don't actually know much technical informtion about the farms so instead I will direct you to a website about them, an Encyclopedia of Earth article. The Encyclopedia sounds like some hippy, tree-hugger type organization and, based on what I have seen, it is. Forget that, my motto is "Fuck the environment, I don't plan on living forever anyway..."

Here are a few typical desert landscapes. They are both taken in the Landers area which is near Joshua Tree National Park. I took these while visiting my friend who has a home out there. The left photo shows a cactus (sorry, I couldn't figure out what type) while the second photo is a reflection of his yard in the window glass. The photo is similar to the one below but looking in the other direction!

Throughout my childhood I spent many vacations in the California deserts. From the Colorado River in the East, Glamis Sand Dunes in the South, Dumont Dunes in the North, and Joshua Tree National Park/Palm Springs in the West I have seen much of the area. I have been there in the summer when the temperatures have reached 125 F (52 C) and all you can do is sit in the cool water trying not to boil as well as in the winter when the air is chrisp but cool. Some fun desert activities include water sking, wake boarding, floating down the river, swimming, drinking, riding motorcycles, and hiking - there is always plenty to do in the desert. For people in Southern California its really no big deal, just the desert. For Europeans, however, it can be quite an intersting experience going through a region with such strange landscape that is much different from anything in Europe. Okay, sure, Poland has Błędów but does it look like this?

Bosco! This boat was fantastic. Another friend from work was intersted in getting into sailing so he thought he would buy an inexpensive boat and give it a go. The boat he selected was Bosco. It wasn't very fast nor was it very beautiful but he had a blast racing it none the less. I remember during one of the Beer Can Races he got the jump on the rest of the fleet by pulling off some super right-of-way maneuver (I don't remember the name). The result was that the rest of the fleet had to hold at the starting line as he raced past everyone pulling into an early lead. Unfortunately Bosco was out gunned and didn't end up winning but the maneuver was the talk of the banquet that night!

Here are a few shots of Boscos' owner getting a few last minute instructions prior to the Queen Mary Regatta. We ran the spinnaker and he was the man in charge. It is a bit complicated but he managed without a problem.



He also took over at the helm for part of the trip as well. All in all sailing was a great experience and I hope I get the opportunity to do it again. Maybe someday I can actually own my own boat but it sounded like it was fairly expensive, especially the slip rental costs, so maybe not. But if any of my old sailing buddies are reading this my girlfriend and I will be back in SoCal next March/April and if you guys were going out sailing...

There are a few intersting things about this photo. First off it is "stiched" together from several photos and I am getting better at doing it! I dare you to find where the seams are. ;)

Second, notice the smog/haze in the background? Downtown Los Angeles, where the haze is the worst, is in the direction of the Vincent Thomas Bridge (see the support tower?). If you look in the background towards the right hand side of the photo you can sort of see the mountains in the distance. But as you move left, towards downtown and all the pollution, the mountains disappear. Nice.

Finally, I should point out that in this area there are both the Port of Long Beach AND Los Angeles. Not just Long Beach as I may have implied before.

The techs at Blogger.com were on top of the problem and have things almost sorted out. After a minor HTML change the photo links now work properly. Blogger.com assures users they will have the problem fixed completely ASAP. You gotta love good service.


We wind down our Queen Mary Regatta photos with a few panoramas of down town Long Beach. Several years back the city invested lots of money to renew this area and the effort was worth it. Along with the renovated beachs there are also large pedestrian areas with bars, restaurants, and shops. If you visit LA it is definately worth the short trip south to see Long Beach.