After giving in on Monday night and finishing the bread and ham sandwich, and consequently feeling slightly "icky" for having eaten a tad too much butter (which is already 100% more than the 0% of butter I usually eat) I am determined to find a better easy-food alternative. At least I had the will-power to reserve the jug-sized (I exaggerate, sort of) yogurt for breakfast. (By the way, mom, on the yogurt container zbóż means grain; and the butter was supposed to be lower in fat, I think...) However, I've lost some weight already and my clothes don't really fit (those of you who have traveled with me on the "Lara travel diet" will understand), so I could stand to have a tad bit of unhealthy-ness in my meals right now.

Good thing is, though, I had pretty much planned things that way in terms of first-few-days-purchases. Walking around the mega-super-duper-big grocery store without a strong bag to hold the heavies, I planned to buy only enough for that night. Only I had assumed there was a pot that accompanied the stove in my room. That's where the glitch went off. And I was too shy to go right back out to buy a pot, as I am not used to giving back my key in exchange for my passport every time I leave the building.

I went back to the giant super market on Tuesday afternoon after my meetings (think of two Super Targets, stacked on top of each other) to fit out the room. So I bought myself a pot, there. Another old lady starting talking to me after trying to persuade her friend to buy my same one, that it'd be so great for eggs etc. not to stick to the pot when cooking! She was adorable, really, and helpful whether she knew it or not. It was super cheap, but for 7 weeks it'll do. I also got a sharp knife, a discount giant fluffy towel, dish towel (with a pattern I hope my mom likes, if she wants to keep it, despite that it is the cheapest possible thing), hangers, and some clothes pins. I had to get a little creative to hang my skirts on a hanger using the clothespins. I also grabbed some food, but stuff was getting heavy.


I made these uszka (tiny dumplings, basically ravioli with mushrooms and cabbage, which I bought on Monday not realizing I didn't have a pot to cook with). They were good, for a bit, but about half way through I got sick of it and couldn't finish. I later tried to make it all better with a yogurt with chocolate bits in it, and an apple naleśnik (basically a crepe, or blini), and both were really tasty and satisfying.

Uszka with śmietana (sour cream)

It's tough not having an oven, because the frozen meals are off limits. So it's going to be stuff you can boil and fry (as in cooking cutlets using a pot?, not Southern-chicken style fried... I learned my butter lesson), and fruits, veggies, yogurt, etc. Which I guess will force me to eat pretty healthy. I am a little skeptical of the milk I bought. I got the lowest percentage I could find, but it's still 3.2%. I certainly wasn't about to get the 18% milk. What does that even mean!? Is it more like cream?

As a side note, I bought the "gypsy ham." I have no idea what that means, but many of you know my tendency to gravitate towards "gypsy" related matters.