SS Check

We got our bank statement today. I was surprised to see my SS check was already in it. They said I wouldn't recieve my first check until the 4th week of July, the same time for Joan's, but I already have one for June. A nice surprise!!

Tomorrow we go back to Citibank because I learned we can have our Polish Citibank account set up here before we even get there. That will be helpful because then we can wire transfer our retirement savings to Poland for $40 and it will be there when we arrive next Friday, August 3rd.

For anyone who is thinking about moving to Poland I would suggest that you start planning at least a year ahead of time. There are a large amount of things you must have completed before you make this adventure. It will take time to acquire the documents you need. It's not just the paperwork but what to take with you and what to leave behind and how to dispose of the stuff left behind. For the last two months we have been selling and giving away the "leave behinds" and now we are down to a bed, 1 recliner, computer system. TV and antique French Desk.

Yesterday we gave away the remaining dishes, pots, pans, glasses, nightstands, table lamps and pictures to Joan's son, Joey. We're going to be building a new life in Poland of furniture, dishes, etc and that will be quite a new experieince. When we've moved in the past from one place to another we just transfered our belongings from one place to another, but this is totally different.

Here's Joan, with the family tree taken off the walls and mailed to Poland. It's a little different now sitting in the apartment, with no pictures on the walls, everything packed and shipped and knowing that in only 10 days we will be in Poland, land of my ancestors. Not as visitors this time, like before, but like my great grandfather Józef Kazmierczak when he came to America to start a completely new life. We exchange countries for different reasons. I think he came to America with his sons so they would not be forced to serve 25 years in the Russian Army, the country that occupied his part of Poland at the time and I go to Poland to know my family there, to live an easier life, if that is possible with the all the changes in Poland now. For me, I have the added comfort of a wife who is in total agreement with this idea and comes with me. For my great grandfather, his wife remained in Poland because he died before she could come to America and it is because of this that I have such a large family in Poland now. Of course, I never knew these ancestors but standing at the grave of my great grandmother Ludwika in Golina, I felt the connection.