Moja blessing jest na patio.  This is a polish phrase that would have come in very handy on a beautiful, windy spring day, living in Warsaw, Poland!  Now let me explain: 

When my husband and I first moved to Warsaw, I wanted our home to be close to his work and NOT be surrounded by other expatriates.  I wanted to dive right into Polish culture, to really experience the city and not just be around other Americans or Brits, I wanted to try and learn some of the language etc.  Well, I got my wish.  We moved into a small 2 bedroom flat with almost everything I thought we needed.  The flat was furnished quite nicely with all the essentials, stove, furniture, beds, wardrobes and washing machine.  The only thing I thought was missing - a dryer.  We moved to Warsaw in December and into the flat in January.  How was I going to get all of our laundry dry? 

The flat had the old radiators for heating, so I would wash everything and hang it to dry above the radiators.  Needless to say, I did 1 load of laundry a day.  When Spring arrived, I was so happy, finally I could hang my clothes up outside.  We bought a "Polish dryer" (see picture below), so I could hang all of our undergarments & socks to dry in the sunshine.  I will admit, I LOVE the smell of clothes dried outside - lots of childhood memories.

One beautiful spring day, Memorial Day weekend, my brother came to visit.  I did a quick load of laundry in the morning and would leave it on our patio to dry during the afternoon, while we went sight seeing.  I had done this multiple times, wash in the morning, hang clothes outside to dry, go the the grocery store with no problems.  But on this particular day, the wind came up while we were gone and took my clothes!!  Upon our return, I noticed a few items in the garden area (we lived on the 5th floor).  When we got back to our flat, most of my laundry had disappeared, even a few "unmentionables"  - I could see our items had landed 2 floors down on someone else's patio- this would be embarrassing even if it happened in the USA, but at least I could speak the language.  Did you know that NO WHERE in ANY of my Polish Language phrase books was the phrase "Excuse me, but my underwear is on your patio....."  With this being a weekend, so many people were out of town, I worried that I wouldn't be able to claim my items and quite honestly, how was I going to explain my situation?? 

We decided to try and ask the security guard to help us, he spoke NO English, but he seemed to like me.  I took him outside, showed him my clothes that had landed in the garden and then with a lot of hand gestures, tried to explain what happened and where my clothing had gone.  After a few minutes, he seemed to understand, the two of us headed to the flat and knocked - no one home......great, now what.  Eventually, I figured out that he was telling me he would try again later.  So, later that evening, the couple that owned the flat returned home, we were able to retrieve my clothing and I'm sure they had a VERY GOOD Laugh at my expense!!  Lesson to learn:  Study, study, study the language!!!