September 1, 2021

Paul Errickson

As we enter our 2nd month in Warsaw, I want to share a quick post about things I am learning in our neighborhood. We live in a district of Warsaw called Sadyba, one where there are quaint parks, a lot of townhouses and homes, a mall, and a fort built in the 19th century, when the city was part of the Russian Empire. The fort is now a park and a war museum, and the moat that surrounds it gives us a water way to walk near to see birds and cattails and other greenery.

As I explore our neighborhood on my early morning walks with Chase (part of our anti-bark/happy-neighbor plan), I have become intrigued by the houses, variety of cars, and other dog walkers. Early on, I noticed that all of our neighbors with the same last name: “Listy.” At first, I figured there must be a few of them in the neighborhood as I saw their names posted on their mailboxes - that alone seemed kind of fancy to me. But then I discovered a few more - how popular of a name is Listy, anyway?

Come to find out, after a quick Google-translate search, we either have a lot of folks near us with the surname of “Letter” over here in Poland. ;)

One other thing that I noticed on my walks with Chase were pockmarks on a few of the houses near the fort. Apparently left over from some of the fighting that occurred here in the ‘40s during WWII, the marks are left as reminders of what has occurred here in the past. There are pictures and kiosks of this area showing the fort and the homes built to house the soldiers and their families.

Our home, built after the war during the communist era, has been in our owners' family since it was built, passing down from her grandparents, to her parents, and (loaned) to us. We feel fortunate for the apple tree in the backyard and the renovated kitchen (compete with an “American” (aka larger than normal) refrigerator).

Future blog post on the street - https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Fu%C4%8D%C3%ADk_(dziennikarz)

If you’re looking for our address to send along a listy, you will find us either at home in Sadyba:

The Erricksons

Fucika Juliusa 17 (ul)

02-928 Warsaw

Or at school (for things larger than letters/postcards):

The Erricksons

℅ The American School of Warsaw

Bielawa, ul. Warszawska 202

05-520 Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland