Tag Archives: life in Poland
Intonation and Meaning…
I went to a monthly outdoor fleamarket today. There was a musician busking at the entrance (playing the trumpet over taped backing). I usually toss a couple of zloties to whoever’s busking. As I did so he stopped playing a … Continue reading
More Holidays than Strictly Necessary…
A total of four and a half days of my classes are cancelled at my institution between Maundy Thursday and May 10 (aka Sports Day*) and three more days (that I don’t have classes on) get the chop as well. … Continue reading
Poland’s Missing Other
This has me thinking a bit more about the Other. Of course all people’s have multiple others that exist at different levels of abstraction. When I said that Poland’s Others are Russia and Germany (usually in that order though sometimes … Continue reading
Liking Food I Don’t Like
One of the odder meals in Poland comes from the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays. Along with the boiled or mashed potatoes there are a couple of hard boiled eggs. Then a sauce flavored with a lot … Continue reading
What if they had an International Women’s Day and Nobody Cared?
Yesterday was International Women’s Day…. In the communist period it was an compulsory big deal in Poland but after escaping the Soviet sphere it pretty rapidly lost relevance. People thought of it mostly as a Soviet imposition and while it’s … Continue reading
My Life as an Illegal Alien, pt 1
Twice in my long stay in Poland my residence was not….. entirely….. legal. The first time was in the early 1990’s. It was my third visit and first after the entry visa requirement for Americans had been lifted and I … Continue reading
Unsafe at Polish Speeds
One of the weirder things about Poland is that many (or maybe most) people have little sense about just how dangerous driving (and by extension other forms of travel) can be. Also, many (or maybe most) people have no realistic … Continue reading
