Leaving Poland
There is no beginning to me leaving the land of kielbasa's and piwo z sok ( something I regarded as being close to first grade devils arse water). My time in Poland was one of meeting new friends, learning new cultures and finding my place in this world which is so big yet so invariably tiny. The main thoughts that I have left with are mostly positive. Family life and friendship are of an upmost importance to the average Pole, stronger than most of which I ever experienced in my native Scotland. With this time of year you really do notice how strong it is, empathise is not only put on what you are going to buy your loved ones, but actually going out and making an effort to show your family that they are more important than what party you're going to on your weekend off. I really got the impression with the whole family being there that this was a time when love, care and devotion was shown to each other, not just opening presents, eating too much food and arguing about past mister meaners. Don't get me wrong, this happens all over the world, but this felt more about the family and less about the fat pedo bloke wearing a red suit who likes children to sit on his lap!
In Krakow I had made so many friends, mostly through teaching and working with some great people. A few from sitting at Nic Nowego's bar and chatting to random folk passing by, which was a great way of meeting interesting Poles and expats alike. Teaching in Poland brought a lot of fun into what would normally be quite a boring day of fucking about in front of the computer staring at facebook! God that site really annoys me now, as if it is the only way to find out what people are doing with their lives! Isn't it strange how living in a foreign country means you become addicted to the internet? No? Well must only be me then. Krakow is a great place to be if you like the social side of life. The key to getting the best out of it is to take everything as it comes. You will have days when you sit thinking I wish I wasn't working in fucking nowa huta at 7am in the morning and could go out for a pint. Well my friend, you just have to suck it up and get on with it. One of the biggest traps you can fall into in Krakow is being sucked into a life of nights on the bevvy getting sloshed, I tell every newbie that the only way to live in Poland is like the Poles, save your hard earned cash as much as you can. Going out every other night is fine if you have job you can turn up drunk to or you earn a huge amount of cash, but if you are just trying your best to settle into a new country then take your time. I know in the last few months I lived there, I totally disregarded this rule, and like all times when I dont listen to my own advice, I take this to the extreme. Which kinda reflected bad on me, but as I say we all live and learn.
One thing I loved about Poland was this need to go and do stuff with your free time. I learnt this quite late during my stay, in the beginning I was always happy just to sit in the flat or spend the weekends getting drunk at the local. Thankfully however I came to a feeling that I wanted to see and do more. In Scotland going for a weekend away costs a lot of money after you total up the hotels bills, travel expenses ect. But in Poland you could bugger off for the weekend to most citys and scenic parts of the country for a couple of hundred zloty's. Everything was so nearby and easily accessed that you didnt need to save up for trips ect. This is something I think has disappeared from British life. People are happy to have 1 holiday a year to some scummy part of the south Spanish seaside. They dont go out and try to look for more from life, they have become happy with a pattern that goes from work to weekends at the bar. The world is a huge place folk, move off your asses and go and see it, you only live once!
Poland can be proud of its education, or rather the attitude towards its education. It was a great honour being a teacher of a language that of which I am a native. But more over I felt proud that the people in this country were determined to get the best education possible. In the world of the UK this can be looked down upon as being negative, for example all the kids at my school who wanted to go to university were called names, teased, and looked at as if they were geeks. This is probably why I never went to Uni and dropped out of school before I got any decent grades. Luckily I have managed to get on in life, but many fellow students at my school never got out of the rut and are now living such crap lives. It was an absolute pleasure to see how many students were ambitious and driven to higher education.
Despite the positives I still have a few things that I noticed could be better, but the one thing that comes to mind is how much the country is under-achieving. I met lots of shop attendants who had bloody degrees. This of course leads to so many of Poland's brightest upping sticks and heading over-sea's. Its such a shame that a country that can produce so many gifted people loses most of its potential because of the lack of vision that the very people have for their own country. At the moment their is an older generation holding back the bright young stars of tomorrow from bringing the changes that will benefit the country into developing itself into a modern western state. First of all the should kill all the "babka's" working in government positions, those ladies should be put out to pasture, their time has come and gone, time for the new generation.
Ah Krakow, The memories will last with me forever. From my first day teaching; being thrown in a classroom and told to teach without any training what - so - ever (and I walked out 5 minutes into the lesson swearing never to teach again!). I dared live in notorious Nowa Huta for my first few months, which I loved, nothing better than chatting to the local football hooligans at 3am outside a 24hr alkohole kiosk. Falling in and out of love. Being told what a flea was by a friend who must have thought she found a new English word. Playing football on concrete parks too small for running on. BBQ's on the balcony. Drinking with good friends into the small hours of the morning only to wake up in kitche. Of course my Nic Nowego for wasting Sunday afternoons in. Discovering new places and meeting new friends. From nights in wrapped up in blankets watching Friends and little Britain cos its too cold to go outside, to arranging huge parties where passing out wont get you into trouble because your mates will drag you home, and most of all, the People of Poland. For which are truly wonderful :)
So now Im in Ireland, up north to be exact. Will this be my new adventure, or just gap before I move off to another place? I've got itchy feet already, maybe Poland, maybe South America? Who knows ;) Maybe next time, you can follow :)
