Life / Polish Youth - are they violent? [71]

Of course I don't want to sterotype, but I noticed a lot of Young males walking around Warsaw with this hilarious macho air, their arms spread apart and everything as if they were super buff (they are often pathetically skinny.) A lot of young males here just look agressive too but it always looks like they are trying a bit too hard. Are many of these guys hooligans? Sometimes they taunt me (I'm black as my avatar shows) and I know that one day I'm gonna snap, I'm mostly afraid of getting in trouble with the police, and/or turning some stupid gang of hooligans against me, and the problem with losers like that is that they usually need weapons so I definitely don't want to get stabbed. Another thing is that almost every day I notice blood on the street, though I can't tell if its young people fighting, or drunk old bums.

Experiences anyone? What do you Poles have to say about that, and what is like like on school playgrounds in Poland?

History / Why has Poland been attacked so often by its neighbors? [180]

Looking around the Warsaw Centrum, one can easily imagine being in any of the big European cities. Fancy cars drive all around you, young trendy hipsters prance up and down the sidewalk just like they do in New York, Paris, etc. (Some of them don't prance, they just strut in that "I'm to sexy for my country" way. Just like all the other stuck-up hipsters of the Western world.)

There are huge shopping malls, tons of restaurants, an efficient transportation system (depending who you ask,) and as an English teacher, I've seen many spiffy flats in various parts of Poland (then again I make a point to aim for the rich clients.)

While it surely has its own kinks and eccentricities, (like the single subway line, or the sprawling senior population, or the popularity of cats, or the...) It's just like any other major city I've been to.

An ignorant foreigner like me for example, would have no clue that but only a few decades ago, within the lifetime of many of its citizens, Warsaw was wrecked through and through, sandwiched as it was between two demented tyrants, Hitler and Stalin, who both made it a personal matter to see Poland destroyed; the result was that Warsaw took quite a beating.

In fact, one would be surprised to learn that Poland's history is an extraordinary tale of survival against the assholish warmongering of Various Russian and German empires. In the same period when Warsaw was levelled during WWII, Poland had much of its intelligentsia shot dead almost one by one at Katyn, by soviet zombies who used to be men. Furthermore, Poland was the victim of ethnic cleansing, 3million of its Jews, 3 million of its non Jews. That was a shock for me to learn. As an American who has to bear Jewish whining about the Holocaust, I just though the Holocaust was when Hitler killed 6 million Jews, without any idea about Polish ethnic-cleansing.

A quick Wikipedia search and you learn that Warsaw "experienced numerous plagues, invasions, devastating fires and administrative restrictions on its growth." Having learned American history in school, I knew that shortly after the US was created, other countries followed its example, one of them being Poland with its May 3rd constitution. A good thing, but I never knew what happened afterwards. I never knew that Poland was then attacked by its neighbors, and erased from the map for over one hundred years.

Yet despite being one of the most embattled group of people in Europe, The Poles somehow got their act together and reestablished Poland as one of the major economies of Europe. Wow.

Yet I never hear a peep out of the mouths of Poles "we've had to fight everyone to survive,,,blah blah blah." Though I guess that mostly old people would whine about that, but seeing that I don't speak Polish, I never hear of it. I guess the Poles are made of tougher stuff than most of us.

So to that I say...

Na zdrowie!

Life / What is there to do in Warsaw?? [37]

Hey I've been living in Warsaw since February, but all I've done is work. My girlfriend and I would like to do some interesting activities here in Warsaw, or at least do some interesting sighteeing, but what can we do? So far I've found out that the zoo here in Warsaw is worth checking out, I want to check out the Chopin museum. I missed the free museum night festivities, but if there are any other things like that that would be cool to know.

Thanks.

Life / How easy is it to get into trouble with the Police in Poland? [26]

Hey, I've complained about this elsewhere, but since my arrival in Poland three months ago I've had to deal with more than my fair share of stares, finger pointing, and as of today, name calling ("czarny" because I'm black.) So taking a walk is pretty tortuous and it's not like in New York where I could make a funny face or comment if someone stared at me and just deal with their reaction. Being here, I'm afraid of getting into a fight because 1: I don't want to feed the "violent black man" stereotype, and 2: I feel that if I were to get into a fight, about 100 other poles would jumb in to kick my ass, and 3: I don't know what could happen with the police should they get involved.

Are the cops hard-asses here? And now that I've just crossed the 3 month limit, would any encounter with the police mean immediate deportation?

USA, Canada / Lose passport to extend my stay, must return to the US [7]

I just realized that I must return to the U.S. much sooner than I was told. What would happen if I reported my passport as lost or stolen? I would get a new passport with no Polish stamp in it correct? And this would mean I would get to stay longer, correct?

If anyone has any info it would be much appreciated thanks!