Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

Welcome to Gdynia :)
I'm typing this from 20 minutes away and it wasn't a bad day weather-wise ... we hit 13C today in Gdansk !
/cjj

Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

You'll soon find that Polish pancakes are in no way, shape or form what you used to eat in the US.
ha ha yes, i forgot that !
ok - these are not IHOP pancakes ... not by a long shot.
The locals will probably say they're not nalesniki, either ;)
Place called Fanaberia on Swietojanska (Gdynia) down at the 10 Lutego end. Bit twee inside I must admit -- but it was a cold, cold windy day with icy rain falling sideways and we escaped into chocolately warmth for a modest cost (between 1000 and 1200 :D )

/cjj

Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

This is the hardest part - clearing the house and saying goodbye ... without having left ... and without having your new home/life to focus on.

From my experience it's easier once you get going/moving.

It's been a bit chilly this weekend (we had a light dusting of snow on Friday/Saturday) but ... spring will come soon.

and there's a nice pancake place not too far from where I understand your new home is ... pancake and coffee for 10zloty between 10 and 12 on a Saturday morning :)

cjj in gdansk

Travel / Visiting Poland in May - what should I bring? [28]

/moodily peers at the packet of chewing gum on her desk/

yup - Orbit ... produced by Wrigley Poland.

it's even "NEW! SPEARMINT"

/cjj

It's standard stuff, but from a curious little shop in the depths of Wrzeszcz that sells 'Rolo's and Terry's Chocolate Oranges from time to time .... maybe they have a little wrinkle in the space time continuum somewhere in the back behind the beer ... I wish they would bring in some creme eggs.

Travel / Visiting Poland in May - what should I bring? [28]

oh forget coffee gum oranges bananas ... we're up to our ears in them.
when i came to poland for the first time in the early 90s - sure, jars of coffee were prized enough to be placed around the lounge like ornaments.

but those days are gone.
supermarkets are large and well supplied (in the most case - sometimes there are missing things but I would say it's supply chain incompetence/indifference, rather than a real shortage)

i'd go for that nice mexican meal idea -- with a few small souvenirs on the side. don't play the "food aid" game -- it's a matter of sharing culture.

oh - and it was -7C here last night, up in the sunny north

Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

hopefully the sea isn't frozen any more ;)
it was all crunchy 2 weeks ago, last time we were down at the swimming pool.

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]

I'm using this range of books (with a teacher) and like them very much

polonia.com/HURRA-PO-POLSKU-1-STUDENTS-WORKBOOK-P11859.aspx

They seem to suit the way my mind works.
To be specific, I've noticed my memory is more visual than aural ... I learn better when I can work through exercises on paper, with a cd as a backup. (My husband, on the other hand, prefers to focus much more on listening)

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]


You have to pump warm air through the walls all the time - to carry the internal moisture with it. Otherwise the walls rot in place.

Living in a house that leaks heat intentionally is ok when heating costs are low (we didn't seem to suffer in Vancouver - using town gas and electricity) but european energy prices are a different kettle of fish.

Work / Polish schoolteachers are being crushed by the system [24]

My second child is in K1 and the workbooks are quite fascinating in their own way.
Does the teacher have time / need / inclination to do anything other than plod through these books ?
I guess it smoothes out the results - the trully cr8ppy teachers don't have such a bad effect - but if I were a teacher who enjoyed 'teaching' I would find it very restrictive.

My older child is in middleschool doing MYP and that seems ok. I do see some "here is the standard, meet it" attitude - leaving the children to scrabble towards the understanding as best they can - but the teachers seem to understand what they're teaching. (ok, I had a few strange teachers myself when at school). It's hard sometimes to see a path around the speed, because there is a lot of information to cover - and the programme's 2-language emphasis increases the load. A relief for me, though, as we now have GCSE textbooks in the house and the homework essays and lab-reports can be in English.


25K - for an 18 hour week ... is this for an experienced teacher?

I'm curious -- I remember a school-teacher friend in the UK spending hours marking and preparing, but to be honest I don't see a lot of that in lesson plans here. In Primary School the lessons are all laid out in detail, in Middle I see a lot of "Reuse Reduce Recycle".

/cjj

Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

s2good2 - I've sent you an email if you want to make contact.
I'm an Irish ex-pat who moved from Vancouver B.C. to near Gdynia 10 years ago.
I don't do numbers (unlike some other posters) but I can give you my opinion of what it's like to move to Poland - and the Trojmiasto area in particular.

cjj

Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

Check your tax liabilities.
if you end up double taxed that would be unpleasant.

Law / I am married to a Polish citizen. How can I get residency? [36]

You need what the rest of us had to have -- a job and years in the country.
Being married to a Polish citizen doesn't give you citizenship - so your lack of a Polish wife isn't hindering things.
And why citizenship anyway? Surely all you need is right of permanent abode ?

Law / Sending an air rifle to Poland [11]

If things haven't changed in the last 10 years, then it might not be worth it. We tried to import one as part of our household goods when we moved here ... gave up in the end as the time and effort with office visits, letters, psych tests etc was costing more than buying one here. Can't quite remember what the straw was in the end ... but the camel decided to abandon it as not being worth the effort.

Work / Polish Residency Cards. Is there a Permanent ID card for Foreigners? [37]


Well this is exactly the problem, isn't it -- the k.p. was wallet-sized like it was a d.o. replacement. This abomination looks like a page from a passport - the page with the photo and all the data and numbers..

Curses. I have a polish driving license though ... I really don't want to carry my passport around with me all the time -- I don't want it to get dog-eared.

Er, about the laminating ... Ms Urz. Woj. explicitly told me I shouldn't get it laminated ...

p.s. by edit. Forgot to ask - anyone else who has one of these things. Does it have a termin ? Mine is valid for 10 years ... silly me to expect something open-ended.

Work / Polish Residency Cards. Is there a Permanent ID card for Foreigners? [37]

After years of using a temporary residence card I have just received my "floppy paper of long stay"

Anyone know if I can carry this as identity? The lady in the office said "you can keep it in your passport" and I didn't think at the time to ask if she was implying I still had to carry my passport as well.

Appearance-wise, it's paper, the size of an opened passport and can't be laminated. bada-bing.

News / Weekend of carnage as 41 people lose their lives on Poland's roads [44]

>It's all due to the lack of enforcement and laughably weak punishment.

I would argue that it's due to people not taking personal responsibility. Enforcement can never be 100% and punishment has to be increasingly tough in order to turn the "don't cares" into "made to cares". I'd rather the society in general lost its "I can do it until someone watches me, catches me, stops me and punishes me" attitude.

Side-tracking to tail-gating, is the 2-second rule taught in Poland? I've noticed some "safe stopping distances" signs recently but I've always found the time indicator easier to apply.

Law / Urząd Skarbowy, I paid too little on my last PIT? [26]

We've had consistently polite and helpful behaviour from our local U.S. ... I have to say this, because we expected the exact obvious.

Real Estate / TRESPASSING ON MY LAND IN POLAND....what can i do legally...? [119]

chop the trees down - you're not going to use them again

or spray the fruit with pesticide -- leave clear information about what you've done, of course, then it's their choice whether or not to poison themselves.

Study / High school entry - exams, points etc in Poland [7]


we're still a couple of years behind you ... just finished 1G
but for a different flavour trying for International Baccalaureate ... jury still out (i.e. big Momma is undecided) but it seems ok so far and the amount of English tuition should increase further. It's wierd seeing textbooks in English with GCSE on the front :)

cj in Trojmiasto

Travel / What to do when it's raining in Gdansk [33]

I saw a snowdrop in Wrzeszcz last week ...

Totally off topic but I needed to share :)

p.s. where's the go-karting in Wrzeszcz?

Love / I don't know if she's married and I don't speak Polish - help me romantic folks [55]


Sorry to sound pessimistic, but if you do manage to ask her out ... what .... oh, I guess you can always explode with the pressure of how to communicate. I mean, if she makes you nervous AND you have no common language ... you may as well learn the Polish for "turn up naked, bring beer".

Food / Where can you buy a crockpot aka slow cooker, in Krakow? [38]


Any chance she bought it in a 2nd-hand clothes store? I know that sounds crazy but some of these shops also have baskets with oddments of books / electrical stuff / china. I have a splendid, large, muffin-capable Kenwood toaster at home now - courtesy of such a shop (and a snip at 3zloty ;) )

In my experience the electrical stuff is usually ignored by people because the plugs look alien and people aren't willing to take a risk.

(and yes, sometimes things are new. unwanted gifts I guess?)

Travel / Best Easter Eggs in Warsaw? [9]

I think you might find some in Tescos around Easter time. I've only looked once (hate Tescos) and it was too late -- no sign of creme eggs (maybe never in that particular store) and all the big eggs had suffered that fate which seems common for new things in Polish country supermarkets -- taken totally apart by shoppers who were behaving as if they'd never been inside a supermarket before (you can understand why some shops keep their goods behind the counter).

USA, Canada / My wife wants to return to Poland...but I want to stay in the US [155]


Resentment transfer - I expect so. I can't speak for all females - just me - but it sounds an embarrassingly-possible situation.

I would recommend you help her plan a trip and get enthusiastic about it. She might never come back but if that's on the cards it will happen anyway. Surely better to have happy memories of her excitement and anticipation than drift apart in depressed recrimination?

Has she been home even for a holiday (especially since your child was born) ? I need to go home every so often - it seems to get something out of my system. In any case, once I think I "cannot" go, I want to ...

Friends and family.
I can understand her problem there.
Finding friends takes effort - you have to go looking for them, and be satisfied with a lot of acquaintances in the hope of finding a real friend. I haven't sorted this out in Poland yet - my 'real' friends are online.

Family is a tricky one - especially if they are hitting her emotionally - the lamenting that little Jimmy in America will never know the soil of his homeland. Any of that happening?

"Should I let her go?". What do you mean ? What would "I won't let her go" mean?

/cjj
p.s.
If she were to come back *right now* it's so bl88dy cold that she might never leave the airport ....

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]

and as a driver i've learned to attempt to judge what the pedestrian will do *without* appearing to look at them. too many times I've caught their eye and *woof* they've flung themselves off the footpath regardless of whether or not I was preparing to stop. there's a place in wrzeszcz(gdansk) near the skm where pedestrians treat the road like it was a pedestrian precinct ... and unless you (pretend to) ignore them they make all sorts of crazy "we have eye contact so he will stop" decisions.

i've nearly creamed babcias (albeit at about 30km/h) in this place because more often than not they don't even pause for a wheeze at the edge ... on they go.

and so i look fixedly ahead hoping to goodness i've accounted for all the moving furballs (wintertime) in my peripheral vision ...

Love / Getting married - registry office in Gdansk - any experiences? [6]

ohmygoodness!
good luck and apologies for the wrong title !

yours,
brain_like_a_sieve

Life / Lack of Spacial Acuity in Poland [69]

Strange this.
My mother always complained about the very same thing.
The Belfast folks who would come down to Enniskillen for their holidays and walk her off the footpath...

Me? I just stop. That forces their hand... or should I say their legs.

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]


mammal-natural or not, don't ask me to lick my babies clean after their birth.


I like a good threat for my kids but unfortunately "so help me but I'll swing for you" messes with their minds a little too much. I found that "you're within this much of the naughty chair" along with finger+thumb held very close together allowed them to focus on imminent doom.

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]


I fully agree with that idea, but not with this particular implementation.

Love, yes - and for always, no matter what they do.
My kids get told that often.
But not such a containment of one person's existence inside another's.

When children learn to walk you should be able to see them walk towards something interesting - even in the opposite direction from their parent. Their 'excursions' get longer as they gain confidence and work out that Mummy will be there when they come back. She will always be there for them when they *need* her. Thing is, the time between those moments of need has to get longer and longer.

Otherwise, think of that first morning in K0. Then, it all comes tumbling down, and little fred is 5 or 6 years, not 13 months.

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]

i've watched my own s-i-l give detailed instruction on fbook to her 28 y/old, married daughter :) I thought at the time it was just her character, but now I'm wondering :)

it's wierd though, when I think about it. the lady who used to do summer-holiday care for my daughter ... she lived right next to her sister-in-law, whose lived on the family farm. little pawel was 3 at the time and spent each and every day wandering *unescorted* round the yard. we're not talking western farm here with everything in a shed and probably locked away - this was a huckster of a polish farmyard with mud and chickenshit everywhere, the old combine sitting off to one side, the local road about 300 yds away, and every equipment shed with a broken door.

that i found a little *un*protective.