I am moving to Warsaw. (Could anyone tell me about life there?)

To Chemikiem: have you ever tried Vietnamese foods? I would love to cook for you some because of your understanding and your help. I have found so many felt-like-home things on the website you said, some of them are from Vietnam.

cheapest clothes are not in a mall but rather in a supermarket like Tesco or Auchan or in stores like Pepco or Kik. These are normally fine and better value than in a mall. But if you want an ordinary mall try Wola Park, Janki or Rembielinska - they are all a bit out of town but accessible by public transport. Mid level clothing stores are H&M, Reserved, Cropp, Orsay.

thank you

Hi there HuyenNguyen (is there a way to shorten your name? :)). I remember you from when you were worried about getting your Visa. So you got it sorted out, that's great!

As to clothes, H&M would be one of the cheaper options for young women like yourself. The quality is ok, they have an ok range of styles and they have lots of branches all over Warsaw. There's also a shop called Reserved which is fairly cheap, nothing special in terms of design, but ok for basics. They also have numerous branches. There are a lot of secondhand clothes shops all over Warsaw. Some of them sell clothes by the kilo. So you pay by weight rather than per item.The market they're aimed at is people who can't afford to buy new. It can be fun for a young person because you can pick up something a bit different or vintage. The outdoor markets have clothes stalls too. The quality varies, sometimes it's quite good. The big hipermarkets like Carrefour and Auchan also sell clothes but the quality in my opnion is not good.

For shoes, you'll need a decent pair of boots for the snow with a good grip and that will be expensive. They sell lots of boots here that look good, but they don't always grip that well, especially for someone who's not used to the slippery surface. There can be patches of black ice that you don't see until you hit the ground! I'd recommend the brand North Face, you'll be safe in those. It may well be cheaper to buy them on Ebay and get them sent from the UK. There was only a few weeks of snowy weather last winter and it wasn't heavy snow by any means but you still need those shoes! You should buy them in October just in case winter starts early. The snow probably won't arrive until January or maybe even February but you can never be sure. You don't want to wake up one morning and find yourself trapped in the house because you don't have shoes!

If you want any electrical or computer stuff you could try here:

oleole.pl/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwr7S-BRD96_uw9JK8uNABEiQAujbffDPcmvR8yQkAO3JPYquHeNm_NviQcO0w1TETG6dMshUaAkHW8P8HAQ
They often do things cheaper than the retail stores and you don't have to use your credit/card, you can pash them cash on delivery. We bought a microwave from them and had no problems.


Yes, like most students who can't afford to do otherwise.


No, they're reserved for idiots or for local criminals and their lady friends. Or for the vulguar nouveau riche who reject everything Polish in favour of imported rubbish. I was in Promenada one day recently and the tat in the windows of the so called 'exclusive' shops.... The tackiest looking leather jacket for something like 2,500PLN and a dress for a thousand made from cheap synthetic fibre with threads hanging off the hem.


And you thus prove beyond any doubt that you've never been to the UK, let alone do you live there despite your moniker. Not only do Poles living abroad look for Polish food shops, they go to Polish dentists, Polish doctors, Polish hairderssers, the list goes on. It's natural. When living abroad, as opposed to going on holiday, people seek out the comfort of the familiar if they have the option to do so.

Thank you. You can call me Huyen but it's probably not easy for you to pronounce my name so call me Max if you can't remember it.

Yes, I got the visa and on 27 September I'll be in Warsaw. Thank you for your help.

Huyen is easy enough to type in the entry window of this forum so you can remain Huyen here - however your first name may sound funny to Poles (I don't say everybody will laugh openly but many people will snicker or smile at the sound of it - your first name is similar to the dirty name for penis in Polish) - you might consider going by an adopted name among Poles -( even though many people would not have issues with your first name and just accept it as it is)

This couldn't have been sent in a P.M. to Huyen ?

I do like Vietnamese food Huyen, and thank you very much for your kind offer, but I'm not in Warsaw I'm afraid :-(


I'm glad the site was helpful, it would certainly be worth a visit to their shop, they may be able to advise you of other places to visit.

If I remember correctly from reading this forum, there is a Vietnamese community in Warsaw. There are a couple of Vietnamese restaurants I found, in case you feel like eating out sometime and want a break from cooking:-

hoza4seasons.pl/hoza_new_kontakt.html

quehuong.pl/kontakt

Don't ignore Polish food though, soups are very good, the national soup as such is Barszcz ( Beetroot ), Pierogi ( Dumplings filled with meat, or cabbage and mushrooms, potato and cheese ) are very good, as is my personal favourite, Gołąbki.

Sernik ( Polish cheesecake ) is my favourite dessert, and there are loads of different varieties of it.
Keep us all up to date about how you get on once you arrive :-)

@gumishu: Yeah. thank you. It's not hard to remember but it's quite hard to pronounce it. My English name is Max.

@Chemikiem: Thank you. I would love to explore your culture and of course I'll do that. I've heard about the Vietnamese community in Warsaw. Wish you the best. If any chance we can meet, I'd love to cook for you Vietnamese food. In our culture, we appreciate others' help and it's best way to pay back. Thank you again. Very warm welcome from you right at the beginning.:)

If you do want to cook Vietnamese food, you need to visit Asia Tasty in Hala Mirowska. As well as a very reasonably priced restaurant, they have a shop stuffed with Vietnamese and other Asian specialties you'll struggle to find elsewhere in Poland.

You'll need a Polish name too, I'm not sure if Max works well for that (sounds male in Polish).

Not sure if anyone pointed this out yet.

queviet.eu/cong-dong

if they have forums they can probably help you more than we can.

Yeah. so I think I'll start consider a Polish name. Thanks

Not just Polish. It is basically a man's name in the West. However it can be feminised to Maxi which is quite pretty and would allow Huyen to keep the basic form of her name rather than changing it completely. I certainly wouldn't want to do that myself.

But a young woman can easily use a man's name in the West as a nickname and people think it's cute. Not every name of course, but Max as a young woman's nickname seems fine. But in Poland... maybe Maksia?


It's a nickname not her real name (Vietnamese phonetics can't have x at the end of a word - also in Vietnamese x is pronounced like s). There used to be a tradition of giving students target language names in language classes and I think that still happens a lot in Asian countries. It doesn't really happen in western europe AFAIK. And in SE Asia a lot of people go by nicknames on an everyday basis (Thai people tell you their nickname very early on and expect you to use it).

Oh I understand that.


I know two girls from Thailand who never use their 'given' names. One is called Moe and the other is Nine! Her real name is Navorat and one of her Irish friends calls her Ratty (in an affectionate way of course) which she doesn't mind at all.

Guys,
Actually I hadn't thought about the name thing before one of you mentioned about it. When I traveled, it was pretty difficult for others to pronounce my name so I adopted the name Max, not because it's cute or something but it's just to simplify they way people call me. Nobody seemed to be surprised. But now I think I probably should change it.

Thank you guys.

Merged:

Info life in Warsaw

Do you think is possible to live normally in Warsaw with a net salary between 3500 and 4000 zlotys per month? Normally I spend the money to eat, pay the rent, sometimes to the cinema / opera / theater and restaurant (of course sometimes).

@artois

If you are a single young person, and this is your first job, you will have enough to live. Not extravagantly, but enough to cover the basic costs of living. There are two problem areas, though. Your savings will be pretty low, and you will have fewer opportunities to improve your qualification compared to your home country.

A lot depends on why you want to come to Poland and how it fits into your long-term career plans. It makes little sense to work in a dead end job like in a call center in Poland, for example, when you could be improving your qualifications at home.

People who come here looking for information about jobs in Poland focus on two things, wages and cost of living. This is a mistake, because neither is important in and of itself. The two things that are important are savings potential and career advancement. Wages in Poland are low, which limits savings potential to start with. The cost of living relative to wages is rather high, especially in Warsaw and especially for a foreigner who does not speak the language and does not have a network of family and friends, which limits savings potential even more. Improving your qualifications is difficult when you do not speak the local language. That would be much easier for you in your home country.

If you need work experience, it depends on the job in question. A job in a call center is not likely to open any doors or impress future employers. Other jobs, on the other hand, may be worth considering. It depends on your education, qualifications and skill set.

Are you going to rent a flat or room? Flat cost is about 2500zl. Food 800zl pcm.