Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

delphiandomine
Certainly, the market for such "reality" books never got off the ground really.

You may place "reality" in quotes all you wish, as if to cast doubt that the stories are true. It is all true, but, honestly, I don't care if you, or others, believe it or not.

As far as my book "getting off the ground", well, even if it doesn't, I have my advance, and some of the people involved, whose real names I have used throughout the book, will receive a copy.

I regret that some will be offended, such as yourself, apparently, by a hard look in the 'historic mirror' of reality that was Poland during my time there. Perhaps your use of "reality" was meant to question my state of mind during the writings entered into my daily journal. That much I agree with. I nearly killed a couple of people, another American, an exporter of illegal war antiques and check forger, and a Palestenian cocaine dealer, aforementioned as a Syrian (in error), and if I had not finally accepted that Poland was truly only for Poles in those days, I might have lost my mind entire.

Thank you for your comment.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]


Thank you. It is copywritten. But I know what you mean. I think at this point that plagarism will only help.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Wow. I thought I could edit the misspellings, but that feature doesn't exist. I feel bad about the errors really. I wrote and asked them to permit me to edit the post. I speak Polish, and write in Polish much better than that. My English if often times worse. Again, I apologize.

Yes, it was Poland 15 years ago. It has changed tremendously since that time. I would live in Poland again, but, well, I'm too old to do anything there now. Not old in the sense that I am ready to retire. That, fortunately, is still a couple of decades, and then some, away, but in the sense that I am too old to start at the bottom again, or to try to break enter a work force that still lists jobs with maximum age requirements.

There is a time and place for everything. I regret, and then again, do not regret living in Poland during those years. I regret that I couldn't assimilate and have a normal productive life, but many Poles could say the same thing. When you are young you do not seem to have the opportunities. When you are older and you see how open it is, and how young folks can now take advantage of that, you wish you were younger so that you could also participate. But, alas, it's just too late. The worst is having a boss much younger than you, but again, that is just the product of a transitioning economy. Personally, it is something I could never endure.

I will always love Poland. It was a defining time in my life. And, yes, it is a beautiful country, with a lot of wonderful people. I still have dreams, nice ones, that I am there, walking the streets of Kraków. Hearing Hejnał ring in the distance. Walking around the Planty with my girl, listening to the ring of the rails as the tramwaj passes by.

I am in Mexico tonight, and am off to bed. It is quite late here. Thank you for your comments, suggestions and criticisms. All of them. Dziordz £aszington. Damn. That is too funny, and very true.


No, she did not sell matches. She sold vegetarian food in a small resturant called VEGA near Kino Wanda. She earned 400 zloty per month. Her boss was a mean thing. She made my wife work 9 hours per day alone. There were two girls serving, but when one quit, the owner made my wife work alone, serving food all day alone, and said that she did not plan to hire another person. My wife would leave work crying.

I made my wife resign from this job. I paid for her living after that. The owner began to cry when my wife told her to F.O. and said that my wife was not behaving as an adult. Hmmm. Who wasn't?

She tried to take advantage of her, because she thought she had no options.

So no, not a match girl, but I made her dependent on me. She had no other options. What? Another cafe? Eventually we went to Warsaw where her opportunities were much improved. She did very well in Warsaw. We were there on and off again for over three years.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

I know how to spell it. But it's from a rough draft. Sorry for the mispelling. Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish general and American Revolutionary War hero. There is a foundation in New York named after him who awarded me a small stipend to study Polish for a while. Thanks. I'll be more careful in the future.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Yeah, but that was the way she spoke. I had left the door unlocked. Too vulgar? It was just a dream. Thanks.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Another exert from the book. I think is rather pedestrian as was mentioned. It is followed by a piece which is easy to discern as a dream by some. Others think I am trying to be flamboyant in the style of writing. The language is because it is a dream state. Both are from earlier chapters.

A new day and the sun seems to be even more dim than the day before. Can it really be getting lower and yet lower in the sky? Winter has now gone on for longer than I thought possible. It is so cold that it is dangerous to be outside. I'm just hanging out with David and Karen, the Americans who live next door to Jennifer and Magda. They are cool people, and they really seem to like me. It's a relief from sitting around with my roommate, the flamingly gay Holger who has decided to take an apartment in the city, thank God. Eloise has become enamored with Rafael of the Mozart Academy and and his big $45,000 bassoon. She just returned from a trip to Italy where she said every store seemed to have the name 'Gessepi' above the door. Rafael's family name. A bit jealous but not so very. "He said he is going to buy me gold and jewels!!" I laughed internally, but not at her. I laughed at the idea of being in love with anyone. I really do not have the capacity for it.

It seemed a short while since she and I were hanging out together, but well, in such a place you eventually hook up with someone or go nuts. I've got my eye on this Belgian girl, who was banging the actor guy temporarily, but of course, who has a boyfriend back home. The actor was walking down the hall some nights ago and just screamed out loud. Not sure why, but half the tension in the atmosphere drained out of everyone almost instantly. It was like he knew that everyone needed to scream and he screamed for us all.

But really, it is probably best that I remain alone. I'm just a born loner. I go to classes less often now. It is boring. The Ukrainian girl with the racecar driver father sits across from me with her skirt up high. You can see her panties and a little more. She looks quite OK, but then..oddly enough..in front of everyone she starts picking her nose like a 4 year old. The professors stand around in the hall and talk about how stupid we all are. The dwarf seems to be a nice guy though. He dresses quite well, and he is really very patient with my 10 Polish words I use over and over again.

I prefer to go to the city and listen to people in the cafes. To learn Polish that way. I didnt come here to be trapped in a quasi-prison structure with all these freaks. That's not fair. I'm as freaked-out as they are. Maybe more so. I miss running through the halls with Jennifer, up to the tower where they say a girl thew herself to the concrete platform below. Down again and through the various floors. Too cold to run outside. But she has her Italian dreamboat, and now I have to find someway to keep myself entertained. "Everybody likes him and he smiles all the time" she says. Well, he is OK. He told me, "Michael, it isn't good to spend all your time alone." I dunno.

Why am I even here? I really cannot remember why I came anymore. Should have gone to lawshcool as I had planned. Poland is so alien. But I dont know for sure because I'm always on this hill! Anyway, this hill is like a little colony for outcasts. I know that much. Got to stick around to know for sure. I cannot leave without knowing something about this country. It could turn out to be quite an adventure. "Gotta hang, Mikie!!" Now when its warm enough I run to Salwator alone. We used to run together. Now it's just me and my little Sony Discman. It's not much fun alone.

You can't really do much on 450 zloty a month from the Kościuszko Foundation, but I am surviving on the food in the little cafe downstairs and from the corner store at the bottom of the hill. Its expensive kind of, and its the same foul tasting stuff everyday. I think the toothless girl behind the counter likes me. She smiles. She shouldnt, but she does. Right now even she is starting to look good to me. I need to get out more and explore. But I get lost everytime I go out. It all looks the same. Grey.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------

She came to my room and situated herself in a chair across from me. The candle glimmered off her smooth features and created a kind of halo around her. I could tell she was waiting for me to say something, but I was too afraid, really, as it was my dream come true at that moment, on that hill, in that remote cold environment we had all mistakenly undertook on our own, as a boy might volunteer for a war he could never understand. We all felt isolated, and the Japenese roaming the halls robotically repeating the same "Jak Sie Masz?" phrase had everyone on the verge of self immolation.

I finally found the courage to pull back the sheets and slowly crossed the room to her. I tried to seem confident. She smiled slightly, not nervously at all..but knowingly. She knew I was a rube out of my element. I could tell immediately that she was a woman who was sure of what she came for and wouldn't leave without conquering this ignorant southern boy who had travelled too far from home. I made it, step by step, and slowly kneeled in front of her. She appreared as an angel of mercy, in one sense, yet in another sense, as a dangerous incubus come to destroy me in my sleep.

I was there, on my knees, as a servant, waiting to be knighted or beheaded, feeling ridiculous, but there all the same hoping she would despense with me quickly. Her knees parted eternally as she placed a foot on each side of the chair. I was ready to do my duty for this temptress of the cold shadow over-world that was Przegorzaly. I was waiting only for her command to set me upon my path to momentary liberation from this evil hilltop, this soft prison in which we were all captured without any seeming hope of escape except out a window and down the hill, tumbling to land among the bones of the monks the Nazis had dug up and cast down as you might toss a hoard of cur dogs the bones of the saints.

Her lips parted...finally, she was going to give this poor hillbilly the vital instructions of how to please his conquering queen.

MIKIE!! GET YOUR HAND OFF THAT LITTLE THING AND GET OUT OF BED!! My eyes flew open and it was morning. She was standing over me, hair in directions never set on any map...anywhere. She had prepared breakfast, I was being invited, and my dream was over. Pheww.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]


I know what you mean, and yes, I have an editor.

Sure, Pete.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Pete. 15 years ago.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Foreigner4
Hey man, first and foremost, that was good writing.

Thank you!. It is difficult to write sometimes and not seem as if you are trying to be clever. This was my true experience in Krakow in 1995-1997. I fabricated nothing. The book goes on past that, and it gets even stranger at various times. But I believe that the book will be chopped. Meaning, there is enough material up to 1997. After that it becomes more or less a daily struggle for normalcy after gaining some foothold in the place.

Many references to the old woman incident. Well, it reminds me of Bialy. Zamachowski is on the street after his wife divorces him, takes his home, his business and his money and he enjoys watching the old man struggling to put his bottle in the recycle bin. He smirks to himself as if he is entertained by someone else's hardship. A kind of relief for him to see someone else having a bad life.

No, I am not like that. It is when I realized that I was losing it, or that I was becoming like others. Just not caring.

Thank you for the positive comment. The book is meant to entertain, not depress, and not to bore. Maybe someone else has had a similar experience and can relate. As you said, a foreigner in a strange place, trying to figure out what the heck it is all about. Just struggling to understand, but at the same time to survive. There are some nights I spent on the streets, or in the train station, in the winter. Or in the Cały Dobę 24 Hour Non-stop Sexy Texas Cafe near the train station. I'll never forget those odd sounding names for these little places. Feeling nearly frozen, but unable to understand why I just would not leave. I think I felt challenged, and was refusing to be beaten.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

delphiandomine
Yes but all true. If I didnt keep some incidents brief, it would drag on into boredom. My book is really a collection of stories all bound together by a common timeline.

Thank you for your responses. I hope it sells.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Yes, I know how you feel. The point was that I was losing my humanity. The old woman was pushing her way onto the bus past everyone who was had been waiting. You ever see the film "Dzień SŚwira "? That is how I felt back then. Standing in line at the stores. Let's say you are second in line, well the others just form another line off to the side and push their way ahead of you. Or you are in a resturant waiting to be seated. Your table just comes open and someone walks in the door at the same moment and just walk straight to your table. I could have written that story. I could have played the leading role in that film.

It can be the same everywhere. That is true.

One other thing about those days in Krakow. The air was really poor. The pollution had your head spinning and your lungs burning. I think part of my problem was oxygen deprivation. When it snowed, it would all turn black within hours. Drivers never paid any attention to pedestrians. You cross the street at your own risk. I used to carry a 2 kilo metal wieght in my coat pocket and pull it out when a car got to close. They got the message and hit the brakes.

I remember one day near McDonalds, there was a guy there all the time selling socks. He would say, "Skarpetki, Tanio Okazja, Polecam" One day I was walking down Florianska and he said it again and again and again. The rumor was that he was selling narcotics. I said, "Narkotyki, Tanio Okazja Polecam" Everyone around me roared with laughter. All Poles, because they knew that was the rumor. And the poor guy was on canes because he was handicapped. I became an ******* for about a year. I absolutely just could not get used to wasting so much time doing things I felt were beneath me for very low money. I had become a real freak. This is when decided it was probably best just to get out of there. Then there was the American guy who attacked me with a knife. He was an exporter of illegal Soviet and Polish war antiques. He was a real drunk who had a reputation for pulling knives. So one day he tried some of that with me. I was ready with a small baton in my pocket. I broke his arm until the bone almost came through the skin. Tow months later, his arm in a cast, he attacked me in the street near the Rynek Glowny, and being trained in street fighting, I broke his nose and dropped him to the ground with one punch. Another time he attacked me in a movie theatre with a hook knife and I stuck him between the eyes with the metal end of an umbrella.

Those first two years were the most bizarre of my life. I guess that is why I resolved to write a book about the entire experience. There are so many odd stories. The homosexual professor, Wladyslaw, at UJ who invited me for a private meeting in Przygorzaly, and being robbed by some Russians be had living out there with him. The Ukrainian mafia run in when I was with my friend from Holland who had a bar in the center. The guy in the long trench coat from Syria or wherever, who stood around in the Rynek Glowny selling cocaine, who tried to cheat me out of 800 zloty for a mobile phone because he thought I was a stupid tourist, and now spends all his time in the little casino near the center. Sitting behind one of the Turkish cafes selling cocaine, and playing with his knife to intimidate me, which I obviously wasn't intimidated by that time. In fact, I took his watch and gave it to a bum in the street who was asking for money. Value at that time about 400 zloty.

It goes on like that. And all in about two to three years. Of course I would write about it. It was a magical time. Never boring. Always something insane happening. It could make a maniac out of anybody.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Yeah, I remember when I was first learning Polish, I was walking through the park near Slowackiego and I passed an old man. I said in my clearest Polish possible, "Good Afternoon, how are you sir?" and continued to walk. The old man spoke to me in a surprised voice, "Do I know you?" I replied that, no we do not know each other. "Well why did you speak to me?" It wasn't a thing to do back then. It is an American custom. Poles just weren't used to strangers speaking to them unless they were going to ask for money. The Romanians were all over the place when I was there. Little children forced to play accordians too large for them to hold, dropping them and crying and with a little cup at their feet. I felt very sorry for them, but after a while I learned what the Poles do. You just have to pretend they aren't they. If you have sympathy for them, they will beg until you are broke. They beg with big eyes, and when they are done with you they start playing and running around in circles. Still, they just needed money. And yes, the Poles stuck to their own affairs with tunnel vision. Not a Polish thing, really. It was just the way you had to behave to get by, maybe especially back then.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

I have changed the title several times. First title was, "Seven Months of Winter" as it started snowing in late October and continued even through the following April. 2nd was "Paranoid in the Polsih Reality" but that just didn't ring. 3rd was "Six Years of Solitude" but the title was too similar to "100 Years of Solitude" so I scraped that. The 4th was "Life and Death in Divison 303" because I lived there for some time while I was writing.

You give it a title.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Yes, I understand your nationalist point of view. Very unlike the USA where we enjoy making fun of ourselves. You position is a very common theme throughout the book. I suppose Polska dla Polakow is still hanging on with some folks. And that is OK.

I enjoy visting Poland now. It was a really difficult time back then. It all depended on what you wanted to do there. If you were a foreigner and ambitious, forget it. A visiting professor? Sure, you could do that. Sent as a director for a large corporation? Yeah. Business education just trying to work and live normally, but without Polish lineage, and no foreign corporate sponsorship? No chance. Not in Krakow. If you wanted to teach English and stay drunk all the time, it was a great life. I learned that after a while and did enjoy part of my time there after coming to terms with that.

I really have no hard feeling against Poland or her people. It was a somewhat isolated country with limited opportunities. Life, especially for the Poles was pretty difficult. I still have several very good friends there.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Insult one. Thanks.

Life / My experience in Poland 15 years ago as an American trying to live and work there. [167]

Again, I feel it was true to the time, in Krakow. Remember, it was 15 years ago. I continued to live in Poland for six years and have visited several times since and it is a much better situation, for EU expats anyway. Yes, it is written from my daily journal from that time. Also, I married the girl, and yes we live in the USA.

News / Polish President Lech Kaczynski and gov officials die in a plane crash in Russia [686]

This hurts me more than if my own President had crashed. The pilot must have been an arrogant fool. My God, how could this happen? I feel most sorry for the pilot's family than anyone. They went from being honored to being vilified in a moment.

Life / Why Do You Love Poland? [907]

I once liked Poland, but do not so much anymore. Poland was unique, but now it is just another country in Europe. It used to be that Poland was a place that no one wanted to go to. Now many want to go because it's something bizarre to do. Warsaw is a dump with gray old blocks running for miles. I remember a flat in Warsaw that I lived in, a gray old building with cold damp walls, a tiny bathroom, the tram ran by the window so close that the building shook. They wanted to sell it...for $150,000. The building was ready to collapse. It is still for sale and has been for several years. In 2000 you could have bought it for $20k.

Yes I had a life in Poland once a long time ago, but it was a pieced together life. I remember that the sun never shined when I lived in Warsaw. It smelled like urine everywhere I went. I loved Poland for my wife and the friends I had there. Now, not so much.

Work / Are there any Americans teachers left in Poland? [38]

Thanks, Scottie. do you have a teaching certificate?

Work / Are there any Americans teachers left in Poland? [38]


I'm not so cynical. I lived in Krakow when the best you could hope for was about 400 USD per month. Accounting firm? Are you a CPA?


I'm not so cynical. I lived in Krakow when the best you could hope for was about 400 USD per month. Back in the mid 90's. I lived there for nearly 6 years.

Accounting firm? Are you a CPA?

I do NOT like the USA. There isn't anything great about the USA. I visited Krakow about two years ago. It was nice to be there again, but I didn't enjoy seeing groups of drunken Brits roaming the streets hollering out loud and puking on the sidewalks. Stag parties I think they call them.

I lived in Krakow for several years. Dywizjon 303. Also al. Slowackiego near Nowy Kleparz. And Plac Wolnica. I worked for an engineering firm there, and I also worked for Pierwszy Polsko Amerykanski Bank, and taught at UJ.

I then moved to Poznan for a short while. Poznan is my favorite city actually. I maintained a flat in Warsaw and I believe that Warsaw can cut the love for Poland clean out of a person. My in-laws are from Naleczow. Have you ever been there?

At one time Poland was my home. And Krakow was the only place I ever wanted to be, but you just couldnt make any money there as a non-Pole. You were always encouraged to become a damned English teacher. Then again, Poles never made much money either. But rent for a flat in the center of the city cost me 6.000.000 zloty. At that time it was less than 200 USD.

My first winter in Poland seemed to last for nearly 6 months. I spent much of it in Przegorzaly at Instytut Polonijny. I remember it was so cold that ice would form in your nose. Yes, everyone loves Krakow. I'm not cynical about Poland. Poland was my home for a long time. But it was always extrememly difficult there...when I lived there.

What kind of skills are necessary to make the big bucks? I've worked as an engineer, automotive consultant, banker, operations manager. I have several degrees in Business Administration. Finance. Logistics and Transportation, International Economics. But I'm not a lawyer or accountant, and that was what you had to be back in the day.

Work / Are there any Americans teachers left in Poland? [38]


That's usually the only attraction for escapist Americans. Grandpa and Grandma were born there. So I assume you have citizenship and so you don't have to worry about visa requirements.

Work / Are there any Americans teachers left in Poland? [38]


Someone has to remain in Poland. The Brits are already extremely tired of Poles taking jobs in England for less wages.

Good on the Brits. I had a friend who went to England on a one way ticket with a ticket to travel on to Germany and they still refused him entry.

I hope the English get overun with Poles and Bar Mlecznys spring up all over the place.

I like Poles and Poland, but that's just because of all the fond memories of friends and family I made there over the course of 6 years.

It's a different place now. I worked in a bank there for some time. Fortis Bank..as a FX Dealer. Absolutely a protectionist society. If you are not sent there by a company in your home country, forget about landing a permanent job as a non-Pole. POLSKA DLA POLAKOW!!

Work / Are there any Americans teachers left in Poland? [38]


I don't understand. Americans can get a visa, but yes, it is difficult now. I'm still legally married to a Polish woman. I can probably get a visa if I really wanted. But there is barely any opportunity in Poland for Poles. Americans and Brits who go there to teach are just escaping. Poland is nice to visit, but living there can really be a miserable experience.