UK, Ireland / Religion and identity among Polish immigrants in the UK [20]

Im a Pole but living in London for over 10 years. I've been once to a Polish church here. My friend's idea. It was nice but nothing exciting. My thoughts after this 'visit' were:

1. it's nice Polish people can feel togetherness - after mass there was a kind of a tea time or something - people mingled, got their teas and cakes, talked.

2. i didin't feel part of it as my relationship with the Polish Catholic church is - and has been for years - troubled one- nothing to do with being in the UK.

3. Found a seromon a bit annoying - kind of patronising but maybe some people need to be treated this way
4. Polish priests here - not all - are the same as in Poland - hypocrisy is the god
5. I like - haven't done it in ages thou - going to Anglican/Protestant/other churches. For some reason I feel more part of it/in place than I usedto in our Polish ones.

And now I tell you about the hypocrisy. It's a true story which happened to me - and was a joke among my friends for a long time.

We know the rules Polish priests suppose to obliged/live by, yes? Celibacy etc.

Anyway, about 10 years ago i made friends with some Polish people on a Polish message board. There was one guy that talking to him was quite interesting - pretty deep thinking etc. So we arranged meeting for a coffee.

We met. We talked. He managed to avoid telling me what he was doing here before citing 'i am a freelancer' (well - in Polish it's 'wolny zawod) but when we met, I kept pressing/guessing etc. And finally I hit the nail. He was a priest here in one of the better known Polish churches in London.

So, after finding out what he was doing in the UK, I got a full story out of him - how he found himself in London.

He was from a small parish in Poland. Tried to get a place somewhere abroad for a long time - and finally got lucky. Why did he want it so much? Because he fell in love with a young widow in his parish and people got talking about them. He knew if he comes here he may get a small Polish parish somewhere in the UK, or anywhere else, on his own. He can then bring the woman he loved at some point and be happy with no people talking - no resigning from church duties etc. Basically - having it both ways.

So - hypocrisy the same way as it used to be, and still is I believe, in Poland.
I didn't know if to feel disappointed or angry but I felt pity. Weak character, weak person - how someone two-faced can preach about morals and what people do abroad. Broken families, drinking etc.

On the other hand, my Latin teacher was a priest once. He fell in love, left the church, married the woman he loved, had beautiful kids and became one of the best and funniest Latin teachers.

This I admire and respect.

Life / Why Do You Love Poland? [907]

haven't read what you guys wrote but I love Poland for its inconsistency...
for the fact the people can be 'converted' (if you try hard enough)
for the fact that as an nation we were so ****** up we have no idea who we are and where we come from

for the fact that when other nations may be getting deluded, we learn from your mistakes (hopefully) and come out on the better side

that's my HOPE for Poland

Love / My husband is Polish and I was wondering why he drinks all the time. [66]

salsa

oh, salsa..

it was my father...they divorced after 25 years but he used to do the same. It wasn't my mum or anything. He got a job with some real nutcases and he wasn't a 'pal' until he got drunk with them.

Enough to say there was jealousy, anger, suspicion, arguments, abusive beahviour etc etc...
He changed jobs, people he worked with and all became normal.

Genealogy / Need some help with Bublitz family origin. [23]

Here is history of Bobolice from their official website.

bobolice.pl

The name Bublitz has been recorded officially on 17/04/1320 when they were awarded the town status for the first time.
Although not stricte Polish (there's more history involved) it wasn't also German however, because of its growth as a town, Germans moved to the area.

West Pomerania, where is Bobolice, became part of Brandenburgia (German Principality) in 1648.
If you have anyone who could translate it for you, then you'd know more

And flag and coat of arms of Bobolice from Wiki
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobolice

Currently it's a small town/village.

Plus one more detail:

West Pomerania, where is Bobolice, became part of Brandenburgia (German Principality) in 1648. There is also a history of Jewish community in Bobolice. After the first partition in Poland Prussian king (Fryderyk II) removed 7000 Jews from the region to Poland. The number of Jewish families in Bobolice dropped from around 25 to 6.

Also, another interesting fact from the document below, in 1812 Germans became something what could be called 'Jewish germanisation'. Meaning, they would get the same citizen rights as German citizen IF they change their surnames and names to German, start speaking German and change the clothing/way they dressed to 'European' and had to convert to a christian faith in some cases.

The mass migration, mainly to Germany and both AMericas, from Bobolice and area peaked mid 19th century

These details you'll find here: bobolice.pl/zydzi.pd


In Bobolice Pomerania there's no castle currently. There is an indication that something was there because it was marked on the 'Lubinus Map' from 1618 but no more details regarding it. The map is exhibited in Braunshweig's Palace in Kolobrzeg.

Owners of Bobolice in XV-XVI century were changing frequently. The village belonged to knighted families of von Massow, Eberstein, Lode i Puttkamer.

However, in the area there are 16 smaller palaces (not in Bobolice) with four of them being listed buildings.

There is a castle in another Bobolice, in Silesia region (south Poland) - zamkipolskie.com/bobol/bobol.html

Love / My husband is Polish and I was wondering why he drinks all the time. [66]

@salsa
how long have you known him for? before marriage i mean
If the guy had a drinking problem before you got married and you've known each other for more than 6 months you would notice the pattern

if he started drinking heavily recently, he may have problems

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

to compare it to a British system it will be something like a 'ward' but without the political implications of wards in the UK
basically it goes like this:
town/city is divided into dzielnice and dzielnica may have few 'osiedle' (depends how big is the town or city; some small ones dont have 'osiedle')

osiedle is very informal and the 'few blocks' you mention is more like a housing estate, but again - it's not the case in Poland because osiedle can be a mix of freehold housing and some social housing

osiedle is more about the geographical and historical split of town and cities

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]

there's no literal translation - except to say is a 'district' of a town usually

very good explanation is here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiedle

Language / Polish words difficult to translate into English [66]


Quite often you can't translate word for word because it may make no sense. The context is very important.

zabytkowy/zabytek - listed buidling - because of it's historical or architectual value;
for example -there's a number of listed buildings in our town dating from baroque/ or 'a listed baroque buildings'
as for zabytkowy car/book etc - it will be simply 'antique'

wychowanie/wychowawczy - eduction/educational
Ministry of Education/higher education etc; zaklad wychowawczy (another Polish word for it is 'poprawczak') is equivalent to British 'young offenders centre'

reprezentacyjny - representative BUT
sala reprezentacyjna will be something along the 'assembly hall'/auditorium
fundusz reprezentacyjny - Representative Funds

Kamienica- 'townhouse'. of course most of it are currently divided into flats. But historically, there used to be one owner.

kilkanascie (between 10 and 20) /kilkadziesiat (over 20) - and one more - kilkaset (over 100) - you can use 'several'.
several thousands dollars, several hundred people etc

UK, Ireland / Cheap calls to Poland from the UK [134]

the best and most up to date details gives you:

niftylist.co.uk/calls/

it's like a database of all the cheap numbers to call wherever from UK

Food / Bigos Recipe [183]

Years and years ago some groceries (kind of 'fresh fruit and veggie/organic' shops) were selling 'freshly made' sauerkraut straight from the barrels. I loved it. And it didn't need rinsing.

But I don't think you can find any of those anymore.

I use Krakus or Victus sauerkrat and my mum's advice was to rinse the sauerkraut or, if needed, add some fresh cabagge.

Different regions have different recipes for bigos.
I make it using sauerkraut only (I'm lazy), my mum does it sweet+sauert or just sweet (fresh cabbage).

If you use saurkraut, put a little bit oil in the frying pan/pot and let it cook for half an hour. The saurkraut will change a colour a bit and will become more translucent (like onion when you fry it) and soft. Then you can put it in the pot/mix with the sweet cabbage and cook it with the rest of the ingredients.

Always good idea to leave some of the liquid aside (as advised above) in case it's not 'sauer' enough. It's really easy.

Smacznego!