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Posts by rybnik  

Joined: 16 Jan 2011 / Male ♂
Last Post: 2 Aug 2017
Threads: 18
Posts: 1,453
From: new jersey
Speaks Polish?: yes

Displayed posts: 1471 / page 8 of 50
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rybnik   
22 Apr 2011
Life / Do you think that Polish people are rude? [951]

Polish people certainly have enough reasons not to assume that everyone they meet has their best interests at heart. But also, and more importantly, once they know you, they honor frienship to a fault.

Absolutely! That was my experience to a person.
rybnik   
25 Apr 2011
Life / Disco Polo - No No No No No! [95]

Thanks everyone! I had never heard of the genre. Now I do. I'm actually proud of the fact that Poles came up with it :)

Fanatic- Rzeki przepłynąłem

As a frequent viewer of disco relax, you really don't wanna mess with me.
Here's just a taste of the pain I can inflict:

If that's pain, give me more! lol

Because discopolo is that bad.

Whoa convex! Lighten up. It's not all Mozart and Hayden :) It makes people happy, dance and feel good. Music for the masses.
rybnik   
25 Apr 2011
Life / Disco Polo - No No No No No! [95]

No, I do not have any mercy, why do you ask?

You're the man! [and a bit touched too ;) lol]
rybnik   
25 Apr 2011
Life / Disco Polo - No No No No No! [95]

PRECZ MI Z OCZU SZATANIE!!!

Why so serious? Szatan? :)

the Viagra tune is a hit with me :)

Me too! "Uważaj staruszku, nie szalej w tym łóżku" lol
rybnik   
27 Apr 2011
News / Poland's Lost Generation [172]

you should know that the cigarettes also became more than 10 per cent more expensive in the last year) - should I mention food prices? like that sugar speculation thing

so how much is a pack of Marlboro? a dozen eggs? a loaf of bread? etc
rybnik   
30 Apr 2011
Life / "Tele PRLe" Are they Kidding! [6]

Has anybody seen this show on TVP? I'm sitting here aghast wondering how, so soon after the fall, they can kid and joke about such an oppressive time!...I guess time heals all wounds(and dulls the memory). Thanks for allowing me to vent.
rybnik   
30 Apr 2011
Life / "Tele PRLe" Are they Kidding! [6]

What are you talking about?Growing up in PRL I didn't feel that I am being opressed

What are YOU talking about!?? I felt opressed and I had dollars!! You must've been on that szambo that was goin around lol
rybnik   
30 Apr 2011
Life / "Tele PRLe" Are they Kidding! [6]

I guess shocked is too strong a word. You're right. People were joking about it during the time. What I'm trying to express, evidently not well, is that the way the "panel" was reminiscing the long lines,food shortages, gas rations, ration cards, no toilet paper rolling blackouts, etc, it was all done with a fondness I couldn't relate to. As I said in the original post, I just had to vent. I'm over it now. Thanks
rybnik   
1 May 2011
Life / Are Polish roads really this bad? [237]

Does anybody know if the current road-building effort, that's going on all across Poland is a 24-7 undertaking?
rybnik   
1 May 2011
News / John Paul II's Beatification [134]

So many Polish flags! So many Poles! It's awesome!.......I don't think they should fast-track his sainthood though.
rybnik   
1 May 2011
News / John Paul II's Beatification [134]

Eyewitness: How John Paul made an Italian-American “part Polish”

Nice article..
rybnik   
2 May 2011
News / John Paul II's Beatification [134]

claiming that jews have no need to convert to achieve salvation, holding Assisi 1 AND 2, and via his "cultural center", proliferated COMMON prayer with pagans, heathen, and all manner of reprobates and protestants and polytheists...

Enzo, you're a fanatic and you scare me.
rybnik   
2 May 2011
History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

Those first few months were hard. The culture shock was complete; the homesickness severe. The longing for home made its way to your bones. The worst time for me was when the sun went down. I have no idea why but after sundown I experienced an emptiness heretofore unknown to me. Many of our number sought comfort in the bottle, myself included. You thought about home. You thought about the girlfriend left behind. The regretful moments of the past began to rear their heads. "When I get out of this I'll make amends". Those were truly the loneliest times of my life.

Everything was different: the smells, the sights and the living conditions. I, for the first time, began to doubt the rational for my coming to Poland. Maybe Guadalajara or better yet, Grenada, was the real way to go. Maybe I didn't have to "suffer" communist lifestyle. Maybe, I could just leave, tell my family and friends that I tried it and didn't like it and go home. No harm, no foul!... Of course I couldn't do that. I had too much wrapped up both emotionally and financially to quit. I'm here for the duration. I'm not a quitter.

In the beginning, the Poles didn't know what to make of us and we of them. We saw them, the pensive Poles, as well-meaning people living their lives in darkness due to their oppressive Marxist overlords. We"tolerated" them reminding ourselves, that they are not to blame for the way they are (yes we were very, very patronizing of our Polish hosts during those first 12 months) and that we yanks were the enlightened ones. We would answer all their questions and try very hard not to gloat about our lives back in the States. We'll get through it. We have each other.
rybnik   
2 May 2011
History / An American studying medicine in the PRL 1978-1985: my story [142]

Rybnik maybe you should write a book?

Thanks for the kind compliment.

....but I don't have the discipline for such a project............
Leaving the dorm
My dorm, "Dom Studencki Piast" was a relatively new, seven-storied construction fashioned in the plain-grey communist style. It reminded me of the Lego buildings I used to build as a boy: rectangular, squat and wide. Yeah, it was ordinary but it was home. It was My first Polish home. Here, in those cramped, sliver-for-a-space rooms, l would learn many, many invaluable lessons on what it means to be Polish. Those first months in DS "Piast" were to prove priceless in awakening a pride and igniting a curiosity in my "Polish-ness" that I never felt before back in the States.

Ania
Ania was a tall, green-eyed Krakowianka with bee-stung lips. When I met her I thought I'd never look for another woman again! I was smitten. What I should've done, it turns out, was to say "nie dziękuje" and keep walking. But no! I took the bait, got hooked and went for a ride to frustration-town.

She was a law student at UJ (Jagiellonian University) and I have no idea how I met her. Maybe it was at one of those drunken dorm parties or by way of a friend of a friend. I don't recall. Anyway, there I was, dating this "10" and I thought I was king of the world. "Look at me. Not even 6 months in-country and look at the babe I've got on my arm!" I'd think to myself. Too bad for me the honeymoon period only lasted a few dates.

The early warning signs I failed to recognize: the fixing of the collar; the running commentary on the length of my hair; the sharpness of my pants crease. I, the American frajer, thought it was cute. "She cares about me that's all" I'd tell myself. These Polish girls really care about their guy! Little did I know. This Polka was on a mission- a mission to change me!

The cute comments like "Your hair is a little long don't you think?" changed quickly to "You know, here in Poland the man walks on the woman's curb-side protecting her" and "Never chew gum when you're with a lady" and "Don't whistle when you're with a lady. That's rude!" Huh?? "Ok", I said to myself, "When in Rome" and all that.

Successive dates were laden with more "lessons", more commentary and more alterations. This was wrong, that was incorrect, this is how a Polish gentleman acts. I began to resent her but I couldn't leave. I wasn't pissed-off enough.

That's why. But I would be.

The final straw came in Radom. Anka invited me to a wedding na wsi(in the country) Her cousin was getting hitched. NA WSI!! Are you kidding me! This was great. Polish country weddings were legendary. Especially back then in the PRL-days of "nie ma". There would be plenty of good food, drink and music. They were renowned affairs lasting 3,4 days sometimes even longer. All that was expected of a guest was to have a good time: eat, drink, sleep and repeat. I COULDN'T WAIT.

Unfortunately, by the time it was over I would only remember the bad moments.

The train ride to Radom belied what awaited me at the end of the line. She was all kinds of sweet, attentive and complimentary on the train. So far so good.....Short-lived I'm afraid. The disclaimers [please forgive him he's from America; his Polish is not that great; yes, he is kind of rough around the edges-but I'll take care of that] started flying. Nothing I did was free of apologizing for. How I dressed( lol I went to Katowice specially to buy some corduroy. I got a real nice 3-piece suit);how I spoke( my Polish was weighted with a heavy accent). She even yelled at me for not knowing how to dance the Polonaise! I couldn't wait to return to Kraków.

Needless to say, I broke it off shortly after returning. She cried. I didn't care.

NB....one beautiful(weeks before the wedding) May afternoon Ania and I were walking on the Planty just outside the Barbakon. She was dressed all in white. She was immaculate. As if on cue, at the precise moment she began laughing at her own joke, a pigeon dropped a big, sloppy one one her right shoulder! I couldn't help myself - I started howling in laughter. Naturally, she was horrified at my reaction, blah, blah, blah. I guess it's telling that that particular moment is the sole happy memory I have of that brief (mercifully so) relationship. From which it

took me a while to recover....I wonder what Ania's doing now?
rybnik   
3 May 2011
Love / Poland wow wife [52]

and you are from where? your first language is?
rybnik   
4 May 2011
News / John Paul II's Beatification [134]

Quote

In my opinion, the beatification of Jan Paweł is long overdue!

long overdue? it's the fastest beatification on record!