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Posts by f stop  

Joined: 9 Dec 2009 / Female ♀
Last Post: 20 Dec 2016
Threads: Total: 24 / Live: 23 / Archived: 1
Posts: Total: 2,501 / Live: 2,457 / Archived: 44
From: USA, dirty south
Speaks Polish?: tak
Interests: all

Displayed posts: 2480 / page 5 of 83
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f stop   
31 Jan 2010
USA, Canada / My wife wants to return to Poland...but I want to stay in the US [155]

What part of "I want to stay in the US" don't you understand?

I think you're missing the first part of that statement. I also sense that you have a hard time imagining that someone might like living in Poland better than the US. That's fine. Jozek might be one of those, too. And it's precisely because of the marriage and the child that I'm suggesting he considers some tough choices to try to save the marriage before calling the lawyers.
f stop   
31 Jan 2010
USA, Canada / My wife wants to return to Poland...but I want to stay in the US [155]

easy, seanus. I thought his aim was to seek advice on how to keep his family, not on divorce.
My fist instinct was to tell him to get out of Chicago - personally I don't think anything cures the blues as fast as palm trees, blue skies and a walk on the beach, but I didn't want this to veer into Florida bashing, or defending Chicago, for that matter.

The fact is that he posted here, where english speakers living in Poland frequent. That's saying something.
f stop   
31 Jan 2010
USA, Canada / My wife wants to return to Poland...but I want to stay in the US [155]

Josef, I'm just saying that you seem to want your wife to be happy and also it looks like you don't think you can be happy in Poland. You might be right, and you might be wrong. It may be worth finding out for sure. If nothing else, you'll earn the right of comparing the two from your own experience. And I'm sure you'll score some huge points with your wife.
f stop   
1 Feb 2010
Real Estate / Buying a house in POland from "gmina"? [6]

My mother's family farm house became possession of local gmina many moons ago. All the surrounding farmlands were given back to the government while my grandmother was alive, for her to be able to collect 'rent' (government pension?). After her death, the neighbor wanted to buy the house, 'stodola' (feed house?) and chlew (animal house?) and the orchard, but they backed out due to price being to high.

I keep thinking about (and google-earth) that beautiful, fertile piece of land that I spent first 6 years of my life (bucolic, in my memory), and every summers until I was 16, and keep wondering if there is still a chance in hell that I can get it back into the family, with reasonable amount of effort and money (I know, that's a nebulous measure). The house is just about completely caved in, it never had any plumbing, the stodola has been taken apart by neighbors for fuel, as some of the most incredible selection of fruit trees in the orchard on the back of the house.

Anyway, I have no idea what I would do with it, except spend my summers there. If the law required that I build something up to the current code within two years, for example, I probably would not be able to do it, but considering what shape the property is in right now, I think I can do better than that. At least I would clean it up and clear enough land to pitch a tent there, to start. That's a joke... but not far from the truth, really. So, what do you think? Is it worth to get my family in Poland in uproar about it, or do you think it's just a stupid pipe dream? Oh, about 10 years or so ago, my father went there to see what can he do to keep the land, only to find, according to him, a long line of officials with their hands out, expecting heavy bribes from the "rich American". He left disappointed. I'm planning to travel there this summer. What should I expect? What is the best approach?
f stop   
1 Feb 2010
Love / Do you think that Polish should stick to Polish? [128]

I'm bringing my too-laid-back surfer dude son to Poland for vacation, in hope that he will fall in love with a smart Polish girl that will motivate him to get his ass in gear.

What's the worse that can happen, huh??
f stop   
1 Feb 2010
Food / Do Polish restaurants use dead dogs fat as a delicacy for you to eat? [41]

First, there are backward people in every country. I am astonished daily how gullible some people around me are!
Second, coining this a delicacy is a deliberate attempt to sensationalize this sad story - as far as i know, it was a shameful cure, again, for most desperate.
f stop   
2 Feb 2010
UK, Ireland / The best way for a Polish person to learn English? [34]

some studying with the book is necessary, but I learned how to speak English from American TV and radio. In Chicago I saw a lot of Polish people unable to give up their Polish media.

Now I'm teaching myself Spanish the same way. Radio is a riot, but TV is pretty bad.
f stop   
2 Feb 2010
UK, Ireland / The best way for a Polish person to learn English? [34]

all that is true, but when driving to and from work it's easier to turn on the radio station than look for a Spaniard to take for a ride. ;)

Spanish TV has a lot of well known movies, dubbed. It's hard to sit and concentrate on most of them for too long, but even as a background noise it does it's work. After a while, it starts sinking in.

I write words and phrases I keep hearing and look them up later.
f stop   
2 Feb 2010
Life / You are Polish if... [433]

That was pretty good, pgtx!
The paper towel thing is true. I feel validated.
And spotting another Polish person.
f stop   
2 Feb 2010
Love / How to please Polish women? [216]

Sounds good.....until it's time to pay for dinner. Funny how the liberated "empowered' women suddenly turn traditional isn't it?

ZIMMY - do not try luring any women to go to dinner with you. It's a win-win!
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Life / You are Polish if... [433]

... if you always have seat covers in your car
... drink 15 cups of tea per day
... will pick up a discarded broken bicycle and try to fix it, even if you don't need another one
... have to have a live plant in the window
... don't mind cabbage or potatoes with every dinner
... think all American desserts are too sweet
... throw away the cap after you open a bottle of wódka
... do not like to wash your hair every day
... compulsively shop for and send post cards on your vacations
... think any breeze is a draft and it will be the death of you
... ask for a cocktail with no ice
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Life / You are Polish if... [433]

and
... start putting the entire contents of your refrigerator on the table the moment you hear a knock on the door.
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Life / You are Polish if... [433]

oh, whenever you come to Polish home, they insist on putting out food - at least some appetizers - to welcome you. That's why I always joke that in Poland it is more polite to visit during meals. It saves hostess some work.

I don't know what Seanus means. Everyone I know always says thank you when getting up from the table.
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Food / Where can you buy a crockpot aka slow cooker, in Krakow? [38]

I went through a crockpot phase myself. The best thing about it you can throw some meat and veggies in it in the morning, turn it on and when you come back from work you have a pretty good stew ready. The worst thing about it is that the liquids do not reduce properly. That's why the recipes always call for adding "quick-cooking tapioca" (??) or some such thing as a thickener.

Now I use my crockpot to keep the food warm during parties. It makes a pretty good ice bucket, too.
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Food / Polish culinary dislikes [83]

Then there is one Polish dish that I cannot get my American friends to buy into - sledziki - herring with onion in oil. You sweat the onions with bit a of vinegar first. Mmmm. Polish sushi, I tell them!

And I'm crazy about the stuff. Around here, the only herring I can get is the one in wine sauce or sour cream. Both disgustingly sweet.
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Food / Polish culinary dislikes [83]

Oh no! You cannot compare the delicate, with a touch of lemon, taste of ptasie mleczko to the marshmallow sugar bomb! I protest!
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Love / How to please Polish women? [216]

that there is a degree of interest in me

and what happens to that interest when you start talking about the evil feminist cults?
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Real Estate / Buying a house in POland from "gmina"? [6]

It's in south central Poland. Kazimierza County.
Any idea what the taxes on something like that might be, let's say 1 acre? House is not livable, it's a hazard - back half of it is caved in.
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Life / How Polish are you? [74]

from that first test, you'd think that Poland is a church-state.
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Love / How to please Polish women? [216]

A self assured woman understands the truth of honest discourse and is above defending false "sisterhood".

LOL Self assured?? Can you hear the alarms ringing in your head?? .. and... should she pay her own way or not?
f stop   
3 Feb 2010
Love / How to please Polish women? [216]

lol
I like to think that everyone pays their own way, one way or another.
Sometimes it is easier to put the plastic down instead of everyone assuming that you're giving it up in trade.
f stop   
4 Feb 2010
Love / How to please Polish women? [216]

Otherwise, it may be a guy's first and last date with her.

When I was bartending in New York, I had a simple system of assistance worked out with one particular group of "weekend warriors". When they were about to buy a drink for a woman they just met, I would hold up one finger if I had any information that they had a good chance of getting lucky if they got her drunk enough. Two fingers if I knew she was single and looking, far from a sure bet, but she only accepts drinks from the guys she is interested in, and three fingers for the least desirable type, the one that thinks men should be buying her drinks for a simple reason that she is a girl, and there were no strings attached.
f stop   
5 Feb 2010
UK, Ireland / Recently beaten up in England by 3 Polish guys [93]

I am very sorry to hear that. I hope you feel better soon. And I hope the attackers are caught and prosecuted.
But I need to ask - do you think they beat you up because you were with a Polish girl?
f stop   
5 Feb 2010
Life / You are Polish if... [433]

Those are lazy contributions. How about making an effort and coming up with a Polish trait to amuse the rest of us?