Food / A Polish dish with peas and eggs [18]

Seems like you are talking about "galaretka" which in fact is a savory jelly. You make it like normal jelly, but instead of a flavoured jelly you need gelatine (unflavoured jelly base). Then you add the ingredients that you like (you can also add some savory flavour to the jelly). You can make it in steps - add one thing, pour jelly, wait till in settles, then add another, pour, wait... but it takes long time. Good luck!

USA, Canada / I now have a USA and Polish passport - How to behave at the border? [18]


This is not entirely true, you can enter Poland on USA passport, but you will need a visa if you want to stay longer than the normal "tourist" period (I think it's 90 days) - this kind of defies purpose of having Polish passport...

You should leave the country on the same passport you entered it.

Work / Need details for working in POLAND, LODZ. [27]

Ota, i'm an expat myself and work for company that thrives on relocating people. They do it to exchange ideas and to expose people to change. But you can't expect every single change to be good for you, that's why you need to think it through. Yes, a lot of Polish people can be xenofobic, but honestly, replies to So were far from that, more on a sceptical side not understanding what he can get out of the move, because he is not going to make megabucks with salary he mentioned. I think you yourself are a bit prejudiced to Poles (perhaps you have a reason) but dont look for "dziura w calym" (a hole in a whole thing...), like I said earlier, this type of attitude has nothing to do with racism, rather lack of exposure to expat circles.

USA, Canada / I now have a USA and Polish passport - How to behave at the border? [18]

Are you sure? Doesn't this depend on your usual place of residency? It makes no sense sometimes to travel with all passports you may have (my son has 3),especially for short trips. Another thing is that you are supposed to start and finish trips with one document (not sure if this is law, but airlines certainly recommend that because it makes their lives easier), so this is not possible if you have to leave USA on USA passport and enter Poland on Polish one.

Real Estate / Mortgages in Poland while living and working in the UK? [20]

Hi Marcus, best would be to find international estate agents that operates in Poland as well as in UK, but even if they don't operate in UK, big estate agents (like Emmerson Nieruchomosci, AD Dragowski) should be able to guide you.

You will most certainly speak to your banks in UK and in Poland about financing options, generally you can take mortgage for certain portion (I think at some stage it was 70% if you are non resident in Poland, but this could have change).

Polonia / TRAVEL TO DUBAI - VISA for a POLE? [29]

Primaverka - check with airlines, but I don't think you need visa to stay in transfer hall.
Otherwise, you can get transit visa (or two of them if you are intending to get out of the airport both times).

Study / Information Needed: Skarbek University, Warsaw. [57]

theKNOWLEDGE


Hythorn- I cannot agree with you more - I have a suspicion that what they advertise as MBA is a standard masters degree. Technically the same thing, but the title of MBA is being constantly abused based on the same analogy.

Jones - If you want real MBA, stick to acclaimed programs offered by reputable universities - in Poland the reputable universities are the state ones (google "Uniwersytet", you will come up with quite a few of them, I'm sure that some of them will have international programs) - Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Uniwersytet Gdanski, Uniwersytet Wroclawski are the good ones (there is more).

If you want to take a chance and rather want to come to Poland for "paper" choose a cheap one, but don't expect a lot of job prospects after that...

Life / What is the Cheapest way to send money FROM POLAND to INDIA ? [23]

This thread is a bit old, so you may have found answer. If not - then if you want to transfer money between own bank accounts, try moneybookers.com

I've been using them transferring money from South Africa for few years now, never had problem.
You will need to submit some paperwork (passport scan, confirmation of address, might even be proof that you earned the money legally - like a contract, not sure as I did this quite a while ago). It takes approx 5 working days for money to appear on the other bank account, they charge small provision and you will lose few % on the exchange (as you don't have option to fix spot rate) but I still found them the cheapest of all options.

Real Estate / Mortgages in Poland while living and working in the UK? [20]

Fees are negotiable, there are lots of agents, make sure you use reputable one, those two are just examples. They have nice offices in Warsaw, so quite a something to maintain ;-)

Work / (English and teaching in Poland) Help needed urgently re a VISA [13]


Has her visa lapsed already? If yes - she HAS TO leave, you can't get married in Poland if she is not there legally.

If her visa hasn't lapsed yet - get a legal advice FAST. She may need to change the status of her visa to include intent to marry you, although you can get married and then apply for a new visa.

If her visa lapsed, don't risk - go back to UK with her and sort it out there - if you are British it will be much easier there.

Language / Interesting inconsistency between Polish and Russian [71]

haha, a clasic one from Czech language:
Polish >>> Czech meaning

mieszkac (live), mieszkanie (place to live, flat) >>> look for
szukac (look for) >>> fu** (yeas, the everknown swear word :)

szukam mieszkania - looking for a flat in Polish
very similar to:
mieszkam szukania - looking for a fu** in Czech

Love / Want to ask a Polish girl out? [27]

Coffee or lunch is a good idea, dinner is to close to night and suggests something else :) especially dinner in your or her place ;) should follow when time is right

Love / Well.. I got a Polish girl pregnant.. [88]

Do you really think that we would reach a population on Earth of 7 billion of most pregnancies were intended?


He does not seem to be complaining, so doesn't matter if pregnancy was intentional or not. On the contrary - seems to be happy with his fatherhood.


It's usually 28 weeks (I flew when I was just about that), after that she needs a letter from a doctor - but yes, it's not a good idea to fly when you are heavily pregnant.

Love / Polish wife making more money than husband - does it bother you? [20]

To Sasha - yes, I do, although it varies, as my salary is bonus driven. This does not seem to bothrr my husband, but it does motivate him to progress, he is now thinking about doing MBA. So in a way this works very well for us. But I think it would bother him if difference was big. My husband is not even Polish, i say that because generally in Poland men make more money than women so they are not used to having it other way round. I think times are changing, women are catching up with men in many areas and men haven`t had chance to adapt. So this can cause problems.

Love / Polish wife making more money than husband - does it bother you? [20]

Southern, I live in South Africa, there is`t too many single Polish men under 50 or over 30 here;-)
I guess I'm just lucky, I work for a good company that pays quite well. I didn't follow my husband to SA, I got transferred by company and we met here.

Not sure what you mean by sharing with 'king of love' but maybe I'm not your typical Slavic woman. For your information, workmarket in SA is shrinking for 'pale males' in SA due to very open and official policies giving preference to blacks (this is called BEEE), perhaps if he was black he would make more :-P

Love / Polish wife making more money than husband - does it bother you? [20]

Yeah, but you kind of can't talk about it without being told that you are racist...

Love / Polish wife making more money than husband - does it bother you? [20]


No - we both earn quite good salaries, but mine is a bit higher. But I think his "ego" part wants to "equalize" ;)

Love / Do polish men like career women? [60]


How is that any better than being a handy man, helper on a building site or a door man? I'm not disrespecting any of those jobs, but you have to have a right level of comparison. You can make a career out of anything, it's the attitude. If a wife is a very good/qualified nanny with good salary why should her job be less important than her builder husband?


Women in managerial positions do quite well in terms of money, so their expectations are actually less of a financial nature and more of a love and support and sharing of the household duties :))) that's probably why a lot of like Polish men prefer women without career aspirations, they like their washing, laundry and cooking done :))))

Love / Polish men calling polish girl for dating englishman [80]


Ian - most of them DON'T have a problem, only the stupid nationalistic one do. And being in your 40's why the hell would you care? Just get on with your lives. I'm married to Englishman and never ever had any issues.

What you might consider though is that your girlfriend is a bit unsure about this relationship and is using the "Polish men story" as an excuse to slow it down without hurting you. So if she things it's a good idea that you go to Poland, then go and do not fear. If she doesn't want you to go, just accept it and don't push.

USA, Canada / If America is so bad, why move here? [254]


Exactly that - for any other kind of stay you always need a visa anyway. So USA is basically limiting their number of tourists (as I believe that people who are desperate to get there to work will do this anyway).

I thought about going to USA, but the fact that you have to organize everything before going there to get the visa is a big deterrent for me - I'm not the package holiday type...

USA, Canada / If America is so bad, why move here? [254]


Fuzzy - this is actually quite ironic (especially for all those poor folks that want to come to USA to live and can't) but it would actually be quite easy to move to USA for work as I do work for international company that has big facility in USA - this is still a possibility (in fact here in South Africa I'm becoming a bit of "dead wood" and it's been hinted to me that I should consider relocation in next few years...).

But what I'm talking about is going to USA for holiday - I know this shouldn't be a problem either, I just have to get the papers, bookings and all together, but like I said - I'm not really a typical holidaymaker, I usually book one or two nights after arrival and then go as I please. Hubby is a biker and would like to do route 66 (or part of it...) - can't imagine booking all the accommodation en-route... It's just so frustrating that I need the stupid visa!

Law / Sending Western Union cash to friends in Poland - questions [25]

Now - I'm probably asking for trouble here, but apparently sex services are not taxed :) This sound like a big joke (and I'm not even sure if it's true) but apparently a good way to avoid taxes is to declare earning as income from prostitution... As far as this does not involve soliciting or organised activity this is apparently legal... I know a friend of mine who was once prepared to explain he undeclared income like this (this was when she was earning her salary abroad where she was illegally employed, before Poland becoming part of EU). Luckily she was never questioned...

Now the real problem - how do you convince your friend ;)
Other that that there is also "darowizna" - as far as I know this is not taxed (but I'm not sure about the limit) - it will be easier for your friends to find out what they can and cannot receive.

Love / Problem with my Polish boyfriend [74]

Drew, if you are anything like I was at various points of my ever failing relationships, then all you want to hear is that everything will be ok, and that he is just taking time off. Unfortunately, as history showed to me this is not always true. I wasted quite a lot of time being dillusional. Don't make my mistakes. Go out. Enjoy yourself. Don't call him. Have a drink or few. Have a cry if you need to. LOOSE YOUR PHONE. But whatever you do, give him time to get to miss you. If he does not, than cut your losses. If he loves you, he will be back to UK in no time once you give him sensation that he might lose you. Good luck.

Work / What is a 'HND' Business qualification in Poland? [42]


No - they are not exactly equal. Licencjat is a 3 year degree programme (equal to Bachelors degree).
HNC is quual to 1st year and HND is equal to 2 year programme. This would be something on a level of "Szkola Pomaturalna" - but I'm not sure if those exist any more.

Generally HND gives access to final 3rd year in University (Masters or Bachelors degree programmes).

Love / Finding a Polish girl for mariage (Sweden)? [23]

Get a job in Poland. Once there - you will have enough contacts with Polish women to decide.
Dating sites might be an idea, but you have to be careful, generally don't "make" relationship over the net, make it real as soon as possible, otherwise you might just waste time.

Of course you need to find a girlfriend that speaks at least some English - otherwise (unless you speak Polish) it will be difficult for here to move due to language barrier.

Work / What is a 'HND' Business qualification in Poland? [42]


"A" levels is a college education which is somehow similar to matura (matric). You need this to enter degree education.
You do licencjat after "matura" over 3 years also in territary degree courses (licencjat is not only done over weekend).
I have Licencjat in Economics from Poland which was translated as Bachelors of Commerce by sworn translator and was sufficient as base for MBA (for which degree is needed, which is Bachelors).

It was also sufficient for my company to accept me on managerial position for which they also required degree education.
So based on those facts I conclude that Licencjat is equal to Bachelors.
Generally Bachelors is 3 years after matriculation, so is Licencjat.
You can also do Bachelor's degree over weekend or on-line, you just have to work hard.
The problem is that the education system in Poland is not exactly the same as the British based, so it's often up to the institution themselves to recognize or reject someones diploma/certificate - but in general, if you have Licencjat you will only have to do final year for Master's course in UK institution (provided that profile of the course matches) - same as if you had Bachelors.

Work / What is a 'HND' Business qualification in Poland? [42]


In some institutions it does - if they follow the same program. For example Liverpool University.


Yes - and from this link:
"The Polish equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts degree or Bachelor of Science degree (given by a university) is called licencjat, while in a technical university (politechnika) one gets the title of Engineer (inżynier). Magister is the Polish equivalent of Master's degree. Doktor is the Polish equivalent of a doctoral degree (PhD)."

Which now keeps me wondering... where did the BCom came from?

Work / What is a 'HND' Business qualification in Poland? [42]


Yes - exactly, you start licencjat after 12 years of schooling (same as Bachelors).

As for Bologna Process - this is new to me, but I'm glad to see this. I completely agree that there is too many mickey-mouse degrees around.

And you DO need a degree for MBA (at least a reputable one) - if you are not over 40 and don't have years of managerial experience in top level management - the once that don't request this are as mickey-mouse as some licencjat courses around.

Work / What is a 'HND' Business qualification in Poland? [42]


Yes - some institutions actually quantify this, usually over 35-40 (depends, but generally this type of age) and over 7 years in managerial position - subject to interview :) believe me, went through many of the "specifications" as I wasn't sure if my Licencjat would be accepted...


That's because:
1) we start school at 7
2) Brits start school at 5
therefore...
1) they do they GCSE when 17, but they are actually lower level than Matura
2) only A levels (or Foundation) is considered good enough for Uni entry - that's why A-levels are often considered equal to Matura.
The reality is - that this is all complicated and it does depend on the level of institution. Hopefully Bologna Process will put some clarity to this.