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My Blogs of Life as an Expatriate
"He who travels far will often see things "Far removed from what he believed was Truth. "When he talks about it in the fields at home, "He is often accused of lying, "For the obdurate people will not believe "What they do not see and distinctly feel. "Inexperience, I believe, "Will give little credence to my song." {reported by Hermann Hesse in The Journey to the East }
My Blog on Life as an Expat in Poland Foreword: I arrived in Poland in August of 2006 with my second wife of one month, with my young 6 year-old son from my first marriage. On November 17th of that same year, she left us, forever. My blog does not start there, because I was busy trying to keep our marriage together. Part of the problem was her problem, but part of the problem was Poland. Wroclaw, Poland was not nice to foreigners, not even foreigners of Polish decent (such as myself). For one thing, the egregious and timely bureaucratic procedures for obtaining a work permit / work visa was to say the least, incredibly time-consuming and laborious. Three months after my three month travel visa had expired, I finally received my work visa. Meantime, I couldn't leave the country. The school never offered to help me get visas for my family, and when I asked, the school personnel said, "You can do that yourself." Yeah, right! How was I supposed to do that when I didn't speak or read the language. My son and I tried to make due without a wife and mother for several months, but it was just too much for me to handle. When I was interviewed for the job, I told the school administration that I was a single father (and I was at the time). Plus, even though I knew that there was a possibility that I would get married, I did not expect my new wife to "jump right into" being a mom. I had raised my son by myself since he was one-year old. I had full intentions of taking my son to school with me in the mornings and home with me in the afternoons. What the school administration neglected to tell me was that my son's campus was all the way across town from the campus that I'd be working in; And, that my son's school started 45 minutes after mine did. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the logistical problems that this created for me. What was the administration thinking? I hired a nanny for a while, but she didn't like having to get up to take Titus to school, and then have nothing to do until 3pm. Plus, if she was late, I was late. We left Poland the second week of February, 2007. W So, I hope you'll forgive me if my blog seems short.
October 28, 2006: Horrific Behavior When Recently, in Poland, I was made aware of a horrific incident. Here is the report:
Question: What kind of parents raised those five boys? Comment: The country is outraged (and it should be). Our school held a minute of silence in commemoration for the young woman who took her life.
October
31, 2006:
And the sky shall become as black as
sackcloth... The other day (I think it was Saturday, Oct. 27,
2006), Titus and I were playing catch in the nearby park during evening
twilight. The sky was covered with clouds, which made the sky darker than it
would normally be. Then, when I looked up to see the ball that Titus had tossed
me, I noticed that the already dark sky was now speckled with black, moving
(flying) animals, hundreds of them. I'd estimate that the breadth of the
procession was fifty head, spead out about one animal distance apart from each
other. If each animal was a foot (which seems about right), then the procession
was 100 feet wide. The length thereof can only be measured in time. Titus and I
stood looking up for at least ten minutes. It seemed like the procession would
never end. At first, I thought that they might be birds, but their wings were
webbed, like.... gulp! BATS!!!!!!!!!!! The first thing that went through my mind was,
"What if these were vampire bats?" "Isn't Transylvania near
Poland?" "Maybe I can run faster than they can fly." But, they
didn't seem interested in anything on the ground. It seemed that they were in a
hurry to get somewhere special. When we got home, I decided to google
"Wroclaw Bats". I found some interesting information about bats in
Poland. Evidently, when the Germans occupied Poland during WWII, they built some
extensive underground fortifications, which the bats now use as winter
hibernation grounds. No one seems to really know exactly when the bats first
inhabited the caverns. After the German Nazis were defeated, the Russian forces
occupied the fortifications (but perhaps not all). After the Russians left in
1993, scavengers (humans) have been searching the man-made caverns for burried
treasures. Somehow, throughout it all, the bats have managed to survive there,
and recently, the part with the most bats has been made into a nature preserve.
Evidently, every year about this time, bats come from Czech, Germany and other
parts of Poland to hibernation in the caverns. The bats that we saw, must have
been on their way to the Nietoperek (Bat Preserve) at Miedzyrzecz
Fortified Region. By my calculations (based upon the setting of the sun in
the west, the bats were traveling North by Northwest, which is exactly the way
to Nietoperek from here. For more information, consult the following
websites: http://www.wiejce.pl/html/strona.php?id=foto&lang=gb&idf=8_3 http://www.iol.ie/~corkbatgroup/Nietoperek.htm HALLOW
E'EN' in POLAND While the Poles all know of Halloween, it is not
celebrated here. Poles celebrate the Day of the Dead on November 1st. Whole
aisles in the hypermarkets are devoted to candles, which my wife and I are sure
are for the upcoming holiday. The Day of the Dead is a national holiday in
Poland.
November 30, 2006: Postal Strike I've recently been denied residency (and proper visa status) in Poland. Reason: didn't make the deadline for application Reason for not making the deadline: Well, Poland's bureaucracy is infamous (at least amongst the Poles). There are a plethora of hoops to jump through to do anything. After jumping through most hoops (taking three months), I had to wait for some documents to arrive in the mail (this was probably to verify that I was actually living where I indicated I was/am living). The documents arrived after the deadline. This was due to the Polish postal strike (evidently). When the immigration office was notified of the reason for our tardiness in submitting the documents, they informed us: "Not our problem." However, there appears to be a 14 day grace period. So, we'll see how it goes.
December, 17, 2006: Land of Red Tape I don't want to write about my residency documents. They still haven't been approved. This is now four months that I have been living in Poland. My tourist visa has expired and if by some chance, my residency is denied again, I will have problems exiting the country. I don't know what they will do. They will definitely detain me. I'll probably miss my flight. And I'll probably have to pay a fine. Welcome to Poland, the land of bloody red tape. Two days before my winter vacation, I was told by my employer that I cannot leave the country until the documentation is complete. GREAT! What if I had booked flights? I'd have been screwed, royally. Weather Report For a place where the sun sets at 3:30pm and it is night by 4pm (as winter solstice quickly approaches), it is remarkably warm. The grass is still green in Wroclaw, Poland. On November 2nd, we had our first snow. The next day, it sleeted. Then, the next day, it rained. Since then, it has rained about once a week (on average). The morning frost disappeared, until recently, as temperatures have dropped a bit in the past few days. Yet, the grass is still green. All the leaves of the deciduous trees have dropped, but the grass is still green. Amazing! However, I am told by the Poles that we can expect a white Christmas. We'll see.
December 21, 2006: Of Banks and Beggars in Poland The beggars in Poland are funny. I write "funny", because they are honest. They will come up to you and ask for money for beer. I am told that it works. I guess, sometimes honesty is rewarded. The banks in Poland do not exchange money, with the exception of Euros (but you may have to have an account in order to get Euros from a bank in Poland). If you want to exchange money in Poland, you have to go to a "Kantor", which sounds like the name of an evil troll, such as the one in Ernest's Halloween movie: "Ernest Scared Stupid". Actually, I've deciphered the meaning of the word; It means: branch office (akin to the German word: kontor). Evidently, the full title of an 'exchange [branch] office' is: Kantor Wymiany Walnut, but the only word you will see is Kantor. Don't worry, there are Kantors all over the place [I should qualify this: downtown in BIG cities, Kantors are all over the place. I wouldn't expect to find them in the more rural areas, nor in the smaller towns]. But, be aware that only certain currencies are exchanged there. Stirling (the Pound) is accepted, but paper only. Japanese money is accepted, but not Chinese or Korean. (Korean money is not traded on the open market, but Chinese money is; so, I was disappointed that they wouldn't accept my Chinese bills). Euros are, of course, accepted, even coins. U.S. and Canadian money is accepted, but no coins. [I think Canadian money is also accepted.]
December 22, 2006 The Land of Dog-lovers Nearly everyone in this city (Wroclaw, Poland) has a dog. (Or so it would seem). These signs are all around my neighborhood. Even if you DO see these signs, watch your step in Poland. People are supposed to pick up after their dogs, but as you can imagine, that doesn't always happen.
January 22, 2007 Snow, finally In the photo below, dated December 22, you can see the the grass was still green. Well, after getting a foot of snow today, I don't think that that green grass is going to last very long. Residency The Polish government is giving me a second chance to get my residency permit. That's nice. ...except, I've recently tendered my resignation. I'm going to be leaving Poland soon.
by Leon of Leon's EFL Planet |
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