Q&A Part 2

3.  Why Gliwice?

The short version is that when our job in Radom went south we were lucky enough to have a friend in Gliwice who was kind enough to help us get back on our feet (with the assistance of a lovely lady back in Kamloops who was wonderful enough to let us rent her flat for the time being).  We found jobs and fell in love with the city in the meantime.


4.  What Are Some of the Biggest Challenges of Living Here?

The language barrier is the biggest hurdle we've found ourselves leaping over.  Other than that I would have to say that our biggest nightmares have been paying bills/student loans back in Canada (the Polish Zloty doesn't translate well) and trying to file taxes.  Don't get me started on that.

5.  What Do You Like About Living In Poland

These won't get answered in any ranked order.  I'm just going to write these as I think of them.

1.  Bakeries

Oh my gods is this ever one of the best and worst things we could have discovered.  Polish baking is fantastic!  It doesn't matter whether it's bread or some kind of sweet, the stuff that comes out of the bakeries here is amazing.  While W-Z is a chocolatey specialty particular to Poland I have to say one of my favourites is Kremowka Papieska -- aka Kremowka Wadowicki (pronounced kremoovka Vadovitski), which is basically two inches of dense cream between two sheets of flaky pastry and dusted with confectioner's sugar.  Sarah is also passionately fond of the coconut macaroons at the two bakeries around the corner from us...they have very different styles of baking them, but she seems to love both equally.

2.  Reliable Public Transit

Compared to Kamloops Gliwice, has the bus service of the gods.  Even if you're trying to get to an outlying area there really isn't anywhere that busses don't go. 

3.  Polish Foods

This one may require another blog post.  While it's easy enough to  tell my readers at home what foods from Canada I miss, the things we sometimes eat here may require some explaining.

4.  Things Are Close

Even if they close rather early by the standards we're used to, there's always a grocery store of some variety within walking distance.

5.  There Is Always Something New To Learn

I don't know how Sarah feels on this subject, but one of the things I have loved most about being abroad is learning new things about the area, the people and the culture.

What still surprises me after spending the (almost) last year here is that in general Poles are so negative about their country.  They don't think it's very interesting or viable on a global basis at all.  They usually laugh when I explain to them that from my perspective Poland is like the woman who spent years with an abusive husband, and is finally getting on her feet after she's gotten the nerve to divorce and start over.

They tend to correct this view by suggesting that she puts his body in the trunk of her car and takes him to a lake.  They don't have a very good relationship with Russia and it shows in the way they talk about Communism here.

There will be more Q&A to follow.  For the moment I have to go do some grocery shopping before things close.  There is another government holiday this weekend, and apparently nothing will be open in Gliwice all of the long weekend.