Poland, Three Months In

Today marks my three month anniversary in Szczecin: time to take stock of where I am and how things are going.

On the good side:

Made nice friends, have a fine apartment in a nice neighborhood, close and convenient to everything.

On the iffy side:

Maybe I’ll get to stay here, maybe my stupid arm will start working better and maybe the sun will shine again.

It shone today in a slice of blue sky, but by the time I got up to stare out the window, it (and the slice of blue) retreated behind the seemingly perennial cloud cover.

That’s the quick version; now for the extended play.

People

Indeed, I keep on meeting nice people, Luisa and Ewelina being prime examples of such.

I should tell you that, when Luisa informed me, a while back, that Polish people tend to be rather abrupt, I didn’t quite believe her, exactly because everyone had been so nice.

Now I know better.

When my recently broken arm and I were on the bus and a rather large woman sat down next to me, I tried to communicate to her that my arm was in a cast and could she please not jostle it as she had been doing.

Not on purpose, of course. She kept fiddling with her purse and shopping bag. 

I didn’t know how to say please; all I did was show her the cast with a look of supplication on my face. I didn’t understand her words but her gestures were clear: I should just move to another seat... even though I had been sitting there before she came along!

Since then, I’ve had other rude interactions: with the gate guard at the post office and with a man who refused to get out of the way so I could get off a tram. By that time, I knew how to say ‘excuse me’ but he still wouldn’t move!

In the case of the gate guard, I didn’t understand anything he said but, like the woman on the bus, his tone and body language came through crystal clear.    

Obviously, learning the language will be a priority, if only so that I can stand up for myself when I get barked at.

Language lessons

For all of the languages I can speak, I have never taken a language lesson outside of high school – and I already knew the languages they were teaching!

So taking language lessons is a first for me.

I have trained as a language teacher and taught language lessons, so I have a rough idea how such things should go... but then, not every teacher has the same methodology.

I like my language teacher: she is smart, funny, pretty and personable. I don’t particularly care for her teaching style, though.

I will admit that I am perhaps not the easiest student to teach: always full of questions, trying to find connections – root words, conjugation, declensions...

Granted, we’ve had only 3 lessons and last session was the first time she assigned homework. As we’ve done no review of material studied in the previous lessons so far – just jumped right in to new material, I hope there will be at least some review from now on.

And pronunciation! A very difficult aspect of this language, but we’ve done no role play (the conversations in the textbooks) and no drills. Mostly, I end up repeating after the CD that came with the book... I could just do that at home, by myself!

Food

There are, ahem... some er... slurp gulp... tasty things to eat here; for one, the sheer variety of breads.

I have only tried a few breads and dishes.

By no means am I an expert on Polish cuisine, but there have been forays that I delight in telling you about.

The most popular side dish is a tangy pickled cabbage that so far, has been served with every meal out that I’ve sampled. Whether it features with every meal... according to my two friends, yes, it does.

The favorite snack food is called pasztecik, a deep-fried yeast-dough snack filled with either meat or veg and served with a side of clear borscht that I have yet to sample... so much food, so little stomach!

The second-fav seems to be the Doner kebap, which I’ve sampled plenty of.

Pizza here does not seem to have the punch I am used to: crispy crust, lots of cheese... I have only sampled 2 pizzas since I’ve been here and, while the occasions were memorable, the pizza seemed a little on the frugal side compared to past pizzas I have devoured.

I’ve mostly been cooking at home, to tell the truth. With my left arm incapacitated (and being a left-hander), I really didn’t want to embarrass myself by dribbling food down my front in every restaurant across Szczecin.

Also, I am trying to stick to a German diet: big meal at lunch, light breakfast and dinner.

Here, there is a large variety of sausages – including Polska kielbasa, in case you’re interested. Recently, I discovered these amazing bacon chicken wraps...

In short, no problems with food.

And if there were, I could always head to BK, Subway, McD or KFC! NOT!!!

Bureaucracy

I find officialdom in Poland to be at least as convoluted as in China, if not more so.

I’ve already told you all about the demands for documentation at the office of foreign affairs; now I share the other ones.

My first brush with bureaucracy involved the post office; their sending me a registered letter to inform me I had to pay customs duty on the meds I had ordered.

Once that was paid, a second letter informed me that the Lidocane shipped to me through the mail was a controlled substance that needed special permission for receipt.

Lidocane? I didn’t order any Lidocane!

Come to find out, it was about my thyroid meds again; they just wrote Lidocane on the letter.

This time they were requiring a special dispensation letter from the postmaster general in Warsaw, permitting me to receive my meds through the mail.

How was I supposed to get that???

And why did they charge me 288 Zloty customs duty before assuring themselves that I had the postmaster’s blessing to receive my meds?

No, they didn’t refund the customs fee.     

My next brush with bureaucracy was at the hospital, in consultation over my broken arm.

Indeed, it needs surgery. However, because I did not yet have insurance, I would have had to pay for the operation in full, out of pocket, before even being considered for surgery.

Money was not so much the issue as getting it here is; I can only withdraw so much from my stateside bank each day.

And insurance wasn’t going to help at this point; they all have a pre-existing condition clause that wouldn’t cover my arm.

Nevertheless, armed with insurance, I went back to the hospital two weeks later, on my appointed day. They told me I had to prepay for the appointment because I had no insurance.

They charged me 80 Zloty to tell me I needed surgery and I should really make arrangements... nothing else; not so much as removing the cast or taking a new X-ray.

The arm still works but it is now deformed. I am doing therapy on it by myself. It seems to be getting better, little by little.

How is Szczecin Working Out?

I have a (heated) place to live and food to eat. I have a bit of social contact and all of the solitude I need to get my writing done.

There is no bike riding yet. For one, my busted wing needs to heal better and for two, it is a bit cold and wet.

Walking is going better now that the vertigo has subsided. It helps that I have Nordic walking poles; they lend a bit of stability.      

There are plenty of buses to ride yet, but I’ve pretty much covered historic Old Town on foot – Szczecin is not a megalopolis.

Now I just have to find the castles and a few other landmarks!

I am hungry to travel; to board a train and go exploring but, with the uncertainty of my permanent stay here, I am reluctant to spend frivolously lest I have to relocate in a few months, should my visa not be approved.

I’ll admit I am not filled with wide-eyed wonder at the prospect of uncovering this country’s every secret like I was in China but I am privileged to live here... however long the stay may be.

All in all, I quite like it!