The Fifth Country in Four weeks

I’m currently in Poland, the land of my birth. There’s much I could write about it - I’m not sure where to start.

I’m here to visit family, who are always hospitable and enormous fun. Life revolves around meal times, which are charecterized by large numbers of people and tables groaning under the weight of food. It doesn’t take more than a couple of days before I feel like groaning under the weight of eating so much of it. I should have done my detox in Bali after Poland!

The country changes rapidly and it seems that every time I come, major things have changed. Not surprising perhaps - when you don’t see a person or a place for an extended period, changes are easy to spot. Just call me Captain Obvious.

Some of the differences I’ve noticed this trip include the presence of English in every day speech. I gave one of my cousins ear-rings, which she declared to be “the best”. This may not seem like a big deal to those who speak English but please remember that this is a country that 15 years ago didn’t have a McDonalds. It’s still a country where people fear draughts (wind, not the game or the drink) and where you are just as likely to get abuse as customer service if you visit a shop or a hotel. OK, that last bit was a slight exaggeration - customer service is generally pretty good but the old attitude is still present in places. However, now, as well as McDonalds, shopping centres and new apartments on every corner, there is an extraordinary prevalence of English in every day life.

Technology is responsible for much of it - ‘click’ is used rather than a Polish word that means click - but there are lots of other words appearing too: hot, top, the best, design, serum, to name just a few. It’s hard to explain exactly why this is freaking me out but let me give it a go. Having grown up in Australia, I didn’t often hear other people speaking Polish. When I did hear it in random places, it was always a bit of a shock. Whenever I get to Poland, it always takes me a few days to adjust to the fact that everyone is speaking a language I’m not used to anyone understanding. Not to mention the fact that my name is a dime a dozen and it takes me ages to adjust to not turning around and responding when someone says it. Now, I also have an additional shock that I hear people speaking Polish and then with increasing frequency, a Polish-ized English word appears. This is probably not that interesting but this evolution of language and my experience with it is occupying quite a bit of my brain. Clearly I don’t have enough other things to worry about!

So, if you have any problems that need solving, send them to me to resolve - I clearly have brain space a-plenty.

When I get to a quicker internet connection I will upload photos from the area around my Grandma’s house (where I’m currently staying) and Warsaw (where I went last week to lodge my Brazilian visa application).

Love you all and consider it a blessing that you aren't as vexed as I am about something as inoffensive as language.