The first time I met Misiu

Do you remember the first time you met your spouse? I do. I was sitting in my room at PZU writing a shopping list in Polish and trying to learn how to pronounce the words before going out.

My shopping list looked something like this:

chleb – hlep (bread)

herbata – hair-bought-a (tea)

mleko – mlake-0 (milk)

masło – mass-wo (butter)

ser – sair (cheese)

cukier – tsook-air (sugar)

Don’t judge me. It was my second day in Poland.

Then my intercom rang and somebody said, “Rebecca? I’m a teacher from school”. I was so excited that I didn’t even tell him my name was not Rebecca. I went out on the landing to see who it was and I heard heavy foot steps climbing the stairs. Then as a head appeared, I said hi and this guy, my Misiu turned around, looking up from the stairs as I looked down and said hi back. I remember what he was wearing – green/grey Levi’s trousers, a t-shirt, black shoes and a black belt. It was August and he was also very suntanned. Sounds romantic but it actually was not because the next thing I said was, “Do you speak English?” Misiu replied, “Yes,” and I said, “Great. We’re going shopping. By the way, I’m not Rebecca.”

Who would have thought we would end up together?

By the way, Rebecca was a teacher who was supposed to come to “my” school. She got ill at the last minute, and I came in her place.