Homeland By Choice

Here’s a little project just recently started by a small group of us.

Inspired by Stardust.

http://homelandbychoice.blogspot.com/

Join us!

Pustelnik and Pawlikowska

Because of my cool job working with cool people, I get invited to cool events where I can meet even more cool people. Such was the case last night. I was invited to hear 2 very cool guest speakers: Piotr Pustelnik and Beata Pawlikowska.

[I will take a moment here to mention that the hostess of the evening was one of the coolest of all. She was really witty and clever and made the whole evening flow smoothly with a big dose of intelligent humor. Ms. Agata, thank you for the invitation.]

Piotr Pustelnik is a Polish alpine and high-altitude climber. He holds the Himalayan and Karakoram Crown otherwise known as the Eight-thousander. That means that he has reached the summit of all 14 mountains that reach an altitude of more than 8000 meters. This feat took Mr. Pustelnik 20 years starting in 1990 until 2010 when he reached the final summit at the age of 58. That has to be the definition of cool.

He talked about his many expeditions, the mountains that “like him” and the ones that don’t. He described some of his achievements and failures throughout the years and his motivations for continuing his climbing career. When I asked what pushed him to go on, from his first expedition to the second and from the second to the third and so on, Mr Pustelnik explained that “the first time is like no time” and with each time, we need to prove to ourselves that we can actually do it.

Beata Pawlikowska, as she describes herself on her business card, is a traveler, a journalist and a hunter. As she explained she is a hunter of experiences. And what many interesting experiences she has had! I don’t even know how to describe her career in just a few sentences because it seems she has done it all. Radio, television, journalism, publishing and of course traveling around the world, especially to her beloved jungle. The world according to this Blondynka is a very exciting place. (Blondyka is used in many of her book titles)

Ms. Pawlikowska talked a bit about her career and how she saved up for her first big trip abroad. She talked about the practicalities (or rather the impracticalities) of life in the jungle, at the same time one of the most beautiful and inhospitable places on the planet. She shared with us some of the dangerous, humorous, and rewarding experiences she has had through her travels and the conclusions she has drawn in her life.

I got the sense that Ms. Pawlikowska has got travel is in her blood and that podróż (travel) is her life. It seems that the challenges and isolation of the jungle have allowed Ms. Pawlikowska to get an insight into herself and our world that we, stuck in the daily grind, are unable to achieve. She describes the jungle as one place on our planet where we one can be truly oneself, where truth exists. This is in contrast to the lives we are used to where pozory (appearances) are such an important part of how we relate to each other, so much so that we may not really know or understand who we actually are. This collision of cultures and the subsequent culture shock that she describes works both ways – first when entering the jungle and then when returning to Poland, to civilization.

While it would be nice if we could all experience reaching the highest mountain summits or surviving months at a time in the jungle, we all know that it is just not going to happen. For some of us, that may be disappointing, but I look at it another way. I am on my podróż all the time, every minute of every day of my life is a wielka wyprawa (big expedition). I am climbing my mountain, facing new challenges, succeeding, failing and moving on, I hope, a bit wiser. My life is my podróż and at the moment, Poland is my jungle.

Where’s your jungle?

Capital of Culture - Stolica Kultury

Sitting at a particularly long traffic light (90 seconds red, 45 seconds green and another 90 seconds red before I could go), I switched over from my usual talk radio station to the other station, the station I don’t often listen to. My talk radio station was turning over the same topic that they have been turning over for a while now – Why do we have enough money for a new fountain and stadium, but we don’t have enough money for preschools? In this city, that’s the eternal question. It hits pretty close to home, and I am sick of hearing about it actually because the fountain is built, the stadium is under construction and my Rosie will not go to preschool next year.

But anyhow, where was I?

Oh, the radio station.

On the radio station that I usually don’t listen to, they are going through their usual banter, putting stars and politicians in their place. I stick to this station until the number of fat, fart, sex and stupid blond jokes reaches a saturation point and then I switch back to my talk radio station. All the while, I’ve got my eye on the traffic lights and on the 2 young boys who are trying to persuade the drivers trapped at the light to have their windows washed for the small price of some spare change.

The boys are very polite.

Ma’am, may I wash your window please? Just for some spare change? Or even for a nice smile?

I decline just as nicely – I have no spare change and I am all smiled out - and this time they move on to the next car with no arguments.

Sir, may I wash your window please? For some spare change or maybe a cigarette?

The gentleman agrees and pays in tobacco. He even offers the boy a light.

How very civilized.

A commercial comes on my talk radio station. The City is a candidate to be the European Capital of Culture (2016) –Europejska Stolica Kultury.

Cool.

As the boys walk back to the front of the line of cars, I overhear from one of them…

Tak, kurwa, słyszałeś co powiedziała? Ja pierdolę, następny raz dostanie w łeb. (Fuck, did you hear what she said? Holy shit, next time she gets it in the head.)

How very cultured we can be when we want to be.

No worries

Rosie did not get into pre-school in Stage 2 of the recruitment process. I think that the principal and I have a different understanding of the phrase nie martw się (don’t worry).

When I asked about my Rosie in Stage 1 of recruitment, the principal replied nie martw się. I understood nie martw się as Rosie will get in - her sister attends the school already for heaven’s sake. The principal understood nie martw się as go away and leave me alone, you stupid parents.

When I asked about Rosie in Stage 2 of recruitment, the principal replied nie martw się. I understood nie martw się as Rosie will get in - there are 2 spots open for heaven’s sake and the principal has the final say. The principal understood nie martw się as bugger off, you stupid parents.

When the principal asked, one day before the class outing, if any parents could please, please, please come along as a chaperone (because they had one too few), I said nie martw się. I understood nie martw się as Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it. The principal understood nie martw się as Don’t worry. They’ll take care of it. And we did. Misiu showed up the next day bright and early and took the place of the absent teacher.

Hmm.

Pre-school, we have a problem.

Now that we are on the reserve list waiting for somebody to drop out from this pre-school and hoping that Rosie will be selected for that (so far non-existent) spot, I am really starting to worry.

Much to do

I have a large translation to do. I’ve already done a lot, but there is still a lot more. I work on it everyday, but even though I keep chugging along, it seems to never end. At least it is interesting.

Translating is very bad for your waistline, at least the way I do it with an iced coffee with straw parked in front of me (no hands required). I make the iced coffee myself (coffee, ice, milk, vanilla sugar, whipped cream). I suppose I could make a lower calorie version, but it wouldn’t be as good and I am quite sure the quality of my translations would suffer. Of that I am sure.

I will finish, though, eventually. In anticipation of all the free time I will have ;) I have hit empik to stock up on books. Thanks empik and your 20% off of all books in English (until Wednesday). It even includes cookbooks :)

Back to work…

Pijana, ciężarna i za kierownicą

Drunk, pregnant and behind the wheel

This is quite possibly the worst headline I have ever heard.

I heard it on the radio as I was making my way through the traffic today - more traffic than usual because some big whigs are in town and the cavalcade gets first priority.

I decided to google the story to find out more details. You can do the same if you’d like. You will find a story dated from today. You will find another story from last month. You will find a story from last spring and so and so on. The locations change as do the promile (the blood/alcohol content), but sadly the story repeats itself.

So just for clarification:

• Do not drink alcohol and drive.






• Do not drink alcohol when you are pregnant.






• Do not drink alcohol while pregnant and drive.

Drive carefully!

Polish Graffiti

Polish Graffiti is hardcore!