People

I’ve said this before, the Internet expands my sense of community.  As I write this, I’m listening to a friend preaching at our church in Tucson via the web – love the connection to home and the familiar.  He’s a layperson, but an excellent speaker and often fills in when the pastors have to be away. Kelly makes reference to his accident in the sermon.  An industrial accident left him quadriplegic, but if you listen, I’m sure you’ll agree a wise, godly man, who leads a very active life.

The Internet has also helped us meet new people here in Poznan.  You may recall that we were interviewed just before Easter for an article in the local newspaper; we got to know Justyna, journalist and runner.  The newspaper found us because of this website.  That interview was seen by Maciek, a young man preparing to enter law school with a passion for broadcast journalism.  He has created a new weekly radio program, International Poznan.  The show focuses on foreigners living in Poznan and Poles who have lived abroad.  You can find them on facebook.

Just about the time Ed was leaving the hospital, he received a facebook message from Maciek asking him to appear on the International Poznan.  It was an compelling episode featuring my pilot husband, who has been living in Poznan for over three years, as well as a young Polish woman who went to college in the United States on a golf scholarship – an Olympic hopeful! Her brother came along to the interview and it turns out that he and Ed knew each other from the driving range; the golf world is a small community in Poland.  Also in that episode were two Americans, one who runs Bigfoot, a coffee shop in Poznan and the other is working on a master’s degree in Economics.  You can catch the interview with Ed here and check out this really cute promo for the show.

The American episode (facebook photo by Maciej Męczyński)

An added benefit for us, Maciek felt that we would hit it off with his parents and invited us to dinner at their home.  We had a great time – such a fun, interesting family.  See?  The Internet isn’t isolating, sometimes, it leads to new friendships.

Great memories

I’ve really enjoyed listening to the broadcasts on facebook.  What a variety of stories, from a young man from Guatemala, who was 10 years old when he saw television for the first time to a diplomat/businessman/academic who has twice served as Poland’s ambassador to Germany.  International Poznan just wrapped up their first season and will be off the air during the summer.  We attended a party earlier this week with guests from the first season.  It was a beautiful evening; we were sitting outside at Weranda Take-Away behind Stary Browar, overlooking the park.  We were at a long table, so we didn’t get to chat with everyone there, but the folks at our end of the table were fascinating; they included two young women from the dental college (one Indo-Canadian, one from Ukraine), the American economics student (he’ll be writing his thesis in Polish!), the brother of the Poland’s newest female golf professional, a new Lech Poznan football player from Finland, and Maciek, our host.  The fun went on for hours, until after dark when the mosquitoes finally won out.

Looking for a name they don’t have?  Not to worry – I’ve been told there is also a bottle with the Polish equivalent of “dude.”

Poland is, of course, part of Coca-Cola’s worldwide personalized marketing campaign.  They’re printing the 100 most popular names in the country on bottles.  A strategy that I suspect will work well for them.

Polish names while originally difficult for me, have become commonplace and pronounceable (although I’m sure I’m still easily identified as a foreigner).  I can even recognize the suffixes that indicate a nickname.  See the name of the far left, Piotrek?  I’ve never seen this name before, but I know the -ek indicates that the name is diminutive, and I’m well familiar with the name Piotr (Peter in English).

Polish names have come up in conversation a couple of times.  I don’t remember how we got on the topic, but over a cup of tea with our friends from downstairs, it came up that we had more freedom or more choices in the US in choosing names for our children than they do in Poland.  This thought surprised me and when I mentioned it to Caroline as we peddled around the lake one morning, she said that yes, there was a book or list of approved names, and that it had presented quite a problem for friends of theirs.  I think the couple was from Kenya and were understandably upset with the prospect of not being allowed to give their child the name they had planned.   I don’t remember how this was resolved, but is has to be a problem for many having children in Poland.

New Poland Express (NPE) reported last week that a change is planned for name requirements/restrictions in Poland.  While they are becoming more lenient, it still seems unbelievably controlling to me.  What do you make of this from NPE?

The laws, which are being prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will still prevent a child from being given more than two first names, a shortened form of a name or a name which may be considered amusing or rude. In order to ensure this, couples will still need to seek approval from the ministry before the name is allowed.

We had no desire to  give our children any of their many nicknames for their legal name, but we have a friend whose birth certificate says Billy, not William.  That would not be permitted here.  A LOT of names being given in other parts of the world would not be allowed here.

Wikipedia tells me that fashion and celebrities influence baby names in Poland, but they also say that many name have been in use since the Middle Ages.  I’ve wondered about this.  I know of several young women named Dorata.  In English this would be Dorothy, and if I heard of a woman named Dorothy, I would guess that she’s older than I.  In my lifetime, I’ve met one woman my age with that name, but I can think of a many more my mother’s age.  There’s a life cycle to names in the states.  Many names that were popular when I went to school weren’t used at all in our daughters’ generation.  I don’t know that that’s the case here.

That’s enough of my rambling on Polish first names; we’ll save surnames for another day.  As far as American first names, the Freakonimics guys say a child’s first name can tell you a lot about their parents.

After getting an eyeful of so many Polish nationals, we were surprised by the very strict dress code when Ed was in the hospital.

The nurses kept insisting that he wear pajamas.  Don’t get me wrong; he wasn’t running around in his birthday suit, rather a T-shirt and gym shorts.  The same thing he would wear for lounging about and sleeping at home.  That wasn’t good enough.  We had to get a couple of pair of traditional pajamas (long pants not short).   After appearing shocked that he didn’t have a robe to wear when having tests downstairs, one of the nurses was kind enough to find us a loaner.

If Poland were full of people who dress conservatively and in general, keep themselves covered up, the hospital expectations would make perfect sense.  But that’s not the case.   Let me give you some examples of the “eyeful” I mentioned above.

The sauna and steam room at our local gym are coed.  It’s not unusual to walk into the steam room to find women topless.  Men in the sauna are polite enough to drape their towel over themselves when I entered the sauna, but I have seen countless bare butts exiting the sauna and in the hallway.

School children change into their gym clothes in the classroom.  My American friend who taught here, said she would always ask her students if they wouldn’t prefer to change in the restroom, but they never did.  And that hasn’t changed by the time their in high school or college.  The changing room for the Euro volunteers was coed.  My young Polish colleagues thought nothing of “dropping trou” to change into their uniform.

It continues into adulthood.  Just this week, the woman (our age) working out next to Ed in the gym at the physical therapist’s office stood up, stepped out of her pants and changed into her skirt.  Yep, right there in the gym among the yoga mats and exercise bikes.

Ed and his colleagues spent an evening in a gymnasium with one of the American style football teams for a winter practice session.  When their time was up, the football team left for the showers and the women’s volleyball team took their place on the floor.  No one gave it a second thought when a few of the football players, sporting a healthy glow and nothing else returned to the bleachers to dress.

Are you familiar with the sheet draping technique used by American massage therapist?  The way they hold the sheet while you’re turning over on the table?  That doesn’t exist here.  An large washcloth will be placed on your top half or your bottom half, whichever they’re not working on at the time.

As the temperature rises, we’ll see more skin at the lake, and it won’t just be young skin.  There is nothing unusual here about seeing a great-grandma sunbathing on a park bench in her undies.  Don’t even get me started on men urinating along the sidewalk.  If only I were quicker with my camera.

As I mention all of this, I don’t mean to sound derogatory (except about the men urinating in public).  Our cultures are different, and until our hospital encounter, Poles had never stuck us as hyper-modest, let’s button that top button kind of people.   It seemed so ironic to me that hospital patients are expected to be fully dressed in layers, when in other areas of the city people are peeling their clothes off and no one gives it a second thought.