Valentine's Day

It came as quite a surprise to find that Poland celebrates Valentines Day. It actually seems more popular that Halloween is at this time. I asked around to see how you say Happy Valentine's Day! Well, there is no translation for this in Polish. People will say "Happy Valentine's Day" to each other in English. Thing 1's teacher told me that Valentine's Day has only been celebrated in Poland for the past 5 years and that they borrowed the holiday from the US. Well, for only celebrating for 5 years they go all out. Cards, candy, stufed animals, and flowers galore! Even Valentine's Gift Wrap!

In contrast, Halloween is still developing a following. Poland celebrates Carnival season which started earlier this month. That's sort of like Halloween in that people dress up in costumes and go to all kinds of parties, but there is no trick or treating. In fact, as I write, Poles are probably overindulging with food and drinks tonight since they celebrate "Fat Thursday" instead of "Fat Tuesday" as a prelude to Lent. I guess it takes them a week to get over their indulgence before Ash Wednesday. I attended one of these Carnival festivals in Madrid a few years ago. While it gets crazy, I doubt it compares to Mardi Gras.

Aspects of the Foreign Service Lifestyle

Now that we are getting ready to travel back to the States, reality is kind of catching up with me. I am looking forward to visiting with friends and family of course. But, I have heard much said that coming back home is sometimes more difficult than moving abroad. I have some suspicions about this phenomena.

Foreign Service life is like living in a bubble. No matter where you are in the world (I have had others share stories of their lives in other countries), you get set up in a sizable home depending on where you go. Each house is secured like a fortress and in some locations, guards are employed to keep you safe. Maids, nannies, gardeners, drivers, are a normal way of life. And not just someone who comes in once in a while. In some countries, you have a live in maid or nanny that pretty much runs your household for you.

There is a reason for it. Without the household staff, life would be much more difficult. Think about it. In the States, you may have to clean your own home, do your own laundry, shop for your own groceries, but chances are you are not trying to immerse yourself in a new culture, environment and language at the same time. Socially, you have to start from scratch and make new friends when you are abroad. This never stops because once you have established a friendship with someone, chances are they are leaving the post within the year.

You do tend to save lots of money when you accept these assignments. We did pay off alot of bills with the sale of our house last year, but we still have some of the same bills. The difference is that usually, goods and services in many places are cheaper and if they are not, the government adds a cost of living allowance (COLA) that adjusts to the strength of our dollar in any given country every pay period. We also find that we pay cash for almost everything here. Since you really can't charge alot of things, you end up saving. We'll see how true this is when spring arrives and we start traveling.

I have managed to temper my desire for assistance since I know that eventually, the clock will strike midnight, the ball will be over and I will have to go back to doing household chores myself. What will be very difficult to do for the two weeks being home is the the fact that I will now be responsible for my own laundry. To me, laundry piling up is as certain as death and taxes and as dreaded. Washing isn't necessarily tedious, but having to fold so many clothes...I hate it. You think you have lots of laundry as a single person. Then, it goes up when you marry. Add a couple of kids and you literally find yourself doing laundry round the clock. It never stops. At first, I was not going to have our housekeeper do laundry. But, one day she went ahead and washed some clothing and did a great job. She does about 3-4 loads while she is here in addition to the towels and bedding. I don't know how she does it all in one day.

Our housekeeper has been a blessing to us. Not just because she cleans our house and does our laundry. She is a very descent and kind person. The Cat and I like her and the kids like her very much. Despite the language barrier, we find a way to understand each other. I only wish that I could speak more Polish because I would love to get to know her more. When we come back, she is going to start coming over once a week to take care of the children in the evening so the Cat and I can go out. I feel very at ease with her and the kids seem to be very comfortable with her. Kids seem to have keener instincts sometimes. It will be difficult to find someone like her when we move back to the States.

Polish Advertising

I have tried very hard in the last couple of years to prevent Thing 1 from watching live TV. My reason for this is commercials that target kids making them think that they need lots of stuff (food, toys, etc). So, he has an extensive video collection to choose from (even then I have to skip the advertising in the previews). With the toys that are developed nowadays for every movie or cartoon, I figure that it's more than enough advertising for him.

Poland is no different of course. The children's channels run commercials for all kinds of things like candy and toys, etc. The Polish cartoons have toys marketed for them as well. Products sold in stores (cereals, candy, and other junk) usually have characters (Disney, Shrek, Looney Tunes on them).

Looney Tunes characters are on the orange juice and apple juice boxes that I send with Thing 1 to school. Each juice has it's own character, for example Bugs Bunny is on OJ, Daffy Duck is on apple juice,and Taz is on peach flavored juice (weird - I know). The milk boxes have a cute elephant on it (why not a cow - I don't know), but they don't have as much appeal.

Anyway, the other day, the store was out of the Looney Tunes juice boxes that he drinks. He is so picky that he knows which characters he will "drink," so I have no other options. I bought him apple and orange juice boxes that had pictures of the fruit so that he would not suspect that he was getting anything different. He had no problem with the apple juice, but with the OJ, he said that it tasted different. Mind you, both these and the Looney Tunes boxes are made by the same manufacturer. The OJ boxes kept coming back from school unopened. He wanted some OJ one Saturday morning , but not from the juice box. He said he wanted me to pour some out of the bottle that we buy for home.

So I sent him off while I prepared his juice. I decided to see if he could even tell the difference if I poured the juice in the box into a regular cup as if it came from the bottle. Well, he didn't. He took one sip, said it was delicious (yes, he speaks this way) and drank the whole thing. Baffling, but quite interesting finding.

European Petrol Stations and Polish Jokes

Petrol/Gas Stations here in Poland are something else.

First, attendants still pump your gas for you here. They also add washer fluid to your car if needed. Second, stations are not equipped for paying at the pump with a debit card. Third, and probably most interesting, the people who work in the shop/sklep are all clean cut and dressed in long sleeve dress shirts and ties. The station was closed the other day for inventory. I have never heard of something like that before. And my most amusing petrol station observation: in addition to your usual soft drinks and beer, they sell Polish vodka behind the counter. The drinking age here is 18.

This brings me to another conclusion...all those Polish jokes you hear about Poles being stupid are not really true. For the most part, most Poles are fairly intelligent and competent individuals - at least the ones I have met. They may not have alot of high education, but they are socially intelligent and for the most part fairly descent people. So, I can only conclude that the subjects of these derogatory Polish jokes have to be drunk Poles. There are lots of them here. Even though the police are very strict about drunk driving, people do it anyway and there is always some story about it in the paper. I try not to go out too late because with their hazardous driving skills and proclivity for drinking, it can be disastrous.