Ok, so serious question. As an American, how would I go about getting legal clearance to work in Poland for a year? Are there many American companies who might need an extra flunkie?
I dunno, I'll check. I don't think that it would be a big problem. No visas are required for USA citizens, which was a dumb move on polish side ("if we won't require visas from them, they'll feel dumb requiring visas from us" - well, it didn't work)
Is it true that customer service, including restaurants etc, in Poland is awful?
It certainly used to be. And it still is when it comes to some middle-aged ladies. Example: I ask a lady in a small antiquariat how much a book costs. I had to show her which one, and she had to find it on the shelf (not moving from her sit, though). She gave me the price, I've said "thank you", and then she started yelling at me that if I don't buy it, I shouldn't have asked for the price. So such ladies do happen. But it's getting better with time.
Do the Polish have a taste for burritos?
No idea. I've never eaten it I believe.
I have heard that themes associated with the American west -- cowboy hats, country music, and so on -- are wildly popular in central and eastern Europe. Have you noticed this to be true in Poland?
And if yes, -- why, in the name of God, why?
Well, it is to some extent. There's a country music festival in Mrągowo. Cowboy films were veeeery popular when I was little, and so were lassos, cowboy hats etc. I'm not sure they are still popular among the young ones, though.
What do the Poles (living in Poland now) think about there countrymen and woman setting sail for Britland?
It depends. People who go to work there despite not knowing the language etc are often ridiculed. But there's much boasting about the improved opinion of polish workers there, that they are valued. It's no wonder people go there. A lot of my friends did, my sister did. I thought about it, but studies stopped me. The prices of housing in Poland are INSANELY high. Really. If you spend your entire money on housing, you'll still be able to afford 0,3 sq m of housing in Warsaw. Assuming you get decent pay. If you don't, it's even less. People are simply forced to work abroad by it, because otherwise, they'll have nowhere to live. I'm facing that problem as well.
What are the national sources of pride for the modern Pole?
It really depends on political views etc. Some Poles are proud of gay or transsexual MPs, some are proud of relatively full churches. You know. In general, the age of tolerance of XVI century is often recalled as something to be proud of. But really, we are bombarbed with information about successes of Poles in this or that field. Polish informaticians win some competition - hurrah! a Pole gets an Oscar - hurrah! etc. I think most Poles live from one tiny national pride moments to another, and do not think about national pride in general terms. It's also often said that Poland is beautiful, because we have both the sea and the mountains. As if most other European countries did not.
Can you give us some examples of your favorite Polish cuisine?
I like pierogi ruskie (ruthenian pierogi), which are dumplings stuffed with cheese (quark?).
I really liked potato dumplings with cream once.
I love polish soups, like barszcz (especially speciall holiday barszcz with dumplings filled with mushrooms); sorrel soup; mushroom soup; tomato soup, pea soup, which is served with toasts and so many more. I have a slight dislike for krupnik only, which is a soup of my region.
I love sauerkraut and pickled cucumbers
I love polish bread
Why does the Polish language use such strange letter combinations to create the same sounds we have in other Latin alphabets?
like what?
What do you think of the US?
Poles in general had an extremly positive image of the USA, because of the emmigration, and USA participating in ww1 and 2 against Germany, and against SU in the cold war. This image is more and more confronted with reality, and the love for USA is slightly diminishing. And, imho, rightly so. American politics towards Poland are one great chain of broken promises of one president after another. I don't know why we always do what USA asks us to do for no benefit of our own apart from "being friends". I guess because many are still afraid of Russia and think only USA can ever protect us. But first, Russia is no superpower anymore, we have friends in Europe now, Germany is not agressive anymore, and USA wouldn't care about us anyway. So my personal opinion is that we should have more balance in our relations.
I joke, but in all seriousness: How well has Poland recovered from having most of their leadership killed in a plane crash?
The power is in the hands of the gouverment, really, not the president etc. So it'd have been much a bigger problem if the prime minister got killed.
The president was extremly unpopular and would have been gone in a couple of months anyway. The chief of the national bank had a reputation of a man who was given an office above his level (although he acted sanely), so actually, how bad as it may sound, a change couldn't have hurt. Chief ombudsman, speakers of the parliament etc are nominally high officials, but not really the centre of power etc.
So: there wasn't a big chance of Poland crumbling into chaos.
The problem was that the twin brother of the deceased president tried to turn his death into a political weapon. He ignored that people of all the parties died.
I think SLD party (left wing) was actually most hurt by the crash, because it lost 3 of its most important politicians. And while PiS is a really one-person party (the twin of the deceased president), SLD wasn't. Of the old leaders of SLD:
one became the president and since then doesn't often engage in actual politics
another was accused of being a spy and never really recovered from it
the third was made unpopular by an alleged corruption scandal
many many second row revolted against the third one, and established their own party. Actually almost all the leaders went there, but people voted on the SLD banner still, and so, most important politicians of SLD of the 90's are not outside of it.
And then, some of the surviving were killed in this crash.
This party is in big crisis.
Anyway, the evil twin buried his brother in the royal castle in Krakow, among the kings. He and his supporters waged a great war on the new president when he was elected instead of him. A temporary wooden cross was established in front of the presidential palace during the mourning, and these people didn't want to allow to take it away when the mourning was over. There was a big division between PiS and the other parties ever since its 2005-7 rule, which was characterised by misuse of power for political gains against everyone, and sort of authoritarian tendencies. But the crash made the division even stronger. First of all because the dead twin was the calmer one, and secondly because the surviving twin seems to believe these were Russians, together with prime minister Tusk (a crypto-German in his opinion), who killed his brother.
After that is out of the way: What is your impression about Polish work immigration into Germany? Is it sill perceived as something profitable? I heard not for the good development of the Polish economy and for the German wages being not that good after all.
I have several friends who migrated to germany in last few years. But I hear there are many less Poles willing to work there than expected. First because the difference of pay isn't as big as once it was, secondly because there are other places available, and thirdly, because more poeple know english than german
Ananas, is that pineapple? It's pineapple in Turkish. Lots of Poles immigrated to the US but I think that was in the early 20th century and perhaps a lot of them were Jewish.
Yes, it's pineapple. I don't know why I used the polish word.
Many polish Jews immigrated to USA, yes, but also Poles proper. There are milions of people of polish origin in USA
What attractions are there in Poland? (By attractions, I mean key tourist places in Poland)
Warpus already answered that question.
Apart from that, if you like nature, you can visit Bialowieza forest, which is the last surviving part of the natural forest (untouched by humans) in Europe. It is the home of zubr, which is sort of a bufallo.
Malbork castle is a very reknown tourist destination.
There are lots of other interesting Teutonic Knights castles around, like Kwidzyn
So is Kazimierz Dolny, although mostly among polish tourists, not foreign one. It's a small picturesque city with several interesting renaissance houses etc
I've never been there personally, though.
Zamosc is an interesting place as well, it's a city founded as an ideal renaissance city.
Orle Gniazda (Eagles' Nests) is a hilly area with losts of castles (mostly ruined by Swedes, though), and a place where you can practice climbing.
Here's Pieskowa Skała (Doggy Rock):
And here's Ogrodzieniec
and so on.
![Zak_Zakopane_Tatry_WID_06048062p-[1].jpg](http://www.tripskrakow.com/upload/Zak_Zakopane_Tatry_WID_06048062p-[1].jpg)
