After the usual morning classes and lunch, in the early afternoon I drive to the airport to pick up my flying in from Rome to visit for a week.
It is going to be a week of surprises for them, their first time beyond the "iron curtain". They are obviously very happy to see me and excited about visiting. They flew with Lot, the Polish flag carrier. Alitalia does not serve Warsaw. The Soviet-made aircaft is not especially comfortable the the service on board leaves a lot to be desired, but the flight is only a couple of hours, no big deal. I take them to the rented apartment so they can freshen up.
In the evening, Andrew and Ann take us out for a meal of duck at our "1st duck place" as we refer to the anonymous restaurant where we have consumed many a duck in recent weeks. We named it so in order to distinguish it from the "2nd duck place", a similar eatery in the center of Warsaw. Who knows why duck is so popular on Polish menus.
24 April 1980
22 April 1980
Classes and some privacy
Usual classes in the morning at SGPiS. Nothing to write about.
In the afternoon foreign policy class at the foreign policy institute, more propaganda coming our way but I must admit that these classes are actually fun. Not because of what they want us to learn, but because it is interesting to see how educated professional bend reality to suit the mandatory party line. They actually do a pretty good job of it. Basically they zig zag between "well you know we did not like doing it but we had to do it because the USSR so decided" and "we had to do it but it actually made sense, in a way, if you think about it from another point of view".
Dinner is at the Pod Golembiami restaurant (it means "under the doves"), pretty good and as usual dirt cheap for us.
Spent the night at the apartment I rented for my parents, they don't arrive until Thursday but the landlord was nice enough to give me the keys a few days in advance for free. Nice to be away from the student dorm for a few days, privacy and space!
In the afternoon foreign policy class at the foreign policy institute, more propaganda coming our way but I must admit that these classes are actually fun. Not because of what they want us to learn, but because it is interesting to see how educated professional bend reality to suit the mandatory party line. They actually do a pretty good job of it. Basically they zig zag between "well you know we did not like doing it but we had to do it because the USSR so decided" and "we had to do it but it actually made sense, in a way, if you think about it from another point of view".
Dinner is at the Pod Golembiami restaurant (it means "under the doves"), pretty good and as usual dirt cheap for us.
Spent the night at the apartment I rented for my parents, they don't arrive until Thursday but the landlord was nice enough to give me the keys a few days in advance for free. Nice to be away from the student dorm for a few days, privacy and space!
21 April 1980
Duck and private lodging
Another big lunch at Borzena's home. Her mum has prepared duck, a favorite dish in Poland and it is delicious as almost everything she prepares. In fact, judging from the voracity of our appetite at every meal, I'd say everything must have been very good. Simple cooking, lots of proteins and fat, hearty cooked cabbage. We are really very lucky to be treated like royals every time we come here, which is almost every day. The duck is crispy skin and tender tasty meat.
In the evening we all go the the Chopin Academy for a concert by the Italian pianist Ruggero Gerlin, he is getting on with age and shows it but still plays quite well.
Afterwards Ann and I go to our friends Ewa and Marianto pick up the keys to an apartment of some friends of theirs where I will host my parents who are planning to visit soon. Strictly speaking it is illegal to rent out to foreigners fnr hard cash, but of course it is a widespread practice among Poles with extra real estate to spare.
We then go and have a look: a fairly dreadful gray building, typical Soviet block construction. But everything is in order, it is big enough for the purpose and clean. Obviously I will pay in dollars for this and for the owners it is going to be a significant boost to their income for the month.
In the evening we all go the the Chopin Academy for a concert by the Italian pianist Ruggero Gerlin, he is getting on with age and shows it but still plays quite well.
Afterwards Ann and I go to our friends Ewa and Marianto pick up the keys to an apartment of some friends of theirs where I will host my parents who are planning to visit soon. Strictly speaking it is illegal to rent out to foreigners fnr hard cash, but of course it is a widespread practice among Poles with extra real estate to spare.
We then go and have a look: a fairly dreadful gray building, typical Soviet block construction. But everything is in order, it is big enough for the purpose and clean. Obviously I will pay in dollars for this and for the owners it is going to be a significant boost to their income for the month.
20 April 1980
Wedding stripping and beers
During breakfast somehow the conversation gravitates toward a the wedding party of P. She says how it was an unusual wedding, people got a bit drunk and started to strip until some were totally naked. Some guests rushed to cover up the a naked man, but she did not mind to see that at her wedding. it make it all more natural. Well, I guess why not? Going naked is something that is sometimes used in Communist countries as a display of protest. Not many other ways of protesting are allowed and this is a cheap and cheerful one. In East Germany they are especially good at it.
I spend the afternoon in my room studying for the upcoming exams. But not too long. Romek comes up with an invitation to go out for a beer. We all go to the "Bolek" pub. I down one beer, some of my classmates up to five or six. It is really amazing how we have become close friends with Polish students is such a short time. I guess it is in part because of their eagerness to meet people from the West, and our eagerness to penetrate the Iron Curtain. Beer can do a lot to facilitate this.
I spend the afternoon in my room studying for the upcoming exams. But not too long. Romek comes up with an invitation to go out for a beer. We all go to the "Bolek" pub. I down one beer, some of my classmates up to five or six. It is really amazing how we have become close friends with Polish students is such a short time. I guess it is in part because of their eagerness to meet people from the West, and our eagerness to penetrate the Iron Curtain. Beer can do a lot to facilitate this.
19 April 1980
Football and mountain climbing
Easy day. Tried to go to a bank but it was closed. Sometimes they are open on saturday, but not today.
Visit at the post office to call Italy. Must wait half an hour or so. It must be easier to call the moon.
Easy afternoon at Larissa's home watching Italy vs Poland, a friendly match. Not so exciting, ends up 2-2. Anyway better than when we lost to Poland in the 1974 World Cup in Germany.
After the match Borzena gives us no choice: her mother has prepared dinner for us and we are expected. Again an avalanche of proteins, cold and hot, has fallen over the dining table by the time we take our seats.
During dinner we watch some TV and today there is a program on mountaineering. The whole country is justifiably proud that a Polish expedition has reached the summit of Mount Everest in February of this year, the first team to make it in Winter. Leszka Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki are national heros.
It is, appropriately, unseasonably cold in Warsaw. When we leave Borzena's place to go home it is snowing!
Visit at the post office to call Italy. Must wait half an hour or so. It must be easier to call the moon.
Easy afternoon at Larissa's home watching Italy vs Poland, a friendly match. Not so exciting, ends up 2-2. Anyway better than when we lost to Poland in the 1974 World Cup in Germany.
After the match Borzena gives us no choice: her mother has prepared dinner for us and we are expected. Again an avalanche of proteins, cold and hot, has fallen over the dining table by the time we take our seats.
During dinner we watch some TV and today there is a program on mountaineering. The whole country is justifiably proud that a Polish expedition has reached the summit of Mount Everest in February of this year, the first team to make it in Winter. Leszka Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki are national heros.
It is, appropriately, unseasonably cold in Warsaw. When we leave Borzena's place to go home it is snowing!
18 April 1980
Shopping, smoking and tea
In the morning, after class, we go downtown, to the CENTRUM shooping area. There is very little to shop. I was looking for Summer clothing, some shirts with short sleavees, but no luck. What is available is cheap but so depressingly dreary that even someone like me who knows little about clothing and cares less ends up not buying anything.
In the afternoon it's foreign policy classes again. Usual propaganda nonsense. But the professors, retired diplomats, are very polite and kind. One former ambassador to the UN asks politely whether we would mind if he smoked. Andrew immediately says of course it is not a problem, and we all nod. I am not too happy but what to do? We are guests at his office. He then starts to light up a long, uninterrupted series of really awfully strong cigarettes for the whole duration of the class. Poles are on average heavy smokers, here there is nothing like the relentless campaigns we have in the West to raise awareness of the negative health consequences of smoking.
Later we are invited by Pat, an American student at our same university, to go to the American Embassy for a drink at the "Marines' bar". A strange place where "Eastern" people are not admitted and marines get drunk mostly among themselves since they are not allowed to socialize with local girls. I politely turn down the offer, though the others go for a drink and meet a certain Michael, a diplomat in search of adventures.
In the evening it's tea time at the home of Larissa, Borzena's best friend. She is quite well off, the daughter of a successful diplomat, and lives alone in a three-bedroom apartment in Lazienki, a (relatively) posh neighborhood of the capital. Not quite what you would expect from the daughter of a diplomat of a socialist regime but whatever, she is a pleasant young woman and we spend an enjoyable evening together.
In the afternoon it's foreign policy classes again. Usual propaganda nonsense. But the professors, retired diplomats, are very polite and kind. One former ambassador to the UN asks politely whether we would mind if he smoked. Andrew immediately says of course it is not a problem, and we all nod. I am not too happy but what to do? We are guests at his office. He then starts to light up a long, uninterrupted series of really awfully strong cigarettes for the whole duration of the class. Poles are on average heavy smokers, here there is nothing like the relentless campaigns we have in the West to raise awareness of the negative health consequences of smoking.
Later we are invited by Pat, an American student at our same university, to go to the American Embassy for a drink at the "Marines' bar". A strange place where "Eastern" people are not admitted and marines get drunk mostly among themselves since they are not allowed to socialize with local girls. I politely turn down the offer, though the others go for a drink and meet a certain Michael, a diplomat in search of adventures.
In the evening it's tea time at the home of Larissa, Borzena's best friend. She is quite well off, the daughter of a successful diplomat, and lives alone in a three-bedroom apartment in Lazienki, a (relatively) posh neighborhood of the capital. Not quite what you would expect from the daughter of a diplomat of a socialist regime but whatever, she is a pleasant young woman and we spend an enjoyable evening together.
16 April 1980
Mail and telephone
By chance, we meet Stefan at the university. He looks at our books on the economics of the socialist bloc and says: "All lies". Succint and to the point.
In the evening I wanted to go and visit Ewa with Borzena. As I pick her up at home, I am invited to another - you guess - unnecessarily large dinner. We drive to Ewa's but she is not at home.
Private telephone lines are not always to be taken for granted in Poland, even in the capital. Therefore sometimes the only way to communicate with someone is to go to their home and if they are out for the evening, well try again another time! And international calls are even more difficult. I have to go to the post office every time I need to call Italy. I could be wrong but don't think it is a matter of cost, but rather of control: if everyone had a phone line it would be impossible to bug them all!
Even sending letters abroad is not easy. This morning Ann and I went to the airport to ask someone, anyone, traveling to the United States to post a letter once across the Atlantic. We find a cooperative gentleman in the check-in line for the flight to New York. Posting from Poland might take ages and many letters are "lost".
In the evening I wanted to go and visit Ewa with Borzena. As I pick her up at home, I am invited to another - you guess - unnecessarily large dinner. We drive to Ewa's but she is not at home.
Private telephone lines are not always to be taken for granted in Poland, even in the capital. Therefore sometimes the only way to communicate with someone is to go to their home and if they are out for the evening, well try again another time! And international calls are even more difficult. I have to go to the post office every time I need to call Italy. I could be wrong but don't think it is a matter of cost, but rather of control: if everyone had a phone line it would be impossible to bug them all!
Even sending letters abroad is not easy. This morning Ann and I went to the airport to ask someone, anyone, traveling to the United States to post a letter once across the Atlantic. We find a cooperative gentleman in the check-in line for the flight to New York. Posting from Poland might take ages and many letters are "lost".
15 April 1980
Meals, music and socialist toilets
Morning classes and afternoon homework. Sort of. This program is not very hard, really, much less so than our courses back at Georgetown. But that is not the point. We are here to experience much more importantly than we are here to learn. And we sure are experiencing beyond expectations!
Dinner again at Borzena's, where we are, as usual, hopelessly overfed. Her family hospitality is beyond imagination.
We then all go to the Sala Koncertowa for a concert by the orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, a famous London chamber orchestra. They make a triumphal performance and are called back by the public for five encores.
After which, do I need to add, we go back to Borzena's for a little night snack: cheese, cold cuts, vodka, bread (excellent Polish brown bread) and butter...
Back at the dorm we meet Stefan who is just back from the USSR, Armenia to be precise. He went there to represent Poland at some event for the socialist youth organizations of the East bloc. He gets to travel a lot in his capacity as head of the communist youth organization at the university.
He recounts as the student dormitory where he was housed in Yerevan did not have toilet paper, in fact no toilets, just holes in the ground. No hot water, only cold water three hourse per day. He did find one toile for his use before returning however: at the airport, and it was reserved for foreign travelers only!
Why is this is beyond our understanding: the only explanation is that, toilets being scarce, one does not want to look dirty to foreign capitalist imperialists. But toilets can't be that scarce, or expensive. It is a refrain we'll encounter often in socialist countries: the hated (by the regime) foreigner (ofter a capitalist, though not in this case) gets "privileges" the locals don't even dream of.
He sees the pamphlet "Facts about Poland" which we have been given at school and comments drily: "Not a word of truth in there".
Dinner again at Borzena's, where we are, as usual, hopelessly overfed. Her family hospitality is beyond imagination.
We then all go to the Sala Koncertowa for a concert by the orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, a famous London chamber orchestra. They make a triumphal performance and are called back by the public for five encores.
After which, do I need to add, we go back to Borzena's for a little night snack: cheese, cold cuts, vodka, bread (excellent Polish brown bread) and butter...
Back at the dorm we meet Stefan who is just back from the USSR, Armenia to be precise. He went there to represent Poland at some event for the socialist youth organizations of the East bloc. He gets to travel a lot in his capacity as head of the communist youth organization at the university.
He recounts as the student dormitory where he was housed in Yerevan did not have toilet paper, in fact no toilets, just holes in the ground. No hot water, only cold water three hourse per day. He did find one toile for his use before returning however: at the airport, and it was reserved for foreign travelers only!
Why is this is beyond our understanding: the only explanation is that, toilets being scarce, one does not want to look dirty to foreign capitalist imperialists. But toilets can't be that scarce, or expensive. It is a refrain we'll encounter often in socialist countries: the hated (by the regime) foreigner (ofter a capitalist, though not in this case) gets "privileges" the locals don't even dream of.
He sees the pamphlet "Facts about Poland" which we have been given at school and comments drily: "Not a word of truth in there".
14 April 1980
Visas and ice cream
After our usual morning classes we must once again to to the government visa office: our last Polish visa was cancelled because we left the country to go to Berlin. Why? Who knows, but must there be a reason? Maybe to provide a few more government jobs in the visa office. Whatever... Three more forms to fill out and two days to wait before we must return and pick them up.
The employee who is dealing with our stuff is amazed to find out that Ann speaks Polish and is of Polish origin, and starts a long conversation on Polish literature. I have a feeling Ann does not always follow all the details of the conversation, but that is not the point. It is pretty amazing to see her carry on with total control of the situation. So the visit to the visa office takes even longer than usual, but it is actually almost fun!
In the evening, after the inevitable huge meal at Borzena's home, we all go to a local park and play frisbee. Frisbees are all over the place in American universities but still a novelty over here. After having burned a lot of calories running after the disc, we go and put them back on by devouring excellent local ice cream!
The employee who is dealing with our stuff is amazed to find out that Ann speaks Polish and is of Polish origin, and starts a long conversation on Polish literature. I have a feeling Ann does not always follow all the details of the conversation, but that is not the point. It is pretty amazing to see her carry on with total control of the situation. So the visit to the visa office takes even longer than usual, but it is actually almost fun!
In the evening, after the inevitable huge meal at Borzena's home, we all go to a local park and play frisbee. Frisbees are all over the place in American universities but still a novelty over here. After having burned a lot of calories running after the disc, we go and put them back on by devouring excellent local ice cream!
13 April 1980
Walking and eating in Warsaw
In the morning we take a walk around the Wilanow park with Borzena and one of her friends. Andrew and I are thereafter invited to lunch at her place (needless to say we are again overfed with precious meats and other hard to find delicacies) and then out again for a walk in the old city. Stare miasto is always charming, it has been recontructed very well after the near total destruction of World War II.
Borzena is a very friendly and smart young lady. She clearly wants out of Poland, sees to end to the dark days of socialist depression. It is for this reason, I think, that she hangs out with as many Westerners as she can. Being smart and pretty, of course, helps her make friends. Her brother is the same, though of course has less of a chance attracting Western females.
She gets upset when, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, we tell her we are really not hungry for another meal at her home.ut there is nothing to do and we have to go and eat again. (And drink: vodka is never absent from the table.)
This extreme hospitality is not totally new to me. It is the same I found every time I visited my family in Calabria and Puglia. You have to eat everything all the time or else they take umbrage. And if you eat at the home of one relative you automatically must eat at everyone else's, lest they take offense and don't talk to you again. Which is one reason, I admit, why I don't visit my relatives as often as I otherwise might. I eat a lot but hardly have time to visit their beautiful regions.
Borzena is a very friendly and smart young lady. She clearly wants out of Poland, sees to end to the dark days of socialist depression. It is for this reason, I think, that she hangs out with as many Westerners as she can. Being smart and pretty, of course, helps her make friends. Her brother is the same, though of course has less of a chance attracting Western females.
She gets upset when, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, we tell her we are really not hungry for another meal at her home.ut there is nothing to do and we have to go and eat again. (And drink: vodka is never absent from the table.)
This extreme hospitality is not totally new to me. It is the same I found every time I visited my family in Calabria and Puglia. You have to eat everything all the time or else they take umbrage. And if you eat at the home of one relative you automatically must eat at everyone else's, lest they take offense and don't talk to you again. Which is one reason, I admit, why I don't visit my relatives as often as I otherwise might. I eat a lot but hardly have time to visit their beautiful regions.
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