Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Life Updates...

A quick recap on what's going on in our world:

I am still not used to telling time military style everywhere....luckily Tom gave me a great trip to subtract two from the first number.
Apartment shopping is going well. We are looking at a lot of options to make sure we pick the right place for us since we have no plans to move more than once in Warsaw. Although, bringing a king size bed with us has been a bit of a challenge. Half of the bedrooms I have seen wouldn't even fit a king size bed. But, we have found some apartment options that will work.
Apartment prices are negotiable and it is expected that you will negotiate...Tom thinks that if I knew a bit more Polish I would really haggle them down, especially after the way I negotiated his car. : )
We are really enjoying the local fruits and veggies here. People eat pretty seasonal around here and everything is local....and we don't have to pay Whole Foods prices.
I have a Polish cell phone but was not able to get a contract since I don't have residential paperwork yet. So, instead I have a pay-to-go plan. Apparently these are super popular over here...and the phone works.....which is pretty much all that matters.
The treadmill at the hotel gym is in kilometers per hour...so I have no idea how fast I am going but I am working hard..and that's what counts anyways, right?
The Polish elderly LOVE Charlie. I get stopped multiple times a day where they give Charlie lots of love and excitedly start speaking a bunch of Polish that I of course don't understand. I find it really cute to see them so excited.
Poland is a country of rule followers. People wait for the light to change before walking into a crosswalk. You must provide original documents for customs and they cannot deviate one bit. And, even the cell phone company wouldn't give me a calling plan since I didn't have my residence card yet even though I offered to pay all 2 years of the contract up front. Of course, I don't blame the Poles for this habit considering their rough history.
I have become a master of washing clothes in the hotel bathtub (thank you Tide To Go packets!) although we are sending some of the bigger stuff to the hotel laundry. But, we are trying to avoid that since the average charge is $6 USD per item. : (
No one in Poland goes out dressed casually. I am quite the anomaly when I walk Charlie in yoga pants and Ugg boots...but since I don't know what people are saying about me and I am really cofortable I don't really care.
Tom discovered Slingbox...a way to essentially get US Cable television through our computer in Poland...he is one very happy man knowing he will not be without Pawn Stars or Storage Wars.
We have been heading to various expat social events to get to know people around the city. It has been wonderful meeting people and getting great "tips" on how to navigate the city and the people.
Our stuff has arrived! Now, we only need to have the real estate company get it through customs (tax free please!) and truck it down to Warsaw...it came into a port on the Northern coast. If we do not have an apartment when it gets here it will briefly go into storage for a week or two.
Tom is working hard to understand the Polish culture at work. No one will talk badly or negatively about anyone else in the office no matter what...even if it's their worst enemy. Therefore, its been a bit hard for Tom to get an accurate depiction of the current problems in the office. And, let's just say the Poles are not exactly prompt...the buses run inconsistently therefore the Poles do as well. For a husband who used to have a policy called A.I.S. (ass in seat at a certain time) for his team this has been tough to swallow.

Here is a WONDERFUL article on Warsaw and its recent growth (thank Anglim Family for passing it along). Definitely read it if you have a few minutes:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Warsaw-on-the-Rise.html

We are trying to negotiate our favorite apartment right now that is a bit more than we were hoping to spend. And, our condo in Chicago officially goes on the market today. So, Please send positive energy our way for our housing situations to work themselves out!

Love you all, T&S

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Lucky Us...

Came across this article today and found it interesting, so here is an excerpt. It's a good thing that Tom and I are researching Polish language lessons now. Apparently it is most effective to have a private tutor come to your house for lessons, so that is our plan. We are hoping to start taking them in the next week or so and will probably take them twice a week.

Most Difficult Languages - Polish

http://hubpages.com/hub/Most_Difficult_Languages_-_Polish

February 22, 2011

I've read about the supposed difficulty of many languages. Some I don't know at all (like Chinese or Arabic, which I'd imagine are difficult), but I did have the opportunity to learn one of the hardest, and supposedly the most grammatically-complex Slavic language, Polish. It is certainly harder than Croatian, which I already knew when I started to learn Polish.
Here's one (somewhat trivial, but illustrative) example of the relative complexity of languages: the number 2.

English, Spanish, Dutch: 1 form (two, dos, twee)

Portuguese: 2 forms (dois/duas) - depending on gender (2 - masculine & feminine)

Croatian: 7 forms (dva, dvije, dvoje, dvojica, dvojice, dvojici, dvojicu) - depending on gender (3 - masculine, feminine, and neuter) and case in one specific form. There were other variants historically but they're not used anymore.

Polish: 17 forms. Depends on gender (3), case for all forms. Pretty much all these forms occur in regular speech (6-11 less often than the others)

Dwa palce

17 grammatical forms for the number 2

dwa

dwie

dwoje

dwóch (or dwu)

dwaj

dwiema

dwom (or dwóm)

dwoma

dwojga

dwojgu

dwojgiem

dwójka

dwójki

dwójkę

dwójką

dwójce

dwójko

Why is Polish so complex?

Poland's history is one of being attacked and subjugated by its neighbors throughout most of its history, either by Germans, Austrians, Swedes or Russians. Many times the speaking of Polish was forbidden, so people were understandably protective of their language and less likely to have foreign intrusion into it. (English readily absorbs foreign words because American, Brits, Australians, etc don't feel like their language is threatened.) Also, "world languages" simplify much more rapidly, while "niche languages" don't have the same sort of pressure.
Even the names of months, which are usually similar in all the languages of the world, retain old Slavonic forms in Polish:

January - styczeń (from the Polish word for joining, since January joins two years together)
February - luty (from the Polish word for freezing cold; this is the only month that is grammatically an adjective, not a noun)
March - marzec (from Mars - the 3rd month is the Roman god Mars's month, as it is in English)
April - kwiecień (from the Polish word for flower, since this is the month when flowers bloom)
May - maj (the only one adopted from the Roman calendar)
June - czerwiec (from the Polish word for reddening...named after the Polish cochineal, a red insect that is used for red dye and is harvested in June - thanks, Lola!)
July - lipiec (from the Polish word for linden tree, which blooms in July in Poland)
August - sierpień (from the Polish for for sickle, since this is the month of harvest)
September - wrzesień (from the Polish word for heather, which turns a brilliant shade of purple then)
October - październik (from the Polish word for a type of flax mulch used in the fields during this month)
November - listopad (almost literally - falling leaves)
December - grudzień (from the Polish word for hardened, frozen ground)