|
From: "Zachary Foreman"
Hmm, today's message is a grab back of various vignettes to try to fill in some gaps in my lovely narrative sequence...Remember my professor, the one who was deathly boring? Well, it turns out that he has lead a very exciting life and is trying to be boring. I love being in Central Europe sometimes. Professor Hyroniom Kubiak was once Comrade Kubiak, a member of the Polish Politburo and the Spokesman for that illustrious organization. He was the one who everyone saw on tv, announcing the beginning of years of martial law at the beginning of the 1980s. He was the one who followed Lech Walesa around and made mild, soothing speeches denying everything. So he had a lot of practice speaking and was an expert at speaking for hours without saying anything. The worst thing is, he is one of the more notorious citizens of Poland but we had no idea until we found out from a couple of other people in the program. He never mentioned that fact in class. He told us of his days at University of Chicago and Cornell but not of his days in Warsaw. Worse, he was purporting to teach a class on Human Rights, Democracy and Parties. It's hard to believe sometimes...The thing is, the class could have been really interesting if he had just said what he did. That is a time period that people would sooner forget. In class, we talked all about today and about prewar Poland but not under communism. He has a unique insight and experience and it would be great if instead of running away from it, he told other people about it. On a very different subject, Thanksgiving...I was not planning anything and came close to spending thanksgiving sitting in my room, eating handfuls of bread and drinking bottled water. But I decided to go to the consulate dinner and ended up having a great time. First though I had to figure out what was to bring to the dinner (it was potluck). I bought some bread, a cake and some fruit (I knew that there would be more than enough wine and I didn't have access to a stove.)The house was huge and full of lots of eclectic objects d'art. It was definitely built for entertaining (not surprising, considering it was owned by the consulate.) We first put all of our food that we brought into the kitchen (where a few polish babushkas were working on the turkey), then we sat down or went to the bar and mingled with people. More than half of the people there were from our program so it was pretty low key. Then about an hour later came the food. I was impressed. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, hummus(?), pasta salad, etc. All the traditional stuff and some other things that we made. It was great. The most American of meals in the least American of places. I quickly went back for seconds. Then, soon after, came dessert. Pumpkin pie! I can't tell you how much I looked forward to this. It was very good (I had about 4 slices). I would have liked some french vanilla but, oh well. The third part of this unconnected string of anecdotes concerns my friends' experiences in the polish medical establishment. First there was annette (who likes to be called skippy). She had to go to the hospital overnight for observation because of food poisoning. They drew blood. In fact, her most vivid memory was that they just left her blood on the floor for the day that she was there (and also the fact that she never really understood what was going on because they didn't speak English). She thought that hospitals should be run a bit more hygienically than they seemed to be. Another friend (Mike) concurred with this opinion. He needed to have his wisdom teeth removed. He, also a vegetarian and very concerned with his health, decided to fly home early to get them removed, rather than suffer through the operation here. Apparently he was put off by the phrase "Of course, we cannot guarantee survival...." I think the Poles have to work on their English, their bedside manner or both. He did get a lot of pain killers (about two weeks worth) for about a dollar. That's not a bad deal. Although a few other people here had to go visit the hospital, none are more famous than Mark. He was living next door to two Americans (Mike and Brian) On election night, Brian and I stayed at the consulate to watch the final results come in (but we got kicked out at 3). He got to his room at about 4 and then he and Mike had an animated discussion about who would be the next Secretary of State (basically Halbrook or Albright). Apparently, they were speaking too loudly because they woke up Mark next door. He, again apparently, threw something across the room that broke his window and then punched the wall that separated the two rooms. He broke his hand (I think one of the metacarpals). He went back to sleep but woke up very early because his hand hurt. He went to a doctor (first he got someone to write a note as to what happened. The doctors read the note and laughed). He was in the hospital for a long time but used the opportunity to improve his polish. He came back with a cast on his arm, from just past the elbow to his finger tips (right hand). He moved to another room shortly thereafter. Finally, breaking news. Two friends (Tara and Niamh) left last week, Tara home to Ireland and Naimh to visit her sister in San Francisco (as well as a few days in Boston). It's her first time in the US (she's also Irish). Anyway, Brian (the other American) house sat for them, but only for a couple days. Yesterday he told me that the landlady locked him out. He was complaining that he had his toothbrush in there and he just bought eggs and orange juice. So, I'm not sure what is going to happen. It's a very nice apartment though. We'll, I am off to Prague tonight to meet Zareen and my parents. I hope all of you have (or had) a wonderful Christmas. This is likely my second to last email and I thank you all for all of your encouragement (or at least refraining from virulent criticism). I hope all of you now have an urge to go to Poland or at least a healthy respect for those who survived.... Yours truly, Zach |