I’ve officially been living in Poland for 10 years… a whole decade. I’ve gone from 23-year-old girl, freshly graduated from college with no plans for the future, to a mom of 2, wife, business owner, blogger, and the hardest of all – a Polish speaker 🙂 it’s been quite a decade. I’d like to commemorate it with the craziest shit that’s happened to me since I moved here.
I’ve met my fair share of urzędniks in Poland. Specifically, I will be discussing mainly the ones from Urząd Wojewódzki today, but, in general, these rules apply pretty much everywhere. However, I have found that often in Urząd Miasta they tend to be less mean, even nice sometimes! That’s, honestly, the best you can hope for.
When Americans go abroad, they expect things to be exactly like they are at home. They expect good customer service and are often very disillusioned when confronted with the reality in other countries. It can be hard to understand and accept. It shows that in America we’re really used to certain conveniences that the rest of the world just doesn’t have. Read on to find out exactly what!
You’ve probably heard stories about how Poles enjoy a good party. They are, in fact, quite good at celebrating, whether it’s for a birthday, wedding, a funeral, a Friday night, a Tuesday night, what have you, any occasion is a good one. If you’re not sure what to do at a Polish party, here’s a run down of what it’ll look like.
This week I did a big thing. I applied for my Polish citizenship and it’s the most excited I’ve been in a long time. Funnily enough, it was actually the easiest application I’ve ever put together in Poland. After 10 years, I guess you reach expert level in that arena. With a little luck and a lot of waiting, będę Polką!
10 zł. 50 zł. Zbieramy! Na co? Wszystko.
I noticed recently that Poles love to składać się. Złożyć się. Zrzucić się. Whatever you want to call it. If you don’t know what it means, it’s chipping in to buy one, usually bigger, gift for someone for a certain occasion. What kind of occasion? Pretty much all of them. Why and how does it work? Read on to find out.
All us immigrants have a lot of the same impressions/experiences after living in Poland for a certain amount of time, so I’m sure we can all agree that when you have to show your ID for something and you whip out a karta pobytu, it’s hilarious to see people’s confused expression as they try and figure out what in the world it is. This article is full of those little special moments when you’re not sure whether to jump on the next plane home or just go with it. That’s life in Poland sometimes.
So I’ve been an expat for a while now, about 1/3 of my life. There are things you can accept or get used to and there are just some things you can’t. If you’re thinking about moving to Poland, there are some issues I’ll discuss below that you may want to consider. So, is Poland a good place to be an expat?
So you’ve been invited to a wedding in Poland, you say? Well, lucky you! Polish weddings are incredible. They are also exhausting. You need to be prepared. You need to know how much money to put in the envelope and you need to know your limits. Watch yourself! A Polish wedding can make you or break you.