However, today I'm going to yammer on about more things Polish. Simply because I happen to be in Poland again. Finally. A little too much traveling lately, even for me. I'm tired.
Perhaps all that travel is a part of the world financial crisis, you're asking? Certainly the Mastercard bills look a bit friendlier lately with fewer transcontinental flights listed.
Why am I not married to an airline executive (Don!) or a pilot (Lane! Michael!) so I can fly for free?
(I know, as a feminist, I should say, "why am I not a pilot or an airline executive?" but that would mean I'd have to go to work every day and hmmmm... I'd rather not. Let's leave the heavy lifting to Mr D.)
Grrrr. Oh well. As my mother often says, "You'd cry if you were hung with a new rope."
See? All black. One of the other charming things about Mira is that she's had that camera she's holding for at least two years, and she still can't figure out how it works. So maybe not quite as smart as all that, but then again, she admits she never even tried to read the instructions.
Which I never understood, except in the most general way, thusly:
"You'd cry if you were hung with a new rope" = "SHADDAP!"
Ok, point taken.
Anyway, I'm working on learning Polish, but it's slow. Of course, if I had started learning Polish fourteen years ago, when I first had the chance, I'd be pretty fluent by now.
Maybe. Polish is pretty. damned. difficult.
"But expateek!" you exclaim. "How could you have learned Polish, way back in 1994?"
Aha. I knew you'd ask that question.
Because I was living in Chicago in 1994, where I met my good friend Mira, who's Polish.
Here she is. Beautiful, isn't she? She's really really smart too.
Mira's easy to pick out in a Chicago crowd because, amongst all the people clad in khaki trousers and floral print dresses and red-white-and-blue sweaters, she alone is almost always wearing simply ALL BLACK. She assures me, "not so much!", but look at the photos for evidence.
See? All black. One of the other charming things about Mira is that she's had that camera she's holding for at least two years, and she still can't figure out how it works. So maybe not quite as smart as all that, but then again, she admits she never even tried to read the instructions.
Anyway, Mira suggested back in our homeschooling days that she could teach us Polish. "Us" included her charge, Miss Benny, and my own four rambunctious children and me. I jumped at the suggestion, because I love a new project, and a new language, and then she said...
"Oh, no, really. I was just kidding. When would you ever use it?"
When, indeed, Mira? When indeed?
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1 comment:
Just dropped in to return the visit and say thanks for recounting your funny tale :-)
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