Warsaw has been my home for the past 9 months. I missed all the birthdays of my family members this year from Warsaw - 5 family dinners I really looked forward to every year (next to our annual family New Year dinner, of course). I also missed our annual family summer outing - I spent Holy Week stuck in the office, working. All the restaurants and stores in Warsaw were closed during this time, so I had instant noodles and cold hamburgers for dinner on some days (I can't cook, remember?). I also spent a fortune on cellphone bills trying to get in touch with various friends and members of my family - just so that I'd have someone to talk to (I was the only "loser" online during this time in Yahoo Messenger, hehehe).
It wasn't all that bad though. Warsaw is not the cleanest city in the world, but it is a lot cleaner than Manila (heck, it is even cleaner than Brussels, Paris, or Berlin). The air is fresher, traffic is almost non-existent (cars are moving - so its not traffic!), they have a bunch of nice, big gardens scattered around the city (which during the summer, gets really interesting hehehe), and it's relatively safe because of all the policemen walking around. Public transportation is cheap and reliable (but not quick, except for the single, unfinished Metro line), locals are generally friendly and helpful, the ladies look smashing (I read this somewhere - according to a recent survey, men thought that 70% of all the women in Warsaw were pretty. I disagree - I think its more like 80% hehehe), and the beer is strong. I also met the nicest, friendliest group of Filipinos in Warsaw - people who I will really miss a lot.
What more could you want, right?
Most of these things will sound very strange to some people (especially a Pole), mainly those who have been to Warsaw. But I guess it's all relative - if you ever go to Manila, you'll know why I'm talking this way.
When I got back to my apartment in Warsaw after a recent trip to Brussels, I even caught myself murmuring: "ahh...home, sweet home." I guess this is due to the fact that for the first time in my life, I've spent more time abroad than at home. My mind should get "rewired" to its original state soon - I hope.
Alas, Warsaw is finally getting rid of me. Will I be able to rid my body of this place? Well I sure hope so, I gained 10 kilos here - it will take me months sweating it out at the gym before my "beer muscle" fades away.
I will really, really miss this place.
This is probably my last post from Poland (at least for now). Although I'd love to come back, there are no plans for a "return visit" anytime in the near future.
I'll see you in Manila in 2 days! Ciao!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
5 things guidebooks don't mention about Poland
Guidebooks (like the Lonely Planet) are usually very, very good. I use them a lot - and they have saved my butt many times over. It is impossible to be very comprehensive, though. If you're planning to go to Poland, there are a few interesting things that the guidebooks leave out. I've listed down 5 of my "favorites":
1. Polish "voice overs"- when the TV show you're watching in Poland is in English, they keep the original soundtrack in tact - all sound effects, conversations, even the music. You will notice, though, that they add an additional sound "layer" - a strange man's voice is translating every spoken word into Polish. This is fine - however, its the same guy's voice every time. It doesn't matter if the person speaking on TV is 50-year old man, 20 year old girl, a 3 year old child, or Triumph, the insult comic dog - its his voice ALL THE TIME. Every TV show, every advertisement - its the same guy. And he is so emotionless - the lady on TV may be screaming in terror - he will speak in the same tone, at the same pace ALL THE TIME. Good thing I figured how to turn him off.
2. Thank you means something else - one of my Polish friends just spent 3 months in Manila. When he got back to Poland, he picked up some Filipino habits - i.e. pointing with your lips, saying "psst" when calling someone, etc. He also acquired the habit of saying "thank you" to waiters when paying the bill. Big mistake. When you're eating at a restaurant here in Poland, saying "thank you" is interpreted as "keep the change."
3. Małe piwo - this literally means "small beer." Colloquially though, its the Filipino equivalent of "sisiw." (for non Pinoys out there - "sisiw" literally means baby chicken). They say it to mean any of the following: that's nothing, no problem, that's easy - for the average Pole, a small beer really is very easy - next to nothing even. Sisiw lang yan!
4. Charlotka - this one literally means "Apple Pie." It can also refer to Żubrówka (that popular Polish vodka, with a blade of grass inside the bottle) mixed with apple juice. Żubrówka literally means something like "Bison brand vodka." The joke is that its unique taste comes from the blade of grass inside the bottle - grass that has been pissed on by some pissed-off Bison.
5. Salad with everything - anything you order will come with salad. You will just have to live with it. Boiled cabbage, carrots, beetroot (my personal favorite - NOT!), or pickles - they serve them with Chinese food, kebabs, hamburgers - literally everything. Try telling a waiter you don't want any of the Polish salad with your food, and you'll get strange looks.
These things are strange for me, however, they find me strange as well. When I ignore red traffic lights, honk at pedestrians, call waiters "boss," and speak a mixture of English and Filipino while on the phone with folks from Manila, I am branded as the strange foreigner.
To each his own, I guess.
1. Polish "voice overs"- when the TV show you're watching in Poland is in English, they keep the original soundtrack in tact - all sound effects, conversations, even the music. You will notice, though, that they add an additional sound "layer" - a strange man's voice is translating every spoken word into Polish. This is fine - however, its the same guy's voice every time. It doesn't matter if the person speaking on TV is 50-year old man, 20 year old girl, a 3 year old child, or Triumph, the insult comic dog - its his voice ALL THE TIME. Every TV show, every advertisement - its the same guy. And he is so emotionless - the lady on TV may be screaming in terror - he will speak in the same tone, at the same pace ALL THE TIME. Good thing I figured how to turn him off.
2. Thank you means something else - one of my Polish friends just spent 3 months in Manila. When he got back to Poland, he picked up some Filipino habits - i.e. pointing with your lips, saying "psst" when calling someone, etc. He also acquired the habit of saying "thank you" to waiters when paying the bill. Big mistake. When you're eating at a restaurant here in Poland, saying "thank you" is interpreted as "keep the change."
3. Małe piwo - this literally means "small beer." Colloquially though, its the Filipino equivalent of "sisiw." (for non Pinoys out there - "sisiw" literally means baby chicken). They say it to mean any of the following: that's nothing, no problem, that's easy - for the average Pole, a small beer really is very easy - next to nothing even. Sisiw lang yan!
4. Charlotka - this one literally means "Apple Pie." It can also refer to Żubrówka (that popular Polish vodka, with a blade of grass inside the bottle) mixed with apple juice. Żubrówka literally means something like "Bison brand vodka." The joke is that its unique taste comes from the blade of grass inside the bottle - grass that has been pissed on by some pissed-off Bison.
5. Salad with everything - anything you order will come with salad. You will just have to live with it. Boiled cabbage, carrots, beetroot (my personal favorite - NOT!), or pickles - they serve them with Chinese food, kebabs, hamburgers - literally everything. Try telling a waiter you don't want any of the Polish salad with your food, and you'll get strange looks.
These things are strange for me, however, they find me strange as well. When I ignore red traffic lights, honk at pedestrians, call waiters "boss," and speak a mixture of English and Filipino while on the phone with folks from Manila, I am branded as the strange foreigner.
To each his own, I guess.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Kobylany
Since my great European adventure is almost over (I come home on July 31 - permanently for now), I decided to fill up my remaining weekends with out of town trips.Last weekend, we went to a small town near Krakow called Kobylany. It's a nice valley which is particularly popular with rock climbing enthusiasts. Obviously, it's popular because there are tons of big rocks in this area. Rocks which you can climb. That's why its popular with rock-climbing enthusiasts (Whatever!). We even saw a Polish wedding (pictured below, in the wooden church). It's basically the same as a Filipino wedding, except nobody wore a Barong Tagalog and everything was in Polish.
Since I have no desire to climb big rocks (and hit my head on one, like one guy in our group did), I decided to go hiking (with my new friend, Agnieszka - you can see her back below taking a picture of a big rock). Miraculously, the weather cooperated - it was 10 degrees and cloudy the whole week before this.
"Home" at this place meant cramming together in a small shack (that's Krzysiek - my "kolega" from the office who invited me on this trip). Too bad for them, I had a pretty serious snore attack on both nights hehehe:
Evenings were spent grilling sausages, drinking beer, playing charades (using English movie titles, for my benefit) and exchanging stories. This is when I found out that the Polish title for the movie "Dirty Dancing" (Wirujący seks) literally means "Spinning Sex!" If you saw the film, you would definitely agree with me - it is a very good translation. Hehehe...
On our way back to Warsaw (this place was 4 hours away by car), we passed by a horse ranch - owned by one of Krzysiek's good friends. This place was packed with horses - and I mean packed. I've never seen so many horses in my life! (I am exaggerating - there were only about 20 of them there). The owner also had 2 dogs which were so big that you would think they were small horses (again, I am exaggerating - but they were quite big). Each one weighed 75 kilos - thats more than I weigh (if you add up their combined weight hehehe)!
I hope everybody else had a great weekend. See you soon!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Lose weight, be rich
Everyone I know would love to lose weight, and everyone on the face of this planet also wants to be rich. Skinny and rich - its ideal isn't it? Its the reason why we pay p120 pesos (or 26 zloty) to watch Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie running around on the silver screen in Rockwell - we want to be just like them. Perhaps we don't want to adopt children from halfway around the world (like they did), but we work our assess off in the gym and do the same at work to try and chase this ideal.
I just found out from this post that these two things (losing weight and becoming rich) are very similar.
Everybody knows how to lose weight - all you have to do is exercise more and eat less. Getting rich is the same, everybody knows that to be rich, you have to spend less and earn more. Everybody knows this, its not rocket science.
Why then do people still go on South Beach diets? Or invest in stupid get rich schemes? Why are there still so many fat people riding the MRT eating chicharon, why do we still see people who try and hit the jackpot with Zagu-or-lechon-manok-type-copycat businesses? Don't they know that 95% of all diets fail, and that 9 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first 2 years? Why can't people just eat less, exercise more, spend less and earn more?
Alas, reality tells us that this is not as easy as it sounds.
I am the perfect example. Due to my recent "European" adventures, I just wiped out every centavo in my savings account - money I have been slowly putting aside for the past 4 years. In these past few months, I also gained 10 kilos (not pounds, kilos - thats 22 pounds!). My pants are getting really tight, and my wallet is getting really light. I am slowly becoming the fat, bald guy who doesn't have any money. Not exactly Brad Pitt material, I know.
I know how to lose weight, and I know what it takes to be rich - its just, well...difficult. In my case, I have identified several problems:
I like to eat, but I cannot cook. As a result, I spend a big chunk of my income on restaurants (and in case you are wondering - no, eating out is NOT a necessity). The main problem is that I am very picky when it comes to food - if I have a bad meal, I feel terrible all day (or night, depends on when I eat). Good food, on the other hand, makes me feel great! I guess its in my genes - I am Capampangan, in case you didn't know.
Since Polish food is not exactly at the height of culinary sophistication (except for their Kielbasa - which is very, very good), I am forced to spring for more expensive meals. I also generally don't like fast food (except for Jollibee Chickenjoy - I love this, but it is obviously not available in Poland), vegetables, and fruits - which makes things worse. I can save a lot of money (and lose a lot of weight) if I cooked, but I just can't cook. I know, I know - if you know how to read, you know how to cook (try Googling "5 minute meals") - I guess I am just too lazy. Being a picky eater and a terrible cook is a bad (and expensive) combination. If you still don't believe me, read this post from my favorite personal finance blog.
I also spend a lot of money on stupid things - like beer. I absolutely love beer. The problem is that in Europe, beer is very expensive. The calories from beer also go straight to your gut. I am trying very hard to limit this expense - however it seems that the world is not cooperating with me. For example, today during dinner (at a restaurant, of course), I ordered one beer with my meal. The waitress gave me 2 beers. When I asked why she was giving me 2, she said that the 2nd one was free. Alright - free beer! Hehehe...
I also do not exercise at all here in Warsaw (walking to the office pantry to get a sandwich in the morning is NOT exercise) and I am not exactly earning a boatload of money (boss - if you're reading this, please take note). I guess I am a hopeless case - destined to be fat and poor.
Hopeless, that is, until I learn how to cook.
I just found out from this post that these two things (losing weight and becoming rich) are very similar.
Everybody knows how to lose weight - all you have to do is exercise more and eat less. Getting rich is the same, everybody knows that to be rich, you have to spend less and earn more. Everybody knows this, its not rocket science.
Why then do people still go on South Beach diets? Or invest in stupid get rich schemes? Why are there still so many fat people riding the MRT eating chicharon, why do we still see people who try and hit the jackpot with Zagu-or-lechon-manok-type-copycat businesses? Don't they know that 95% of all diets fail, and that 9 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first 2 years? Why can't people just eat less, exercise more, spend less and earn more?
Alas, reality tells us that this is not as easy as it sounds.
I am the perfect example. Due to my recent "European" adventures, I just wiped out every centavo in my savings account - money I have been slowly putting aside for the past 4 years. In these past few months, I also gained 10 kilos (not pounds, kilos - thats 22 pounds!). My pants are getting really tight, and my wallet is getting really light. I am slowly becoming the fat, bald guy who doesn't have any money. Not exactly Brad Pitt material, I know.
I know how to lose weight, and I know what it takes to be rich - its just, well...difficult. In my case, I have identified several problems:
I like to eat, but I cannot cook. As a result, I spend a big chunk of my income on restaurants (and in case you are wondering - no, eating out is NOT a necessity). The main problem is that I am very picky when it comes to food - if I have a bad meal, I feel terrible all day (or night, depends on when I eat). Good food, on the other hand, makes me feel great! I guess its in my genes - I am Capampangan, in case you didn't know.
Since Polish food is not exactly at the height of culinary sophistication (except for their Kielbasa - which is very, very good), I am forced to spring for more expensive meals. I also generally don't like fast food (except for Jollibee Chickenjoy - I love this, but it is obviously not available in Poland), vegetables, and fruits - which makes things worse. I can save a lot of money (and lose a lot of weight) if I cooked, but I just can't cook. I know, I know - if you know how to read, you know how to cook (try Googling "5 minute meals") - I guess I am just too lazy. Being a picky eater and a terrible cook is a bad (and expensive) combination. If you still don't believe me, read this post from my favorite personal finance blog.
I also spend a lot of money on stupid things - like beer. I absolutely love beer. The problem is that in Europe, beer is very expensive. The calories from beer also go straight to your gut. I am trying very hard to limit this expense - however it seems that the world is not cooperating with me. For example, today during dinner (at a restaurant, of course), I ordered one beer with my meal. The waitress gave me 2 beers. When I asked why she was giving me 2, she said that the 2nd one was free. Alright - free beer! Hehehe...
I also do not exercise at all here in Warsaw (walking to the office pantry to get a sandwich in the morning is NOT exercise) and I am not exactly earning a boatload of money (boss - if you're reading this, please take note). I guess I am a hopeless case - destined to be fat and poor.
Hopeless, that is, until I learn how to cook.
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