Two Cultures Meet...

Wroclaw is quickly growing on me.  As I now approach my one-week anniversary in the city, I have begun to understand the complexity and nuance that makes the city unique.  It is very clearly an Eastern European city that has an exotic feel to a Westerner but it is also a city that is in quick pursuit of the future.  The mall across the street from my dorm really could very easily be switched with Oak Park Mall at home.  The Polish that I’ve seen are very conscientious about their clothes and I see movie posters for American movies like Harry Potter and Columbiana at the movie theater across the street. 

There does seem, however, to be a part of the city (and maybe all of Poland for that matter) that is stuck in the past.  Apparently, the schools here require the students to study English in an attempt to prepare them for a future in which they will almost inevitably be require to use the language.  In fact, when I look for restaurants to eat at and stores to buy things, I look for the stores with young (under 27 or so) people working at them because there is a much better chance that they know English.  It is very apparent that the city used to be under the soviet bloc with its socialist style apartment complexes right out my window (see picture) and the always-evident poverty of the city that seems to indicate growing pains from communism to capitalism.  This said, homelessness that I see involves a crowd over 50 years old and the young seems to be anxious to move and out of any ways of life of Poland’s recent past.

The Soviet style apartment complex outside my window

One of my favorite activities this past week has been to simply walk around the city.  I like to get the feel of the city and the people and I feel as if I can almost blend in perfectly with the city and the people surrounding me.  I like to simply walk because it allows me to keep my mouth shut and I feel everyone around me takes me as one of their own; as if there is no difference between them and me.  At the “milk bars” that many of the students buy their lunch, I really do feel somewhat Polish… that is, until, I get up to the front and order and my foreignness becomes apparent.   But for the most part, Poles are very welcoming to strangers and foreigners.  It is not hard to make friends at restaurants, in the halls of the university, or even at the laundromat (details to come probably in the next post) and I have found that a little Polish, along with a little English from the other party, can go a long way.  In the end, this past week has not been about two cultures clashing but two cultures meeting, not without a few bumps here and there but relatively peacefully and quietly.  I feel blessed by the experiences I have had this past week while I look forward to the future because like the young Polish I have seen this past week, I am optimistic about the things to come.