I had a friend, he was American. I once mentioned to him, that when I was in Canada, I was asked if there were polar-bears in Poland (since it is called PoleLand - it must be on the North Pole, and since it is on the North Pole - there must be polar-bears). He teased me ever since: “So in Poland you have polar-bears instead of puppies”, or “So when I come to visit, you will pick me up from the airport riding a big white sledge pulled by polar-bears?”.
All was meant as a joke, of course, but I really believe that the way he pictured Poland was not very far from the polar-bears-version: lot's of snow, cold, no heating, no electricity, rrrrred cheeked girls and sturrrdy boys all speaking wiz fani akcent, and - of course – lot's of vodka... But, seriously, there is nothing like that in Poland - we are no Russia ;)
All was meant as a joke, of course, but I really believe that the way he pictured Poland was not very far from the polar-bears-version: lot's of snow, cold, no heating, no electricity, rrrrred cheeked girls and sturrrdy boys all speaking wiz fani akcent, and - of course – lot's of vodka... But, seriously, there is nothing like that in Poland - we are no Russia ;)
I laughed!
ReplyDeleteAs I come from an even more unknown country Latvia, I have experience with this kind of stories. :) Once, I was asked if Latvia is in Poland, another time an Italian guy was introducing me to his friends in Italian saying I came from Lapland. I even made an English girl to believe that Latvia is located in Africa and the only transportation from UK is by boat which is going once a week :) And when my Philippine friend came to visit me during the winter time and I took her to the frozen sea, she asked where are the penguins, to which I answered that they have been eaten by polar bears and we actually have to beware. And finally my most favourite: this was an English girl again who didn't believe that temperature can climb down to minus 25, according to her theory - if it really happened the air would freeze and become ice!
Hi Li,
ReplyDeletehad a good laugh when I read your stories. I sometimes wonder what happened to good ol' education. The temperature cannot go down to 25 deg? facepalm
Nice to have you on board! Hope to hear more stories from you.
Best,
Tash.