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Przeziębienie – a common cold strikes again Posted by Anna on Oct 18, 2009
I’m so sorry this post is late, but I have a very good excuse – I’m sick. Totally and utterly sick. Not the new flu (thankfully), but the whole nine yards nevertheless: katar (runny nose), kaszel (cough), ból gardła (sore throat) and everything else that comes with it. In other words – przeziębienie (a common…
Zimno i mokro (cold and wet) Posted by Anna on Oct 15, 2009
With all this recent excitement over Bielsko Biała, I totally forgot that yesterday (wczoraj, 14 października) was Dzień Nauczyciela (Teacher’s Day). Now, I’m the first one to admit, I don’t like Dzień Nauczyciela. Never liked it and probably never will. It’s like Dzień Matki (Mother’s Day) – we should respect and honor our teachers (and…
What do you call a person who lives in Bielsko-Biała? Posted by Anna on Oct 12, 2009
In his comment to the Bielsko-Biała post Mchl posed an interesting question: what do you call a person who lives in Bielsko-Biała? Yeah, indeed… An inhabitant of Gdańsk is called gdańszczanin (masculine; gdańszczanka – feminine). A person who lives in Warsaw? Warszawiak or warszawianin, if a male, and warszawianka, if a female. In Kraków? Krakowiak…
Not Going Back to School After All Posted by Anna on Oct 9, 2009
Remember my excitement about my return to school? Well, after all, it’s not going to happen. And so right were those of you who said that I should have picked a school in the UK, or elsewhere. Ah… But I guess I needed to learn it the hard way all by myself. So what happened?…
On Bielsko-Biała and Białystok Posted by Anna on Oct 6, 2009
Polish declensions. We all love them, right? All the funky case endings, exceptions, and then exceptions to exceptions. Life in Polish is never boring. But just when you think you’ve finally managed to master the genitives, datives and accusatives, and you’re no longer kept awake at night by the adjective+noun combinations, you meet Bielsko-Biała. Or…
How to Write Dates (po polsku, naturally) Posted by Anna on Oct 3, 2009
I was writing a semi-official letter the other day, and even before I managed to get to “Szanowna Pani“, I was already stumped. Not that it’s anything usual, me getting stumped, but it’s been happening with amazing regularity lately. Anyway, my MS Word automatically fills in the current date according to the American system: the…
Barb’s Trip to Poland and Chipmunk Diplomacy Posted by Anna on Sep 30, 2009
Today we have another report from our fabulous guest blogger – Barb from Canada. Enjoy! I recently returned from a short trip to Poland with my head (and heart) bursting with impressions and perceptions. Since my last trip occurred over 25 years ago, to say things have changed would be a little bit of an…