Polish Expat Bloggers
Posted by: Anna Ikeda
It always amazes me how many Poles in recent years have packed up and moved to the UK and Ireland. Sometimes I feel like the last Polish person left alive who hasn’t even properly visited the “islands”, because no, transferring between Heathrow and Gatwick doesn’t count, or does it? I will remedy this glaring oversight in 2010 when I visit Birmingham for about a week in August (any readers in or around Birmingham who would like to get together and have lunch, or a non-alcoholic beverage, please let me know!).
Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, Poles in the UK. There are thousands of them. Or is it millions now? And it seems that despite the bad economy, more and more are heading there. Personally, I know only two people who chose to return to Poland in 2009, and about ten times as many who got on a Ryanair flight with all their dreams and belongings reduced to one piece of checked-in luggage. But as I am a professional nomad myself, it’s not really my place to pass judgment on them and dissect the reasons why they decided to leave Poland.
What interests me are their experiences in the UK. Why? Oh, I’m nosey and real life stories are so much better than soap operas.
Luckily for me, it seems that just about every Polish expat on the “islands” is busy documenting his or her life in a blog. Most, actually – almost all of those blogs, are written in Polish and detail the boring, mundane events of boring, mundane every day life.
What surprised me was how many (many) of those Poles in UK complain, and what they complain about (everything). I know that narzekanie (complaining) is one of our national traits. No, wait, it’s not a trait, it’s part of our Polish genetic makeup. Nobody complains like we do. We’ve turned complaining about life, universe and everything into an art form.
But where was I? Ah yes, Polish expats blogging. Mercifully, since most of the blogs are written in our obscure national language, their readership is also almost exclusively Polish. There are, however, a few brave souls that decided to blog about their experiences in the UK in English. And maybe because they blog in English, they don’t complain as much as the rest.
So, if you’ve ever wanted to know just what those neighborhood Poles are up to, now you can – check out thesee blogs:
Anglopole’s blog is somewhat spasmodic, but still offers a nice glimpse of what a Polish person in the UK does and thinks.
Polka on the island writes a bit more frequently and also covers a wide variety of topics.
If you are a Pole abroad and blog in English, or in a mixture of languages about your daily life na obczyźnie, please take a minute and leave a comment – if you don’t mind, I’d like to feature your blogs next time we talk about this subject.
And yes, if you think I’m a blog addict, you are absolutely right. I love them, I read them, and I write them. Kocham blogi, piszę blogi i czytam blogi – jestem blogowym nałogowcem.
Post from: Polish Blog
Related posts:
- Surviving the First Hello
- Documentary Film About Wisława Szymborska
- Poles and kombinowanie
- Guest Post – Evil Winter! (”Zima Zła”)
- Kombinowanie continued
Posted by: Anna Ikeda
