Disclaimer. I had to split this into two parts, so this part has no crying. Just so you know, because this is not a ploy to get you to read more or click to read more so I can rake in the big bucks 😀 Finns are usually a traditional bunch, who (would) much prefer…
Category: Social Issues
Tales of the Polish Relatives: my grandfather (and a little bit of my mother’s mother too)
My grandfather was a deeply religious man, who had one final semester left at the seminary before he met my grandmother and decided that what God really wanted for him was to create a family and a life with the beautiful blonde peasant girl he saw. This is according to my mother and I will…
On the Misleading Concept of Friendship – a post in honor of Finnish Friendship Day
Finns pride themselves on many things, and one of the things they will humblebrag on – alongside their claim to honesty, drinking capabilities and high tolerance of cold temperatures (due largely with the aid of the former) – is their concept of friendship. “A Finnish friend is a friend for life,” they will tell you….
Road Trip to Silesia IV – on friendship(s) (and) final thoughts
Road Trip to Silesia IV – on friendship(s) (and) final thoughts There is an epilogue to all this, because there always is an epilogue to all this once you’ve come back, decompressed and attained the benefit of hindsight. It helps that you are not dependent on anyone or any circumstance in that particular situation. The…
Silesia III – The Spritzwasser of Clubs
It wasn’t the club scene that was holding us back. It was a feeling, a tingling sense that shouldn’t be ignored and that quite frankly got me out of trouble plenty of times in the past. Because truth is, I loved hanging out where there were people, and whether that was a cafe, a restaurant,…
Silesia II – An Interlude on Relationship Dynamics
Then there was the issue of the club. She really wanted to go there because it spelled freedom for one night. That was the main reason she’d asked us along on this trip, more than chipping in for gas. Her husband was tending to their infant, which translated into frantic phone calls from home every…
The Avon Lady is Not The Only One Who Hates Me – a treatise on my relationship with conservative societies
We ran into the Avon Lady again the other day. As always in these cases, I was with her neighbor and – again as always in these cases – we saw her son first. He greeted his neighbor, looked a question at me as though he wasn’t quite sure whether to talk to me or…
More Tales from the Polish Relatives: wujek Marian
The person who did stay in my mind, for a long time, was ciocia Basia’s husband, wujek Marian. Wujek Marian had married into the family (obviously) and when I first met him at the age of eleven I was scared of his dog. As an aside, before I discovered that I’m somewhat of a dog…
Unraveling the Mystery of the Polish Relatives: ciocia Basia
If I held off writing about her it’s (mainly) because she is the one I interacted with the least. She was my mother’s first sister (the third-born) and my mother hated her guts. My mementoes of her were admittedly vague. Apparently we’d first met when I was two and she joined forces with me and…
The People Watcher Observes a Couple
This particular Nero we are at is an island in a not too busy mall. It’s also the northernmost mall, a concept reflected in its name. Most people are there to take a much needed break from shopping (one of the reasons I loved malls as a child was because of the hustle and bustle…
talesfromyourlocalpubs 