Apart from my week-long stay in the UK, I've never really spent time in the country where most Polish people feel at home. I've never been to Ireland either. Of course, I have heard many shocking stories of the "second Polands" somewhere abroad but I've never really stopped to think what it really meant. Both in Galicia and in Gabon, meeting a Polish person in the street (or having them turn up uninvited in the middle of your party, for that matter) was rather unlikely and usually led to striking up a conversation and making new acquaintances. Brussels? A whole different story.As soon as we moved to the charming neighbourhood of Forest, where, as far as I can tell, no Belgian people reside, we discovered a "Polski Sklep Polsmak", which - for those of you who do not get the subtle hint in the name - is actually a Polish shop, fully equipped with fresh Polish bread, all kinds of Polish foodstuff, a stack of magazines and two original Polish shop-assistants. I would've been shocked at this discovery, if I hadn't spent a significant amount of time in the neighbourhood of Saint Gilles, where Polish shops seem to be particularly abundant.
Very well then, Polish bread in the vicinity is always good news. It wasn't the shop, however, that triggered this entry. Nor was it the Polish people whom I spot on a daily basis, sometimes thanks to the - not always appropriate - language, sometimes because of the Polish beer in their hands. I am becoming an expert in Polespotting, too. But again, that's neither here nor there. The event that made me tell you about the strong Polish presence in Brussels was this: I had my hair cut. I had my hair cut by a Polish girl in a Polish hair salon.
The number of leafllets available at the salon opened my eyes to how many Polish services there actually were. Let me give you a list of what I have found so far:
- Polish shops, on every corner
- Polish hair salons (oh yes, in plural!) and beauty salons
- Polish IT specialist
- Polish dentist
- Polish schools
- Polish restaurants
- Polish bars
- Polish beauty products catalogues and consultants
- Polish language school
Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited about the availability of Polish products and services. It is an excellent way to battle homesickness, broaden our menu and let Jandro get closer to my Polish side. I do hope, however, that my compatriots try to learn from the cultural richness of Brussels, insead of limiting themselves to Polski Sklep, Polski Fryzjer and Polski Friend. I for one embrace it all. I have Polish bread with the typical Belgian speculoos paste and drink some Moroccan mint tea, while chatting to my Galician boyfriend. Unity in diversity. Cliche but works.
that's a good market for teaching languages...
ReplyDeleteKaxa: deberías ver 'The Wire'. A segunda temporada está dedicada á mafia polaca do porto de Baltimore. :)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds at least sad. It remembers me the galician ghetto tendency when abroad... It seems people, wherever they are from, are by default reluctant to mix with other cultures... Really discouraging.
ReplyDeletegermam: agreed, as long as you want to teach...
ReplyDeleterocio: non soa mal... thanks for the tip! :)
fran: oh cheer up, you! always so negative!
Thanks for the comments, my Galician readers. At least now I know somedoby reads me! :-) Bicos!
Well, for one I am 100% sure that living in such a pseudo-Polish reality in Brussels is not good. Simple. Nobody says that you have to totally forget about your roots, but if you move somewhere, you should try to mix your cultural background with that of your new country and not try to recreate Poland in every single details. But well, that's me and my humble opinion of a Pole living in a small Flemish town, knowing two other Polish women who live here and who are Polish but living a Belgian life, knowing the language, having proper jobs and so on.
ReplyDeleteI am a weird Pole - I've heard that already a few times ;-).