I have finally realised how much I hate Britain. This is a country full of aggressive, obnoxious, violent people, and I am slowly turning into one of them myself. Not a single day goes by now without my feeling trodden down and furious and wishing that I had a large heavy object with which to thrash the living daylights out of someone. I feel insignificant and powerless and I want to hurt people.
It never used to be like this. I never used to be like this.
What on earth is happening to us?
Left my beloved Kraków now to set up in Brussels but this is by no means the end of my adventures with Polish. Linguistic confusion and cross-cultural misunderstandings still abound. I'm an interpreter, a translator, a musician, I'm learning to cook again and I miss my dog. I think that's got it covered, more or less.
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10 comments:
You're JUST having a bad day. A bad couple of days. It's the weather. Or the economy. Or your job's not suiting you at the moment. Or the... something....
Go outside and do something different tomorrow. Take a little trip. Walk a different route.
Remember that every day is a gift. As trite as that sounds. But it's really true.
Try to find something wonderful and new in your day tomorrow and remember that most people are stuck in their own grinding day-to-day, and can't see beyond that.
You, the writer, can see beyond all of it...
And we do enjoy your writing!
So keep it up,
and keep yer chin up too.
x
Oh dear. What a shame you feel like this. Unfortunately, I do agree with you to some extent...
However, we aren't all bad you know!
If you are living in a city at the moment, therein may lie your problem. City dwellers don't appear to have a lot of time for their fellow man.
I hope Expateek is right - that's it's just 'one of those days'.
Keep smiling!
Sorry to say this but I think Expateek is just being nice - which rather decently fits in with what you're missing at the moment so, good job Expateek!
It sounds like you've developed a taste for living abroad and you won't be happy until you're back in foreignerland.
It's understandable. When you live abroad even though (generally) the same crap happens in whichever country you happen to be in, somehow because you're foreign it doesn't bite so deep. Well, that's my experience anyway.
Being English and being back in England you've nowhere to hide. You (we) come from the same pool of poo as the increasing amount of social retards that walk the streets. Turn us upside down and there's the Made In England stamp just the same as the army of freaks that march around us.
You'll only be happy in England when you've bored of abroad. When the homesickness comes. Otherwise home isn't here in England, it's somewhere else overseas.
Or maybe I've got it all wrong and you're just having a bad day. In which case, pull yourself together and put on UK Gold ;)
Tom
Tom, Agnes, Expateek, thanks for the support. Sorry for the vitriolic posts... normal service to resume shortly...
Wielu Polaków podobnie nienawidzi Polski. Zwłaszcza tych, co wyjechali. Pariodiujac zwrot "Najjaśniejsza Rzeczpospolita" nazywają ją "Pomroczna". Wrzuć w google to słowo - zobaczysz, ile negatywnej energii w nich płynie..
Trzymaj się!
errata:
"Ci, co wyjechali (nienawidzą)"
nie
"Tych, co wyjechali"
A ci co tu mieszkają co raz bardziej cieszą się tym, że w Polsce jednak jest zarąbiście!
So don't take Jacek's generalisations too seriously. The negative whining Pole is on the way out. A thing of the past!
Come back to Krakow for good. It was voted as the city with most content people in Poland. And England, well, use it as a stop-over point to stock up on books.
Bur remember your parks! God you've got to love the parklands in England. Stunning. We have nothing of the sort in Krakow and I am missing trees. So that's a plus. And the beer is just as good. Nearly. And you have the most wonderful legal system in the world, which I am always in awe of (aside from the usual glitches - but it is the foundation that counts the most). And those excellent deck chairs in St. James park. And TATE. And all those freakin' excellent concerts. AND amazing curry! You ever go to the Indian joint in Kazimierz? Rubbish. Absolute rubbish.
My God, Pino, what's happened to you since you went home!? Toilet skuffles, depression, restlessness.......you poor thing.
I have no idea what the answer is but it must be somewhere in the ballpark of a good job, good man/partner, good friends, getting out of the UK and I wish you the very best of luck in getting one or more of those sorted out pronto double quick!
Sweden sounds like a good start although they can be a bit strange at times. Too many trees. Too many people called Bjorn.
I'll await future, more optimistic and happy, posts.
Keep your chin up!
Jacek: I believe you (sorry for the reply in English my polski pisemny - or pisany - is a bit rusty). The home culture seems even more frustrating because there's nothing new or exciting about it.
Justyna: Hyde Park is pretty good for rollerblading I give you that, but I have to get on a train to go there whereas the Wisła was just down the road...
But you are so so right about curry. Good point actually.
Scatts: Thanks. Sorry - I'll try to up the beat a bit. As for your solutions: friends - no problem, they're brilliant (when we manage to catch up/not be at work all the time/be in the same country); getting out of the UK is always possible; getting a decent job... well... I'm self-employed so it's kind of up to me anyway; getting a new man/partner: never again in a million years yuck yuck yuck sorry but vomiting in sheer horror even as we speak.
ps why don't you like trees?
Just had a few beers with some Polish mates from London (early 1990s) who say that since they moved there, the place has gone down hill (teenage knife stabbings, drunken middle-class, middle-aged women, weak pound etc.). Britain is no longer the land I remember from my childhood (quick plug for my new blog http://greyjumper.blogspot.com). I find London and indeed British cities ultimately depressing; leave town, live somewhere rural, or emigrate. It's as simple as that.
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