On Jun 1, 2004, at 21:55, Weronika Patena wrote:
When was the school week 6 days??
Throughout my University years, and I graduated in '72. Shortly thereafter, Poland started having a "dead Saturday" once every month (but you had to work it off during the rest of the month, so it was nothing but a nuisance)
I wonder whether they'll ever evolve Polish versions, or just stay like this.
I wonder myself... We now have a "mikrofalowka" (microwave) but, can we "zap" or "nuke" our food in it? Not as far as I've been able to determine... :)
I've seen a GREAT list of Polish synonyms proposed by various people, but I doubt it'll catch on,
Promote the best ones by using them; you'd be surprised what the older generation is capable of accepting/learning, if exposed to something often enough... The day I heard my Mother use, to her (equally ancient) friend a term she'd heard me use often (to my, teenage, friends)... A term which was rude and crude beyond belief, *when heard from her*... That was the day I grew up, and began to clean up my own language in a hurry... Came in handy, too, after my son was born, and I didn't want *him* to replace every verb and noun with an "expletive not deleted" <g>
which is a pity - you can do amazing things with the Polish language if you
try.
That you can... But, usually, it takes up much more space; just look at the number of pages in any Dickens volume, in the original and then in Polish :)
When I was a freshman, I *really* had no money - I'd go to a grocery store with all of the money I had, about $10, and try to buy as many apples as possible, and always forget about the tax and end up not having enough money!
Tee hee... So, on my 2nd day in Lexington, I go to a Hallmark store, to buy a box of stationery, to write my parents more than I could put in the telegram (anyone remember *those*? <g>)... I pick a cheap-o box for $2, go to the cashier and she says: "that'll be $2.08" (our tax was 4% then; it's 4.5 now)... Say *what*???
That was my introduction to State Tax... :) But, in the well-balanced manner of all Libras, I made up for for *that* blooper when I went back to Poland, some 6 months later... I was so well trained by then, I tried to figure out the tax on a pair of blankets I was trying to buy in a Cepelia (folk crafts) store in Warsaw... <g>
Also, really, why aren't there any *small* cars in the US?
There *are* (vide the re-made VW "duck-tail", known here as "bug"); they're just not US *designed*... :) And it's much better now than it used to be 30 yrs ago; then, every time I went back to Europe, I felt I was in the Liliput country.
in the US there aren't any small grocery stores
There *are*, in some towns; as a matter of fact my son lives within a 5 minute walk of one (Palo Alto, CA) and uses it all the time. But they *are* more expensive than the stores which shift merchandise in great bulk, so you have to be willing to "put your money where your mouth is" to shop there on a regular basis. *And* you have to be willing to walk -- there and back (loaded with the groceries). Which, not all Americans are (including some who run, daily, for exercise <g>). Go to a mall parking lot, and observe: some people will spend more time circling around, looking for a near spot, than it would take them to park far away and walk.
What's wrong with the windows? There's plenty wrong with the windows around where I live, but I didn't know it was a common American thing
Don't know what's wrong with *yours*, but... To me, windows ought to have two -- large and unbroken (to allow for maximum light and for a "dead air" cushion, both in summer and in winter) -- glass panes. And they should open *out*, on hinges, like doors (so-called "casement" windows). Or, if you go for a more modern version, on a swivel, which allows you to open the top in, and the bottom out, and vice-versa. The Danish windows are a miracle and a delight, in that, you can open them *either* on the mid-swivel, *or* at the side... <g>
All the windows, around where I'm at, are *sash* windows (you move half of it up or down, and it -- *always* -- gets stuck). And each half of the window is divided into 8 cutsey little panes... A practice which made a lot of sense 600 yrs ago, when glassmaking wasn't all that well developed and big sheets of it were an impossibility but, *now*???
DH says that, should a neighbour's kid lob a ball into one's window, it's easier to replace a small pane than a large one. True. But, in my 31 years here, we had *one* case of a kid (with a BB gun) break a windowpane, while it ain't DH who tries to wash 32 corners for every *half* window... Bah, humbug.... :)
And the "storm windows" (the second pane, providing the dead air insulation) aren't much better...
I get the time confused as well - in Poland we sometimes say 4 when we mean 16 or 4pm, but we pretty much always write 16, so when I see pm hours in emails, I often miss the pm and show up 12 hours early...
Your satisfaction -- if you happen to have a mean streak, which I do -- will come from watching Americans at European airports and train stations, trying to figure out the time tables/schedules :) 17:05? What's that? Only the army uses the 24hr clock.
OK. I think I've emptied my budget of gripes, and shared some of the insights with Weronika (and anyone else interested enough).... :)
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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