keepsakepoland

My name is Sylwia and I'm from Poznan, Poland. Poznan isn't the town where I was born but I've been living there for 8 years now and I feel very attached to it. Poznan is a cultural and educational center of western Poland, it's known for very good schools and also great museums, theatres and cinemas. There is also a very
beautiful square in the oldest part of the city, the place of meetings and shopping for souvenirs. The Pozan castle with its long history is worth visiting, too. Poznan also gives its citizens great opportunity to relax after a busy day in the center, There are many lakes and forrests
that offer their natural beauty. The most known is Malta Lake where one can take a stroll around it either on foot or rollerblades, cycle or even ski, as there is allseason skislope at the lake, The pubs, discos and restaurants are open till very early in the morning.

If a friend were to come and stay with me I would definitely take them to Cracow, the former
capitalcity of my country, Zakopane - a fabulous place in Tatra mountains, or Gdansk one of the most beautiful cities at the seaside of the Baltic sea.

The end of June is a very important time for my city. Then there takes place the biggest International Festival of Theatres in Poland. It's called Malta and many people from all over the world come either to
watch the performances or participate in them. The actors perform in the streets, build enormous structures and wear really awesome costumes, most of the plays are very funny but they also are quite deep at the
same time.The crowds join the performers in huge mascarades follow them along the Poznan streets.It remainds of Rio de Janeiro carnival corrovode. There are of course many other events worth seeing but about that I'll tell you more if you write to me.

Like in many places in Europe people enjoy socializing in pubs, clubs and discos, they go to cinemas - as we have no dubbins in our cinemas it's possible also for foreigners to watch the movies. They go to
swimming pools, ski, rollerblade,cycle, read, listen to music, dance, go shopping.

My childhood wasn't too easy as my country was under communist rule then, I can say it only now of course when I compare the lives of those who are kids nowadays when the times have changed so much in my country, (I'd rather be the child now), So, when I was a kid I didn't realize that life could be different as we weren't allowed to travel to western countries untill about 1986 (I was 12 at that time) It may sounds funny but you couldn't get sweets in shops(that's actually what matters to kids,- my mum knows a recipe for the homemade candies!)chocolates, exotic
fruit - we knew them from pictures, a chewing gum was a rarity; everyone wore the same kind of clothes, nearly the same colours. I think in some way I have also benefited from this experience as not having many necessary things developed my imagination and some kind of Macgiver skills.

My parents really cared for me and my sisters and having belived that the times would change some day they sent me to study English when I was 5. (a great thanks to them!)That wasn't very popular decision at that time. The Poles then, didn't learn any western language, but German sometimes, and Russian compulsorily. That's a big handicap of those older
generations of Polish people. Nowadays every young person can communicate in a foreign language, more or less.

Other people think that Poles are overproud of being Poles, that they still think they are the heroes of 1980 (the time when the Polish rebeled against the communist government)I think it's completely untrue,(Walesa, Solidarnosc are the most associated terms with my country) I traveled a lot abroad, I lived in England for two years and met many Polish emmigrants there who feel insecure and have kind of inferiority complex. We don't really think so much about the past as we try to find ourselves in the new reality, After 50 yrs of the communist rule we had to totally change our lifestyle, way of thinking and rewrite our history, begin to believe that the West, of which we were once told was our
greatest enemy, is in fact our ally. It's been only about 10 years now that we have lived in the new system which isn't perfect either.

Polish people have very romantic and melo nature, we tend to getattached to things, other people, memories and belive in friendships for life.

I'm looking for penfriends from all over the world, no matter what nationality you are. I speak English, German, Russian, Spanish and of course Polish. If you want to learn more about my country, and visit it one day or have some Polish origins, write to me! hope to hear from you soon,
Sylvia