Hello from Warsaw:)

[Katarzyna]

Hello everybody!
I'm Katarzyna from Warsaw, Poland, and I'm an English teacher. I've been just preparing for CPE exam in December2005. I found this site excellent to practice.

Greetings
Kasia

[Nicole]

Hello Katarzyna. I'm pleased to meet you. What is the latest in Warsaw You now have a new government, don't you?
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Life is for living.

[Katarzyna]

Hi Nicole. I’m pleased to meet you, too .
As for Warsaw it is still in its place, I think. I’m not sure because I haven’t left my flat since last Monday; I have a flue .
It’s getting rainy outside; I can see it through my window:).

We have a new government and we will soon have a new president.

Have you ever been to Poland? I have been to your town and I think Switzerland is a beautiful country. You've suffered a terrible flooding this year.

Are you German- or French speaking?

[Andreana]

Hello Katarzyna! I'm pleased to meet you. Jak sie masz? It's so interesting to see people from Europe here on the forum. One of the my friends is from Poland too, from Gdanks. She has invited me so often to come and visit her in her hometown but until now it has been to expensive for me too book a flight to Europe. However, I started to save money for my trip and I'm quite I'll be able to go Poland next year. Anyway, tell me more about Warsawa. How is life there these days? Are there many foreigners in the Polish capital? Czesz. A.
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A smile will open doors

[Tortoise]

Hi !

I hear that Poland is famous for its tulip. I wish I will visit Poland someday.

[Katarzyna]

Hola, Andreana! Mucho gusto:). Hablo un poco de espa?ol.

It’s nice to hear that you have a friend in Poland. Gdańsk is an old town at the seaside and I think it is one of the most beautiful places to see in Poland, beside Krakow, Wrocław and of course Warsaw, where I live. So now you have much more places to visit in my country My favourite place in Poland are the Tatra mountains. This year I have taken my English friends for a trip there and they were delighted.

I know travelling is expensive but you can make it much cheaper having friends all around the world. As a consecutive interpreter I travel a lot on business but to be honest I prefer visiting my friends to spending time abroad in hotels and on guided tours. It lets me know much more about the place I visit, about the people and their life style.

Yes, you right that there are many people from different countries in Warsaw. I live in a beautiful residential area of Warsaw, just a short walking distance from the Old Town. Warsaw has changed a lot for the last few years and I enjoy living here. This year we have had lots of tourists from EU countries in particular but there are also many people who come to work here: English teachers, German and French businessmen, all sorts of EU advisors, and also Chinese and Vietnamese establishing their own small take-away’s businesses here. We have some pubs run by Irishmen in Warsaw, with good music and good beer . Yes, my town has been becoming more colourful and international but as probably everywhere it’s a place of big contrasts.

Every summer there is a kind of a jazz festival called ‘Warsaw Summer Jazz Days”: lots of concerts in the open air and concert halls. This year it was really great! I could hear Bob McFerrin, Casandra Wilson, Chick Corea, Richard Bona and Marcus Miller. Three weeks ago I was at Sting's concert. I like music very much so it is really important for me what is going on in this field.

I regret not having been to your country but I hope one day I'll go Argentina. As far as I know there is quite a large Polish community.

So if you finally decide to visit my country, I promise to show you its capitol city . I think it’s worth seeing.

And what about the place you live in? Do you live in Buenos Aires or somewhere else? What is it like?

Regards

[Nicole]

[Katarzyna]

[Katarzyna]

Hi Nicole,

It’s nice to hear that you have noticed the changes in my country. I am a little surprised you are German not Swiss.
I used to study at German school high school in Warsaw. Last summer in Auendorf, my Polish and German friends celebrated together the 25th anniversary of our last high school exchange. Every year in summer our schools had organized the exchange of students so that we could stay at our friends’ homes and they could stay at ours for two weeks. Twenty years passed since we last saw each other and it was really great to meet together again! Our friendship was broken because of the State of War in 1980thies. We simply lost contact; lots of us emigrated or moved to other towns. That was a great job of the organizer to find almost all of us!
Now I hope we will stay in touch because life became much easier – no visas and passports needed, cheaper tickets and no such a big gap between our standards of living. And we don’t depend on our parents. Most of us travel a lot working in business.
We agreed to meet in Warsaw next year. Some of them haven’t been here for twenty-five years and I think it will be a shock to them.

Nicole, it sounds interesting for me that you moved from Germany to Switzerland. Did it happen because of your job or for any other reason? Did you find it difficult? What is the branch you work for if it’s not to a nosy question? My job as an interpreter is mostly connected with chemical industry but for more than 10 years I worked us an English teacher and a coordinator of study programmes at a language school. In fact, I am still a teacher but I give only private lessons for students preparing to CFE and CAE exams.

I think your idea of establishing an international partnership of cities from all around the world is great.
What do you think of its headquarters in Warsaw or Bern? .

Regards
Kasia (that's Katarzyna in short)