It's All Polish to Me

"Tak" is the only Polish that I can remember from last weekend's trip to Poland visiting Lisa. It means "Yes". I swear it is one of the few Polish words less than 15 letters and aren't comprised all of consonants! I had a great time in Poland despite the freezing temperatures that reminded me of Chicago. It was toes and fingers growing numb cold! I understand now why there are so many Polish people in Chicago -- it's because it has the same climate as Chicago! Right now it's about 0 degrees Farenheit as a HIGH and -9 degrees F as a low. Pobre Lisa!

I am thankful to be back in Barcelona as temperatures this past week have been BEAUTIFUL - a high of 60 degrees during the day! Yay! I've fulfilled my goal to miss a Chicago winter. Back to Poland for a moment and some briefings of the weekend:

• Two of my good IESE girlfriends also from Chicago, Lindy and Kathy, came along for the ride. Kathy is Polish and so that helped a lot when we were in the restaurants and in the cab. Lisa's grasp of Polish numbers and knowledge of how to get around is also to be commended!
• Restaurants are fantastic: It's the middle of January and they STILL have their Christmas decorations up! It's great because it creates a very homey feel. The service is outstanding. Maybe because not a lot of people are out because of the extreme cold? Eating pierogies, dumplings, duck breast, and mushroom soup was a delectible delight! One of our business ideas is to open up a Polish fast food restaurant in Barcelona!
• Polish people are nice but can be rude at times! Lisa orders her second Mandarin Orange cosmo but the waitress says "You can't order that." Lisa responds "Yes, I can." Then the waitress rolled her eyes in disgust and wrote down the order. Two older gentleman sitting behind us and one of them says to us "Can we buy you a drink?" and we say "Sure", gives him our drink orders, say "Thanks" and then go back to our conversation. A few minutes later the men get up and puts on their jackets. I'm thinking, oh good they are going to order our drinks as they leave. I was mistaken -- they just left! No drinks! Guess they were waiting for an invite to our table...Hah! Fat chance!
• Polish women are HOT and the men not as much.
• We meet a group of Spanish men at a lounge/club. Ironic! Too bad they were from Madrid.
• Lisa's apartment: AMAZING! All modern, a spacious bathroom, and very nicely decorated.
• Warsaw is a beautiful city - cobble stones, beautiful architecture, very spread out and lots of space which I can appreciate because Barcelona is pretty cramped in comparison. And one other thing:
• It is too damn COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!