Back in Krakow - October 6, 2008

(Statue of Adam Mickiewicz - romantic poet and national hero.)

I have been here 12 days and it’s been mostly work. But, that is the reason for being in Krakow. My colleagues and I are supporting the implementation of a new operating model for my company. In laymen’s terms that means a new computer system and processes for customer service, inventory management, paper machine scheduling, transportation management, billing … well, you get the idea.

Our role is to answer questions and help find resolutions to the problems that come up. We work U.S. hours which has us getting to the office at 2 p.m. local time. (We are 7 hours ahead of CT.) We have shifts and we work until 1 a.m.

It’s a very talented and complementary group of people that are here with me. And fun people to boot. Each of us has a unique sense of humor which helps to keep our spirits up. Let’s face it; it is tough working these hours and being away from home for so long. Everyone is doing stints from two to four weeks. For those with children it is especially difficult. Some check with home prior to their children heading off to school and some call home after their children arrive home. Some use Skype w/ a web cam and some write daily e-mails to each child. Everyone seems to manage in their own way.

But enough about work.

Since I have returned there have been several events going on in either the main or small squares. The ECCO shoe company hosted a walk-a-thon to benefit some of their global causes. There is also a film festival being promoted with a large movie screen suspended in the main square which is showing short films shot around Krakow.

I have made it to a number of new restaurants as well as many of my favorites. One of the new ones was Buena Vista in Kazimierz, a Cuban restaurant. It had good food but nothing to write home about. (Hmmm, I guess I am doing just that.) After dinner I got to thinking about how many ethnic restaurants I have been to over here so I have compiled a list. They are:

Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Provencal (French), Greek, Cuban, Asian, Thailand, Brazilian, Georgian, Hungarian, Japanese, Jewish, Mexican and Spanish.

My Cuban dinner was with my friends Kinga and Wojtech. We had a nice dinner that included a conversation on the U.S. financial crisis and the Presidential elections. These are common themes with every meal I share with a local. Although they do not have much of an opinion on the Wall Street mess they do on the upcoming elections. I won’t get into politics here but when I asked who they would like to see elected they each responded with the same name and for the same reasons. (I had asked this question of three other Poles over the past month and received the same answers. So last week I asked another Polish friend why all of the answers were similar she said “I guess that’s what the media is telling us”. Food for thought for those of us who will be voting next month.

Whew, got out of that discussion without naming names.

On Sunday I had kawa with my church friends, Sue and Jacek. Their daughter started her first year of college last week. That’s right, last week. Thursday was orientation and Friday the first day of class. Although that is 6 weeks late by southern U.S. standards they do go through the end of June.

(Photo of the Adam Mickiewicz statue with St. Mary's Basillica in the background.)

Now that school is in session the city center is more alive w/ the influx of approximately 120,000 students. This is a city 756,000 people. (Poland has over 38 million) So an influx of that many students livens up the place. When we first arrived here two weeks back we had trouble finding establishments open at 1 a.m. Now we just follow the people to the pubs catering to the late crowd. By now some of you are thinking “they are going out at 1 a.m.?” Let me put it to you this way. Work ends between midnight and 1 a.m. for us. As we did last Friday we headed to the city center to meet up w/ other colleagues celebrating a birthday of one of the customer service reps. That put us there around 1 a.m. At 3:30 I said to my friends “I have to get going or I’ll sleep the day away”. So three of us left and the others stayed behind. By the time we walked through the door of the Holiday Inn it was 4 a.m. Instead of saying “dobry wieczor” (good evening) or “dobranoc” (good night) I said “dzien dobry” or good morning. The clerk gave me a wry smile.

Now let me put this into perspective. I was home just three hours after leaving work. If you left work at 6 p.m. (1 a.m. Krakow time) and arrived home at 9 p.m. would you think it was very late? I don’t think so. And for the others who stayed until 5 a.m. it was just 10 p.m. to you.

For half of us this was a later than usual night as we are usually back by 3 a.m. So now some of you are thinking “is it safe out at those hours?” As I walked back at 3 a.m. last Wednesday I looked around and said to the others “look how many people are out at this hour”. And so it is every night. They say that New York is the city that never sleeps. Having been there also I would say that Krakow sleeps for just one hour.

(Pam, Mary Jane, Luke, Kelly and Cary enjoying an al fresco lunch in Kazimierz.)