Expat Life: Contemplating Home and Holidays in Poland

Photo: Michal Osmenda

American expat Jenna Makowski creates her own legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday traditions in Poland.

The booze potion tumbled to a floor, shattering north, south, east as well as west. The crash heralded instant silence, a delight as well as wine-smoothed review harsh to a halt. A couple of awkward moments followed, in a wake of a accident.

Eh, no worries. Its customarily a glass. The perpetrator jumped to ease a tension, his good-natured attitude spreading quickly, reinstating a vibrant mood. Cheers. Clapping.

The chairman nearest to a collision site rushed for a broom, whilst a review as well as delight picked up again, a scars of a incident quickly smoothed as well as forgotten.

Thats how we know youve got a great party, mate. Broken glass, my crony commented as he carried a shards to a kitchen to be laid to rest next to a growing collection of dull bottles as well as unwashed plates.

It was a great party. A room of full stomachs, full booze glasses, full conversations as well as full friendships creates for a certain night, anytime as well as anywhere.

But this event was some-more than a party for me. The week finish straddling Nov as well as Dec had become my Thanksgiving, my Yuletide as well as my birthday jubilee (which customarily happens to float in in between a two), all rolled in to one.

The duration in between a finish of Nov as well as a finish of Dec is regularly a most severe for me, living as an American expat in Poland, as those occasions for jubilee intersect to remind me which Im away from home. In Poland, Thanksgiving is customarily an additional Thursday in November. And for now traveling home for Yuletide is a financial non-possibility, as we expect as well as goal for a day which budget airlines proceed to have their approach across a Atlantic.

Photo: Sugar Daze

But home is not something which we regularly define as place. Rather, it is a people who fill a place as well as breathe regard as well as definition in to it. This attitude translates in to a freedom to emanate home wherever we am. People transform in to friends as potentially waste holidays transform in to common experiences.

So we motionless to prepare a pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner, which additionally served as a birthday cooking as well as an early Yuletide dinner, as well as hosted it right smack in a middle of all of them. we created my own holiday.

It required a bit of flexibility, though. Solidifying a date required studious maneuvering, as transitory associate expats as well as colleagues made arrangements to scatter in all directions for a upcoming winter break. The initial lesson we learned about my own legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday is which it couldnt possibly share a date with any of a three holidays it was meant to represent.

My grocery list additionally indispensable modification, as a prospects for anticipating a full turkey dwindled with each store we visited.

So have we left all-out with a full legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday spread? my initial guest to arrive asked, walking through a door laden with meals to share. Turkey as well as seasoned mixture as well as gravy as well as sweet potatoes?

Well, we suppose its starting to be a modified dinner, we admitted, smiling. Its so tough to find a turkey here, we know? Chicken is great substitute.

Yeah, a roasted duck sort of looks like a roasted turkey. Just smaller, right?

Right. But Id taken it even a step further. Tempted in to a kitchen by a aroma of nearly-ready food, my Polish colleague peered in to a oven, a bemused look upon her face. So, here comes a traditional Thanksgiving duck casserole, eh?

Shh, its turkey, we joked. Laughter. Plus toda! y is, te chnically, a couple of days after a holiday. The post-holiday tradition in America is to combine all a leftovers in to a outrageous stew vessel as well as bake it. So really, Im a couple of stairs forward of a game.

Thats a great thing about traditions: theyre flexible. They may seem like timeless as well as unchanging habits, patterns breakable customarily during a responsibility of a world falling apart; thats how society portrays them, anyway. Constant advertisements say, for example, which we contingency buy this brand of seasoned mixture upon Thanksgiving. The arrogance is, of march we will have turkey upon Thanksgiving, as well as of march we will need stuffing. Shopping malls count down a days until Dec 25, because of march Yuletide is upon Dec 25; thats when a legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday is celebrated.

Home is not something which we regularly define as place.

But in my experience, Ive learned which traditions have been created, as well as traditions have been flexible. The Yuletide traditions which gave make up to my childhood were actually a mix of Polish as well as American concoctions which morphed as well as changed a bit every year. A blend of patterns from my Polish great-grandparents (Christmas Eve pierogis as well as midnight church services) infused with a heavy dose of American patterns (shopping malls outlined with garland as well as suburban homes outlined with strings of lights) which continually mutated as family changed as well as changed, grew bigger as well as grew smaller.

And Im pretty sure which many legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday traditions, tangible as truth from my childhood perspective, were cramped customarily within my own family. we have nonetheless to meet someone, other than my mother, who incorporates a recipe of pretzel Jell-o in to legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday dinners.

Unfortunately, we voiced to my guests, seated absolutely around a list as we began to carry a steaming meals f! rom a ki tchen, My moms special legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday recipe, pretzel Jell-o, failed this year. we couldnt find a right kind of cream filling.

The disappointment was contained customarily to me, though, as everyones plates filled. There substantially wouldnt have been room upon a list anyway.

Sweet potato casserole, Photo: Lori Bee

What have been these? inquired my friends grandmother, peering in to a plate of sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes have been frequency eaten in Poland, have been very difficult to find, as well as have been substantially a bit off-putting with their bright orange tone contrasting a food culture grounded in pale root vegetables.

Theyre sweet potatoes, we began, preparing to explain.

But a comparison woman had already heard of this American legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday tradition. Sodki ziemniaki! she exclaimed in Polish. She was very vehement to try a brand new food.

I attempted to swallow ones pride for a modifications Id made to which recipe too, a lack of marshmallows which customarily accompany a dish.

But those seated around a list didnt seem to mind. We upheld a meals left to right, from a hands of my American friend, to a hands of English as well as Australian friends, to a hands of French as well as Polish as well as Russian friends. It wasnt unequivocally a food itself which mattered. We were all sitting around a table, flitting food family-style, as delight as well as review mingled. Some traditions dont need modifying.

Community Connection

Read about some-more expat legal legal legal legal legal legal legal holiday practice in Matadors Celebrating Holidays Away from Home series.