Unexpectedly pleasant day

Adam got his first social invitation this week.  A friend from school invited him over to their house on the weekend.  I called the mom and confirmed the invitation (issued via Facebook) and let her know we'd be over at the appointed time via bus.  His friend met us at the bus stop and walked us over to their house.  I was introduced to the mom and intended to return home after delivering him safely, but the mom invited me in and clearly expected me stay.  She had laid out tea and cake, and had invited a friend of the family over who spoke good English to serve as an interpreter.  Adam and his friend disappeared upstairs to listen to music, while the adults visited over tea.  I used a few of the polite Polish phrases that I know and they were pleasantly surprised.  They said my accent was very good (what  a nice thing to hear!)

We talked about a lot of different topics.  They are restaurant owners, and their friend designs wedding dresses.  They described Poland as a country with very different regions (even though it is small).  The way people live in the West of the country is very different from Lublin (in the East).  They said that if young people go away to school in Warsaw or Krakow, they don't ever return to Lublin. (I said that is true of small towns in Kansas as well).   They had recently traveled to Egypt (and were there as the uprising started).  It was their second trip and they said they really enjoyed it.  The friend had also traveled to Athens and Istanbul.  We compared Polish and American school systems.  They talked about being forced to learn Russian as children, but few people study Russian any more.  Their children were learning English and German.  We compared costs of a variety of items (plane tickets, gasoline, etc) and they pointed out several times that the cost of items in Poland is very similar to the rest of Europe, but their salaries are much lower, so they don't have as much disposable income.  They asked why more Americans don't visit Poland.  I didn't have a real good answer for that one other than "its expensive".

Overall it was quite a pleasant afternoon, and doubly so because it was so unexpected!