my new friends...in a bar

Well, after five days, I've made some new friends in a bar.  There is a little shop right outside the campus gate--the Wawa-type store I mentioned the other day.  I can walk there in less than two minutes and it's closer to our dorm than the dining hall is.  Well, next to the shop is a restaurant/bar that is open from 6-11 in the evening.   Several of the other teachers wanted to go for drinks after dinner, so we went last night while the teaching assistants were practicing a dance from High School Musical.  Sitting at our table, clockwise from the left is Terri, our American director, Liz, Jody, Evelyn, Judy, (my empty seat), and Mark (Terri's husband).   When we first got there, we went inside and ordered drinks and they went outside and I stayed at the bar to talk to some local guys.  I met Jerry, Wojtek, Jozef, and Adam.  Jozef is the bar owner and Wojtek is from Poznan.  They were impressed that my great-grandfather Jozef was from Poznan.  That was a quick way to make friends.  I told them that I studied at the Catholic University at Lublin 20 years ago.  They were less impressed with Lublin than with Poznan.  They explained that the Vistula River, which runs north-south through Warsaw separates Poland into Poland A and Poland B.  Poland A is western Poland and was under the control of Prussia prior to WWI.  Poland B is eastern Poland and was under the control of Russia during that time.  I figured out that western Poland (Poznan, Krakow) has culture and eastern Poland (Lublin) is where the poor Catholic peasants are.  This area used to be Germany, although there are Catholics all over the country now.  And I learned all of this with my limited Polish and Jerry's few English words.  We also drew pictures on a napkin.  I was chatting with them for a half hour and it was tons of fun.  They were getting drunk on Polish beer (pivo-pronounced pee-vo) and I was nursing an orange Fanta.  They couldn't understand why I didn't drink beer.  Later last night, I learned that Poles say the Vistula river separates Europe from Asia.   Later I went out to join my American friends on the patio and Jozef brought out some potato pancakes and eggs for us for a snack.  I'm sure it was because I made such a good impression inside.  My friends were impressed with me.  Before we left, Terri, our director, went in to offer to pay him for the snacks.  I knew he wouldn't accept it, but she went anyway.  He didn't.   Dad, you would love it here.   If I didn't have three kids at home, I'd move here in a second and teach English for a year or two...or three...or ten.  I could have so much fun here, especially now that they have the internet.  Poland is now part of the European Union and in a few years will adopt the Euro as the official currency.  So, when I come back with Anna and Joshua in ten years or so, Poland will be the same as going to France or Germany, except for the local language.   We still don't yet have definite plans for getting to Berlin or Paris, but it's going to happen.  I just don't have a specific itinerary yet.   Daniel