Poland

Like sex? Don't like condoms?

"Like sex?  Don't like condoms?  Try Skyn!"  Damn, it's good to be away from the Christian right in the US.

 

the price of heat

Just got the bill from PGNiG for the gas for January and February, when we had that cold snap.  1,357 PLN or about $425.  So that's $200/mo for a three-room apartment, in a country where a grocery clerk might bring home $650/mo. 

I was told that the price of natural gas here is six times what we pay in the US.  The bill says we used 679 cubic meters, net value (wartość netto) 760.96 so it's about 1.12 PLN per cubic meter (not to mention the 23% VAT added on top of that).  It looks like PG&E is charging customers about $1 per 100 cubic feet, which is about 3 PLN per 100 cubic feet, which is about 1 PLN per cubic meter.  That doesn't look like six times to me.  Hmmm. I'll have to look at our gas bills when I get home.

But it adds context to today's headline Coal-reliant Poland increasingly out of step with Europe on climate change. The article actually says out loud something I'd deduced a while back:

Poland relies on coal for 93 percent of its electricity and that adopting the 2050 roadmap would cause Poland’s economy 1 percent of GDP growth per year through 2030, if not longer.

Poland otherwise depends heavily on imported gas and oil for other energy needs. Most comes from Russia, a dependence that Poland resents and is trying to free itself of with plans to build nuclear power plants in several years and with an ongoing search for shale gas.

If you know anything about history, you can definitely appreciate the "resents" part.  It seems to me they're totally justified in their position to the EU

Here's a local take on it from Gazeta Wyborska with even more context (though the editorial is a little wandery).

getting out there

Thursday

This place seems to be the home of a bazillion film buffs, and Krakow has more micro-cinemas than the Bay Area could ever dream of.  Kino Mikro, Kino pod Baranami, Ars Sztuka are some of the ones I've found so far, and on Thursday I went to the Pauza Kino 18 to see a screen of Sexmisja, which was some combination of a ripoff of THX-1138, a cheesy 80's sex comedy, and/or a brave allegory about the communist regime.  Special showing with English subtitles.  Poles consider it one of their most important films.  Starring the ubiquitous Jerzy Stuhr. A trailer on polish movies.com.

Friday

In an attempt to get out and meet locals, I've been going to this Mosaic thing on Friday evenings, a get-together for English-language conversation and mixing run by a pair of really swell couples from Texas and the Carolinas.  They do a variety of things to draw people and get the conversations going.  I convinced them to let me try teaching English Country dancing.  We had more people than could dance in the space, and I got them to do Corelli's Maggot. My iPod went missing in Gdańsk, but fortunately Anne had some Bare Necessities on hers.  People had fun, so I think I can say it was a success.

Saturday

Met Frank W. a German Ph. D. student from our Polish class at the Manggha Museum so he could teach me to play Go. The Manggha Museum is a modern architectural icon, and the cafe has a stunning view of the river and Wawel Castle.

That evening went to a singing party put together by Anne's choir. Way out in the funky parts of town, but hugely fun, you can't imagine a nicer bunch of people.  We spent the evening doing home-made karaoke to pop songs they remember from their childhood in the Fifties, and some songs from the golden age of the Second Republic in the Twenties/Thirties. 

Still mourning the loss of my iPod. Wish I would just get over it.  It was my source of music while we're here, so now it's going to be kind of quiet for me for the next four months.  Sigh.