Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Thursday, August 27, 2009

My 12-year-old son leaves North Carolina tomorrow for Warsaw, Poland, for what promises to be a grand adventure and great learning experience. (I guess the two are synonymous.) Henry has been a good sport since I first presented him with the idea of taking him out of his American public school here in North Carolina and enrolling him for a year in a private school in Poland. I broke the news to him in May.

Ever since, we’ve been busy getting shots, making housing and financial arrangements. Where does our cat Whiskers stay during our ten months away? How do I pay the bills from afar? How does our health insurance transfer to Poland? Or does it? Can I rent my house to help offset my mortgage payments? So many arrangements are made through the Internet these days, and this sabbatical has been no exception. A friend in Canada introduced me to her friend in Warsaw, and she’s agreed to rent us two rooms in her home. Polish hospitality is legendary, and I have already been its beneficiary from afar.

The biggest decision was about Henry’s schooling. I ended up selecting the Canadian School of Warsaw because it comes highly recommended. It has small classes, engaged parents and faculty, and serves hot lunch daily. But, most importantly, Henry will be immersed in the Polish language for half of every school day, with English bringing up the rear; French instruction is part of the core curriculum. As the daughter of a professor of Romance languages (who didn’t master any languages at that age), this is important to me. We all know that children — with their young supple minds — are best suited to learn foreign language. It is a gift I have long wished to give him, one I’ve also wished for myself. And because Henry is almost a teenager — with his window of quick language-learning opportunity rapidly closing — I felt a sense of urgency about going. We had to go this year.

But even the best-laid plans inevitably bring complications. When I realized about a month ago that I could not travel with him, I cast about for alternatives. Do I put him in school for a month in Mount Airy? Do I home school him? My friend Wesley Adamczyk in Chicago, a man who faced incredible and brutal challenges as a boy (for more on that, read his remarkable memoir, “When God Looked the Other Way,”), suggested I send him on, so Henry could start school with his classmates on September 1. Once I had that suggestion, I ran with it. My cousin Monika in Warsaw offered to keep him for the month until I could join him. The headmistress at the Canadian School circulated an email inviting parents in Henry class to house the American newcomer. A lovely family — with two sons — stepped forward to volunteer. The Malinowskis live close to the school, have a cat, and have offered, in my absence, to treat him “as their own son.”

So off to Poland Henry goes tomorrow. He’ll have a long layover at JFK airport and the chance for an extended visit with his Aunt Betsy. In Polish fashion, he goes bearing gifts — books and chocolates for Cousin Monika, a few gifts for the Malinowskis, and a few goodies to keep him fortified in flight.

Stepping forward for a new life adventure like this one — the Americans in Warsaw — is not an easy thing. It takes effort to arrange and rearrange; it takes will power to resist the force of doubt and complacency. But I find it exhilarating to step outside my comfort zone. My wish is to take a pause in my life, to examine my Polish roots and reconnect with loved ones overseas. My wish for Henry is that this time will broaden his horizons, expand his language skills, and challenge him to think globally. At the moment, though, the only thing on his mind is the new iTouch device that he purchased with gift money from Uncle Nick and Christmas money from his grandmother. He will, he assures me, send me emails from said device, apprising me of his doings in Poland.

Then, before you know it, I’ll be stepping off the airplane at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport and writing emails — and a blog — of my own!