Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Monday, October 5, 2009

Henry and I are settling in in Warsaw, with the help of family, friends and strangers. I arrived on LOT flight 4 on Saturday, amongst an overwhelmingly Polish body of passengers, and was greeted by my son carrying an enormous sunflower, along with my cousins Monika and Ewa. Warsaw is abuzz with the lively energy of new birth, since I last visited almost four years ago. The airport has been rebuilt, is large and accommodating, and I read that a second major airport for the city is being planned. The Metro system is large and efficient, at least equivalent to the one in Washington DC. Around the city, older buildings are being renovated, and new ones are going up. There’s an exciting energy to this transformation. I can never think of Warsaw without remembering the cruel ravages of war.

But after the buildup of the past months of dreaming and planning the sabbatical, of packing my house in Mount Airy and turning over the keys to renters, of selling my car and stepping out of my way of life, the pangs of nostalgia have arrived with the finality of it all. Here I am in a new setting. Here we’ll be for eight and a half months. How much Polish will I learn? How many new, transformative experiences will I have? Will my son grow and stretch from this new opportunity or merely walk through it? The city may be mythical in my imagination but it remains a foreign city. I remind myself that my disorientation and lack of connection should not be surprising for anyone displaced from her home and routine. After a good night’s sleep, and then another, and another; after building a new life here; I’ll get in the groove. This is what I desire, and I’ll set my mind to it.