Conversation 028 - Homestay

The first time I moved to Poland I wanted to live with a foreign family so that I could learn Polish language. I went to live with couple in their seventies whose children had moved away from home. They started treating me like a second daughter. At first it was really fun because they'd encourage me to speak and they'd act everything out for me, including my landlord's experiences during the Second World War in Poland, where he'd stand up and perform, but after awhile it got a bit wearing becuase when I was out the house he would go into my bedroom and start picking up my dirty underwear from the floor, all he used to leave on the bookshelf for me. He would also go into the bathroom, take my underwear off the line and hang it outside so it would smell fresher. Sometimes he would cook for me, which is great up to a point, because I got to taste some real Polish home cooked food, but when he decided that I really was his long-lost-daughter and started chopping my egg for me and then trying to feed it to me I began to feel that maybe it was starting to get time to move out. He would also invite me into the living room so that I could watch the Polish TV and improve my language and then spend half the television show prodding me and getting me to speak to him in very fast Polish. He was very kind to my friend Kathy when she came over to stay, but unfortunately he wanted me to translate his thoughts on the Polish economy from very fast Polish into English at the same time she was asking me to translate her ideas on English cricket to Polish. None the less, it was an experience I would not have missed!