Ziemowit: I was younger than 21 years of age in 1978, but I had left for the UK in 1981 for a rather long visit where I could have stayed as a permanent resident, yet chose to come back the following year. And even if I have not left my home country since then except for several short stays abroad, I very often feel in Poland as if I indeed have been living in a foreign country these days. So much have changed ... but still, in many ways I may feel myself a man of the past, of the People's Republic period in which I was immersed until 1989. Yet, changes in mentality are not so swift as a change in the economic system. They take tens, if not hundreds, of years. You may see from the posts of foreign people living in Poland and writing on this forum that the former "communist" mentality is still here as far as the organization and functioning of society is concerned. The younger generation tends to be quite different, however, though not everyone and not everywhere - I'm taking of the Warsaw metropolitan area where I live. In short, I find the Polish society a sort of mixture now - it is a society on the path from its past towards its future.
thank you Ziemowit for your concise synopsis. I'm both excited and anxious.
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