Ashleys mind: I guess cause being negative about their new surroundings is A. A way of adapting, B. A way of building solidarity with other Poles in a similar situation, and C. A way of feeling better about the home that cannot provide them with the kind of life they want.
I completely agree. You notice that not many people complain about really big things, it's more small differences that people complain about. Like our poster in #269 going on about British foodstuffs people miss. I think, like you, that it's just a coping mechanism. It's easier to sit there and say how much better everything is at home and how terrible everything is here than to completely adapt your whole way of life to make everything easier in your new home.
Adapting everything is very hard to do. No longer eating things that you see as normal and comfortable might seem to mean that you are eating horrible things, but you are not...you are eating something different. Obviously there is more to it than just what you eat, but that's just an example.
I have lots of friends in Poland who lived in the UK for timespans ranging from a month to 7 years. Maybe they are all exceptions to the rule, but they all sit there in Kraków and complain about things in Kraków that don't work as well as they did in the UK, and every one of them said they complained about things in the UK when they were there. It's a case of the grass is always greener. When you are at home then everything is boring and uninteresting, you go away and everything is alien and new. But you can also look at it as everything at home is comfortable and normal, you go away and everything is exciting and a new experience.
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