Friday morning we are up and going fairly early - for us! I am having a facial today near where Aneta's parents live on the other side of Gliwice from Knurow. I got the whole meal deal - lip wax, eyebrow tint, lash tint, chin wax (egads! chin hairs? When did that happen? I told Aneta if they start coming out of my ears she is to shoot me) and deep microderm abrasion facial. Well I don't know if I look any different or feel any different but I got a great two hour nap out of the deal, so who can complain? I knew I'd never get something like this done in the US so I decided to bite the bullet and go for the whole enchilada. The total came to $56. At home a microderm abrasion deep facial starts at $275 plus the add on services would have bumped it up into the $400 price range. Okay, I've done it now. My skin is definitely smoother and my pores are unclogged so I think it did have benefit. Aneta went to her parents with Ania and played until I came wandering along again. I did a little Christmas gift shopping along the way and scored a couple of really nice items for my daughter and daughter-in-law.
We came back to the flat and Witek arrived with Kamil, a family friend who is just dear. Kamil stayed for dinner and we had a nice visit. Kamil, who's is a property appraiser (called Estimator, here) and I got into a very interesting discussion about the Polish Middle Class, or lack thereof. He started by asking me what the Middle Class was in America. Try to define that to someone with limited English. Should I have said, "all the people who pay taxes?" But no. What it boils down to is this: In Poland you have a great number of people with very high level educations living barely above the poverty line. Things we use to define Middle Class, such as education level, income level, property ownership, etc. don't work here - yet. Wages are still unrealistically low and education levels unrealistically high. Property ownership is still in the dream category for most people, who continue to live in these communist era flats. Some people own their flats and others rent their flats but few people own houses with land or a lot around them. Yet, I see building going on everywhere around me. Houses are cropping up like weeds in a lawn everywhere you look. People talk about having a house and "leaving this flat." Nearly every family has two income earners and a car. But the mindset is still poverty class thinking for many people. I think in the US the Occupy Wall Street movement has shown us that we have a middle class that is largely unemployed, over educated for their circumstances, and mad as hell about it. The mindset is upper middle class and the reality is lower middle class or poverty class. I think Poland has an emerging Middle Class and I think the country reminds me very much of the US in the 1950's. There is a national highway system under construction in every corner of the country; there are a large number of young people with good educations and professional skills; there are office buildings and sky scrapers being built in every major city; there are houses sprouting on the open rural landscape like mushrooms in a cow pasture; nearly everyone owns a car and some families own two cars. I have seen several houses recently with two car garages - something that would have been virtually unheard of even 10 years ago. All in all it was a terrific conversation and a great visit with a very endearing young man who dreams of life in the USA but is afraid the language barrier would keep him from working in his profession.
This group of 30 somethings I have been hanging out with have one couple in their midst who has left the projects and moved into a house they built on a nice piece of land near a river. The man has a good job with a pharmaceutical company and a PhD, the woman is a mechanical engineer with a company that designs ventilation systems. They have a lovely home, two cars and one baby. Everyone in this crowd seems to envy them somewhat, except perhaps Aneta who is the most practical one of the bunch and probably earns more money than most of them - although it is considered a tabu topic to inquire about one's salary so I really have no idea what she makes. Whatever it is I can guarantee you she saves more of it than anyone else around. There is another couple in the group that are nearing completion on their house. She is a school teacher on a one year leave due to having had a baby (their third)and he works as a coal miner if I understood correctly. They have three of the most adorable little boys I think I've ever seen (outside my own 4 beautiful grandsons of course!)and, while they would like to travel to America they know it is probably out of the question while they are raising three children. Anyway, I see changes happening all around me and in this current generation of 30 somethings a middle class is emerging. I think it will take another full generation for the concept to fully take hold in this country.
So that's all my rumination for today.
Linda
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