Wednesday, 11 May 2005 | Polish for beginners

I'm leaving for Europe in two days, and although I've spent lots of time reading travel guides, emailing friends abroad, and coordinating schedules, I don't feel like much has been learned or determined. Part of the problem, I think, is my post-it note habit. I tend to jot down reminders and lists on the tiniest surfaces available and then throw them in my bag or stuff them in my pocket, either to be discovered months down the road, or turned into a sticky mass of colorful paper full of (sometimes redundant) suggestions. I've promised myself that tonight I will compile my notes into something organized and meaningful. Maybe I'll use a big sheet of notebook paper, or even a computron.

The things I know for sure: the London arrival time, that at 3:00 on Saturday I'll be on a giant ferris wheel, the phone numbers of the people I'm staying with, the Berlin arrival time, how long it takes to get to Krakow, and how to say "Excuse me, do you speak English?" and "I don't understand" in Polish.

The most productive hour of planning I had, I believe, is the hour that my friend Karolina spent explaining her native language to me, a lesson which included repeated explanations as to why Polish people are prejudiced against vowels. It was fun, unlike most planning activities, and I filled the margins of my travel guide with the phonetic versions of helpful phrases. For example: Pro-shuh, chuh pahn movie po ahn ghel sku? (Now you speak Polish as well as I do! Well done.)