Need Friends, Take a Course!

I have always considered myself in some ways an intrepid person; especially when it comes to traveling to different countries and deciding to live there. Actually, maybe it isn’t intrepidness, but perhaps it’s more like a spirit of adventure that directs me to foreign lands-or is it outright stupidity. Who knows? Regardless, whatever it is, the fact is that I am an American living abroad, and have done so for the last six years or so. Anyway, there are many great possibilities offered to individuals in the same situation. The possibility to work, study, travel, drink beer, and learn in a foreign environment is something that is often rewarding for many valid reasons. Despite this,there is one small problem might occur in most situations when one decides to live in a foreign country for a while. For me and for many of us when we live abroad, it is sometimes easy to feel like a loner. No one likes to drink alone. Moreover, If one is not vigilant and fails to take steps to prevent loneliness, one can easily feel like a permanent wallflower and be spectator watching everyone else’s life, while he or she might feel bummed out from not having a social life. I know this because this happened to me in Poland. However, I decided to do something about it.

One good way to escape this situation is to sign up for a course where you are forced to interact with other people. For me, I signed up for a Polish language course at the University of Warsaw for two months. In that time, I interacted with an enthusiastic group of creatures from all over the globe. In the end I became quite good friends with many of the participants-and even learned a little Polish to boot. Because of this course I now have a social life in Warsaw, which isn’t always easy for a foreigner.

Anyway, our group has become like a gang of foreigners that gets together once a week or so and usually share food and drink from one of our respective countries. We have even partaken in a few sunny barbecues with our own local flavors of cuisine and style, and have even made a few city sightseeing excursions on Sundays. I now have a group of friends from China, Iran, Greece, Spain, and The Philippines. For me, learning Polish is important, but getting it down will take some time. Since my girlfriend is busy with her PHD, I need people to socialize with in English. So if you need friends, do yourself a favor and sign up for a course for something and introduce yourself to your new friends.

The Sound of Music

Last week I had the pleasure of receiving an invitation to visit my friend and Polish language classmate Mohammed in a musical performance with the Polish Philharmonic Orchestra in Lodz. He plays a Persian style flute called a ‘ney’, which he was classically trained with while growing up in his native country Iran. Mohammed is a very passionate and rather casual person socially, which can coincidentally be a way to describe the way he plays his instrument.

The ‘ney’ has a very soft bird-song like sound that is very unique compared to most dominating western style instruments. Despite the political struggles going on in Iran, Mohammed carries on with his music in Poland, whilst sharing something more important than political opinions. If only we could all make our ears only hear the sound of music and drown out the rhetoric of political ideology. If you are interested, he will perform with his wife Anna ( who is Polish,) as well as a percussionist, and also with his Iranian friend Mossen who plays an Iranian stringed instrument called a tar (and quite quickly to boot,) next month on the square in Warsaw. So if you are in town you should feel obliged to meander down for a listen.

Please see the video, which is too short to do any justice to the performance. As I didn’t want to offend anyone in the captivated audience, I only filmed a tiny piece of the evening. Please note the final piece by the orchestra is for all of you in Korea.