And here we are- Y generation- born between 1980 and 1995. We are the hedonist, shopaholic, we are travelling to find the better conditions of being. For every question we find an answer on google or youtube. How match a cosmetic product, how to make some hairstyle, how to bake the cake, how to be a good photographer, how to connect decoder with TV set, how to go back with roller skates etc. Autochthons or "Digital native", children of the internet or Milenium Generation or "Generation why". We are not afraid to say "no" to our boss, loose a job and to go back to the financial dependence with our parents. We love Iphones, Ipods, tablets, jogging with "run" aplication. The reaserchers mention also the generation Z- born after 1996 and the generation X- born between 1965- 1979. Between us and generation of our parents there is a big disparity. They lived very modestly, that's why they wanted to give us better youth than they had. Nowadays they are worried about us. We gained the nickname "fricking egoists". Joel Stein in american weekly "Times" called us " the generation me, me, me". We are the first generation, which have whole world in their range. So, are we worst in the eyes of our parents? Acctually, no. We just have others problems. " You want to much from live, you should be happy about the small things"- often repeats me my mum. In the past a family used to be a priority. For us the most important things are health and ability of taking pleasure from live. Job, money, marriage are on the second place. How I 've read not so long ago in the french article of the woman's magasine " Glamour": "Maintenant il faut avoir un job mais épanouissant, une relation stable et passionée, des enfant en continuant à faire la fête, des hordes d'amis tout en prenant du temps pour soi..."( from French "Nowadays we need to have a job which fulfil, a relation stable but enthralling, children and not stopping to party, a lot of friends, and what is the most imortant don't forget to take care about ourselves. If we will managed to create the serious realtion it doesn't mean the resign form party live, travalling, at least it shoudn't. We are the generation "bombing" by informations and versatility of the posibility of choices we often became "jeunes indesicive" ( from French "young undecided"). In a restaurant, in a shop, normal or interned- based, with choosing some holidays or hotel and often even in a personal live many of us will have a problem with making a decision. On the other hand, in the professional life, we often make some radical decisions, we are not afraid. Comparing us to our parent's generation we fall into addictions, depression and workalcoholism more often. If we correlate generation Y with generation Z we have between us (generation Y) twice more of alcoholics (7,3%), three times more of drug users (3,7%). We are burning up, because we don't like to wait, we don't like compartmentalization also. Marketing guidebooks advice even to sell us the style of a life and certainty of in one's uniqueness instead of the products. We don't want to come into unsure relation, cause we taking a risk of frustration, and what is consequently social deprecation. Outside we know how to mask ourselves. Do our generation gain other positive qualities except courage, big ambitious, and ability of scramble for the happiness? Yes, a role of father is much more important in the family. Nowadays he usually bravely changes the dipers and goes with baby cariage for a walk and he doesn't worry that it could insult masculinity. I wouldn't like to change for the youth of my parents. To resign from the internet, mobile phone, to use the paper's map and can't take the "low cost" plane. A verbal comunication, moving from place to place, information flow- all those thing were used to be more comlicated and even "stucked". Although my parents claim that their times weren't "worse" I wouldn't like to live without my modern facilities.
***
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| In the club in Sopot |
- Are we going to Orłowo?- asked with his charming accent Alexandre, when we were sunbathing lying on sand near the Sopot's pier ( in polish "molo"- very famous main pier in Sopot). We laughed. From couple of days he was proposing this journey. We had a fancy to go there, but tight party schedule every night untill the morning caused, that when we were going to the beach about 11 o'clock we only had a fancy to "faire de crêpes" ( from French "make a pancakes") in a sun rays. At least we managed to come around to Alexandre for a lunch, go for a walk and make a few photos in Gdynia. As in the past, during a studies in Warsaw, as here in Tricity we had our own foreigner- guide, who looks around the tourist's attractions and entertainment's better than we did.
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| Gdynia, with a french friend |
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| Gdynia |
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| With a french friend, found in one of the club in Sopot |
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| Gdynia |
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| Gdynia... |
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| Talking with Alexendre in the Gdynia's train station |
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| Dockyard in Gdynia |
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| Gdynia... |
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| Coast in Orlowo |
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| Abandoned sanatorium in Orlowo |
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| Gdynia-Orlowo |
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| Gdynia-Orlowo |
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| Gdynia-Orlowo |
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| Orlowo |
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| Orlowo |
-C'est bizarre que tu parles français ( from French "It is strange that you speak French"-he smiled suddenly out of thin air.
- Pourquoi? (from French "why?" )- I asked.
-Je
ne sais pas, c'est la premier fois je pense en Pologne ( from French " I don't know, you are the first one in Poland I guess)- he hesitated for the moment and after while he repeated with surety in his voice- - oui, c'est la premier fois ( from French "yes, it is the first time")...
I was spending my holidays-according to the plans- very actively. I started from the course of McKenzie in Lublin, after Wroclaw wih Hania and I was back home. After two days again Wroclaw, and 2 days of Open Days to Emirates Airlines. I was moving from one hostel to another. I was meeting new people, I was acquiring some new experiences, I was leading very brilliant social life. From Wroclaw to Sopot I came with a train in the night. During this vacation I beated my record of a time spent in the Polish PKP ( PKP- short form: "Polskie Koleje Państwowe"- what means "Polish National Rail"). During a week I counted almost 50 hours. When I finally reached Sopot I was totally exausted.
I was spending my holidays-according to the plans- very actively. I started from the course of McKenzie in Lublin, after Wroclaw wih Hania and I was back home. After two days again Wroclaw, and 2 days of Open Days to Emirates Airlines. I was moving from one hostel to another. I was meeting new people, I was acquiring some new experiences, I was leading very brilliant social life. From Wroclaw to Sopot I came with a train in the night. During this vacation I beated my record of a time spent in the Polish PKP ( PKP- short form: "Polskie Koleje Państwowe"- what means "Polish National Rail"). During a week I counted almost 50 hours. When I finally reached Sopot I was totally exausted.
I was hesitating should I took a taxi to my rented room. According "google maps" accommodation was not far away. After while I decided to lug my bags, what was resulting in the near future in some bruise on my left arm. I was walking along The Niepodległości Avenue, the wonderful sun was shining, announcing the great beginning of the midstream of my holidays :).
***
***
-We are going to TK-Maxx! - said through the phone enthusiastically Elise. TK Maxx- no- available in the french land, the nearest about 1,5 km from Calais to Dover with ferry was a unusual attraction for us. Now, we had it "close at hand" in Gdansk. One hour before I entered my room, I took a shower and I landed on bed. Very quickly I went into sleep. Now, I was talking- half conscious- with Elise.
- Elise, give me juste one hour more, I have to sleep off- I havn't slept since a couple of days- I was grizzling through a phone.
- All right than, we will meet on Munciak ( "Munciak" colloquially about the main Anvenue called Monte Cassino in Sopot) after 1,5 hour near McDonald. We will eat breakfast and we will go our way- she governed with excitement in her voice.
- Elise, give me juste one hour more, I have to sleep off- I havn't slept since a couple of days- I was grizzling through a phone.
- All right than, we will meet on Munciak ( "Munciak" colloquially about the main Anvenue called Monte Cassino in Sopot) after 1,5 hour near McDonald. We will eat breakfast and we will go our way- she governed with excitement in her voice.
***
I was sitting with Arleta at the small table. Getile wind was skimming over our faces. We were drinking a beer staring at the people on "Munciak". Since I came to Sopot lavishness and images of endorsed people, prim and better-off was blatantly obvious. In the clubs there were"banana youth" and oldest members of generation Y. All those facts made a big contrast with maritime, industrial french place, where I have lived and provoked that I overplayed standards of life in Poland. But it was Sopot!- the most poplular holiday's place in Poland, known from snobbery. We could compare it with French Canne or Nice and a " Sopot's glamour" could go down. I was dislocating my finger on a cart form place to place, I couldn't decided which breakfast should I take. As a avatar of Y generation I was suffering from "indecision chronique" (
from French "chronic indecision"). Not long time ago I came into a french article which was discribing modern tweenties/ thirties. According to this text I belonged to "Young Adult" paralised of the issue "Faire le bon
choix " ( from French " make a good decision"). Before I make a decision about a holidays for exemple, I could spend hours looking for the opinion on a web pages, comparing a prices etc. what was making crazy all of my ex- partners. What more if I had already made a choice and I realised that I missed some occasion, I had a "hangover" during a couple of days. "FOMO" syndrom (from English- "fear of missing out") was pestering me. I used to had even a problem with choosing something banal like a foundation. I've learn to experiment- to buy and make " a shot in the dark". The same I was often making in the restaurant when I couldn't have felt that I have a fancy for something specific.
- I'll take a continental breakfast- I said to a waitress. " Sunny side up eggs on becon, cheese, butter, salade, tomatoe, cucumber"- I smiled to myself proud of my choice and I took a slug of a cold beer with a raspberry syrop.
- I'll take the same- said Arleta to a waitress.
- I'll take a continental breakfast- I said to a waitress. " Sunny side up eggs on becon, cheese, butter, salade, tomatoe, cucumber"- I smiled to myself proud of my choice and I took a slug of a cold beer with a raspberry syrop.
- I'll take the same- said Arleta to a waitress.
" Réveille
toi, super temps, viens a la plage, on va boire la bière, ca sera
chouette" ( from French " Wake up, a weather is cool, come on the beach, we'll drink some beer, it'll whizzo") - I wrote after while to Alexandre.
"Slt,
je vais prendre la douche, je viens, je te téléphone apres :)" ( from French "
Hello, I 'll take a shower and I'll come, I'll call you")- he replied.
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| After party "zapiekanka", made in Poland. Sopot 5 a.m. |
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| Sopot Molo 6.30 a.m. |
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| Sopot "Munciak"- 6.50 a.m. |
***
-
Tu vois ca, en France ca n'exist pas ( from French " Can you see that, in France something like that doesn't exist")- Alexandre was explaining, when we were passing near laughed people who were walking in the street.
-
Chez nous, c'est plus dangereusement et personne n'est marche pas le
matin a 5 heure comme ca, vous aimez plus la fêtes aussi je trouve-
c'est pas la même mentalité que en France (from French " In our country it is dengerous this time about 5 o'clock in the morning, that's why in the street there is almost nobody. Besides- you lead more party life than we do- you have the different mentality than French people- explained. I was listening sometimes with round- eyes. Ones he was admiring some polish cars at the streets, and he was wondering how is that possible that we have such a good cars. "We don't have such a cars in France". He saw my country in better view than even I could. We were entering a Sopot's pier "molo". We sit down on a floorboard. The sunset was picture- perfect.
-
Les francaises ne connaissent pas tout ca (from French "French don't know all this) he claimed. I knowed exactly about what he was talking about. Our country havn't had a good opinion between French people. Only few like Alexandre, who found himself on Erasmus program in Poland or those who came somehow to work here, they could noticed the beauty of our country. They felt in love with it. Anyway I've known, that as the representative of my generation I had a power to change this opinion and make the effective marketing campaign for our country. Although, for a lot of persons I was only "fille de l'est" ( from French pejorative term discribing a gril from East of the Europe), from this "worst side" of the Europe, I menaged to convinced a many of people to come to Poland. Satisfaction was "cast- iron". I snuggled now in the arms of Alexandre. I haven't been as well since a long time. I was in "pardis" (from French "paradise) in our Poland.
***
It was a beautiful Saturday forenoon. We were making our way towards "rendez vous" about apartment renting in Malo les Bains.
- Look! Such a car has my friend- showed Elise with her finger on a car which was parked on a parking bay.
- And the next one, it is mine- we heard a voice in polish behind our backs.
- Very good morning polish ladies- said very nicely to us some man about more than sixty years old, who was painting parapet in the window. Smiles form ear to ear apeared on our faces. After a short conversation we discovered that older gentleman is Polish, who has lived in France since he was forced to leave in years 80-ties.
- Good morning- said someone from the other side in polish. This time it was an older woman- I've heard some polish conversation here, and I thought that I will join- smiled agreeably old lady.
After a farther exchange we got an invitation to them for "aperitif" just after we will finish our meeting about an apartment. At midday we get together round the table and with the accomapaniment of white and red wine we went through a "intergenerational travel." They were talking about that how they were forced to leave the homeland. And here, some kind of contrast apeared, between theirs expatriate fate and our motivations to leave the country, where we've got the education and we have started already to work. In my case about emigration decided the courosity, keen of travelling, a fancy to learn something new, to brush up my language and bigger opportunities of development in a profession of ""kinésithérapeute"in France. Sir Marian and his family "had to" leave, to bring back the basic condition of a social unit. The husband of madame Maryla was great admirer of the history, he had his own opinion and his own political followers in our country. As a gift from him we have got an autobiographical book with dedication. His wife showed us the photos of her family lived all over France but also in Poland, very proudly. They were an exemple of the ideal couple. He was watching her with question mark in his eyes when he was pouring wine to the glass, she turned her nose with smile when she noticed that he poured to much of specifique to his glass.
We changes also a couple of opinion about a health service. Madame Maryla came through a chemiotherapy not long time ago. She told us about her very kind and very professional doctor, who-as she said- has such a colour of the skin like a black blouse of Julia. We helped to put a dinnerware on a table. For "entrée" there was a salade, and norvergian sausages. After "cabbage rolls" ( "gołąbki"- polish national dish- cabbage rolls). We walked out glad, a little drunk and filled of positive energy. An intergenerational travel not always has such a nice course, like with madame et monsieur who we have meet- inteligent, enlightened people, who are au courant with situation and life conditions in Poland nowadays. Nord Pas de Calais it is a region, where about 500 thousants of people with polish backround live. In hospital we meet almost everyday Polish patients. Some part of them are the real Poles. Most of them are only "d'origine polonaise" ( from French "polish background"). The majority don't know their roots, they have never visited Poland, and they don't speak Polish. What more, it happens to meet a person, who casts us as somebody worst, because we comes from a poor even underdeveloped country, which their grandparents used to leave long time ago. That's why they think about themselves like about lucky persons cause they had a chance to grow up in better conditions. Than I ashamed about them. I am in sharp contrast to their way of thinking. As a new generation, who has never been out of something at my homeland I talk with a pride about Poland. But I am aware of history that's why I understand the reason of their way of thinking. Only I am sad about the fact of that, that they are not courious about theirs roots. Anchored hardly in French land , they have lost a modern image of a country of theirs parents and grandparents. Between 1920 and 1923 most of emigrants came to Nord- Pas de Calais. They worked mostly in the mines, which were concentrated in "Bassin minier du Nord Pas
de Calais" (Lens, Douai, Valenciennes and nearest places). From a stories of my patients I know how hard it had to be. Because of cultural differances between Poles who practiced catolic religion and no- practical French, some kind of "contrast" and "isolation"apeared. Xenophobic behaviour happened against the Polish emigrants . On the other hand Poles perceived French like antireligious. One of my patient told me, that French children at school called her "sale polonaise" ( from French "dirty polish"). Those facts caused that an integration of Poles and French was very hard. Poles were isolated in their own groups mantaining their own traditions and catolic practics. A strange image of Poland from years before fixed in the minds of many people with polish background. As an educated polish generation and avatars of generation Milenium we were shocked by an opinion about Poland and its ancient image, which was maintained in convictions of our compatriots. "Association Nord Pas de
Calais", which kept in minds not actual image of our country, shows a polish film registreted in France with Borys Szyc (polish famous actor). One of a scene showes our hospital, were a father of the main actor is going through tje rehabilitation after stroke. The title of the film "Kret" ( from Polish "Mole") in French "Dette" talks mainly about polish political survey.
***
I was again in Sopot. It was a sunset. Alexandre climbed up staging from a beach. Some guy with a blond hair and blue eyes passed him a hand.
-
Give me your hand my friend -
said and helped us to climb up a pier. I was holding my high heels in one hand and wondering which technique of climbing should I choose to be effective. I passed my shoes to Alexandre. I looked at my summer dress. " It would be pity to tear it up"- I thought and I step my foot on an iron pipe. After a small while I felt that Alexandre embrassed me at my waist, lift and put on a pier. Our blue-eyes stranger helped to Arleta.
- How are you?- asked the guy who helped us to climp up a"molo".
- Great, where do you come from?- I asked a foreigner.
- Sweden- he answered and smiled.
- What are you doing here?- continued Arleta.
- I came on holidays, I love Poland! - answered our companion.
- We also...- we lauphed.
- Have a nice day- we said to him chorally.
- You too guys- interposed a blue eyes guy to our direction.
Again, the beautiful morning sunset was greeting us. Arleta was walking ahead. Me, I was dancing with Alexendre on pier :).
"Czy
powrócę do Kraju, do Polski? Nie, chyba, nie. Zadomowiłem się na
gościnnej Ziemi Francuskiej. Tu jest moja najbliższa rodzina. Francja
stała się moją drugą ojczyzną. Ale zaręczam, że podobnie jak miliony z
nas:
ROZPROSZONYCH SPOD BIAŁOCZERWONEJ
"Ja jestem Polakiem"*"
(from Polish:
" Will I go back to my country? No, I guess not. I feel like at home on the French land. Here I have my close family. France became my second homeland. But assure you, that like most of the millions of us:
straggled from a white- red ** me, I am a Polish.)
* a fragment from the book of Marian Dziwniel titled " From Niemno through Odra to the Seine"
** The coulours of the Polish national flag.
ROZPROSZONYCH SPOD BIAŁOCZERWONEJ
"Ja jestem Polakiem"*"
(from Polish:
" Will I go back to my country? No, I guess not. I feel like at home on the French land. Here I have my close family. France became my second homeland. But assure you, that like most of the millions of us:
straggled from a white- red ** me, I am a Polish.)
* a fragment from the book of Marian Dziwniel titled " From Niemno through Odra to the Seine"
** The coulours of the Polish national flag.
The sources of the post:
- Newsweek- 27.05/02.06.2013, Aleksandra Krzyżaniak- Gumowska - "Pokolenie klapki"
- Glamour - 04.2013, "Tout indecises; Bienvenue dans l'embarras ( du choix)!"
- Marian Dziwniel " Z nad Niemna przez Odrę nad Sekwanę"
- Newsweek- 27.05/02.06.2013, Aleksandra Krzyżaniak- Gumowska - "Pokolenie klapki"
- Glamour - 04.2013, "Tout indecises; Bienvenue dans l'embarras ( du choix)!"
- Marian Dziwniel " Z nad Niemna przez Odrę nad Sekwanę"
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