Perpetual Change

My Impressions of Mike's time here

I just found my thoughts on my friend Mike’s trip. They had gotten lost somewhere in the holiday shuffle:
My friend that I have not seen for 6 years came to visit me. It was great, but a bit rushed – completely my fault- because I tried to show him too much. While he was here, he mentioned how often his friends try to change him – to convince him to shave his head into a faux-hawk (very popular in Europe now) or buy fancy French underwear (he just finished a semester in Paris) and I thought what a shame that they couldn’t let him be himself. Later I realized that I also tried to change him.
Certainly, a big part of our visit was catching up on more than can be explained easily in our letters, but also I wanted him to “see” Eastern Europe for all its glory and misgivings. We spent two days in Krakow and two in my town. I, also, didn’t want him to leave the same as he had come, but somehow I felt my purpose was greater – what a hypocrite.
I kept making contingency plans while he was here, but (except for my meeting him at the airport) everything went truly fabulously. I had some hiccups getting back from Lviv (where I put him on the bus back to Krakow) but nothing really unexpected. I got home early in the morning, washed, dressed, put my student’s papers together with my lessons and rushed off to school, pretty proud that nothing had been upset in the order of the last 5 days. Then, just as we are about to start the first class, an Assistant Principal comes in and says, “Sorry Mr. Sheetz, but the inspectors have come from Lviv and I need this class to take a test. You won’t have lesson with them today.” The class says, “NOW?!” amidst groans; the AP says, “Now!” in that classic emphatic Ukrainian that I may actually miss, even for all its snideness; and then she ways to me, “and so it is in Ukraine.”

PS. All poles seem to have distinct British accents to me, but while in Poland, I met two Brits on my way to the very impressive salt mine of Krakow, who thought that I was Polish, although I was talking to them in English.

posted by jjs @ 12:10 PM