The lifelong struggle to be cool...

Ohmmm...

Beauty and the Beastie Boy

I lived in Poland for just about 2.5 years. This includes three months in Lodz - trying to learn Polish and living with Poland's Nr. 1 eligible bachelor, Piotr - nine months in Nowa Ruda - living in a church with no heat and hanging out with high school chicks - and 18 months in Szczecin - corrupting married women and basking in my citizenship.

I've always been an avid biker (as in Schwinn, not Harley) and it definitely helped pass the time in Poland. I took part, as the sole representative from Poland, in a commemorative bike journey from Chernobyl to Berlin. I also took a six week, 2500 km sojourn through Europe - starting in Bratislava going down to Trieste, over to Nice, up to Luxembourg City and back home to Szczecin. This was done, intelligently enough, on a thick wheeled mountain bike. In retrospect it was fun but sleeping in a tent really sucks.

It was during my time as a Peace Corps volunteer that I realized that I like the lifestyle of Europe. Life is generally more enjoyable here. The people making $200 a month in Warszawa are just as happy and well off as the people making $20,000 a month in Manhattan. Plus, they get a minimum of five weeks vacation every year.