Bar Conversation with 2 Polish Women.

The other month I was at the bar in an Italian restaurant in a yuppie neighborhood, and the 2 women a stool down from me to my left were speaking Polish, so during a pause in their conversation, I asked them if they were Polish, and they were, and it turned out that they were there for dinner before going to a screening at a Polish film festival happening at a venue a few doors down, and then we all began talking.

One woman was older (like mid-50s?) and the other in her late 30s, and both thought that Americans were “stupid” because they didn’t care about NSA surveillance.

“Something like that,” the older woman was like, “only benefits those in control.”

(I wonder if she was reverse-translating a phrase from Polish, “those in control”, it’s quite an evocative phrase and I love it.)

They also both thought that America was a bomb ready to explode, since the rich were ripping people off and Obamacare was happening and the poor were sucking the system dry.

“Not people like us,” the older woman was like, “We work.”

She also made the prediction that the country would become destitute from the rich fleeing to South America for tax laws there, and she said that in those countries there was hope, and jobs.

“And Europe is awful,” she said.  “The EU disguises major problems.  Europe is falling apart.”

They also offered me some bruschetta, and I had a piece, eating it up and holding my hand below my chin since I didn’t have a plate and didn’t want pieces of tomato to spill everywhere.

I then tried out some Polish on them, saying “Thank you for the bruschetta,” which caused them to ooh and ah, and then after that, I repeated the phrase again, only adding a bit, saying “Thank you for the bruschetta, beautiful,” which I delivered with a wink.

I then went to leave, and said “Nice to meet you” and “Good night”, and the younger woman was like, “Look at how much Polish you know!”, and then I confessed that I only know 5 phrases, and had already used 3.

“What are the others?”, the older woman asked.

“Hello,” I was like.

“Oh, that is a good one,” she replied.

Then, I added, “And, Give me the cheapest beer.”

“Oh, you know too much,” she was like.