Fresh Start:Miroslawa Gorecka's college diary
Since I arrived in Ireland I have been in receipt of child benefit, because I am, legally, a child. I have been squirreling this money away every month for two years and now, finally, I have saved enough money to buy myself a car. Over the last 10 weeks I have used the money I earned from this column to pay for driving lessons. Now I can drive. By the next time I write I plan to be driving to college in a Nissan Micra.
It's just as well. The walk from my bedsit to college is getting more challenging every day. The wet and windy Galway weather waits for me in the bushes and jumps out every morning as I leave, soaking me for the day. Sitting in damp clothes looking at algae through a microscope is not much fun. I can't really get used to this climate - the lack of seasons is confusing.
As a result, I've gone into a kind of hibernation. There are some lectures I really don't mind missing. This preparatory year for medicine (the purgatory before we actually start to study what we want) is almost exactly like taking the Leaving Cert again. Basic physics, chemistry and biology. Been there, done that, bought the lab coat.
In an effort to shake myself out of these late autumn blues I went on the town with my Polish friend who works in the medical centre. We have fun together because she thinks like me. Unfortunately that worked against us on a night out in Galway, because neither one of us could stand the desperate race to get as drunk as possible and to roar over music we would never listen to by choice. We went on what you might call a "pub crawl", but it was really a process of elimination. Having eliminated all the pubs, we went home. I miss Drogheda. The social life was much better there, in my view.
Once home, we returned to the very interesting subject of the Polish elections. At that stage, voters had not yet gone to the polls and we were very nervous about the result. The Law and Justice Party have nothing to do with either law or justice and they have no interest in young Poles. They are the reason that so many of us have had to leave. Young Polish voters were calling for their friends to hide their grannies' ID cards so that the twins would not be returned.
My friend in Poland rang me the day before the election and said that if the Law and Justice Party won again, she was coming to Ireland to live with me. I told here she could sleep in the sink. My bedsit is barely big enough for me. My car will probably be bigger.
I read with interest on Saturday the report in The Irish Timesby Carl O'Brien about the Polish elections and how passionate young Poles in Ireland feel about things. We really do want change. We really do spend a lot of time thinking and talking about politics. One of the people he interviewed said that young Irish people are more comfortable and don't need to think about politics. I don't know if that's true, but certainly we are watching our homeland with interest. Many of us really want to go home to a Poland that is focused on young people and on the future.
What joy! Civic Platform won! This could change everything. As I watched the results being announced on the internet the other night I saw true joy on people's faces. Maybe there's a real chance for Poland now. It makes me want to go back. Perhaps I'll get two years in Galway behind me and then transfer back to Poland. We'll see how Civic Platform get on.
Meanwhile, I'd better focus on Galway. There has been a strange atmosphere on campus since the tragic death of Manuela Riedo. Oddly, though, it is never discussed. I have never heard anyone mention it on campus. I have, however, discussed it regularly with my driving instructor. He's a mine of information and we have had some interesting conversations as I conquered the Galway roads.
I think my next purchase will be a cat. I won't be able to swing it, but I will be able to talk to it. I hope it's interested in politics.
