English/South African living in Lodz

Debisia,
Why haven't I met you earlier?
I lived in Lodz from August till December 2009... Then I moved to Warsaw and that's where you can find me now...
I am Polish and Canadian, I have moved back to Poland after 20 years of living in Canada, I have a son who is 11 and I am 47... It is too bad I have not found this website earlier... Anyway, I know it is not easy to find English speaking people in Lodz. I was not easy for me anyway. I did find one Canadian - a student at the medical university, a sweet girl, from Montreal. But that was a pure luck.
I hope with time and luck you will find a few English speaking people. There are more of them in Warsaw, no doubt, so you can always come for a visit. Lodz is not so far after all.
I wish you all the best.
Joanna

Hello Joasia

Wow it was lovely to hear from you, gosh it is such a pity we didnt connect earlier.  Well I will tell you a bit about myself.

I met my husband in south africa in 83, he arrived there in 82.  We have been together ever since, married nearly 25 years now.  We have two kids, a son 22 and a daughter who will be 19 next month.  We moved to Poland because of the terrible crime and no opportunities for the kids in south africa, which is getting worse by the day.  All the poles think im crazy because of me being british and moving to poland and not england, quite frankly i think the weather would drive me insane and I just love everything foreign,  mmmmm well so i thought.  we moved here in 2007 and to be honest im still finding it hard to settle even though i love it here, it is very frustrating going from being totally independent in organising your life to having to depend on your husband to do everything for you, even a silly thing like reading the newspaper is impossible, and in all honesty i do know a lot of polish.  Then of course the problem with my kids, my son is in his 3rd year at Univ or Lodz and is doing well, it is an english curriculum, with my daughter we first tried a private shcool, Skola Europejska, well it was a disaster and after 6 months took her out and she then went to Lyceum No 4, and is doing the IB programe, she writes her final exam on thursday, she should have finished her Matura last year but because of the change in schools it was delayed.  She can speak good polish but not good enough to study further and she wants to be a beautician and there are no beauty colleges that offer an english course, she is also not happy living in a non english speaking country, so she will be going to england to study.

I have a lovely home here in Lodz, i live in a quiet area called Gorna near a small forest, a damn and close to the highest point in Lodz, but will be selling up shortly and moving to Szceczin as my husband has found new employment.  I have been there a couple of times and it is lovely but a much smaller city and i dont think as much to offer, but, it is close to Berlin, and that i do like   another good point is that we have polish friends that left south africa 10 years ago, so that will be wonderful to speak to someone with a lot more in common.

Well thats a very basic bit about me, gosh I can go on and on, haha

You must find it really difficult coming from Canada back to Poland, although you are now in Warsaw which is definately more cosmopolitan.  I often wish we had moved there, but it was a very big move for us to Poland and we have family here so you do what you think is best and of course easiest, my husband had been away from poland for 25 years, so coming back was like moving to a strange country.

Oh well im going to stop nattering away now, otherwise ill end up writing a book.

Id love to hear from you again, and thanks for contacting me.

Regards
Debora

Hello Debora,
If you are still around please email me at noemsark@gmail.com.
We will be happy to meet up.
Thanks!

Noemi

Hi All,

Would you please help me on accomodation charges in Lodz.

-Javed

Hello Javed and welcome to Expat.com!

I suggest you to start a new thread on Poland forum with all your questions for better visibility.

Harmonie.

Hi Debora,

I have just found this site I am living in Tomaszow Mazowiecki with my Polish partner, Barbara, we are often in Lodz shopping or visiting NFZ, specialists etc.

Regards

Colin

Hi there Colin

I've been in Lodz 6 years now on womans day   I'm English and my hubby is Polish, we met in South Africa in 1983 and eventually moved here due to the crime and future for the kids in SA.  I lived there from 1971 as my parents emigrated from the UK.

Have you been living long in Poland... I'm still trying to get my tongue around the language and keep promising to go for some lessons but it never happens cos i get so busy at home

It would be great to meet up, my husband travels a lot with work but is home most weekends, or i am quite flexible during the week to meet for a cup of coffee or something, just the next couple of weeks im quite tied up as im busy doing some decorating and then my brother is coming over to visit for 11 days.

Give me a shout when you next come to Lodz.

Nice to hear from you

Debora