Today the Girl started Polish school, or as the girls refer to it, “polska szkoła.” This is not merely an improvised effort to make sure L stays in touch with her Polish heritage and improves her language skills a bit. This is a formal, institutional organization that follows a traditional Polish school curriculum for students who live outside of Poland. The Girl will be working on math, Polish, computer skills, and one more subject that will certainly cause L much worry and many sleepless nights: English.

“How come?” I asked.

“Because they’re following the Polish curriculum,” K explained. “We could have requested a different language, but what for? Polish is already a second language.”

I, in the meantime, stuck with what I’m good at: mowing the lawn and making burgers. It is Labor Day, and