In May 2000, I unexpectedly returned to Poland. It all happened suddenly: I’d been planning a fall visit, but then I found one of my friends was moving out of Poland and another was going into the army, so I wouldn’t get to see them were I there in the fall. Within a week, I had tickets and I could hardly contain my excitement.

Eight years later, a repetition: we will be going to Poland this summer after all. We leave at the end of the month, and we’ll stay for almost two full weeks. We’d stay for the summer if it were possible, but given American companies’ generous vacation allowances, we don’t have a choice. And K is not prepared to do something like this:

Tell them you’re planning to take 2 months off. Don’t ask. Tell them. Make it clear that you’re going to go regardless of whether there’s a job waiting when you get back. They’ll accommodate you. Trust me.

Two Weeks Vacation is only a Recommendation, not a Rule

So two weeks will have to do.

And it will be a crammed two weeks. We’re going to get the Girl baptized; we’re spending a couple of days in Krakow; we’re going hiking in the mountains; we’re visiting half the population of Podhale; we’re climbing Babia Gora;and more.

We’re leaving in nineteen days.