Thankfully these two things don't go together. For New Year's Eve I was planning on a nice quiet evening at home. I had it all planned. I had been to the store to buy the food, I had decided on the movies to watch and everything. :) When I woke up on Saturday I received a call from my friend asking me to come over. The way her husband translated it, it sounded like lunch. :) They asked me to come over around 2. I finished up at home and headed over. When I got there they were all cleaning the house. I was a little confused but wasn't surprised. So I sat back and played games with my friends son. Then around 4 I asked when we were eating. They said oh about 7pm. I then realized this was a dinner party. If I had known that I would have come later and taken a nap. :) I thought the confusion was hilarious! We ate LOADS of food. It was all SOOO good. I had the best cake of my life and the best roasted chicken EVER. I enjoy the roasted chicken around here but WOW, this was like no other I've had before. If I had known it was so good I would have eaten less of the other stuff! After the food and between helpings I watched the Polish New Year's Eve program. It was hilarious watching the singing. Then we all gathered around for a toast and then went out to the porch. While it was freezing cold all around us were fireworks going off continuously, so we watched for a good 20 minutes. It was a lot of fun! Although I was not planning on spending my new year's eve this way I am thrilled I did. I wasn't up for a BIG party and this was just a few of us so it was nice to all be together.
I am sure you are still wondering about how the bribes fit in. Well...now for a more serious thought time. Today I was at my friend Dorota's house. Her son had surgery this week. I called to check in the day before the surgery and I was rather concerned. She informed me about the conditions of the hospital. This wasn't a big city hospital...but I'm sorry around here that shouldn't matter. She said the rooms were dirty and there wasn't running water in the rooms and the toilets were in terrible conditions for the kids to use. The room also had no heating. This was a room for kids! I thought if the rooms are this bad what is it like in the surgery room!?! Well, she says she hopes and thinks that they are better...I'm just not convinced. But I asked if she was going to complain about the conditions of the room. She thought for a second and then asked should I? I said I would think yes because it's not okay for the big hospitals to be so nice and normal and this hospital to be in bad shape. She said that because her son was fine she didn't think she would complain to them. Then I asked what if it's someone else's child? What if your complaint is the one to make the change? Then she asked me if I thought she should have bribed the doctors and the staff. I have heard of many countries dealing with this, and fortunately I haven't had to deal with this in the states...though I am sure it happens. It's just not a first thought for me. Plus, I told her that to bribe someone in America they want quite a bit of money and I don't have that...not many people do. The other lady sharing the room was asking my friend if she had bribed the doctors. Dorota's answer was no I pay the insurance each month I don't need to bribe them more. But she knows it happens a lot around here. I could see that with the set up of the health care system I think it's called a socialistic health system. She told me that people bribe doctors with flowers, alcohol, and money. All kinds of different stuff. I didn't know a doctor in America who would take a bribe of flowers to do something big like surgery. I explained my recent issues with my insurance company and that I plan on complaining when I get back to the states in two weeks. She was impressed that I said I would do that. I said I wasn't willing to put up with it. She said she'd think about it and see what happens. I didn't expect to hear about many bribes around here. This was a new side to Poland that i wasn't familiar with. I was a little surprised. I learned something new to start off the new year.
I am sure you are still wondering about how the bribes fit in. Well...now for a more serious thought time. Today I was at my friend Dorota's house. Her son had surgery this week. I called to check in the day before the surgery and I was rather concerned. She informed me about the conditions of the hospital. This wasn't a big city hospital...but I'm sorry around here that shouldn't matter. She said the rooms were dirty and there wasn't running water in the rooms and the toilets were in terrible conditions for the kids to use. The room also had no heating. This was a room for kids! I thought if the rooms are this bad what is it like in the surgery room!?! Well, she says she hopes and thinks that they are better...I'm just not convinced. But I asked if she was going to complain about the conditions of the room. She thought for a second and then asked should I? I said I would think yes because it's not okay for the big hospitals to be so nice and normal and this hospital to be in bad shape. She said that because her son was fine she didn't think she would complain to them. Then I asked what if it's someone else's child? What if your complaint is the one to make the change? Then she asked me if I thought she should have bribed the doctors and the staff. I have heard of many countries dealing with this, and fortunately I haven't had to deal with this in the states...though I am sure it happens. It's just not a first thought for me. Plus, I told her that to bribe someone in America they want quite a bit of money and I don't have that...not many people do. The other lady sharing the room was asking my friend if she had bribed the doctors. Dorota's answer was no I pay the insurance each month I don't need to bribe them more. But she knows it happens a lot around here. I could see that with the set up of the health care system I think it's called a socialistic health system. She told me that people bribe doctors with flowers, alcohol, and money. All kinds of different stuff. I didn't know a doctor in America who would take a bribe of flowers to do something big like surgery. I explained my recent issues with my insurance company and that I plan on complaining when I get back to the states in two weeks. She was impressed that I said I would do that. I said I wasn't willing to put up with it. She said she'd think about it and see what happens. I didn't expect to hear about many bribes around here. This was a new side to Poland that i wasn't familiar with. I was a little surprised. I learned something new to start off the new year.
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