Poland, Oregon?

My official move is just a week away (yikes!) and while I'm still enjoying my vacation in Hawaii (Gorging myself on shave ice and spam musubi, hanging with old friends, and seeing relatives and my cousins' kids), it's starting to hit me that I'll be moving soon. I've been explaining more and more what I'll be doing in Poland, and when I first tell people, the first thing they think is "Portland? You'll be close to home in Seattle". After I clarify their geographical brain-fart, a couple common responses are "WHY???", "What's wrong with you?" and "Why didn't you pick London?". Possibly all valid questions. So here's what I'll be doing...and hopefully you'll understand!

For the next two years, I'll be working in PwC's Learning & Development group in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). My responsibilities will be to instruct different audit training, help develop the courses, work on the strategy of their implementation, train the various trainers, and have more fun that anyone should at work. The group is fairly new and the structure is still developing, so there is a lot of flexibility and opportunity for creativity in what I'll be able to do. I've already met most people I'll be working with (when I was out there last year), and we all get along great, which will be a big plus. It also means they have to be my friends.

My group will be responsible for delivering training to people from 26 (or so) different countries in CEE. That's 25 more countries than just Poland, so that's got me pretty excited. I'll be based in Warsaw, and will spend a lot of time in Poland, but this journey is much more than that. I'm very interested in Poland and its culture (it has a very interesting recent history with their Nazi occupation, concentration camps, and later being so-called "liberated" by the Russian communists), but I'm also looking forward to seeing the rest of the region I'll be working in.  I'll be in such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Ukraine, Croatia, Serbia, and many others. I hope to also work closely with Borat in Kazakhstan.  Luckily I happen to speak the languages of all 26 countries, so this job was a natural fit. My language skills are like C3PO's. But since I don't want to show off, everyone else will go ahead and speak English around me.

Poland is also in a very good location in Europe, with easy access to Prague, Budapest, Germany, Russia, and Austria. Within Poland, Krakow (like a less-crowded Prague) and Gdansk (with beaches on the Baltic Sea) are very popular destinations, so as long as Google maps works out there, I'll be visiting them quite a bit as well.

With that said, I understand that Poland may not be a common first choice among travel destinations (yes, there's a good chance it gets cold in the Winter), but that's also why I chose it. I'll get to explore areas I would have never imagined visiting, and appreciate a lifestyle that has not yet been overly "Westernized". I hope you can find some time over the next two years to visit me anywhere in the region (don't delay!), because I can promise that you will enjoy an eye opening experience. That, and you will eat a lot of sausages.

Just remember you won't be near the Oregon coast!