Polish News Seattle


	Where can I buy Polish food? Where can I learn Polish locally? How do I immerse my children in Polish? I look for a Polish church and religious education for children in Polish How can I setup & use Polish characters such as ćęśŁŹ on my American computer? I don’t speak Polish but I would like to get involved in Polish community, be in contact with other people interested in Polish culture... What are the Polish organizations in the Seattle area? I need a Polish translator, a lawyer, a notary ... I am of Polish origin, how can I get a birth certificate etc. from Poland? I would like to visit Poland, how can I buy tickets and make reservations? What's a cheap way of sending packages and money to Poland? I want to rent the Polish Hall for an event, what's the price and availability? I am a Polish citizen, can I vote in Polish elections in Seattle? Where can I learn Polish language in Seattle? You can learn Polish at two Polish elementary-level schools, one in Seattle and one on the Eastside. Courses for adults are available only at the Polish School in Seattle. Polish is also taught at the Dept of Slavic Languages and Literatures of the University of Washington in Seattle. Finally, there is a number of tutors that can be contacted for private lessons. Please see the Business Directory and the Ads & Job section for references. The information below has been updated for the 2008/2009 school year. The Juliusz Slowacki Polish School in Seattle is located at the Polish Home and has traditions going back many years. This is an obvious choice for elementary school children from the Seattle metropolitan area. Enrollment is about 30 kids and 15 adults. The curriculum covers Polish language and literature as well as history and geography of Poland for children from grades 1 to 8, although students are grouped together based on language skills. Courses for adults are also available and well attended - beginners and intermediate groups are available. The Polish School has a webpage at the Polish Home website that is up to date. The School is open on Monday nights from 6 pm to 8:45 pm and since 2007 also on Saturday mornings from 9 am. Please contact Principal Anna Babcock at (206) 363-3077, vice-Principals Beata Brewerska at (425) 836-9322 and Grzegorz Grabowski (206) 729-8437, for adult courses please contact Marian Strutynski. School website in Polish here. The Fr. Jan Twardowski Polish School in Bellevue is a newer school which is more convenient for people who live on the Eastside, although the School also enrolls students from all over Puget Sound. The School uses the facilities of the St. Louise Parish School in Bellevue. Enrollment is about 30 kids and the curriculum is similar to the Polish School in Seattle for children from 1st to 8th grades. There are no classes for grown ups. For more information visit the School website (in Polish). The School is open on Wednesdays from 6 pm. Please contact Principal Anna Cholewinska (425) 765-4935, or info@polishschoolseattle.org. The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures of the University of Washington requires enrollment at the UW. This requires a tuition about $1,200 per quarter, although when you are 60+ years old, the fee drops down to $5 per course taken. The Department is located on the main UW campus in Seattle. Class availability changes from year to year. The list of courses is below. Please contact Prof. Katarzyna Dziwirek, a native Polish speaker who lectures Polish courses, or Susan Westen, who is a secretary at the Slavic Department, for more info. In the 2006/2007 the department has also a Polish Fullbright scholar, dr. Piotr Lewinski who is visiting from the University of Wroclaw. The following courses related to Poland and Polish culture are available at the University of Washington in the 2008/2009 academic year: Spring quarter (Mar - Jun, 2009) Info to be posted ... Bellevue Community College used to run very popular Polish beginner classes in the 2005/2006 year. These are not available anymore, most of the students signed up at the Polish School in Seattle. How do I immerse my children into Polish? Besides the Polish Schools, there is also a Polish Scout Troop, contact Anna Bieniek. Another possibility is a children dance & theater group Mlodzi Polanie active at the Polish Home; contact Barbara Strutynski. Also, see below for religious education for children. I look for a Polish church and religious education for children in Polish Seattle and Tacoma have Polish catholic parishes that offer masses as well as religious education for children in Polish. For St. Margaret’s Church in Seattle please contact Fr. Stanislaw Michalek at (206) 282-1804. For Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Tacoma, please contact Fr. Piotr Dzikowski, (253) 272-5232. How can I setup & use Polish characters such as ćęś on my American computer? Setting up Polish characters on any computer is quite simple. Basically 1) you tell the system to use a Polish keyboard 2) make sure that it is on when you want to use it 3) use a simple convention to indicate a character with Polish diacritical. Please see the following step by step guide to setup Polich characters for details. I don’t speak Polish but I would like to get involved in Polish community, in Polish community, be in contact with other people interested in Polish culture... Most events organized by the Polish organizations in Seattle are in English or bilingual. Please check our website calendar pages or subscribe to the email bulletin. Visit the Polish Home - also know as the Polish Hall, that is the Polish cultural center in Seattle. You are always welcome at the Polish Home whether you speak Polish or not and whether you are Polish, of Polish descent or not. Both the organization (Polish Home Assn) and the facility is open to general public. Polish Home open on Friday nights and you can eat a Polish dinner there from 6:30 till 10:30. To get involved, you might want to join Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association (SGSCA meets at the Polish Home on the second Friday every month). This is an English-language friends-of-Poland type of organization; Gdynia is a big city and a port next to Gdansk in Poland. SGSCA organizes Polish Film Festivals in Seattle. Other organizations and venues worth exploring are listed here; the most notable for English speakers are Polish Home Foundation and the UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee. Where can I buy Polish food? Seattle: Restaurants: The Polish Home has a dining room and a bar open every Friday night from 6:30 pm, Sundays from 1 to 4 pm and during most scheduled events. Closed in summer and on some holidays. Dinners by chef Barbara Patrick. The bar is well stocked with Polish beers & vodkas. Insomniax Coffee & Juice, 102 15th Ave E, Seattle, is a cafe only few blocks from the Polish Home, established in March, 2007, with a Polish owner: drop by to check it out, it's nice! Catering: *PB Kitchen, call Barbara Patrick tel. (425) 876-3964 Stores:* *George’s Sausage & Delicatessen, 907 Madison St., Seattle, WA 98104, 206-622-1491, owner Jadwiga Lidzbarski Polish Beer:* Please see a separate note about beer below Ponchki / Pączki Typically on sale a week or two before Fat Tuesday at these places Bakery Nouveau (West Seattle), great pączki, they can spell it, too Metropolitan Market invites to Paczkipaloosa at all Seattle stores, also Paczki Race Note: Readers say these taste more like hole-less doughnuts than pączki. Also, please look here: Polish food and dining. Eastside Restaurants *Sages* in Redmond, 425-881-5004, serves rustic Italian and European cuisine but the owner/chef is Bart Kuliczkowski, so just talk to him … *Jerzy’s* Wine Bar, in Redmond, 425-702-8575, has been sold to non-Polish owners. Stores: There is a number of Russian or East European stores that sell Polish products. *International Deli* 15015 Main St. Ste 110, Bellevue, at the mall at 148^th and Main, tel. 425-865-0439, Delicatessen of Europe, 129 - 106th Avenue, Bellevue, tel. 425-865-0439 From Russia with Love, 1424 156th Ave. NE., Bellevue, at the Crossroads Mall (Top Food store plaza), tel. 425-603-0701 Arbat International Food Market, 12053 124th Ave NE, Kirkland, Vlad Mitkovetski, owner *Christmas Eve special: you can order a carp (or catfish/sum) for Wigilia* at Tim’s Seafood, 224 Park Place, Kirkland, tel. (425) 827-0195, you need to call in with an order at least a week ahead. The Editor invites readers to supply more addresses ... Polish Beer: Please see a separate note about beer below Wider Puget Sound area Stores: International Deli, 18120 Bothell Way NE, Suite #A10, Bothell, tel. 425-486-9676 *Euro Deli Karpaty* in Mill Creek, 17901 Bothell Everett Hwy, Ste #104, Bothell, WA, tel. (425) 402-7176, an Ukrainian store *Frank’s Meat Market* in Black Diamond, 31205 3^rd Ave (across from a NAPA store on state route 169), (425) 432-2685, home-made & smoked kielbasa etc. by Wieslaw Broda *Frank’s Meats* in Federal Way, 29500 Pacific Hwy. S, Suite 1, Federal Way, 98003, tel. (253) 945-777, home-made & smoked kielbasa etc. by Wieslaw Broda .. and out there if you travel ... Magdalena's Creperie, 1210 10th Street, Ste 103, Bellingham, WA 98225, tel. (360) 483-8569 Grandpa's Cafe, 3832 N. Interstate Ave, Portland, OR, tel (360) 936-6554 Polish Beer The best choice of Polish beer is at the Polish Home in Seattle. There are also several stores that sell Polish beer Whole Food Market chain stores stock Zywiec and Okocim: Redmond at Fall City Rd and East Lake Sammamish Pkwy for example Bellevue stores *Red Apple* chain stores Kirkland at Bridle Trails Browar Polska, Inc This is a distributor of European beer & wine. It features the best selection of Polish beer around, but can serve businesses with the WA liquor license only. For contact, please see our Business Directory The Editor invites readers to supply more addresses ... I need a Polish translator, a lawyer, a notary ... Please look in our Business Directory for translators, lawyers or bilingual notaries. For general comments, please see below. First, note that services of an American notary are quite different from ones provided by a Polish notary. A notary in Poland runs an office with services somewhere between ones provided by an American notary and an estate lawyer's office; this includes preserving copies of documents handled by the notary's office. Also, Polish notaries have a monopoly on some legal services, especially related to real estate; this is not the case in the US. A notary in the US is basically a simple service confirming identity of a person signing a document; no copies are preserved by the notary. Hence, for anything more complicated you might want a lawyer. Document translations are much more informal in the US than in Poland. In particular, a sworn translator is frequently not required. In many cases you may translate a document from Polish to English yourself if you are able to and know the appropriate terminology; typically there is a requirement that one should not translate documents about oneself - but then a competent friend may do it for you. In any case, the translator needs to identify himself/herself in a note at the end of the document and to add a statement about being competent and about translation being accurate and faithful with the original. For crucial legal documents or court appearances you should or might be required to seek help from a local court approved translator. When preparing documents for sending to Poland everything depends on the type and purpose of the document. A simple Upowaznienie (Limited Power of Attorney) is typically accepted by Polish officials when the text is bilingual (such as in parallel columns) and the signature confirmed by your local notary. Typically, every bank, Pony Express, a Passport Photo service has a notary on staff. On the other hand, for many legal documents, such as marriage licenses, real estate contracts, court rulings etc, notary is not applicable or not enough. The crucial point in these cases is that the document itself needs confirmation – specifically that it is in fact a legally binding document in the US. This legalization procedure used to be performed by the Polish consulates, but the consulates do not do it anymore. Per the Hague Convention, these confirmations have been replaced by the Apostille documents issued by the Secretary of State. Finally, for Polish citizens, passport applications are not accepted by mail anymore (since August 28, 2006) by the Polish consulates due to new passport regulations in Poland and the EU; one needs to apply in person before a Polish consul. Apostille – this is worth a separate paragraph. As mentioned above, an Apostille is currently the only legalization confirmation appropriate for legal documents between US and Poland. In the past, Polish consulates would provide legalization services; since August 14, 2005, both Poland and the USA recognize Apostilles as the legalization instrument according to the Hague Convention. In our state the Apostilles are issued by the office of the Secretary of State for the State of Washington in Olympia. In particular, no subsequent confirmation by the Polish Consulate in LA is needed. You can obtain an Apostille from the office of the Secretary of State by mail or in person. I am of Polish origin, how can I get birth certificates etc. from Poland? The best chance is to use the family connection back in Poland. Trace your American data to an ancestor with known date of birth and place of birth. If you have that, the family can write to the appropriate state archives in Poland asking for birth certificates for these people or even for genealogical search on them. Depending on how far in the past it is, the documents can be in the state archives at a provincial capital (appropriate voivodship) or at the central archive in Warsaw. The state archives have official state records or copies of those, as well as records or copies of records from religious institutions like parishes etc. Also the state archives in Warsaw have many records from towns and villages that were Polish before WWII and now are in Western Ukraine or Byelorussia. The archives nowadays actually make money on this type of genealogical queries, so other than writing appropriate specs for searching, paying up upfront and waiting, the first steps in this research should be fairly straightforward. I would like to visit Poland, how can I buy tickets and make reservations? Many people use websites such as www.justfares.com, www.travelocity.com, www.expedia.com or www.orbitz.com to book plane tickets and make hotel reservations. If you need advice, your best bet is Polyways Travels, (206) 634-2995, a Seattle agency specializing in Poland and providing very good service; they know all the connections and attractions by heart. Please look here: Business and service. What’s a cheap way of sending packages and money to Poland? Sending packages via airmail w/ US Post Office is advised only for simple packages or with single item envelopes (a book, a CD, a medication). In particular people had mixed experiences with the Global Airmail Parcel Post. When the speed of delivery and tracking number is essential, such as when sending legal documents etc, use DHL, Fedex etc; for big cities in Poland this works as you would expect in the US – except for price: the service is almost as fast as they promise but very expensive; however, double check with the shipper when sending to small towns. Bigger packages can be sent much cheaper and more convenient at the receiving end by Polamer or Polonez. Polamer, toll free number (877) 544-1844, is based in Chicago, so this requires sending packages via UPS or similar carriers to Polamer Cargo in Chicago and then they send it to Poland for you; call them to obtain their rates and shipping forms to fill. This is a bit involved but you definitely save money on the combo of sending ground to Chicago and then by sea by Polamer. They have been very reliable and deliver packages to the door in Poland (put a local phone contact on the form). Typically a sea parcel takes about 3-4 weeks to arrive. They also have a faster airmail service. Polonez Parcel Service, tel. (413) 732-3899, no toll free number, is a similar company based in West Springfield, MA. You can send a parcel to Polonez by UPS etc. and they would ship it to Poland. However, Polonez has a local agent in Fife, WA; this is near Tacoma. (This is the same agent that used to run a store and a Polonez agency in the Commons Mall and also was in Renton a few years back.) So in lieu of sending a parcel to Polonez, you have an option of driving with a parcel to Fife to ship it from there. You can obtain the forms from the agent or by calling the company. I hear that Polonez is also reliable. Overall costs and delivery times are similar. There are several options to send money to Poland. The fastest and safest way to send a big sum is a direct bank transfer or wire from a bank or brokerage account in US to a bank account in Poland. It does not matter which bank in Poland but a full bank/account number (with the international SWIFT/BIC number) is a must; also, besides the account, the target bank branch address and phone number is a frequent requirement. Fees range between $25-50 and typically do not depend on the amount; 2-3 business days can be expected to complete the transaction. For smaller sums US Money Express can be used, fees depend on the amount but they have a home delivery option. Another approach is to add a family member to an ATM card or credit card and let the family use it. What are the Polish organizations in Seattle and vicinity? The current full list is on our Polish in Seattle page. The most important organization is the Polish Home Association, established in 1918; it owns and operates the Polish Home in Seattle, the place where the most of Polish cultural events in Seattle take place. The Polish Home Foundation is the most important public charity for the Polish community. You can donate to any local Polish cause through the PHF and donations are tax deductible; the Foundation does not send donations to Poland and is focused on Seattle and the Pacific NW. Another notable organization is the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association, producer of the Seattle Polish Film Festival. The UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee works to establish a Polish chair at the University of Washington in Seattle and organizes Polish topic lectures there on regular basis. I want to rent the Polish Home for an event, what's the price and availability? The Polish Home can be rented for family events as well as meetings, celebrations etc. Both the upper and lower halls can be rented. For details and current rates, please check the Hall Rental page on the Polish Home site. Note that for public events promoting Polish culture and language, such as lectures, concerts or exhibitions, the rental fee can be reduced or waived as per Polish Home Association policy to support the PHA mission; please contact the Polish Home officials to negotiate rates for your event. I am a Polish citizen, can I vote in Polish elections in Seattle? This may or may not be possible depending on the elections - as the polling station may or may not be available in Seattle in a given year - and additional conditions. For the most recent elections, in October 2007 parliamentary elections, this was possible. Polish News publishes availability info when elections happen.

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