The picture above is of an intersection in the city of Lodz, about 135 km west/southwest of Warsaw. It's generally unremarkable, but I keep it for the life lesson I learned there. On my way to Piotrkowska Street -- the longest pedestrian / commercial thoroughfare in Europe and home to some really good restaurants -- I was crossing here (coming towards the camera) alongside an elderly woman who looked to be in her 80s. We stopped in the center of the street because to the left of this camera we saw a white panel van and fast moving bmw sedan heading towards the crosswalk. The three college students (I suspect they were college students only because of their uniform looks of angst and ennui and their uniform black turtlenecks) who started running across the street did not, nearly causing an accident as the panel van slammed on its brakes and the beamer missed hitting the students only by inches.
The woman next to me was truly peeved, at least in part because one of the students had pushed by her to run out in the street. Shouting and waving her fist angrily at the students, she turned to me yelling and pointing at them. I caught the word "idiota" and that's about it. Drawing on my extraordinary language skills, I repeated the mantras "nie rozumiem populsku, nie mowie populsku" (which I'm pretty sure mean I don't understand Polish, I don't speak Polish). Didn't work. She was still yelling at them, looking at me, yelling at me, etc. Inspiration hit.
"Tak," I said. This slowed the flow of invective. I said it again. "Tak. Tak." The cursing stopped and she smiled. I'm sure she knew that I had absolutely no idea what she was saying, but she happily walked alongside of me the rest of the way to Piotrkowska now that at least someone was agreeing with her.
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