PAAA hosts author Thomas Swick in Washington, DC
“I went to Poland because I fell in love” teases travel writer Thomas Swick, author of the recently published memoir Falling into Place, A Story of Love, Poland, and the Making of a Travel Writer. Speaking in late April at the Arts Club of Washington before an eager audience at the annual Spring Membership Meeting of the Polish American Arts Association of Washington, DC, Swick detailed select episodes from his memoir which focus on the years 1976-1989.
Swick’s encounter with Poland begins not in that country, but in London. It was in the British capital that he crossed paths with a beautiful Polish woman named Hania. A short exchange and the jotting down of a mailing address resulted in a year-long correspondence between Swick, then working as a young journalist at the Trenton Times, and Hania, a student at the University of Warsaw. Taking a year off from her studies, Hania came to New Jersey, where the couple fell in love. Swick eventually quit his job and followed Hania back to Poland, “leaving a promising career in journalism to pursue a woman behind the Iron Curtain.”
In Poland, he became an instructor at the well known Ośrodek Języka Angielskiego (English Language College) known informally among Varsovians simply as the Methodist School. Swick immersed himself in Polish culture, holidays, and customs. He experienced historic events, such as the 1979 “winter of the century” which paralyzed Warsaw and much of Poland under heavy snow and deep frost, as well as some more unsavory aspects of then-Communist Poland, including being prepositioned to report on his associates to the secret police. Unwilling to submit to the apparatchik’s demands, he was forced to leave Poland when his visa was denied, but he could not stay away for long.
Eventually, Swick married Hania in Warsaw’s Old Town and moved in with her and her relatives, the norm in Communist Poland where the wait for apartments was years-long. Over the years they experienced the world-changing pilgrimage by Pope John Paul II to his homeland, Solidarity’s August Accords, and participated in a pilgrimage themselves to the famed Polish shrine at Jasna Gora. But beyond just the world events that Swick eye witnessed, he spoke, and wrote, about the act of being in Poland. Noting his battle with and eventual embrace of the Polish language with all its grammar and nuance drew many smiles and nods of understanding from attendees. Swick confessed that while he never mastered the pronunciation, he developed a fluency in the language thanks to frequent readings of Krzysztof Zanussi screenplays, which presented the language in a more approachable fashion.
While there is no shortage of differences between the Poland of today and the days described in Swick’s memoir, one noteworthy comment made during the presentation was that back then, people had more time. One could drop by an acquaintance's place anytime to talk, a custom that has more or less fallen by the wayside in the bustle of today’s life. During the Q&A, Swick exclaimed that he wished Americans could sit at the dinner table with Poles, and experience their warmth and hospitality the way he did all those years ago in Poland. If that were done, Poland’s reputation would be sky high around the world.
Swick’s memoir, Falling into Place, is a personal reflection of his lived experiences, but written in a way that readers will be able to laugh along with, learn from, and perhaps even reflect on parallels in their own lives. The book has been very well received since its publication a few months ago, and attendees purchased every copy available at the PAAA meeting. On the Friday before his talk, Swick was presented with the Amicus Poloniae award by Poland’s Ambassador Marek Magierowski, which is awarded to US citizens for merits in the field of Polish-American relations.
As a travel writer, Swick gave the audience a parting recommendation: ahead of your next trip, rather than reaching for a pocket guide, opt instead to read a novel set in the place you are going. With most information now available at your fingertips, what travelers need today more than information is insight.
