u/pole152004

Hi for some brief context, I'm a 22 male, recent college grad, I was born in poland but raised in the us for my entire life up to this point 21 years, however i was undocumented due to our visas expiring when i was still a child and so i decided my best bet was to leave the US and pursue a life outside the country in Poland.

So now for my experience so far,

I was lucky that i found a job before graduating and moving to poland so i had that established, most of my family lives in poland still, we were the only ones who left the country so we had a place to stay while we adjusted back to Poland, for additional context i had never visited the country before i decided to move so it was a big risk for i took.

i started working back in march 2026, I currently live in warsaw and work in an english language media company, great as I am able to work on improving my polish.

In my field, i am able to earn well and live better than in the united states in terms of my profession where many of my friends post grad found jobs that dont pay well and many of them cannot afford to live alone or are tight on finances every month. obviously money isnt the most important aspect for the move but it does help, I make about 2900-3350 usd a month depending on how many days i work as its based on a content produced. my studio apartment cost me about 850 usd a month with utilities besides electric which is only ever 30 dollars a month for me.

anyway since moving ive taken my first ever vacation made with my own money, 10 days and no fuss about taking time off from my boss even as a newbie.

my friends from the states came to visit and i showed them warsaw, and then we went to visit krakow and later prague in the czech republic, an awesome time.

i currently dont have a car or license but dont need one as the city has great public transit- metro, bus and trams as well as speed regional rail trains can get u anywhere. if i want to travel to another city trains can get u everywhere.

so much greenery just in the city itself, warsaw is quickly transforming into a very green city but already there is so many large parks and green spaces, it has one of the largest urban parks in europe.

Polish food is amazing and warsaw has a great food scene outside of just polish cuisine but people still can eat out at polish restaurants especially milk bars.

work culture and career- no boss micromanging me or an insane hustle culture to get ahead and everyone is not worried about getting a promotion or being the best i like my job and am happy doing my work for now and i just started 3 months ago...

and on an immigration note- finally being legal and feeling like a normal person in society not constantly looking over my shoulder worried ill be deported or detained by ICE.

now time for a few con's

1. NO AC, jk, but seriously my building was built in 2023 and theres not even like a thermostat in my room just two heaters and we just went thru a heatwave idk if id survive without a fan.
2. coffee prices- so expensive at cafes, buying even ground or whole bean store coffee idk its so pricey.
3. hard to make friends or connect- even speaking polish for me its hard to connect with other people and find a group, polish people can be very reserved , i mean i expected this i know the culture but ughh., ive thankfully made like at least 3 decent friends so far so thats enough, 2 work related and one unrealated,
4. lgbt rights - as a gay man my biggest qualm was moving to a country that has not legalized gay marriage and thats something that if is not ultimately fixed when ive settled and decide to have a partner then it would be a dealbreaker, though everyone i have met and worked with and know im gay, the people, are very accepting and kind and dont gaf , just the government sadly is not caught up.
5. dealing with healthcare- because of my work contract i dont get healthcare from ZUS, so trying to register for it has been a hassle...
6. Work culture(pro and con)- i am just still used to the work culture of the states so may take some adjusting but how slow everything is and the lack of urgency..especially in the media industry.

currently thats all i have to say but if people have questioned id highly recommend poland as a destination if you are looking to move, as younger people speak english and big cities have major international companies that will higher if you have a good degree and speak english as many of those companies operate in english!

Hi everyone

So i just moved back to poland after living my entire adolescent life in the US till I graduated college and now I have a job here but my current employment is umowa o dzieło so i dont get ZUS/NFZ or anything like that and Ill be working here at least 2-3 years and so I want to start investing at least a bit every month from my paycheck.

Which banks offer good like retirement funds? LIke IKZE or IKE whats the main difference which one is better at my stage in life( 22 male) I currently can make between 10,000-12,000 zloty a month post tax as I work in media and I live alone and currently rent about 3230, cause I see each one offers different interest rates and such. Currently my main bank account is in Bank PKO IKO(the blue bank)

Any suggestions are super helpful. I am also looking for a general savings account with a good interest rate to start saving up to buy an apartment as well... (:

Dzięki z góry!

So i will give a brief rundown of this friendship and everything so get ready cause I genuinely feel like i need someone to tell me if im crazy- Me(21 M) and my friend(25 F) have been close friends for past 13 years, we used to facetime everyday and talk all the time and hangout as often as possible. we used to live on the same street but she moved 40 mins away to another state when she started hs at 15 and when i was 11, we always kept in touch and I would visit her more often than not not and eventually we made another friend from her school and became a trio, eventually, Me started college in a the city im was raised in, I was not born in the us but moved when I was very young and it was my home, I recently move backed to my home country in Poland because of immigration complications and also i decided my career would be better there in terms of pay and also have most of my family there already as it was just me and my parents and an aunt left in the states.

anyway back to the story

so while I went to college in the city my friend didnt go to college cause she graduated during the pandemic and stayed home until lockdown was over but never went to school after that and still has no clue abt her life plans she has worked at a sandwich shop since 2022 and thats all she does and she still lives at home just cause it makes sense.

I honestly noticed our dynamic changing once I entered college because my sophmore year i moved into a dorm to work for the university cause i couldnt afford housing there and then i was able to have more of a college life and college friends.

My friend at first would talk about coming on weekends to hang an go out to college parties but it never happened mostly cause her parents are still very controlling and would not drive her into the city and to my college as they deem the area unsafe and she herself has anxiety driving and only drives to 5 or 6 designated spots she knows the route to and avoids highways..

Ok so i comprimised and visited her as there was a train station 20mins from her place that she would just pick me up from and that was fine for me.

Until I was supposed to turn 21 and wanted to celebrate my birthday with friends in the city and asked her to come, it was almost 6 months of unknowns if she would actually be able to come to my bday party and going out as her parents, mind u shes 24 at the time, would let her stay one night in my dorm and go party with me, like wut.. in the end she did come for a night and it was fun but it came at the cost of like honestly feeling ultimatum about our friendship if she hadnt come that would have started the end of our friendship.

after this the next thing came when I announced i was moving back to Poland and she literally cried and made the whole move about her and how sad she was that I was moving and that we should hangout.. in my last semester of college before I moved she never visited me once nor asked me to come hangout- she did call me once last minute at 3 in the afternoon if I wanted to come for the weekend to her house and later i found out she did this cause her other plans got cancelled.

at this point she would not reallty ever call me herself it was mostly me calling and keeping in touch.

i planned a graduation dinner celebration in the city again with friends and invited her and she baisaclly said her parents wouldnt let her go and and i begged to ask her to ask them again and at one point seems like she would have been able to come but then she didnt come

we had not seen each other in person since july so it hurt and after I graduated i was staying only an hour away from her at a family members house before I moved and she never tried to visit me, I made an effort and stopped by her house on christmas eve and we hungout for an hour before, mind u i didnt have a car only a license so i couldnt really drive to ever see her and so i was with my dad and we went out of our way to stop there

after this there wasnt any goodbye as I left for poland in early February.

when. i first moved we talked once or twice a week again out of my initative and now i am settling in i started a job i am happy with able to afford my own apartment and making new friends and living in an amazing city, while she is still living at home doing the same routine and I feel like my friend is jealous and resents my achievements as she used to think id never move and just stay close probably and be a convienent friend for her now that I am not convienent she has made new friends which nothing wrong with that but she made those friends and felt like she tried to replace me even before I left

I feel like she didnt want me to succed or move on with my life and she would have prefered me to be stuck like she is. idk maybe she is happy but i doubt it as she used to say she wanted to move out and get a different job and be independant but it seems like her dreams have died and now she is mad im living my dream.

she said she would visit me in poland and we were trying to make a plan for august with another friend but that friend said she couldnt afford to go this year as she has other financial commitments, okay no problem, then my female friends says she wont travel alone which valid as she has never visited another country. I understand so I am not mad about that im annoyed that any an all talk abt coming to visit me has stopped from her end and anytime i bring it up things get awkward. we spoke a few days ago and she mentioned we should get matching tattoos. to which I responded "yes ill ge matching tattoos we can do it when u come to poland" to which she went quiet..

ok thats. a lot plz help me out if I am crazy or something

So i will give a brief rundown of this friendship and everything so get ready cause I genuinely feel like i need someone to tell me if im crazy- Me(21 M) and my friend(25 F) have been close friends for past 13 years, we used to facetime everyday and talk all the time and hangout as often as possible. we used to live on the same street but she moved 40 mins away to another state when she started hs at 15 and when i was 11, we always kept in touch and I would visit her more often than not not and eventually we made another friend from her school and became a trio, eventually, Me started college in a the city im was raised in, I was not born in the us but moved when I was very young and it was my home, I recently move backed to my home country in Poland because of immigration complications and also i decided my career would be better there in terms of pay and also have most of my family there already as it was just me and my parents and an aunt left in the states.

anyway back to the story

so while I went to college in the city my friend didnt go to college cause she graduated during the pandemic and stayed home until lockdown was over but never went to school after that and still has no clue abt her life plans she has worked at a sandwich shop since 2022 and thats all she does and she still lives at home just cause it makes sense.

I honestly noticed our dynamic changing once I entered college because my sophmore year i moved into a dorm to work for the university cause i couldnt afford housing there and then i was able to have more of a college life and college friends.

My friend at first would talk about coming on weekends to hang an go out to college parties but it never happened mostly cause her parents are still very controlling and would not drive her into the city and to my college as they deem the area unsafe and she herself has anxiety driving and only drives to 5 or 6 designated spots she knows the route to and avoids highways..

Ok so i comprimised and visited her as there was a train station 20mins from her place that she would just pick me up from and that was fine for me.

Until I was supposed to turn 21 and wanted to celebrate my birthday with friends in the city and asked her to come, it was almost 6 months of unknowns if she would actually be able to come to my bday party and going out as her parents, mind u shes 24 at the time, would let her stay one night in my dorm and go party with me, like wut.. in the end she did come for a night and it was fun but it came at the cost of like honestly feeling ultimatum about our friendship if she hadnt come that would have started the end of our friendship.

after this the next thing came when I announced i was moving back to Poland and she literally cried and made the whole move about her and how sad she was that I was moving and that we should hangout.. in my last semester of college before I moved she never visited me once nor asked me to come hangout- she did call me once last minute at 3 in the afternoon if I wanted to come for the weekend to her house and later i found out she did this cause her other plans got cancelled.

at this point she would not reallty ever call me herself it was mostly me calling and keeping in touch.

i planned a graduation dinner celebration in the city again with friends and invited her and she baisaclly said her parents wouldnt let her go and and i begged to ask her to ask them again and at one point seems like she would have been able to come but then she didnt come

we had not seen each other in person since july so it hurt and after I graduated i was staying only an hour away from her at a family members house before I moved and she never tried to visit me, I made an effort and stopped by her house on christmas eve and we hungout for an hour before, mind u i didnt have a car only a license so i couldnt really drive to ever see her and so i was with my dad and we went out of our way to stop there

after this there wasnt any goodbye as I left for poland in early February.

when. i first moved we talked once or twice a week again out of my initative and now i am settling in i started a job i am happy with able to afford my own apartment and making new friends and living in an amazing city, while she is still living at home doing the same routine and I feel like my friend is jealous and resents my achievements as she used to think id never move and just stay close probably and be a convienent friend for her now that I am not convienent she has made new friends which nothing wrong with that but she made those friends and felt like she tried to replace me even before I left

I feel like she didnt want me to succed or move on with my life and she would have prefered me to be stuck like she is. idk maybe she is happy but i doubt it as she used to say she wanted to move out and get a different job and be independant but it seems like her dreams have died and now she is mad im living my dream.

she said she would visit me in poland and we were trying to make a plan for august with another friend but that friend said she couldnt afford to go this year as she has other financial commitments, okay no problem, then my female friends says she wont travel alone which valid as she has never visited another country. I understand so I am not mad about that im annoyed that any an all talk abt coming to visit me has stopped from her end and anytime i bring it up things get awkward. we spoke a few days ago and she mentioned we should get matching tattoos. to which I responded "yes ill ge matching tattoos we can do it when u come to poland" to which she went quiet..

ok thats. a lot plz help me out if I am crazy or something