[unclear: fferences]

[unclear: mi] read the foregoing account, [unclear: fe] might think that there are [unclear: of] few differences between the [unclear: n] of young people in Poland [unclear: ers] in Western countries. To [unclear: teract] this impression one [unclear: at] first say that material life is [unclear: ult] in Poland. A young person, [unclear: ing] out in a professional job [unclear: a] earn 2000 zloties a month. [unclear: is] can give an idea of the value [unclear: is] salary by saying that a [unclear: ab] th's rent for a flat would be [unclear: n] about 200 to 500 zloties; a [unclear: ly]-made man's suit costs about [unclear: a] zloties; a pair of shoes about [unclear: c] zloties.

[unclear: A] meal in a modest restaurant [unclear: s] from 15 to 20 zloties, an [unclear: olstered] sofa bed about 3500 [unclear: 90] a Polish car, the Warszawa, [unclear: t] 90,000. At this rate one can [unclear: ulate] how long one would have [unclear: ave] to buy clothes, much less [unclear: urnish] an apartment.

[unclear: ne] freedom which is denied [unclear: s] in the way that others know [unclear: s] the right to travel. To go [unclear: ad] a Pole must have an invita-[unclear: s] from someone in the country [unclear: re] he is going, certifying that [unclear: o] Pole will be given financial [unclear: port] by the person inviting him. [unclear: sh] currency may not be taken [unclear: o] of the country and it is with-[unclear: a] value in the dollar bloc [unclear: ntries] anyway.

[unclear: n] addition a Pole is granted a [unclear: sport] only after a six or eight-[unclear: k] waiting period. Sometimes the [unclear: est] for a passport is denied. [unclear: o] students who had been offered [unclear: larships] at American unlver-[unclear: es] could not accept them [unclear: ause] their government would [unclear: v] give them passports.

The only way in which I feel [unclear: rived] of freedom is in being [unclear: sed] a passport to travel [unclear: oad]," one of the students said. [unclear: he] same student got a passport [unclear: di] a different occasion to go to [unclear: eden] where he worked for several months. "Working in a capitalist country where opportunity is more or less unlimited is terribly discouraging when you have to come back to Poland where salaries are low and job opportunities are limited. After that I lost my joie de vivre for over a year."

Young people, nevertheless, manage to take trips abroad. Some visit relatives; others get letters of invitation and work while living abroad; others go on organised student excursions or, like the young English teacher, are given scholarships by the government to study during the summer.

Independent travel abroad as Western Europeans know it is more or less impossible for Poles, even in their sister socialist and people's republics. Visas are necessary to travel in other Eastern European countries and currency may not be exported or imported.