in an unlikely place: The Polish Research Station Henryk Arctowski in the South Shetland Islands, near Antarctica. I bought a commemorative patch from the station chief and thanked him with the only Polish word I knew. Excitedly, he talked to me and I did not understand what he said. When I returned to my boat, a motivational speaker on board commented that I still had latent Polish language skills and that they would re-emerge with some practice. I enrolled in Polish classes at the University of Washington, and survived my first year. The Polish Studies Endowment Committee was kind enough to help fund a trip to Poland to reconnect with my past.
