DIFFERENCE

When from the window of my hotel in Tangier, staring at the landscape of the city, I was listening to the voice of the muezzin I had the impression that I was witnessing something extraordinary. Actually, it was difficult to determine what caused this feeling of uniqueness and fascination, but it was fulfilling me entirely. I remembered this moment one day when I was staying on the steps of overground rail crossing in one of the towns in Lesser Poland.

In front of me, the gray, snow-covered tracks surrounded by equally gray buildings, which purpose seemed to be something in a kind of a big junkyard. In the distance there was the forest, from which at some time the train emerged, gray and probably not much different from those that passed here by during the Second World War. On the left, near the forest there was a church. It was Sunday and you could hear clearly the voice of the priest conducting the service. I heard these words since I was a child and I could easily repeat them after him. I was staying on top of the damaged stairs and looking out over the whole landscape accompanied with the melodious tone of prayer. I began to soak up the sounds around me and record views. I'd never have noticed something like that before because it was something that I knew since I was born and what for me was never worth more attention. It just "was". Only now, when I looked at it through the eyes of a stranger I felt the curiosity and fascination like when I was looking throught the window of a Moroccan hotel. I started to wonder what is this "difference" which fascinates us so much, delights us, and sometimes makes us angry or scared?

When during the one of the foreign training the proposition of organizing an international evening was made and we were asked to present our countries and to prepare typical snacks, I felt kind of confused. 

Through my head were running the words: vodka, pickled cucumbers, sausage, Lech Walesa, vodka, cucumbers ... Krakow ... and so on. If they let me to tell about Italy ... I could tell how looks like a typical Italian dinner, when and where Italians more likely rest, that they did not have breakfast at home, that they are sensitive about the quality of food, that they drink often, but rarely get drunk, that train tickets must be deleted, and you should always do the shopping during a weekday or early on Saturday, otherwise you may be on hunger until Monday. How boring Poland seemed to be, everything so ordinary that what you could tell here? At the end me and my compatriot concentrated on debunking stereotypes. I began to wonder who in this case is a better guide to the customs of the country, a native citizen or a stranger, who observes everything with a watchful eye? And if without knowing what there is the outside would we be able to characterize our identity? Isn't all we know and think about ourselves mainly the duplication of how people from outside already characterized us?

Feel free to discuss - how we perceive "difference"?