Where have you been?

A good way to judge a society is by the sports they broadcast on television. America, for example, has many "World" series, champions, etc, that are only open to American teams. Not only that but during the championships of said world leagues stage shows with frequent "wardrobe malfunctions" and hit songs from the 1980's often take precedence. Rather then marketing and the bottom line sports on Polish TV seem to focus on sports at which Poles excel.

For example the Met-Rx World's Strongest Man competitions (and associated local events) are frequently shown on TV here because last years champ, Mariusz Pudzianowski, is Polish. A popular winter sport is Ski Jumping because one of the best ski jumpers (if not the best) is Poland's Adam Małysz. They are both so famous they have Wikipedia pages!

Another sport with massive TV time is men's Volleyball. This is not beach volleyball with babes running around in small bikinis. This is rough and tumble indoor volleyball where every player is at least 6 foot 4 inches and can pancake a weak defense on every set. I can usually find a Polish or European league match just about every day and several at the weekends. I don't know any of the big teams but the stadiums always seem to be filled to the brim and some of my students claim to have a favorite team.

Volleyball seems to hold the status many other European countries put on football. One of my student pointed out that the volleyball players in Poland are professional while football here is amateur. The professional footballers go play elsewhere...

A still life photo of my winter gloves from Germany and my Sony Ericsson phone from the UK. I like the way the color of the two items contrast.