When I got back to Warsaw Chopin from London, things started going sideways again immediately.

On Thursday the Border Control guys I'd dealt with had assured me that if I leave and come back on Sunday -- when my Polish Work Visa begins -- I'd be set up in the system and everything would be hunkey dory. So I expected to just blow right through Passport Control and into the lovely land of latkes.

But, nooooooo.

There'd been a shift change since Thursday, and now my friendly, smiling border control guys had been replaced with stern, unsmiling border control girls.

Hmmmmmm.... you say. We all think it but won't say it... But dammit, as a card carrying girl, I'm allowed to say it.

Why do girls in positions of authority always have to act so much tougher than guys?. Why do they need to exercise their power? Why? What is the use of having a dick-measuring contest, if I'm refusing to participate???

This Kashia lectured me on how the Polish Consulate should have never defied Schengen and given me a visa - to which I asked "Do Schengen border rules trump Polish sovereignty?"

Later she came back and asked me if I obtained a Polish work visa in response to receiving a border ban from Schengen -- to which I responded "I obtained a Polish work visa in response to receiving a job offer in Poland".

Then she called my employer to measure dicks with him for a while.

All in all she made me wait for HOURS while she called her Swiss overlords and searched for ways to deny me entry. But eventually, gritting her teeth, she walked me through to Latke Land... getting a final word in... "Do you plan to travel in Europe while you're on this visa?"... to which I answered "Oh, no, I'll be traveling only in Poland".