Reporters on the Job

• POLISH-AMERICAN TIES: Poles' twin ambitions to be close to both America and Europe (page 1) are evident on the streets of Warsaw, says the Monitor's Peter Ford. There are about 10 million Polish-Americans, and it seems almost everyone in Warsaw has a second cousin in and around Chicago. One young woman told Peter that when relatives from New Jersey visited recently after a 15-year absence, they were astonished by the changes the capital had undergone.

What surprised them most? All the new shopping centers. And what are they called? 'Europlex,' 'Eurocenter,' and so on.

"Poles love America, but their image of modernity is European," says Peter.

• MEATLOAF FOR BREAKFAST: The Monitor's Robert Marquand rose at 3 a.m. to meet one of two buses carrying journalists, mostly photographers, to witness a US military training exercise in South Korea (this page).

When the journalists arrived in the cold dawn's early light, their hosts handed out military rations, or MREs (meals ready to eat). Then they were driven 45 minutes to a bluff overlooking the exercise which involved setting up pontoon bridges over a river.

"Some of us tucked into our breakfasts, some waited. Mine was meatloaf and gravy," says Bob.

"A CNN correspondent with some MRE cooking experience showed us how to mix water with a chemical packet that heats up the food."

David Clark Scott
World editor