Yes. The first time I went was in March 1991. I went to Warsaw because the Government of Canada provided for it. Joe Clark was the minister, and Prime Minister Mulroney announced a program of support for Hungary and Poland, for just those two countries. We got a grant from external affairs to set up a business school in Warsaw.
I had never been to a non-western country—I had been to the Caribbean, like many Canadians—but I went there with unbelievable naivety, and I was just unbelievably shocked. The quality of the housing was unbelievably bad. The idea that they treated the environment better in the centrally planned economies.... I saw them pour chemicals on the ground in those countries. I didn't just go to Poland. I taught in Ukraine many times. I taught in Romania many times. I taught in Russia. It was common across those countries that the housing stock was lousy, terrible. As for the water and the infrastructure, one day you would get up, and there would be no hot water. There would be no water in the shower.
It was very poor, and of course, there was no transparency. Even though I went right after the collapse, it was still de facto a centrally planned communist country for another two to five years until they transitioned. The transition wasn't overnight. The housing stock was the shocker for me, because I was sleeping in private homes. I wasn't staying in a hotel. We were renting from local people. This was my first experience living in a non-western country, and it was a shock. It was a real culture shock for me. I had travelled all over western Europe before that. It was quite the experience going to a non-western country.