Anyone know what's happening in Poland?

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Leaf-peeping season is late September-early October for most of the states of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. And the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.

early-mid October for coastal Maine, southern New Hampshire and Vermont, the Catskills of New York State.

mid-late October for lowland areas of New York State, except within about 20-30 miles of New York City. Perhaps Boston area, but perhaps a little later for Boston.

late October to early November for the New York City area.

I hope things are going relatively well for Poland these days.

Normal stuff - incompetent government, scandals, record inflation.
Otherwise it's safe and calm.
The war in Ukraine still worries me because of the Ukrainians but likelihood it would reach here is negligible now.
And I like that Ukrainians have come. They're introducing more social life to our cities, especially parks and playgrounds are fluorishing thanks to them. There are two little boys on our patio, both Russian-speaking Ukrainians. First they played together and now there's a whole band formed around them (my daughters are members), drawing with chalk, riding bicycles and playing life action Among Us

Your mostly right. Boston though hits peak about the 3rd week in October. Most of the leaves tend to be down by Halloween in Boston and points north.

Poland's done well with the influx of immigrants. I haven't heard anything negative at all. It's impressive. I did read last week maybe that a lot immigrants are starting to return home and that they are waiting 2 to 3 days to cross the border.

I live away from the border so I won't tell you details but recently the numbers were like 20 000 crossing from Ukraine to Poland and 26 000 from Poland to Ukraine every day. That's only slightly above the pre-invasion numbers. The stream of returns is slow and steady, well-distributed over time. The crossings are generally busy but I think small traffic is not a problem.
Cargo traffic is a problem, trucks wait in really long queues and something has to be done with it because of the grain problem.
Luckily, the one minister in our government who tends to be effective (I may not like other things about him but effectiveness is his strenght) has been designated to adress it, so hopefully it improves.

There are times in the US when people really act the fool when it comes to immigrants....

Yes I also want to see the northern lights

We're not saints, either, but:
1. current situation in Ukraine is understandable even for the most ignorant folks here;
2. once the immigrant is not some anonymous statistics but your flesh-and-blood neighbour, getting rid of prejudices becomes way easier;
3. maybe this is also important: most of the Ukrainians who have fled wish to return - and, as a state, we're doing what we can to help ensure they have their place to return. The current vision for post-war setup is close Polish-Ukrainian cooperation with easy flow of people, goods and businesses.

I think when migration politics, foreign policies and popular support align, it makes it way easier for both the migrants and the hosts to adapt.

Let's be honest. There is a bit of tribalism and common history that affects the acceptance of Ukranians as immigrants. Ukranians are also Slavs and Eastern European. Their lifestyle and customs are similar enough that they assimilate quite easily into Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries. Also the common history being behind the iron curtain, helps solidify the need to help and prevent the curtain from falling again.

Yep.
This familiarity effect works both ways - Poland is generally unpopular among immigrants with an exception of former Soviet states, both Slavic and Central Asian. The point is, we're "the nearest part of the West" for them. Maybe poorer than those further West but easier to adapt.

And the current situation in Ukraine is very, very relatable to our own history.

As a reference: Although the way the Japanese treat Chinese and Korean immigrants is certainly considered to be not friendly, it is still far better than the way they treat Southeast Asians.

It belongs to the same cultural circle and the same pan ethnic group.
These immigrants may be difficult to confuse with immigrants in North America.

The Japanese failed miserably when they tried to sell their idea of an Asian co-prosperity sphere in the 1930s. Everyone in South East Asia knew even back then what arrogant (and dangerous) imperialists Japanese were.

BTW the Chinese community in south East Asia has also been targeted due to their propensity to act like colonists. Even in Thailand where they form the largest expatriate community of Chinese in the world, A large proportion of the Thai population are of Han descent.

In the 19th century the Chinese language was becoming pre-eminent and so in the early 20th century Plaek Phibunsongkhram launched a massive Thaification, the main purpose of which was Central Thai supremacy, including the oppression of Thailand's Chinese population and restricting Thai Chinese culture by banning the teaching of the Chinese language and forcing Thai Chinese to adopt Thai names. Plaek's obsession with creating a pan-Thai nationalist agenda caused resentment among general officers (most of Thai general officers at the time were of Teochew background) until he was removed from office in 1944.

Since then the manipulation of Thailand to be pro-China continues and China will likely slowly absorb Thailand. This serves as a lesson for the rest of South East Asia.

^The issue of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia is quite complicated. They seem to resemble the Jewish position in Europe.
The colonial era, which deliberately created ethnic antagonism, intensified the contradictions, and the Chinese ethnic group usually acted as the "manager" - which left resentment against the Chinese ethnic group after the white colonists left.

Here are two important events that I am familiar with:
Pembantaian di Indonesia 1965–1966 Incidentally, this incident was supported by the United States.
May 1998 riots of Indonesia

Based on the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, (and weakness), the PRC did not have an obvious response to these two events at that time, nor did it publicly mention these histories.
This is one of the reasons why the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia are not very close to PRC.

In addition to Singapore and Malaysia, other Southeast Asian countries' contemporary practices towards ethnic Chinese all can be called cultural genocide to some extent. If anyone really cares about ethnic Chinese/genocide instead of using these things as geopolitical tools.


But Southeast Asia's feelings for Japanese imperialism are a more complex topic. Not all Southeast Asian countries are unhappy with them - indeed, even more are not.

Colonists of the same race were better than colonists of whites, perhaps. This is indeed Japan's war excuse in the 20th century: to liberate the yellow people from the white people. Some "liberated people" bought it.
Objectively, The Japanese military action in Southeast Asia was more aimed at the colonial regime than the local people, and Japanese did seem to have reestablished the local order, which eventually led to their independence from the colonists.(although the Chinese and Koreans would certainly not share their views.)
Aung San, Father of the Nation of modern-day Myanmar, is a learner of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The only independent country, Thailand, was a de facto ally of Japan at that time.

It's interesting you mention Su Chi in Burma, The military junta in Burma have overthrown her again. Like Thailand Burma is very receptive to China.

I would say that PRC and every Southeast Asian country have some awkward and subtle relations. Therefore, the cooperation between the PRC and them is more carried out at the level of ASEAN than individual countries.
Each of them will have a long story to tell, and a considerable part of it will be beyond my knowledge.

However, as far as I know, the northern part of Myanmar has long tricked or even directly kidnapped Chinese citizens for forced prostitution, ransom, forced labor, etc. Police in China's relevant border provinces have been issuing warnings to local citizens.
The warlords in the Golden Triangle region supported the war with drugs, which made the Chinese anti drug police often break out violent conflicts with them.