Week 4: Personal (05/03/12 - 11/03/12)

I’ve bought countless amounts of lottery tickets, placed football bets, and even entered silly television competitions. I’ve done them all, and I never win!!! So you can imagine my surprise when I won a bottle of vodka in a raffle at a nightclub this week! So personally, this week has been epic! Having said this, I feel I should write more than this regarding my personal experiences this week, so here goes…..

Struggling with my Polish book

With this being our 4^th week in Poznan, I am slightly disappointed with our lack of progress in communicating with the locals. I would like to think of myself as a fairly quick learner, so I am becoming more and more frustrated with our futile attempts to learn the language. By this stage, I would like to have been able to begin understanding different conversations that the Polish people address us with, but I still have that blank look on my face and it is getting embarrassing. Because of this, I have made it my goal to study hard at the language and seeing as we have been told that we have TWO Polish exams next week, I don’t think I really have a choice but to study! Luckily, there are quite a lot of Erasmus students who are struggling, so we try and gather safety in numbers when we enter shops or restaurants.

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”  Brian Tracy

International School of Poznan

This week, I have felt more at home in Poznan. With our classes in full swing, a good bunch of friends made, all that was left to do was organise our placement. This can now be ‘checked’ off the list, as on Thursday, we travelled to the ‘International School of Poznan.’

From the moment we entered the building, I got a fantastic vibe from the school. The teachers seem fun; the classrooms are colourful and welcoming and compared to schools back home in Northern Ireland, there are plenty of male teachers I can talk to. This means I can get a good male perspective of teaching and living in Poznan rather than the usual female talk I would get in the staffrooms back in Belfast!

Deliciouly thick hot chocolate

As I have mentioned, we have made a good group of friends. I feel that with every passing day spent with these people, I am becoming more culturally aware of different things ranging from their personal beliefs to what type of food they eat! I am confident that this experience will grow stronger and will benefit me professionally as well as personally. Meeting our new friends also gives us a chance to visit the many cafés Poznan has to offer, and this week, we came across a delicious ‘chocolate’ café, which needless to say, raised our calorie count by a significant margin!

Traditional polish food

I got to play my first game of football this week, and although I began a bit ‘rusty,’ I finished the game strongly and have not given up hope of being called up to the Ireland football squad for this summer’s tournament (pause for laughter). As well as this, I have also been asked to take part in the Erasmus Olympic team and represent Poznan. I naively agreed to this without asking any questions, and only found out after, that as well as playing football, I also have to compete in volleyball, running events and swimming, which I am not looking forward to. I only hope I remembered to pack my Speedos!

Next week, as well as beginning our placement, I will have my first visitor as my girlfriend is staying for the weekend. This coincides with St. Patrick’s Day, so I think it’s about time I brought some Irish culture to Poznan!