First of all, Polish is a very hard language to learn, the first day of classes felt like an eternity and I barely understood anything we were learning. But the days that followed it got easier and easier. At the end of the first week we had a test, it was on Thursday. I actually did really well on it, I've always been good at tests. So sadly I was put in the most advanced group, which is much harder. I made a very important realization, I am a lot better at universal languages like math than I am at foreign languages.
But at the same time as that I've met all the other exchange students, most being from the US or Brazil but we have one from Canada, one from Argentina, two from Taiwan, and a handful from Mexico. Most of them are really nice, and it was good to see people who didn't mind me speaking a lot of English. I've learned a lot about different cultures here, and it is really interesting to see the different ideas, morals, and behaviors from each of the different countries. One of the best things is being able to sit down with someone and discuss what someone's country is like and how it is different from your stereotypical impressions of the country. Hell, even with all the Mexicans in Arizona, I've learned a lot about Mexico while being here.
We go on a bunch of little field trips to see different things. One of them was to a monastery on a national Polish holiday, one of the only 12 times every year that women are allowed to enter the monastery. It was really nice, I took a bunch of pictures but there I realized that my camera was dying, so from that point on I have had to take pictures by turning my camera on and then quickly turning taking a picture and turning it back off. The coolest thing about the monastery though was a room where you can stand in one corner and whisper and a person in the opposite corner of the room can hear you as if your were standing right behind them.
We spent some time at a Polish mall in Krakow, where I bought some clothes and realized that even Burger King tastes better in Poland. I think they actually use beef in their burgers here, and they are big enough to actually be called Whoppers. I made my host sister, who is basically an RA here, teach me how to use a Polish ATM, which was sadly harder than it should have been.
We saw a really depressing Polish move about a kid who becomes depressed and kills himself at the end, I'm about to watch another and even though they said it won't be a sad movie, after the crappy movie they showed us, I will never trust films made in Poland again. That really was the worst part of Language Camp so far.
And lastly we had a dance, before supper we all showed dances from our countries, and learned two Polish dances, one was a very formal one that are used at Polish "proms" on the entrance where you basically walk around in beat, and the other is a really fun one where you jump around in a circle and send the girls around the circle to dance with each guy.
With all the fun stuff explained I should tell you about my schedule here. I usually wake up at 7:00 AM, which since I'm 9 hours ahead of Arizona is probably about 10:00 PM where you are, go back to sleep until one of my roommates gets out of the shower at about 7:30, 10:30, and then I shower, get dressed, and go to first breakfast at 8:23, 11:23. From here I have class at 9:00, 12:00AM, and second breakfast starts at 10:30, 1:30, and I go back to class at 10:50, 1:50. This second class lasts until 12:20PM, 3:20, and I have a fifteen minute break. At 12:35, 3:35, I go back to class until 1:20, 4:20. After this we have free time at 2:00, 5:00, until 3:00, 6:00, when we have to study. I get all of this done before most of you even consider waking up. From there we have random activities until supper and then after supper we have random activities to make sure we don't have too much free time. We'll finish just before 10:00, 1:00, and be in bed by 11:00, 2:00. So basically I finish my whole day before anyone is out of school in Arizona.
The Monastery
The View from Polish Language Camp
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