Tydzien Dwa / Week Two: Cultural (20.02.2012 - 26.02.2012)

One of the reasons I decided to apply for Erasmus was because I wanted to experience living in a different culture. Over the past week I have really been able to do this. Not only have I experienced more of the culture here in Poland, but I am also gaining an insight into the cultures of other countries, due to spending more time with Erasmus friends. We have decided that one way we will share our cultures is to cook for each other. Aina, from Catalonia, has been the first to do so, making ‘Pá amb tomáquet’ (bread with tomato) and ‘Truila de patates’ (potato tortilla) for us. Not only will this arrangement allow us to learn more about other cultures, but it will also help us to get to know each other better. As Tuesday 21^st was Pancake Tuesday, we were able to introduce this custom to our friends from countries such as Turkey, the Netherlands, Catalonia, Germany and Austria. I’m slightly ashamed to say we took the lazy option though and took them out for crepes rather than actually making them ourselves. Learning about other cultures and religions is something I have always found fascinating, so I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to learn about and experience them first hand.

One area of Polish culture I had been slightly anxious about before arriving was that of Polish cuisine. As a fussy vegetarian, I was aware that there would be limited options for me in a country where the food seems to centre around meat and cabbage. I was pleasantly surprised when some of us went to a Polish restaurant to sample the food there. Not only were there many vegetarian options, but the food tasted great too! There is also no shortage of fast-food chains such as McDonalds, Burger King and KFC, for those days when we’re not feeling particularly cultured. The price of meals in restaurants here has been a pleasant surprise for us, as often we are able to have a full meal for as little as £5! As well as having many restaurants and coffee shops, beer (piwo) and vodka (wodka) seem to be a very prominent part of Polish culture. Many people we have met here seem to have preconceptions that all people from Ireland love beer. In class, one lecturer was even advising us where to go to get the best beer!

Sampling some Polish delights

On Friday we met one of our lecturers for the first time, who will take us for two classes – ‘Education in Poland’ and’ Teaching Strategies in Early Childhood Education’. After hearing more about the modules, I am really looking forward to beginning these classes, particularly as we will be visiting Polish primary schools. Hopefully through these modules, and my internship in the International School of Poznan, I will be enabled to further my understanding of the variety of teaching styles used in other countries, as well as being able to compare and contrast these with schools in Northern Ireland. I am looking forward to beginning my school placement and starting classes properly as I feel that through doing this, I will be able to further develop my understanding of other cultures. Hollins (2008:5) highlights that, ‘Learning to teach in a culturally diverse society with students from different cultural and experiential backgrounds is a challenge.’ This Erasmus experience is something I feel will be particularly beneficial to me when I have my own class as I will have a clearer understanding of how to fully support learning in a multicultural environment.

This weekend it was the birthday of a French student, Cyrielle, so a group of fifteen Erasmus students decided to travel to Wrocław (apparently pronounced vrots-wav, not 'warclaw' as some of us had embarrassingly been pronouncing it...) for a few days. Wrocław is the fourth largest city in Poland and the architecture there is extremely beautiful. I found much of it to be similar to Poznan, particularly as they both have a main Rynek (square) which both cities seem to centre around. I enjoyed the opportunity to explore more of Poland and hope that this is something I will get to do more of over the next few months.

Wrocław Rynek

Some of the Erasmus group in Wrocław

Cześć,
DarÓma.

Reference:
Hollins, E. (2008) Culture in school learning: revealing the deep meaning, Routledge: New York.

Tydzien Jeden / Week One: Personal (14.02.2012- 19.02.2012)

Sitting in my new room in the Jagienka dormitory in Poznań, it is still hard to believe that this is now going to be my home until the summer. My last few days at home were filled with emotional goodbyes and a lot of mixed feelings on my behalf. While nervous and excited to find out what lay ahead for me in Poznań, it was difficult to say goodbye to loved ones and leave behind my life in Northern Ireland.

                                                               Home sweet home

Upon arrival at the airport in Poznań, Anna, Michael and I were greeted by our mentor, Natalia (the president of the Erasmus Student Network at our university) who has proved extremely beneficial in helping us adjust to life here. Without the help of Natalia we would have struggled a lot more than we did to deal with the numerous and often unexpected things which have needed sorted out during our first week here. One of the main challenges for me has been the language barrier, which I had not expected to be so prominent. While I had preconceptions about struggling to communicate effectively with Polish people in shops and restaurants, I had assumed that people working in the student dormitories and universities would be able to speak English. This has proved not to be the case, with the receptionists in our dormitory not speaking a single word of English. Thankfully, Natalia was able to help us get our keys and sign our contracts, but I am conscious that should issues arise throughout the next five months we may struggle to communicate these effectively.  Natalia also took us to our university building which is about fifteen minutes away from our halls by tram. Here we were able to pick up our student cards and sort out our travel passes which cost 40 Zloty (about £8) for one month and can be used on all forms of transport in Poznań. Unfortunately while at the university we discovered that we have not been registered for any classes as students are expected to email each individual lecturer in advance and ask to attend their classes, something which we had been unaware of. We have now emailed some of the lecturers and have so far been accepted in a class entitled ‘Teaching strategies in early childhood studies’ as well as a Polish language class. We are also expected to organise our placement in the International School of Poznań ourselves and will hopefully get this sorted within the next few weeks. This all came as quite a shock to me as at home registration at university is much more straightforward – perhaps we have been spoiled at Stranmillis!

                                                   Michael, me and Natalia in the snow!

I have found this week to be quite challenging as I have been feeling quite homesick, but I am hopeful that as time goes on I will begin to settle in more and become accustomed to life here. Towards the end of the week I was able to feel myself becoming a bit happier, particularly as after an afternoon spent ice skating with the other Erasmus students, we found a large shopping centre (Galeria Malta) where I was able to purchase things such as blankets and pillows to make my room feel a bit more homely. We are still trying to get used to the Polish currency, Zlotys, so at times it can be difficult to actually work out how much money we are spending. I am still undecided as to whether Poland is actually as cheap as many people believe it to be.

Being a native English speaker has made it easy when getting to know the other Erasmus students at Adam Mickiewicz University and many of them seem keen to meet ‘the Irish students’ which may be down to them wanting to improve their own English. Although this works out well for me, it makes me quite embarrassed at how arrogant we can be, comfortable in the knowledge that we do not need to try and learn other languages, assuming that others will simply speak English to us. I am looking forward to beginning classes next week which should hopefully help me feel more settled, as well as improving my currently non-existent Polish.                                                                                                

It is safe to say I am definitely not in my comfort zone anymore! 

                                                                  A welcome sight!