Mishella's Exchange stories in POLAND

Stories from International Summer Semi Camps 2011 


Gimnazjum Bielawa

Friday July 1st, 2011.

Hello July. I start my first July of this year far from my home. And yes, Friday was the last day of my ‘teaching time’ at Gimnazjum Bielawa (pronounced: gimnasyum bylava). Gimnazjum is a Junior High School in Poland. I’ve been here three days since I came from Wrocław (pronounced: vrootswaf) on Tuesday.

First day at school, the teacher took me to the swimpool because it’s summer. School started at 9 am here and for summer season, 9 am it’s very early, just like 7 am in Indonesia. We spent like 4 hours for SUNBURN, and it was like HELL for me. I really got tanned there.

Oh ya, here I lived in hostfam. And the hostfam is one of the teacher in school. Her name is Renata, she’s very kind. In Poland, if you stay at Polish family, you will treated as a king. This is my assumption after three days staying at her place and I guess it will be the same until the next two days. One more, because the project is kind of summer semi camps, so I’ve got to move to a different small city each week. And Bielawa it’s my first city.

At night, my hostfam took me to climb the mountain, fiuuuuh.. It’s TOTALLY COOOOOLD. And the forest, it’s really different. Yeah, it’s European forest. Pine everywhere. The Park name is PARK KRAJOBRAZOWY GÓR SOWICH. On winter, the park become a ski place. Oh ya, the region name for this park is in Jugów.

And point that I learn here was, when you raise a partner to become your TN, the TN should provide the accommodation. So it’s very interesting because beside school activities here I also learn few Polish family culture. First, I thought I will live in a dorm, but is not. And yeah, I totally enjoy my first week here. I also start to feel my ‘culture shock’ things here, but never mind. I just want to enjoy the process and always think positive here. And for sure, always open your mind and be careful, because you never know what’s going happen next when you far away from home.

Second day at school, still fun. The school had already organized a “forest trip”. So I join them with this trip. Felt like sound of music. One of the student, Angelica, she brought a guitar and singing all the time. At the forest, we had barbecue time.

And the last day at school, I had my presentation about Indonesia. It’s fun because I brought ‘congklak’ and the kids really loves it. They played it for almost 4 hours, each of them try to play it.

Do widzenia! -mishel






3 workplace: Swiebodzice, Wroclaw, Bielawa



Hello again.
I’m sorry I just update my story now, because the internet problem and the activities here. I’ll divide my report into 3 part, because since my last report, I’ve been work in 3 different place.
1. Swiebodzice
I came here on Sunday July 3rd, 2011. I didn’t expect anything because there’s a small problem when I had to transfer from Bielawa to Swiebodzice. But everythings clear on the next day.
I worked in Miejski Dom Kultury w Swieboziach, which was the Cultural Center in Swiebodzice. I worked as an instructor (that was they called), I had a presentation about Indonesia for 45 minutes, to 4 groups which have different age level. Lucy me, the weather was really nice there. It’s totally different from Bielawa, with the coldy, rainy and windy. The kids always hug me every morning each time I came to the hall before the session started.
And the instructor there was really kind and very nice. They introduce me to the city, and to another city which only 30 minutes from Swiebodzice, like Walbrzych and Swidnica. And they invite me to Polish birthday and family dinner. I’ve great time with them.
The funny thing was, If the kids want to speak with me, they start to bring dictionary. It was their idea. Me and the other instructor never gave some direction like that. But I feel really glad because they were curious and have a will to learn something new, even the language were the obstacles, but they really happy to learn.
And also the owner of the hostel where I lived, she always asked me anything. She always worried about me.
I feel great here. I really want to come back to this city someday 
2. Wroclaw
Wroclaw is the 3rd largest city in Poland and in 2016, this city will be Europe Capital Culture. That’s why you will meet a lot of campaign about Wroclaw 2016 here.
First day here, it was like a hell for me. Because I used to live in small city like Bielawa and Swiebodzice, and now I’ve to live in the city. I couldn’t remember how many trams or bus should I take to go to the center of the city. Thanks to Dwi Sasetyaningtyas who taught me to use the trams and show me ‘how to enjoy wroclaw’ 
I arrived in Wroclaw on Sunday afternoon July 10th, 2011. I lived in dorm which belongs to Wroclaw University of Technology. And there’s not much people stay there because it’s summer holiday. It was like quiet everyday. Even the AIESECers, thy went for holiday. The next day, one staff from the reception team of AIESEC Wroclaw, taught me to use the tram and the way to go to my workplace. Here, I taught Indonesian culture in private English school like LIA or EF in Bandung. The name is, In English-language School. This school has summer program for kids where they could learn English and also culture and history about another country.
I don’t find any difficulties in here because the owner of the school speaks English very fluently. And also, I can learn many thing here from the Indonesian who work and stay in Wroclaw for almost 3 years. They taught me anything about polish customs, culture, anything.
Well I could say, it’s totally different to live in the big city and small city. In big city, you can find a lot of museums, theatre, shopping centre, transportation and many events
there. And the people also very warm and open to someone new. They don’t afraid to ask me, even the kids.
Mostly the kids age here are between 6-14. Because I taught in private English school, so the kids already have the basic English words like animals, colors, and many things.
On the last day in Wroclaw, I met another EP who work in the same project like me. There were Anna from Ukraine and Thao from Vietnam. The next week I’m in Bielawa again, Anna will replace me in Wroclaw. And Thao, she still has free weeks before working in Swiebodzice.
3. Bielawa
I don’t know what’s going on with this city. Each time I came here, always rainy, coldy and windy. And today temperature is 12,5°C. it’s the minimum temperature that I’ve ever had in my life.
Last time in Bielawa, I worked at Gimnazjum nr 1 Bielawa, it’s junior high school in Bielawa. And now, I worked at Szkola Podstawowa nr 10 w Bielawie. I arrived here on Sunday, July 17th 2011. This school is primary school. The kids age is between 6-13.
Here, the school put an information about Indonesia and Ukraine in the information board in each floor, because they only have summer school for two weeks.
People here are very nice. But sometimes, I couldn’t stand with them if they asked me to eat a lot. I couldn’t eat something with polish portion here. It’s very big, and sometimes I wanna throw up. I explained to them that I could eat with my portion and they don’t have to prepare meals for me because I could do it by myself. But it didn’t work.
In polish culture, if you’re the guess in polish family, don’t expect to cook or clean your room by yourself. You will treat like a king or queen. I try to speak with them and they start to understand even from the smallest thing.
That’s all I could share. I will try to share with pictures later, because I left my camera in Wroclaw 