Tyas's Exchange Story in POLAND

Dwi Sasetyaningtyas, 18, AIESEC LC Bandung

Chemical Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology

AIESEC LC Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland

It was my own decision to join the internship program from AIESEC during summer 2011. I think i would be great if i could live far away from my comfrot zone to get some new experiences with people from different countries. I got two projects from AIESEC LC Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland. “Live and Learn” and “International Summer Semi Camps”. I love these projects, i got lovely new friends and family from them. Not only amazing experiences, I also had some obstacles in these projects and it made me learned how to deal with problems and being a problem solver.

“Live and Learn” – my first Project

I started my internship on June 2011. This project gave me chances to teach english and indonesian culture to children in some kindergartens in Wroclaw, Poland.  I worked here with just one Exchange Participant from Singapore, her name is Jay. But we worked in different kindergartens, and unfortunately we also lived in different place. This condition made me didn’t have much time to interract with Jay (the EP from Singapore), sometimes we had dinner together but not everyday because she lived far away from me. I also had a very nice EP Buddy, her name is Milena Lech, she helped me a lot, she took me around Wroclaw, we bought ice creams, we did a Barbeque etc. My OCP’s name is Michal, i didn’t have much time to spend together with him, but he also took me and jay around the city and gave us a city map. He introduced me to other exchange participants from ET program and then we become friends until the end of the projects. They are from Tunisia, China, Canada, Portugal, and USA. We spent great time together in Wroclaw or we travelled to some places on the weekend, for examples Prague and Krakow. 

 a photo of me, jay, some EP from ET’s program and my EP buddy, Milena.

A photo of me and EP from ET’s progam.

  My first kindergarten was amazing, i met very nice , smart and lovely students. They learned english very well , i taught them english with songs and games. The challenge here was no one speaks english, including the headmaster. So, it was really good experience to talk without words with Polish people.

A Photo of my first kindergarten students

In my second kindergartens the children are smaller, that’s why i had to make new materials for younger and smaller children. The teachers in my secon kindergarten speak english very well, we had really great time together with children.

A Photo of my second kindergarten students

I had some problems from this project. First time i came to the city i stayed in Milena’s flat for one night. Everything was nice until i knew that they haven’t paid my dorm. I thought everything should be done before i came to Poland, maybe there was some problems with the OCP and finance or others. After a week or more, the lady from my dorm got angry, she said that AIESEC hasn’t paid for the dorm. It was my first problem in this project. But, Milena and Michal took over the problem very well and the problem solved. Anothe problem i had was my OCP, Michal, suddenly stopped the project and asked me to move to another project for two weeks. In this new project i had to move to 2 other cities for 2 weeks and worked with new exchange participants from Ukraine and Vietnam. I knew about this changing of the project in very last time , so i had to prepare my self and prepare some materials for the summercamps. I took over this changing of the project very well.

“International Summer Semi Camps”-my second project

 This was my second project after “live and learnd” project. I had my OCP here, his name is Martin. In this project i worked with two nice girls. Anna the Ukrainian girl and Thao the vietnamese girl. 

A photo of me, Martin, Anna, Thao and staffs of the project

 Our first place to work was in Kamienna Gora, it’s about 2 hours by Bus from Wroclaw. We spent great time together with children in the camp and also we met very nice manager of the camp, her name is Magda. She and her family welcomed us very well. We shared our culture, food, religions, many things. Magda and her family always took us in different places after work. They took me, Anna and Thao went around the city, went to colorful lake near the city, a very nice church and they also took us to the mountain. Kamienna gora ‘s like my second home, and Magda’s family is like my second family. Thao and I also cooked our traditional foods for this family.

A photo of me, Anna, Thao and Magda’s family

For the children, i taught them english with tradtional games from Indonesia and english songs. I talked a lot of things about Indonesia everyday. We talked about Indonesian tourism, languages, foods and drinks, clothes, dances, etc. Even we played Angklung (a tradtional bamboo intrument from West Java, Indonesia) and traditional puppet called Wayang Golek very well. We went to miniatur park, rode horses, and other fun activities.

A photo of me and children in Kamienna Gora playing traditional game called Ular Naga

A photo of my students playing tradtional puppet called Wayang Golek

Actually i worked in Kamienna Gora for one week then i had to move to Olesnica, but unfortunately i wasn’t in a good condition in my very last day in Kamienna Gora, so i decided to stay in Kamienna gora for 2 days then moved to Olesnica. I felt bad that i couldn’t go to Olesnica on time and i couldn’t deliver all of my materials. But I still had really great time there with nice family and children.

 In Olesnica i stayed in the headmaster’s house. I had really great time with her daughter. Her name is Ola. Ola took me around the city and i also cooked indonesian food for Ola and her family. I taught Ola to play Congklak, a traditional game from Indonesia. My students and I also played Angklung in the school. We went to a swimming pool, we played a traditional game calles Gobak Sodor, we had a barbeque in the school, we made animals from special gel to make balloon (i brought it from Indonesia, it is made in Indonesia), etc. 

A photo of my students in Olesnica playing Angklung

A photo of me, my students and the headmaster.

I didn’t have any problems from this project, i only had so much fun with new family , new students and new friends here. Everything was great for me until i had to go back to Wroclaw and had my farewell with people there.

In the end, the internship is over, but friendship and experiences stay as an adoreable memory. I met really nice, great and inspiring people that i won’t forget in my life. This internship also gave me a chance to develop my self, improving my english, gaining my self confidence and learn how to interract with other people from different backgrounds and be a problem solver for my problems, futhermore, people’s problems. So, GO EXCHANGE! And have your own adorable life changing experience!!