4 | Few Days of Orientation
Hello! Well it has been three days and not much has changed, but in a way a lot has!
For starters: I have registered my residency with the Polish government. A couple of people told me it wasn't important, but then a student from Indonesia told me that it was simple. I figured if it wasn't going to be a hassle, I may as well do it just in case. Well, this guy, Jason, agreed to take me after Orientation on Wednesday. HA! The office closes at 3pm. So, I planned to go today, Thursday, because there were only optional things in the afternoon for my group of students. I met a student who is from Germany, but his mom is Polish so he speaks Polish. Oddly he seems to really love taking people to this municipal office as he had taken a lot of the Asian students there and helped them through the process. He offered to take me, and I was psyched, because I was honestly quite nervous about it even though Jason had shown me where the building is. Well a second HA! Because I forgot my passport. I had made copies of my passport and my visa, but it was not enough! So I walked back to my apartment, got my passport, and then back to the office. The woman barely looked at my passport. Why I needed the original is beyond me, but whatever. I am now legally registered to live here! Yippee!
You probably are thinking "Oh that's great, Elizabeth. Now you can just focus on classes beginning on Monday." And to that I will give the third HA! of this post. I still have to get my schedule right and complete my Learning Agreement (which you have to have your complete schedule complete to do). I also have to do a very similar (but of course unique) GT version of this form. All of the other students are out clubbing now, and I am in my apartment doing laundry and filling out paperwork. A truly thrilling experience I can assure you.
On a happier note, someone told me today that apparently the classes in English are quite easy, because most of the professors' English isn't very good and they don't want to scare exchange students away. So that's the biggest highlight in my day.
Orientation began yesterday, and the mandatory events end tomorrow (although no one has ever taken roll, so I guess this is all based on the honor code). Yesterday by far had the most important events, such as picking up your student ID, receiving information about registration, a campus tour, and a quite long presentation from the city police.
Students are split into 6 groups based on their student ID numbers. I am in group 2. The first three groups had a Cross Cultural Workshop this morning, which, yes, you are probably thinking blergh that sounds awful, but it was surprisingly insightful. Georgia Tech requires that everyone going on an exchange attend a cultural workshop of sorts, but since we were all American, it was not as impactful. Actually speaking with students from different countries brings the conversations to a level that cannot be achieved with a room full of white, American college students. We did a speed dating of sorts, and just about every time I said I am from the United States people either say they have been or want to go. Like that is their first reaction. One guy from Singapore asked if Texas is really that crazy and conservative. A student from Russia asked me if where I live borders Texas. A French student got a burger at dinner called "Cowboy," and she made a joke about Texas. Why is everyone so interested in Texas? Why does everyone even KNOW about Texas? I met a Canadian student at the municipal office, and as the Polish speaking German was correcting his application, he saw I was from the United States and asked where I was from. I said Atlanta. He made a big smile and said "Ah, Atlanta, Georgia. You're a Georgia Peach." What???
So above are just the events from the real SGH Orientation. The student welcome group, Erasmus Student Network or ESN, also puts on their own set of Orientation week activities. This is better known as 7 days of clubbing. Why you may ask? I don't know. I don't really understand who could survive 7 straight days of clubbing. There are also usually some sort of more low-key evening events every night. Yesterday there was a Pub Quiz at a bar in the Financial District, which I and some new friends went to. We got second place. We lost by 1 point. After we learned that the winning group had to go in front of everyone to receive their prize (which was just a bottle of liquor), we felt better about losing. A girl on our team is from Myanmar and randomly decided to teach us all how to create paper cranes. In the bar. It was odd, but now I have a new decoration for my room!
The Russian student on our team wanted to go clubbing afterwards, but no one else was really feeling it (it was a Wednesday after all), so he gave in and decided to go to dinner with us instead. I think really the only people that thought it was dinner were the two French girls, because it was 10:30pm. I ate dinner before the Pub Quiz. Mama didn't raise no dummy. We eventually came upon a burger restaurant, which I was okay with, because I had already eaten and wasn't especially hungry. However, once I saw that they had a veggie burger AND cider, I got a full meal. It was honestly really tasty, and I learned today in the Cross Cultural Workshop that since Poland is one of the biggest producers of apples in the world ciders are fairly popular.
Tomorrow the mandatory events include a lecture called "How to Read Poland: a Crash Course on History and Culture" and a bus tour that will somehow last 4 hours. Also, it is currently 11pm and 22F, and it will somehow get colder next week! All of the Polish people that speak to us, keep saying "Well at least the sun is going to be out!" So ya, at least the sun will be out when it's 20F.
For starters: I have registered my residency with the Polish government. A couple of people told me it wasn't important, but then a student from Indonesia told me that it was simple. I figured if it wasn't going to be a hassle, I may as well do it just in case. Well, this guy, Jason, agreed to take me after Orientation on Wednesday. HA! The office closes at 3pm. So, I planned to go today, Thursday, because there were only optional things in the afternoon for my group of students. I met a student who is from Germany, but his mom is Polish so he speaks Polish. Oddly he seems to really love taking people to this municipal office as he had taken a lot of the Asian students there and helped them through the process. He offered to take me, and I was psyched, because I was honestly quite nervous about it even though Jason had shown me where the building is. Well a second HA! Because I forgot my passport. I had made copies of my passport and my visa, but it was not enough! So I walked back to my apartment, got my passport, and then back to the office. The woman barely looked at my passport. Why I needed the original is beyond me, but whatever. I am now legally registered to live here! Yippee!
You probably are thinking "Oh that's great, Elizabeth. Now you can just focus on classes beginning on Monday." And to that I will give the third HA! of this post. I still have to get my schedule right and complete my Learning Agreement (which you have to have your complete schedule complete to do). I also have to do a very similar (but of course unique) GT version of this form. All of the other students are out clubbing now, and I am in my apartment doing laundry and filling out paperwork. A truly thrilling experience I can assure you.
On a happier note, someone told me today that apparently the classes in English are quite easy, because most of the professors' English isn't very good and they don't want to scare exchange students away. So that's the biggest highlight in my day.
Orientation began yesterday, and the mandatory events end tomorrow (although no one has ever taken roll, so I guess this is all based on the honor code). Yesterday by far had the most important events, such as picking up your student ID, receiving information about registration, a campus tour, and a quite long presentation from the city police.
Demonstration by the police on how to fend off attackers
Students are split into 6 groups based on their student ID numbers. I am in group 2. The first three groups had a Cross Cultural Workshop this morning, which, yes, you are probably thinking blergh that sounds awful, but it was surprisingly insightful. Georgia Tech requires that everyone going on an exchange attend a cultural workshop of sorts, but since we were all American, it was not as impactful. Actually speaking with students from different countries brings the conversations to a level that cannot be achieved with a room full of white, American college students. We did a speed dating of sorts, and just about every time I said I am from the United States people either say they have been or want to go. Like that is their first reaction. One guy from Singapore asked if Texas is really that crazy and conservative. A student from Russia asked me if where I live borders Texas. A French student got a burger at dinner called "Cowboy," and she made a joke about Texas. Why is everyone so interested in Texas? Why does everyone even KNOW about Texas? I met a Canadian student at the municipal office, and as the Polish speaking German was correcting his application, he saw I was from the United States and asked where I was from. I said Atlanta. He made a big smile and said "Ah, Atlanta, Georgia. You're a Georgia Peach." What???
So above are just the events from the real SGH Orientation. The student welcome group, Erasmus Student Network or ESN, also puts on their own set of Orientation week activities. This is better known as 7 days of clubbing. Why you may ask? I don't know. I don't really understand who could survive 7 straight days of clubbing. There are also usually some sort of more low-key evening events every night. Yesterday there was a Pub Quiz at a bar in the Financial District, which I and some new friends went to. We got second place. We lost by 1 point. After we learned that the winning group had to go in front of everyone to receive their prize (which was just a bottle of liquor), we felt better about losing. A girl on our team is from Myanmar and randomly decided to teach us all how to create paper cranes. In the bar. It was odd, but now I have a new decoration for my room!
My crane!
Entrance to SGH building A - a lot of the buildings are pink
Tomorrow the mandatory events include a lecture called "How to Read Poland: a Crash Course on History and Culture" and a bus tour that will somehow last 4 hours. Also, it is currently 11pm and 22F, and it will somehow get colder next week! All of the Polish people that speak to us, keep saying "Well at least the sun is going to be out!" So ya, at least the sun will be out when it's 20F.
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