Polish Experience Scholarship
Katarina Gelke
August 2010

Spending three weeks in Toruń, Poland, was a life-changing experience. I learned to live in a different country,
completely immersed in a different culture. I met people from all over the world, and I had the chance to really
learn about my Polish heritage by living in a Polish city.

This was my first trip to Poland, and even from the start, it was very different from any of my other trips to Europe.
The first thing I noticed is that there were a lot less people who spoke English, and when I arrived, I knew only a
few words of Polish. With my limited Polish, I was a little nervous to arrive at the Nicholas Copernicus University
in Toruń for my class, after spending a week in Warsaw with my family. However, the first evening, we had an
introductory meeting with all 80 people in the program. The meeting explained the basics of what the next three weeks
would be like, and put me a little more at ease. Plus, I already made some friends.

The following morning, we began our classes at Collegium Maius, only a five minute walk from our dorms. 
The teachers were all very welcoming and friendly, and our group of 80 was divided into five groups based on language ability.
I was in the first group, along with another PHSR student, Ryle, and about ten other students from countries all over
the world, including Argentina, France, Ukraine, and Russia. Each day, we had three different classes in areas
including phonetics, conversation, and grammar. All of our teachers were wonderful; they did a great job of building up
our language skills with a number of different activities. After class, everyone ate lunch together at the student
dining hall. As part of the cultural component of the program, almost every afternoon there was a cultural activity
to attend. The first of these was a tour of the entire Old Town. The town is well-preserved, and a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, so everything was beautiful. It felt like I was walking back through time when we reached the town square.

Other cultural activities included trips to the Planetarium, Polish dance lessons, theater workshops, and trips to the
different museums around town, including the Ethnography Museum, which is a recreated version of all different parts of
the town's history. It showcase the homes in which people lived during all of these times. Another cultural activity
which I enjoyed was the trip to the Gingerbread Museum. Toruń is famous for its "pierniki," a special type of gingerbread
which is produced in the town. During our trip to the museum, we not only learned its history, we also had the chance
to make our very own gingerbread.

The program also really tried to help all of the students get to know each other beyond just the students from our own
nations. They hosted a number of social events during the evenings, including a Night of Nations, where every country made
a presentation about an interesting part of their culture. It was interesting to see such a number of different
presentations by students from countries as diverse as Sweden, Ireland, China, Moldova, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and more.

After about a week and a half of class, the teachers decided that it was time to put our language skills to the test.
One morning instead of class, we were partnered with students from a different language level than our own and sent
out into the city with a map on a scavenger hunt for questions to answer in order to win a prize. At first, this was
difficult because my partner spoke no English and I barely spoke Polish, but through some teamwork and creativity,
we made the partnership work. In fact, we won second prize overall, and there were actually students from Rochester in
the first place and third place teams as well.

Each weekend, there were sponsored trips to nearby Polish cities. The first weekend, we visited Gdańsk and Sopot,
and the second weekend we visited Poznań and Gniesno. My favorite was the first trip to Gdańsk and Sopot. After arriving
in the picturesque city of Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea, we had a group tour (both in Polish and English) of the city.
We saw all of the different historical sites in the town, including Lech Walesa’s office, the Basilica of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and more. After our tour, we had some free time to shop for the city’s famous amber jewelry
and explore more. The second part of that day's trip was to Sopot, an old town right on the Baltic Sea famous for its spas.
It was a gorgeous day, and my new friends and I took advantage of the great weather to swim in the Baltic Sea.
Our trip to Poznań and Gniesno the next weekend was also exciting. We had the chance to see the oldest doors in Poland
on the famous cathedral in Gniesno and learn the town's history, and we also had time to explore the old town of Poznań.

My three weeks in Toruń went by very quickly, and it was a truly memorable experience and the opportunity of a lifetime.
We had a beautiful graduation ceremony on the last day, complete with Polish theater performances by our fellow students,
and it was difficult to say goodbye to all of my new friends. It was wonderful to have the chance not only to become better
friends with my fellow students from Rochester, but to also be able to meet students from all over the world. I've been
keeping in touch with my new friends via Facebook, and I’m even hoping to visit a few of them in Croatia next year when
I study abroad through college. This experience was incredible because I really had the chance to immerse myself in Polish
culture in a way I could not have done by simply taking a class on it or reading a book about it. I am very grateful to
the PHSR for giving me this incredible opportunity, the memories of which will last forever.