Patryk Grzebien
Torun 2010

The Torun experience was a great learning opportunity about Poland and 
it made my summer. I walked away with greater appreciation of polish 
culture and understanding of Polish language. The Nicolaus Copernicus 
University is located in the center of a historical and picturesque 
district of the Old City. The dormitories were located five minute walk 
from our main lecture building. The dorm rooms were very spacious and 
clean. Overall I was pleased with the facilities that were provided. 
Everybody taking the course had been located in the same building. There 
were two people per room which were large and equipped with a desk, 
drawer, comfortable bed, shelves and a big closet. The food was 
distinctly polish, with generous portions and home cook feel. The meal 
usually consisted of a soup and a main course. The dinner and breakfast 
were good times to talk to your fellow foreign students and discus our 
plans for the day and classes before we all had to split in to groups.

The classes were organized around five different competency levels. I 
can’t comment on the other classes but at my level the lessons were 
interesting and the teachers showed real effort and enthusiasm in their 
program. There were phonetics classes, grammar, and syntax. We also had 
a presentation about Poland’s history as well polish society which was 
very informative and a good complement to language classes. The 
professors used diverse methods to help learn the complexity of the 
polish language. For example we played games like charades; we used 
props, had played board games using polish words, and sung songs in 
Polish to help us pronounce words better. All this and more was of 
course supplemental to the daily classes of taking notes and listening 
to the lectures. The classes were from nine to two in the evening and 
the rest of the time was designated for cultural activities or for a 
free time for us to explore the city and enjoy the summer weather.

If the food provided in the cafeteria was not for you, or you just 
wanted to grab a quick bite between classes there were many great 
restaurants and shops to do so. My friends and I found a great cafe 
owned by an American and his polish wife. The staff there spoke English 
(not that it was a problem in Torun since a lot of people spoke English 
and we knew some Polish) so it was easy to communicate. They had the 
most amazing Paninis as well as burritos and excellent mint lemonade. 
The restaurants around the old market square had menus in Polish as well 
as English so you always knew what you got. For me, the old town was a 
regular stop to get some ruskie pierogi, or a max kebab before a night out.

One of the more fun things we did and as a nice break from classes were 
the tours organized by the university. The first was to Gdansk and 
Gdynia. We walked around the well preserved old town and had enjoyed 
gorgeous day at the beach and a quick dip in the Baltic Sea. Fallowing 
week was a trip to the first historic capital city of Gniezno- a center 
of polish state in its early days. From there we went to Poznan and 
walked around the city, did some sightseeing but quickly gave up because 
of extreme heat that pushed our group in to air conditioned mall. 
Besides these trips we also had a chance to explore Torun, a beautiful, 
historical city which is part of UNESCO’s World heritage List. The home 
of the famous astronomer and mathematician Copernicus dates back to 1233 
and its wonderful gothic architecture created a feel of authenticity. 
The scavenger hunt around the city as well as the tour provided through 
the program made the experience even more memorable. I stayed for only 
two weeks and wish I picked the three week course.

The course is designed to help you communicate but you get much more 
than that. Other skills that you gain is reading comprehension, 
listening, and writing and grammar skills as well as throughout 
understanding of polish culture. One of the best experiences was taking 
the classes and hanging out with people from around the world which 
really helps to increase your appreciation of cultural diversity. It was 
definitely one of the best experiences of my life and definitely made it 
the best summer ever. I would highly recommend this course to anyone no 
matter how old or young. In retrospect I believe I learned a lot more 
from this two weeks course than from taking a semester in college. Not 
only as a matter of speaking polish but as a cultural aspect as well.

During my stay in Poland the world cup was taking place and everybody 
fallowed it with great excitement. It was a topic of almost every after 
class discussion. Even the girls took interest in it. We walked around 
Torun to try to find free seats with the best view of TV screens. It was 
an event where nations from around the world competed in a universally 
appealing and beloved sport of soccer. As I looked around the big table 
my classmates and I were sitting at I realized that this experience in 
Torun is similar to the event taking place in South Africa. We all came 
to Poland in order to learn polish language and culture and have a good 
time. What made this experience unique was that it had brought a diverse 
group of individuals, from countries like Germany, Croatia, Ukraine, 
Russia, Czech Republic, USA, Canada, and even China and let them 
appreciate polish culture in a way that was fun, dynamic and meaningful.

One of the fondest memories that I had from Torun was sitting at the 
fountain with newly made friends late at night and watching the light 
show coordinated with classical music and water jets. I remember all of 
us running through the middle of the fountain. That memory will stay 
with me forever. I would definitely recommend this to any one that once 
to learn about Polish culture and I will encourage my younger sister to 
do it when she is old enough.