Erasmus+: We Are The Same (WAS), Poland

This is not the kind of posts I normally write, but this morning I realized that today is Easter! so I wanted to share with you my experience in Poland and what I learned there.

Erasmus logo

Small Intro

The project involved four European countries: Poland, Italy, Norway, Netherlands; it started on the 7^th of April 2019 and lasted for six days; its main goal was to let participants find similarities with students from different countries and different urban areas (rural vs urban), hence the name "We Are The Same". The host country was, obviously, Poland; we stayed in the countryside. I can't publish photos that are not mine, in order to preserve the privacy of the participants.

Polish Team

They were about 15, they were very friendly and outgoing, although they didn't master English at all, in fact, there was just one guy who could speak fluently English.
My "partner" (the guy who hosted me at home) was Szymon, he looked a little creepy at first (I confess I was scared, really...), we weren't able to communicate much since he speaks a very "personal" English, but with some time we started getting on well.

Italian Team

It was for sure the funniest group and I was part of it, it was composed of three boys named Francesco and one Valeria, a girl.
Personally, I didn't feel like I belonged to them much, I used to speak mostly with the Norwegian Simen, the polish Matteuz and the dutch Frysio (I don't know how to properly write his name...).

Norwegian Team

They were very friendly to me and I think this was the team I liked the most.
They were all blonde boys who loved alcohol as a religion, their favorite hobby is drinking along with hanging out with girls (and that's what they did all the time).
They were the best at English: I was really impressed. They taught me some party dances they do and shared with me an amazing Norwegian song; you have to dance it just by shaking your head up and down continuously.

Dutch Team

It consisted of three girls (one had an impossible name to pronounce and was the tallest) and a very shy dude.
Carmen was, by far, the most "desired" girl of project, she was outgoing and beautiful; many tried, but only one won... He was a polish guy: Adam.
All of them were my friends, especially the mysterious Frysio and the fascinating Carmen.

The Place

It was cold!! Once I woke up and looked out the window: it was snowing (it's uncommon where I live), then I went outside with pajamas... I was so stupid, I never experienced that cold before.
In Poland, away from cities, there is a lot of nature to see; the first time I saw this scenery I was on a bus and I noticed that the predominant colors were the green of the grass, the yellow of the reeds and the brown and gray of trees, sometimes there was the blue of rivers, furthermore the traditional houses used the same colors, it looked beautiful to me.
We stayed in the countryside of Piotrków Trybunalski, but we moved many times.

Easter traditions

A very old Christian tradition is the Palm Sunday, which is celebrated with palm branches.
In Poland, people don't use palm but willow branches because palms aren't indigenous of Poland, so they invented a "fake palm", it is called Palma wielkanocna (Easter palm).
It is made of willow branches with many decorations, it is colorful and has got a good smell.

Easter palms with little Santa's little helpers

In Easter, they use to eat the Angel Wings, that is a very common sweet in many European countries, a kind of soup with eggs and meat (it was good) called Żurek and the traditional Easter lamb.

My Żurek, or what is left of it...

I got to know two traditions based on eggs.
The first: you have to empty some eggs without breaking the eggshell, I can't do that but I think they use a syringe... Then you use some paper and glue to make decorations.

My egg on the left and Simen's on the right

The second: you have to take a styroform egg, paint it as you want (most people painted their own flag), then spear it in the middle with a spike of wood.

Unfortunately I had no spikes... But I had a pen!

People

One thing you should always keep in mind when you get to know new people is that if most of them behave the same you can't claim a priori that ALL people behave like that, so you (as me in this post) can judge only what you experienced but you can't reach an unconditioned verdict.
With this in mind, I can proceed.

People in Poland drink a lot.
No, seriously, people drink every time they go out. It's funny because in Poland it's illegal to drink in public places, so usually they hide alcoholic drinks inside bottles, cartons of juice or water and in other seeming normal containers.
If someone sees a police car, all are asked to run or at least to hide their alcohol.

Poles smoke a lot...
Yes, it's true. Almost everyone I knew there smokes regularly, I hate smoking, still, I smoked once there, a little.

A normal polish cigarette

Conclusion

What can I say?
It was an amazing experience, I learned a lot, I made new friends that I will never forget; now I know for sure that Poland is an amazing country!

...AND HAPPY EASTER!

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P.S. This post was made especially for @anhvu.
Unfortunately its publication was delayed because I hadn't enough Resource Credits...

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