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| *Travel Tips>>>Poland Travel Tips |
I am going on an exchange trip to Poland. Does anyone have any advice for me? |
Travel Info I am staying with a girl my age and her family for a month. I've exchanged emails with her, and talked to her on Skype. However, I still don't know much. What's it like to be there? How should I dress? What will be expected of me? What words and phrases do I really need to know? What kind of clothes should I bring? How is Poland different from the US? Travel Tips I spent the Fall 2006 semester studying in Krakow, Poland, and I traveled around Poland with my distant relatives that were also my hostfamily. I've been all around the world, and Poland is my favorite :) Polish people are generally helpful. If you ask someone for help on the street, they'll go out of their way to help you. It can look like they're unfriendly because they don't smile as much as we do, but don't let that fool you. They just don't put on a happy face when they don't have a specific reason to be smiling. If the salesgirl shows a Polish person a shirt that's clearly overpriced, one or both of them will say so. If you stand in a line in a grocery store or airport, you can sometimes be entertained by hearing everyone air their opinions. If the person at the counter is arguing with the salesgirl, they'll pick sides and root for their pick. It's just the Polish way. I love it. They use these little arguments and complaints as a way to make conversation with strangers. It's a reflection of the long period of communist tyranny, when people had to spend hours in line waiting to buy things and talked that way to pass the time. Also, Polish people use the word "no" the way that we use the word "yeah." I used to get worried that something was wrong when I'd hear my Polish "aunt" (host mom) talking on the phone and saying "no, no... no... NO!... no, no, no... no..." but it was really just her saying "yeah, yeah... yeah... YEAH!... yeah, yeah...", which is normal phone talk. Clothes in Poland are expensive, so don't plan on buying your whole wardrobe there. Bring an umbrella. Bring slippers, because walking around in bare feet or socks is seen as a sure way to get sick, but wearing your shoes inside the house might track in dirt. Regarding what to wear, the standards for modesty in Poland are similar to what they are in the US, so you can wear most of what you would wear here. There are a few exceptions though. Never leave the house in anything that could pass as pajamas, including drawstring pants or pants with silly patterns. Wearing your pajamas outdoors in Poland is as unthinkable as going out wearing only your underwear. Also, don't throw your wet hair into a ponytail and leave the house. Going out in wet hair would be seen as horribly, embarrassingly sloppy (unless it is braided or in a bun) and a guaranteed way to get sick. Hooded sweatshirts are also not good because they are sloppy and associated with young troublemakers. Only wear gym clothes (such as mesh shorts or basketball shorts) if you are actually in a gym. White socks are considered gym clothes only, and believe it or not people will be able to tell you are an American just by your white socks if you wear them for anything other than exercising. Other than those things (no wet hair, no gym shorts, no drawstring pants, no silly patterns, no hooded sweatshirts, no white socks), you can dress the way you normally would in the US. A GREAT phrasebook for Polish is made by Lonely Planet. I highly recommend you buy it before you leave and take it with you EVERYWHERE in Poland. I used several times every hour of every day except when I was asleep. I also bought a Polish-English dictionary while I was in Poland and had it with me every time my relatives and I sat down to meals together and when we watched TV. I learned so many things that way, and it helped me learn so many words that I otherwise would have forgotten to look up later. The edition I used: http://www.amazon.com/lonely-planet-poli... The brand new edition: http://www.amazon.com/polish-lonely-phra... A Yahoo Question I Answered Before On Poland and Religion: In Poland, Catholicism is patriotic. To be Polish is to be Catholic. If you are Polish, then you typically go to mass. Why? Because you are Polish!... not because you necessarily believe in the teachings of Catholicism. Surveys have shown that Polish Catholics and American Catholics have similarly "permissive" views on issues such as condom use, premarital sex, homosexuality, etc. Their opinions do go against the official teachings of the Catholic Church. Despite this, Polish Catholics do take their Catholic identity very seriously. Some studies show that 98% of the population of Poland identifies itself as Catholic, with 75% of the Polish population attending church weekly or more. Poland used to be a hugely multicultural place, but the Germans and the Russians each had their own plans for Poland, and none of those plans were friendly toward diversity. During the period of Communist occupation following WWII, going to church was a way to practice resistance to Russia and to show that Poland was its own country with its own people, and that it would not submit and be broken and made into a Soviet satellite state. This feeling only increased when the beloved Bishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, was chosen as Pope. Imagine it -- the people in Poland could not look to their home government because it was just a tool for the Russian Communists, but they could look to the leader of the Catholic Church and say "that's a good man, and he's one of us." When Wojtyla returned to Poland for the first time as Pope John Paul II, he was greeted by huge crowds, and it's estimated that fully one-third of the population turned out to see him in person along his journey. One-third!! Even some cloistered nuns, who typically would remain within convent walls and unseen by outsiders from their vows until their deaths, were permitted to leave their convents to greet Pope JPII! When the Polish people stood together in these huge crowds to greet the Pope, they looked around and realized, "Hey! Look how many of us there are! Poland is still strong! Surely we outnumber the Communists!" This feeling only grew, and as JPII made the world more aware of the plight of Poland and the hardship of life under occupation, the Polish people stepped up the resistance. You can read about the Solidarity movement, the demand for a church to be build in the "Socialist city of Nowa Huta", etc. At any rate, Catholicism and the Polish bid for independence are tied together. Poland became the first country to free itself from the iron curtain, and it did so without foreign intervention or armed conflict. Did the Church give them strength to do this? Yes, but not all of it was of a spiritual sort. A lot of that strength just came from the way that participating in Church allowed the Polish people to see that they weren't alone. I spent a semester studying in Poland, and I took two classes on Polish culture, and we discussed this sort of thing a lot. While in Poland, I lived with distant relatives. When my "aunt" found out that I was a Protestant, she asked if I celebrated Christmas. I think I was the first Protestant that they'd met in their lives. In Poland, it seems that people are either Catholic or agnostic/atheist... and a lot of the self-proclaimed Catholics are actually not very Catholic at all, and a lot of the agnostics and atheists still go to Mass weekly. 6-11-07 Note: Konnie M is so right about the ironing! How could I have forgotten? I can still picture my "aunt" setting up the ironing board in the living room so that she could watch TV while ironing creases into the bath towels. Don't bring your own iron, of course, but expect them to expect you to use theirs. If your hostmom does your laundry for you (and I'm guessing that she will at least offer to), you can expect her to return all of your clothes (including your pajamas) ironed and crisply folded. Others It's funny cos I'm English and I went to Otis in LA to study; well whilst I was there my friend who lodged with me back home went to Poland. She used to write to me remarking on the differences. They used to have to hang their butter out of the window, because they had no refridgeration; everyone was very cramped there. She said that the good thing was that she met and fell in love with an American named Sam! Meanwhile I was having a great time in LA......... (Sure miss it)! So good luck while you're there! BRING ME WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!(i can ship myself in a box) Where do you live in the US? Where are you going to be in Poland? You will be surprise, in a good way! I鈥檓 sure that the girl and her family will take good care of you. People in Poland are very hospitable. The weather could be similar to the weather in Boston, MA. Weather.com covers major cities in Poland, so you can check the weather forecast. You can dress the same way you dress in the US. The family will teach you 鈥渢hank you鈥?etc. in Polish when you get there, so I wouldn鈥檛 worry about that. Poland is not much different then US, especially if you there only for one month. Don鈥檛 worry much, just enjoy the trip! :-) It's really good to be there. Nice stores, apartments, you know those kinds of things. You should dress nicely. Almost no one wears sneakers. Don't wear shirts with American logos on them. Nothing is really expected from you. Don't turn over fish, if you eat it. It's a myth or something, that in Poland, you shouldn't turn over a fish because people believe that if you do a fisherman's boat will capsize. Know how to say; Hello, Goodbye, How are you, Good Night, Good Morning, Thank You and a lot of nice phrases. Again, bring nice clothes and dont overdress. Poland is almost the same, just different stuff! You need zloty (currency), credit cards (accepted at some tourist gift shops). Have a nice trip, and good luck in Poland. (By the way, where will you be in Poland?) Edit: Many people do not have dryers in Poland, they use a clothes line outside or inside. Also: You need a passport if going out of USA, and I believe other countries too. Bring the things you think you need. I've been there. Classy in Coach gave a great answer and I just want to add maybe one thing: iron your clothes while you're there. Whenever I'm in Poland (My husband is from Poland and we go visit his mother and brother and extended family every year.), I'm always getting looked at funny for not ironing our clothing...including our jeans! I hate ironing, and so I buy clothes that don't really require it, but they iron everything whether it needs it or not! I won't go out of the house all wrinkled like I just slept in my clothing, but I refuse to iron my jeans! Just remember I told you so! |
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