Monday, September 8, 2008

New settings

Well, the Polish adventure is over (for now...), but it is not certain me and Poland has seen each other for the last time! Contrary to some of my beliefs before going there, Poland is a modern and comfortable country with a very hospitable population. As you can probably see from the first few lines, I had a positive, adventurous and surprising stay there.

My work in Poland was great, and I believe I made some good results. The last few weeks I spent finalizing and handing over my work, to ensure that the projects were not lost. I had a small trip with my colleague Heniek to visit a supplier on the Czech border, and we had a great time - read road trip :D On the way we visited his family, for a small barbecue, and some fishing. Finally, we did a great job at the supplier, with making the scope and responsibilities of our project/business clear, so all in all a positive outcome I think.

The last day my department had some surprises for me, so I now have the complete written guide to Poland. Also, some nice vodka which will for sure be enjoyed later, and a nice pictures of (almost) the whole department. Finally, they game me some CD's and DVD's and translated my favourite songs of Dzem to english, which was utilized later that day ;) I bought some cake, and people from the factory came to say goodbye and wish me luck. i really felt appreciated, so it was a great feeling and made it even more sad having to leave.

We planned a party after work, and gathered at my apartment for some warming up. 2 guitars, vodka, beers, chips and the party started ;) After playing and singing and partying, we were getting ready to go to Warszawa dowtown.

Saturday I was just relaxing, and packing my stuff, and then Saturday was the big leaving day. Even though I sent 2 boxes with stuff, one to Mexico and 1 to DK, I still had problems with the amount of things. Therefore I made the emergency plan of making another box, and sending it to DK. One of my colleagues was kind enough to help me with this, so in the end my stuff was sent a few days later. Still, when I finally reached the airport my luggage was almost 30 kg, fortunately I had no trouble with this.

Sunday I had a small panic, since my passport was gone. I am not sure what happened, but after a lot of help from my boss, I finally had to leave using only my drivers license as ID for the flight. Somehow I managed to get to DK, without too much trouble, and with a lot of great memories of Poland!

A lot of people have asked me over the last period what I have to say about Poland. It is a difficult question, but I have some points to enlighten the people. Poland is not that different from DK, the people, the food, the culture etc. is similar. Their roads are completely horrible, and they drive like there was no tomorrow, but apart from that it is not extremely different.

In DK i think we often have the misconception that Poland is a poor, grey and boring country, heavily influenced by the former rule of russian communism. I knew a little more, since I used to share my apartment with 2 polish students, but I was still surprised to find Poland so similar to what I already know.

One other thing is that due to the increased economy and standard of living Poland has experienced the last 15-20 years, there can be a really big gap between rich and poor. The welfare system is not too extensive, which is very different from Denmark, but in my stay there I did not experience this side of the country a lot, so I really can not comment on it a lot.

Well, guess there is nothing more to say than "Czesc!"

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