Closing Weeks

After break is all down hill and everything seems to be quickly coming to a close. The following Thursday was the Yamato Drummers of Japan performance. I ended up going with Kylie one of the other group members. The outstanding performance was made up of a group of ten Japanese drummers. The drummers had precise rhythm but also a never-ending amount of energy; dancing, shouting, singing, and even performing subtle jokes throughout the performance. It was one of the top best live performances I've seen so far. The next day I was invited by Kasper to go an improv comedy performance. The improv was done by a group of Poles and a group of Germans, all in their mid twenties and study theater. It was very amateur and you could tell that many of them had never done anything like it before but nevertheless the quirky awkwardness still made it funny. Afterwards we ended up befriending the German group of performers, who then invited us to eat at their banquet, and come to the after party. Both that Thursday and Friday were comparably the best nights I've had in Krakow. What this means is that I haven't had many amazing times here in Poland. There is nothing in particular to blame for this reason, but I will explain a little bit on why my time in Poland wasn't as desirable as one would wish when going into this sort of program. I will start with what is not the reason, that is, the location. Krakow is an amazing city to be in, it is beautiful, has plenty of shopping, lots of bars and clubs for nightlife activities, loads of museums, and overall there are almost always events going on. So what could go wrong in a place that gives you everything? For me the answer to this lies in three factors. The first being simply the weather, once the weather starts to get cold and the days start to get shorter I pick up the case of the winter blues and unfortunately only the warmth of the sun can fix this. The next reason is the people I meet. In Germany I was lucky to have met a group of people who all connected well and ended up making my time there better than I could have imagined, and of course just meeting and developing a relationship with Elli was something that I never thought would happen. It’s not that I don't like the people here, but I just haven't clicked with them like I did with the people I met back in Marburg. The Krakow group is only made up of seven people, who ended up sort of splitting into two smaller groups due to just social differences. With this program we aren’t mixed into a classroom with international students, but instead we have classes that are just us; some with just three of us. The opportunities to meet new people are rare, unless you are a smoker. Plus the program is so short that if you do meet someone, things end before they even get started. The last reason why I haven't clicked with Krakow is because of the overall energy here. Maybe it’s the combination of what I previously mentioned, but maybe it’s something completely separate. It is a feeling I get from the polish people, workers mainly, along with the elderly, who rarely smiles and seems to be angry or annoyed that I am even there and not being able to communicate concisely makes things even more difficult. I guess this makes me truly understand the importance of customer service- with a smile. Overall there just seems to be this negative feeling that I get from the people and atmosphere here. Maybe it has something to do with the dark past of the country still lurking in the air. All in all, I have had both positive negative experiences here and Europe has been nice to me, but I am ready to go home.