Krakow
Uniwersytet Jagiellonski
Collegium Maius in Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Krakow
August 28, 2004
I arrived after flying via Warsaw and was immediately picked up by Jola at the airport.
She seemed nice and took me to Piast where I got into my dorm room and found someone
else’s stuff all over. The room was a bit of a mess, but I'm overly-organized
so less than anxious to live here.
Jola then asked what I was doing and offered to help me get some food and keep me
awake. We went to town and for the first time I saw the Rynek, an amazing sight.
I asked that we go somewhere in the shade so she took me to a little place called
Camelot and I had apple pie, very different from American apple pie.
I then went with her to help Mateuz move into his new place, it kept me awake and
I got to meet a few more people, although I'm sure I wasn't much help given
my state of exhaustion.
After the move, I returned to my disastrous dorm room. It was not very pleasant
and made me feel very fortunate that I lived in the nice dorm that I lived in for
two years back in the states. The dorm had two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a balcony.
The toilet smelled poorly ever time I flushed it and the edge of the shower was
only an inch or two from the floor and the shower curtain didn’t come close to reaching
the bottom so every shower flooded the bathroom. Showers, however were rare since
the water never got warm and all the while the major concern was not getting clean,
but simply avoiding spraying the water all over the bathroom especially avoiding
your dry clothes and towel.
The balcony was very nice and we had a great view of one of the mounds along with
the ends of the city of Krakow. The rooms fit two beds and for some reason someone
decided it was a good idea to also put in a couple desks therefore eliminating any
and all space. The bed mattresses were old so when I'd lie down to sleep I severely
sank into the middle.
On the plus side the dorm provided sheets and blankets for us, but due to the extreme
heat in those first couple weeks they weren’t ever used by me. In addition the door
had a window so in addition to the roommate and two suitemates, there was no privacy.
I wasn’t a big fan of the place, but it was ok and for the price and experience
I'm glad I stayed for a couple weeks.
Collegium Maius in Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Krakow
September 1, 2004
The past couple days consisted of meeting the other people in the program and seeing
the city, although most students in my program still aren’t here yet.
I’m on orientation now, which is basic, but fun getting to meet each other and see
the city. The worst part has been trying to avoid the extreme heat consuming the
city. I can’t recall everything we saw, but the basics. The university system works
very differently here as far as I can tell, however until classes start I don't
think I'll understand the full extend of it.
We went on a tour of the city center and Wawel castle, it was a good tour and our
guide spoke great English. He taught us the history and showed us the sights of
everything from the Florianska Gate to the Rynek, down ul Grodzka (street) to the
castle, Wawel. It was a basic tour, but interesting and I enjoyed seeing the city
from that perspective, however now that I foolishly think I’m local I wouldn’t want
to do it like that again.
Krakow's Rynek as viewed from my classroom
September 6, 2004
During the intro week I was shocked at our Rynek classroom, which is in a former
palace; it has a great view of the Rynek and will continue to distract me for the
rest of the year without question.
The next week we started classes, basically just survival Polish and an intro class.
The Polish was dreadfully boring at first so I was quite happy to move up to the
more intermediate group, although still for beginners, which was perfect.
The first week was good; I did little work and spent most of my time socializing.
October 4, 2004
The university's opening ceremonies are over and were interesting to say the
least. On Friday we had the opening of the university which consisted of a march
from Collegium Maius to Novum followed by a convocation. The march, which only consisted
of professors and faculty went by age of each department or school, the oldest department
to the youngest; my school is the second youngest and wears plum.
Each school has its own colors, started in the 1800’s when they were trying to impress
the emperor of the Hapsburg Empire, who was in town visiting his occupied territory.
The colors they assigned have stayed since and have spread throughout Poland and
the surrounding areas, I’m not sure if these are the same colors that they use in
the U.S. or not.
The last person in the march was the rector and the crowd immediately followed him
into Collegium Novum. We attempted to get into the actual hall where the ceremony
was to be held, but missed out on this. We watched the ceremony on a projected screen
in the hall, where we saw the rector speak. The ceremony was long and little was
understood by me.
Due to our personal biases, we decided we looked good in our suits so we went out
to eat and lounged around the city for much of the rest of the day. I also got my
"indeks" and "legitimatcja" today. I look terrible in the pictures,
but no loss since it’s the first step in being a real student.
Today's ceremonies finished by having classes and the opening ceremony of our
school with a lecture. Our lecture was in the old room in Collegium Maius from the
1200’s; perhaps the most prestigious room at the university, where they welcome
guests such as the Pope.
The ceremony started with singing that was incredible and then quickly went into
short introductory speeches by our program director, Professor Mach, a Vice-Rector
and our liaison coordinator, Scott. Following this we had our ceremonial opening
lecture by a professor from Ljubljana. The lecture was good, the room was hot, I
was ready to pass out.
The ceremony was fortunately short and we quickly went outside to the courtyard
where we relaxed for a few minutes. The atmosphere was great seeing as how everyone
was dressed up in formal wear and the night sky was starting to clear up. Following
this we had a party.
Art History building in Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Krakow
October 12, 2004
I had an exam today so I wore a suit as I was told is customary here, however the
rest of my foreign class forgot, other than the two people who reminded me, and
even one of them still didn’t wear one.
In a suit I caught a lot of girls looking at me; it was kind of flattering. The
girls here also seem more attractive in general than in much of the world; well
at least they seem to be slimmer and healthier, although some look unhealthy in
that they’re too skinny. It must be in the blood or diet, because the exercise regiment
seems to be lacking in my little experience. I rarely see anyone running, biking,
or rollerblading. Perhaps schoolchildren run and exercise, but there seems to be
little of that beyond childhood.
October 18, 2004
Pete, Anne, and Gruber are in town, they got in on Friday and are going to stay
until tomorrow night. It’s great to see people from home that I can talk to about
anything. It’s also fun to watch foreigners without any Polish try to get around
the city. They obviously don’t try to speak Polish since they don't know any
and aren’t afraid to approach anyone in English. This is normal when people travel,
but I think I've forgotten that in my time here and found it to be excessive
odd for some reason. Gruber is a different case, seeing as how he’s been living
in Ukraine and speaks a language that’s not quite Ukrainian and not Russian, nor
is it Polish. He speaks this strange combination that resembles Russian more than
Ukrainian and most people understand him. They don’t seem that excited to speak
a language resembling Russian, but it’s quite obvious with his accent and vocabulary
that he’s a foreigner who’s trying so people tend to respond to him positively.
November 7, 2004
Dan’s Polish friend just stopped by to drop something off for him, but had to run
because he has class twice a month on the weekends. This is something you very rarely
find in the States and I found it quite odd, but I guess this explains why so many
people in mass the other day had backpacks on.
Collegium Maius in Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Krakow
November 20, 2004
I’m finally getting into the full swing of work and classes. I spent much of the
week doing work and I’m now well on my way to finishing all the work I have due
in the next couple weeks. I’m also beginning to get quite frustrated with formal
education, but I've always been frustrated with formal education. Formal education
seems to me to be telling me what's important, giving me information I'm
not interested in, and much less educational than living what's taught, or visiting
the history and culture that we're learning about. However, that's our world:
to get a job you must have degrees saying you're intelligent, but little that
is taught in schools are ever used in the real world unless you're in a career
like medicine or engineering, but I'm not so my schooling is a mere formality.
That's why I enrolled in Poland; I learn through experience and by visually
seeing and living what I'm taught. Most universities teach in one way, through
lectures or discussions and simply assume everyone learns in the same way, through
lectures and discussion. I don't learn through this method though and neither
do many other people. Here I can attend lectures, some of which may be better than
and others worse than lectures at a university in the US, however I can get out
on weekends and live what I want to learn.
Like the lectures I've taken in the past, I’m not sure I’ve actually learned
anything in most of my classes and going sometimes feels like a formality. Most
lecture-structured classes demand we memorize facts, then repeat those facts on
our test, after which point we can forget everything that we “learned.” If you see
the building, in which Polish kings lived and ruled, or travel from the Jewish Ghetto
then by train to Auschwitz you begin to not know, but understand history; you can
try to re-live it, experience it... no book can portray that accurately. Through
understanding memory become clearer, knowing can easily be forgotten.
The Polish class, like a statistics class for an accountant is probably the best
course and gives me skills that I can see and use immediately; the class in this
case is necessary. Other classes are interesting, but only after traveling to Gdansk
and seeing Nowa Huta, the Soviet's communist paradise do I understand the Round
Table discussions and the fight against communism in Poland.
My problem with the program is the same problem I have with nearly every academic
program, which is my problem more than the university's problem. I don't
learn in a lecture setting, but to get ahead in this world, you must get academic
degrees, so this is me jumping through the hoops, just as I've done in the past.
This program offers more than most programs in that I'm studying Central and
Eastern Europe and living here I experience their life, history, culture, architecture,
mentality, etc. By living in the location I'm studying I can use my time to
truly get an education through travel and exploring my self interests.
Anyway, to shift from that and to more details about the program...
The system here is to memorize facts until they're engrained in your head, at
which point you start looking at theory and hypothetical questions. In the
US, theory is taught with facts and most facts are not stressed because you can
look them up if you need them later. Here every fact must be memorized and you're
tested on these facts.
This difference in systems made studying difficult at first since I was studying
in the wrong way and focusing on the wrong sets of knowledge. We got our grades
back for the intro class and I got a 4 (out of 5), not the best but the fact of
the matter is that nearly every 5 went to Europeans and I think the Americans and
Canadians in the group had a true disadvantage without the same educational system
background. Now that I'm starting to understand the stress and focus of grading
I can adjust my studying to how the tests will be presented... more what than why.
December 2, 2004
I finished my two big exams and now I’m on my way to a couple papers before going
home for Christmas break. I’m excited to be going home and to see family, but I
still have a couple weeks and I want to do a lot before then.
Collegium Maius in Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Krakow
December 6, 2004
Continue rant... organized education I feel is nothing more than a way to get a
job, they’re credentials that only tell some employer that this person is a clone
just like the next, so which clone do you hire?
Organized education is like an organized cultural tour. You see everything from
behind a sheet of glass, but never submerge yourself, never live what you're
learning, never inject yourself into your subject. I learned more yesterday at Auschwitz
than I have all semester in my lectures listening to facts and arguments.
What I've learned here is: 1. Not to follow the crowd; 2. Do what I feel is
right, not what I’m told to do; and 3. Jump through these hoops or no one will even
let me get my foot in the door.
The world is my classroom, the world is my only true form of education.
February 12, 2004
Education, what is education? Knowledge is a funny thing, it only distorts reality
and only what is real is truly real, unfortunately no one knows what that is. I
guess life is just a game, a day at a time, no end in sight only today. So why do
I wait for tomorrow when I have today? Why is tomorrow so special that I need to
look forward to it? What’s wrong with today to do what I want to wait until tomorrow
to do?
Collegium Novus in Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Krakow