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Wroclaw, Poland
Nie mówi%u0119 po polsku (I do not speak Polish) was definitely THE most used sentence during my 9 weeks Poland adventure. Second most used was poprosz%u0119 szarlotk%u0119 (Applejuice with Vodka, lime and ice, please) Considering the fact that my survival Polish was limited anyway. But let's start from the beginning. For quite some time I wanted to do something useful not paid for the world but did not know what. During my work at Nyenrode Business Universiteit colleagues advised to think about coaching or teaching? Well, I thought about it before, secretly and now it was time to try it out. I checked the database of Aiesec, the largest student organization around the world and found my first choice. The job description said "trainer for Academy of Perspectives 5th edition. Teaching business skills to high school children of 16 to 19 years old". Sounded like the right thing for me to apply for and so I did. Within one week I had the acceptance note in my pocket and one month to depart to Wroclaw, a 700.000 inhabitants city in the south west of Poland. Upon my arrival in Wroclaw I met the other 4 trainers of the team and we went to our apartment where the first culture struck me. Only two bedrooms for 5 people… Ah well, that did not matter for such a short time and we spent the most time working anyway as it turned out later. The apartment was very large and came with a hysteric neighbour who kept complaining about the noise… As it is with Aiesec you've got immediate access to a great network of even greater globally minded people where I found good friends that I will never forget. Well, there were of course my fellow trainers. Bia from Brazil, Chen from China, Yoon from Korea and Johnnie (oh it was soooo funny) from Costa Rica but also Shehzia from India, Tjeerd from the Netherlands, Louis the frist from Brazil and Louis the second from Guatemala, Nano from Brazil, Whither from New Zealand, Alishia from India, Tao from China, Anton from Russia and many others. Not to forget the oranization commetee of Acedemy of Perspectives consisting of Ola, Judyta, Paulina, Magda, Ania, Roksana, Magda, Agata, Magda and Andrzej. During my first week in Wroclaw the whole team received sessions on how to be a good trainer by professional training companies which was a great experience from which I learned a lot. After two weeks of Christmas holidays life became serious as trainings started. In total we gave 10 different trainings on business skills to 10 different schools. In total every couple of trainers that switched partners every week gave 40 trainings meaning every training 4 times. Trainings started and we discovered that the level of motivation and English varies from school to school. Most classes were highly motivated and eager to learn. Moreover our trainings were a funny change to their daily routine classes. Some of the most successful trainings were non-verbal and verbal communication, problem solving, stress management and goal setting. All sessions were made very interactive and playful with few dry theory but with loads of energetic games and exercises to work on the content. We tried our best to be funny and interesting and also listen to their feedback motivating them to talk in English as much as possible. Soon I discovered that this is what I want to do in my professional live. At our last training - Goal Setting my goal for my professional live was clear. I want to be a professional and appreciated full time trainer within the next two years. The feedback I received from the students at the end of Academy of Perspectives gave me a lot of confidence in my plan. Every day we were able to relax at delicious food in the best restaurant in town which was one of the sponsors of AP. But there was not only work although it was more than expected from Aiesec and me. There were also fun parties and some time to relax. Soon I made close friends with Shehzia from India and Tjeerd from the Netherlands who later became my boyfriend and still is to the day. Together we cooked very spicy Indian food, watched random movies in the dormitory, played Poker, went to international cooking nights, country presentations and birthday parties. One country presentation called Global Village was organized by Aiesec themselves. All 5 trainers presented their countries to their students which was a really funny event. I discovered that the Viennese greeting "Bussi, baba" might be misunderstood by other nationalities. One weekend the whole Acedemy of Perspectives team including the organisational committee want to Karpac together, a mountain village on the Czech Republic border. We visited a waterfall and one of the last remaining Norwegian pointy churches in the world. In the evening we played Ligretto and Werewolves again and danced some Aiesec dances. Well there was some alcohol too. The next day we did some butt-skiing on plastic slides which was really very funny but also very painful. After our return there were three farewells, the ones of Alicia, Whiter and Tjeerd which left me very sad. But my departure was to come very soon as well which left me very scared ;-). But there was still one beautiful but difficult weekend to come in Krakau (the person knows why). Together we visited the castle, took pictures, the Krakau dragon, took pictures, the city port, took pictures, but also Auschwitz-Birkenau the concentration camp and the salt mines close to Krakau. When my farewell came we gave one last party in our apartment to the disapproval of our neighbour. We drank many Charlottkas and Michals (fake Champaign) and said very honest and said farewells to all the friends made that I will remember for live. Thank you and keep in touch. I miss you all.
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