For future Erasmus students going to Poland

This post is dedicated to all the mothers, all the good friends that only want the best for us, to my grandma and my auntie, and of course to all the unfamiliar faces that, even so, have the right to weigh in on your life.

These are the typical phrases we have to put up with when we're choosing an Erasmus destination and finally decide (fearfully and without much certainty) on an EXOTIC country (yes... like the Philippines and Brasil ¬¬). See Poland, Czech Republic or Lithuania.

In this post I'm going to try to debunk some of the myths about the country I know, POLAND.

1. You're going to Poland? Dude are you crazy or what? You'll die from the cold!

My dear friend, I hate to tell you that Poland IS NOT THE NORTH POLE, you'd do well to revise your general geography. I got on a plane thinking that I would arrive - and die - frozen solid. 12 degrees in September for crying out loud! Based on everything I'd been told and the fact I hate the cold, I didn't think I'd last a second! I hate to disappoint you, future Erasmus student, but the cold isn't going to kill you. It isn't even a cold that gets down to your bones. Even though I'd have a fit if it was that cold in my home region of Almería, here I'm never without my coat and scarf. If the weather is cold, you wrap up warm and that's that. It's not as bad as they make it sound.

2. YOU'RE GOING TO POLAAAAAAAND! That's an underdeveloped country!

No, I don't travel to university on a donkey. I don't know about you... but I know there'll be people who'll tell you this in no uncertain terms, whilst others will imply it more subtly, but the truth is that people view Poland with contempt. But I'm not easily swayed, these comments go in one ear and out the other (I thought maybe I was scared to hear the truth). So with a smile on my face I simply reply to these comments by saying that I wanted to try something new. I'm not going to touch upon these things again in my blog because I think treating Poland like any other EU country, and especially viewing the capital like any other place worth visiting, with pros and cons, is how to change people's perceptions. I know of someone who wasn't allowed to pick Poland as an Erasmus destination because their parents held these negative views of it... these are the same people who look at you as if to say "pff. They're only going to Poland because they didn't get good enough grades to go anywhere else!" No sir, Varsovia was my first choice destination.

3. Ugh, everyone there is drunk on vodka. You're going to be blackout drunk all the time.

Yes, everyone here turns up to work drunk. The shopkeepers who are there to help you are off their faces, they never stop drinking, not even for a minute.... ¬¬ Let's be serious for a minute, it's got to be said that they can handle more alcohol than we can, but that's a far cry from being blackout drunk all day.

4. It isn't a safe country, be careful, the Polish are very aggressive.

I have seen no difference between here and Spain. Literally none. I see more police here, there's always surveillance in the subways. Neither me, nor anyone I know, has been robbed as of yet. See if the police telling you off for j-walking is a joke. Don't even think about not giving up your seat for the elderly, they'll throw the whole tram at you.

5. You're going to live in a flat? You don't even know how to fry an egg!

These phrase is a common thing to hear for anyone who is planning to do an Erasmus year which will be their first experience living away from home (like it was in my case). You're not going to die of hunger, nor is your house going to look like a bomb's hit it (if you don't want it to). Personally, moving out of the family home hasn't been a traumatic experience. I thought that, given I wasn't used to doing the majority of household chores it was going to be really difficult, but no. I survived.

So that's that...

If you want to learn another language in addition to learning English at university; if you want to do your weekly shop, and if you rush, a shop to last two weeks, for less than 30 euros; if you want to do things that would cost you an arm and a leg in Spain; if you want to learn about the eastern European countries and their culture which is often completely unknown to us, then choose Poland

There you go.

I wonder, all these people that make these assumptions about Poland, have they ever been there to see if they're actually true?