Ann Vandeput Cugnon, the LD from LLN, went on an Exchange Week to Warsaw (Poland) 2 weeks ago (4-10/11). You can read her story here ⬇️
Going to Poland was a first for me. Going on an IAAS Exchange Week was also a first for me. So yeah, the combinaison of these two made it a special trip. I can say with a head full of laughters & memories that it was an amazing week! We were 9 participants (2 Greek girls 🇬🇷, 2 German guys 🇩🇪, 2 Swiss girls 🇨🇭, 1 Croatian guy 🇭🇷 and 2 Belgians 🇧🇪, me and Sudipt) accommodated and nourished by an incredible Polish team! We slept in dorms on the campus of SGGW - The Warsaw University of Life Sciences (with real beds!), ate lunch at the university restaurant (how do they even pay for all that??) and had amazing interesting as well as fun activities!
The first day can be resumed as waiting for everyone to arrive, but once the group was completed we visited the Polish Vodka Museum in the evening. A guide explained the whole process of how Vodka is brewed and why there are so many different flavours. We ended the visit - of course - with a tasting 🥃.
The next day we got up early to travel across the city to get to the Institut of Meteorology where we had a lecture about ground based remote sensing. It was really interesting to learn about how weather forecast works as it influences our daily life. The employee also explained us how thunderstorms are created and how to react during such an event. So so interesting!! Afterwards we got back to the uni to do a campus tour in a more interactif way : a 1hour-challenge! We received a list with questions and tasks to ask Polish students from the campus. For example we had to:
* Know how old is SGGW * Ask someone on the campus to teach you a polish tongue twister, each of the group members has to say it (+record it) * Ask a random person what the best 3 Polish dishes are that you should try * Everyone should lay down somewhere and pretend dead (make a pic) * Make a contest with a stranger and play rock paper scissors
* Find out which are the 5 best clubs in Warsaw
During the evening, we cooked a typically Polish dish called Pierogi. It took us hours to make, but the result was very delicious! 😋
On Wednesday morning, we went to the outsides of the city to visit the university’s farm. This farm is just huge! The university owns 800ha of land, with 700 cows for dairy and meat and so much more. We only visited the dairy farm with its 350 cows 🐮. We got a whole explanation of how cows are fed, milked and how they manage to produce such a quality milk. And to tip it off, we witnessed the birth of a calf 😱
In the afternoon we had a lecture from a professor about Soil and Climat conditions in Poland. After dinner we went to a karaoke bar 🎤 to sing some Bruno Mars, Queen and Polish songs.
Thursday morning we went to visit a foodbank in Warsaw. A foodbank is a storage place where leftovers from shops are brought in before being redistributed to social organisations in order to help the poor. In the afternoon we had time to buy food and prepare everything for the Trade Fair. This TF was really epic: the Polish brought so much vodka that everyone was quickly flying high, the Swiss brought raclette, everyone loved the Belgian fries and chocolate and we ended up stealing the Polish flag 🇵🇱.
Friday we were finally able to sleep a bit before the activities started. We first had a lecture about Corporate Social Responsibility in Poland. CSR is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable—to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. By practicing CSR, also called corporate citizenship, companies can be conscious of the kind of impact they are having on all aspects of society, including economic, social, and environmental.
Then a graduated student gave us an introduction about sustainable interior design. During the afternoon we had an IAAS talk in order to discuss ways to recruit new members and how to keep them interested enough to actively be part of the team.
On the last day (Saturday) we took a stroll through the old city of Warsaw. In the afternoon we had our final lecture about Planetary Health Diet and we immediately put our new knowledge into action while preparing a plant-based dinner 😋 The evening was a sad one because we already had to say goodbye to the Swiss girls and we knew we would all part the next day... 😢 I already said my goodbyes during the evening because I would immediately go back to the hostel instead of going out as I had to get up early to get my flight. So on Sunday I woke up at 6am and left the quiet hostel alone. Just before arriving to the airport I was controlled and as it turned out I didn’t have the correct ticket (which I didn’t know) so I tearfully payed a fine 😓.
But even if my week ended sadly, I will never forget this amazing Exchange Week! The Polish team really did an amazing job organising all the activities, even if it meant that we didn’t sleep at lot 🙈
Here are a few things that I learned:
* Cursewords : Malakas (Greek), Kurwa (Polish) meaning basically ‘Fuck’ * Before drinking: Dasvidaniya (Polish) (even though I discovered that it’s actually a Russian word to say good-bye so that’s kinda weird)
* Trams, metro and trains are always on time! Buses aren’t uuuurgh
* Always buy the right ticket, because there are so many controls!! And they don’t make an exception for students when you have to pay a fine 😓 * The SWWG Sweaters are soooo comfortable!! And they look so good!
Bye bye Poland! 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱