EASTER IN POLAND

It was little bit cloudy and the sun was hiding himself behind the clouds from time to time during the day. I just wanted to face to my memories from the past. I took out all of my photo CDs and the first was from Poland.

 I was a kind of broken in my last year of university. Everyone knows that any student is broken while they are studying.  However it was a difficult year for me, I decided to stay in the dorm for the first term of the last year but it was full of pain. It was very difficult to stay in the queue for dinner or bathroom. Studying in the library in silence was a nightmare, because I always was reading from my books very loudly. My way of reading was disturbing the neighbours. It was not a nice memory for me, staying in the student residences. 

Being a poor student was not the dream of my life. Personally I like to be rich in mind, health, and money. I prefer to have rich environment. Rich people are feeding poor people actually. I was poor student and may be I did not like myself, because I was a poor student. However, there is no problem to collect the rubbish on the way to my aims.

I almost quit the university to start work, but I heard of the Erasmus student exchange program. The European Union pays a small amount of money and so I applied for the exam and interview. If I pass the exam, I would be able to study my last term to be graduated. The clerk was asked me which country I would like to go to. I said Opole University but he was saying "only country please". I told him, " Poland is the country, the city is Opole and the university is Opole University." He asked me  "If you are sent to other university, will you go or not?"   and he stopped what he was doing and looked surprisingly at my face. I said "I only want to go to Opole University so please mention this on the system. This  is my decision!". During the interview the committee asked the reason why I want to go to Opole University in particular. I wanted to say because my feelings want me to go there but it was a serious interview so I told them "The  professors from Opole University visited our University for a lecture last year as you remember as well. I really would like to attend to their classes."

 Unbelievably I passed the exams and interview and now I have to prepare for Poland. Get the visa, book the flight, prepare the luggage, and go to Poland. I flight to Wroclaw and it was snowy in the middle of February. It will be my second term of my last year and I was excited to go to a country with Slavic letters and traditions. 

Wroclaw has a small airport with easy to find tourist information. They explained which bus to take and where the bus stop was, how to get the ticket from the machine and hot to get to the train station. I did what exactly he told but the machine was Polish! The last bus arrived and I had no ticket. Luckily the bus driver was a sweet lady and I was saying ticket but her foreign language was Russian. I have no clue to communicate with her by language. I show the machine and said "bileti". Bileti was written on the machine. The bus driver was saying something but I have no clue how to understand her. She took me off the bus, asked for money...
I took all the money from my pocket opened my hand. She was laughing at me while she choose the coins amongst the bills. As soon as I arrive the train station, I bought my ticket for the train which was leaving in ten minutes. It was a great success finding the right platform to catch the train.

When I arrived in Opole it was already dark and snowy cold. There were few people on the streets but I showed someone the address to ask where the dorm is. I was hoping they can arrange my passage in the late evening. Most probably the office was closed and I will have to stay outside that night. I had a solution in my mind, either stay in the Hostel or go back to train station and travel around Poland during the night.

After I arrived to the dorm, they accepted me and it was very nice of them to not let me stay outside in the middle of the night, in the cold with my huge suitcase. One of my roommates made a coffee for me. I guess it was decaff coffee which made me sleep.

 
I woke up in the morning, I did completed my documents and registration for University and accommodation. The university was the next building which was amazing for me. I always like everything should be reachable. After all the admin, I went to the supermarket to buy something to eat. I did my shopping and returned to the dorm. Half of my shopping bags were destroyed on my way back. I took the elevator to my floor with most of the shopping in my arms, things were dropping down to the floor. When I was pushing the button of my floor, a long haired, tall girl caught the elevator as well. She offered me help and took some of my stuff to my room. I offered her a cup of Turkish coffee. The coffee was sent from an old guy who produces the coffee from my home town. He told me to offer those coffee any friend I meet in Poland or whoever makes a favour to me. I had to do what he asked because it was my promise to him. This long haired, tall blond girl was Magdalena. She speaks English, Chinese and some other languages very well. She is open to any kind of different culture. She has been to Taiwan, China and hitchhiked across Europe. Her mum taught her how to hitchhike. We talked about all of our adventures to each other and that coffee started our strong friendship. The next day, I attended one of my classes, I saw Magdalena and we were surprised. We never spoke about classes, only about our spirit for adventure and travelling. 

I attended church every Sunday even though I was not Christian and I was doing different volunteer activities and enjoying my life in Opole. When Easter arrived, Magdalena offered me to join her and her family as a guest. I was excited, I will visit a Polish Family. I hope they are not boring!

She explained how to travel to  their town, Odolanow and I remember I took a few trains to their home. It was beautiful small town. We arrived at her home and The word is not enough to say, what a nice family they were... If I have to say something, they were an amazing, friendly, happy family and town.  They were amazing. When I remember those days many years later, I still smile.

We were having dinner in a their home and having desserts with their neighbour. Vodka was in Mr Doger’s home, one of their neighbours. Mr Doger is a farmer and he has cows in his farm. When I visited there the cows all had Polish names. My favorite cow was Maya, because I can remember her name even many years past. He came to Magdalena's for the first evening and we had the Turkish coffee from the Turkish old guy. It was the tradition to look at the fortune from the coffee cup, Turkish coffee is made with coffee grounds. After finishing coffee, the coffee cup is turned upside down on the plate. When it is cold enough, it is ready to read the fortune... We were reading each other's fortune, what ever was inside, specially the boys:)

Mr Doger wanted to read my coffee fortune, so I gave my upside-down cup to him. Everybody was laughing at him and me. He said "there are two boys in front of the door to see you in the morning. You need to be ready. Dress up nicely, this is my advice." The people were laughing. I couldn't understand. Magda told me the reason. There were two boys in front of the door with Mr Doger and his wife. Those handsome boys were his sons. We all were laughing.

We went to church all together on the Easter morning. Before we went there we painted eggs. Magdalena's mum prepared a basket for us and I carried the basket to the church. The basket has to be blessed and left with some food in the church for poor people. While we were having Easter dinner all together, Mr Doger was saying his fortune telling has come true.

The next day of Easter, One other neighbour, came with his horse and carriage. We made a kind of city sightseeing with full of children. That was amazing adventure being one of the children. Anna, Karolina, and Piotr were Magdalena's siblings. Piotr made my photo Cd's because he is amazing with computers. Karolina is married and has her son Philip. One day she made a barbecue to invite us. We even visited Chopin's birthplace on the way of Karolina's home.  It was amazing over there. When Magdalena is tired of translating between me and the rest, Anna was taking care of the translating job:)

There is an Easter rabbit in Poland, which is very very fast. On the last day of Easter it is water day. Every body is throwing water at each other. The wettest person around is getting married first. I was wettest. It looks like I had a shower with my clothes on. I guess I was not my tradition as I did not manage to marry. I heard Mr Doger’s sons are married and have children already. I am sure all the girls in the town and I are happy for them. In the evening, the Easter Rabbit came home and left some money in all of our beds under the pillow. We couldn't catch the rabbit that year just like the other years.

After Easter I visited Magdalena's family but Magdalena wasn't at home that time. She was in Opole getting her documents at the school. Somehow she had to return to Opole. It was last minute news while I was on the way to Odolanow. Her Mum and Dad, Eva and Yurek, picked me up from the train station.  Magdalena told us if we have any communication problems we can call her. Eva was working for disabled children as a teacher. She is amazingly full of energy. We went to her school. We enjoyed with them. We painted, made some other sporting activities. We played different games. There was an organization for them in a few days. We worked for the project and in the end of the day, Magdalena called us to see if everything is fine. She was surprised we did not have any communication problems.

I always wanted to be a Pilgrim in Poland. Pilgrims in Poland, are starting to walk to Częstochowa.

They pray over there all together in a specific week. While they are walking from one city to the other, they have to have rest. They are camping while they are resting. If they cross a village, the villagers are inviting each person from the group into their home. The Pilgrims are having proper food, meeting a new family and talking about their lives. They give a small gift to their host family such as post card. I really wanted to join to those people to walk for Christ to see the Black Madonna picture with them. However I visited Częstochowa by train few months ago and my visa will be expiring by the time for Pilgrim's. Magdalena's mum and Dad, Eva and Yurek, took me to the place, where the pilgrims were camping. We became very good friends. Eva was very excited because she saw how happy I am. They gave me small gifts which I still have with my memories.

Before I left Poland we all were crying. Mama i Tata means Mother and Father in Polish. They became my Mama i Tata. Mama teach me some Polish words, and how to make easter cake, how to sing while you are making cake and to enjoy what you are doing. Since then I am singing with my horrible voice while I am cooking. It was my promise to her.

I have a home to visit in Poland in the small town Odolanow.  In the next years they visited our home in Turkey. Ko ham che Poland.