Today is the day I've been anticipating for over a year; my first day of my internship abroad. Like every time we move, one of the most challenging tasks, in my opinion, is finding your way in a new city. This is especially true when you're in a new city that you don't know the local language. Again, I am glad the first day I had the help of an IAESTE representative to walk me to the office in one piece :)
While public transportation (busses, trams and metro-subway) is extremely efficient and helpful, everything is in Polish (with the exception with the metro stops an announcement speaks in Polish and repeats in English). We took the tram to work, so I quietly accepted not understanding any of the signs and announcements, hoping nothing important was there...
I'm working with the Biogroup, a Materials Science and Engineering division of Politechnika Warszawska, at their IPPT PAN lab/office. During my internship I will be working with a Ph.D student who is working with hydrogels and polymers for bone tissue scaffolding applications. My first week will largely be continuing to read up on processes and doing safety training with the lab and the specific equipment I will be operating during my internship. The lab has a mixture of people from Poland, other European countries, and a few exceptions (like myself). You can tell when someone is a foreigner (not from Poland) because that is when you hear English! English has quickly become the language of business which extends to academic research. According to a friend in Poland, over recent years, it [learning English well] has become a necessity if you want a decent job, especially as an engineer.
On the afternoon of my first day, I had my first meeting with the Professor in charge of the lab. Unfortunately his office is in the Faculty building which is about a 20-30 minute walk form the IPPT lab. Luckily a graduate student in my lab was willing to walk me over there so I won't get lost. The one problem with meeting the Professor was having to navigate home from a different place than I was shown that morning! Thankfully my trip really wasn't that bad, I just had to use the tram and metro from this point.
That evening, I again met with IAESTE so we could get me city card set up so I could have full access to transit without having to purchase a ticket every time I boarded. Many people that work in administrative offices (for my dorm and transit office) don't appear to speak much English, so I am very thankful to have people that are here to help me navigate. One of my roommates was even nice enough to go on a trip to the store to get a bath towel and other things I didn't want to bring with me. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find a bath/swim towel in the stores around our dorm! We literally went to four stores in search of a towel with no avail. Luckily my roommate wasn't annoyed and she thought of one last place--> a small mall near us that may have a towel in their larger supermarket vs. having to go to the city center. She was right! I'm so thankful to have people around me that have been so willing to help me get settled and navigate my way in Warsaw <3
While public transportation (busses, trams and metro-subway) is extremely efficient and helpful, everything is in Polish (with the exception with the metro stops an announcement speaks in Polish and repeats in English). We took the tram to work, so I quietly accepted not understanding any of the signs and announcements, hoping nothing important was there...
I'm working with the Biogroup, a Materials Science and Engineering division of Politechnika Warszawska, at their IPPT PAN lab/office. During my internship I will be working with a Ph.D student who is working with hydrogels and polymers for bone tissue scaffolding applications. My first week will largely be continuing to read up on processes and doing safety training with the lab and the specific equipment I will be operating during my internship. The lab has a mixture of people from Poland, other European countries, and a few exceptions (like myself). You can tell when someone is a foreigner (not from Poland) because that is when you hear English! English has quickly become the language of business which extends to academic research. According to a friend in Poland, over recent years, it [learning English well] has become a necessity if you want a decent job, especially as an engineer.
On the afternoon of my first day, I had my first meeting with the Professor in charge of the lab. Unfortunately his office is in the Faculty building which is about a 20-30 minute walk form the IPPT lab. Luckily a graduate student in my lab was willing to walk me over there so I won't get lost. The one problem with meeting the Professor was having to navigate home from a different place than I was shown that morning! Thankfully my trip really wasn't that bad, I just had to use the tram and metro from this point.
That evening, I again met with IAESTE so we could get me city card set up so I could have full access to transit without having to purchase a ticket every time I boarded. Many people that work in administrative offices (for my dorm and transit office) don't appear to speak much English, so I am very thankful to have people that are here to help me navigate. One of my roommates was even nice enough to go on a trip to the store to get a bath towel and other things I didn't want to bring with me. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find a bath/swim towel in the stores around our dorm! We literally went to four stores in search of a towel with no avail. Luckily my roommate wasn't annoyed and she thought of one last place--> a small mall near us that may have a towel in their larger supermarket vs. having to go to the city center. She was right! I'm so thankful to have people around me that have been so willing to help me get settled and navigate my way in Warsaw <3
Wow! Your internship seems awesome (even for someone who hasn't taken any Engineering courses). It sounds like it fits you well. It's great you have others to depend on too!
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