Departure and Arrival!

Live your life by a compass, not a clock.

Stephen Covey

Y’all…I MADE IT TO KRAKOW.

On January 7th, I said goodbye to Michigan and hello to Krakow…with a pitstop in Frankfurt.

Saying goodbye to my friends and family was really hard but saying hello to Krakow, new people, sights, and adventures made it a little easier.

I met Scott in Detroit. Then he and I met David in Frankfurt. The three of us flew directly into Krakow, loaded our stuff into a taxi, and arrived at our dorms together. When we arrived, we unpacked, met Ethan, and went on the search for dinner.

I slept very soundly that night since I hadn’t slept for 30 hours because of the traveling.

January 9th was the first day of orientation where we met the other USAC students, had campus orientation, and a public transport how-to.

There are 13 USAC students: Me, Cassandra, Brian, Bree, Cedric, David, Bella, Ethan, Lily, Mae, Savanah, Scott, and Sydney. We all have different majors ranging from Information Systems to Pre-Med to International Business to Civil Engineering. Some of us have been out of the country before and multiple times and others have not. We are diverse group of kids and I can’t wait to see how our strengths play together.

The University of Krakow Economics in located close to the center of Old Town. It’s about a 15 minute commute there using a bus and a tram. It will most likely take me longer to get to campus because I’m directionally challenged but I will learn quickly.

On January 10th, we had the second day of orientation. Anna and Łukasz took us around Old Town Krakow and Kazimierz, the Jewish district. In Old Town, we saw Wawel Cathedral, Wawel Castle, Rynek Główny, the Cloth Hall, and much more. We ate lunch in Kazimierz.

Yesterday, January 11th, Savanah, Sydney and I took a walking tour of street art in Kazimierz. We saw all kinds of beautiful street art and heard the stories and meanings behind all of the pieces. My favorite was a mural of Helena Rubinstein. Helena was “The Empress of Beauty”. Helena was born into a poor family in Kazimierz but moved to NYC and worked her way up to being one of the richest women in the world because she was the founder of one of the largest cosmetic companies. L’Oreal now owns her brand. Helena is inspiring to me because in Poland, Helene is Helena and she is doing EXACTLY what I want to in the future. I plan to visit a Sephora here to find some of her products.

After our tour, the three of us found the best pierogi place. We smashed 40 pierogies. I have no regrets, I probably could have eaten 10 more. Then we went back to our dorms and spent the night looking at our class schedule since school starts on Monday.

My school schedule is not normal this semester. Most weeks, I go to class only 2 or 3 days. There are only 2 weeks, I have to go 4 days. Classes aren’t always on the same days or same times every week either. And some classes will skip a week or two. It’s going to be really weird to get used to. But it looks like I will have a lot of time to travel around Poland and surrounding countries…which is just what I was hoping for.

Today, January 12th, I will be relaxing and truly settling in. I have some chores to do and a few things to catch up on (like my blog).

You’ll be hearing from me again sometime next week after my classes start!

Also, I am using a Polish sim card so the best way to reach me is Whatsapp or Snapchat. I check Email and Facebook but not constantly throughout the day. If you download Whatsapp, use your normal, American phone number and when you go to start a new message my contact information should be there. If you use iMessage or try calling you might be charged international rates.