Jairo's experience

Hi, my name is Jairo and I'm 16 years old. I was born in Barcelona and lived there since forever. I have applied for this mobility because I wanted to experience life without my knowns the maximum time that was possible. In addition, my english improvement staying here, in Poland, is another reason for my excitement. Finally, Olgierd, my host and roommate, is so nice that I felt comfortable with him almost at the first moment after I saw him. In conclusion, Erasmus is a project one has to try because of the experience that will be remembered forever.

It was a monday the day I caught the plane with destination Varsovia, the Poland capital city. When Elisabet and me left the airport, we felt the difference between Barcelona's temperature and weather and Warsaw one. People here call Varsovia Warsow even when talking in english, so I will say Warsaw instead of Varsovia too. The first remember and anecdote of Poland is that we were on a hurry to arrive to the train station at time and eat something for lunch, so a taxi driver told us to go with him, but he was a scammer. When we arrived at the Warsaw train station he told us to pay an exaggerated quantity of money, nd we had no option but to pay. The second thing I remember is when we arrived to Siedlce, the city/town where my host family live. Olgierd, the student and my host, recieved me with his mother at the train station and then we went home, where Bogus also recieved me with too much enthusiasm. The last thing I remember of my first day here is the dinner, when Olgierd's mom prepared spaghetti with shrimps that were delicious. 

So, the following day I was so nervous and not prepared at all to my first complete day in Poland and also my first day going to school. I normally don't think that I'm shy, but when it comes to speak english I'm totally another person. The thing was that not so many people came to talk to me, so I couldn't talk with my new classmates as much as I wanted. When we finished the classes, we returned home and then, after havng lunch, I accompanied Olgierd to his english extra class. I expected the class to be boring, but when me and the teacher started to talk about football, I knew that I wanted to go to the extra english classes with Olgierd. We spend the class listening to music in engish and spanish and playing a game to improve our vocabulary. That class was probably the best english class I have ever had. When we went back home, the only thing I did before going to bed was having dinner.

The next day basically was way better than the day before because some people talked to me so I had company and I was not that alone all my school day.  The best part of that day was the out of school classes of theatre, where I met the Olgierd's theatre club classmates. I remember that the teacher was... excentric. He was a little bit crazy but I had fun and learnt that a theatre club it's not that bad option to go after classes. The first week I didn't walk too much Bogus, the dog, but after my host family allowed me to walk him alone I had a ''routine '' of walking him every day.

The thing that I remember the most of that Thursday is, without doubts, the P.E class. I have to say that I'm apassionated about sports, so when we played basketball matches the whole class, I was incredibly happy. That day we also had two spanish classes, and I felt better because obviously I understood all the tasks, when at that point I was desperated to do a lesson that I could understand perfectly. That was the first day that I didn't sit next to my host, because we also had english and a few classmates invited me to sit with them. After the classes I stayed home and Olgierd went to chymestry extra classes, so I didn't do too much after leaving school.

On Friday I remember entering two hours later and doing only two lessons, but I was feeling more and more comfortable with the new class day after day. The only remarkable thing about Friday and Saturday was the time spent with Olgierd playing videogames and me trying the VR (Virtual reality) and the starting of the winter break here, in Poland.

So, I had two weeks of holidays more although I didn't wanted them, but they began very well because my parents came for a few days and we and my host family spent one day in Warsaw, where snowed A LOT. It was surprising even to them, that they lived here all their lifes, so imagine to my parents and me. After going to the capital and learning so many historical things thanks to my hosts, we visited everything in Siedlce with Olgierd's mum and him or without them. My parets stayed only three complete days and to go to Warsaw one has to spend a lot of time to go back early because it darks really early here, so although we would have liked to spend more time in Warsaw we coudn't. 

I also remember that I didn't do too much things because basicaly I depended on Olgierd to hang out with people  because I didn't have time to make friends before the winter break. Olgierd invited me to go with him and his friends to the shopping mall and go for a walk. I also liked to walk Bogus to do something of exercise. The first weekend of the winter break we had a family lunch because that day was the grandma's day, and I met Olgierd's uncle and aunt, his other aunt and cousin and his two grandmas. I decided on the winter break to try not to be shy, so I talked with them a little bit. The last week before returning to classes began bad because we all three were sick and we couldn't do too much for a couple of days, but then when we recovered Olgierd invited his friends to home twice and that day was fantastic. 

To sum up, the winter break was so relaxing and it was good, but because I had already had a winter break in Spain, I was a little bit bored. 

I wanted to start the classes again for meeting new people and feeling that I was doing something useful, so when monday came, I was so happy to have a new opportunity of not being that shy and making friends in Poland. I had a new timetable and so more classes as I wanted and I was happy for that. 

In my return to classes, the most important things were that I had more physics classes, I tried italian classes and appart of PE, itaian is the subject I have enjoyed more here and the most important thing of the week, Ruth, the otherr spainsh student of Erasmus, finally came to my class on Tuesday so I had someone to talk in spanish or catalan because she is from Tarragona. We had the same classes unless physics, and we spent a lot of time talking in the free hours. That is probably a reason of why my 3 last weeks here were way better than the first ones. That week also Olgierd's friends integrate me to their group and we exchanged instagrams and messengers. I was so proud of myself because I made more friends here than I have expected. The last thing of the week that I remember is playing football after classes on Friday for the first time in 4 weeks. I fiished the day exhausted but being the happiest human in the world.

Moving to my 5th week living in Poland, I continued to meeting people, but the worse thing was that I was tired of not understanding anything of the majority of classes, so I started to do homework that my teachers from Spain gave me in some classes to not havig that much things to do when I go back to Spain. Probably, if we don't count the three days with my parents, when we visited Warsaw and Siedlce, the Thursday 8th was the best day of my experience here. The first part of the day was normal, and even not that good because on Thursdays we leave so late (at 16:30), but in the afternoon Olgierd and me went to a party in te rival school with the topic of the Saint Valentine's day. At that party, we spent 4 hours straight dancing with everyone, and although I'm no a big fan of parties, I met so much great people there so it was a fantastic experience. That week, as the one before, I played football on Friday, but I hurted my hand when playing. Though that, I continued playing as a player but carefully. 

My last week in Poland was probably the best. I enjoyed every day cause I had so much people to talk with and Ruth was nnot that shy in her 3rd week so we spet more time than the usual talking with each other in spanish. I can trully say that italian was the best class whie being here as english was funny too. I didnt remember to mention that when I returned from the winter break here, in my classmate's second spanish class of the week, Ruth and me had 1 hour of basic polish, and it was so great to try to learn a language that is so different to spanish. This week I bought some presents to my knowns in Spain and also to my hosts, that were awesome and made me feel very comfortable. As always, on Friday I played football after lessons and then went to the shopping mall with a friend I made here. My last afternoon there was very clm and funny, and when arrived home Olgierd and his mum gave me presents as I gave them some too. 

I don't know if Olgierd is going to be my guest when he comes to Barcelona in April, but a sure thing is I want to show him Barcelona and be his host for one week.

Finally, I didn't expect to make that much friends, but I will miss them so much, and I hope we'll see each other if they visit Barcelona some day.