Losing Time

I had conquered takeoff! 

Tuesday was an entire day of traveling.  We had a four hour layover in Munich, Germany and then we were off to Poland!  The airport in Germany was so fancy that we really couldn't purchase anything.  I did buy some German chocolate, and let's just say that never had a chance to make it home!


As we were about to board the second plane, I was a bit shocked when I saw how small it was!  I'm sure it is an average sized plane, but compared to our Airbus before, this was a baby!


I decided it was not a big deal and buckled up!


Five minutes into the flight we had slight turbulence!!  I honestly thought I was going to die!  Worst feeling ever.  Luckily, we did not die and we landed safely in an hour.  I was pretty lucky that the second flight was only an hour because I don't think I could have handled much more of the shaky plane!


Upon landing, it was my first experience of finding luggage and finding the group!  I also conquered all of that, and we were in POLAND!

It seemed like I was never going to be able to say that!

Now, once we got our group together, we made our way to the bus that met us at the airport.  We also exchanged $20 which gave us almost 60 Zlote (Polish bills).


I was really surprised that the University sent someone to get us in a bus...I mean this wasn't like a school bus or city bus, it was a nice charter bus like we have in the U.S.  We found out that Opole, the town we would be staying in was about an hour away from the airport...let's just say everyone was asleep in 10 minutes. :)


Once we arrived in Opole, we said goodbye to the man that met us and the driver and made our way into our hotel.  There were a few mix ups with rooms, but everyone ended up with a roof over their head and all was good :)  

After about 10 minutes, everyone met up so we could make a quick stop at the store for some water and other snack foods.  I will just preface this story with saying that this was my worst experience within my whole trip.  It is sad that it happened on the first night because it really made me feel unwelcome despite the numerous times that I had been told Polish people love Americans.


So, we get to the store and people start to split up.  I don't understand why that happened because only two of the people in a group of twelve knew a hint of the language.  Oh well.  I stuck with my roommate and a few other girls and we tried to find some type of dinner.  The problem was, the store was about to close and they didn't have pre-made sandwiches and such like we do in the U.S. After much confusion and searching, we decided it was time to go checkout since it was closing time.  I managed to purchase 3 waters and some chips.  As we were checking out, we couldn't understand the U-scan and we didn't know how their money worked since it was only the first night.   Sabrina tried to use a plastic bag to put her items in and we got yelled at by a worker.  In Poland you have to pay for a bag, like Aldi.  Another woman finally came over to translate but as soon as she did, both women were speaking in Polish and laughing at us.  I know we were the ones who didn't know how to do anything and were probably a hassle for the store, but the feeling this experience made me have still sits wrong with me.  The whole group reminisced about this throughout trip and we discovered that it was store clerks that were the only individuals that seems disgruntled with us.  I understand why, and I don't hold it against them because it must be difficult and annoying if you can't communicate with someone.  


Overall, I think the first night really showcased the worst communication issues, and did prepare us for the trip.  Although nothing like this happened again, it kept us on our toes and we were more cautious about what we did.