I joined AIESEC in March and I was very lucky to find a proper project as fast as I thought. Then I faced their interview and Klaudia (the person who interviewed me, a member of AIESEC Krakow Poland) said that I must join her project and she sent me all the documents that I wanted to apply for visa. Within three weeks I arranged everything and I got went to Poland on the 19th of May 2013.
I had 6 hours transit in Istanbul (Most boring thing I had to face during my journey) and finally I reached to Poland on 20th of May around 6 o’ clock in the morning. Most awesome part was that my plane went only to Warsaw Chopin Airport but my project was held at Krakow (230 KM away from Warsaw). Then immediately my buddy Natalia Feiga sent me some documents regarding travelling by busses and trains. Thanks to her help that I was able to go to Krakow safely and quickly.
Natalia came to the station and she escorted me the place that I had to stay and when I went there, there were another 7 interns from 6 countries and in a very short time we became good friends. The place we stayed was somewhat special because it was a 2nd world war bunker and now it is renovated as a motel (Fort 49). It provided us with a gym, and with the kitchen facilities. The place was actually great for me and I was really satisfied with the facilities they provided us.
Our project organizers said that they would provide us with Internet but sadly there were some issues when we tried to go online. As I was an IT undergraduate I did some work and rearranged everything and manage to get the internet connection. After that other interns called me the king of fort which I’m a little proud of and after sorting out the problem Sonia (Organizing Committee President of the project) sent us following E – Mail which I think was very concerning of her.
My first school was Salezjański Zespół and I worked there for three weeks. It was a big school and there were 5 interns including myself who was working in the same school. We had so much of fun but at the same time learned a lot. They supplied us with lunch which I missed most of the time which I think was very kind of them. When it comes to the project I went to another two schools and I think I was able to finish my job very well using my skills for the maximum. Why I feel that way is because right now I have more than 300 Facebook friends in Poland from the people I met from schools.
In the dorm I and my two best friends Shi Xu and Lim Wai cooked our meals together every day and once a week all interns in the fort would get together and party. Somehow I had to come right after we finish the project due to my studies and still I miss my buddies and other friends so badly.
Because of AIESEC I was able to learn about another culture and experience it and at the same time I developed my presentation skills and I made lot of new friends from different countries. Finally after all this is done now I feel that I’m a new born man and is not the same person who left the country.
Thank you very much AIESEC !!
P.S. Especially I must personally thank Mr. Asiri Weerathunga and Mr. Sumal Chathuranga for encouraging me to go for an exchange.
By Tharindu Athukorala
Undergraduate of Information Technology
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