Trip to Georgia/Armenia – 7 unforgettable days. Part one Georgia

This is an encouragement for Russian-speaking people! If you speak Russian, you’ll never ever feel lonely in Georgia of Armenia. Those two countries are way too amazing to describe them at once. So now I’ll say about Georgia:

Georgia – around 4,5 million people, capital city – Tbilisi. Beautiful county with strong cultural background. When you go across the street or open market place you always see old ladies “so called babushki” selling chebureki, khachapuri, mandarins, gold apples… For me, no surprise cause in Russia or Ukraine there are always babushki selling something, but for my friend it was unique. Streets are busy and people are not used to see tourists. Georgians do not treat Russians as friends, so sometimes it’s better to underline that you are Polish – as for me I told I’m Ukrainian and suddenly their face went shiny. We came in first days of December – the weather was good, no snow. Of course we took our favorite Wizzair and paid a little bit less than 300 zlotys. We took direct flight from Katowice to Kutaisi. The time difference with Poland is 3 hours, so basically we landed at midday.

First day Kutaisi: We landed, took the bus which was going to the city but not to center. There were only Polish passengers so the driver took all of us directly to exchange office – good business. Then, we took marshrutka no. 1 and went to the city center. Marshrutka is a small bus. The approximate cost of marshrutka is less than one zloty. The currency called LARI is weaker than zloty, so we could afford to eat in a restaurant in the city center and take taxi from time to time. After the meal consisted on soup and coffee we went to visit Bagrati Cathedral, Georgian orthodox church which belong to UNESCO. The view to beautiful mountain and the entire city from the hill is really terrific. We took a lot of picks and decided to catch marshrutka to Tbilisi. It was around 6 p.m. It took us 5 hours to get to Tbilisi. Small bus for around 17, but somehow there were 21 people – quite extreme but I’m Ukrainian and I know the “marshrutka system”. I don’t like it but what can I tell, “no pain no gain”…

Second day – Tbilisi: We went to the city center. Passing the National museum I couldn’t help myself not to enter. I am the museum lover so I enjoyed it a lot. We took a walk through Rustaveli avenue, where we could buy some souvenirs. We visited the old presidential palace – it looks unique cause the from side of the alley looks so fancy, but it’s only “the dummy” because right behind are the old, ruined houses. As we took a walk up to presidential palace, we reached Cathedral of the Holy Trinity – very fancy place, looked more like huge park.

Third day – Tbilisi: Sneaking around the restaurants and trying local food. When it started to get dark we went to take a gondola to Narikala fortress. Of course the place wasn’t protected or there were no warnings signs, we started to climb up on those ruins – a bit dumb but the view was breathtaking.

Fourth and fifth day we spent in Erevan in Armenia. I’ll describe it next time. Actually we didn’t plan to go to Armenia, we wanted to take the helicopter and go to Mestia but according to the weather condition there were not available flights.

Day sixth – Way from Tbilisi to Batumi: 7 hours in marshrutka. When we got to Batumi it was already a bit dark. We saw the sea or rather to say we heard it. We took a walk and enjoyed the nice summer resort covered by snow. It was really cold and even local people were amazed and not well prepared to the weather. I bet Batumi is beautiful in summer but we saw the other face of the city.

Day seventh and go back to Poland: We walk up around 7 a.m. and took our favourite transport marshrutka to Kutaisi. It took us around 3 hours. What I know about Georgia now is that “puri” bread is very popular and there are a lot of dished made with puri. Georgian dumplings are delicious but I refer Russian pielmeni made according to my grandma’s recipe . As our host in Tbilisi explained – Younger generation while drinking alcohol is trying to cover the glass with the hand so the older person won’t see. Girls are not allowed to smoke in a public place – they need to hide in a restaurant. And the heritage of Georgia is really huge and worth to discover by travelers.

Pictures will come later when my friend finally send it to me. So far one picture taken in Rustaveli avenue and one in front of the cathedral in Tbilisi.  

What is actually Work&Travel? Some tips to new comers

When you want to go to USA, Canada, Australia and work then travel, the best option is Work&Travel programs for students. As the name underlines: first you work abroad, earn money and then you can spend it by traveling. Jobs can be really different, depends on if you are going to work on a camp as a support stuff or rather in the city or in the amusement park which are huge in USA.

I was working in a Camp – as a support stuff, housekeeper. For me it was the best choice as I was 20, after my first year of University. I applied through CCUSA and as a new comer I got the free flight. It was typical back then. Because I didn’t really know how to start to look for accommodation and I wasn’t prepared to the “real life”, I chose camp. If you work at the camp you have accommodation and unlimited access to food. I applied, I got requested by Pine Forest Camp in Pennsylvania and in June I had my first cross-continental flight by Lufthansa. When I got to JFK in New York, our CCUSA buddies picked us up and accommodated at the hostel. We had a full day to visit Manhattan. The next day me and four other people took a bus to Greeley – our new home for the summer. Everything was logistically organized, so there were no unexpected sad surprises.

At the camp I lived in a bank with 6 other girls! At the beginning it was shock!! After first week (and first party) we became friends with no issue about how to share the bathroom. We are still friend though… almost 5 years passed. That is a life experience which will stay with you.

About the job: I was living at a Pine Forest Camp but working in Owego Camp for boys. There were me and Alejandra – my crazy Mexican friend. Two housekeepers against all the guys and their unbelievable mess! But we did it, we were fast enough and all in all it wasn’t that bad. We chose housekeeping instead of working in a kitchen because of one good reason: our schedule was from 8.30a.m. to 4p.m. – 6 days a week. Kitchen stuff was working on triple schedule: breakfast/lunch/dinner. They had to wake up earlier and they were done later. Of course they had breaks in-between. Job wasn’t demanding, just you made sure everything is clean. Probably that might be a problem for boys that’s why most of guys were in a kitchen and only girls were cleaning ladies. I was working for two months at the primary camp, then I was staying for the post camp and also had some night duties – I was on call and got 25 dollars. Luckily I earned a lot but I didn’t to travel, I spend all my cash for clothes, shoes, presents, I bought computer. I came with one hand and one basic luggage and came back with two huge suitcases and three hand luggage. It was worth it :D

Below some picks of how it looks like: the camp.

Our hostel in Manhattan

Greeley - our banks

Party time

one pic from Manhattan :P

kitchen stuff

our crazy team :D

One day in Wrocław

Traveling in Poland is like a never ending story – too many places to see, too much food to try, so many people to know! That’s why I took my Russian friend to Wroclaw. She visited me before and I showed her Katowice and Krakow. This time she came for 2 days so I decided to spend a nice evening in Wroclaw with her. We booked the tickets on PolskiBus a day before – paid 6 Euros each for the roundtrip. We took out bus at 9a.m. so at 11a.m. we were in already in the city center. Beautiful old town and Christmas market made our day + weather was amazing, no snow, sunny, not too cold. Atmosphere of this city is very special.

Got my diploma – woooohuuu! but what’s next?

One month ago I defended my thesis and officially got the title of Master of International Economical Relations. Sounds cool, school is off, no stress… But what goes next? The real life? Working from 9 to 5 every day? Could be, but I don’t need to start it right now. So I checked some more opportunities for internships, scholarships and I found hundred of them.
First of all, my Uni. has some opportunities for graduates – I checked Leonardo Da Vinci and it sounds reasonable for me. As I kept looking I opened a link which leads to BUREAU FOR ACADEMIC RECOGNITION AND INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE and here it is!! Scholarships, scholarship and ore scholarships!!!

We did it!!!!

So to be honest I don’t know what’s next but it well be something pretty cool :D

Education fairs in Kiev 2013

This year I had one more chance to participate in Education Fairs in Kiev and represent my university. We did a great job – it was quite hard, but what I saw is that my University is advertising itself with the reputation and long history. It felt extremely nice when people were starting the question with the remark “my friend is already studying at UE Katowice… and I would also like to join, what should I do?”. And as I know only UE Katowice has the program to give the scholarships to Ukrainian students – well good students should be rewarded. I hope that in year 2014 even more Ukrainians will start their studying path with us. That’s what I did over 5 years ago – and it was worth it.

Of course Kiev is not only working for us – afterwards we went to see the ballet by Prokofiev “Romeo and Juliet”. Kiev is an amazing city – the cradle of orthodoxy. And it’s one of my favorites. This year unfortunately I didn’t have chance to visit the city, I did it two years ago. And great memories remained.  

Event at BASF “Reality Loves Visionaries”

One thing that made me extremely upset is that I was the only representative from Poland – the only, only. There were numerous people from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, UK, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary. The diversity of nationalities was even bigger, cause representative from EU universities were out of EU – so was I and: guy from Cameroon, girl from Colombia, some Americans, Canadians, some girls from Mainland China, Taiwanese, Indians, Ukrainians, Russians.
This was one of the greatest conference I have ever participated – not only because all costs were covered – but the main reason is that I saw how many opportunities students from UE have. It is so easy to reach the goal and find a dream job – easier than ever. During the event we met top managers, board of directors members. People were great, welcoming and told us everything about the company. Those kind of events makes you want to work for the company. Everything seems to be so attractive and amazing. After 5 years at the university suddenly I realized that “that is the point” of all my field of study. I did international business, so here I am at the greatest event run by international company – perfect match.
There were about hundred students, about thirty BASF’s employees and all of us shared our opinions, asked questions and so on. First day was really “orientation” day. We checked in to the Marriott hotel and at 2 p.m. the bus picked us up:
We went to Ludwigshafen – the city, where 80% is actually BASF’s plants. You enter the company area and it’s huge. They have their own street names for ex. “Methanolstrasse” – all connected with chemistry. :D
After the Chemical-city tour we were welcomed in a huge ballroom. Mr. Wayne did the opening for us, then we could ask some questions. Of course I couldn’t help to ask about “cross-cultural” issue. After all we had a great dinner and then started the party – all cocktails were delicious as I can remember, maybe beside sweet mojito.
The nest day, so on Tuesday we had an early breakfast and then were taken to the company headquarter building – also located in Heidelberg. That day we could talk personally with BASFs’ most important workers and after we participated in some workshops: three parallel sessions were done three times, so all in all nine. Of course it was hard to choose one of three. When I chose “HR session” I had to give up “marketing topic”. All of workshops were conducted by division manager and we got brief information strictly about division work. All event finished at about 5 p.m. and some of us left to the airport or mail station. So that is how students start their career in Europe. Great idea and great results.

Getting prepared to thesis defense at Pyrzowice Airport 

My flight to Frankfurt - and here I could browse through BASF report

BASF - press 

Our hotel, most comfortable beds ever :D

Inside the press building

Ludwigshafen - Chemical city

Still in Ludwigshafen - out bus tour

Group of potential BASF employees :D

Workshops 

Presentation

some "get together" 

5 min. in Heidelberg - old town