The first day of class was supposed to be exciting. And the faculty class was. I LOVED the class with the professors. They were very lively, friendly, and eager. They were ready to learn. This was technically Chris’ class, but we all got to do something to assist the professors in learning. We had them start out filling out the survey to figure out their comfort level – how comfortable are you talking, listening, reading, writing, etc. And figure out what topics they were interested in. Even the best of them did not seem as comfortable as I would imagine, but I cannot get inside someone’s head. Plus I do understand that speaking another language is very difficult. I believe in them!
They seemed to enjoy the question asking, though not everyone fit best in their original group, but everyone made it work. The groups ended up in a great way: Mary, Bozena, and Dorota were with me. Those ladies seemed like a great fit. They were all around the same level I think, but they might just be able to speak comfortably. All three were willing to give it their all to speak English. The questions got quite entertaining with Dorota, a member of the Economics faculty, telling us about all her shoes, and Bozena telling us about the time she locked her grandfather out of the house when she was 4.
Christine’s group was Monika (without glasses), Kuba, and Piotr. Whereas Chris had Marlena, Marta, Monika (with glasses) and Marek (who is a fantastic photographer! Like WOW!). All the Ms! Just realized that. Stevie couldn’t be there because he had to give an exam. I can’t wait to see what happens when everyone is there!
The student classes were small to say the least. Apparently there are exams going on now, so many students had conflicts with exam times or other such things. Maybe in the future a different time of the year would be better? Time will tell. This is the first time they have done this program (or us. That goes both ways.) so there are a lot of little things to be refined.
What really stood out to me though was the Get to know the city game, created by Monika and her friends Ilona and Basia! These types of things may exist in other cities, but she designed it and wow! I want to walk you through every step, every little detail and its cultural significance, but I will not as she wants to start doing this with foreigners in Rzeszow! While I doubt many would read my blog, why should I spoil it? I will say that it was well thought out. It took a little over 3 hours and we did not get all the points like I thought we would!! When I thought it was just for us, the visitors, I figured o okay well that will be good. I thought it would be kind of easy, but fun. It was definitely fun.
Monika (with glasses) had us running all around the city to different landmarks! It was way cool! Thankfully, Chris and I (Christine was on the other team) had a lovely local girl who knew Monika, named Claudia. She’s a music ed major so we hit it off right away. I think it’s safe to say that we started at the monument near city center and went from there to all the different places – following clues, directions (usually it told us exactly what place to go to and what we had to do, but it’s harder than it sounds!), and trying to read the map. If Claudia had not been there it would have taken MUCH more time. Having a local who knew the places, even if she did not know all the answers, made it doable. I think having someone who knows the area but has to do the activities and clues and such too makes for the best experience. Not sure how it would work with ALL foreigners , but well, it’ll be interesting to see. I wish Monika the BEST of luck with this as it’s SUPER cool!!! I’ll post a picture of the front of the booklet so you can see. But no spoilers! 😉
For my friends and family that want more details, I’ll make a post about this tomorrow with more detail since you are not quite likely to come to Rzeszow!
rzeszowuniversitytrip 
Kaitlin, You are a great writer, your blog is fantastic. It’s nice to read your fantastic evening report. I am very glad that you can host the University of Rzeszow. Greeting – Prof.Marta Wrońska
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Kaitlin’re a great writer. Your blog is fantastic. It’s a very nice evening to read what happened during each day of your stay at the University. I am very glad that we could host you in Rzeszow. Greeting. Prof.Marta Wrońska
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