by Alessandra Grendene

I always believed that life was the art of meeting, but until a year ago I never thought to know and be fascinated by a reality that changed all my preconceptions and gave me the opportunity to rediscover the passion of comparing myself and living with the diversity. This reality is AIESEC! After my graduation, I decided to have an internship experience of two months in Poland, in Lublin, a university town located in the south of the country, 178km far from Warsaw. The type of work proposed, consisted in going into the public and private high schools of the city and the villages around to lead a workshop in English about the entrepreneurship but simplified and adapted to the students.

The interesting aspect to this stage has been working with other five members of AIESEC, like me. They came from China, Vietnam, Japan, India and Kazakhstan. When I left Milano on March 1st. I couldn’t imagine I’ll be fall in love so much with culture and Polish people and I’ll establish an extraordinary feeling with my teammates and the guys at AIESEC LUBLIN. After only a week after my arrival I was part of a big family! Many meetings, lots of excitement and, above all, daily I lived closely to customs, lifestyles, traditions of polish people. Kindness, hospitality, affection, friendship, religion, altruism. These are the values that make this unique and special population, these are my values!

Lublin is a quiet and friendly university town with a picturesque old town, full of restaurants and pubs very typical, manicured, furnished in detail, made of wood, with soft lights and flowers. They are very elegant but not expensive ... .. thanks to the still favorable exchange rate euro/zloty. Polish food is great, nothing to envy to Italian cuisine! Pierogi (dumplings stuffed with cheese, mushrooms, cabbage) in Bigos (stew meat, cabbage, sauerkraut and prunes), potatoes and vegetables, soups, desserts really delicious! A country that in these days is experiencing a deep sorrow for the death, in a plane crash on Russian soil, of the President Lech Kaczinski, his wife Mary and important leading members of political, economic and military Polish staff. A country that, despite the tragedy, wants to face future challenges and take the path of growth and development.