When the Christmas is coming...

Hello, everyone

The third time i say hello to you being in Poland. And this time we have special day - i am already one month here. The time passed really fast and i feel that i won't manage to achieve everything i would like to achieve being in Poland. I am happy of all experience which i've gained already and in front of me two more month till the end of official traineeship.

Last weekend was special in Warsaw. It was beginning of Christmas time and on Saturday all the people went to the old town square to see how the Christmas tree will be light on. Next to the symbol, there was a concert with famous polish artists. The view was really nice and you could already feel holidays atmosphere. The one bad thing, that it was the coldest day spent in Poland during all the period so we went to our flat to have some hot wine and other "hot" drinks. ;)
I could say that finally it was the party in da house!...like in the best moments in Siauliai! Some AIESECers and me with Marko went to the pub and had a party till 5 a.m. :)



On Sunday morning i was surprise, because nobody informed that it was Santa Claus name day and in Poland there are tradition to give presents, so i was the lucky one and i'be got it! In the evening i had a walk in the old town again and the atmosphere was similar to Saturday evening. Crowds of people, families, friends had a walk as me. Everybody wanted to see that beautiful view and to relax before a new working week...

First Cultural Difference Identified

Witamy, przyjaciol ;)

At first i want to apologize you all that you had to wait for my new message in the blog so long. I planed to do it every lovely Sunday but due to some reasons last Sunday i was tired and lazy.
But lets start about everything from very beginning...

AIESEC in Warsaw

Last week, on Wednesday, finally i had possibility to attend LC meeting of AIESEC UW (Uniwersitet Warszawa) and to meet all AIESECers. I was late a little bit, so didn't see all prosedure of LCM, but in general it was full of information, reports, sharings and awards. Of course, they didn't forget to represent myself, actually i did it by my own and gave some symbolic gifts from LT. After that everybody went to the bar to have some mug of beer.
Can't tell something special about my new LC yet... (BTW, there are two LCs in Warsaw: UW and SGH and how i understand the history very similar to LC Siauliai and SUSA situation, i want to say that in the past they were like enemies but now everything goes in better way) ...but i see that people working hard with their projects (not all of them based on eXchange), attending conferences as much as possible, for example, one guy got awards as the most active member during first month and one of the reason was, that he already attended three conference during such short period!

Living lifestyle

I am already three weeks in Warsaw (eh, time running very fast) and i can say that i already have my living lifestyle here. Every Tuesday we with company's colleagues go to the sport hall to play football, on Wednesdays, after the work i usually go out somewhere to meet AIESECers. This Wednesday we had one intern from India mini goodbye party. At the moment Thursday for me free but this we our department main manager invited me to go with him to play basketball with his friends. So looks like that i won't lose my sport condition while i'm in Warsaw :)
Fridays and Saturdays are big days for us. After i've met all AIESECers, there aren't any problem with plans on those days: last night i was in B-day party of one girl from our LC, a week ago, from my point of view, we had the craziest trip - we went more than 200 km to Kielce to attend AIESEC national conference "FORCE'09" last night party event (global village). It was really crazy cause we came at 9 p.m. when everybody were preparing for their global village and after super duper party without any sleep we left the conference at 1 p.m. and went home.
But not only parties on weekends. Yesterday i participated in such kind of event in African center. The African guy, who lives in Warsaw more than 7 years established this center where all African people can come and spend their free time. Yesterday AIESECers who had internships in Africa presented their experience in this continent, then we had a discussion about different topics related with Africa and African people.
Today i went to watch Polish basketball league match. It was derby between two Warsaw teams. Just the problem that they both are in the bottom of the league table so the level of the game wasn't so high, i could say it was the game like "run and shoot" but it was nice to see how it looks in Poland :)

At work

Three weeks i am a part of global company already. During this time I've learned so many new things. I started understand how the business goes on and how important is every department, every employee... This week was really hard and challenging for me. I had to understand and adapt how to act. At this period Marko (my flatmate and colleague in RB) helped me a lot. He already passed it, so he knows how to act and what i can expect on every step.
We are also in touch with our colleagues at the company. Not only playing football... One evening, after work we went to the bar, had discussion in different topics starting from Reckitt Benckiser and ending about Christmas. And exactly in discussion about Christmas we identified first cultural difference between Lithuania and Poland. I don't know who must be more happy, everyone can think by your own, but polish children get their Christmas presents get on Christmas Eve evening, not on Christmas morning as it is in Lithuania... :)

First week in Warsaw

Hello, dear friends, family, people!

Finally i'm sitting and having first lazy day after very active week in Warsaw. I really want to share how i am, what challenge and problems i face and how i enjoy my days of internship. So... lets start!

Trip

Who don't know i will tell that my trip was by train. In total it took about 12 hours and it looked this: Siauliai - Vilnius, Vilnius - Sestokai - Warsaw. In the beginning i thought that it will be very boring hours with thoughts about past and future but how we said "it's up to you". So going from Vilnius i decided not to be alone in the compartment and took a seat with one girl. We found common topics (she went to Chicago, also leaving home for the first time for longer duration and etc.) very fast so those 9 hours went very fast. In the train station my buddy, Karolina, met me and we went to my apartments.

Living location

I live in the city center of Warsaw (to those who would love to visit address ul. Zlota 3/5). I live in very big flat of 3 rooms with other 5 guys. Actually there live two more people: one guy comes on weekends for studies and parties and one girl spends a lot of time because her boyfriend lives there. All of them are really cool and unique. It's very important that my colleague (intern in the same company) Marko for Serbia also here. So every day we go to work together.

Work

I work in Reckitt Benckiser Poland. It's a global company and i won't tell you a lot about it, you can find everything in its web page. I work in sourcing department and responsible for searching suppliers in Baltic region and not only. I have priority list of raw materials in chemical industry and this week started making market research. Chemical industry really new sphere for me :D All my colleagues in the department also very nice and helpful and of course... how cant i notice about my boss who i am responsible to. He is slovak, around 35 and very cool guy. His usual phrases: "Where is my money" or "How much did you earn today". It's really challenging :D

Free time in Warsaw

Warsaw - very beautiful city, of course it is only first impressions cause this week was quite rainy so i didnt have much time to visit it. Just on Wednesday (non working day due to Poland Independence celebration) i had a walk in the city center and old town. Yesterday my flatmate invited us to go to Minister of Foreign Affairs. There was opened doors days. The excursion was really interesting (photos you will find on FB).
Of course, how free time without parties, so this week we had some :) already visited 3 clubs. they are quite expensive (need to think about visiting them often) with different interior, public and etc. The one thing which i didnt like that most of them is allow to smoke...
One good thing that every Tuesday we have sport day. That means that after work we go straight to the sports hall to move a little bit. This week we played football. Cant wait when we will play basketball ;)

Looks like that's it for this time. If you are interested in some other topics which i didn't mention here you can always write, call (btw, my mob. no. is +48721064746) and ask :)