Warsaw

Warsaw is the last stop on the trip. It is hard to believe that 2 weeks is almost over! =( I am definitely going to miss being with some of my best friends here on this trip and am glad they convinced me to go! Definitely the trip of a life time! Arrival in Warsaw was definitely interesting. LOT airlines definitely was interesting to fly on.. hopefully not so much in the future! Haha. After the flight, we checked into an amazing hotel that I am definitely looking forward to staying in! (5 stars w00t!)

The first meeting we had was with Bob Patterson. His talk on international banking was interesting and I definitely gleaned a lot of interesting bits of information about the banking in Poland as well as living as a Canadian expat working in Poland without being fluent in the language. Along with our other contacts here in Warsaw, Bob helped to shed insight on our misconceptions of Poland. I think I have definitely misconceived how Poland is just another eastern European country that is still lagging behind what we are used to here in North America. I was amazed at how modern the city is. While retaining some of the historic buildings in the Old City, Poland also boasted some amazing malls and other amenities that I found equal to that of North America. Our second meeting was with Wolfgang, a VP within the Empic organization. This company is something Wolfgang would compare with Barnes & Noble. Throughout the morning, we spent 2h listening to Wolfgang talking about his company and how Poland is growing so quickly. These two meetings were very informative, and I was amazed at how two individuals that had such busy lives took the time out to talk to a bunch of students from Canada. Their time was definitely much appreciated!

Our first dinner in Poland was also memorable. We were entertained by Stash, an individual that ran an affluent cafe and was part of Radio Free Europe during the Cold War and the existence of the iron curtain. Throughout the dinner, we were able to listen to stories about his life during communism in Eastern Europe. It was an amazing experience to listen to stories from someone that experienced many of the hardships firsthand.

In terms of random ramblings, I also watched Iron Man 2 in Warsaw. The movie itself costs only $7 CDN and even included assigned seating! While the movie was good, I am definitely looking forward to being back in Canada and watching Robin Hood.