As a teen in rural New York, it's not always easy to find exciting things to do or new people to meet. That's why Addy Schneider, a student at Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School, decided to spend a year in Wroclaw, Poland, through the Rotary Exchange Program.
Addy has lived in Wroclaw for three months now, learning Polish and French, meeting new people and travelling all over Europe. When asked about her experiences, Addy enthusiastically agreed to share the details of her "amazing" new life.
On Aug. 17, Addy boarded her first "real plane" and flew across the ocean to Wroclaw, the country's fourth largest city, located in the southwestern Lower Silesian region. She met her host father and mother (the latter of whom would become her most valuable teacher and moral supporter in the months to come), who both speak English fairly well. The second week, Addy took an eight-hour train ride to language camp in Lublin, where she and 11 other foreign students took intensive Polish lessons by day and went sightseeing at night.
"It was helpful," Addy explained. "I got back home (to Wroclaw) and realized how much more easily I could communicate in Polish."
In the following weeks, Addy became accustomed to her new home, family and school. She claims that Polish cuisine is delicious.
"The biggest difference is how fresh everything is," she says, describing ripe, just-picked fruit and crispy vegetables. And though she is a vegetarian, Addy especially appreciates how luscious and lean the meat is.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!" she gushes.
"Yeah, I don't eat it, but I look at it every time we go to the grocery store. It's so fresh and there's hardly any fat on it!"
The food isn't the only difference between Wroclaw and upstate New York. The school system, she says, is notably different. Instead of traveling independently from lesson to lesson, a group of students moves together to all their classes. But Addy, a highly motivated student, is the exception to the rule.
"I'm in five classes," she explained. "It really confuses the Polish kids." This is because of the variety of courses she's chosen: geography, drawing, German government, music, Polish politics and society, history, two Polish classes, two English classes and three French classes (phew!). After school each day, Addy comes home and her host mother helps her to translate all her school notes into English to better understand her lessons.
What else does she do after school? "My week is full," she says. "It keeps me busy and working hard." She attends Rotary meetings, piano lessons, soccer practices and games and choir rehearsals. Piano lessons have proved a little challenging, because her teacher speaks very little English. Her choir is a very small, talented group that sings mostly gospel music in Polish, English and Latin.
As for soccer, it is a much more physical sport in Poland than in America. "The girls are more like animals than actual girls "¦ I spend most of practice being thrown on the ground," Addy said. But much to her surprise, she got adequate playing time in her first soccer game and even made some plays. She also loves to go sightseeing, walking around Wroclaw or travelling to more exciting Polish landmarks, like historic caves, various museums, mountains and ancient churches.
Most recently, Addy took a trip with the Rotary club to Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Potsdam and Berlin. She got to visit palaces, go for boat rides, and "be a tourist" with her new friends.
"The trip had the biggest impact on me," she recalled. "I was able to see the massive, beautiful buildings of Europe and really experience how old this continent is. People throw around phrases such as, Oh, it's only 400 years old.' They don't understand that in the U.S., we see 100 years and think it's grand."
Prague was her favorite city on the trip, with its street concerts, breathtaking (literally!) vistas, cobblestones, and cathedrals (and their beautiful stained-glass windows).
It hasn't all been easy for her, though. She spent her first two months alternating between stomach bugs, colds and sinus infections. She has also had to endure very daunting and uncomfortable situations. For example, learning to ride the tram to school was a huge accomplishment.
"Seeing as Cherry Valley lacks a tram system, or any type of public transportation, really, it was a very different (and scary!) experience for me," she said. "I must say I was extremely proud of myself because I got to school and back all by myself."
In fact, Addy says that Wroclaw's large population has been very hard to get used to in general. Though the population of Wroclaw is reported at about 650,000, it is a college town, with about 800,000 residents during the school year. "Being in a city is the most noticeable difference between my old home and my new home,'" she said.
What else has been hard to adjust to? "The language is bardzo trudne (very difficult). It's the most challenging thing I've ever had to do in my whole life," Addy said. But the day of our interview, Addy also said she had had "one of the best days." She had been visiting a nearby family for dinner when "something happened."
"Something clicked for me and I decided not to speak English anymore," she recounted, grimacing as she tries to recall English "sentence structure." For eight hours, Addy spoke, wrote and thought in Polish. She refused to speak a word of English, even to her fluent host mother, and if she didn't know how to articulate something, she asked for help in Polish.
"I have confidence I will be fluent by the time I leave," Addy said, but her goal is to master Polish by Christmas.
It's true that Addy Schneider is one of those rare people who can cross the world and remain undaunted by its immensity. She has proved that no matter where we go, we can always find a home, a family, a group of friends, to help us adapt. It has been inspiring to hear about her experiences and share in her successes.
Maggie Millner is a senior at Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School.
