That Time I was a Brave girl

A time when I was brave

E ANGELINA PRATT·SATURDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2019

Once when I was student at the University of Alberta, I read a line in our student paper that said why not study in Poland? And, I said to myself why not?

I knew nothing about Poland. All I knew was it is behind the Iron Curtain. Of course this was before the fall of the Berlin Wall and eastern Europe was a deeply mysterious place under the sway of the USSR. I didn’t even know anyone from there, but I filled out my application and applied to the University of Warsaw to study Polish Art and culture. No one was more surprised than me when my application was accepted. There were 40 other university students from across Canada who were going. The next thing I knew I was on the plane to Montréal, I overnighted at a hotel, and the next morning I was on a flight to Warsaw.

I walked to the plane and moved the curtain back and then it hit me what I had done, and there was no turning back now. I was so nervous because I don’t like flying. The old Aeroflot plane was old and musky smelling. During the flight I asked to see the pilot. I was allowed, and when I saw him I asked where are we? He gave me the latitude numbers, but I said no, what I meant to ask is are we over the ocean? He said yes, of course but we are not far from land. My fear more than anything was of the ocean.

It was an uneventful flight, arriving in Warsaw in the early morning. A bus picked us up at the airport and took us to the Metropolitan Hotel where we would be staying for the duration of our course. We were told we couldn’t drink the water from the taps and bottled water were supplied to us. It was a spring and summer course and we would be walking to the University from our hotel to attend classes. We were assigned a Polish translator who would accompany us because all lectures were in Polish.

I had an awesome time, touring the countryside, I went to many, many, churches and castles, even went to visit Chopin’s home town and toured his home. We attended four symphony concerts, and toured three of the major concentration camps. It was a real eye opener to see how the evil in the heart of one man could create these horrible atrocities. We went to a salt mine that held a church where even the statues and chandeliers were made of salt.

Our final exam was open book, thankfully. I made many friends and learned about an amazing country. I took a side trip to Gdansk with 3 other students to talk with a priest involved in the Solidarity Movement in a church basement. I also went rafting, which was a bit scary because our professor got drunk and could barely hang on. He passed out on the bus back to Warsaw.

I must have been brave then because my youthful curiosity and sense of adventure had to overcome my many fears. Fear of flying, fear of the Soviet Bloc, fear of the unknown generally. I would like our members to share their experiences of taking a risk. What was the journey? What did you risk? Why did you do it? And what did you take away from the adventure it led you to?