First Day of School?....Maybe not...

February 25 2013

First, I’d like to start this post with the unique finds you might see in Krakow. Here, we have some very friendly gentlemen dressed up to help advertise something related to plant growth…?

So it’s Monday, and the first class I have this week is supposed to be at 1:15pm (or as they use military time in Poland, 13:15). My roommate has class at the same time so we begin our day with a much needed morning run, shower and breakfast/lunch.

Remember what I said about registration? You don’t register for classes the way we do back home – you show up to the first lecture and sign your name on the attendance sheet and I suppose that indicates that you’ve registered. We leave early thinking our classroom might be filled with students all trying to get into our class. I find my building easily and sit outside the classroom 30 minutes before it starts. At least I’m not late!

20 minutes go by and I don’t understand what’s going on. The classroom door is locked and nobody has come to open it, nor have any other students come by even though there are many passing through the hall to get to their other classes. 5 minutes slowly pass and two girls come over and we confirm that we all did in fact come to the right place at the right time, but have no idea what the deal is. Alex, a Canadian girl my age who studied here last semester makes the decision to go to the secretary office to see what’s going on.

Long story short, apparently we were supposed to register online (neither of us knew this) and only one student registered so the class was canceled because 6 students is the minimum. Awesome. I was starting to actually look forward to this class – Spirituality & Development: Psychological Theories.

HUGE disappointment. Plus I’m starting to panic about my credits because I have to take six classes, that’s right, SIX – two additional instead of the normal four to receive enough credits for any of them to transfer back to my school. How freaking fantastic.
Positively, I did make two friends! The three of us left to go get something to eat and talk, making the entire event well worth it.