MS Office 2007 Enterprise

Today the IT admin of the company just came to our office and provided us the new version of MS Office... So, I got rid of the f.c.i.g (not very nice) MS Office 97 and get the super new MS Office 2007 Enterprise edition with the complete package of programs and everything in ENGLISH - wow!!! So, I really felt like I had a birthday!

The programs have new outlook and style of work is a bit different and I am still learning to use it but it is great! I fully recommend to at least try some version of it! ;)

KB in Poland

I'll tell you one thing. Maybe there are lots of people who saw that before but I was seriously shocked when I saw that for the first time!!! KB in Poland is Kredyt Bank, part of the Belgian KBC Group as our CSOB. They have also Société Générale here using original name SG. This is a funny thing and a way of competitive confusion ;)

Bases and trams in Krakow

I will tell you very briefly how it is. It is not :) The bases have their schedules but sometimes I have the feeling that they don't use them... It could be that I am waiting for the bus 201 which goes at 17:03. It is 17:30 when it should be the 3rd bus from five and still nothing... Then when it finally comes it is the one on 17:16 which is slightly delayed and the one 17:03 didn't come at all. Are you confused? I am every single day.

On the other hand trams are going on time and very often during the day but in the night after 11pm you hardly see any tram in the whole city. There are just night buses but... So, it is very uncomfortable to travel around in the night after the party!

New country, new job, new hairstyle...

Hello, this is a special edition for those who miss pictures of me :) OK, so you don't have to read further! ;)

Today I was in Galeria Krakowska to test my Polish language knowledge and have my hair cut. How the communication went you can see on following pictures... From 3 different hairdressers I chose the one which looked the less exclusive (not so expensive of course). The cheapest was for 30Zł (about 230Kc) and the lady was not speaking English at all but she was very nice. The salon was still in the huge shopping centre and for me it was the most fancy hairdresser I have ever been in. She washed my hair twice, at the beginning and then near the end which I have never experienced and the whole procedural was excellent, sharp scissors that I didn't feel that she is cutting my hair, hair dryer and setting lotion in basic service :) Now I can understand women why they go to hairdressers ones per month and spend 2 hours there!

So, even stupid visit of a hairdresser could be great experience. At the end I must admit that we had been communicating more or less through smile and OK or dobre. That is why my hairstyle is a bit different than you know me... ;)

Other trainee party

This small party was at flat of the most Krakow experienced trainee Luke who is from US/Japan. He is here for more than 2 years which makes him Polish already ;) This party was the last for Alina from Romania, so she presented us some nice moments from Poland. One thing that I have to say about these "parties" is the fact that if everyone have to go to work in the morning than the whole party takes just 2 or 3 hours... Just Friday's and Saturday's "clubbing" takes more! :)

Most of the trainees are former or current members of AIESEC so our meetings are let's say more about talking, sharing and learning new things. Concerning Polish AIESEC members I could say that only Basia (VPTM) is regularly attending our common activities... The rest we even don't know except our buddies :)

Volleyball with my colleagues

On Wednesday I was playing volleyball with my colleagues not far from our company in one of the basic schools in Krakow. I was afraid how good they are and how I survive the match.

Well, it was quite OK and even some of them are really good it was fine I was not the worst in play. On the other hand my physical condition is very bad. Till now on Saturday I can feel that my whole body hurts! I have to train more ;)

Veracomp SA

I thought that I would never work for an IT company but never say never... Now on the traineeship I work for Export Department of one of the best specialized IT solutions distributors in Poland. Veracomp is a company with around 250 employees; in my department there are 5 + me and other trainee from Romania. All my colleagues are very nice and helpful. I like the style how the company works inside and how strongly they try to meke all decisions according company's values (11 values - hard to remember but excellent thoughts).

I have my desk with phone, company HP laptop with wonderful Polish software and MS Office97 (I am already used to it). The most complicated thing for me is writing with opposite Z and Y keys (like english keybord). The company provides me lunches for free which is really cool advantage and I use it every day (menu in Polish, learning many new words ;) ).

My job is to approach Czech and Slovak companies from the database and make first contacts with security responsibles who speak English for further communication & co-operation. I also promote products of a "multi-threat security solutions" company Fortinet. My second task is to support my colleagues by establishing Veracomp's office in Prague.

Friesbee party

I didn't know that Friesbee can be played like a competitional game... Well, it can be. It is a bit like american football when you are trying to cross the line of your opponent but here you cannot run when you get a friesbee... It was quite fun and finally some physical excercise! After that we went of course for some good food to beautiful restaurant U Babci Maliny!

See more pictures here.

Washing & ironing the cloths

Today I was washing my cloths. This is a funny thing to see that. I never wash cloth so I am not let's say skilled in that. This was the great experience for me! Even you can say that is a daily routine for me it was without washing machine the heroic act :) On the second picture you can see how structured I am even by washing up. Tomorrow I have to find a way how to iron all of it ;)

On Sunday I managed to iron all of it :) I think that most of you would have done it much better than me because I felt that is not as how it looks like from my mother. Anyway nobody was complaining that I look like homeless, so it is OK, till the next washing up... :)

Architecture in Krakow

The centre is of course very beautiful and it has a great historical value but I aslo wanted to visit other parts of the city. That is why I make a small walk to visit other park in the southern part of Krakow and I went to a hill with the communication tower which was a well-spent evening.

Generaly I also took some pictures of modern architecture in the town which are worth to see as well like the centre of HVB bank (here called BPH bank). In the city you can see a lot of modern buildings and churches as e.g. Basilica of the Divine Mercy... Other places pictures here.

Coming back to the centre I want to highlight the Wawel castle which is one of the most visited place but it is really beautiful castle with nice view on the river Visła. Pictures of Wawel castle here.

PS: I made and account on rajce.net, so now you can see more pictures of Rynek Głowny, Old town and Basilica of the Divine Mercy there. Just click the links more pictures HERE ;)

Bazylika Bożego Miłosierdzia

For me this is a flag ship among churches! It is really wonderful modern building complex and it has also a cool web page - Sanktuarium Bożego Miłosierdzia w Krakowie Łagiewnikach. The sighseeing tower at the Basilica of the Divine Marcy is 76,18m tall and the sightseeing point is in 42 m above the level of entrance. Sometimes is possible to see High Tatras from the tower but I didin't. It was cloudy in the south (Nad Tatru... :).

The whole place of Sanctuary is very peaceful and quiet place even a lot of visitors are coming there every day.

More pictures: here.

Room's reorganization

Yes, I have reorganized my room. First because I am used to sleep with wall at my right hand and second because of the space... That was a big cleaning evening. Now it looks much better!

Anyway I took also controversial pictures from my street of our house and a street next to called Słiczna.

Park & old town

Krakow has a very special park which is all around the historical centre. That's why I went for a nice walk around the centre and took pictures. In the park are many places with different exibitions near streets going from Rynek Głowny and also some pubs. There are quite many people going around as everywhere in the centre and there are also many homeless or others asking money.

In the centre there are many wonderful historical places to see and one of them close the river is the Wawel castle. It is really big castle with high walls and it is in very good condition. The view on the river and the castle itself is a reason to spend some time there.

More pictures of park and historical buildings: here.

Galeria Krakowska

This megastore is worth to describe ones more. It is definitely one of the biggest shopping centres I have ever seen. It has 3 levels, 270 shops, 60.000 sq meters, garage for 1.400 cars...

I usually need a map of the shops to get where I want to be but McDonalds and Albert I can find without problems already :)

Rynek Głowny

Here is posted few pictures from Rynek Głowny (Main market square). It is the most visited place in Krakow I think. On the first picture is the St. Mary's Church which is on most postcards. In the next there are the Town Hall Tower and the Cloth Hall in the centre of the square.

This whole place is still ful of turists, there are many restaurants, shops, exhibitions, horses with carriages and flowers.

It is also very often meeting place of trainees and AIESEC members. We meet in front of Empik (popular bookstore in Poland). From there there are many pubs so close ;)

I uploaded some more pictures of the Main market square: here.

Alina's birthday party

Saturday night we were in a very special relaxed pub where just jazz music is played... This evening was connection of several parties. The main one was birthday of Alina from Romania and then several smaller as my welcome party.

I met some other trainees and it was very nice evening full of crazy stories from our experience from Poland and also we were talking about our countries.

There were also Czech people from Prague, 2 Amaricans, 2 Romanians, Bulgarian, Spanish and ohters and of course several Polish AIESEC members and their friends.

One special thing about this group is that there are many Marias (Marie, Maria Luisa, Mariya) but I am already able to manage that. Not only just because of the fact that 3 of my colleagues from Export Department are Krzysztofs :)

First pictures from Krakow

Yesterday, a nice Romanian girl, Andrea, accommodated in our flat. The important thing is that she has the same USB cable to camera as I need. So, from now I will be able to publish some pictures ;) I have modified the pictures to 800x600 px so you can enlarge all of them by simple click - if they don't enlarge, report a bug :)

First 3 of them I put into the article about first days. There are pictures of my room (PC corner), my luggage during travelling (you recognize Otrokovice station) and last one is the pub and shops as I see them from the main door of the building where I live.

This is the street where I live. Its name is "Ostatnia" which means something like "The last one". First days I tought that it is really at the end of the city but it is still quite close to the centre.

Next pictures are from my room as I came from the first shopping. My bet didn't have any bet sheets so I bought thouse you see on the second picture with nice leafs on orange background (I chose branding colours of course :))

I don't have a cabinet for clothes so I use everything around but I don't have so many things with me...

On the next picture I have tryied to do something like panoramatic view what I see from the window. But you know if I connected these two pictures the building in the centre is a bit bowed :)

I will try to keep making more pictures and presenting some of them here... Also I will add some more pictures to previous stories so look sometimes down ones more to check it ;)

Meeting trainees

On Thursday after I finally bough a map of Krakow which means that I will got lost less times, I met some of other trainees in the city. They are nice and took me very quickly to the group. We went to 2 pubs in each for 1 beer. Yes, 1 beer, because it is really true that beer is very expensive comparing to CR. Usually around 5 or 6 Zł which is like 40 Kc. Most of the trainees are from AIESEC which surprised me.

The other side of the coin was travelling to my apartment in the night. I said good night to my new friends at 0:30 and then was praying to have good connection but... I was waiting for one bus which took me just 3 stops and then I had to walk long way. I got lost again and walked 2 km more but anyway I arrived around 2 am and totally exhausted.

And you can imagine the morning ;)

Buying "parasol"

As I was was crazy about Galeria Krakowska where I got lost I decided to go shopping to Tesco next day because there was not so many people. For 2 days I was trying to buy "parasol" an umbrella because its raining nearly the whole week. I thought that even people who don't speak English will understand the word umbrella but no chance... With many signs of hands I always discovered that they don't have it.

But this time there was a big sale and discounts around 70% and so f.c.i.g many people that I was pissed right away when I entered. But you know I had to get in (next store is more then 20 travelling). And... I luckily among those dozens of shop plundering people I found an cool big black umbrella just for around 190 Kc. That time was my shopping successful.

LOST (everywhere in Krakow)

Today the 5th season of LOST has started to make... I got up at 6 in the morning to be sure that I will be with small stop in Tesco confortably at work at 9 am.

I had a nice shower and at 6:54 I catched the tram going to the city. That time was everthing OK. Later when I have to swich trams and find Tesco I went to ask a lady in bakery and I was told that it is just one tram stop. It was already raining but I decided to walk. After few seconds started to rain and got wet to... Well, without details! Than I was told by a young man to go 4 stops but again I was somewhere in deep s..t! Than I had to call my friend and he told me to go 2 stops back which was finally right but in Tesco where I wanted to go now just because of buying an umbrella I didn't find it in the whole store. Well bad day I thought. Then I more or less luckily arrived to my work with help of my colleague whom I didn't know before. I entered the company's door exactly at 9 am!

After my day at work I traveled to the centre to buy a montly ticket for f.c.i.g lot of money... I went by one tram near the Rynek Głowny (main market square). From the tram I was loking aroung because I didn't know which way to go so I was lost again... Then I found it and according the instructions of my AIESEC friend I went through one street with McDonalds and at the end of the street there should by other one and then I had to turn left and what the f..k!! After one hour I was standing at the same stop where I left the tram! So, i crossed the streed and bought the ticket.

I houped this is the end of my troubles but then I decided to go to the shopping centre Galeria Krakowska where I had got lost again! I was so tired and couldn't find the right way out to the street because there is so many entries. So, my simple shopping took me from 16:45 to 20:30 when I finally arrived home.

This was my "lucky" day July the 3rd... (and I was not describing how I got lost travelling from my company to the centre) Wish you better luck - take care!

First days in Krakow

Hello to all, ladies and gentlemen!

I am now at my flat which has connection to internet! Still I am wondering about many things and trying to learn some basic polish words to understand more and be able to express some of my needs ;)

My room is not big but OK, I already bought a pillow, bet cover and bet sheets so now I have at least something to sleep in because I didn't have anything on the bet when I arrived. And 130 Zloties (1000 Kc) are immediately gone ;) My apartment is also quite far away from the centre and twice far away from my work... Never mind I will get up a bit earlier ;)

During the journey to Krakow with "direct" train I had to switch trains in Katowice. I read at the board the platform 2 to Krakow and waited. The train came quickly and quickly departured from the 4th platform (fortunately with me on board).

At my company was the first day typical for AIESEC traineeships. They was wondering who I am and if I really should start this day. My TN manager was already at his lesson when my boss came to work. She is very nice and we agreed that I will start on Tuesday and even she asked one driver from the company to help me buying the bet sheets and stuff and then he took me at my flat which is the other side of the city. Cool!

Now I am waiting for the evening to have some beers and tomorrow buying the bus monthly ticket and other things as slippers (the floor is quite dirty) and maybe a floor cloth ;)

The whole first day I spent reading a book... Perfect experience, guys! At least you have time to think about myself, relax and looking forward anything - just something to happen :)

Next thing is that I forgot a cable for my camera, so I am taking pictures but I am not able to put them to my blog. What a shame. I should borrow some cable somewhere :)

OK, I will try to write some of my experiences more often. Take care!