My experience in Poland (Poznan) as a student who recently moved from Syria

I'm syrian polish ,born in Syria and lived there all my life ,I don't speak polish .
Due to the unfortunate circumstances in Syria ,I decided to move to Poland (Poznan ) and continue my studies there .
Now that I'm in Poznan ,I decided to start this thread to talk about my experiences and my thoughts about poland .

LOT isn't that great of an airline ,it's fair ,it gets you to destination in one piece ,the staff is nice .
Frédéric Chopin warsaw's airport is really cool and well organized ,but they searched me like a terrorist :P ,one of the guards wanted to get intimate by the way he searched me :P they also asked me to remove my shoes and scanned my shoes ,I have no problem with this procedure ,but I was late to my connection (Warsaw-Poznan ) .our plane (from beirut to warsaw ) took off late ,so I had only 20 minutes to catch the other plane . I made it but my luggage didn't . but they helped us at poznan's airport and they sent the luggage later that day to the apartment that I rented .

Poland is really nice from above .lots of green spaces even in cities and between buildings .
I found it funny how pedestrians stop at traffic light even if there are no cars at sight (comparing my country where people cross roads and pass between cars regardless the traffic light )

People here are very friendly and very helpful :) .
The dorms are awesome ,really neat ,really well equipped and the internet speed is unbelievable :O .

I'll keep updating my thoughts .... but this is all I have for now .

Hi Dany, you're finally there, good for you! How's Poznań so far?


They often do that regardless of your nationality.


You mean compared to Syria? ;)


I know, we don't do that in France either, not always.


One of the fastest in Europe I heard ;) I miss it.

I expect the Polish driving will be nothing compared to Syrian.

Keep it coming Dany this should be an interesting thread.

Sorry buddy that was my 'tip-off' :P


Yeah, he saw your topless pics but I had no idea he was that way inclined ;)

Good luck Dany, I hope it all works out for you :)

well yeah :P don't get me wrong ,syria has lots of forests etc ... we have trees on the side of the roads ... but the trees and parks in damascus are lame compared to poznan


I won't compare between syrians and poles :P because we drive like maniacs (including me ) .

They've got a lot stricter over the past few months.


There's a fine if the police see you crossing the road - same in Germany.

Great you like it - Poznan's a nice city.

Dany, is it your first time in Europe or what?
When did you arrive?
What kind of studies btw?

The public transportation system is awesome and easy to use ,they have a website with a map that shows tram and bus routes and it's in english too (a plus since I don't speak polish ) ,it's well organized and it's fast .


I figured :P


that explains it


been to romania and italy when I was 4-5 years old ,and been to turkey 4 years ago (I don't consider turkey as europe but some people do )


yesterday


International business at Poznan university of economics (planning on doing a master in finance after finishing my bachelor )

Welcome to Poland. Greetings from Warsaw!

I think that at least architecture of western Turkey is very similar to Greek or south Italian, so it's European. But northern Europe is of course much greener than southern, so I understand that it may surprise a little bit.

hey :D ,maybe i'll visit you one day :P because I must go to the syrian embassy in warsaw to register myself


yeah ,again i'm not talking about forests because there are forests in syria and turkey, i'm talking about urban areas .

If people would obey the law, there would be less wars. It's not funny at all. Maybe people in Syria need more education on that part.

Also at airports, everybody takes their shoes off. They've been doing that for at least 10 years.

In airports and in mosques taking shoes off is completely normal.

Precisely. Even white, elderly grannies are forced to take off their shoes, belts and jewelry.

Its not a racial thing. Its a tad mad, but there we go.

I've noticed that the number of old people is too high ,I also felt that people who are in their 30s -40s are rarely seen ,don't know why ... maybe they're working .

Today I started doing the papers to get my polish ID ,my mom is with me (speaks polish ) and helped me ,also people were very helpful and friendly there ,it's well organized (comparing it to syria where it's complete disaster ) .for some reason ,my ID is only valid if my temporary residence is valid ,I thought it doesn't matter (since i'm polish ) .

Polish food is really good (I eat nearly everything so don't take my opinion on food :P ) ,it's nice how self served polish food restaurants are available everywhere .


I agree tygrys ,I found it more civilized to obey the law like that .it's funny because it's different from what i'm used to,but I didn't say it's wrong ,but I think they could make it better ,because sometimes I just stand there for 3-5 minutes and the road is completely clear (even when I activate the traffic light ) .


i'm not muslim if you're implying that


I have no problem with taking off my shoes ,but I was late to my connections ,that's why it was a little bit annoying to me .

dany Moussalli,well I hope you will really get a chance to take in the sights and really experience the Polish culture,I am happy to see that you were able to make it to Poland without hindrance.So I hope you have a safe,fun and fruitful adventure in Poland!

I second that.

Ha Poland's roads and driving are considered dangerous from most Europeans perspective, Arab countries on the other hand are in a completely different league. Even the Kurwa Audi boys would be raising eyebrows over there.

This should be an easy transition for you.

It is all relative I guess.

Best of luck on your new life / adventure!

4,P3 ,thank you guys .

WB you have no idea :P I think europeans will have a heart attack once they see how syrians and arabs drive .


yep ,but it's decent enough for me

Hope you really enjoy your time in Poland Dany, It'll be a great experience and I'm sure you're gonna have lots of fun in between all that studying ;)

thank you :)

Hi Dany,

Welcome to Poznan, hope you'll like it - I've spent a few years there - so you can ask if you need some local advice :).

Regarding crossing streets on red light - in Poznan police is particularly strict and there quite lot of patrols in the city whose main task giving fines to pedestrians - so people learned to wait...

As I read somewhere: 'Polish and Chinese are traffic lights' slaves' ;)

Are you joking or just naive? I read your post, the one that was sent to the random chat thread. The whole post was about him being...a terrorist in Holy Poland maybe?

And that he wasn't Polish enough to claim it to the world. Your usual contribution here anyway.


You probably have. But please share them with us.

I didn't say he is terrorist, though who knows.

No that not him.


I don't care, I can answer it for them. Your contribution to this thread has been about 00. Also your moniker implies that your IQ is about the same, otherwise you would know what you have been doing/writing.

Leave the kid alone guestwithdublezerotosay.

I didn't have the chance to read what guest00 wrote about me ,I'll read it in the random chat thread ,and give my response .

guest00 : i'm not muslim if you're implying thatThanks be to God! Thank You, thank You, thank You... (but still agnostic) Just between us, will Warsaw burn?

lol ,I don't know if this information makes you feel safe ,but I was born catholic .

guest00 quoting me :to every racist here listen : I'm 3/8 syriac (original people of syria) 1/8 croatian,1/8 armenian, 1/4 polish and 1/8 greek ,and i'm coming to poland ,so beware !!!,i'll probably be a cause to an unstable poland in the near future .Beware, Yurup!!! Here we come!

also to make you feel safe (but I don't care anyway ) just to show you how ignorant you are ,syriacs are christians who still speak the language of jesus .

No. Aramaic is still spoken by hundreds of thousands of people, albeit in a different form to the language that Jesus spoke.

syriac is an aramean dialect ,I read about the difference between them a while ago ,turned out that syriacs are aramean ,but when they became christian the preferred to be called syriac and not aramean .


unfortunately no ,but some syriacs still speak it ,like the ancient town of maloula .


minimal resistance ? am I supposed to fight in a war that I don't belong to ?


lol expansionist culture ? so you think I'm a threat to poland's culture ? oh man :P wait until you see my colleagues in the university that come from different places and are from different ethnicity .


why do you think that I might contribute negatively ? why not positively ?

If you are over 70 and under 12, you don't have to take your shoes off anymore.


Some people in Poland look older than they are because of the high alcohol consumption, stress and cigarrete smoking, which ages a body faster.